Scientific Advisory Committee on Medical Devices Used in the Cardiovascular System: Overview

Cardiologist, Deputy Head, Schulich Cardiology Division, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre
Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario

Dr. Eric Cohen received his medical degree from the University of Calgary and undertook further training at McGill University. After a short period of general practice in Northern Ontario, he trained in general and interventional cardiology at the University of Toronto. Currently, he is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, and a cardiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, where his clinical work is focused on trans-catheter approaches to mitral valve disease. After serving as the Director of Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Sunnybrook for 14 years, he transitioned to Deputy Head of the Division of Cardiology in 2010. He has been actively involved with the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario (CCN) for several years. The Network monitors access and provides planning advice on advanced cardiac services to the Ministry of Health in Ontario. Dr. Cohen previously held the position of Medical Officer, and is currently a Board Member and Chair of the Network's Information Strategy Management Council. From 2013 to 2015 he was President of the Canadian Association for Interventional Cardiology, an organization dedicated to the advancement of the specialty in Canada and beyond. Academically, Dr. Cohen remains actively involved in teaching and clinical research related to interventional cardiology, and has authored or co-authored more than 95 peer reviewed publications. In recent years, he has served on safety monitoring committees for several large international clinical trials.

Antonio & Helga DeGasperis Chair in Clinical Outcomes Research in Cardiac Surgery
Professor of Surgery, University of Toronto
University Health Network
Toronto, Ontario

Christopher Feindel is Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the University Health Network (UHN) where he has been an academic cardiac surgeon for over 30 years. He began his career as an electrical engineer at the National Research Council Canada. He returned to school to obtain his medical degree from McGill in 1976 and obtained his General Surgery Fellowship from the University of Western Ontario in 1981. He completed his Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Fellowship at the University of Toronto in 1984 after which he joined Dr. Tirone David as a cardiac surgeon at the Toronto Western Hospital. He has achieved national and international recognition as an expert in cardiac surgery, particularly in open heart and catheter based valve surgery. In 2001, he obtained his Masters of Science in Healthcare Management from Harvard University and in 2015 he completed the Directors Education Program through the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Dr. Feindel is past President of the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons and is a former board member of Cardiac Care Network of Ontario. He chairs the Ontario Cardiac Surgery Quality Collaborative, a provincial cardiac surgery group dedicated to quality care in cardiac surgery based on a common outcomes database and reporting system. He continues to actively pursue his interest in clinical outcomes and is the holder of the Antonia and Helga DeGasperis Chair in Clinical Trials and Outcomes Research in Cardiac Surgery at the University Health Network. He currently sits on the board of Peterborough Regional Health Centre where he is a member of the board Quality Committee.

Director, Coronary Care Unit, Ottawa Heart Institute
Professor, Division of Cardiology, University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario

Marino Labinaz did his undergraduate and medical training at Queens University followed by a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Western Ontario. He received his fellowship in Internal Medicine in 1991 and his fellowship in Cardiology in 1992. Following his training in Cardiology, he completed a two-year interventional fellowship at Duke University Medical Centre after which he returned to the Heart Institute as a full time member of the Division of Cardiology in 1994. He is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Clinically, his areas of expertise are in interventional cardiology, acute coronary syndromes, structural cardiac interventions and acute cardiac care. He served as the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and the Interventional Cardiology Program at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He is currently the Director of Coronary Unit. He has published over 300 research publications, presentations, book chapters and reviews. He serves on the editorial board of Current Cardiology Reviews and does reviews for a number of journals including Circulation, the American Heart Journal and the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

Medical Director, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Cardiac Sciences Program,
Professor Cardiac Surgery, University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Alan Menkis began his career as a Dental Officer with the Department of National Health and Welfare at the Inuvik General Hospital, Inuvik, Northwest Territories from 1972 to 1974. He then obtained his medical degree from McMaster University in Hamilton and did postgraduate training in cardiovascular research, internal medicine, and surgery in Hamilton, and Memorial University in Newfoundland. He received general and cardiovascular and thoracic surgical training at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute achieving FRCPS(C) in both specialties.. He has received advanced post fellowship training in mechanical circulatory assist devices in Ottawa and at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He has published extensively and has been the recipient of numerous research grants. In September 2004, he was appointed the Medical Director of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) Cardiac Sciences Program and the Head of the Section of Cardiac Surgery, University of Manitoba. He is Past President of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation and Canadian Society of Transplantation, the Canadian Society of Transplantation and the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery He previously sat on the Clinical Trials Committee of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, was the former Chairman of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Western Ontario and the London Health Sciences Centre.

Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Université de Montréal
Chief, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine
Montreal, Quebec

Joaquim Miró completed his medical studies, his general pediatric training and his residency in pediatric cardiology at the University of Montreal between 1979 and 1990. In 1991, he completed a fellowship in the Intensive Care Unit of the Centre Chirurgical Marie-Lannelongue and Hôpital Robert Debré in Paris, France. Thereafter, Dr. Miró completed a fellowship in interventional catheterization at Harvard University at the Boston Children's Hospital between 1992 and 1993. Since 1993, he has practiced pediatric cardiology at Hôpital Sainte-Justine in Montreal, Quebec. He is also Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and Chief of the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Dr. Miró developed an expertise acknowledged internationally in the field of congenital interventional catheterization and, over the last 20 years has been invited to present at numerous conferences and give practical demonstrations in more than twenty countries including USA, China, Spain, France, Colombia, Thailand and Morocco. Dr Miró is the founder of the organization Sainte-Justine au Coeur du Monde, which conducts humanitarian missions to treat children born with cardiac malformations and to transfer expertise to local teams.

Director of cardiac catheterization and interventional cardiology, St. Paul's Hospital
Professor, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia

John Webb is Director of the cardiac catheterization labs and interventional cardiology at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, the McLeod professor of valvular heart disease intervention at the University of British Columbia and Provincial Medical Director of structural heart therapy for Cardiac Services of British Columbia.   His research focus is the transcatheter management of valvular heart disease and the development of new interventional therapeutic devices, procedures and programs. Dr. Webb's publications in peer reviewed journals exceed 450 and he is a recent recipient of the UBC Killam Research Prize in Science, an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University, and an Innovation and Achievement Award from Life Sciences BC

Professor - Department of Medicine
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
The University of Western Ontario

Dr. Yee is the Interim Chair of the Division of Cardiology at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University and City-Wide Interim Chief of Cardiology, London Teaching Hospitals, London, Ontario. He is currently the Ramsay Gunton Professor of Medicine at Western. He is a medical graduate of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society. His clinical expertise is in management of cardiac arrhythmias. Having published over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals and books, Dr. Yee's expertise is well sought after within the field of cardiac electrophysiology. His research has been published in scientific journals such as Circulation, Canadian Journal of Cardiology, American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology and the Journal of Heart Rhythm Management. Dr. Yee is affiliated with several professional associations including the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society the Heart Rhythm Society and the Canadian Heart Rhythm Society. He is an exam writing committee member for the International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners, former Chair and current member of the Specialist Advisory Committee for Medical Devices Used in the Cardiovascular System for the Medical Device Bureau (Health Canada) and Chair of the International Standards Organization Technical Committee/ Subcommittee 6 (Active Implants).

Dr. Jillianne Code is a Canadian researcher, educator, and learning scientist who focuses on learner agency, online learning technologies, and social media's impact on student success and well-being. She is the Director of the ALIVE Research Lab at the University of British Columbia and has studied agency 'unbundled' from formal education. Dr. Code is also a heart failure survivor and two-time transplant recipient, and co-founded the HeartLife Foundation in 2016 with Marc Bains, Canada's first and only national patient-led heart failure organization that has grown to include a network of heart failure patients across Canada. Her feature documentary, My Broken Heart, won an Honourable Mention at the Santa Monica International Film Festival.

Cardiologist & Cardiac Electrophysiologist
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Associate Scientist, Sunnybrook Research Institute
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Western University

Dr. Christopher Cheung is a staff cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at the Schulich Heart Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Cheung holds an MD from the University of British Columbia, MPH from Harvard University, and completed an advanced Cardiac Electrophysiology fellowship at the University of California San Francisco. He specializes in treating complex arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and ventricular tachycardia. Specific techniques include endocardial and epicardial catheter ablation, novel ablation techniques, and complex implantable devices including cardiac resynchronization devices, conduction system pacemakers and subcutaneous defibrillators. Dr. Cheung is an Associate Scientist of the Sunnybrook Research Institute and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. In his research, Dr. Cheung focuses on atrial fibrillation and complex arrhythmia management, wearable devices, and digital health. He has received the Canadian Cardiovascular Society-Bayer Vascular Award, Cardiovascular Network of Canada CHAT Discovery Award and SEED Grants, and the American College of Cardiology Young Investigator Award. He serves as a board member of the Canadian Heart Rhythm Society, and member of both the Education Council and Digital Education Committee of the Heart Rhythm Society.

Cardiologist, St. Boniface Hospital
Professor, University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Dr. Shelley Zieroth joined the Section of Cardiology at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg in July 2006. She is currently a Professor in the College of Medicine, Max Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, as well as Director of the Heart Failure Clinics. She is also Head of the Medical Heart Failure Program for Cardiac Sciences Manitoba.

Dr. Zieroth attended medical school at the University of Manitoba and went on to train in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the same centre. She completed her Postdoctoral Clinical Fellowship, specializing in Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant, at Toronto General Hospital.

Her research interests include heart failure and cardio-kidney-metabolic interactions. She holds leadership positions in international clinical trials and has enrolled many patients in landmark clinical trials during the course of her career. She is also Associate Editor at JACC HF, European Journal of HF and the European Heart Journal.

She is a governor-elect for ACC representing Canada and Past President of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada. Other leadership roles include Past President of the Canadian Heart Failure Society and she has been a longstanding contributor and now co-Chair of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure Guidelines. She serves as Co-Chair of Canada’s largest annual heart failure meeting, HF Update.