Unity Health Toronto’s January Honour Roll
Every month, staff, researchers, physicians, learners and teams across Unity Health Toronto celebrate important honours, achievements and awards. Congratulations to all who’ve been recognized in January!
St. Joseph’s Health Centre Emergency Medicine Physicians Drs. Sam Sue, Maria Ivankovic, Courtney Spelliscy and D’Arcy Gagnon were awarded MD Program Teaching Excellence Awards from the University of Toronto. The award recognizes excellence in undergraduate medical education. Congratulations to all!
PhD candidate Mary Aglipay was awarded a CIHR Early Career Investigator Award to support her research project “Understanding the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and patients.” The project aims to quantify how non-pharmaceutical interventions like wearing masks, physical distancing, staying home, avoiding contact, limiting visitors and handwashing impacted the spread of SARS-CoV-2 among children and patients in the Greater Toronto Area. Aglipay is under the supervision of Dr. Jonathon Maguire, pediatrician at St. Michael’s Hospital.
Dr. Gianluigi Bisleri, director of the Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery Program at St. Michael’s, and the minimally-invasive cardiac surgery team celebrated a significant milestone: 250 minimally-invasive cardiac surgeries completed since 2021. This achievement is a testament to the skill, dedication and heart of the entire team, and it is making a real-world impact on the lives of patients and their families.
Dr. Yvonne Bombard, Canada Research Chair and St. Michael’s Hospital scientist, has received $200,000 in funding from the Terry Fox Research Institute to design interventions to improve access to cancer genetic screening services for racialized groups in Canada. Notably, these interventions will be designed in partnership with cancer patients and racialized community members.
Dr. Yvonne Bombard
Dr. Heyu Ni, scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, has been awarded the 2025 Paul Dudley White International Scholar Award from the American Heart Association for an abstract he submitted to the International Stroke Conference 2025. The abstract, titled “A first-in-class humanized antibody fragment targeting platelet glycoprotein Ibα: a comprehensive preclinical study of CA1001 for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke,” was the highest ranked abstract for Canada. Ni and the co-authors will be acknowledged during the American Heart Association’s International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles in February.
Dr. Heyu Ni (Photo: Canadian Blood Services)
A clinical study co-led by Dr. Sean B. Rourke, scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, has helped pave the way for the Health Canada approval of a new dual HIV-Syphilis rapid test. The new rapid test from MedMira Inc., allows clinicians to detect both HIV-1/2 and syphilis antibodies using one blood sample from a single finger prick.
Dr. Sean B. Rourke
Hania Siddiqui, a trainee with the FIRST 60 research team, completed her first oral presentation at the Canadian Society of Addictions Medicine in Hamilton, Ont. Her presentation was about opioid use among construction workers.
Hania Siddiqui
Dr. Haibo Zhang, scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, has been appointed to the Robert and Dorothy Pitts Chair in Acute Care and Emergency Medicine. The hospital-university endowed chair is for a five-year term.
Dr. Haibo Zhang
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