Dr. Karen Laframboise is a Canadian leader in pulmonary vascular disease and pulmonary hypertension. Dr. Laframboise received her MD from the University of Ottawa, and continued her post graduate training at both the University of Manitoba and University of Western Ontario. She is currently an Academic Member, Division of Respirology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, where she provides respirology inpatient and outpatient care. Dr. Laframboise is the Director of the Saskatchewan Pulmonary Hypertension Multidisciplinary clinic. One of only 12 recognized expert clinics in the area of Pulmonary Hypertension in Canada, the clinic has led the way in teaching and educating patients out of hospital prior to starting them on intravenous continuous prostacyclin therapy. Dr. Laframboise has been actively involved in a number of research projects over the years, and has been the site Principal Investigator for a number of multi-centered trials in the area of Pulmonary Hypertension, ARDS, Sepsis and COPD.
Dr. Shane Shapera obtained his Doctor of Medicine in 2003 from the University of Toronto and went on to continue in Toronto during his Internal Medicine and Respirology residency training. With the help of The Dr. Cameron C. Gray Award, he completed an additional year of clinical fellowship with an emphasis in Interstitial Lung Diseases. He was appointed to the Faculty of Medicine as an Assistant Professor and Clinician Educator in December 2011. He has been an innovator in his role as an educator and has received numerous teaching awards since his appointment. He is currently the Director of the Interstitial Lung Diseases Program at the Toronto General Hospital, UHN. He also works with the Toronto Lung Transplant Program providing pre-lung transplant assessments for patients with ILDs. Dr. Shapera is also a key opinion leader in the area of Progressive Fibrosing Interstitial Lung Disease (PF-ILD).
Dr. Vivian Ramsden is a registered nurse with a master of science in community health administration and wellness promotion from the California College for Health Sciences. Her PhD is in the interdisciplinary areas of medicine, curriculum studies and education from the University of Saskatchewan. Today she lives in Saskatoon, where she is director of the Research Division for the Department of Academic Family Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Ramsden’s work has a strong focus on research in prevention and wellness. She established a program of research grounded in the principles and strategies of primary health care. This includes working with individuals and groups in underserved communities in Canada and in southern India to address their health needs in the context of socially accountable research that is designed, developed, and created with and by the community, with programs resulting from this engagement.
Dr. David Gaunt completed a Bachelor of Health Sciences and Doctor of Medicine through the University of Calgary. Following that, he completed a residency training in family Medicine through Dalhousie University, in a program based out of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Dr. Gaunt currently practices family medicine with Pinnacle Medical Centres in Calgary Alberta.
Dr. Jeff Myers is an Associate Professor at the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), palliative medicine physician and is clinically based at Sinai Health’s Palliative Care Unit within the Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital. He is also former head of DFCM’s Division of Palliative Care. Dr. Jeff Myers has been appointed the Bresver Family Chair in End-of-Life Care and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) in the DFCM, Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Myers’ five-year appointment began December 1, 2021. As a palliative medicine physician, Dr. Myers is acutely aware that palliative care is about enabling people to live well throughout the course of a serious illness journey and improving the quality of experiences for both patients and their families.
Dr. Satchan Takaya is an Infection Disease Specialist and a Clinical Associate Professor with the Division of Infectious Disease at The University of Saskatchewan. Her current role includes being the Saskatoon Pandemic Chief of Staff, Physician Lead in Covid-19 Early Therapeutics with SHA, Physician co-lead, Covid-19 Vaccine with IHICC Saskatoon and Physician Interim Lead in Infection Prevention and Control. Born in Japan but raised in Saskatoon, Dr. Takaya completed medical school and her internal medicine residency at the University of Saskatchewan. After her chief resident year in 1994, she moved to Vancouver to complete her infectious diseases fellowship at the University of British Columbia. Most of her time is spent at St Paul’s Hospital, but she balances this with an outpatient practice in all things infectious, including HIV, viral hepatitis, surgical infections, and now COVID-19 and pandemic planning.
Dr. Bhutani is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Alberta. His main clinical interests are in the fields of Asthma and COPD, and his work has led him to be involved in many local, provincial, and national initiatives in these areas of specialty. He is currently the clinical director of the Asthma and COPD clinics at the University of Alberta. Provincially, he is the Co-chair of the Alberta Health Services (AHS) COPD Connect Care Pathway development program. From 2014-2020 he was co-chair of the Airways Working Group of the AHS Respiratory Health Strategic Clinical Network.
Nationally, he is the past Co-chair of the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS) COPD Clinical Assembly. He was elected to the CTS Executive in 2020 and currently serves as Treasurer for the CTS. He has a number of research interests in both COPD and Asthma and has received research funding from many public and private granting agencies including CIHR and Alberta Innovates.
Dr. Brian Graham is a world-renowned researcher on pulmonary function studies. Dr. Graham is the lead author of the 2019 ATS/ERS Spirometry Standards and a RESPTREC key opinion leader. He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Saskatchewan in the Division of Respirology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and has been a member of the Division since 1976. He served as the CEO of The Lung Association – Saskatchewan from 1985-2016. Dr. Graham has served on several, provincial, national, and international committees and task forces related to lung health. He has most recently been a co-chair of the joint American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society task force in charge of developing international standards for the measurement of diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide.
Dr. Conne Yang is a pediatric respirologist at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver where she is the director of the Pediatric Asthma Program. She is currently the co-chair of the Asthma Assembly for the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS) and led the development of the latest CTS Asthma Guideline on the Management of Very Mild and Mild Asthma. She is also the president of the Respiratory Health section of the Canadian Pediatric Society where she helps disseminate unified information on pediatric respiratory health topics.
Dr. Yang also serves as a medical advisor for the BC Lung Foundation. Her research is focused on finding the best way to diagnose and treat different types of asthma, with a particular interest in learning about the reasons why some children have severe, treatment resistant asthma and finding ways to treat those children effectively.
Dr. Scotty Butcher is an Associate Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at the University of Saskatchewan and founder of The Strength Jedi. He holds a BScPT and MScKin from the University of Saskatchewan and a PhD in Exercise Physiology and Experimental Medicine from the University of Alberta. He is certified as a Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist (ACSM-RCEP), is a Crossfit Level 1 trainer (CF-L1), and is formerly certified as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA-CSCS); the latter of which he has formally relinquished. Most recently, Scotty has been certified as a Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher (CMMT), incorporates mindfulness into his research, and has a daily personal practice. Scotty teaches exercise physiology, prescription, and rehabilitation to physical therapy students and has published several peer reviewed articles and two book chapters related to exercise testing and prescription. He has a passion for strength training and translates this to promoting quality exercise training and rehabilitation practices for clinicians and students. His focus in research, teaching, and clinical work is on the hybrid rehabilitation/strength training approach and shares his views through blogging and vlogging.
Alan Kaplan is a Family Physician practicing in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He graduated with a medical degree from the University of Toronto. He is the Chairperson of the Family Physician Airways Group of Canada, a board member of the International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) and President of the IPCRG 5th bi-annual world scientific meeting, “Making Every Breath Count,” Toronto 2010. He is a member of the Canadian Consensus Guidelines for Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Sinusitis and a representative of the College of Family Physicians of Canada to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) clinical working group. He is a board member of the Canadian Network of Asthma Care, a member of the Chronic Respiratory Disease Surveillance Advisory Committee (Public Health Agency of Canada), and the International Editor for the International Primary Care Respiratory Journal.