Faculty Highlights

New IMS Faculty

Dr. Frank Rudzicz

(PhD) is a Scientist at Unity Health Toronto, Director of AI at Surgical Safety Technologies, Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, faculty at the Vector Institute, and CIFAR Chair in AI. His work in machine learning, natural language processing, and surgical safety has appeared in Scientific American, Wired, the New York Times, and Nature.

Dr. Sukhvinder

Kalsi-Ryan (Reg. PT, BScPT, MSc., PhD) the lead of the KITE Clinics is a clinician scientist who studies quantification of neurological disease and aims to discover new techniques for neuro-restoration. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and trained 8 masters and PhD students. Dr. Kalsi-Ryan is an extramurally funded midcareer scientist with a passion to contribute to the transformation of rehabilitation. resistant mental illnesses.

Dr. Linda Hiraki

(MD, FRCPC, SM, ScD) is a Clinician-Scientist in the Division of Rheumatology and Scientist in Genetics & Genome Biology at the Hospital for Sick Children. Hiraki holds a Canada Research Chair in Genetics of Rare Systemic Inflammatory Diseases. She coordinates multicentre studies of lupus and rare diseases.

Joshua D. Rosenblat

(MD, MSc, FRCPC) is a psychiatrist and clinician-scientist at Toronto Western Hospital. He conducts multi-site clinical trials evaluating novel, rapid-acting interventions for depression and bipolar disorder (e.g., ketamine, psilocybin). He has published over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and has received numerous local, provincial and federal grants for his research.

Dr. Julia Orkin is the Medical Director of the Complex Care program at SickKids and an Associate Professor, University of Toronto. She is the Medical Officer for Integrated Community Partnerships focused on system integration. Her research focuses on innovations in care delivery for children with medical complexity and their families.

Dr. Sindhu R

Johnson (MD PhD) is a Rheumatologist, Clinical Epidemiologist and Director of the Toronto Scleroderma Program. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Clinician-Scientist at the Toronto Western and Mount Sinai Hospitals. Her program of research includes observational cohort studies and randomized trials of novel therapeutics for the treatment of the Scleroderma spectrum of disorders.

Dr. Mrinalini Balki

(MBBS, MD) is a staff anesthesiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital and is a professor in the Dept of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and Physiology at the University of Toronto. She is also a Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and is a director of Fellowship program in Clinical and Basic Science in Obstetric Anesthesia. She has published over 100 peerreviewed articles and has mentored over 60 postgraduate students and fellows in research projects. Prof. Balki has received numerous research grants, awards and lectureships throughout her career.

Dr. Sunita Singh

(MD, MSc, FRCPC) is a transplant nephrologist and clinician-investigator in the Division of Nephrology at the Toronto General Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is also the medical director of the living kidney donation program at the Ajmera Transplant Centre. Dr. Singh’s research interests are focused on cardiorenal protection in kidney transplant recipients, and the evaluation and follow-up of living kidney donors. autism diagnoses extend beyond childrens’ three years of age? Future research might aim to answer this question by performing a longitudinal study.

Dr. Eyal Cohen

(MD, MSc, FRCPC) co-founded the Complex Care program at the Hospital for Sick Children where he is Program Head of Child Health Evaluative Sciences and Co-Director of the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto. Prof. Cohen has published over 165 peer-reviewed manuscripts and enjoys mentoring research trainees in graduate studies and research fellowships.

Dr. Jamie Feusner, MD (Professor of Psychiatry, UofT; Clinician Scientist, CAMH; Director, Brain, Body, and Perception Research Program) has published over 120 peerreviewed articles and book chapters and has supervised multiple MD/PhD, PhD, and Master’s students. Prof. Feusner conducted the first, pioneering functional brain imaging studies in body dysmorphic disorder.

Dr. Atul Verma

is a staff cardiac electrophysiologist and Director of Arrhythmia Services at Southlake Regional Health Care Centre in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. He is an Associate Professor with the University of Toronto and Adjunct Professor with McGill University. Specific interests include ablation of atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia especially new techniques and technologies. Dr. Verma has served as Chair or writing member of a number of national and international guideline committees including the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Atrial Fibrillation Guidelines Committee and the HRS Consensus Statement on Catheter Ablation of AF. He has also led many clinical trials in cardiac ablation. Dr. Verma completed his medical school and cardiology residency at the University of Toronto and then specialized in cardiac electrophysiology at the Cleveland Clinic. He has published over 250 peerreviewed articles in many journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Lancet, Circulation, JACC, European Heart Journal, and others. Jeff Kwong (MD, MSc, CCFP, FRCPC) is an epidemiologist, a specialist in public health and preventive medicine, and a family physician. Based at ICES and Public Health Ontario, his research interests include infectious diseases and vaccine epidemiologic research using large linkable databases.

Dr. Jenny Rabin

is an academic neuropsychologist and scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute. Her research focuses on two main areas: 1) improving outcome measures in neuromodulation trials for difficult-to-treat neurological and psychiatric disorders and 2) examining risk and protective factors for dementia.

Dr. Amer M.

Burhan (MBChB, MSc. FRCPC in General and Geriatric Psychiatry, Certified in Behavioral Neurology/ Neuropsychiatry) is a Geriatric Psychiatrist, Physician-in-Chief and Endowed Chair for Applied Mental Health Research at the Ontario Shores Centre of Mental Health Sciences in the Whitby Ontario, and Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Also, he is Adjunct Research Professor in Psychiatry and associate member in the Department of Neurosciences at Western University, associate scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute in London Ontario. He leads several pragmatic clinical trials in the area of neuropsychiatry of dementia and in therapeutic brain stimulation for resistant mental illness across the life-span in addition to being active in several initiatives to develop guidelines to standardize definitions, assessment and management of treatment resistant mental illnesses.

Dr. Behdin

Nowrouzi-Kia (OT Reg. (Ont.), FRSA) is an assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto and is an affiliate scientist at the Krembil Research Institute at the University Health Network. Dr. Nowrouzi-Kia’s holds the inaugural Emily Geldsaler Grant Early Career Professor in Workplace Mental Health.

Dr. Fayez A.

Quereshy (MD, MBA, FRCSC, FACS) is a Surgical Oncologist and Minimally Invasive Surgeon at the University Health Network and is an active member of the Princess Margaret Cancer Program. His specialty interest focuses on gastrointestinal malignancies and colorectal cancer. Dr. Quereshy completed his residency training in General Surgery, and his fellowship in Surgical Oncology, at the University of Toronto. He received his Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) at the Rotman School of Management. He subsequently pursued advanced Robotic Colorectal training at the Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong. His academic interests center on operations management and systems efficiency, with the aim of improving cost effectiveness and quality of care. Dr. Quereshy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto and is a Clinical Vice-President at the University Health Network (UHN).