Message on behalf of Dr. Sharon Straus, Physician-in-Chief

This past Monday has been called ‘blue Monday’ for what is perceived to be the ‘most depressing day of the year’.  It was likely exacerbated this year by the long stretch of days without sunshine that we experienced this January.  One of the things that always brings warmth and light to counter this is hearing stories about the amazing members of our Department.  In the past ten days, I continued to hear such lovely stories about how caring, kind and compassionate you are.  One of our amazing general internists, Katina Tzanetos, was concerned about a patient who was admitted to our GIM CTU. The patient had unfortunately left their tablet and hearing aid at the originating rehabilitation hospital and Katina drove on a weekend to pick up the patient’s belongings so that they could bring some comfort to the patient. This week, I also heard about one of our fantastic endocrinologists, Catherine Yu, who was asked by one of our subspecialists to assess a patient urgently to organize treatment to facilitate critical and emergent diagnostic imaging at the end of the day. She saw the patient and ensured therapy was initiated within an hour, facilitating rapid assessment and treatment of a critical illness.

These are just two examples of the kind and compassionate patient care that you exhibit regularly in our hospital. And, this does happen regularly and with frequency. When Katina and Catherine were acknowledged for what they did, both expressed surprise and said anyone would do the same. I believe this is true for our Department members at SMH and this is another reason why SMH is a special place to work.

Thanks to Katina and Catherine for bringing some warmth and light into a dark January and to all of you for your continued commitment to each other, our learners and patients.

-Sharon

Please see below for the following updates:

• Celebration of Dr. Paul Kortan’s Life and Legacy – January 30th, 2023 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
• Announcements – January 2023
• Annual Medical Staff Re-appointments (CMaRS) for 2023/2024 going live the week of February 21, 2023
• New Staff Profiles:  The Department of Medicine is delighted to welcome Dr. Danielle Buell, GIM, and Dr. Natasha Sabur, Respirology, to the active staff!
• Royal College Maintenance of Certification Reminder
• Decanal Committee Recruitment - Temerty Faculty of Medicine
• Dr. Michael Farkouh appointed Associate Dean Research and Clinical Trials at Cedars-Sinai
• Registration Opens March 1st - Clinical Teaching Program at the CFD
• Internal Funding Opportunity: Sarah McComb Award for Cancer Research

Dear DOM Friends and Family

We invite you to a Celebration of Dr. Paul Kortan’s Life and Legacy on January 30, 2023. It will be held from 4:30 to 5:30pm in the Allan Waters Auditorium of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, 209 Victoria Street, followed by a reception. There will be opportunities for attendees to share their memories of Paul at this event.

We would like to extend an invitation to everyone to provide a written tribute (and a photo if you wish) that would be included in a powerpoint presentation that will be shown at the memorial on January 30.  The presentation will be printed after the  event as a keepsake for the family.  Please send your words to Jessica Comilang [email protected] by January 26.

Kindly note that masks will be required to be worn at this event.

Sincerely,

Sharon Straus

Physician-in-Chief, St. Michael’s Hospital

Announcements – January 2023

• Congratulations to…
• Update from the Emergency Department
• COVID-19 updates
• Postings
• Congratulations to…

Andreas Laupacis, who was made an officer of the Order of Canada

Update from the Emergency Department

Please join me in welcoming Garrick Mok to the role of Deputy Chief of Emergency Medicine at St. Michael's Hospital as of January 1, 2023.  Garrick has a strong QI background and energy for change and improvement.  He has been an incredible and energetic colleague since he joined the St. Michael's ED team and I have no doubt we will all benefit from his leadership in EM operations. Garrick will assume many of the ED operations responsibilities that Alun Ackery held - from maintaining and updating clinical care pathways, working with radiology, lab and IT on new and improved initiatives as well as daily operations responsibiliites. Garrick joined our team in July 2022 and thus many of you may not have met. He will be reaching out to many of you in the new year to meet in person.

I also want to thank Alun Ackery for his tremendous leadership over the past 4 years. He has been an amazing leader in our department and the organization during the pandemic and as we face unprecedented challenges in this healthcare system. We are proud of his success in leadership as he moves into the role as Provincial Medical Director of Criticall Ontario. Fortunately, Alun will maintain his clinical responsibilities as a staff EM and TTL physician at St. Michael's Hospital.

-- Carolyn Snider, Chief of Emergency Medicine

COVID-19 updates

Be sure to visit the DOM website smhdom.com/covid for all information circulated by the PIC office and for other information and resources, including evidence based resources, wellness ideas and SMPA updates, and links to other resources.  Please create an account for yourself if you don’t already have one.

COVID Updates from Unity Health Toronto:  https://covid.unityhealth.to/

Postings

Please visit https://www.smhdom.com/documents/job-postings to see positions available in the SMH DOM

 

 

https://www.smhdom.com/news/2314-annual-medical-staff-re-appointments-cmars-for-2023-2024-going-live-the-week-of-february-21-2023

 

Log-ins will be the same as last year, you have the option to click “forgot password” and answer 1 of the 3 questions you picked in previous years. 

 

The following courses are mandatory. CMaRS will accept courses if completed any time after December 1, 2022. No courses will be waived. 

Fire Safety and Security

WHMIS and Health and Safety

TASHN Privacy

Domestic Violence

Medical staff are also requested to:

Complete the Relationship Management form via CMaRS

COVID Vaccines – no upload required - will be listed as a question

Continuing Medical Education (CME) for 2022 - no upload required - will be listed as a question

Sociodemographic questions - same as last reappointment

Mandatory fields: Email, Address, Phone number

Receipts from CMaRS

 

Itemized receipts are generated by Chase Bank and emailed to the physician as soon as transaction is processed if you put in an email address when paying

CMaRS cannot re-produce these receipts. It is your responsibility to keep track of your own receipts. Deadline to fully complete your re-appointment is March 31, 2023.

Questions?  Please contact Narisha Jiwa in the Medical Staff Office at  [email protected]   

 

 

 https://www.smhdom.com/news/2315-new-staff-profiles-jan-2023

The Department of Medicine is delighted to welcome Dr. Danielle Buell, GIM, and Dr. Natasha Sabur, Respirology, to the active staff

Dr. Danielle Buell:  Danielle joined the Division of GIM as a Clinician Teacher and Assistant Professor as of January 1, 2023.  She completed her General Internal Medicine fellowship at the University of Toronto and holds a Master of Science in Community Health: Health Practitioner Teacher Education with a collaborative specialization in addiction studies from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She has a clinical niche in caring for patients who use substances and will attend on both GIM and the Addiction Medicine consult service.  She plans to develop curriculum in Addiction Medicine for Internal Medicine trainees at a hospital and program level.

Outside of work, Danielle and her husband Sagar spend their time keeping up with their son, Francis.

Dr. Natasha Sabur:  Natasha joined the Division of Respirology as a Clinician Investigator and Assistant Professor as of January 1, 2023 with clinical focus on tuberculosis.  Natasha did her respirology training at the University of Calgary, followed by a sub-fellowship in TB at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa. She also holds a Master’s of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  She will be taking over as Medical Director of the St. Michael’s Hospital TB program, and will continue attending on the general respirology service, as well as her work on the TB unit at West Park Healthcare Centre. Outside of work, Natasha enjoys playing guitar, reading, and traveling with her young family.

 

https://www.smhdom.com/news/2316-royal-college-maintenance-of-certification

All Department of Medicine members are reminded that the deadline to submit your 2022 continuing professional development (CPD) hours for Maintenance of Certification (MOC) without mandatory documentation is January 31, 2022. You can submit your hours online at MAINPORT on the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada website.

Please note that 2022 certificates of attendance for St. Michael's Hospital Medical Grand Rounds based on the sign-in lists were emailed by Jessica Comilang in late December.

Resources related to MOC and credit submission can be found at:  http://www.royalcollege.ca/rcsite/cpd/maintenance-of-certification-program-e

Login to MAINPORT is accessed from this page: https://mainport.royalcollege.ca/  

You can access Royal College apps on your mobile device: http://www.royalcollege.ca/rcsite/resources/access-royal-college-apps-e

Sent on behalf of Dr. Gillian Hawker, Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and Chair of Medicine

Dear Department of Medicine faculty,

I am reaching out to you with a sense of urgency on behalf of Dean Trevor Young, to solicit members for Temerty Faculty of Medicine's Decanal Promotions Committee. This year there is an exceptionally large number of candidates going forward for promotion and they are in dire need of four additional decanal members.

There are two committees- A & B,  who can use additional members. The dossier assignments will be sent no later than January 25th.  The meetings will be held virtually on ZOOM and the dates are the following:

 

Committee A:

February 14, 2023 (8am-5pm)

February 15, 2023 (8am-5pm)

March 21, 2023 (8am-5pm)

 

Committee B:

February 16, 2023 (8am-5pm)

February 17, 2023 (8am-5pm)

March 22, 2023 (8am-5pm)

 

The member must serve on one or the other committee, there is no interchange between the two.  Attendance on all three days is required. 

Please reach out to me directly if you are interested so that I may forward your name(s) on to Dean Young.

 

Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

 

Sincerely,

Dr. Gillian Hawker

Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and Chair of Medicine

 

 

Dear Department of Medicine faculty, learners and staff,

It is with mixed emotions that I share with you that Dr. Michael Farkouh our Vice-Chair Research, has accepted an incredible opportunity with Cedars-Sinai as their new Associate Dean of Research and Clinical Trials. Dr. Farkouh has been a champion of our research program and its researchers, and he will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues here in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Farkouh first joined the Department of Medicine in 2010 and has served as our Vice-Chair Research since 2015. In partnership with his role as Vice-Chair, he also served as the Director of the Heart & Stroke Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular Research and held the Peter Munk Chair in Multinational Clinical Trials at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health Network where he directed the Cardiovascular Clinical Trials and Translation Unit.

As Vice-Chair, Dr. Farkouh led the establishment of our “Network of Networks” – city-wide, interdisciplinary research teams that signify the best that the University of Toronto has to offer in science. He oversaw our diverse research program with over 400 clinician-scientists and clinician-investigators, and over $182 million in annual research funding. He led the recruitment of numerous endowed research chairs and represented our department at numerous tables locally and nationally. Throughout his tenure, Dr. Farkouh personally mentored numerous residents and fellows and was an inspiration and steadfast supporter of our Clinician Scientist trainees.

Despite his enormous role as Vice-Chair, he has been a highly productive researcher in the department. He served as principal investigator and medical project officer for multiple National Institutes of Health-sponsored trials, including the landmark FREEDOM and TAILOR-PCI trials, and collaborated on multiple large NIH-sponsored initiatives. He founded the Worldwide Network for Innovation in Clinical Education and Research (WNICER), an international clinical trials network that advances multidisciplinary research and served as section editor for Diabetes & Metabolism at the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In his role as Associate Dean, Dr. Farkouh will support Cedars-Sinai in expanding their clinical trials program in all disciplines. He will have responsibility for evaluating and recommending new strategic growth opportunities and ensuring optimal infrastructure for its research laboratories and facilities.

Dr. Farkouh has been a fantastic leader, mentor and champion of his colleagues and their research. In recognition of his contributions to our program, we are pleased to announce the creation of the Farkouh Network of Networks Award for Research Leadership & Innovation. While he will surely be missed here, we are absolutely thrilled for Dr. Farkouh as he embarks on this next chapter with Cedars-Sinai.

Please join me in extending our sincerest thanks, congratulations and best wishes to Dr. Farkouh on his new appointment!

Sincerely,

Dr. Gillian Hawker

Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and Chair of Medicine

Hello everyone,

We are very excited to share that the renewed Teaching and Learning in the Clinical Context (TLC) Program will be open for registration March 1, 2023. The first cohort starts in September 2023. The renewed program will be run centrally through the CFD.

I have included more information about the program below.

We would be grateful if you can share the information below and the attached program flyer with any colleagues who you think may benefit from and be interested in enrolling in the program.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you in advance.

All the best,

Laura

Laura Hayos (she/her/elle), OT Reg. (Ont.)

Education Development Lead, Clinical Teaching & Operations | Centre for Faculty Development

 

 

Dear Researchers,

I am pleased to launch the first Sarah McComb Award competition.

Sarah McComb was the wife a significant donor to Unity Health Research who passed away from breast cancer. In her honour they have set up the Sarah McComb Award, which will provide $150,000 to support a cancer-related project being conducted primarily at St. Michael’s Hospital or Providence Healthcare.

Please submit the attached Expression of Interest by Monday February 27^th if you would like to be considered for this award.

Three finalists will be selected to then pitch their research to the McComb family on Thursday May 4^th, where they will select the winner of this year’s award.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Erica

Erica L. Conte, PhD (she/her)

Director, Funding Strategy and Stewardship

Office of the Vice President, Research

Unity Health Toronto

30 Bond Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 1W8

Phone: 416-864-6060 ext. 77364

Cell: 416-985-6874

Email:  [email protected]

Website: http://stmichaelshospitalresearch.ca/