The MedConference 2016

Gerald Batist, MD

Minda de Gunzburg Professor & Chair

Department of Oncology, McGill University

Director, Segal Cancer Centre, Jewish General Hospital

Director, McGill Centre for Translational Research in Cancer, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research

Dr. Gerald Batist is Chairman, Department of Oncology, McGill University, and Director, McGill Centre for Translational Research in Cancer, which was established to stimulate rapid translation of new discoveries in the research laboratory into clinical benefits for patients.

In 2007, with Dr. Luc Bélanger, Director Centre de recherche en cancérologie de l’Université Laval at l’ Hôtel Dieu de Quebec (CHUQ), he co-founded the Quebec – Clinical Research Organization in Cancer (Q-CROC), which focuses on biomarker-driven clinical trials and therapeutic resistance.

Dr.Batist was born in Montreal, and though he was at University in New York City, he returned for medical school at McGill University. This was followed by post-doctoral training in New York, Boston and finally at the National Cancer Institute in Washington. There he trained in medical oncology and molecular pharmacology.

He leads a highly successful laboratory and clinical research program, with over 180 scientific publications and a number of book chapters relating to his research interests. He has trained many scientists and clinical oncologists, and also practices medical oncology.

Marc Beauchamp, MD

Marc Beauchamp is an orthopedic surgeon who completed his residency at the Université de Montreal in 1993 and his fellowship in 1995 at University of Toronto. He has been assistant professor of surgery at the Université de Montreal since 1996 and his main interest is upper extremity reconstruction and arthroscopy. He also works in a private practice since 2005 at MISS (Montreal Institute of Specialized Surgery).

He is currently involved in research projects related to arthroscopic shoulder surgery (imaging, anesthesia, post surgical pain control, development of new surgical instruments). He is author of several scientific communications, medical articles, and book’s chapters. He is a consultant for the Journal of Medicine and the Person and he is involved in charity funds as administrator of the EnRoute foundation, Canada.

He is married to Caroline (hematologist and oncologist at Hopital du Sacré-Coeur, Université de Montreal) since 1993, and father of six children.

He leads a highly successful laboratory and clinical research program, with over 180 scientific publications and a number of book chapters relating to his research interests. He has trained many scientists and clinical oncologists, and also practices medical oncology.

Cristina Benetti, RN

Cristina Benetti, RN, has been working at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, in the Operating Room since 2004. In 2010 she worked for 3 months on a malnutrition project with the NGO AVSI in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Cristina Benetti worked from1995 to 2003 as Head Nurse in Operating Room at the St. Raphael Hospital and Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy and from 1993 to 1995 as Head Nurse in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Civic Hospital of Udine, Italy. She started her career working from 1984 to1993 as an RN in Internal Medicine at the Civic Hospital, Cividale del Friuli, Italy.

Maria Ciantia, CM

Maria Laker Ciantia, CM, has been working at the Niguarda Hospital (Milan) in the maternity ward, the operating room and the delivery room since May 2010. She graduated as a midwife in November 2009 at the Milano Bicocca University in Milan, Italy. She also worked as a volunteer in Kitgum (Uganda, where she was born) at the St Joseph’s Hospital for one month.

Mauro Ferrari, PhD

Dr. Ferrari was born in Padova, Italy in 1959. He is married to Paola Del Zotto Ferrari. They have five children: Giacomo (age 22); Kim and Chiara (twins, age 20), and Ilaria and Federica (twins, age 13). Dr. Ferrari is a citizen of the USA.

Dr. Ferrari serves as President and CEO of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, where he holds the Ernest Cockrell Jr. Distinguished Endowed Chair. He is also Professor of Internal Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College, Adjunct Professor of Experimental Therapeutics The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University, Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at UT Austin, and President of The Alliance for NanoHealth in Houston.

Dr. Mauro Ferrari is a founder of biomedical nano/micro-technology, especially in their applications to drug delivery, cell transplantation, implantable bioreactors, and other innovative therapeutic modalities. In these fields, he has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and 6 books. He is the inventor of more than 30 issued patents, with about thirty more pending in the US and internationally. His contributions have been recognized by a variety of accolades, including: the Presidential Young Investigator Award of the National Science Foundation; the Shannon Director's Award of the National Institutes of Health; the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and the Italiani nel Mondo Award from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His career research and development portfolio totals over $50 million, including support from the NCI, NIH, DoD, NASA, NSF, DARPA, DoE, the State of Texas, and the State of Ohio, The Ohio State University, and several private enterprises. He began his academic career at the University of California, Berkeley, where he tenured in Material Science, Civil Engineering, and Bioengineering. Upon recruitment to the Ohio State University, he served as the Edgar Hendrickson Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Internal Medicine, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Associate Vice President, Health Sciences Technology and Commercialization, Associate Director of the Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute and Director of the Biomedical Engineering Center. Upon recruitment to Houston, he served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Nanomedicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

Dr. Ferrari also served as Special Expert on Nanotechnology at the National Cancer Institute in 2003-2005, providing leadership into the formulation, refinement, and approval of the NCI's Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, currently the world's largest program in medical nanotechnology.

Dr. Ferrari’s degrees are in Mathematics (Padova, 1985, Italy), and Mechanical Engineering (U.C. Berkeley, M.S. 1987, & Ph.D. 1989). He attended medical school at the Ohio State University (2002-03).

Dr. Ferrari is an academic- entrepreneur, with several companies that originated from his laboratory. He currently serves on the Board of Director three companies: Nanomedical Systems of Austin TX; Leonardo Biosystems of Houston TX, and NASDAQ-traded Arrowhead Research Corporation (NASDAQ:ARWR).

Elizabeth Freiling, RN

Elizabeth Freiling, RN is a Team Leader at the Center for Medically Fragile Children at Providence Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Portland in 1980. Upon graduation she worked as a neonatal intensive care nurse at Oregon Health Sciences University and as a NICU transport/Lifeflight nurse. She also worked as a Postpartum/Newborn nurse at St. Vincent's Hospital in Portland Oregon. After a leave of absence to raise her six children, she began working six years ago with pediatric patients who are ventilator dependent. For the last two years she has worked at CMFC where she also precepts senior nursing students. She serves on the Comfort Care Committee and the Documentation Committee.

Antonella Goisis, MD

Antonella Goisis graduated at the Medical School of the University of Milan, Italy. She is board certified in Oncology and Internal Medicine and completed a Master degree in “Palliative care at the end of life” at the same University.

During the first 18 years of her professional life, she took care of patients in oncology, from the Internal Medicine perspective. She is a strongly supporter of a holistic approach to patients, focusing on the whole patient rather than only on their cancer.

Over the last 9 years she has been taking care of patients affected by cancer who are terminally ill at the Hospice Service at “Casa di Cura Beato Luigi Palazzolo”, the first Hospice of Bergamo, Italy.

Since 2007 she presents to a live radio program on health care topics (Radio E, Bergamo, Italy). She is currently working on the publication of her first book about her experience with patients affected by cancer.

Anthony Lechich, MD

Anthony J. Lechich, MD, is an internist and geriatrician in New York City. Earlier in his career he was a senior attending physician in the Chelsea-Village Program of Home Health Care for the Elderly. For the past 17 years he has been Medical Director of the 729 bed Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center. This role includes teaching medical students in neurology and geriatrics from Cornell and NY Medical College. He has focused on developing a special program and educational module for the long-term care of persons with Huntington's Disease. At TCC he has promoted and lectured on the development of a nursing home palliative care program. He currently serves on the Boards of an Assisted Living facility, the CITI NY clinical informatics initiative and served also on the NY State Hospital Review and Planning Council for six years. In 2009 he and a colleague edited a position paper on Assisted Living facilities for the American Medical Director's Association.

Frances McCarthy, MS, RNC

Fran McCarthy has been a neonatal nurse at Children Hospital NY (CHONY) Presbyterian – Columbia University for almost 25 years. She has always had an interest in the psychological, emotional and spiritual challenges facing patients and staff. She received a Master’s in Nursing from Columbia University School of Nursing as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. Fran is a member of the CHONY Bereavement Committee and the PACT committee. She also teaches new neonatal nurses about bereavement support and practices in the NICU. She is part of the promoting committee of the Neonatal Hospice Care Management at CHONY.

Damiano Rondelli, MD

Dr. Damiano Rondelli is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, IL.

He was born in Faenza, Italy and graduated in Medicine at the University of Bologna where he also completed a fellowship in hematology in 1994. He started his research on stem cell immunogenicity as Research Associate at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA. He was then an Assistant Professor in Hematology at the University of Bologna where he continued his laboratory research and worked in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. In 2002 he moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago as an Associate Professor and Director of the Stem Cell Transplant Program.

His clinical research focuses on Phase I/II trials in allogeneic stem cell transplantation in patients with hematologic malignancies, particularly with leukemias or myelofibrosis. His laboratory research focuses on transplant immunology and is aimed at developing models for stem cell transplant across HLA compatibility.

He founded the “Accademia Medici Italiani a Chicago” (AMIC) (Academy of Italian Physicians in Chicago) that gathers Italian physicians who work as faculties in academic institutions in Chicago and organizes lectures at the Italian Institute of Culture on health care topics of general interest to the Chicago community. Has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, several book chapters, and is the editor of a book on the history of medicine (Storia delle Discipline Mediche, Hippocrates Edizioni, Milano 1999).

Father Aldo Trento

Father Antonio (Aldo) Trento was born on January 12, 1947 in Sovramonte, in the city district of Belluno, Italy. He is a missionary priest of the Fraternity of Saint Charles Borromeo and has been living in Paraguay since 1989. He is currently the pastor of San Rafaél Church, in the city of Asunción. The life of this parish generated the Clinic "Divine Providence Saint Richard Pampuri Home" for the terminally ill and for the poor, who are usually abandoned, as well as a polyambulatory, an elementary school, a shelter for pregnant women who suffered sexual abuse, four homes for orphans affected by HIV/AIDS, a shelter for chronically-ill children, and two residences for poor and abandoned elderly people. At the present time they are building new facilities for the Clinic as well as a vocational school with several subject concentrations to facilitate the introduction of the youths who complete their primary education at Pai Alberto school into the job market.

He has been appointed "Knight of the Star of Solidarity", by the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano in June 2008. In September 2008 he was also proclaimed illustrious citizen of the city of Asunción by the City Council and by the intendants of the city.

Father Aldo writes weekly articles for the Observador Semanal del Diario Ultima Hora in Paraguay, and for the weekly Italian magazine Tempi. He contributed to many books published for adults and children. His writings are published throughout the world by means of the movement of Communion and Liberation, to which he belongs. Padre Aldo has been traveling around the world to give lectures, hold meetings and give talks to witness to the works of San Rafaél and his own life. He also travels to collect donations in order to sustain those works which are nothing other than the fruit of the Divine Providence and of the Mystery who makes him day after day, as he witnesses in his famous quote "I am You who make me."