Dr. Robert James (RJ) Cusimano is a cardiac surgeon at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and Professor, Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. A native of Toronto and the third of eight children, Dr. Cusimano earned his medical degree from the University of Calgary in 1983, interned in the Atlantic Canadian provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), before completing his Residency in General Surgery, and Cardiac Surgery at the University of Toronto.

He became a staff surgeon at the Toronto General Hospital in 1993 – the first Canadian of Italian heritage to achieve this status.

In 2006, Dr. Cusimano was invited to teach cardiac surgery at Xingxiang Medical University in China — becoming the first non-Chinese physician to do so. The surgical procedure was televised to 100 million people in China. Dr. Cusimano was awarded an honorary degree from Xingxiang University for his work. He has since made return visits to China to continue teaching cardiac surgery techniques used at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre.

Dr. Cusimano is the longest-serving member of Toronto General Hospital’s heart transplant team, a position he has held since 1993. As such, he has performed more heart transplants than any other adult surgeon in Toronto.

He is a recognized specialist in Insertion, modification and removal of cardiac rhythm management devices.

He is also an active member of the ventricular assist program at the Toronto General Hospital, focused on providing heart disease patients with a ‘bridge to transplant’ cardiac-assist device, or mechanical heart technology, like the Left Ventricular Assist Device or LVAD, and Transcatheter Valve therapies.

In 2016, Dr. Cusimano led a first international conference on cardiac tumours — an increasingly common heart condition – which can often be fatal. The Toronto Cardiac Tumour Conference was created to share knowledge and best practices about the diagnosis, treatment and management of these little-known, —- benign or malignant tumours of the heart.

Dr. Abdul Razak is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. Clinically, he is a Staff Medical Oncologist in Phase 1 Clinical Trials and Sarcoma at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Sinai Healthcare Systems, Toronto. He also leads the Medical Oncology Sarcoma Program at both institutions.

Originally from Malaysia, he underwent medical and oncology training in Ireland, England as well as Canada. He was the recipient several international awards, to include the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (2011), Merit Award from the Conquer Cancer Foundation (2011) as well as the Mick Knighton Mesothelioma Award from the British Lung Foundation (2007). Nationally, Dr. Abdul Razak was also the inaugural recipient of the Sarcoma Cancer Foundation of Canada Fellowship (2013). Locally, his work was recognized by the McCullough and Till Paper of the Year Award (2017).

Dr. Razak’s main interest is new drug development, especially in the field of sarcoma. He has authored several high impact publications such as Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Clinical Cancer Research and Cancer. He was also the author of the oncology chapter for Davidson’s Textbook of Medicine (23rd and 24th edition).

Dr. Razak has trained several of the next generation of sarcoma oncologists from various parts of the world to include Saudi Arabia, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Australia and Jordan. These fellows since then has formed their own alumni and launched their own successful collaborations. Dr. Razak also has been integral in connecting and training the next generation of drug developers from Ireland and Malaysia within his role at the Drug Development Program at the Princess Margaret.

Socially, Dr. Razak enjoys spending time with his family. He is the father of two young children whom he spends much of his free time with.

Dr. Bernardini is the Division Head of Gynecologic Oncology at the University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital, an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toronto and an Associate Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Bernardini completed his residency at the University of Toronto and obtained a Master’s degree in Laboratory and Pathobiology, which was followed by a combined fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Toronto and Duke University Medical Centre. Dr. Bernardini is an associate professor at the University of Toronto and has received Research and Teaching awards such as the 2018 ‘Senior Merit Award’ (research) and the 2014 ‘Award for Teaching Excellence.’ He leads the UHN robotic surgery program and is the co-director of the Women’s College Prevent Ovarian Cancer Program. His research interests include: understanding the role of precursor lesions in high grade serous ovarian cancer, as well as cytoreductive surgery for later stage disease. He co-leads the ovarian cytoreductive program as well as CANSTIC, a pan-Canadian study looking at treatment and outcomes of ovarian pre-cursor lesions .

Dr. Marc de Perrot obtained his Medical Degree and completed his Surgical Residency at the University of Genevain Switzerland. In 2000, he began his Clinical and Research Fellowship in Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto and obtained his Masters degree in the Thoracic Surgery Laboratory in 2002. In 2004, Dr. de Perrot complemented his training by obtaining a Fellowship in Thoracic and Vascular Surgery at Hospital Marie-Lannelongue in Paris, France.

In 2005, he joined the Division ofThoracic Surgery as a staff surgeon and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. In 2009, he was appointed Associate Professor of Surgery based on his research and clinical work. Dr. de Perrot’s surgical expertise focuses on surgery for end-stage lung diseases such as lung and heart-lung transplantation as well as pulmonary endarterectomy for chronic thromboembolicpulmonary hypertension. He is also the Head of the Toronto Mesothelioma Program and is involved in basic science research, new treatment with immunotherapy and combined modality therapy.

Dr. de Perrot is a prolific author with over 100 peer reviewed articles as well as several book chapters and state-of-the-Art review. In addition, he regularly presents at international symposia. Dr. de Perrot is a regular reviewer for peer reviewed journals such as the American Journal of Transplantation, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Michael Farkouh is the Peter Munk Chair in Multinational Clinical Trials at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, Director of the Heart and Stroke/Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular Research, Professor and Vice-Chair, Research, Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

He is a graduate of the Schulich School of Medicine at Western University. Dr. Farkouh completed his internal medicine and cardiology training at the Mayo Clinic and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York respectively and holds an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology from McMaster University. Prior to his current appointments, he served as the founding director of the Mount Sinai Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Unit in New York City.

Dr. Farkouh is internationally known for his work on the management of acute coronary syndromes in the emergency room. He has a special interest and expertise in the field of cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients. He is currently the project officer for numerous clinical trials on questions related to diabetes and heart disease including the NIH-sponsored FREEDOM trial.

He chairs the committee on diabetes and heart disease at the Banting and Best Centre and at the University of Toronto. Dr. Farkouh has received the Gold Medal from John Paul II Hospital in Krakow, was elected Teacher of the Year at the Mayo Clinic, and was awarded the Jan J. Kellermann Memorial Award for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention from the International Academy of Cardiology. Dr. Farkouh serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Hamilton completed his medical school and urology residency at the University of Toronto. During residency he completed a Masters of Public Health (MPH) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a research fellowship at Duke University. Before joining the faculty, he completed a fellowship in Urologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City.

His clinical practice focuses on management of genitourinary malignancies, with particular focus on prostate and testis cancers. This includes minimally invasive surgical techniques. His research interests focus on the epidemiology of urological malignancies and biomarkers in risk and progression of these diseases.

Cardiac Surgery Resident at University of Toronto. Dr. Makhdoum did his medical school in Saudi Arabia. He joined the cardiac surgery residency program at University of Toronto on 2015. He then completed a masters degree in Health Research Methodology at McMaster university. Now, He is in final years of cardiac surgery training.

Dr. Kristen McAlpine is a urologic oncology fellow at the University of Toronto. She recently graduated from the urology residency program at the University of Ottawa and completed medical school at Queen’s University. Dr. McAlpine’s current research interests include personalizing the care of patients with kidney tumors using radiomics, genetic predispositions for prostate cancer and benchmarking the quality of kidney cancer surgery. Her other research focuses have been on developing tools to improve shared decision-making for patients facing challenging decisions, and optimizing peri-operative thromboprophylaxis strategies. Dr. McAlpine is also completing an advanced degree in Clinical Epidemiology through the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto.

Dr McGilvray studied medicine at McGill University, graduating in 1993. He entered the General Surgery training program at the University of Toronto that same year. During his residency he undertook graduate studies in Dr. Ori Rotstein’s laboratory, and obtained a PhD in Cell Biology. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2001. After a clinical fellowship in Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Toronto General Hospital, he began his appointment at University Health Network in 2003. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. His clinical focus is devoted to transplantation, with an interest in complex hepatobiliary oncology. His research centers on diseases of the liver, particularly hepatitis C viral infection.

Sabrina Piedimonte is a first-year fellow in gynecologic oncology at the University of Toronto. She holds a B.Sc. in Microbiology and Immunology, M.Sc. in Experimental Surgery and MD CM from McGill University. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at McGill University in 2020 and during that time received the Eric and Jane Molson award for Excellence in Research and Brian Newton award in Gynecologic Oncology. Previous research has included development of a predictive score to reduce false positives in ovarian cancer testing, implementation of gynecologic oncologist-initiated germline BRCA testing and development of HPV vaccination clinics and a decision-aid tool. She recently completed the Program in Clinical Effectiveness, a joint Harvard/Brigham and Women’s Hopsital/Massechussetts General Hospital certificate in August 2020 with focus in predictive modeling, machine learning and survival analysis. Her current research interests include improving precision in advanced ovarian cancer with the development of a prediction model for cytoreductive outcome and a photo-documentation study, application of machine learning in gynecologic oncology and prevention of cervical cancer with HPV vaccination and education.

Dr. Michael Reardon grew up in Houston, Texas, where he attended Baylor College of Medicine graduating with honors and as a member of AOA. He completed a 5 year general surgery residency under Dr. Michael DeBakey in the Baylor Affiliated Hospitals and a 2 year cardiothoracic residency under Dr. Denton Cooley at the Texas Heart Institute.

He started and ran his own private practice as well as serving full time on the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine where he was Professor of Surgery with tenure, Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Program Director for the Thoracic Surgery Residency and Vice Chair of Academic Affairs in the Department of Surgery. He has spent his entire career at The Methodist Hospital serving in numerous administrative positions including President of the Medical Staff.

Currently, Dr. Reardon is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Allison Family Distinguished Chair of Cardiovascular Research, Senior Attending Surgeon at The Methodist Hospital, Senior Scientist the Houston Methodist Research Institute and Surgical Director of Structural Heart Disease at the Houston Methodist Hospital. He also serves as Clinical Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He has written over 600 medical and scientific papers, book chapters and abstracts and frequently lectures on his research and clinical interests of cardiac valvular disease, thoracic aortic disease and cardiac tumors. In 1998, Dr. Reardon performed the first successful autotransplant worldwide for a malignant left atrial sarcoma and the first successful autotransplant for a malignant left ventricular sarcoma in 2003. Since then, Dr. Reardon has performed more than 52 such surgeries has traveled to Poland, Belgium, New Zealand and Israel to perform these surgeries. He presently serves as the national surgical Principal Investigator for the SURTAVI, Evolut Low Risk Randomized, Reprise III and Reprise IV TAVR trials. He is internationally recognized as a leader in cardiac tumors and in the catheter based approach to structural heart disease.

Dr. Patrik Rogalla completed his medical studies as well as his radiology residency at the Free University of Berlin in Germany. After having completed a Clinical fellowship in gastro-intestinal imaging at the University of California UCSF in the United States, he returned to Germany where he began working at Charité University Hospital. There, he progressively held roles which eventually led him to his appointment as Professor of Radiology.

In July 2009, Dr. Rogalla was appointed as Full Professor of Radiology at the University of Toronto and held the position as Head of the Abdominal Imaging Division from July 2010 until December 2017. In February 2018, he was appointed as Head of the Cardiothoracic Imaging Division at JDMI. Furthermore, Dr. Rogalla is the Director of Computed Tomography at JDMI and assumed the role as Site Director at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

Dr. Rogalla has published more than 167 original articles, several book chapters, and is holding two international patents; he is actively involved in many professional and radiological societies. In 2006, he contributed towards the development of federal guidelines and quality criteria for virtual CT colonography.

His areas of focus include reconstruction and post-processing techniques, interventional CT, cardiac CT, gastro-intestinal imaging, and perfusion imaging.

Dr. Salawu trained in Medical Oncology at the Weston Park Cancer Centre, Sheffield, United Kingdom. Prior to this, he obtained a Master’s degree in Molecular Medicine and subsequent PhD at the University of Sheffield, UK. His PhD research involved structural and functional genomics of soft tissue sarcoma. His current research interests involve using genomic and other molecular tools for Translational Oncology and Biomarker development with specific reference to sarcomas. Dr. Salawu moved to Toronto in 2020 to join the Sarcoma and Drug Development programs at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Mount Sinai Hospital as a clinical fellow where he is involved in liquid biopsy studies for detection of minimal residual disease in sarcomas as well as novel drug development.

Dr. Michael A. Seidman is a staff pathologist at University Health Network, where he focuses on cardiovascular and autopsy pathology, and has a side interest in rheumatologic pathology. He is the acting director of autopsy pathology and is physician lead for quality and safety in surgical pathology. Please forgive him, but he is an American, who left the States in 2013 due to accidental foresight. He trained at Weill Cornell Medical College for his medical degree, and then at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in anatomic, cardiovascular, and molecular genetic pathology. He practiced cardiovascular and autopsy pathology at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver prior to moving to Toronto in 2019. He doesn’t have any spare time, but if he did, he’s a nerd that enjoys pen-and-paper/tabletop role playing games, scifi television/streaming series, and a nice glass of wine.