Current Positions

Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

Education

BSc(Med) 1983, University of Manitoba
MD 1983, University of Manitoba
Rotating Internship 1984, McGill University
Pulmonary Physiology Research Fellowship 1984-86, McGill University
FRCP(C) Anesthesiology 1986-90, University of Manitoba
Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship, 1990, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard University

Research Focus

Current focus is on neonatal cardiorespiratory health, with a focus on neonatal lung injury models and primary pulmonary hypertension.
Active collaboration with Drs. S Dakshinamurti and Y Elsayed to develop the neonatal hemodynamics laboratory.

Research Interests

My primary research focus for over 30 years has been the development of pre-clinical models to better understand pulmonary pathologies and their management. In collaboration with Drs. S Dakshinamurti and Y. Elsayed from the Section of Neonatology in the Department of Pediatrics we have established the in vivo Neonatal Hemodynamics Research group. This collaboration has resulted in an initial study examining the hemodynamic effects of vasopressin in the piglet primary pulmonary hypertension model. We then developed and validated a neonatal model of acute respiratory distress, a recognized clinical entity end emerging management problem that is distinct from respiratory distress of the newborn secondary to prematurity. Development of this model allowed us to the study regional oxygenation and cerebral autoregulation in the neonate with acute lung injury. All of these studies have direct translational implications for medical management of neonates in the intensive care setting. Further studies in development with the neonatal hemodynamics group include an examination of cerebral autoregulation in the PPHN model and potential management of PPHN with reactivation of adenyl cyclase pathways to restore pulmonary vasodilator responsiveness.

My clinical research includes a previous collaboration with the MCHP to examine potential anesthetic neurotoxicity in children exposed to general anesthesia before age 4 years. I am currently a member of the Pediatric Perioperative Outcomes Group, a multicenter collaboration established to pursue studies to determine a core set of perioperative outcomes that is of greatest relevance to pediatric patients, their parents and caregivers. This will establish the baseline set of outcomes that should be considered in all future pediatric perioperative research.