Please see below for the following updates:

• 2025 Innovation Funds Awards
• Department of Medicine - Medical Grand Rounds - Physician Safety and Workplace Violence - January 28, 2026
• 2026 Postgraduate Research Award -- Call for Applications
• Reminder: Royal College Maintenance of Certification
• Reminder: Call for Nominations For The Department of Medicine Prizes & Awards 2026

Please see below for the following updates:

• Drop-in session available to prepare for the decommissioning of Sunrise and Soarian on Jan. 27
• Reminder: Annual 2026–27 Reappointment Information for Medical Staff
• Reminder: Royal College Maintenance of Certification
• Reminder: Call for Nominations For The Department of Medicine Prizes & Awards 2026

Please see below for the following updates:

• Annual 2026–27 Reappointment Information for Medical Staff
• Royal College Maintenance of Certification
• Applications for Temerty Faculty of Medicine two Associate Deans
• Late career transitioning and retirement from practice
• In the News: Department of Medicine Faculty — Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi and Dr. Warren Lee Featured in the Media
• Publication: Treatment of Multiple Myeloma: ASCO–Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) Living Guideline  - Lead by Dr. Lisa Hicks
• Microsoft 365 implementation beginning in January

Please see below for the following updates:

1. 2025 Angels Den Winners
2. Simon Kennedy Has Joined Unity Health Toronto as Special Advisor, Strategy and Partnerships
3. 2025 Women in Academic Medicine: People Who Look to Us for Support
4. REMINDER: Flu and COVID-19 Vaccines

Higgins Day 2025

Dear Colleagues,

At this week’s Higgins Day event, we proudly celebrated the outstanding achievements of our residents and educators. Now in its 37th year, the H. Patrick Higgins Memorial Scholarship Award of Merit continues to recognize excellence in resident research. This year’s award, which includes a $2,000 prize and a commemorative plaque, was selected from 27 high-quality resident presentations. Our sincere thanks to this year’s judging panel: Drs. Dalia Rotstein, Natasha Sabur, Yin Ge, Dani Cuthbert, Nikki Goldberg, Charlie Tan, Natasha Rupani, as well as Brian and Kevin Higgins.

I am very pleased to announce that Kaylee Sohng was selected for the top award for her presentation:
“Cholesterol Medications & Severe Anaphylaxis”, supervised by Drs. Peter Vadas and Erika Lee.
Congratulations, Kaylee!

Additional awards presented at this year's event include:

• William P. Jones III Memorial Scholarship Award
  Christiane Gafrey
  “Perceptions of Care in Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Persons with Inflammatory Bowel Disease”
• Quality Improvement/Education Category
  Tina Marvasti
  “IV Iron Therapy in Heart Failure”
• Research Category
  Jeremy Rosh
  “Outcomes of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Does Day of Admission Matter?”
• Clinical Vignettes Category
  Nickrooz Grami
  “Pinpoint – A Case from St. Michael’s Hospital”

We also celebrated the recipients of several prestigious teaching and postgraduate awards:

• Murray Muirhead Awards
  • PGY1: Huaqi Li
  • PGY2: Divya Santhanam
  • PGY3: Mitali Chaudhary
• Connon Award: Daniel Huang
• Gerald Wong Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence: Omar Saeed
• Dr. Robert Sargeant Postgraduate Education Award:
  Alex Muccilli, Nikki Goldberg, Linda Wang, Mario Ostrowski, Dhruv Nayyar, and Ann Young

This year also marked the inaugural presentation of the Divisional Subspecialty Resident Awards. Congratulations to the following recipients:

• Cardiology – Dr. Robert Chisholm Award: Julianah Oguntala, Mehroz Ehsan
• Critical Care – SMH Critical Care Resident Excellence Award: Kathleen Simms
• Endocrinology – Dr. Amir Hanna Clinical Excellence Award: Yucheng Zhang
• Geriatrics – Dr. Marisa Zorzitto Award: Lotus Alphonsus
• Hematology – Award for Excellence in Hematology: Arjun Pandey, Matthew Fuda
• Infectious Diseases – Bill Fong Excellence in Postgraduate Infectious Disease Award: Divya Santhanam
• Medical Oncology – Award for Excellence in Medical Oncology: Ilias Ettayebi
• Nephrology – Division of Nephrology Outstanding IM Resident Award: Junghoon Ko
• Respirology – Dr. Victor Hoffstein Excellence in Respirology Award: Nawazish Naqvi
• Rheumatology – SMH Division of Rheumatology Award of Excellence: Sivakami Mylvaganam

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s event. The afternoon was filled with exceptional presentations that reflected the talent, insight, and dedication of our learners. It was a true pleasure to witness the spirit of academic and clinical excellence on display.

Congratulations to all!

With best regards,

Natalie Wong, MD, FRCPC
Interim Physician-in-Chief
Department of Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto

Department of Medicine Weekly Roundup - June 26

Please see below for the following updates:

• The Department of Medicine is delighted to welcome Dr. Tasnim Vira, Division of Cardiology to the active staff!
• New Partnership: ICES & GEMINI
• CIHI and GEMINI team up to modernize hospital data and improve patient care
• Annual compensation process for non-union and management staff
• Chief Medical Resident Update