Doctors' Program

Imran Rasul, MD, FRCP(C)
Chair of the Endoscopy Unit
Credit Valley Hospital
President, OAG

 

Dr. Imran Rasul completed his undergraduate training at the University of Toronto in 1992. He went on to complete his Medical Degree, Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology training at the University of Toronto. Further training in Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy was completed at University of Toronto. He has been practicing in Mississauga at the Credit Valley Hospital for the past seven years. Dr. Rasul has an interest in Advanced Endoscopy and is Chair of the Endoscopy Unit at Credit Valley Hospital.

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Emily Ching, MD, FRCPC
GI Health Centre
Treasurer, OAG

Dr. Emily Ching received her medical degree at McMaster University. She then completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is a recent gastroenterology training graduate from McMaster University in 2010, where she also served as a chief gastroenterology resident.

Upon completing her gastroenterology training, Dr. Ching has done gastroenterology locum at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. She also worked at various outpatient clinics while being a part-time gastroenterology consultant at Baycrest Geriatric Centre in the Greater Toronto area. With the recent change in job climate in gastroenterology, she embraced the challenge to the new paradigm shift and co-found an outpatient-based gastroenterology clinic, GI Health Centre, along with Dr. Sapna Makhija and Dr. Avantika Marwaha in Burlington, Ontario, in the summer of 2012. Dr. Ching and her partners strive to shorten healthcare wait time while maintaining patient follow up and continuity of care.

Christopher N. Andrews, MD, MSC, FRCPC, AGAF
Clinical Professor, Division of Gastroenterology
Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary

 

Dr. Christopher Andrews is a Gastroenterologist and Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine. He has had advanced training in gastrointestinal motility and function at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA where he also obtained a Master’s Degree in Clinical Health Research. He is GI Site Chief at Foothills Hospital, Calgary, and is Director of the Calgary Gut Motility Centre. Dr. Andrews specializes in motility disorders and physiology, in addition to development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic methods related to gut function.

Presentation Overview
Cannabis is widely used in Canada for both medical and recreational purposes, and gastroenterologists may commonly see its effects. This talk will review the efficacy of cannabis and cannabinoids for GI symptoms, and diagnosis and management of side effects of cannabis on GI function.

Gabor Kandel, MD, FRCPC
Physician, Division of Gastroenterology, St. Michel’s Hospital
Director, Internal Medicine Training Program, St. Michael ‘s Hospital
Associate Professor, Medicine, University of Toronto

 

Dr. Gabor Kandel is a practicing gastroenterologist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.  After training in clinical gastroenterology in Toronto, he spent three years doing research in Boston. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, former Program Director of the Division of Gastroenterology of the University of Toronto, and former Program Director of the Core Internal Medicine training program of St. Michael’s Hospital. 

Presentation Overview
The first response to a report of excess eosinophils in a mucosal biopsy is to consider drug allergy, parasitic infection (such as strongyloides), and systemic disease such as vasculitis. Once these have been excluded, the next intervention depends on the area of the bowel affected. Eosinophilic esophagitis is the best studied gut eosinophilic  disease, characterized by presentation as difficulty in swallowing and esophageal mucosal rings at endoscopy, and is treated by diet, proton pump inhibitors, topical corticosteroids, or endoscopic dilation. The choice among these is individual, chiefly based on severity of symptoms and patient priorities. Ideally, treatment eliminates the eosinophils, but in practice, improving symptoms is often the best that can be achieved without undue side-effects. Excess eosinophils elsewhere in the bowel are classified according to extent of bowel wall infiltrations: mucosa (inflammatory symptoms), muscle (obstructive symptoms), subserosal (ascites). There is a close overlap with idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease, and usually corticosteroids are required for treatment. 

Jeff Mosko MD, MSc, FRCPC
Therapeutic Endoscopy, St. Michael’s Hospital
Assistant Professor, Division of Gastroenterology

 

Dr. Jeffrey Mosko graduated with a BSc and then MD from the University of Western Ontario. He completed his internal medicine and general gastroenterology training at the University of Toronto. He completed his fellowship training in advanced endoscopy at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston and has been on staff at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto since that time. He completed an MSc in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. His clinical expertise is in advanced endoscopy including ERCP, EUS and endoscopic oncology. His research interests are in quality improvement in endoscopy. 

Presentation Overview
This presentation will review the pathophysiology, optical diagnosis and principles of management of gastric polyps, intestinal metaplasia and early gastric cancer.

M. Ines Pinto-Sanchez, MD, MSc, CNSC
Assistant Professor, Division of Gastroenterology,
McMaster University Medical Centre

 

Dr. Maria Ines Pinto-Sanchez obtained her MD certification from the University of Cordoba, Argentina in 2002, and completed her Gastroenterology training in 2008 at Dr. C. B. Udaondo Gastroenterology Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She joined the Farncombe Institute in 2010 as a Clinical Research Fellow and obtained her Master in Science degree in 2014, from the Health Research and Methodology program.

Dr. Pinto-Sanchez was a Clinical Gastroenterology and Nutrition fellow from 2015-2017 in the Division of Gastroenterology at McMaster University. In conjunction with Dr. Bercik, Dr. Pinto-Sanchez contributed to the development of a specialized Celiac Clinic for adults at McMaster University, which is unique in Canada. http://farncombe.mcmaster.ca/recently-opened-celiac-disease-clinic-at-mcmaster-university/

Dr. Pinto-Sanchez is currently an active medical staff member at the Gastroenterology Division at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences where she provides consultation services in the areas of Gastroenterology and Nutrition.  Her clinical and research interests include the diagnosis and treatment of Celiac Disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and the microbiota gut-brain axis. She has received different awards and has been published in high impact journals.

Clinical Interests

• Celiac disease and gluten-related disorders
• Functional gastrointestinal disorders
• Enteral and parenteral nutrition
• Intestinal failure

Research Interests

• Clinical and translational research in celiac disease and gluten related disorders, nutrition, microbiology and gut brain axis
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Presentation Overview
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) has emerged as an intriguing and controversial topic in gastroenterology. The diagnosis of NCGS or non-celiac wheat sensitivity (NCWS) requires a symptomatic reaction to gluten or wheat-containing food, and remission of symptoms with gluten or wheat challenge. The diagnosis is made after celiac disease and wheat allergy have been excluded. This is a clinically relevant and frequent condition, and several studies including randomized clinical trials (RCT) have been attempting to characterize the condition. In this presentation, we will address outstanding issues related to the diagnosis of NCGS/NCWS as well as areas of interest for future studies that could explain, in part, the controversy in this area. 

Mohammad Yaghoobi, MD, MSc (Epi), AFS, DABIM, FACG, FRCPC
Therapeutic Endoscopist,
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology
Site coordinator, Adult Gastroenterology residency program, Hamilton General Hospital
Coordinator, GI elective, Undergraduate Medical Program
Co-director, GI Health Technology Assessment, The Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute
Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine
McMaster University
McMaster University Medical Center

 

Dr Yaghoobi is a gastroenterologist and an advanced endoscopist. He is an assistant professor of medicine and attending gastroenterologist at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences. He received his medical degree from Tehran University School of Medicine followed by an AFS degree from University of Paris in France. He then completed simultaneous Master’s Degree in Health Research Methodology as well as a research and clinical fellowship at McMaster University. Afterward, he finished his residency in internal medicine at University of Toronto and his clinical fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at McGill University. He was then appointed as the Clinical Instructor in Advanced Endoscopy Program and staff gastroenterologist at the Medical University of South Carolina before accepting his current position at McMaster University.

Dr Yaghoobi is certified in both Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology and Hepatology from both the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the American Board of Internal Medicine. His clinical and academic interests include anemia, family history of digestive cancer or polyps, GI bleeding, Barrett’s esophagus, advanced endoscopic procedures, water-exchange colonoscopy, complex polyp removal, endoscopic ultrasound, ERCP and minimally invasive endoscopic surgeries. He has vast expertise in performing conventional meta-analysis, meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy as well as GI Health Technology Assessment.

Dr Yaghoobi has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, editorials, invited reviews, abstracts, and book chapter, mainly as the lead author. His publications have been cited more than 1500 times. He was appointed as the first Editor-in-Chief of the ACG Case Reports Journal by the American College of Gastroenterology and is currently serving as member of Publication and Education Committees at the American College of Gastroenterology. He also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of GI Perspective by the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation (CDHF), an editor of the Cochrane Upper Gastrointestinal and Pancreatic Diseases Review Group and an associate editor of the Journal of Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (JCAG). He is also co-director of GI Health Technology Assessment at the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute.

Neeraj Narula, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Assistant Professor of Medicine
McMaster University

 

Dr. Neeraj Narula is the Director of the IBD Clinic at McMaster University and a Staff Gastroenterologist at Hamilton Health Sciences.  He completed the Present-Levison Advanced IBD fellowship at 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 his internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship training at McMaster University. He also obtained a Masters in Public Health at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.  His research interests are predominantly in clinical epidemiology, nutrition, and pharmaceutical trials in IBD.

Presentation Overview
This presentation will review gastrointestinal pathologies which may benefit from treatment with fecal microbiota transplantation.

Imran Rasul, MD, FRCP(C)
Chair of the Endoscopy Unit
Credit Valley Hospital
President, OAG

Dr. Imran Rasul completed his undergraduate training at the University of Toronto in 1992. He went on to complete his Medical Degree, Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology training at the University of Toronto. Further training in Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy was completed at University of Toronto. He has been practicing in Mississauga at the Credit Valley Hospital for the past seven years. Dr. Rasul has an interest in Advanced Endoscopy and is Chair of the Endoscopy Unit at Credit Valley Hospital.

Iain Murray, MD CM, FRCP(C)
Past President, Ontario Association of
Gastroenterology
Section Chair, OMA Section
of Gastroenterology

Dr. Iain Murray's family immigrated from far overseas in 1972. He attended school and CEGEP on the island of Montreal. His Bachelor of Science was obtained at the University of Toronto and 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 co-found of the current Intestinal Health Institute where he continues his gastroenterology practice. Dr. Murray is the Past President of the Ontario Association of Gastroenterology. He is also the Chair of the Section on Gastroenterology at the Ontario Medical Association. Dr. Murray is married with three children.

Nadia Alam, MD,
OMA President

Dr. Nadia Alam is President of the Ontario Medical Association.

Imran Rasul, MD, FRCP(C)
Chair of the Endoscopy Unit
Credit Valley Hospital
President, OAG

Dr. Imran Rasul completed his undergraduate training at the University of Toronto in 1992. He went on to complete his Medical Degree, Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology training at the University of Toronto. Further training in Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy was completed at University of Toronto. He has been practicing in Mississauga at the Credit Valley Hospital for the past seven years. Dr. Rasul has an interest in Advanced Endoscopy and is Chair of the Endoscopy Unit at Credit Valley Hospital.

Christopher Teshima, MD, MSc (ClinEpi), PhD, FRCPC
Therapeutic Endoscopy, St. Michael’s Hospital
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

Dr. Teshima is a member of the Therapeutic Endoscopy group at St. Michael’s Hospital and Co-director of the Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship training program. His clinical interests focus on therapeutic endoscopy procedures, including endoscopic treatments (ESD, EMR and RFA) for upper GI neoplasia including Barrett’s esophagus and early gastric cancer, POEM for achalasia, endoscopic treatment of Zenker’s diverticulum, diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), including endoscopic interventions for pancreatic pseudocysts and walled-off necrosis, endoscopic resection of large colonic polyps, as well as small bowel endoscopy including double balloon enteroscopy and capsule endoscopy.

Mark S. Silverberg, MD PhD FRCPC
Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto
Gastroenterologist, Mount Sinai Hospital Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre

 

Mark S. Silverberg MD, PhD, FRCPC completed his internal medicine and gastroenterology training at the University of Toronto in 1997. He then completed a PhD studying the genetics of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in 2002 at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His research program is funded by grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK/NIH), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Crohn's and Colitis Canada (CCC). His laboratory is focused on elucidating the genetic and microbial contributors to the pathogenesis of IBD and identifying biomarkers relevant to its clinical course. He has made significant contributions to the discovery of genes related to IBD as well as being a major contributor to the field of phenomics and classification of IBD (The Montreal Classification). Dr. Silverberg has taken leadership positions on several international collaborative efforts with the goal of expediting scientific progress in the field of IBD. These include the International IBD Genetics Consortium and the NIDDK/NIH IBD Genetics Consortium. Dr. Silverberg is also actively engaged in educating health care professionals on IBD through his roles as Director of the Advanced IBD Fellowship Program at Mount Sinai, and Co-Director of both the Canadian GI Fellows Program in IBD and the Great Lakes IBD Forum. He is currently a member of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD), Chair of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Council of Crohn’s and Colitis Canada and recent Past Chair of the IMIBD Section of the AGA Council.

Presentation Overview
Many clinical conundrums and rarer conditions are not well described in text books and do not have sufficient information to follow evidence-based approaches. In these scenarios, clinical experience is often relied on to make clinical decisions. In this lecture, I will cover how to approach patients with minimal inflammation in IBD. What to do when confronted with a patient with only histologic activity? Minimal endoscopic findings? Symptoms out of keeping with objective inflammation? Similarly, pouchitis is a condition that is similar to IBD, yet behaves differently, responds to typical IBD therapies poorly and can be a significant impediment to quality of life. A related condition, microscopic colitis, is poorly understood and not very common. Treatments are often given through trial and error and a practical approach to this condition will be discussed.

Karim Qumosani MD, FRCPC
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Western University
London Health Sciences Centre-University Campus

Dr. Karim Qumosani is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Western University. He is also the Program Director of the Gastroenterology Fellowship Program and the Director of the Advanced Hepatology and Liver Transplantation Fellowship program at London Health Sciences Centre. He completed his MD at King Abdulaziz University and his Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology fellowship at Western University. Dr. Qumosani trained in Advanced Motility and Advance Hepatology and Liver Transplantation at Western University. Clinically, his expertise is in Liver Transplantation, Cirrhosis-related complications and Immune-mediated Liver Disease. His research focuses primarily on Chronic Hepatitis C, Cirrhosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Dr. Qumosani has a strong passion for teaching and mentoring in the area of medical education. His passion for continued medical education stems mainly from the huge steps forward in respect of learning modalities.  

John K. Marshall MD MSc FRCPC AGAF
Professor of Medicine
Director, Division of Gastroenterology
McMaster University

Dr. John Marshall is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Gastroenterology at McMaster University, as well as a consultant gastroenterologist at Hamilton Health Sciences in Hamilton Ontario. He completed his B.A. and M.D. at Queen’s University, and then undertook his residency training and M.Sc. in Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics at McMaster University. He is a Full Member of the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute. His publications include over 200 academic papers and book chapters and over 200 abstracts. Dr. Marshall is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (JCAG). He is also an Associate Editor of ACP Journal Club and Evidence-Based Medicine, an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis, and an Editor for the Cochrane Collaboration Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Functional Bowel Disorders Review Group. Past honours include the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) Young Investigator Award (2008), the CAG Young Educator Award (2006) and Fellowship in the American Gastroenterological Association (2007). Dr. Marshall’s clinical and research interests include inflammatory bowel disease, post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome, gastrointestinal bleeding, endoscopy, clinical trials, clinical epidemiology, health outcomes and health economics. 

Natasha Bollegala,  HonBSc.,  MD, MSc.,  FRCPC
Staff Gastroenterologist, Women’s College Hospital
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Clinician Investigator in Quality & Innovation, University of Toronto

Dr. Bollegala has an interest in the area of quality improvement. She is chair of the WCH Quality Improvement Research Committee (QUIRC), member of the Division of Gastroenterology Quality Improvement Committee, and is active in the administration of the gastroenterology quality improvement residency curriculum. She serves as the quality improvement medical consultant to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, assisting in the development of a provincial QI curriculum for endoscopists performing colorectal cancer screening in Ontario. She is also co-leading a national effort to standardize inflammatory bowel disease pediatric to adult transition services in Canada in collaboration with the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada.

David Jacobs, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Jacobs is an experienced Radiologist with a demonstrated history of leadership in specialty associations, provincial associations, and medical governing bodies. Strong healthcare services professional graduated from Queen's University, University of Toronto, and York University - Schulich School of Business.

Iain Murray, MD CM, FRCP(C)
Past President, Ontario Association of
Gastroenterology
Section Chair, OMA Section
of Gastroenterology

Dr. Iain Murray's family immigrated from far overseas in 1972. He attended school and CEGEP on the island of Montreal. His Bachelor of Science was obtained at the University of Toronto and 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 co-found of the current Intestinal Health Institute where he continues his gastroenterology practice. Dr. Murray is the Past President of the Ontario Association of Gastroenterology. He is also the Chair of the Section on Gastroenterology at the Ontario Medical Association. Dr. Murray is married with three children.

Imran Rasul, MD, FRCP(C)
Chair of the Endoscopy Unit
Credit Valley Hospital
President, OAG

Dr. Imran Rasul completed his undergraduate training at the University of Toronto in 1992. He went on to complete his Medical Degree, Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology training at the University of Toronto. Further training in Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy was completed at University of Toronto. He has been practicing in Mississauga at the Credit Valley Hospital for the past seven years. Dr. Rasul has an interest in Advanced Endoscopy and is Chair of the Endoscopy Unit at Credit Valley Hospital.