CSCI-CITAC Annual Joint Meeting

Terry Pirovolakis embarks on an inspiring journey to save his son through the creation of a novel gene therapy for Spastic Paraplegia Type 50. The journey continues as his newly found company, Elpida Therapeutics, hopes to save the lives of many other children living with rare diseases.

Francine Buchanan, MLIS, PhD Candidate, is a mom and primary caregiver to an amazing little boy who is thriving with complex medical needs. When she isn’t watching or playing baseball with her family, she is a Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto studying physician/patient communication. Francine’s passion is increasing parent participation in the health research process, and she holds the position of co-chair on the SickKids Research Family Advisory Committee.

Douglas Buller works at the Wilson Centre (Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and the University Health Network). He makes slides. A lot of slides. And he has been making a lot of slides for a very long time. In fact when he started making slides, slides were actually physical, 35mm film-slides. Since then (and before anyone asked him to) he has been exploring ways to ensure that slides meaningfully contribute to a presentation's purpose and intention. To do this he draws on approaches from cognitive psychology, art theory, film theory, semiotics and graphic design.

Abhishek Morturu is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto affiliated with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, The Hospital for Sick Children, and the UHN KITE Research Institute. He also received his HBSc and MSc (graduated in 2021) from the University of Toronto. His doctoral research interests lie in the use of deep learning for healthcare and medicine - specifically in developing theory for example difficulty in health-related applications. He is currently under the supervision of Dr. Babak Taati and expected to complete his PhD in June 2025.

Armaan Malhotra is a fourth-year neurosurgery resident interested in clinical epidemiology, neurotrauma, pediatrics and spine surgery. He is currently pursuing doctorate studies through the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation supervised by Dr Jefferson Wilson and Dr Avery Nathens. His thesis involves quantifying and predicting outcomes for patients with traumatic brain injury using health administrative data.

Samantha is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, improving wearable devices for monitoring cardiovascular health to work well for all. She has previously conducted research in synthetic biology, electrical engineering, machine learning, and psychiatry. Samantha is passionate about the intersection between health technologies and society, and how to approach design in an ethical and equitable way.

Tina is Professor and Director of Medical Education Scholarship in the Department of Paediatrics, and Scientist and Associate Director Collaborations and Partnerships, Wilson Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. As a Scientist Dr. Martimianakis studies the socio-politics of education with a particular focus on issues related to the hidden curriculum, professional identity and faculty and learner experiences. As an educator, she employs critical and social cultural pedagogies to develop programming to address hidden curriculum effects and to enable health professionals to incorporate complex negotiations of the social world in their educational planning and implementation. Dr. Martimianakis works with educational leaders in the department of Paediatrics and across the Faculty of Medicine to enhance educational scholarship, and to contribute to efforts to improve the learning environment with policy and curriculum interventions.

Erene is a Clinical Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and PhD student in Health Professions Education Research at the Insitute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation. She completed her BSc in Psychology, MA in History and Philosophy of Science, MD, and psychiatry residency at the University of Toronto. Under the supervision of Dr. Tina Martimianakis, her doctoral work uses sociological methods to understand how physicians with disabilities navigate the process of medical licensure, with the ultimate aim of addressing existing barriers to disclosure and health-seeking for these physicians through policy reform. Her clinical work as a Fellow centers on occupational psychiatry, with a focus on the mental health of the healthcare workforce.

Dr. Deborah Siegal MD MSc FRCPC is a Hematologist (Thrombosis) at The Ottawa Hospital, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Anticoagulant Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease. She received MSc degrees in Pharmacology and Health Research Methodology.

As a clinician-scientist, Dr. Siegal combines her clinical and research expertise to conduct practice-changing research to improve the outcomes of individuals with cardiovascular disease, the most common non-communicable cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Her overall goal is to improve the safety of anticoagulant therapy, which is highly effective, but increases the risk of serious bleeding, the most common adverse drug event leading to emergency department visits, hospitalization, and death in North America.

Dr. Siegal’s research has had international, practice changing impact. She led clinical trials establishing the efficacy and safety of andexanet alfa, a novel anticoagulant reversal therapy for patients with serious bleeding, which ultimately led to its regulatory approval. She also led the STRATUS Trial which showed that a simple switch to tubes that automatically collect less blood for laboratory testing reduced the number of transfusions given in intensive care units.

She holds peer-reviewed grants as principal investigator from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, CanVECTOR, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, American Society of Hematology, and others. She has published over 160 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 45) including high-impact journals such the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Circulation, Annals of Internal Medicine, Blood and Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Dr. Siegal holds leadership roles within professional organizations in Canada (Thrombosis Canada, CanVECTOR) and internationally (International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, American Society of Hematology, Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society) which is a testament to her commitment to collaboration.

Jean-Claude Tardif is the Director of the Research Center at the Montreal Heart Institute and Professor of Medicine at the University of Montreal. He received his medical degree (MD) in 1987 from the University of Montreal and specialized in cardiology and research in Montreal and Boston until 1994. Dr. Tardif holds the Canada Research Chair in personalized medicine and the University of Montreal endowed research chair in atherosclerosis. He is also the Scientific Director of the Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC).

His research covers the molecular and genomic aspects of atherosclerosis and related diseases and also involves animal models, mechanistic and observational clinical studies as well as early clinical trials and large international randomized clinical trials. Dr. Tardif is or has been the international principal investigator or part of the study leadership of several large clinical trials in the field of atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Tardif and his team have created the Beaulieu-Saucier Pharmacogenomics Center at the Montreal Heart Institute and he has created the Center of Excellence in Personalized Medicine, the latter funded by the Network of Centers of Excellence of Canada and which is also supported by multiple pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies.

Dr. Tardif has authored more than 840 scientific articles and has won multiple awards, including the Research Achievement Award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Distinguished Lecturer Award of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Genesis Award of BIOQuébec (for his outstanding contributions to life sciences), the Armand-Frappier Award of the Government of Québec (the highest scientific honour) and the Margolese National Heart Disorders Prize (for his outstanding contributions to the treatment, amelioration, or cure of heart disorders). Because of his accomplishments, Dr. Tardif was named Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and he was inducted in the Order of Canada (the highest distinction in the country).