Appointments & Awards: January 2025

Appointments

Mark Boulos appointed Senior Scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Dafna Galdman appointed to the Order of Canada

Carolina Barnett-Tapia appointed a member of the editorial board of Neurology 

Raphael Schneider appointed clinician scientist in the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto (previously clinician investigator) 

Awards

Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism

Adrian Lau, MD Program Teaching Award for Excellence 2023-24, University of Toronto

Shoba Sujana Kumar, Paul Walfish Continuing Professional Development Education Award, University of Toronto

• This award recognizes excellence in teaching, educational leadership, program development and/or educational administration, and/or scholarship related to continuing professional development in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Toronto.

Division of General Internal Medicine

Savannah Cardew, MD Program Teaching Award for Excellence 2023-24, University of Toronto

Leora Branfield Day, MD Program Teaching Award for Excellence 2023-24, University of Toronto

Division of Nephrology

Tushar Malavade, MD Program Teaching Award of Excellence for 2023-2024, University of Toronto

Joanne Bargman, Dr. Arti Gupta Distinguished Service Award, American Nephrologists of Indian Origin (ANIO)

Darren Yuen, awarded a CIHR grant to support the development of renal fibrosis imaging with ultrasound and a grant from Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP - formerly known as MaRS Innovation) to support the development of AI-based algorithms for renal fibrosis imaging with ultrasound

Division of Neurology

Anthony Lang, King Charles III Coronation Medal, Governor General's Office (through a nomination by Parkinson Canada)

Laura Chu, MD Program Teaching Award of Excellence for the 2023-2024 academic year, University of Toronto

Hamid Sadeghian, MD Program Teaching Award of Excellence for the 2023-2024 academic year, University of Toronto

Raphael Schneider, Elizabeth S. Barford Early Career Professorship in Multiple Sclerosis, University of Toronto

Andrea Kuczynski, 2024 Postgraduate Research Award, Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto for the research project titled "Association Between Immigration Status and the Intensity of Acute Stroke Care in Ontario, Canada" (Physicians’ Services Incorporated Foundation)

Anuj Rastogi, research project titled "Short-term and long-term neurological outcomes of patients visiting the emergency department for double vision," Physicians’ Services Incorporated Foundation

Arjun Balachandar, 2024 Postgraduate Research Award, Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Seyed-Mohammad Fereshtehnejad, 2024 Postgraduate Research Award, Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund, Temerty Faculty of Medicine , University of Toronto

Victoria Reedman, 2025 CAME Rising Star Certificate of Excellence Award, Canadian Association of Medical Education (CAME)

Mark Boulos, awarded $69,997 for the project titled "Does CPAP Improve Cognition in Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease?", 2024 TDRA Seed Fund

Matthew Burke, 2024 CIHR Planning and Dissemination Grant for the project titled "Development of a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) Screen for Rehabilitation Trauma Patients"

• This project involves the development of a national working group aimed at generating best practice guidelines for identifying patients with potential missed mTBI/concussion in polytrauma settings (e.g. high velocity mechanisms where distracting MSK or life-threatening injuries take precedent). The tricky part is balancing the possibility of missing mTBI/concussion with the fact that "post-concussive" neuropsychiatric symptoms are non-specific and can occur for many other reasons post-injury (e.g., pain, insomnia, PTSD, etc.), so one needs to be careful not to over-diagnose. There is no validated screening/diagnostic tool for this clinical context and the project team hopes this line of work will help fill this gap. 

Division of Respirology

Shane Shapera, MD Program Teaching Award for Excellence 2024, University of Toronto and Surgical Foundations Teaching Award 2024, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto

Shiphra Ginsburg, 2025 Ian Hart Award for Distinguished Contribution to Medical Education, Canadian Association for Medical Education

Division of Rheumatology

Dana Jerome, 2025 Distinguished Teacher-Educator Award, Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA)

Joan Wither, 2025 Distinguished Investigator Award, Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA)

Jorge Sanchez-Guerrero, CRA Master Award, Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA)

• The CRA Master Award, first launched in 2020, is a lifetime achievement award bestowed upon members aged 65 and older who have made outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology through service to patients, administrative service, teaching and education and/or rheumatology research.