| Jennifer Beck Dr. Jennifer Beck is a Physiologist who graduated with both a MSc. and a PhD, from McGill University at the Meakins Christie Laboratories. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow for two years at McGill University and at University of Montreal and then became an independent researcher at University of Toronto in 2003 at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, as well as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at University of Toronto. In 2008, Dr. Beck took a position as Staff Scientist in the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Sciences at St Michael's Hospital, in Toronto. Dr. Beck is also a Member of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Science Technology (iBEST) at Ryerson University and St-Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada. During these years, Dr Beck developed with her colleagues a method to accurately measure the electrical activity of the diaphragm, which is the most important muscle of respiration. This technology is now used in the critical care setting to monitor patients and to control mechanical ventilation. She is co-inventor of the “NAVA technology”, and has published numerous papers on the topic of control of breathing and patient-ventilator interaction. Her current work is focussed on new ventilation methods for preterm newborns. | |
| Laurent Brochard Laurent Brochard has been recently appointed as the new Interdepartmental Division Director for Critical Care in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He is Full Professor, Clinician scientist in the Division of Critical Care Saint Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. He was previously working in Geneva as Head of the Intensive Care Unit of the Geneva University Hospital, in Switzerland for three years. Most of his career took place at Henri Mondor Hospital, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, and at Paris EST University, France. He has a strong involvement in research, and especially clinical research about mechanical ventilation. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal Intensive Care Medicine from 2001 to 2007, and is currently serving as Deputy Editor for the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. He is leading a European Research Network dedicated to clinical studies in Mechanical Ventilation, called REVA. | |
| Lu Chen Lu Chen completed his Critical Care Medicine training and worked as a physician in Beijing Tiantan Hospital after graduating from Xiangya Medical School (Hunan, China). He worked as a research assistant with Dr. Marco Ranieri in Molinette hospital (Turin, Italy) for one year in 2010. He currently works at St Michael’s Hospital (Toronto, Canada) as a research fellow supervised by Dr. Laurent Brochard, focusing on respiratory mechanics and ARDS. | |
| Lorenzo Del Sorbo Lorenzo Del Sorbo is an intensive Care attending at Toronto General Hospital, since appointment in 2014. He trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Torino (1997-2003), and in adult Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto (2004-2007). He was appointed and worked as an Assistant Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at the University of Torino, Italy, since 2007. Lorenzo's main academic interests focus on the application of innovative strategies to prevent the injury induced by invasive mechanical ventilation. These include investigations on extra-corporeal life support strategies in patients with ARDS and COPD exacerbation, on non-invasive ventilation. His work also extends into the translational research defining the mechanisms of organ injury and developing novel therapeutic approaches in cell and animal models of critical illness. | |
| Eddy Fan Dr. Fan is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada. From a clinical perspective, he is an attending physician in the intensive care unit at the University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital and is the Medical Director of the Extracorporeal Life Support program at the Toronto General Hospital. Dr. Fan received his MD degree from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, and completed both his residency in internal medicine and his fellowship in critical care medicine at the University of Toronto. He obtained his PhD in Clinical Investigation from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. His current research interests are focused on advanced life support for acute respiratory failure and patient outcomes from critical illness. These include investigations on the epidemiology and use of mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal life support in patients with ARDS, as well as on the development of ICU-acquired weakness, early rehabilitation in ICU patients, and long-term outcomes in survivors of critical illness. | |
| Niall Ferguson Dr. Niall Ferguson is Head of Critical Care Medicine at the University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital, and Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Physiology, and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He is a Senior Scientist in the Toronto General Research Institute, and the Critical Care Lead for the Toronto-Central Local Health Integration Network. Dr. Ferguson’s research, which is supported by local, provincial, and national granting agencies, focuses on: (1) mechanical ventilation (epidemiology; weaning and liberation; extubation and tracheostomy); (2) acute respiratory distress syndrome (definitions; ventilatory management; trial design); and (3) novel modes of mechanical ventilation, including extra-corporeal life support. Dr. Ferguson is the Scientific Programme Chair for Critical Care Canada Forum, Canada’s premier critical care conference. He is a frequent invited-speaker at national and international meetings, having given over 250 such talks. | |
| Alberto Goffi Alberto Goffi, MD, is a Staff Physician at Toronto Western Hospital – University Health Network, He was recently appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Medicine and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine. His clinical and academic interests include neurocritical care and point-of-care ultrasound in acute care medicine, with a particular focus on the clinical utility of ultrasound in critical care medicine and optimal teaching strategies for its competency achievement. | |
| Ewan Goligher Dr. Goligher is an intensivist at the Toronto Western Hospital. He obtained his MD from the University of British Columbia and trained in internal medicine and critical care medicine at the University of Toronto. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto. His research program focuses broadly on the clinical impact of physiological interactions between the respiratory muscles, the acutely injured lung, and the mechanical ventilator. In particular, he is actively investigating the mechanisms and outcomes of ventilator-associated diaphragm dysfunction in human subjects. | |
| John Granton John Granton is a professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and head of Respirology at University Health Network, Mount Sinai Hospital and Women’s College Hospital. He is a consultant in respirology, lung transplantation and critical care at the Toronto General Hospital. He established and remains the director of the pulmonary hypertension (PH) program at the University Health Network. He is chair of the board of the Ontario Lung Association and chair of the national fundraising advisory committee for the Canadian Lung Association. His research interests are in pulmonary hypertension, exercise physiology, and critical illness. | |
| Margaret Herridge Margaret S. Herridge MSc MD FRCPC MPH is a Professor of Medicine, Critical Care and Respiratory Medicine at the Toronto General Hospital/University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include 5-year outcomes after the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), 1-year outcomes after the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and long-stay, ventilated critically ill patients and their family caregivers. She is currently Co-PI on a multi-centre CIHR funded study Towards RECOVER which began in 2007. This program of research is evaluating patient and caregiver outcomes to 2 years after prolonged mechanical ventilation and is the first phase of a program that will develop future family-based rehabilitation interventions after critical illness. She completed her epidemiology training at the Channing Laboratory/Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massaschusetts and has a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. | |
| Brian Kavanagh Dr. Brian Kavanagh graduated from University College Dublin (Ireland) in 1985. Following residency in Internal Medicine in Dublin and in Anaesthesia (residency and fellowship) in Toronto, he trained in Critical Care Medicine in Stanford. He returned to the Toronto General Hospital in 1994 and in 1999 moved to the Hospital for Sick Children where he is a clinician-scientist and holds the Dr. Geoffrey Barker Chair in Critical Care Medicine. He is a professor of anesthesia, medicine and physiology, and in 2006 was appointed chair of the Department of Anesthesia at the University of Toronto. His laboratory investigates molecular and physiological mechanisms of ventilator-induced lung injury and the mechanisms of action of CO2 on the lung, and is supported by two operating grants and previous career awards from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and from the Ontario Government. Dr. Kavanagh regularly presents at international meetings. He chairs the executive committee for the Critical Care Canada-Forum and is past program chair for the critical care assembly at the American Thoracic Society. Dr. Kavanagh is the physician lead for the Organ Donation Program and chairs the Organ & Tissue Donation committee at the Hospital for Sick Children. He serves or has served on the editorial advisory boards of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Critical Care, and Intensive Care Medicine, and is an editor of Anesthesiology. | |
| Dr. John Laffey John Laffey is Anesthetist in Chief at St Michael’s Hospital and Professor in the Departments of Anesthesia and Physiology at the University of Toronto. His research is focused on ARDS, particularly the mechanisms underlying ventilation induced lung injury. He has a longstanding interest in the effects and mechanisms of hypercapnic acidosis in ARDS and sepsis. His current research focus is the investigation of the therapeutic potential of cell therapies for ARDS. | |
| Sangeeta Mehta MD from McGill University, Internal Medicine Residency at University of Toronto, Pulmonary and Critical Care, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Respirologist and Critical Care Physician, Mount Sinai Hospital. Associate Professor, University of Toronto. Research Director, Medical Surgical ICU, Mount Sinai Hospital. Research Interests: ICU sedation, Psychological morbidity following ICU discharge, ICU delirium, Ischemia and troponin in patients with septic shock, High Frequency Oscillation. | |
| Louise Rose Dr Louise Rose holds the TD Nursing Professorship in Critical Care Research based at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and is an Associate Professor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is a PhD prepared nurse with an active research program and over 85 peer-reviewed publications focused on improving outcomes and experience of the ventilated patient in diverse settings including the intensive care unit, emergency department, specialized weaning centre, long-term care, and the community. Dr Rose has over 16 years’ clinical experience in various critical care settings in four countries. Dr Rose also is the Research Director for the Provincial Centre of Weaning Excellence at Toronto East General Hospital, and an adjunct scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, West Park Healthcare Centre, and the Li Ka Shing Institute of St Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada. | |
| Damon Scales Dr. Scales obtained his MD from the University of Toronto (UofT,1997). He then completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine (CCM) and a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine (UofT) and an Intensivist at Sunnybrook HSC. He is also the Program Director of the UofT Adult CCM Residency program. His research evaluates interventions and system-factors that influence outcomes of critically ill patients; he has conducted several large quality improvement RCTs. Dr. Scales is a member of several international committees, including the organizing committee of the Critical Care Canada Forum. | |
| Jeffrey Singh Jeffrey Mahan Singh completed his medical training at the University of Toronto in 1999 followed by residencies in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. He received his US Neurocritical Care Certification in 2008. He is currently Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and is Site Director of the Medical-Surgical and Neuro-Intensive Care Unit at the Toronto Western Hospital. His research interests include mechanical ventilation in acute brain and spinal cord injuries, and he is the co-Principal Investigator of an ONF-RHI funded study to evaluate the use of NAVA ventilation in acute cervical spinal cord injury. He is also actively leading several quality improvement initiatives targeting various aspects of the provision of critical care to patients with acute neurological injuries. | |
| Arthur Slutsky Arthur Slutsky MD is Vice-President, Research, St. Michael’s Hospital; Professor of Medicine, Surgery and Biomedical Engineering; Director, Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto. Dr. Slutsky’s research interests are acute lung injury, mechanical ventilation, asthma, pathophysiology, lung transplantation. His basic research in mechanisms of ventilator-induced lung injury have been translated into lung protective ventilatory strategies leading to decreased mortality of patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. He has published more than 450 peer-reviewed papers and his work has been cited over 25,000 times; he is the most highly-cited scientist internationally in mechanical ventilation. He was elected to American Society of Clinical Investigation, and received the Recognition for Scientific Accomplishments Award (2008) and a Lifetime Achievement Award in Critical Care from American Thoracic Society (2012). He serves on the Data Safety Monitoring Board of ARDS NIH Clinical Network and was the only non-American Chair of a FDA Advisory Panel (Respiratory and Anesthesiology Devices). | |
