Unity Health Toronto’s September Honour Roll
Every month, staff, researchers, physicians, learners and teams across Unity Health Toronto celebrate important honours, achievements and awards. Congratulations to all who’ve been recognized in September.
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The Toyota Canada Motor Skills Clinic at Providence Healthcare received a commitment of $500,000 to support its advancement, as well as a gift in kind donation of a new car for clinic use. The investment will support modernizing the existing facility, which aids patients who are regaining strength and mobility.
East Toronto Health Partners, the Ontario Health Team (OHT) of which Providence is a member, was one of the first OHTs to achieve the Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) designation from the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario.
Drs. Tony Antoniou, Ann Burchell, and Rick Glazier, scientists at St. Michael’s, are among the 50 most cited primary care researchers in Canada, as analyzed by Canadian Family Physician.
Melanie de Wit, chief legal officer at Unity Health Toronto, was a finalist for the Canadian In-House Counsel’s Innovation Impacting the Profession Award. She was recognized for continuously looking for ways to innovate the legal profession, in particular her contributions to developing AI at Unity Health Toronto.
Dr. Amr Elmaraghy, a surgeon at St. Joseph’s, received the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award from the University of Toronto.
Dr. D’Arcy Gagnon, Dr. Marco Da Silva, Dr. Christopher Keefer, Dr. Maria Ivankovic, and Dr. Katherine Soucie, physicians at St. Joseph’s, received MD Program Teaching Awards for Excellence in Teaching from the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
Dr. Maria Ivankovic, an emergency medicine physician at St. Joseph’s, received the Helen Batty Excellence in Faculty Development Award from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Veronique Miron, a scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, was elected to the Royal Society of Canada, in the College of New Scholars. The honour recognizes Miron’s outstanding scholarly achievements.
Dr. Muhammad Mamdani, Unity Health’s VP of Data Science and Advanced Analytics, is the recipient of the AIMed24 AI Champions Award for Leader of the Year. Mamdani was recognized as a visionary leader who is driving AI innovation to advance patient care and make a transformative impact across our network and the broader health sector. Mamdani also received a 2024 Recognition Award from Canada’s Drug Agency. He was recognized for his many achievements, including founding the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network and developing uses of AI in health care.
Alejandra Priego, patient care manager in the Primary and Community Care and the Family Health Team at St. Joseph’s, received the Staff Excellence in Leadership Values from the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine.
Dr. Ralph Schneider, neurologist and researcher at the BARLO MS Centre at St. Michael’s, was named a Future Leader in Canadian Brain Research by Brain Canada and received a $100,000 research grant.
Swphana Sebastian, a clinical nurse specialist at Providence, and Madura Sivanandan, a clinical nurse educator at Providence, received the 2024-2025 Bellamy Manucha Rehabilitation Applied Education Research Fellowship. This award is made possible by a generous donor to the St. Michael’s Foundation.
Rebecca Sytnyk, a nurse practitioner in the Primary & Community Care Program at St. Joseph’s, received the Excellence in Teaching (Early Career) Award from the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine.
Dr. Mandana Vahabi has accepted and started her position as the Women’s Health Research Chair at Unity Health Toronto and the University of Toronto. Vahabi is a champion of equitable access to reproductive health care for women, and will be working as a scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital’s MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions.
