Please see below for the following updates:

• Celebrating Dr. Thomas Parker’s significant contributions to leadership
• Interim coverage for Executive Vice President, Clinical Programs and Chief Medical Officer
• Update on Medicine Program and Emergency Care Program leadership
• CONGRATS!!!  2024 Robert Sheppard Award Faculty Recipient - Dr. Jillian Alston
• REMINDER: Nominations now open:  SMHDOM Master Clinician Award, Dr. Michael R Freeman Award for Integrity and Professionalism, and the Dr. Michael Ward Mentorship Award
• Summer students from the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland

Please join us on Wednesday, March 27 at Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital to celebrate Dr. Thomas Parker’s, Executive Vice-President Clinical and Chief Medical Officer, significant contributions to leadership.

Dr. Parker will be retiring from his executive role on April 5, 2024. After a sabbatical, he will continue as a clinical Cardiologist at St. Michael’s Hospital.

Dr. Parker served as Chief Resident in Cardiology at St. Michael’s in 1988. After tenures at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and at University Health Network in Toronto, he was recruited back to St. Michael’s in 2003 as Head of the Division of Cardiology. He was the inaugural Brazilian Ball Chair in Cardiology Research – positions he held until 2010. In 2010, and was appointed Physician-in-Chief and Squires-Chalmers professor in the Department of Medicine at St. Michael’s. Dr. Parker also served as Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee and was a member of the Joint Board Steering Committee during the integration of Providence Healthcare, St. Joseph’s Health Centre and St. Michael’s.

Please join us to celebrate Dr. Parker:

Wednesday, March 27

2:00 to 4:00 p.m. (speeches will begin at 2:30 p.m.)

Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, 38 Shuter, Room 136 

As announced late last year, Dr. Thomas Parker, Executive Vice President, Clinical Programs, and Chief Medical Officer, will step down from his executive role on April 5, 2024. We are actively recruiting for his replacement and expect that this process will continue until well into the summer. As such, we have developed an interim coverage plan that will ensure leadership and clinical service delivery. This interim coverage plan, effective April 6, will be as follows:

Clinical Programs: Sonya Canzian, Executive Vice President, Clinical Programs, and Chief Nursing and Health Disciplines Officer will provide interim leadership for the Emergency, Renal, Medicine, Community and Strategic Partnerships clinical portfolio.

• Jonathan Fetros, Vice President Clinical, will report to Sonya on an interim basis.

Chief Medical Officer & Medical Affairs: Dr. Ori Rotstein, Vice President of Research and Innovation, will assume the additional interim role of Chief Medical Officer for Unity Health.

• Dr. Ashley Verduyn, Vice-President of Medical Affairs and Chief of Providence Healthcare, will report to Ori on an interim basis.
• Dr. Irfan Dhalla, Vice President, Clinical Programs, Quality, Equity and Medical Affairs will report to Ori on Medical Affairs, and to Dr. Tim Rutledge, President and CEO, for all other areas on an interim basis.

Access and Flow: Irfan will provide leadership for Access and Flow.

• Laurie Jenkins, Senior Director, Access and Transitions, will report to Irfan.

Clinical Ethics: Tim will provide interim leadership for the Clinical Ethics portfolio.

• Michael Szego, Senior Director, Centre for Clinical Ethics, will report to Tim on an interim basis.

Strategy and Integration: Tim will provide interim leadership to the Strategy and Partnerships portfolio.

• Tory Merritt, Director, Strategy and Partnerships, will report to Tim on an interim basis. 

Many thanks, once again, to Dr. Parker for his dedication and leadership. He has been a trusted advisor to the executive team, the Medical Advisory Committee and the Board of Directors and we value his efforts over the next few months as he supports the smooth transition to this interim coverage structure. Tom leaves a strong and lasting impact that will benefit patients and families we serve for years to come. Thanks also to all providing interim coverage.

We are pleased to announce that Orla Smith has taken on the role of interim Senior Clinical Program Director of the Medicine Program in addition to her role as Senior Clinical Program Director of Emergency Care, effective March 4, 2024. Orla has stepped in in for Jonathan Fetros, who started a new role as Vice President Clinical at Unity Health.

With nearly 25 years of nursing and management experience at Unity Health, Orla has provided leadership in critical care, emergency medicine, medicine, and research and from 2019 to 2022 served as Senior Clinical Program Director for the St. Michael’s Emergency Department and Medicine Program. Orla is an accomplished leader with a solutions-based approach to system-wide challenges, who is passionate about excellent patient care and clinician health and well-being. She is also an investigator at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, and is cross-appointed to the University of Toronto. Orla holds a Master of Nursing and a PhD in Nursing from the University of Toronto. Please join us in thanking Orla for the leadership she will provide in this role.

Congratulations to Jill Alston who is the recipient of the 2024 Robert Sheppard Award for Health Equity and Social Justice in Postgraduate Medical Education.

Nominations are open for the following SMH DOM Awards:

• SMHDOM Master Clinician Award
• Michael R Freeman Award for Integrity and Professionalism
• Michael Ward Mentorship Award

Nomination deadline is March 31^st.  Please see the attached emails for more details about these awards.

Collaborative program between Unity Health and The Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) based in Ireland and Bahrain. They have a roster of 12 medical students that PI’s are paired with for a duration of 10 weeks full time with a total cost of $850 from the PI or an 8 week duration with a total cost of $680 from the PI  (RCSI pays the remainder).

If you are interested, please complete the below questions and send back to [email protected]

1. Brief description of the project the student will be working on
2. The student’s tasks and responsibilities
3. Will the student be working onsite, offsite or hybrid?