Dr. Anna Banerji, the Director of Global and Indigenous Health at Continuing Professional Development, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, is a paediatric infectious, tropical disease specialist and global health specialist. She has trained in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Harvard University, where she completed her MPH in International Health.
Dr. Banerji’s clinical and research focus has been on vulnerable children, especially Indigenous and refugees. In 2007 she created the Immigrant Health and Infectious Disease Clinic, a clinic for immigrant and refugee children. Currently she is the pediatric consultant at COSTI where she assesses newly arrived Refugee children. In 2009 she created the Canadian Refugee Health Conference which evolved with their American counter parts to become North American Refugee Health Conference in 2012. In 2014 she created the inaugural Indigenous Health Conference: Challenging Health Inequities.
She have been studying lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in Inuit children for almost two decades and the results of her work has led to increased awareness of the public health risks for LRTI and has resulted in changes to the Canadian Pediatrics Society guidelines for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus in the Inuit. She was the Principle Investigator for the largest prospective surveillance of LRTI across the Canadian Arctic based out of nine hospitals. Dr. Banerji uses a human rights framework for her work, research and education and is often an advocate for vulnerable populations. In January 2012, she was inducted into the Order of Ontario.
