Speakers
Suzan Schneeweiss MD, MEd, FRCPC, CPC(HC)
Associate Dean Continuing Professional Development
Professor, Department of Paediatrics
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Staff Physician, Division of Paediatric Emergency Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
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Dr. Schneeweiss is a Professor of Paediatrics and Associate Dean of Continuing Professional Development in the Temerity Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. As Associate Dean of CPD, she promotes the academic mission of the largest CPD office in Canada. She is a staff physician and Director of Education for the Division of Paediatric Emergency Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
As an academic program director and conference chair for a variety of CPD programs and conferences, she has acquired a broad range of experience in the complexities of program development and has been extensively involved in teaching. Her academic clinical interests include paediatric procedural sedation and pain management.
Alexandra Pennal MD, FRCPC
Staff Physician, Division of Paediatric Dermatology
The Hospital for Sick Children
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
The Hospital for Sick Children
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Dr. Alexandra Pennal is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and a Staff Physician in the Division of Dermatology, Department of Paediatrics at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. She has a broad range of clinical and academic interests with a particular interest in atopic dermatitis. She is a co-director of the Eczema Management and Advocacy Program at SickKids. She is passionate about medical education, healthcare quality improvement and safety. In addition to working at SickKids, Dr. Pennal runs a paediatric dermatology clinic at the Scarborough Health Network, Centenary Site.
Bridget Liriano BScKin, BScN, MN
Registered Nurse, Acute Care Transport Service
The Hospital for Sick Children
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Bridget Liriano is an experienced nursing leader with over 20 years of experience in pediatric care. She currently serves as Quality Lead for the Acute Care Transport Service (ACTS) team at SickKids and supports quality and safety initiatives through interprofessional collaboration and continuous improvement principles. Bridget has championed efforts to improve clinical triage systems in the context of critical care transport and has contributed to the Neonatal Rapid Response system at SickKids, developed to mobilize skilled resources to support management of neonatal patients in the Emergency Department. As a Transport Clinician RN, Bridget provides leadership and clinical expertise in the stabilization and transport of neonates and children. She supports clinical orientation and mentorship and is a passionate advocate for interprofessional education and team building. She actively contributes to continuing medical education (CME) customized for diverse audiences, which integrate clinical case discussion, simulation-based learning and clinical debriefing. These CME initiatives have addressed topics such as neonatal resuscitation, the golden hour of preterm delivery, advanced skills training and acute care stabilization and transport of the neonatal patient
Ryan Katchky B. Eng MD, FRCSC
Staff Physician, Orthopaedic Surgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Assistant Professor, Division of Paediatric Surgery & Orthopaedic Surgery
Western University
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Dr. Ryan Katchky is a Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at Scarborough Health Network. He obtained his Mechanical Engineering Degree and Medical Degree from Western University. He then completed his Orthopaedic Surgery residency training at the University of Toronto, followed by a fellowship in Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children. He practiced at London Health Sciences Centre and Western University prior to moving to Scarborough to build a Paediatric Orthopaedic Program at Scarborough Health Network.
Dr. Katchky’s clinical practice focuses on children’s orthopaedic surgery, with a broad paediatric orthopaedic practice tailored to serve the needs of the local community. He has an interest in Healthcare Quality Improvement, and has completed a Master’s Degree in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety through the University of Toronto. He serves as the Quality Lead and the Education Lead for the Department of Surgery at Scarborough Health Network. He also chairs the Canadian Paediatric Orthopaedic Society Standards Committee.
Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his amazing wife Alison, and his inspiring children Stella, Bridgette and Cameron.
Geneviève Ernst MD, FRCPC
Trauma Medical Director
BC Children’s Hospital
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
University of British Columbia
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Dr. Geneviève Ernst is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine physician and the Trauma Medical Director at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. After completing subspecialty fellowship training in Pediatric Trauma at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, she dedicated her career to advancing care for critically injured children.
Dr. Ernst leads a multidisciplinary trauma team training program at BC Children’s Hospital and delivers trauma outreach education to rural and regional providers across British Columbia. She is also engaged in mass casualty preparedness, contributing to emergency planning and simulation exercises to enhance system readiness. Through her provincial work, Dr. Ernst partners with Trauma Services BC and Child Health BC to develop clinical practice guidelines and system-wide performance improvement initiatives that strengthen pediatric trauma care delivery across the province. Nationally, she represents British Columbia on the Pediatric Committee of the Trauma Association of Canada and, internationally, has contributed to pediatric capacity building in global health settings with Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Dr. Ernst is passionate about optimizing pediatric trauma care delivery through both clinical education and system-wide performance improvement.
Joshua Stanley MD, MSc, FRCPC, MscCH HPTE
Pediatric Endocrinologist, Department of Endocrinology
The Hospital for Sick Children
Assistant Professor, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
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Dr. Joshua Stanley is a Pediatric Endocrinologist at the Hospital for Sick Children and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He completed his pediatric endocrinology fellowship at SickKids and a research fellowship through the Canadian Pediatric Endocrine Group. He also holds a Master of Science in Community Health – Health Practitioner Teacher Education from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
Dr. Stanley currently serves as the interim Fellowship Program Director for Pediatric Endocrinology at The Hospital for Sick Children. His additional academic interests include patient education and fertility preservation in pediatric populations, where he leads the Education Subcommittee of the SickKids Fertility Preservation Program.
Jillian Baker MD,
Staff Hematologist
St. Micheals Hospital
Assistant Professor, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
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Dr. Baker is an Associate Professor and Clinician Teacher in the Department of Pediatrics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine in Toronto, Canada.
She is a Staff Hematologist and Pediatrician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto (Department of Pediatrics), and an Associate Staff Hematologist (Division of Hematology-Oncology) at Sickkids.
Dr. Baker’s clinical practices include general pediatric hematology, young adult hematology, perinatal care of babies born to women with bleeding disorders, and newborn medicine (as an on call pediatrician in the St. Mike’s NICU). Her main clinical and academic area of interest is neonatal hematology, with a special interest in perinatal immune disorders such as fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (FNAIT) and Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn, particuarly rhesus hemolytic disease (Rh Disease)
Jason fischer MD, M.Sc., FACEP
Division Head, Paediatric Emergency Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
Associate Professor, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
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Dr. Fischer completed his Emergency Medicine training at Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland, California. His subspecialty training included a Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship at Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland and an Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at Alameda County Medical Center.
Dr. Fischer has lectured and instructed physicians nationally and internationally on the evolving use of ultrasound technology in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. He founded the Emergency Point-of-Care Ultrasound Program at SickKids in 2011, and the international collaborative P2Network in 2014.
He now leads the Division of Emergency Medicine at SickKids which delivers care to 70000 ill and injured children annually and supports world-class medical education, clinical research, and quality practice, in addition to emerging areas of clinical impact such as medical design, informatics, machine learning and social emergency medicine. His area of interest is futures and strategic thinking.
Lianne McLean Mb Bch bao, mhi,frcpc
Staff Physician, Paediatric Emergency Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
Associate Professor, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
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Dr. Lianne McLean is an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and emergency staff physician at The Hospital for Sick Children. She’s the director of the IDEAS program in the division of emergency medicine, focused on the impact of technology, AI, environment, informatics, and design in the emergency department. She has completed advanced training in POCUS as well as a Master’s of Health informatics and has an academic focus in technology integration.
Natasha Saunders MD, M.Sc., FRCPC
Staff Physician, Division of Paediatric Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics
University of Toronto
Dr. Natasha Saunders is a Clinician-Investigator at the Hospital for Sick Children, a Senior Associate Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Dr. Saunders is health services researcher and epidemiologist whose research aims to create an evidence base to inform policy development for children and youth using large health administrative datasets. Dr. Saunders’ primary areas of clinical practice are general pediatric hospitalist medicine and outpatient consultant general pediatrics. She consults on a wide spectrum of acute and chronic childhood conditions requiring tertiary level assessment or management and has a clinical focus on children and youth with complex, often diagnostically challenging, cooccurring physical and mental health conditions. She is the Co-Chair of the Sickkids Mental Health Strategy Care Implementation Pillar and the Physician-Lead for the Sickkids Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders Integrated Care Pathway.
Eduardo Gus MD
Staff Physician, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Eduardo Gus is a staff surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He completed his medical degree at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, and undertook General Surgery and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery specialty training in Brazil. Dr. Gus pursued fellowship training in adult and pediatric burns, pediatric plastic surgery, and breast reconstruction at the University of Toronto, which were followed by an appointment at the Victorian Adult Burns Service, in Melbourne, Australia. He returned to the Division of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery in 2021, to join the Burn Program at the Hospital for Sick Children.
Dr. Gus’ clinical practice interest encompasses acute and reconstructive burn surgery, complex wounds, scar management, laser therapy, skin lesions, and breast conditions in the pediatric population. His research interest centres on understanding burn epidemiology and delivery of burn care. Dr. Gus has contributed to multiple book chapters and peer-reviewed publications, is an active member of numerous burn associations, and is a peer-reviewer for scientific journals, in the field of pediatric burns”.
Gabrielle Freire MDCM MHSc FRCPC
Staff Physician, Paediatric Emergency Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Gabrielle Freire is a pediatric emergency physician at The Hospital for Sick Children and an Associate-Scientist Track Investigator at the Peter Gilgan Center for Research and Learning. She holds an assistant-professor position within the Department of Pediatrics and Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Freire completed her medical degree at McGill University, a Masters in Translational Research at the University of Toronto, and a Graduate Diploma in Clinical Epidemiology from McMaster University. Her CIHR-funded research program is focused on improving Canadian pediatric injury care using principles of implementation science and knowledge translation.
Katie Gardner MD, FRCPC
Staff Physician, Paediatric Emergency Medicine
IWK Health
Following medical school at Dalhousie University and Pediatrics residency at the University of Calgary, Dr. Katie Gardner joined the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at IWK Health in Halifax, NS, Canada first as a subspecialty resident in 2014 and subsequently as a staff physician in 2016. Dr. Gardner completed the Improvement Fellowship through the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the University of Toronto in 2023 where she developed an interest in applying QI methods to environmental sustainability in the emergency department, focusing on prescribing practices in pediatric asthma. Her other QI interests include patient flow in the emergency department and resource stewardship.
Kescha Kazmi MD, MPH, FRCPC, DTM&H
Staff Physician, Infectious Diseases
The Hospital for Sick Children
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Kescha Kazmi is a Pediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist at the Hospital for Sick Children and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. Dr. Kazmi obtained her medical degree at McMaster University in 2014, pediatrics residency training at Memorial University in 2017, infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Toronto in 2019, Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru in 2019, and Master of Public Health degree at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2021. Dr. Kazmi’s clinical and research interests include pediatric HIV and children’s travel medicine.
miriam weinstein B.Sc., B.Sc.N., MD, FRCPC, FRCPC (Dermatology)
Staff Physician, Dermatology
The Hospital for Sick Children
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Weinstein received her BSc from the University of British Columbia, a BScN in nursing from the University of Toronto and her MD from Queen’s University. She trained in Paediatrics and Dermatology at the University of Toronto receiving her FRCPC in both specialties. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and a staff physician at Sick Kids Hospital. Dr. Weinstein’s enjoys the breadth of general paediatric dermatology but has particular clinical interests in atopic dermatitis, laser therapy, sun protection and skin cancer prevention. She has developed and runs the dermatology laser program at Sick Kids and the co-developed the eczema educational program for patients.
She is involved in educational administration and current commitments include chairing the Continuing Professional Development Awards Committee for the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. She is a Section Editor for Pediatric Dermatology Journal. She chairs the Visiting Professorship Subcommittee of the Section of Dermatology for the AAP. She is on the editorial board of Pediatrics in Review. She has a passion for teaching and lectures extensively from the local to international level.
Maya Harel-Sterling MDCM, FRCPC
Staff Physician, Paediatric Emergency Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Maya Harel-Sterling is a Paediatric Emergency Medicine physician and Director of the Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Program at the Hospital for Sick Children. She graduated from McGill University Medical school, completed her Paediatrics residency, Paediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship, and POCUS fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children. She completed a Master’s Program in Health Practitioner Teacher Education through the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She leads POCUS training initiatives for medical students, PEM residents and fellows, and is involved in medical education research, especially as it relates to competency setting and education in point-of-care ultrasound
Suzanne Beno MD, FRCPC, DABP
Medical Co-Director, Trauma Program, Paediatric Emergency Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Suzanne Beno is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Specialist and Medical Co-Director for Trauma at The Hospital for Sick Children. She is the Chair of the Injury Prevention Committee for the Canadian Paediatric Society and liaison to the Council on Injury Violence Poison Prevention at the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Beno’s professional focus is the continuing advancement and improvement of both acute paediatric trauma care and injury prevention/control.
Natasha collia MD
Board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
Lead Trauma Educator
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Collia is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Doctor and Simulation Educator at the Hospital for Sick Children. When Dr. Collia isn’t working shifts in the ER, she can be found improving Pediatric Trauma management training, Pediatric procedural skills workshops and improving the educational experience of trainees rotating through the ER. Dr. Collia was recently awarded the Sick Kid’s President’s Award for her Parental outreach, advocacy and educational work that has expanded from the institutional level to social media, as a trusted go-to Public Figure for information on common pediatric illnesses.
Julien Aguet MD
Staff Physician, Emergency Paediatric Radiology
The Hospital for Sick Children
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Julien Aguet is a pediatric radiologist working in the new Emergency Radiology Division at SickKids, the first of its kind in Canada, aiming to improve the patient and family experience and support the health and well-being of SickKids staff.
Yousef Etoom MD
Staff Physician, Paediatric Emergency Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
Staff Physician, Department of Paediatrics
Unity Health Center
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Etoom has a unique profile based on his qualifications, spending half of his time as a Paediatric Emergency Medicine academic clinician at SickKids and the other half as a community-based paediatrician and paediatric cardiologist working at two large community hospitals. Dr. Etoom has made significant contributions to post-graduate and undergraduate trainees, with evidence by his strong teaching skills and the impact of the innovative programs he has developed. In addition, he has excelled in his creative professional activities by developing new models of care and his publications, presentations, and grants.
Rachel Poley MD
Staff Physician, Emergency Medicine
St. Micheal’s Hospital
Rachel Poley graduated from the FRCP Emergency Medicine program at Queen’s University in 2012. She completed a Resuscitation and Simulation fellowship during residency. For the past 12 years she has been practicing as an Emergency Physician and Trauma Team Leader at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. She is heavily involved in residency education and has been the ED Code Orange Physician Lead at St. Michael’s Hospital since 2018.
Henry annan MD, MPP, FRCPC
PGY 5 Paediatric Emergency Medicine,
University of Toronto
Henry Annan is a PGY5 resident in paediatric emergency medicine and co-lead fellow at the University of Toronto. He completed his undergraduate medical degree and core paediatric residency training at Dalhousie University in Halifax. His interests include public policy, global health and how medical education may be used to advance these topics
Sevag Tachejian MD, MPP, FRCPC
Paediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow
Department of Paediatrics
The Hospital for Sick Children
Dr. Tachejian is currently a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children. After completing his medical school at the University of Montreal, Dr. Tachejian completed his pediatrics training at the CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal, prior to joining the PEM division in Toronto. His main interest is academic teaching, focused on the integration of immerging technologies in medical curriculums.