Recognizing our 2023 Promotions
The Senior Promotions Committee is excited to announce that several members of our faculty will be promoted effective July 1, 2023. These well-deserved promotions recognize the hard work, dedication, and exceptional impact these faculty have had on our department's academics, research and clinical outputs.
Promotions to Professor
Anuj Bhatia – Professor (Toronto Western Hospital)
Dr. Anuj Bhatia is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in anesthesiology and pain medicine. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, in July 2017. He holds appointments as a staff anesthesiologist at Toronto Western Hospital and as a Clinical Investigator at the Krembil Research Institute. He is the Director (Anesthesia), of the Comprehensive Integrated Pain Program, University Health Network, and serves as the Medical Director of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, Altum Health, University Health Network. Dr. Bhatia's expertise is related to clinical research in pain.
Dr. Bhatia's research focuses on developing evidence for the efficacy of novel therapeutic options and implementing new strategies for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain. Dr. Bhatia has established a research consortium, which is entitled, "Science, Techniques, and Outcomes of Pain Assessments and InTerventions (STOPIT) Group". This outstanding and unique team comprises clinical fellows and research fellows, numerous residents from the Anesthesia, and Pain Medicine postgraduate training programs, medical students and a variety of collaborators from the Department of Surgery, including faculty in the divisions of Anatomy, Orthopedics, and Neurosurgery.
Dr. Bhatia's research focuses on developing evidence for the efficacy of novel therapeutic options and implementing new strategies for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain. For example, his research has helped in the development of national and international protocols and guidelines for the use of intravenous ketamine infusions and interventional pain procedures to relieve spinal pain. These guidelines include recommendations on the use of ketamine infusions for acute and chronic pain treatment settings; strategies to reduce allergic reactions to radio-opaque contrast media, which is injected during interventional pain procedures; and procedure protocols for the performance of lumbar and cervical facet joint manipulations to relieve the pain of spinal origin.
Dr. Bhatia rounds off his teaching and research excellence with extensive leadership roles and system-based improvement initiatives. His ability to translate state-of-the-art clinical approaches into operational realities is remarkable.
Jane Heggie – Professor (Toronto General Hospital)
Dr. Heggie is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in cardiac anesthesia. She was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, in 2012. She holds an appointment as a Staff Anesthesiologist, at Toronto General Hospital.
Through exemplary clinical practice, mentorship, knowledge translation activities, research, leadership, and innovation, Dr. Heggie has significantly influenced the knowledge and practices in the clinical care of patients with Adult Congenital Heart Disease locally, provincially, nationally, and globally.
Dr. Heggie is the Principal Investigator on the project entitled, “Predictors of Outcome for Congenital Heart Surgery in Adults. A Multinational Validation of a Prediction Model”. Overall, her studies have shown that those adult patients living with complex congenital heart disease who successfully navigate the support services for cardiac surgery live in higher-income neighbourhoods. Importantly, she reported a significant correlation between lower socio-economic status and higher mortality rates and an increased incidence of adverse outcomes after cardiac surgery. This work will be presented at a national meeting of Equity and Diversity in the Fall of 2023. The results of this multicentered collaboration will enable clinicians to counsel patients about mortality risks and the risks of life-altering adverse events specific to this unique population.
In addition, to improve the care of this patient population at a local level, Dr. Heggie established a perioperative clinic in 2015 that employed some of her learnings from the research program to optimize comorbidities that predict the adverse outcome or manage the environment of the patients if optimization is not an option. It is important to highlight that program mortality from 2005-2014 was 4.3 % overall, but after this intervention, the mortality rate dropped to 1% between 2016-2019. This program will lead to improved care more broadly across other organizations managing this complex patient population.
Dr. Heggie has represented and reported to the International Canadian Red Cross (ICRC). The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) on international assignments in conflict zones in Iraq, Bangladesh (Myanmar border), Yemen, and international waters off the coast of Libya. The ICRC and IFRC spent hundreds of millions of Francs/Euros in capacity building, supporting the infrastructure and salaries of the host health services. Dr. Heggie has an aptitude for leading international teams. She was promoted to Senior Medical Officer in the Red Cross for rapid deployment to international humanitarian disasters. The analysis and recommendations by Dr. Heggie were instrumental in ICRC and IFRC’s decisions for international aid and program development. Dr. Heggie has advised and been integral in planning the next steps for the world’s largest humanitarian organization in these conflict and human migration zones.
Katherine Taylor – Professor (Hospital for Sick Children)
Dr. Taylor is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the field of pediatric cardiac anesthesia. She was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, in 2016. She holds an appointment as a Staff Anesthesiologist at the Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Taylor has significantly influenced our knowledge about structural heart disease and the development of best practices in pediatric cardiac anesthesia. Her work has had a global impact as the results of her studies have been incorporated into resuscitation guidelines that have been endorsed by the World Health Organization, the European Patient Safety Foundation, the European Resuscitation Council, the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists, the American Heart Society, and the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation.
Dr. Taylor has a longstanding interest in quality improvement and safety for pediatric patients during the perioperative period. She has brought several innovations to the educational realm at the Hospital for Sick Children. One innovation was teaching focused pediatric echocardiography which built on her expertise gleaned from her work at international meetings and workshops and her research into machine learning models of cardiac output determination.
In her role as President of the Canadian Pediatric Anesthesia Society, she advocated for the application for Pediatric Anesthesia to be recognized as an Area of Focused Competence by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. of Canada, a first for Anesthesia in Canada. This speaks to her commitment to clinical excellence, education, and navigating the political milieu to achieve a goal that benefits all Canadian pediatric anesthesiologists and their patients.
Dr. Taylor developed an assay to improve the dosing of the most common medication to treat low cardiac output post-cardiac surgery. She has also developed deep learning models to calculate (1) ejection fraction and (2) cardiac output and other research work. She has described the evidence for regional anesthesia in pediatrics and employed regional anesthetic techniques in pediatric cardiac surgery. She has utilized Quality Improvement methodology to improve acute pain outcomes for children post-cardiac surgery and described pain after cardiac surgery.
Her leadership in pediatric cardiac anesthesia has improved clinical outcomes and has led to substantial development of professional practices globally.
Promotion to Associate Professor
Tumul Chowdhury – Associate Professor (Toronto Western Hospital)
Dr. Chowdhury is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the fields of clinical neuro anesthesia and outcome-based research in perioperative neurosciences. He was appointed at the rank of Assistant Professor in June 2020. He has held appointments as a Staff Anesthesiologist at the Department of Anesthesia, Toronto Western Hospital, and as a clinical investigator at Krembil Research Institute. Dr. Chowdhury has nurtured his passion and devotion to enhancing and illuminating the subspecialty of neuro anesthesia at local, national, and international levels.
Dr. Chowdhury is one of the world’s leading experts on the trigeminocardiac reflex, a unique brain-stem reflex that impacts patients’ surgery anesthesia and surgery. Notably, he has created a global network of experts in the domain of the 'Brain and Heart Interactions' and has facilitated research by establishing the Brain and Heart Interactions Society (BHIS). He was a co-editor for a web-based compendium entitled "The Trigemino-Cardiac Reflex: Beyond the Diving Reflex." One of the biggest impacts of his work has been an increase in patient education and awareness.
Dr. Chowdhury’s work on neuro-cardiac physiology and the effects of anesthesia on brain cancer are particularly notable for their importance. The notion that anesthetics could impact the biology of cancer is a recent research area with enormous potential.
In 2021, Dr. Chowdhury assisted Dr. Lashmi Venkatraghavan, Program Director of the Neuroanesthesia Fellowship at Toronto Western Hospital, with obtaining ICPNT accreditation for the fellowship program at the University of Toronto. This is only the seventh Neuroanesthesia Fellowship Program in the world to receive this prestigious full accreditation from this organization
Importantly, Dr. Chowdhury has influenced anesthesiologists in low- and middle-income countries such as India, Thailand, Philippines, and Uganda to actively explore these free knowledge-based tools. He has created one of the most up-to-date and freely accessible standard educational databases for all trainees, residents, and fellows who are interested in neuro anesthesia. His outcome-based research in the field of perioperative neuroscience has advanced perioperative anesthesia care for patients undergoing neurosurgical, neurological, and neuroradiological procedures worldwide.
Tania Di Renna – Associate Professor (Women’s College Hospital)
Dr. Di Renna is a nationally recognized leader in the care of adult patients with chronic pain. She was appointed at the rank of Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, in 2017. She holds an appointment as a Staff Anesthesiologist at Women's College and UHN-Mount Sinai Hospitals. Dr. Di Renna has established herself as a national leader in the area of chronic pain through her professional innovations, creative excellence, and contributions to the development of professional practices. Her work has transformed how we deliver, study, and teach chronic pain care nationally.
In 2017, Dr. Di Renna became the inaugural medical director of the Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute (TAPMI). TAPMI is a partnership that is primarily funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care. It represents a collaborative effort amongst multiple academic hospitals that are located in the downtown core of Toronto including Women's College Hospital (WCH), Toronto General Hospital (TGH), Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI), and the collective the three University Health Network sites, Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH) and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). By leveraging the strengths of these multiple pain facilities, the TAPMI program functions as a state-of-the-art hub and spoke pain center for the entire province of Ontario. Dr. Di Renna initiated the TAPMI program and enabled it to become a national leader and prototype for excellence in pain management education, research, and clinical care.
Dr. Di Renna led the creation of a novel 9-week interdisciplinary Pain Self-Management Program. This comprehensive and multi-disciplined program includes didactic, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and physiotherapy components. The goal of this program is to teach patients how to live comfortably and productively despite having a chronic pain condition. She has also led the creation of six other unique group programs run by the TAPMI hub health disciplines. These include: 1) a one-day Introductory Pain Education, 2) an Acceptance and Commitment therapy program, 3) Physiotherapy Exercise groups, 4) an Interdisciplinary Pelvic Pain program, and 5) a Relaxation Group and a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program. The feedback collected from the patients who participated in these programs has been extremely positive, as over 70% report an improved ability to self-manage, and decreased pain catastrophizing. These outcomes are important in improving the quality of life for chronic pain patients and are decreasing the burden of chronic pain patients on the healthcare system.
The Young Adult Clinic at Women's College Hospital, created by Dr. Di Renna, is a prime example of innovation bred from necessity. Teenagers graduating from pediatric pain programs across Ontario were often lost to follow-up once they reached the age of maturity. In partnership with adult and pediatric pain colleagues at Sick Kids Hospital, Dr. Di Renna created the interdisciplinary pain clinic that enables young adults to maximize their potential at pivotal moments in their journey. This clinic has been the source of several grants and publications.
The TAPMI Mobile Clinic is yet another innovation of Dr. Di Renna. This clinic has allowed knowledge translation of evidence-based pain care into the community. Programs like this are vital to the Canadian healthcare system as they improve wait times, quality of care and primary care capacity. The Mobile clinic has also developed a fellowship (Pfizer Primary Care Access Fellowship) that has allowed the training of Primary Care physicians to teach their colleagues the foundations of chronic pain care in the community.
Gianni Lorello – Associate Professor (Toronto Western Hospital)
Dr. Gianni Lorello is an internationally recognized leader in the field of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). He was appointed at the rank of Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, in December 2017. He holds appointments as a Staff Anesthesiologist at Toronto Western Hospital and as a clinical investigator at Krembil Research Institute. Dr. Lorello was instrumental in creating the position of Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine. He served as the first Director of EDI of a clinical department in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. The department has received numerous requests for the Terms of Reference and Job Description for this position and the documents have been used as a template for similar positions in other departments around the world.
In addition, Dr. Lorello established the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society. Importantly, his innovative and scholarly work established new standards and best practices.
Dr. Lorello’s EDIB-related work is crucial to mental health, providing equitable access to health care and creating an environment conducive to learning. His research program examines disparities within anesthesiology, and more broadly, in medicine. Specifically, his work aims at better understanding how a continuum model of gender shifts academic dialogue, avoiding the current polarization via gender binaries that lead to segregation.
Dr. Lorello has received national and international recognition and has made both national and international collaborations in research, creative professional, and educational activities. The impact and scope of his work are illustrated by the number of EDI national guidelines and different frameworks and committees he has led. He had advised multiple Anesthesia Chairs across Canada to consult on creating similar diversity officer roles in their respective departments. He has advised the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society and the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia on strategies to track appropriate representation and ensure equitable proportions of women as speakers at the Annual Meeting and Editorial Board. Notably, Dr. Lorello’s work as a Clinician-Educator at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada informs social disparities across all specialties in Canada, impacting more than 40,000 physicians across Canada.