ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½

The Division of Thoracic Surgery has undergone a transition in leadership and is pleased to have Dr. Bryce Laing as its new Divisional Director. He follows in the footsteps of Dr. Eric Bédard, who had functioned in this role since 2013 and who now has taken over the position of Director for Thoracic Surgery Research for the group. The Division continues to innovate in clinical care areas with the introduction of a multi-disciplinary approach for the evaluation and treatment of patients with achalasia. Collaborating with Dr. Clarence Wong (Gastroenterology) and the remainder of the members of the Foregut group, surgeons now frequently perform the novel per-oral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) procedure.  The Division, which was an early adopter of Advanced Minimally Invasive Thoracic surgical techniques is now poised to start a Robotics program for our patients. A core group of surgeons will train and institute a Thoracic Robotic Program with the first procedures to be performed in the Fall of 2025.

The Division is also active in areas of research including biomarker testing in lung cancer, the impact of sarcopenia in esophageal and lung cancer, lung cancer screening, and competency assessment and standardization of learning objectives in thoracic surgery. The Division was proud to support Dr. Uzair Jogiat (supervisor – Dr. Eric Bedard) who successfully defended his PhD thesis in 2024! Dr. Jogiat was awarded numerous prestigious awards during his PhD studies including the CIHR 2022 Canada Graduate Scholarship and Walter H John’s Graduate Fellowship from the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. He also published several manuscripts in high impact journals including the Annals of Surgery, Surgical Endoscopy and the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle. Dr. Dunavan Morris-Janzen (supervisor – Dr. Eric Bedard) will be starting his MSc in July 2025 in the Clinician Investigator Program studying the relationship between sarcopenia and outcomes for patients with lung cancer.

The Division was fortunate to have Dr. Bernardo Pessoa with us this past year as our Clinical Fellow in Thoracic Surgery. He has now returned to Brazil to institute a minimally invasive Thoracic Surgery program in his home institution. Finally, The Division is eagerly looking forward to July 2025 and the opening of its new RCPSC-accredited residency in thoracic surgery and are proud to have Dr. Lujain Attar join us as our inaugural trainee!

Dr. Simon Turner and Dr. Bin Zheng continue to host quarterly Surgical Education Rounds, which have seen presentations on a range of projects, including new research proposals, published research and highlights from Department initiatives like Surgery Camp.  This year the first ever Tom Williams Award for Best Trainee Publication in Surgical Education Research highlighted the incredible work done by undergrads, medical students, graduate students and residents in surgical education research. There were seven manuscripts submitted, featuring eleven Department of Surgery trainees supervised by five different faculty members from Cardiac Surgery, General Surgery, Thoracic Surgery and Surgical Research. The winning paper was by Dr. Abigail White, examining the concepts of autonomy and competence in cardiac surgery. We continue to build on the excellent work of our trainees by supporting research projects at multiple levels, including two 2025 Surgical Education Summer Studentships, which were awarded to Adam Idriss (supervisor Dr. Abdullah Saleh) and Callum French (supervisor Dr. Alexis Armour). Dr. Deng Mapiour, Dr. Armen Rouhi (resident lead) and Ipinu Fatokun (student lead) have built the incredible UpSurge mentorship program for BIPOC medical students interested in surgery. UpSurge continues to grow and recently hosted a successful mixer where dozens of medical students had a chance to sit down and chat about careers in surgery with residents and staff surgeons. Dr. Nori Bradley leads the STEEL resident teacher training certificate which has recruited its first resident participants and staff surgeon mentors.