The Results of the Merit Awards 2023-25 Cycle
The Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine is delighted to announce the results of the 2023–2025 Merit Awards Program.
The Merit Award Program is designed to support the academic activities of faculty members. This year, we received an exceptional amount of applications. Following a thorough and highly competitive review process, the program will fund a total of 25 awards.
These include three Excellence in Research Awards, 12 Merit Awards, one Education Award, and eight Early Investigator Awards. This cycle, we also introduced the new category of the Quality Assurance Award, which will fund one researcher.
Furthermore, Research Commendation Awards will be given to 11 applicants to recognize their highly ranked applications. There is no funding associated with these awards.
The department congratulates all the successful applicants as well as all faculty who submitted applications for consideration. The level of excellence demonstrated in these submissions was remarkable. They showcased the dedication, ingenuity, and profound insights of faculty researchers.
On behalf of the department, we congratulate the investigators listed below:
Excellence in Research ($60,000 per annum)
| Name | Hospital Site | Project Title |
| Keyvan Karkouti | University Health Network (TGH) | Optimizing Coagulation Management in Cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Four-Factor Prothrombin Complex Concentrate with Frozen Plasma in Bleeding Adult Cardiac Surgical Patients |
| David Mazer | St. Michael's Hospital | Clinical Trials to Improve Outcomes in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease |
| Duminda Wijeysundera | St. Michael's Hospital | Integrated Program to Improve Patient-Centred Recovery After Major Surgery |
Merit Awards ($40,000 per annum)
| Name | Hospital Site | Project Title |
| Kazuyoshi Aoyama | The Hospital for Sick Children | Programme to Examine and Characterize Reproductive Health Outcomes of Females Diagnosed with Maternal Sepsis from Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Perspectives |
| Mrinalini Balki | Mount Sinai Hospital | Investigating the effects of various drugs on oxytocin-desensitized myometrium to optimize uterine tone at cesarean delivery |
| Stephen Choi | Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre | Unravelling Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorders |
| Hance Clarke | University Health Network (TGH) | Ontario Transitional Pain and Opioid Safety Program: Improving Pain, Opioid, and Harm Reduction Practices, as well as, Cannabis Safety for Canadian Patients |
| Brian Cuthbertson | Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre | Mentorship in Clinical Trials |
| Josh Gleicher | Mount Sinai Hospital | Hip Arthroplasty Low concentration local anesthetic Fascia iliaca compartment block (HALF) : A Double Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial |
| Neil Goldenberg | The Hospital for Sick Children | Mechanism of activation and therapeutic targeting of gasdermin D in pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular failure |
| Angela Jerath | Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre | Perioperative Care Models and Morbidity on Patient and Health System Outcomes (PROPEL). |
| Karim Ladha | St. Michael's Hospital | Two Sides of the Same Coin: Treating Physical and Psychological Pain |
| Jason Maynes | The Hospital for Sick Children | Investigating the Pathophysiologic Mechanisms and Discovering New Therapies for Heart Failure |
| Sheila Riazi | University Health Network (TWH) | Investigating novel serum biomarkers of malignant hyperthermia |
| Jean Wong | University Health Network (TWH) | Development and Evaluation of an Opt-Out Virtual Smoking Cessation Program for Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery |
Education Award ($40,000 per annum)
| Name | Hospital Site | Project Title |
| Fahad Alam | Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre | Immersive Reality in medical education and care delivery: an innovative vision for healthcare |
Quality Assurance Award ($40,000 per annum)
| Name | Hospital Site | Project Title |
| Greg Hare | St. Michael's Hospital | Appropriate Treatment of Iron Deficiency Anemia to Avoid Perioperative Transfusion and Improve Safety and Quality of Life (ADAPT Safely) for Women with Anemia Undergoing Surgery |
Early Investigator Award ($40,000 per annum)
| Name | Hospital Site | Project Title |
| Justyna Bartoszko | University Health Network (TGH) | A clinical comparison of cold-stored and room temperature-stored platelet transfusions in bleeding adult cardiac surgery patients (PLTS-1 Study): Introducing Novel Platelet Products to Canada |
| James Khan | Mount Sinai Hospital | An integrated clinical research program aimed at improving the prediction, prevention, and treatment of chronic post surgical pain |
| Sabine Nabecker | Mount Sinai Hospital | The Patient AS EDUcator in anesthesia: comparing patients’ and providers’ experiences during anesthetic procedures (PAS-EDU) – a prospective patient-centred multi-disciplinary mixed-method cluster of studies. |
| Ashwin Sankar | St. Michael's Hospital | Comprehensive program addressing the impact of marginalization on access to and complications after major surgery |
| Michael Sklar | St. Michael's Hospital | Personalized mechanical ventilation strategies for acute respiratory failure: applying physiology to improve clinical outcomes |
| Benjamin Steinberg | The Hospital for Sick Children | NINJ1 inhibition suppresses ischemia-reperfusion injury: mechanistic and translational preclinical studies. |
| Bijan Teja | St. Michael's Hospital | Optimizing steroid adjunctive therapy in septic shock |
| Julian Wiegelmann | Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre | HoloSIM - Development and Validation of a Holographic Medical Crisis Training Simulator |
Commendation Award (Non-Funded)
| Name | Hospital Site | Project Title |
| Andrew Baker | St. Michael's Hospital | The role of SARS-CoV2 spike protein and viral proteases in neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation in vitro |
| Richard Brull | Women's College Hospital | Expanding the Boundaries of Anesthesia for Ambulatory Surgery |
| Tumul Chowdhury | University Health Network (TWH) | Establishment of the Perioperative Neurosciences and Outcome-Based Research Program- Domain-1: Neurooncology [Anesthesia Impacted Brain Cancer Outcome(s)] |
| Zeev Friedman | Mount Sinai Hospital | Gender and Hierarchy - Does Resident Gender Affect Their Ability to “Speak Up” during a Medical Emergency? |
| Mika Hamilton | University Health Network (TWH) | Impact of the Intensive Care Unit Extender Program on Critical Care Nurses’ Wellbeing in a Tertiary Critical Care Unit during the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| Mark McVey | The Hospital for Sick Children | Donor and Recipient Risk Profiling for Transfusion-related Acute Lung Injury |
| Ahtsham Niazi | Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre | Remote Immersive Virtual Reality (RIVR) Teaching: Use in Ultrasound Guided Regional Anesthesia Procedural Skills Acquisition. |
| Anahi Perlas | University Health Network (TWH) | Advancing patient safety through gastric point-of-care ultrasound |
| Naveed Siddiqui | Mount Sinai Hospital | Research program that focuses on Patient Centered Outcomes, Quality improvement initiatives leading to Opioid reduction and Enhanced quality of Recovery after Surgery and Anesthesia. |
| Sabri Soussi | University Health Network (TGH) | Epigenetic signatures in sepsis-survivors associated with one-year outcome: A model-based clustering analysis of prospective cohorts. |
| Martin Andreas Urner | University Health Network (TGH) | Complementing the PRACTICAL Platform with Observational Analyses Estimating the Treatment Effectiveness of Interventions: The COMPARE project |
Increase in Funding
The department distributed over $1 million in funds through this Merit Awards competition cycle. This amount marks an increase of $80,000 from the previous award cycle. We sincerely appreciate this additional support from the university.
The department continues to work diligently with the Office of Advancement and other stakeholders to identify additional funding sources to further support our faculty's outstanding research efforts.
The Review Process
The review and scoring processes for the Merit Award Competition were designed to be as fair, thorough, and unbiased as possible. Each application was reviewed by four independent peer reviewers, who were selected from a pool of knowledgeable, senior internal and external faculty. These experienced faculty reviewed and scored each application using a standardized scoring system. The faculty members who served on the College of Reviewers are experienced reviewers from various education, clinical, and research sectors.
To uphold transparency, it is important to note that Dr. Brian Cuthbertson, Vice Chair of Research and Innovation, was not involved in assigning reviewers or the assessment process.