Preliminary Program

Iain Murray, MD CM, FRCP(C)
President, Ontario Association of Gastroenterology
Section Chair, OMA, Section on Gastroenterology
Medical Director, Intestinal Health Institute

 

Dr. Iain Murray's family immigrated from far oversees in 1972. He attended school and CEGEP on the island of Montreal. His Bachelor of Science was obtained at the University of Toronto and a Master's degree at the Anatomy Department of McGill University. He graduated from McGill Medical School in 1990. Dr. Murray did his post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University of Western Ontario. He first set up practice at Markham-Stouffville hospital in 1995. In 2003 he became a co-founder of the Intestinal Health Institute where is continues his gastroenterology practice. Dr. Murray is the current President of the Ontario Association of Gastroenterology (OAG) and Chair of the OMA Section on Gastroenterology. Dr. Murray is married with three children.

Hemant Shah, MD, MScCH, HPTE, FRCP(C)
Education Director, Francis Family Liver Clinic, Toronto Western Hospital
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Secretary, Ontario Association of Gastroenterology

 

Dr. Hemant Shah is an Assistant Professor, Staff Hepatologist and Clinic Director at the Francis Family Liver Clinic, Toronto Western Hospital, University of Toronto. His clinical focus is viral liver disease and he maintains a busy teaching practice. In addition to clinical care, Dr. Shah is actively engaged in projects to develop innovative models of care for viral hepatitis, progress interprofessional collaboration and improve knowledge levels amongst primary care and specialty providers. He also serves as Program Director of the Hepatology Fellowship which trains three to five clinical and research fellows annually. Dr. Shah has graduate training in Health Practitioner Education. 

Paul Marotta, MD, FRCP(C)
Associate Professor
University of Western Ontario
Transplant Hepatology and Gastroenterology
Medical Director Liver Transplantation, Multiorgan Transplant Unit
London Health Sciences Centre

 

Dr. Paul Marotta is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Marotta is the Medical Director of Liver Transplantation at the London Health Sciences Centre and is the Program Director of the Advanced Hepatology/Liver Transplantation Fellowship Program. Dr. Marotta is currently president of the Canadian Liver Transplant Network and on the Governing Board of the Canadian Association for the Study of Liver Disease. Dr. Marotta has over 60 peer reviewed publications and is published in many varied fields of medicine including health economic journals, pathology journals, pediatric journals, radiology journals in addition to the numerous publications in gastrointestinal, hepatology and transplant related journals.

Dr. Marotta is involved in many clinical research protocols involving hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B, HCC, cost effective analysis, autoimmune liver diseases and immunosuppression in liver transplant population.

Margherita Cadeddu, MD, FRCS(C )
Laparoscopic and General Surgery
Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University

 

Margherita Cadeddu is an Associate Professor at McMaster University and is on staff at St. Joseph's Healthcare. Her area of interest is minimally invasive surgery, and she is the Associate Director of CMAS (Centre of Minimal Access Surgery) at St. Joseph's Healthcare.

Margherita completed her medical school and general surgery residency at the University of Western Ontario, and fellowship in Minimally Invasive Surgery at the University of Toronto. Her research interests includes surgical outcomes, which has been in conjunction with SOURCE, a group whose focus is evidence-based surgery and outcomes research, as well as advanced endoscopic techniques outcomes

Michael Gould, MD, FRCP(C)
William Osler Health Centre
Medical Director & President, Vaughn Endoscopy Clinic
Vice President, Toronto Digestive Disease Associates Research Group
Director, Canadian Digestive Health Foundation

 

Dr. Michael Gould is currently the Medical Director and President of the Vaughan Endoscopy Clinic, Vice President of The Toronto Digestive Disease Associates Research Group, and a Board member of the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation. He graduated from Medicine at University of Toronto in 1985 and completed his GI fellowship in 1991. He has a busy clinical practice, including over 1400 colonoscopies per year. Dr. Gould is a current member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) committee setting the standards for out-patient facilities. He has participated in quality and standards initiatives with the CPSO, Cancer Care Ontario, Canadian Association of Gastroenterology and Ontario Association of Gastroenterology, since 1999. He speaks frequently on the topic of Quality Endoscopy. He is a former Chief of Medicine at the William Osler Health Centre, a Past President of the Ontario Association of Gastroenterology (OAG), and a Past Co-Chair of the Specialist Coalition of Ontario (SCO).

Dr. Nikila C. Ravindran, MD, MSc (QIPS), FRCP(C)
Clinical Associate, Division of Gastroenterology
Women's College Hospital

 

Dr. Nikila C. Ravindran completed her MD, Internal Medicine residency and Gastroenterology training at the University of Toronto, finishing her GI residency in 2010. In her final year of training, she was the recipient of the prestigious Lou Cole Award for Excellence in GI Teaching. She then took on a Clinical Scholar (Junior Staff) position in General Gastroenterology at the University of Calgary (2010-2012). Her clinical practice included more than 2000 patients and she performed more than 1800 procedures. She returned to Toronto and joined the GI Division at St. Michael's Hospital in the very busy and demanding role of GI Hospitalist (2013-2015). While working full time as GI Hospitalist, she completed a Master's degree in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the University of Toronto. She is currently a Clinical Associate in the GI Division at Women's College Hospital and an Adjunct Clinical Lecturer at the University of Toronto.

Presentation Overview:
This presentation will cover the top 4 interesting and important clinical abstracts presented at DDW 2016 that are likely to change your practice.

Naoki Chiba, MD, MSc, FRCP(C), AGAF, CAGF
Clinical Professor
McMaster University

 

Dr. Chiba is a Guelph-based community gastroenterologist with interest in ERCP and office endoscopy. He also has an academic appointment as Clinical Professor at McMaster. He received his MD (Cum Laude) in1986 from UWO. He completed gastroenterology and research training fellowships at McMaster University in 1992 and in 2004, he completed his Masters in Health Research Methodology at McMaster. Despite being in community practice, he has authored 95 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. He has participated in over 70 multicentre clinical trials. Primary research interests focus on acid related disorders and evidence based medicine. Interests include singing in the Guelph Chamber Choir, golf and his beloved bearded collies, Murphy and Molly.

Presentation Overview:
To highlight four of the best acid-related disorder papers at DDW 2016.

Nauzer Forbes, MD, FRCP(C)
Fellow, Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy
University of Calgary

 

Dr. Nauzer Forbes is a fellow in advanced therapeutic endoscopy at the University of Calgary. He is also completing a Master's of Science (MSc) degree in Health Services Research at the University of Calgary. He completed his undergraduate and medical studies at Queen's University and the University of Western Ontario, respectively. He then went on to complete residencies in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at McMaster University, serving as Chief Medical Resident and Chief Gastroenterology Resident. His research interests include therapeutic endoscopy, cholangioscopy, and endoscopy training.

Presentation Overview:
This presentation will provide a summary of important and clinically relevant abstracts from the DDW conference that relate to the practice of therapeutic endoscopy.

Avantika (Nicky) Marwaha, BScOT, MD, FRCP(C)
Medical Director and Gastroenterologist
GI Health Centre

 

Dr. Avantika Marwaha grew up in Montreal during her formative years and learned to speak French at a very early age. She continued her high school and University studies in French. She is therefore fluently bilingual in both of Canada’s national languages. She is also fluent in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.

Dr. Marwaha completed a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Occupational Therapy at the University of Ottawa in 2000. She then enrolled in medical school at the University of Ottawa and graduated in 2004.

Dr. Marwaha completed her internal medicine and gastroenterology training at McMaster University. She graduated from the Gastroenterology program in 2010. During her training, she worked on research related to the prevalence and risk factors for dyspepsia with Dr. Paul Moayyedi.

Dr. Marwaha is passionate about working in underserviced areas and with underprivileged communities. She has provided internal medicine and gastroenterology care to many underserviced areas within Canada, including Thunder Bay, Ontario; Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. She also did an educational elective at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a government hospital in New Delhi, India, during her gastroenterology training. These experiences have instilled in her the importance of providing holistic and culturally-sensitive care to patients.

Neeraj Narula, MD, FRCP(C)
Assistant Professor, McMaster University

 

Dr. Neeraj Narula is an assistant professor at McMaster University and staff gastroenterologist in Hamilton Health Sciences.  He completed the Present-Levison advanced IBD fellowship in Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York, NY, in 2015.  He trained to be a Chartered Accountant at the University of Waterloo and has worked at Ernst & Young and KPMG.  He subsequently attended medical school at the University of Alberta.  He completed internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship training at McMaster University.  His research interests are predominantly in clinical epidemiology, nutrition, and pharmaceutical trials in IBD. 

Presentation Overview:
This presentation will review interesting abstracts in the field of ulcerative colitis that were presented at DDW and ECCO 2016.

Jordan Green, MD, BSc.
PGY-4 Gastroenterology, Queen's University

 

Dr. Jordan Green is a PGY-4 in Gastroenterology at Queen's University. Originally from St. John's, Newfoundland, she completed her Bachelor of Science at Dalhousie University in 2007. She continued her studies in medicine at Dalhousie and graduated in 2012. She then went on to study Internal Medicine at Queen's University, acting as Chief Medical Resident in her final year.

Dr. Green's research interests include methods for improving colon cleansing quality and patient comfort in colonoscopy.

Michael Gould, MD, FRCP(C)
William Osler Health Centre
Medical Director & President, Vaughn Endoscopy Clinic
Vice President, Toronto Digestive Disease Associates Research Group
Director, Canadian Digestive Health Foundation

 

Dr. Michael Gould is currently the Medical Director and President of the Vaughan Endoscopy Clinic, Vice President of The Toronto Digestive Disease Associates Research Group, and a Board member of the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation. He graduated from Medicine at University of Toronto in 1985 and completed his GI fellowship in 1991. He has a busy clinical practice, including over 1400 colonoscopies per year. Dr. Gould is a current member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) committee setting the standards for out-patient facilities. He has participated in quality and standards initiatives with the CPSO, Cancer Care Ontario, Canadian Association of Gastroenterology and Ontario Association of Gastroenterology, since 1999. He speaks frequently on the topic of Quality Endoscopy. He is a former Chief of Medicine at the William Osler Health Centre, a Past President of the Ontario Association of Gastroenterology (OAG), and a Past Co-Chair of the Specialist Coalition of Ontario (SCO).

Alvin Newman, MD, FRCP(C), FACP
Mount Sinai Hospital
Division of Gastroenterology

 

Dr. Alvin Newman has been a gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai Hospital since 1973. He was born and was educated in the U.S. and also worked in London, England before moving to Canada. Over the course of 41 years he has spent a great amount of time dealing with patients with IBS. In 2011 his book "The Essential IBS Book" was published and was favorably reviewed by his siblings and children. He has talked on "IBS at DDW" on a number of occasions.

David Morgan, MD, MSc., FRCP(C)
Head, Service of Gastroenterology
St. Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton
Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology
McMaster University

 

Dr. David Morgan completed his undergraduate training in Human Genetics at McGill University. He did graduate studies including a Masters in Population Genetics. His undergraduate medical studies were completed at McMaster University and Post Graduate studies including Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, were also completed at McMaster. Dr. Morgan took an additional fellowship year with special attention paid to advanced endoscopic techniques including YAG laser.

Dr. Morgan has published on topics such as GI Bleeding, Quality of Life in Cancer Care, Use of Proton Pump Inhibitors and The Prevention of Bleeding from GI Vascular Lesions. Dr. Morgan has participated on several CAG Consensus Panels dealing with such topics as CRC Screening. Dr. Morgan is a member of several international societies, is a Past President of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology and is the current Vice President of the Ontario Association of Gastroenterology. Dr. Morgan is an Associate Editor for the ACP Journal Club and Evidence Based Medicine and has acted as a reviewer for many journals.

Dr. Morgan is on the Faculty at McMaster University and is involved in teaching at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. He serves on many university and hospital committees. Dr. Morgan is Head of the Service of Gastroenterology and Deputy Chief of Medicine at St. Joseph's Hospital, Hamilton.