CIP-MD/PhD Symposium 2023

Dr. Amin Madani is an endocrine and acute care surgeon at the University Health Network (Toronto, Canada) and assistant professor of surgery the University of Toronto. He specializes in the surgical management of thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal diseases. He is also the director of the Surgical Artificial Intelligence Research Academy, where he leads a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, data scientists, engineers and game developers. Dr. Madani’s research focus is in surgical expertise and the use of technology to optimize performance in the operating room. Over the last decade, he has led the design and development of new innovations to improve surgeon performance, including platforms that incorporate machine learning algorithms, computer vision, augmented/virtual reality and simulation. He also serves as the Chair of the Global Surgical Artificial Intelligence Collaborative - an academic-led consortium with a mission to democratize surgical care and disseminate surgical expertise to operating rooms around the world.

Dr. Jennifer Kwan is a Staff Radiation Oncologist - Clinician Scientist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto (UTDRO). She graduated from Queen's University with her medical degree in 2015, followed by residency at the University of Toronto. During her residency training, she completed a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Fei-Fei Liu, where she is developing an independent laboratory research program on the late effects of radiotherapy. To date, Dr. Kwan has published 20 peer-reviewed papers, including in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Nature Communications, JAMA Network Open, and the CMAJ. She is recognized as an expert speaker across North America on lymphedema. She has received grant funding from CIHR and has received multiple international awards including from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the European Radiation Research Society (ERRS), and the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC).

Dr. Goldenberg boasts an impressive professional background in the field of medical research and clinical care, having completed his MD/PhD training at the prestigious University of Toronto, where he specialized in studying vesicle transport pathways. Furthermore, he pursued his anesthesia residency in the Clinician-Scientist Program at the same university, where he focused his efforts on researching and treating diseases related to the lung vasculature. Goldenberg's passion for medicine and research led him to complete a fellowship in Paediatric Anesthesia at The Hospital for Sick Children, where he further honed his skills and gained invaluable experience. Currently, he is serving as a Staff Anesthetist at SickKids and a Scientist in the Program in Cell Biology, where he conducts extensive research on the subject of pulmonary vascular inflammation.

Dr. Stephanie Zhou practices Addictions Medicine at Sunnybrook Hospital, Family Medicine at Don Mills Family Health Team and is an Assistant Professor for the Financial Literacy curriculum at the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Toronto Public Health.

Stephanie is a strong advocate for equalizing student knowledge when it comes to personal finance and managing debt. She began by giving “Affording Medical School” webinars to the Community of Support students before expanding these lectures to a four-year curriculum.

Outside of her clinical work, she blogs about personal finance on Instagram and Youtube @breakingbaddebt and organizes the annual Physicians Financial Wellness conference, a national, philanthropic conference for physicians on financial education and practice management taking place this November 18, 2023. To learn more or register, please visit: https://www.physiciansficonference.com/

Dr. Andrea Covelli is a surgical oncologist is an Assistant Professor and Surgeon-Investigator in the Division of Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Covelli received her Medical Degree from the University of Western Ontario, and obtained both her residency training in General Surgery and her General Surgical Oncology fellowship training at the University of Toronto. She is also an alumna of the Surgeon-Scientist and Clinician Investigator Program having completed her PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at the Institute of Health Management, Policy and Evaluation.

Dr. Covelli is a soft tissue surgical oncologist with a clinical focus is the management of complex skin malignancies, soft tissue sarcomas and locally advanced breast cancers including rare mesenchymal tumours. Her academic research is in the area of health equity in cancer care using qualitative and mixed methods. She focuses predominantly on improving patient and clinical care outcomes for rare malignancies and addressing health inequities in cancer care for under-represented populations.

Brian Kalish is a neonatologist and neuroscientist at the Hospital for Sick Children and an Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics and Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. Brian studied Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, followed by medical training at Harvard Medical School. He completed pediatrics residency at Boston Children’s Hospital and fellowship in the Harvard Program in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. Brian completed a post-doctoral fellowship in neurobiology with Mike Greenberg at Harvard Medical School, during which time he was supported by the Pediatric Scientist Development Program and a NIH Career Development Award. He was on faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital before being recruited to SickKids in 2021. Brian’s research program focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of fetal and neonatal brain injury, as well as the development of early phase clinical trials in newborn neuroprotection and plasticity.

Dr. Maria Athina (Tina) Martimianakis is Professor and Director of Medical Education Scholarship in the Department of Paediatrics, and Scientist and Associate Director Collaborationsl and Partnerships at the Wilson Centre, University of Toronto. Tina studies the socio-politics of education with a particular focus on issues related to the hidden curriculum, identity and faculty and learner experiences. As an educator, she employs critical and social cultural pedagogies to enable health professionals to incorporate complex negotiations of the social world in their educational planning and implementation. Tina 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 Stergiopoulos is a PGY5 resident in psychiatry and first year PhD student in Health Professions Education Research at the University of Toronto. She has a BSc in Psychology Research and MA in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Toronto. Under the supervision of Dr. Tina Martimianakis, her current work uses qualitative methods to study the experiences of medical students with disabilities, using a socio-cultural lens to study the effects of the hidden curriculum on their professional identity construction.

Benjamin Steinberg is a pediatric anesthesiologist and cell biologist at The Hospital for Sick Children. He completed his MD/PhD training followed by anesthesia residency through the Clinician-Investigator Program at the University of Toronto. His research training focused on delineating nodes of communication between the body’s nervous and immune systems. Following residency, he completed a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesia at The Hospital for Sick Children, where he currently works as a staff physician and scientist. His research group focuses on mechanistic and translational studies of pro-inflammatory cell death in health and disease.