CSCI-CITAC Annual Joint Meeting 2026

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Subbarao is a Clinician-Scientist in Pediatric Respiratory Medicine specializing clinically in severe asthma. She is the Director of the CHILD Study and holds a CRC Tier 1 Chair in Pediatric Asthma and Lung Health at the University of Toronto. She is also the Co-Lead of Precision Child Health and Associate Chief, Clinical Research at the RI. Trained in both Epidemiology and infant and preschool lung physiology, she holds appointments as a Senior Scientist in Translational Medicine and as a Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Physiology and in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. 

The evolution of health research funding in a time of uncertainty.

Dr Michael J. Strong is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences at Western University. He served as the President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research from 2018 to 2023, as the Dean of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University from 2010 to 2018, and from 2000 to 2010, as Chief of Neurology and Co-Chair of the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences. His research has focused on understanding the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) including the role of altered RNA metabolism in its genesis in addition to defining a role for altered tau metabolism in the frontotemporal spectrum disorder of ALS. He has published over 240 peer-reviewed article, edited 4 textbooks and given over 200 invited lectures on these topics. He is the only Canadian to be the recipient of both Sheila Essay Award and the Forbes Norris Award for his care of ALS patients and his research. He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology in 2008 and of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2009. In 2025, he was awarded the King Charles III Coronation medal. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medical Specialties

Dr. Mamdani is Clinical Lead - Artificial Intelligence at Ontario Health and Director of the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM). Previously, Dr. Mamdani was Vice President of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Unity Health Toronto where his team deployed over 50 AI solutions to improve patient outcomes and hospital efficiency. Dr. Mamdani is also Professor in medicine, pharmacy, and public health at the University of Toronto. He is also a Faculty Affiliate of the Vector Institute. In 2024, Dr. Mamdani’s team received the national Solventum Health Care Innovation Team Award by the Canadian College of Health Leaders. Also in 2024, Dr. Mamdani was named international AI Leader of the Year by AIMed. He has published over 600 studies in peer-reviewed medical journals. Dr. Mamdani obtained a Doctor of Pharmacy degree (PharmD) from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), completed a fellowship in pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research at the Detroit Medical Center, and obtained a Master of Arts degree in Economics and econometric theory from Wayne State University as well as a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University with a concentration in quantitative methods.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medical Specialties

Dr. Mamatha Bhat is a Hepatologist and Clinician-Scientist at the University Health Network's Ajmera Transplant Centre and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Bhat completed her medical school and residency training at McGill University. She then completed a Transplant Hepatology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, followed by a CIHR Fellowship for Health Professionals, through which she completed a PhD in Medical Biophysics. The goal of Dr. Bhat’s research program is to improve long-term outcomes of liver transplantation by developing tools of Artificial Intelligence integrating clinical and 'omics data, and has been funded by CIHR, Terry Fox research institute, Canadian Liver Foundation, American society of Transplant among others. She has published over 200 papers in journals such as Lancet Digital Health, Journal of Hepatology, JAMA Surgery, Gut and Hepatology. Dr. Bhat has been the recipient of   recognitions such as the 2022 CASL Research Excellence award and the 2021 American Society of Transplantation Basic Science Career Development Award. Dr. Bhat is also Director of the Clinician-scientist training program in the Dept of Medicine at U of T, Partnership & Engagement Lead for the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM), and past Chair of the International Liver Transplant Society Basic and Translational Science Research committee.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medical Specialties

Dr. Poutanen is a Medical Microbiologist and Infectious Diseases Physician at Sinai Health & University Health Network in Toronto, Canada and an associate professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Poutanen received her Medical Degree from the University of Toronto in 1996 and completed Internal Medicine and Medical Microbiology Residencies at the University of Toronto and an Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Stanford University, California.  She received her Masters of Public Health with a focus on Epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002. 

Her broad research interests include:  the epidemiology and detection of antimicrobial resistance; the preparedness and detection of emerging infectious disease threats; and the optimization of microbiology laboratory practices using point-of-care tests, rapid diagnostics, automation, and artificial intelligence.

Early Career Development for Clinician Scientists

Dr. Robert Vanner is a Medical Oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre with the Gastrointestinal Site Group and Clonal Hematopoiesis Program. He completed his PhD in Molecular Genetics through the University of Toronto’s MD/PhD Program. He followed Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology training at the University of Toronto with a postdoctoral fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). His research program uses large datasets, genomics, and animal models to define the impact of Clonal Hematopoiesis and somatic mosaicism on clinical outcomes, with the goal of developing precision treatment strategies and novel therapeutics for patients with cancer and chronic disease.

Early Career Development for Clinician Scientists

Dr. Raphael Schneider is a clinician scientist and neurologist at the BARLO MS Centre at St Michael’s Hospital. He is an Assistant Professor with appointments in the Department of Medicine and the Institute of Medical Science. 

His research focuses on blood and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers in multiple sclerosis, with the goal of improving early diagnosis, risk stratification, and prognosis. His group studies protein biomarkers, integrated with clinical, and l data. Dr. Schneider is a principal investigator in the CANadian PROspective COhort Study for People Living with MS, or CanProCo, and leads Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded analyses of blood based biomarkers linked to disability progression. He also leads a Brain Canada funded programme studying Epstein Barr virus in early MS and radiologically isolated syndrome, examining how virus specific immune responses relate to disease onset and evolution. 

Early Career Development for Clinician Scientists

Dr. Witheford is a vascular surgeon with an aortic subspecialization. She was recruited to University Health Network and the University of Toronto in 2021. She completed her MD and PhD at the University of British Columbia before vascular surgery residency at the University of Toronto. She subsequently completed two subspecialty fellowships in open and endovascular reconstruction of the aorta at University Health Network, and at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and the Royal Free NHS Trust in London UK. Upon returning to Toronto as a surgeon investigator, she became the director of the Advanced Aortic Fellowship Program in Toronto, and she is a member of the multidisciplinary Advanced Aortic Team at UHN.

Dr. Witheford holds appointments to the Equity Diversity and Inclusion and Research Committees at the Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery, and the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. Her research focuses on equity and justice in access to aortic care, and on improving the quality and safety of open and endovascular aortic intervention.

Early Career Development for Clinician Scientists

Dr. Kristel Leung is a Core Faculty member at the Health Services and Policy Research Institute (HSPRI), Assistant Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology, Dept. of Medicine at Queen’s University, and hepatologist at Kingston Health Sciences Centre. As a clinician-scientist with expertise in rare and immune-mediated liver diseases and advanced cirrhosis care, Dr. Leung’s research spans population-level epidemiology, health services research, and outcomes evaluation, with an emphasis on scalable, data-driven approaches bringing clinicians, researchers, and health system partners together to advance liver disease care across multiple settings.

Dr. Leung completed her medical degree at the University of British Columbia, followed by Internal Medicine residency training in Ottawa and Adult Gastroenterology fellowship training in Toronto. She subsequently completed advanced clinical and research fellowship training at the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease with the Autoimmune & Rare Liver Disease Programme, along with a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto as a CIHR Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar.

Dr. Kahn is a clinical epidemiologist and internist based at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Canada, where she is the founder and director of the Centre of Excellence in Thrombosis and Anticoagulation Care. She is appointed as Professor with Tenure in the Department of Medicine, McGill University. She founded the McGill Thrombosis Fellowship, now the McGill Royal College AFC in Adult Thrombosis Medicine, for which she was Program Director from 2007-2018. From 2015-2025, she was co-founder and co-Director of the CIHR-funded CanVECTOR Network, a Canadian national venous thromboembolism research and training network. Dr. Kahn’s research interests focus primarily on clinical trials of interventions to prevent, diagnose, treat, and improve outcomes of venous thromboembolism. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair and has published more than 360 papers in the field of thromboembolism. In 2026, she was awarded the Esteemed Career Award of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis for lasting contributions to advance both scientific discovery and clinical care in thrombosis and haemostasis.

Manoj is an Anesthesiologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa. He is also a Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in the Acute Care Research and Regenerative Medicine Programs. He holds the University of Ottawa Clinical Research Chair in Innovative Translational Research. He is interested in optimizing preclinical-to-clinical translation.  At the bench, he believes this can be accomplished by improving methodological rigour, promoting transparent reporting, and synthesizing existing knowledge in systematic ways. Moving to the bedside, his team believes that interdisciplinary teams, including patients and other interest holders, will help improve the efficiency of translation.