Speakers | CSPCP

Implementing the National Framework. Where are the Gaps and How do we Address Them?

Speaker bios will be added as received. Please check back regularly.

Amit Arya	Since 2015, Dr. Amit Arya has been working in the Division of Supportive & Palliative Care at Brampton Civic Hospital. He is a regular presenter at local, provincial, and national conferences, and actively mentors medical learners of all levels from pre-clerkship to fellowship. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor for the Division of Palliative Care at McMaster University and a Lecturer for the Division of Palliative Care at the University of Toronto. Since 2019, Dr. Arya has led the development of a consultative shared care model of palliative care in LTC homes in his local health region. Furthermore, he is involved in several other research and leadership efforts to support improved palliative care in the LTC sector. Dr. Arya is currently a Director-at-Large for the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians. He has received several awards, including a Community Preceptor Teaching Award from McMaster University.
Kevin Bezanson	Kevin Bezanson MD, CCFP(PC), DTMH, MPH is a husband, father of two children 18 and 14, son to an elder mother, brother of three siblings, and friend. He is also a palliative care physician based at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences and Cancer Centre. He has clinical and research interests in Global Health and Palliative Care, particularly in access for underserved populations. He is a member of the Humanitarian Health Ethics Research Group (https://humanitarianhealthethics.net/) and co-investigator on a study examining palliative care in humanitarian crises. He is an Assistant Professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and previously worked in Toronto, Malawi, and Kitchener-Waterloo before coming to Thunder Bay in 2016. He loves canoeing, running, and is learning to skate ski.
Anne Bhéreur	Anne Bhéreur, M.D., CFPC (PC), FFPC is an Associate Clinical Professor of the Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine of the Université de Montréal, Quebec, Canada. She has a practice and teaches in Palliative Care and Family Medecine since 2003 in Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur, now part of the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. Anne chairs the Palliative Care Teaching Committee for the Family Medecine program in her department.
Anne Boyle	Dr Anne Boyle is an Associate Clinical Professor Division of Palliative Care Department of Family Medicine McMaster University. She is Treasurer for the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians and holds a number of academic and leadership positions in the Division of Palliative Care Department of Family Medicine Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine McMaster University Hamilton Ontario and at St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. Anne is an advocate for palliative care education for all health care professionals.
Carlos Centeno	Carlos Centeno is a professor of palliative medicine at the University of Navarra (Spain) and director of the Palliative Medicine Service of the University of Navarra Clinic and the ATLANTES Research Group of the Culture and Society Institute of the same university. ATLANTES studies palliative care with the methods of the humanities and social sciences. To give continuity to multiple Atlas studies on the development of palliative care in the world, in 2020 he created the Global Observatory of Palliative Care ATLANTES. Centeno teaches palliative medicine at his university with innovative methods as seen in the projects and publications on medical education and palliative medicine, and on professional values. He is a medical doctor (1993) and trained as an oncologist at the University of Valladolid, Spain (1997) and completed palliative care training at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada (1998). He is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) and the European Society for Palliative Care (EAPC). He enjoys seeing the members of his team progress and his projects, walking through the mountains and forests of Navarra, and being in the company of his friends.
Barbara Connolly	Dr. Barbara Connolly attended medical school at Western University, and completed her neurology residency at McMaster University. She then completed a 2-year fellowship in movement disorders at the University of Toronto. She is currently an associate professor and clinician-educator at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences. Her academic practice is focused on movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and other parkinsonian conditions, dystonia, chorea, ataxia, myoclonus, and tremor.
Catherine Courteau	Dr. Courteau is palliative medicine physician currently practicing in Vancouver, after completing her Family Medicine residency (McGill University) and Year of Added Competency (YAC) in Palliative Medicine (University of British Columbia). Dr. Courteau has a long-term interest in narrative medicine and its applications in palliative care. She has co-led book clubs and writing workshops for medical students and health care professionals and developed narrative medicine exercises integrated into McGill’s Medical School curriculum and the UBC Year of Added Competency (YAC) in Palliative Medicine program. She is currently involved in writing groups with cancer patients and palliative care and oncology health care professionals in Vancouver. Using narrative medicine, she wishes to promote reflection – both at the personal and systemic level – among health care professionals and patients.
Allison Crombeen	Dr. Allison Crombeen was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. She completed her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences at McMaster University in 2007 and then went on to complete her medical degree at McMaster’s DeGroote School of Medicine in 2011. It was her early clinical experiences with palliative care physicians in the Niagara region and Sarnia that fostered her interest in palliative care. Dr. Crombeen returned to her home town to complete her residency in family practice through the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2013 and subsequently completed her fellowship in Palliative Medicine in 2014. After completing her fellowship, Dr. Crombeen established her practice in palliative care at St. Joseph’s Hospice of Sarnia-Lambton and Bluewater Health. Her practice includes caring for patients in hospice, hospital, the community and long-term care. She has a particular interest in how palliative care is delivered to patients with chronic illnesses throughout their illness trajectory.
Megan Doherty	Dr. Megan Doherty a specialist in paedatric palliative care and a member of the faculty in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. She a consultant physician on the paediatric palliative care team at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Roger Neilson House, a pediatric hospice, in Ottawa, Canada. She leads the Children’s Palliative Care Initiative in Bangladesh and directs the Pediatric Palliative Care Program of Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration in Hyderabad, India. Her international work focuses on developing palliative care in South Asia, through capacity building and training and using innovative models of community-based palliative care programs in humanitarian crisis situations.
Aveksha Ellaurie	Dr. Aveksha Ellaurie is the Education Lead and Academic Coordinator in the Division of Supportive & Palliative Care at Brampton Civic Hospital. He holds adjunct appointments through McMaster University and University of Toronto as an Assistant Clinical Professor and Lecturer, respectively. Dr. Ellaurie is a preceptor for students, residents and fellows rotating through Palliative Medicine at the Brampton site. As a fulltime clinician, he practices Palliative Medicine in the community, hospital and long-term care settings.
Erin Gallagher	Dr. Erin Gallagher (MD, CCFP (PC) MPH) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University. She is a family physician and clinical supervisor at Stonechurch Family Health Centre in Hamilton and a palliative care consultant for the McMaster Family Health Team and Hamilton Health Sciences hospitals. She is the Ontario representative on the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s Palliative Care Committee. Her academic interests include public health approaches to palliative care, building capacity for palliative care in primary care and leadership development of medical trainees.
Teneille Gofton	Dr. Teneille Gofton is an Associate Professor at Western University in the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences. She is the Director of the Neurocritical Care Program and focus her clinical and research work in neurocritical care and neuropalliative care.
David Henderson	David Henderson MD CCFP (PC) is the past president of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians. He currently serves as the Senior Medical Director of the Integrated Palliative Care Program for Nova Scotia as well as medical director of the Colchester East Hants Palliative Care service. David is the chair of the Section of Palliative Medicine with the College of Family Physicians of Canada. He is a proud father of 4 children and enjoys coaching hockey in his spare time.
Leonie Herx	Leonie Herx completed her MD-PhD program at the University of Calgary, followed by Family Medicine and Palliative Medicine Residency programs. Prior to moving to Kingston, Leonie worked for 10 years in Palliative Medicine at the University of Calgary, serving in numerous roles including Palliative Medicine Residency Director, and Medical Director of the Intensive Palliative Care Unit at Foothill’s Medical Centre. Leonie has worked in both adult and pediatric palliative medicine, but now focuses her work on adults. Leonie is excited to join the palliative care team in Kingston, and will focus her clinical work on providing consultative palliative care support at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre. Leonie’s areas of interest are medical education, professional development, and advocacy for building palliative care capacity across the health care system. Leonie helped to co-found the new RCPSC Subspecialty in Palliative Medicine, serving on the Royal College (RC) Working Group in Palliative Medicine, developing the Pediatric stream of the Subspecialty, and is now the Vice-Chair of the RC Specialty Committee in Palliative Medicine and a member of the RC inaugural examination board for Palliative Medicine. Leonie has been on the Board of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians (CSPCP) for 5 years, and is currently the President of the CSPCP (2018-2020 term). Through her work with CSPCP, Leonie is co-leading the development of a set of shared palliative care competencies for all postgraduate training programs (in conjunction with CFPC and RCPSC) with the goal of ensuring all residents will be able to provide a palliative approach to care for their patients, and is involved in consultative work with Health Canada and other national palliative care partners in developing a national framework and standards for palliative care in Canada through Bill C277. Leonie is mother to 6 wonderful children, loves adventure, and the outdoors. And while she is swapping the Canadian Rocky mountains for lakes, she is excited to learn Kingston’s water sports and explore the mountain bike trails!
Christopher Klinger	Christopher Klinger, PhD is an Assistant Professor (Part-Time) with the Division of Palliative Care at McMaster University’s Department of Family Medicine and a Research Scientist with Pallium Canada out of the new Dr. Joshua Shadd – Pallium Canada Research Hub. He also chairs the Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada’s (QELCCC) Research and Knowledge Translation Committee.
Joanna Humphreys	Joanna is a pediatric palliative care physician with the Quality of Life and Advanced Care Team at McMaster Children’s Hospital. After growing up in Canada, Joanna studied at Oxford University in England where she completed her bachelor’s in physiological sciences and then went on to medical school. Joanna completed her pediatric residency, community pediatrics fellowship and palliative care fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children, where she worked as a staff physician on the palliative care team before transitioning to McMaster. Joanna’s interests include physician wellness, advanced care planning and childhood grief.
Laurence Lanueville	Dr. Laneuville is a second year psychiatry resident at McGill University. She completed a minor in French literature and has since then striven to integrate literature into the practice of medicine. She has co-led book clubs and writing workshops for medical students and health care professionals and co-developed a narrative medicine module integrated into McGill’s Medical School curriculum. Narrative medicine is for her a way to enrich the experience of learning and practice of medicine for more profound, essential connections.
Dave Lysecki	Dave Lysecki is the Pediatric Palliative Medicine program head at McMaster University and the founder and lead of the Quality of Life & Advanced Care program at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Current exciting projects include examining system-level impacts of the availability of pediatric palliative care services and the integration of Child Life Specialists into adult oncology care to support children affected by parental cancer and death.
Glen Maddison	Dr. Maddison graduated from University of Ottawa in 1976. He practiced Emergency Medicine in Sarnia until 2003 when he transitioned to Palliative Care. He is part of an integrated Palliative Care team that provides Palliative Care at Bluewater Health on a 10 bed Palliative Care Unit, at St. Joseph’s Hospice, in the community and increasingly in Long Term Care. He is Medical Director of St. Joseph’s Hospice and the Clinical Co-lead for the Erie St. Clair LHIN to the Ontario Palliative Care Network. Dr. Maddison runs a 2 day Palliative Care retreat every two years in Grand Bend, Ontario where he brings in world class speakers as well as local experts.
Denise Marshall	Dr Denise Marshall is a McMaster Family Medicine based Palliative Care Physician in her 32^ndyear of practice. After completing both undergraduate, graduate and palliative care training at McMaster, Dr Marshall joined the faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster in 1990, and has held a number of academic leadership roles including Undergraduate Director for Family Medicine, and Assistant Dean, Faculty Development for the Faculty of Health Sciences. In 2003 Dr Marshall helped create the Division of Palliative Care at McMaster and was it founding Director. She examined Palliative Care as Public Health during her sabbatical in 2013 and since then, has focused much of her academic work on Public Health Palliative Care. She is medical director of the Niagara West Palliative Care Team and McNally House Hospice.
Hun Je Park
Jose Pereira	José Pereira is Professor and Director of the Division of Palliative Care, Department of Family Medicine, at McMaster University. He is also Scientific Officer of Pallium Canada. He has been a champion of systems thinking in developing palliative care health services and a strong advocate of integration of the palliative care approach across specialty areas, professions and settings of care. Until recently he was Director of Research at the College of Family Physicians of Canada where his role included promoting quality improvement in everyday practice and residency training.
Hsien Seow	Dr. Hsien Seow (PhD) is the Canada Research Chair in Palliative Care and Health System Innovation at McMaster University. He was previously a CIHR New Investigator and a Cancer Care Ontario Chair in Health Services Research. www.palliativecareinnovation.com.
Erynn Shaw	Dr Erynn Shaw (MD, CCFP(PC)) is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University. After completing medical school in Toronto she pursued family medicine residency and palliative care fellowship at McMaster. She is currently a palliative care consultant and co-lead of the Pain and Symptom Management Clinic at Juravinski Cancer Center. In her spare time she enjoys exploring new hiking trails with her partner and 2 fantastic kids.
Jessica Simon	Dr Jessica Simon is Associate professor and Division head for Palliative Medicine, Department of Oncology at the University of Calgary. She co-leads two provincial research programs, one studying the implementation of an Advance Care Planning and Goals of Care Policy in Alberta (www.acpcrio.org) and the other about the integration of an early palliative approach to care with advanced cancer, “Palliative Care Early and Systematic: Impact on patient and health system outcomes” (www.pacesproject.ca). She also works as Physician Consultant for Advance Care Planning and Goals of Care, in the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services, and as a palliative care consultant in acute care.
Aynharan Sinnarajah	Dr Sinnarajah is a Palliative Consultant Physician with Calgary’s Palliative & End of Life Care program. He is an Assistant Professor with the Division of Palliative Medicine, Department of Oncology at the University of Calgary, with his primary area of research focused on health services research in palliative care. Dr Sinnarajah is currently co-leading a project on systematically implementing routine, early palliative care in advanced cancer patients in Alberta (www.pacesproject.ca).
Stephanie Van Zanten	Stephanie Veldhuijzen van Zanten is originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia where she did her medical school at Dalhousie University. She subsequently moved to Ottawa to complete her Pediatrics Residency at the University of Ottawa and an additional year of training in Pediatric Palliative Care and Pain and Symptom Management. She is now a physician with the Pediatric Palliative Care Team working at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Roger Neilson House.
Kirsten Wentlandt	Kirsten Wentlandt is a palliative care from Toronto, and is the W. Gifford-Jones Professor in Pain Control and Palliative Care, and Head of the Division of Palliative Care. Her clinical work and research are focused on nonmalignant palliative care populations, with ambulatory clinics supporting advanced lung, heart, pulmonary hypertension and transplant populations. She has also been known to sit on various national, provincial and regional committees that focus on developing strategies to improve access to quality palliative care.
Gregorio Zuniga	Gregorio Zúñiga received his medical degree and pediatrics training in Mexico. He then pursued a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Palliative Care at The Hospital for Sick Children. His training also includes a Master Degree in End-of-Life Care from Spain and a Fellowship in Community Palliative Care from the Institute of Palliative Medicine in India. Gregorio is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Palliative Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster University. His research interests include: suffering, grief, and quality indicators for pediatric palliative care.