The MedConference 2016

Mark Basik, MD

Dr. Basik graduated in medicine from McGill University, and completed a general surgery residency at the Universite de Montreal, followed by a fellowship in surgical oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He practiced as a surgical oncologist at the University of Montreal and then was a visiting investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH for 2 years. He is now the Guerrera Family Cancer Scientist at the Segal Cancer Center in Montreal, QC, as well as an associate professor of oncology and surgery at McGill University. He heads the Cancer Genomics and Translational Research Laboratory at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and practices breast surgery at the Jewish General Hospital, where he is the Medical Director of the inter-disciplinary Breast Cancer Team. His research interests include the genomics of breast cancer, with a focus on drug resistance, as well as novel diagnostics in breast cancer.

Francesco Belia, med student

Francesco Belia is a fifth-year medical student at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. After graduating high school in Perugia (Umbria, Italy) he moved to Rome. Over the past year he started an internship in general surgery at Gemelli Hospital. He shares an apartment with six other students, very close to the Colosseum. He likes to play guitar, sing together and any kind of sport, especially soccer.

Andrea Cooke, RN

Cooke is a registered nurse with the breast cancer team at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. She received her Masters of Science in nursing from McGill University, and subsequently worked on acute medical and surgical in-patient units. Since nursing school, she had a passion for oncology and palliative care nursing, and in July 2007, she started working in the oncology clinic at the Jewish General Hospital. She is now the nurse navigator for breast cancer patients: helping support patients and families cope with the disease. Patients who are referred to her include individuals with little or no social support, mental health issues and patients with young children. Ideally, she meets her patients at the time of diagnosis, and supports them through curative treatments, recurrences, the stress of living with breast cancer as a chronic illness and at the end of life. She works closely with an extensive interdisciplinary team, and helps patients find resources that they need for their unique situation. In 2013, she received her certification in oncology nursing. She is presently working on a research project looking at women's experiences with fear of a breast cancer recurrence.

Christopher de Vinck

Dr. de Vinck earned his doctoral degree from Columbia University, and is widely known for his book about his disabled brother, Oliver: The Power of the Powerless: A Brother's Legacy of Love. He is the author of 13 books and his essays have been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and in the NJ Bergen Record. De Vinck brings a unique voice to the issues of goodness and compassion woven into our everyday lives that John Updike called "excellent and often very moving."

Cristiano Ferrario, MD

Dr Ferrario graduated in 2001 and completed his residency in Medical Oncology in 2005 at the University of Milan, Italy.

After a period of training at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan, Dr Ferrario moved to Montreal (Canada) to work as a visiting scientist in basic research at the Lady Davis Institute for two years.

In 2007 he was awarded the Terry Fox Foundation Post MD Research Fellowship Award and completed a 4-year clinical fellowship program at the Oncology Department of McGill University. During this time he worked in clinical research in breast, hepatobiliary and prostate cancers.

In 2011 he moved back to Italy where he worked for two years as a medical oncologist at the “IRST” (Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la cura dei Tumori) in Meldola, focusing on breast cancer and on the treatment of refractory testicular cancer with high-dose chemotherapy.

In 2012 he accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Oncology Department of McGill University (Montreal) and Medical Oncologist at the Segal Cancer Centre (Jewish General Hospital, Montreal), where he is currently working. He treats breast and urological cancers and is particularly dedicated to clinical research, being currently involved in several phase 1-3 clinical trials.

In 2012 we was the recipient of the Kate McGarrigle Fellowship Award. In 2014 the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University awarded him with the Introduction to Clinical Medicine Oncology Award for Excellence in Teaching.

David Goodwin, MD

Dr. David Goodwin completed his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of North Dakota. He is a Board Certified Family Practitioner and a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He completed his residency with the Duluth Family Practice Program. Dr. Goodwin has special interests in sports medicine, pediatrics, maternal/child health care and general family medicine. He joined the medical campus in Crosby in 1994. In 2013 he left clinic practice and started Geriatrics Physician Service to serve those in Skilled Nursing Facilities in Long Term and Transitional care settings.

Monica Goodwin, MD

Dr. Monica Goodwin is a Summa Cum Laude undergraduate of the College of St. Benedict and received her medical degree from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine. She completed her residency with the Duluth Family Practice Program in Minnesota. Dr. Goodwin is a board certified family physician. Her special interests include women's health, obstetrics, and pediatrics. Dr. Goodwin joined the medical campus in Crosby in 1994.

Jerome Groopman, MD and Pamela Hartzband, MD

Dr. Groopman and Dr. Hartzband are both on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and attending physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is a hematologist/oncologist and she is an endocrinologist.

Dr. Groopman holds the Dina and Raphael Recanati Chair of Medicine and is Chief of Experimental Medicine. He received his B.A. from Columbia College summa cum laude and his M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He served his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and his specialty fellowships in hematology and oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Children’s Hospital/Sidney Farber Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School in Boston. He has published more than 180 research articles. In 2000, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He writes regularly about biology and medicine for lay audiences as a staff writer at the New Yorker Magazine. More information can be found here.

Dr. Hartzband is an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Medical School and Attending Physician in the Division of Endocrinology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She specializes in disorders of the thyroid and pituitary glands. A magna cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College, Harvard University, she received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She served her internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and her specialty fellowships in endocrinology and metabolism at the University of California, Los Angeles. More information can be found here.

Together they have coauthored articles in the New England Journal of Medicine on the changing culture of clinical care. They have addressed the impact of electronic records, uniform practice guidelines, monetary incentives, the Internet, economic language used to describe medical professionals, and pitfalls of medical decision analysis. They have written for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and now their first book together, “Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What is Right for You.” In 2011, each received the Humanism in Medicine Award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

Lucia Pederia, midwife

Lucia Pederia graduated from the University of Brescia, Italy in 2010. Her research thesis was “The awareness of HIV positive mother about the transmission of the virus through the breast milk”.  She worked as midwife at Kitgum's hospital, Uganda, at Milton Keynes Hospital, UK and at Trento's Hospital, Italy. Currently she works in high risk delivery room at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, UK.

Lise Poirier-Groulx, MD

Dr. Poirier-Groulx is a graduate of the University of Ottawa Family Medicine Residency Program. She obtained her fellowship in the College of Family Physicians of Ontario.  She is a certificant of the General Practice Psychotherapy Association.  She is currently a part time lecturer for the Family Medicine Department at the University of Ottawa, is a member of ACTheals (Association of Christian Therapists), giving talks in North America on topics regarding spiritual and developmental disability issues, and has focused her practice on medical psychotherapy for the past 14 years. She does therapy with those who have development disabilities such as Down syndrome and Autism Spectrum disorder, and their families. She was a founder of the Adult Down Syndrome Medical Clinic in Ottawa in 2004, the first specialized medical clinic in Canada for adults with Down Syndrome.  She has a 16 year-old son with Down syndrome and complex congenital heart disease, whose story has been published as The Case Study of C G in the Journal of Christian Healing, Spring/Summer 2007, and in Defiant Birth:  Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics by Melinda Tankard Reist, 2006.

Dorothy Smok, MD

Dorothy Smok is a member of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.  Dr. Smok graduated from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University. After completing her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, Dr. Smok pursued fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, of Columbia University. Dr. Smok joined the Columbia faculty in 2005, where she has worked as a core member of the Obstetric team. Dr. Smok oversees the obstetric care of high risk pregnancies. She has a particular interest in medical diseases that affect pregnancy, including infectious diseases, maternal cardiac conditions, pregnancy associated cancers, psychiatric illnesses, and medical ethics. Dr. Smok is the clinical obstetric director of the Women and Children Care Center (WCCC) where comprehensive care is provided to expecting mothers with HIV and their children. Dr. Smok serves as a member of the pediatric ethics committee. Her interest in ethics is applied clinically in caring for expecting mothers who request neonatal comfort care, where multidisciplinary collaboration with maternal fetal medicine, neonatology, nursing, social work, and child life specialists result in optimal care of the patient. Dr. Smok is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a member of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine.

More about Dorothy Smok.

Daniel Sulmasy, MD

Dr. Sulmasy is the Kilbride-Clinton Professor of Medicine and Ethics in the Department of Medicine and Divinity School at the University of Chicago, where he serves as Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and as Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion. He has previously held faculty positions at New York Medical College and at Georgetown University. He received his AB and MD degrees from Cornell University, completed his residency, chief residency, and post-doctoral fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and holds a PhD in philosophy from Georgetown University. He has served on numerous governmental advisory committees, and was appointed to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues by President Obama in 2010. His research interests encompass both theoretical and empirical investigations of the ethics of end-of-life decision-making, ethics education, and spirituality in medicine. He is the author or editor of six books: The Healer’s Calling (1997), Methods in Medical Ethics (1st ed., 2001; 2nd ed., 2010), The Rebirth of the Clinic (2006), A Balm for Gilead (2006), Safe Passage: A Global Spiritual Sourcebook for Care at the End of Life (2014), and Francis the Leper: Faith, Medicine, Theology, and Science (2014). He also serves as editor-in-chief of the journal, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.

Laura Toso, MD

Dr. Toso received her medical degree with honors from the University of Milan-Bicocca. She was then a post-doc fellow at the National Institute of Health (NIH) doing research on prevention of mental retardation in Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, and cerebral palsy. Following that, she completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University. She is interested in comprehensive women's care, especially high-risk obstetrics.

Daniel Webb Markwalter, med student

Markwalter is a third-year medical student at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Originally from Virginia, he studied biomedical engineering and chemistry at Bucknell University. It was in his final year there that an English professor encouraged him to write during his medical pursuits. In March of 2015, his first piece, a reflection on his own experience as a patient as well as the modern practice of empathy and compassion titled “In the Hands of Another,” was published in JAMA. He views writing as a method for self-improvement but also hopes to encourage dialogue among health care providers regarding the importance of patient perspectives and narrative medicine.