CMHCC Chairs
Laura Dawson MD, FASTRO
Professor,
Department of Radiation Oncology,
University of Toronto,
Radiation Oncologist, PMH,
Toronto, ON
Laura Dawson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto, and a practicing radiation oncologist at the Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, in Toronto. She is an internationally recognized leader in hepatobiliary cancer and in oligo-metastases. Her research has primarily focused on implementation of advanced radiation technologies (e.g. stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and image guided radiation therapy (IGRT)) to improve outcomes and to reduce the risk of toxicity of cancer patients. She has led phase I, II and more recently, phase III clinical trials of radiation therapy to treat patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastases. Dr. Dawson has published over 200 scientific papers and has mentored over 50 students from around the world. She has received numerous awards for her teaching, research and impact in oncology. She was the 2018 Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) Gordon Richards lecturer, and she is the past Chair and past President of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Rachel Goodwin, MSc, MD, FRCPC
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
Ottawa, ON
Dr. Rachel Goodwin graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University with a Bachelor of Science and from the University of Guelph with a Masters of Nutritional Science. She completed medical school and her internal medicine and medical oncology residency at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Goodwin went on to complete a two-year Investigational New Drug Development Fellowship at NCIC Clinical Trial Group at Queen’s University, with a focus on Phase I/Phase II cancer clinical trials.
She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Her clinical interests include gastrointestinal cancers, neuroendocrine cancers and new drug development. Dr. Goodwin is an active member of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group where she is New Drug Development Liaison and co-chair for the Colon Disease Site Group.
Brandon Meyers, MSc, MD, FRCPC
Associate Professor, Oncology
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON
Dr. Meyers completed medical school at the University of Ottawa. He then completed at McMaster University post-graduate training in Internal Medicine, and Medical Oncology followed by a fellowship in Gastrointestinal Malignancies. He is an Associate Professor and staff Medical Oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. His gastrointestinal clinical practice primarily focuses on hepatocellular carcinoma. He recently helped develop the Cancer Care Ontario guidelines on the management of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, and is involved in phase I-III trials examining novel agents for liver cancer. He also collaborates with basic scientists working with animal models of liver cancer. He is a member of the Planning Committee of the Canadian Multidisciplinary HCC Conference.
Vincent Tam, MD, FRCPC
Associate Clinical Professor,
University of Calgary
Calgary, AB
Dr. Vincent Tam is Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Calgary and a staff medical oncologist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. He specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies and particularly hepatobiliary cancer. His research interests include trials in hepatobiliary cancer and real world outcomes of HCC patients treated with systemic therapies. Dr Tam is currently an active member of the Canadian Clinical Trials Group where he is the co-chair of the Hepatobiliary Disease Site Group.
CMHCC Faculty
Dominick Bossé, MD MSc FRCPC MPH
Medical Oncologist, The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre
Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
Dr. Bossé is a Medical Oncologist specializing in genitourinary and gastrointestinal cancers. He earned his Medical degree, Master’s in Physiology and Biophysics, and completed his Internal Medicine training at Université de Sherbrooke in Québec. Dr. Bossé completed his Medical Oncology residency at the University of Ottawa in 2016, followed by a clinical research fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He currently practices at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre and serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa.
Prosanto Chaudhury, MD, MSc, FRCSC, FACS
Director, Multi-Organ Transplant and Donation Program, MUHC
Associate Professor of Surgery and Oncology, McGill University
HPB and Transplant Surgeon, MUHC
Montreal, QC
Dr. Chaudhury joined the Department of Surgery of McGill University in July 2007 after completing Fellowship training in Transplantation and HPB, both here at McGill and at Northwestern University in Chicago. He received his Master’s degree in Evidence-based Health Care from the University of Oxford in the Fall of 2007. Since his return, his clinical activities have been based at the Royal Victoria Hospital and have centred on the treatment of complex hepato-pancreato-biliary oncology and organ transplantation. He is currently cross-appointed to the departments of Surgery and Oncology as an Associate Professor, and became the first Director of the newly created Multi-organ Transplant and Donation Program at the McGill University Health Centre in the Fall of 2023.
He has been actively involved with both the Liver and Kidney Pancreas committees of Transplant Quebec and has been an on-call medical director with Transplant Quebec since 2008. Dr. Chaudhury has an active interest in the use and outcomes of organs from DCD donors and has helped roll out DCD donation in Quebec. He was appointed Medical Director-Transplantation at Transplant Quebec in November 2016. Dr Chaudhury is the past president of the Canadian Liver Transplant Network (CLTN).
He has served the CST in several capacities over the years, participating in the Standards Committee, the Annual Scientific Meeting Committee (chair and co-chair), and the leading practice guidelines committee, and currently serves as the Society’s treasurer.
Dr. Chaudhury has been involved in leading the development and implementation of enhanced recovery after surgery protocols across the Department of Surgery at McGill and is exploring their application to transplantation. From 2011 to 2021, he was the Associate Director of McGill’s Division of General Surgery, Royal Victoria site, with a mandate to focus on Quality. Dr. Chaudhury was the Surgeon Champion for the American College of Surgeons’ National Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), the largest and most effective, benchmarked surgical quality improvement project in North America. In 2013, he was awarded the LD MacLean Travelling Fellowship, which allowed him to participate in the American College of Surgeons Leadership Course in Health Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Waltham in June of 2013.
As a member of the Evidence-Based Reviews in Surgery Steering Committee, he developed the content of the ‘8 reviews’ that were published yearly, as well as the monthly online journal clubs conducted by this group. Dr Chaudhury has been a member of the General Surgery Residency Program Committee from 2007 to 2023 and is co-director of the HPB Fellowship Program. He has been heavily involved in teaching Evidence-Based Practice both at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. He was the founding theme leader for Evidence-Based Medicine in the undergraduate curriculum at McGill. His research interests focus increasingly on outcomes in HPB and Transplant surgery with a focus on expanding organ utilization.
Emma Dunne
Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology,
Department of Surgery,
University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, BC
Dr. Emma Dunne is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology in the Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada since 2022. Dr. Dunne received her undergraduate education at University College Dublin, Ireland studying Molecular Genetics, prior to completing a PhD at the University of Bristol in the UK. She studied medicine at Barts and The Royal London Hospital, London, UK and completed her specialist Clinical Oncology training at The Royal Marsden Hospital. On completion of training Dr. Dunne proceeded to a 2-year Precision Fellowship at BC Cancer, Vancouver from 2017 – 2019 where she specialized in treating metastatic disease to the spine and liver with SBRT. Dr Dunne is a member of the Lung, GI and SBRT groups. Her research interests include SBRT specifically in the setting of primary and secondary liver malignancies, metastatic disease to the spine and pelvic re-irradiation.
Peter R. Galle, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Director, First Department of Internal Medicine
University Medical Center
Mainz, Germany
Dr. Galle majored in internal medicine at the Universities of Berlin, Marburg, Mannheim and Heidelberg, Germany, at Hammersmith Hospital, London/UK and, as a Fulbright grantee at University of Texas/USA and received his M.D. degree from Marburg University and Ph.D. degree from Heidelberg University.
Initially he held a position as postdoctoral fellow in Molecular Biology at the Centre for Molecular Biology Heidelberg working on the replication of hepatitis B viruses. Afterwards he completed his residency in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University Hospital of Heidelberg. In 1998 he became Director of the I. Medical Department in Mainz and from 2005 – 2008 he hold the CEO position of Mainz University Hospital.
He is member of several national and international societies such as the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), served as Co-editor for the Journal of Hepatology and was on the Editorial Boards of several other Journals. He served as congress president of the German Society for Digestive Diseases (DGVS) in 2014. He was member of the Executive Board and President of the International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA). He was the President of the German Association for the Study of the Liver (GASL) for the year 2020.
His research has focused on elucidating important aspects of apoptotic cell death in the liver, immune escape of tumour cells and on clinical and molecular aspects of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). He chaired the panel updating the EASL Clinical Practice Guideline on HCC, which appeared in 2018. He was awarded several prizes, amongst others the prestigious Tannhauser award, the highest prize of the German Society for Digestive Diseases. In 2024 he received the Blue Faery Award for Excellence in Liver Cancer Research. He has published more than 550 peer-reviewed papers.
Mishal Mendiratta-Lala, MD
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
Howard Lim, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medicine,
University of British Columbia
Medical Oncologist, BC Cancer- Vancouver
Vancouver, BC
Howard Lim is a medical oncologist at BC Cancer – Vancouver and specializes in gastrointestinal cancers. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Chair of the Research Ethics Board and the Co-Lead for Competency Based Medical Education for Post Graduate Medical Education. He is involved in clinical trials, genomic based research, health economics and drug access.
Sabarinath B. Nair, MBBS, MRCS, FRCR, MD(Res)
Associate Professor & Head of Service, Interventional Radiology
Hamilton Health Sciences
Juravinski Hospital
Hamilton, ON
Dr Sabarinath Nair is an Associate professor and Staff Radiologist at HHS. Having completed his Radiology and Surgery training in UK, he arrived at McMaster University do his Interventional radiology (IR) fellowship. He has been a Staff Interventional Radiologist at Juravinski hospital for just over 10 years and in 2021 took over as the Head of Service for Interventional radiology for Hamilton Health Sciences. He is also the Supervisor for the IR fellowship program.
Maja Segedi, MD, MPH, FRCPSC, FACS
Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary and Liver Transplant Surgeon,
Vancouver General Hospital
Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Surgery
Vancouver, BC
Dr. Maja Segedi is a hepato-pancreato-biliary and liver transplant surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital, and Associate Clinical Professor Department of Surgery. She obtained her MD from University of Toronto (2005), Residency training in General Surgery at UBC (2012) and a Master of Public Health at Harvard School of Public Health in 2009. Her Subspecialty training in HPB and Liver Transplant Surgery at UBC (2012) and University of Toronto (2014). She also completed training in Clinical Ethics from MacLean Centre for Clinical Ethics at University of Chicago in 2011.
Dr Segedi has published in the area of pancreas and liver cancer surgery, liver transplantation ethics, and continues to perform collaborative research to advance the surgical care access and health care quality in the field. She performs HPB surgery, liver transplant surgery and biliary (ERCP) endoscopy
Pablo E. Serrano, MD, MSc, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON
Pablo E. Serrano is an Associate Professor of Surgery at McMaster University. He joined the Department of Surgery in 2014 after finishing his fellowship in Hepatobiliary Surgical Oncology at the University of Toronto. He completed his General Surgery Residency at the University of Toledo, Ohio where he also completed a Master of Science in Molecular Biology and a Master of Public Health. He completed his PhD in Health Research Methods at McMaster University in 2022. He recently joined the Department of Health Research Methods Evidence and Impact as an Associate Member, allowing him to supervise graduate students at the masters and PhD level. He is an active researcher and scientist at the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute (ECRI) and has led several trials within the Ontario Clinical Oncology Group (OCOG), an academic Clinical Trials Group based at McMaster University. He has been the recipient of several research grants and is currently the principal investigator of multi-institutional nation-wide multidisciplinary clinical trials. He is also an Associate Member of the Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR) at McMaster University, a cancer research centre that develops collaboration and synergy between scientists and clinicians, focusing on comprehensive translational studies that inform the rational development of combinational therapies for cancer treatment.
Research Focus
Clinical epidemiology, Surgical Oncology Clinical Trials, and Evidence-Based Surgery in Hepatopancreatobiliary Oncology.
Chaya Shwaartz, MD
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Abdominal Transplant & HPB Surgical Oncology
Director, Abdominal Transplant & HPB Fellowship
University of Toronto, University Health Network
Toronto, ON
Dr. Chaya Shwaartz is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a staff surgeon in the Division of General Surgery at the University Health Network. She earned her medical degree from Tel-Aviv University, Israel, followed by a general surgery residency at Sheba Medical Center, Israel, and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dr. Shwaartz then pursued a clinical fellowship in Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) surgery at Sheba Medical Center, before completing a highly specialized fellowship in Abdominal Transplant and HPB Surgical Oncology at the University of Toronto, Toronto General Hospital.
Her clinical expertise lies in minimally invasive HPB surgery including robotic surgery. As the surgical lead of the HPB Center, she oversees multidisciplinary efforts in surgical innovation, research, and education. Dr.Shwaartz is also the Program Director for the Abdominal Transplant and HPB Surgery Fellowships at the University of Toronto and the Director of postgraduate surgical education at UHN, reflecting her passion for surgical education. She has been recognized with multiple awards for her excellence in surgical education.
Erica Tsang, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Assistant Professor
University of Toronto
GI Medical Oncologist
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Toronto, ON
Dr. Tsang is a GI medical oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. She completed her Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology training at the University of British Columbia, followed by further training in GI and early phase oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research interests include genomics and clinical trials, with a focus on HPB cancers.
David Wong
Hepatologist, Specialized Positive Care Clinic, St. Michael’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto
Clinical Director, Toronto Western Hospital Francis Family Liver Center, University Health Network
Toronto, Ontario
Dr. David Wong is a hepatologist in Toronto, Ontario. He graduated from the University Of Toronto Faculty Of Medicine in 1988. Following his clinical training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Dr. Wong received further training as a research fellow with Dr. Bruce Walker at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where he studied the cellular immune responses to hepatitis C viral infection.
Dr. Wong was initially appointed full time staff in the Division of Gastroenterology at McMaster University in 2000 and then moved to the University Health Network (UHN)/Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH) in 2002, where he is the Clinical Director of the Toronto Western Hospital Francis Family Liver Center, University Health Network. He is also on staff of the Immunodeficiency Clinic at UHN – Toronto General Division and is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is also the staff hepatologist at the Specialized Positive Care Clinic at St. Michael’s Hospital.
Dr. Wong’s clinical interests lie in the area of viral hepatitis and liver disease in HIV. His educational responsibilities include coordinating the Clinical Hepatology training program for the University of Toronto. He is an advisor to the Hepatitis C Secretariat at the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Dr. Wong also co-ordinates the annual Hepatology Update meeting in Toronto.