Mouhammed Amir Habra, MD FACP FACE
Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders
Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX

Mouhammed Amir Habra is an Associate Professor with Tenure at the Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders, Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Habra is an oncologic endocrinologist whose clinical practice focuses on advanced endocrine tumors, with special interest in adrenocortical carcinoma, Cushing syndrome, and thyroid carcinoma

Sylvia L. Asa, MD, PhD
Clinician-Scientist, University of Toronto

Sylvia L. Asa is a Clinician-Scientist with a focus on Endocrine Pathology. She trained in Toronto and was appointed to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto in 1985; she was promoted to full Professor in 1998. Her research has helped to clarify the basis for development of endocrine tumors, improve diagnostic tests and identify targets for therapy of those diseases. She has published over 500 scientific articles, written seven books, co-edited six books and contributed more than 100 book chapters on endocrine pathology. She was Founding Editor of the journal Endocrine Pathology, has been a Senior Editor of Endocrine-Related Cancer and is an Associate Editor of Laboratory Investigation; she serves on numerous editorial boards of scientific journals. Dr. Asa was President of the Endocrine Pathology Society (1997–1998) and the US-Canadian Academy of Pathology (2005-6), has given over 275 invited lectures worldwide, and has received many awards from national and international scientific organizations including Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Pathologists (UK).

As head of the largest pathology department in Canada for 15 years, Dr. Asa made innovative changes to the practice of the discipline, with emphasis on subspecialization, molecular diagnostics, biobanking, automation, pathology informatics and digital pathology. She proposed a provincial model of pathology and led a successful proof-of-principle trial involving 24 hospitals across Ontario. In 2019, Dr. Asa joins the Faculty of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio to continue her work in supporting models of pathology consolidation and subspecialization.

To ensure public knowledge of the role of Pathology and maintain a direct connection with patients, Dr. Asa is a consultant to several patient groups.

Karen Gomez Hernandez, MD MSc
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism

Karen Gomez Hernandez, MD, MSc is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and a Clinician Teacher in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Mount Sinai Hospital and Toronto General Hospital. She is a general endocrinologist and completed fellowships in Thyroidology and Endocrine Oncology at the University of Toronto. Her main areas of clinical interest are thyroid cancer and other endocrine neoplasia including pituitary, adrenal, and hereditary endocrine tumours. She has a Masters of Science from the University of Toronto focusing on the molecular signatures of papillary thyroid cancer for which she received the Whiteside Award. Dr. Gomez Hernandez research focuses on the identification of markers of endocrine tumor behavior. She is actively involved in teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Julie Hallet, MD MSc FRCSC
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Department of Surgery

Julie Hallet, completed medical school, general surgery residency, as well as masters in sciences in clinical epidemiology at Université Laval in Québec City. She then moved to Toronto for a Surgical Oncology fellowship at the University of Toronto during which she focused on hepato-pancreatico-biliary and upper gastrointestinal malignancies. She subsequently obtained additional training in advanced minimally invasive and robotic hepato-pancreatico-biliary surgery at the Institut de recherche contre les cancers de l’appareil digestif (IRCAD) in Strasbourg, France.

Julie Hallet is on staff as a Surgical Oncologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto, with a cross appointment to the Institute of Health, Policy, Management and Evaluation. Her surgical practice is devoted to hepato-biliary, pancreatic and upper gastrointestinal malignancies, with a clinical focus on minimally invasive and image-guided therapies, as well as neuroendocrine tumors as part of the Susan Leslie Multidisciplinary Clinic for Neuroendocrine Tumors.

Julie Hallet’s research focuses on health services population based research to examine processes, patterns of care, and outcomes of hepato-pancreato-biliary malignancies. In particular, she is dedicated to improving care and outcomes of neuroendocrine tumors by identifying and implementing enablers to timely diagnosis and effective management, supported by the NANETS Clinical Investigator Scholarship, and an operating grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research. She is also working on evaluating the implementation of pre-operative 3D planning and intra-operative navigation programs, supported by the SSAT Career Development Award.

Raymond Kim, MD/PhD, FRCPC, FCCMG, FACMG
Medical Geneticist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Familial Cancer Clinic

Raymond Kim is Medical Director of the Familial Cancer Clinic at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. He is one of a handful of medical geneticists dually trained in internal medicine. He oversees a large hereditary cancer program and personally conducts surveillance on Li-Fraumeni patients (TP53 carriers), many whom have been affected with adrenocortical carcinoma. He is the National Institutes of Health supported Clinical Genome Resource Expert Panel on Von Hippel Lindau disease, which is a familial form of pheochromocytoma. He leads a team of over 20 molecular geneticists, scientists and clinicians to understand genetic variation of the VHL gene. His research interests include models of pervasive genetic testing, genomic medicine and cell free DNA in hereditary cancer patients.

Ozgur Mete, MD, FRCPC
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Ozgur Mete is a Consultant Endocrine Pathologist at the University Health Network and Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Mete received his medical degree from Istanbul University in 2001 and completed his residency training in Anatomical Pathology at Istanbul University in 2005. He then did fellowship training in endocrine pathology under the supervision of Professor Sylvia L. Asa at the University of Toronto. He was appointed as an academic pathologist at Istanbul University before joining the faculty at the University of Toronto in 2011.

Dr. Mete’s research focusses on the translation of basic findings to clinical tests that provide diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers for endocrine tumors. His other interests involve development of practice guidelines, digital pathology, and innovative teaching designs. In 2013, Dr. Mete has received the Danny Ghazarian Resident Teaching Award, and in 2014 and 2017 the prestigious Wightman-Berris Academy Award for excellence in undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching at the University of Toronto. In 2018, Dr. Mete received the teaching excellence award of the MD program at the University of Toronto as well as the undergraduate teaching award of the Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. He is currently the Anatomic Pathology Residency Site Coordinator at the University Health Network. Dr. Mete has lectured in many international meetings, has co-edited two pathology textbooks, and authored over 50 textbook chapters, and more than 170 peer-reviewed journal articles in endocrine pathology. He also served an active committee member in 17 chapters for the 2017 WHO classification of endocrine tumors.

Dr. Mete is currently the Vice President of Endocrine Pathology Society. He is also a member of the College of American Pathologists (CAP)’s Cancer Committee and has been appointed to chair the CAP endocrine tumor protocols effective January 2019.

Jesse Pasternak, MD MPH FRCSC
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Department of Surgery

Jesse Pasternak is an endocrine surgeon specializing in the surgical management of thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal tumors. After obtaining his undergraduate degree at McGill University, he completed his medical school and residency at McMaster University in Hamilton. He then moved to San Francisco, California where he trained as an Orlo Clark Fellow in Endocrine Surgery and Oncology at UCSF. Dr Pasternak also completed a master’s degree (MPH) at Harvard University with a focus in epidemiology. As a surgeon at the University Health Network, his clinical focus is minimally invasive endocrine surgery. As a researcher, he studies clinical endocrine surgery and health outcomes.

Robyn Pugash, MD, FRCPC
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Department of Medical Imaging
Head, Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Robyn Pugash is an interventional radiologist who started doing adrenal vein sampling about 20 years ago for the simple reason that there were people who needed it and there was little local expertise. What started out of necessity has since become an area of avid interest, the fortunate by-product of which is a large AVS experience.

Patrik Rogalla, BS, MD
Professor, University of Toronto
Department of Medical Imaging

Patrik Rogalla completed his medical studies as well as his radiology residency at the Free University of Berlin in Germany. After having completed a Clinical fellowship in gastro-intestinal imaging at the University of California UCSF in the United States, he returned to Germany where he began working at Charité University Hospital. There, he progressively held roles which eventually led him to his appointment as Professor of Radiology. In July 2009, Dr. Rogalla was appointed as Full Professor of Radiology at the University of Toronto and has in July 2010 been appointed as Head of the Abdominal Imaging Division. He is the Director of Computed Tomography at JDMI and assumed the role as Vice Chief of Research for Medical Imaging.

Dr. Rogalla has published more than 152 original articles, several book chapters, and is holding two international patents; is actively involved in many professional and radiological societies. In 2006, he contributed towards the development of federal guidelines and quality criteria for virtual CT Colonography. His areas of focus include: cardiac CT, gastro-intestinal imaging, interventional CT, perfusion imaging and three-dimensional post-processing techniques.

Jonathan Wasserman, MD PhD
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Paediatrics

Jonathan Wasserman joined the endocrine staff at SickKids in July 2012 after completing a clinical and research fellowship in the division. He undertook his medical training at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and subsequently pursued an internship and residency in paediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston where he also served as a General Paediatric Hospitalist. He previously earned a PhD and completed post-doctoral training in genetics at the University of Cambridge, England. His clinical roles include: care of children with endocrine malignancies, cancer genetics with a focus on hereditary cancer syndromes with endocrine manifestations and endocrine surveillance and treatment for survivors of childhood cancer.

Dr. Wasserman’s research spans several areas including genetics and genomics of paediatric papillary thyroid carcinoma, health-care utilization patterns among young patients with thyroid carcinoma at diagnosis and during follow-up and optimization of transition to adult care and long-term surveillance.