Skip Navigation LinksSpeakers
Dr. Frank Baillie
Dr. William G. Bensen
Dr. Jon Davine
Dr. Donna Fedorkow
Dr. Paul Keith
Dr. Tim O'Shea
Dr. Demetrios J. Sahlas
Dr. Ally Prebtani
Dr. Suneel Upadhye
Dr. Nicholas Valettas
Dr. Ronald B. Vender
Dr. Allyn Walsh
Dr. Trisha Woo
Dr. Kevin Zbuk

Speakers 2012

Dr. Frank Baillie


To be updated

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Dr. William G. Bensen


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Dr. Jon Davine

Jon Davine, MD, CCFP, FRCP(C) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University, with a cross appointment in the Department of Family Medicine.  His outpatient psychiatry practice focuses on liaising with primary care physicians in the “shared care” model.  For a number of years, he has taught courses in behavioural sciences to family medicine residents and to family doctors in the community.  He has lectured nationally and internationally on this topic.  He is a past Chair and remains a member of the Council of Psychiatric Continuing Education (COPCE), which is affiliated with the Canadian Psychiatric Association.  He has received several educational awards including:

• Undergraduate Teaching Award, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, 2009.
• Outstanding Preceptor Award, Psychiatry.  Faculty of Health Sciences, Undergraduate MD Program, McMaster University, 2009.
• Association of Academic Psychiatry, Regional Teacher of the Year Award, 2006.
• McMaster Psychiatric Residents’ Association – Jock Cleghorn Excellence in Clinical Teaching Award, 1999.
• PAIRO – Clinical Teacher’s Travel Award, 1988.

Dr. Davine will be sponsoring the Canadian Psychiatric Association Foundation.

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Dr. Donna Fedorkow

Dr. Donna Federkow

Dr. Donna Fedorkow is Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at McMaster University and serves as the Department’s Continuing Medical Education Director, Undergraduate Program Director and Urogynecology Program Director. She is a former president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

Dr Fedorkow graduated with a Medical Degree from the University of Calgary and obtained her FRCSC (Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada) in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. After completing her sub-specialty training in Urogynaecology, Dr. Fedorkow obtained a Masters of Science Degree in Epidemiology. Dr. Fedorkow’s clinical and research interests include urogynaecology, conservative management of pelvic floor dysfunction, menopause and geriatric gynaecology.

Dr Fedorkow will be sponsoring the Canadian Foundation for Women’s Health (CFWH) – a national not-for-profit fundraising foundation for women’s sexual and reproductive health that funds women’s health research and fosters support for international women’s health programs. Some of the research supported by the CFWH includes in utero fetal health, safer pregnancies, infertility and menopause.  For more information on the CFWH please visithttp://cfwh.org or check out their facebook page.

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Dr. Paul Keith

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Dr. Tim O'Shea

O'shea

Assistant Professor, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine

Assistant Professor, Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine

Dr. Tim O'Shea received his BSc in biomedical sciences from the University of Guelph before completing his medical degree at McMaster University and a Masters of Public Health at Harvard University. He trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases and medical microbiology at McMaster, and is Royal College certified in each of these disciplines.

He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases.

He has served as the International Electives coordinator for the Michael Degroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, and as an internal medicine consultant for the Shelter Health Network in Hamilton.

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Dr. Demetrios J. Sahlas

MG DeGroote Professor in Stroke Management, Department of Medicine,
Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University

Associate Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, 
McMaster University

Central South Regional Stroke Centre, Hamilton General Hospital, 
Hamilton Health Sciences

Dr. Sahlas obtained his degree in Medicine in 1996 from McMaster University and completed his postgraduate training in Neurology at McGill University in 2001, followed by a Specialty Clinics fellowship in Behavioural Neurology and Stroke at the University of Toronto under the mentorship of Dr. Sandra Black.  He joined the Division of Neurology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in 2003, and served as Director of the North and East GTA Regional Stroke Prevention Clinic from 2003-2008. 

 In March, 2008, he took a position at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, joining the Division of Neurology at the Hamilton General Hospital, the Regional Stroke Centre for Central South Ontario.  In July, 2008 he became the inaugural recipient of the MG DeGroote Professorship in Stroke Management, and also began a term as Champion, Best Practices across the Continuum of Care for the Provincial Coordinating Council of the Ontario Stroke Network, the governance body for the Ontario Stroke System. 

Dr. Sahlas has been active throughout many aspects of the Ontario Stroke System.  He became involved in the Telestroke initiative soon after its inception, contributed to the Canadian Best Practice recommendations in stroke care, participates in the OSS Health Promotion and Primary Prevention Subcommittee, served on the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Secondary Prevention task force, and is part of the steering committee for the Ontario College of Family Physicians “Saving the Brain” Network.

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Dr. Ally Prebtani
Dr.Prebtani

Dr. Ally P. H. Prebtani is an internist and endocrinologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada as Associate Professor of Medicine with the Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism.  He is the founder and director of the Internal Medicine International Health Program, which takes him and trainees to pursue voluntary international health work.  He is also the Program Director for the McMaster University Endocrinology & Metabolism Residency Training Program.  He is also involved as a co-investigator in several clinical trials in diabetes and heart disease and has published articles in peer-reviewed journals.  He is actively involved in several roles at the university including teaching, clinical work, research, and administration at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level.  

Dr. Prebtani is currently on the Expert Committee for Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA) Clinical Practice Guidelines and on the Task Force for the Tools Implementation for the Canadian Hypertension Education Program (CHEP).

Dr. Prebtani is actively involved in voluntary work both in the community and academically.  He has won the Ontario Voluntary Service Award by the government of Ontario for years of community service.

He was born in Uganda and grew up in Toronto, Canada where he did his schooling. 

Initially, Dr. Prebtani completed his training in pharmacy in 1992 at the University of Toronto. Shortly afterwards, he pursued medicine at McMaster University.  He completed medical school in 1996.  Afterwards, he completed his training in Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto 1999.  He then went on to complete his training in Endocrinology & Metabolism in 2001 at the University of Toronto with a special interest in Endocrine Oncology and was awarded a Diploma in the Master Teaching Program from the University of Toronto in 2004.

Dr. Prebtani has won the McMaster University General Internal Medicine Teaching Award and was the runner-up for the Endocrine Subspecialty Teaching Award.  Dr. Prebtani was awarded the McMaster University Internal Medicine Excellence in Teaching Award for Merit in January 2011.  In April 2011, Dr. Prebtani was awarded the Outstanding Health Care Professional Award by the Canadian Diabetes Association.  In May 2011, Dr. Prebtani was awarded the General Appreciation Award from the Department of Medicine at McMaster University.

His passion is in the area of international health. He has also been an external examiner at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

In the community, he frequently gives medical talks to the public, has been crisis management leader and lieutenant in the Aga Khan Volunteer Corps.  He has also served on the Medical Advisory Service in the community.

His personal interests include spending time with his family, especially with the biggest joy of his life, his daughter Sofia, camping, traveling, and music.

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Dr. Suneel Upadhye
Dr. Suneel Upadhye

Education and Professional Standing

Dr. Upadhye completed his MD training at Queens University in 1996, and the Royal College Emergency Medicine Program at McMaster University in 2001. He also completed his MSc in Clinical Epidemiology/Biostatistics at McMaster in 2005.

He has been a staff physician at local academic and community hospitals, and is currently at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton. He was the former Undergraduate Education Coordinator in the academic Division of Emergency Medicine, responsible for creating the highly regarded Emergency Medicine clerkship rotation.

He has recently been appointed as the Chair of the Standards Committee for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP).

Research and Clinical Interests

He has an active research interest in Knowledge Translation in Emergency Medicine, as well as health care policy. He has a number of peer-reviewed publications in highly respected Emergency Medicine journals as well as other high profile general medical journals, and textbooks.

He is an active member of the Evidence-Based Medicine Interest Groups of the Canadian Association of Emergency Medicine and the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine. He has lectured at many national and international EM conferences, and is the Co-Chair of the Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine (BEEM) program here at McMaster.

Personal interests include scuba diving, hockey, golf and jazz music.

This Year, Dr. Upadhye will be supporting:

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Dr. Nicholas Valettas
valettas
Associate Professor (FT),
Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine 

Dr. Nicholas Valettas is an interventional cardiologist at Hamilton Health Sciences and an Associate Professor of Medicine at McMaster University. His undergraduate studies were in engineering where he obtained a Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering followed by a Master degree in Biomedical Engineering, both at the University of Toronto. He then obtained his MD degree followed by post-graduatetraining in Internal Medicine, also at the University of Toronto. He then moved to Philadelphia to complete fellowships in cardiology and interventional cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he subsequently joined the Faculty of Medicine as an interventional cardiologist. He had a cross appointment at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, where he served as the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Hejoined the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University in 1993.

In addition to his duties as an interventional cardiologist, he is the medical director of the Cardiology Inpatient Unit at the Hamilton General Hospital. He alsoserves as the Cardiology Planner for the undergraduate medical education curriculum at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. His clinical interests include acute coronary syndromes, trans-radial percutaneous coronary intervention, cardiac hemodynamics, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and pulmonary hypertension. 

Dr. Valettas is board certified in cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine and has a Specialist Certificate in Cardiology from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physiciansand Surgeons of Canada and of the Society of Coronary Angiography and Interventionand a recipient of the division of cardiology’s Ernest Fallen Cardiology Teaching Award.

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Dr. Ronald B. Vender


Dr. Ron Vender is a Dermatologist who currently practices in Hamilton. He is the founder and director of Dermatrials Research. He has participated as principal investigator in over 80 clinical trials. He is Associate Clinical Professor at McMaster University in the Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology. He is Head of the Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton ON as well as Active Staff and Dermatology Consultant. 

Dr. Vender serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Cutaneous Medicineand Surgery. He is one of four Canadians elected to the International Psoriasis Council , a member of the Canadian Professors of Dermatology and the Groupfor Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis. He has published many peer-reviewed manuscripts and has had posters and abstracts presented internationally.

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Dr. Allyn Walsh

Allyn Walsh

Allyn Walsh, MD CCFP FCFP, is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University. She is the Chair of Student Affairs for the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and divides her time between her clinical family practice where she teaches students and residents, and the university setting where she is involved in supporting the success of students in medical education as well as in working with teachers from all of the health sciences professions to help them enhance their skills as educators.

 She has held a number of educational portfolios at McMaster, including that of Family Medicine Postgraduate Program Director and Assistant Dean, Program for Faculty Development in the Faculty of Health Sciences. A former chair of the Accreditation Committee of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, she has had the privilege of visiting many teaching sites around the country. Dr. Walsh chaired the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada’s Committee on Faculty Development from 2002 to 2006.

She has published 48 papers and abstracts, with 3 more in press and has edited 7 additional works. The recipient of a number of teaching awards, in 2006 she received the Ian McWhinney Family Medicine Award from the College of Family Physicians of Canada for her outstanding contributions to family medicine education in Canada.

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Dr. Trisha Woo


Dr. Tricia Woo attended medical school at the University of Toronto and also undertook fellowship training.   It was here that she completed her training in Geriatric Medicine.  She is currently an Associate Professor and Geriatrician for McMaster University at St. Peter’s Hospital. Tricia has a keen interest in interprofessional education and increasing the profile of Geriatric medicine to medical students in Canada.

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Dr. Kevin Zbuk
zbuk_kevin
Assistant Professor, McMaster University
Department of Oncology - Division of Medical Oncology

Dr. Zbuk is an assistant professor with the Department of Oncology at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamiton. His areas of interest include cancer genetics and the molecular classification of gastrointestinal polyposis syndromes. Dr. Zbuk's oncology practice focuses on gastrointestinal malignancies. 

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