Timothy Aksamit is a consultant and associate professor in the pulmonary disease and critical care medicine division of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Dr. Aksamit received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL; medical degree from Northwestern University in Chicago, IL, and medical training in internal medicine as well as pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Iowa in Iowa City where he also was a chief resident. Prior to joining the staff at Mayo Clinic in 1998 he was in private practice in Madison, WI. Dr. Aksamit’s research and clinical interests have focused on mycobacterial disease and bronchiectasis. He has co-authored a previous international statement by the American Thoracic Society and Infectious Disease Society of America on the diagnosis and treatment of nontuberculous mycobacterial disease. He currently serves as chair of the U.S. Bronchiectasis Research Registry. Dr. Aksamit has served as medical director of Mayo Clinic Olmsted County Public Health department TB clinic, chair of the State of Minnesota Tuberculous Advisory Committee, and medical director of the Mayo Mycobacterial and Bronchiectasis Clinic. Other interests include work as previous director of the medical intensive care unit, staff consultant in the pulmonary function laboratory as well as medical director of chaplain services.

MedConference 2017

Dr. Basik graduated in medicine from McGill University, and completed a general surgery residency at the Universite de Montreal, followed by a fellowship in surgical oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He practiced as a surgical oncologist at the University of Montreal and then was a visiting investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH for 2 years. He is now the Guerrera Family Cancer Scientist at the Segal Cancer Center in Montreal, QC, as well as an associate professor of oncology and surgery at McGill University. He heads the Cancer Genomics and Translational Research Laboratory at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and practices breast surgery at the Jewish General Hospital, where he is the Medical Director of the inter-disciplinary Breast Cancer Team. His research interests include the genomics of breast cancer, with a focus on drug resistance, as well as novel diagnostics in breast cancer.

MedConference 2015, 2022

Marc Beauchamp, MD

Dr. Marc Beauchamp is an orthopaedic surgeon. He received his degree in orthopaedic surgery in Montreal in 1993. After graduating, He completed a fellowship in shoulder and elbow surgery, arthroscopy, and sports medicine at the University of Toronto from 1994 to 1995. He then supplemented his training with specialized courses in both the United States and Europe. From 1996 to 2005, he was affiliated with Université de Montréal as an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, pursuing an academic career focused on teaching and clinical research. Being among the pioneers of shoulder arthroscopy in Canada in the 1990s, he introduced and developed several new minimal invasive shoulder procedures during his career. He is an author of numerous peer reviewed scientific articles and book chapters on shoulder and elbow surgery. In 2021, he opened his new surgical clinic in the heart of Montreal, where he performs mainly elective ambulatory surgery.

MedConference 2022

Cristina Benetti, RN, has been working at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, in the Operating Room since 2004. In 2010, she worked for three months on a malnutrition project with the NGO AVSI in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Cristina Benetti worked from 1995 to 2003 as Head Nurse in Operating Room at the St. Raphael Hospital and Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, and from 1993 to 1995 as Head Nurse in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Civic Hospital of Udine, Italy. She started her career working from 1984 to 1993 as an RN in Internal Medicine at the Civic Hospital, Cividale del Friuli, Italy.

MedConference 2021

Theo Boer, PhD

Theo Boer (Rotterdam, 1960) studied theology and ethics in Utrecht and Uppsala. From 1987-2001 he worked as a researcher at the Centre for Bioethics and Health Law of Utrecht University. He wrote his PhD Thesis on the Ethics of James M. Gustafson. Since 2001, he has been a senior researcher of Christian Ethics at the Protestant Theological University at Utrecht and Groningen, and since 2014 he has been a Professor of Health Care Ethics. From 2005-2014 Dr. Boer was a member of a Regional Review Committee for Euthanasia in the Netherlands, during which he assessed 4,000 euthanasia reports for the Dutch Government. Dr. Boer is a member of the Health Council, the most crucial advisory board for the Dutch Government on Health Care issues.

MedConference 2021

Josie Bruno, Unit Coordinator & Caregiver

Josie Bruno is born and raised in Montreal. Presently working as a unit coordinator at the McGill university health centre since 2010. In 2014 married her late husband, William D’Orazio M.Eng. William was a graduate of University Polytechnique Montréal in early 2000. He was diagnosed in 2008 with stage 4 Her2 triple negative metastatic Breast Cancer. Was followed 13 years by the oncology team at the Jewish General Hospital until his death in late 2021.

MedConference 2022

Anna Teresa Buono, Oncology Pivot Nurse

Anna Buono is a valued member of the oncology team. She joined the oncology department in 2001 where she cared for inpatient hematology/oncology patients. As her experience grew, she became a charge nurse and a senior member of that team. In 2007 she moved to the outpatient chemotherapy infusion center. She was part of the original nursing team that grew from a few nurses working same-day appointments to 10 nurses at 2 nursing stations and a ‘drop-in’ clinic on a 2-day appointment schedule that improved patient flow and reduced pharmacology waste. In 2019, after 2 replacements for maternity leave, Anna was offered and accepted the position of Oncology Pivot nurse for breast cancer patients. It is the role she fulfills today.

Aside from her role as a pivot nurse, Anna is also involved with Hope and Cope. She has been a guest speaker for Hope and Cope discussing topics related to cancer and survivorship. She also attended the Young Adult Retreat in 2018 where she discussed the problem of sex and sexuality in young adults with cancer. During COVID, many of Hope and Cope’s support groups were held on Zoom–type platforms and Anna continued to be involved especially with the ‘Newly diagnosed Breast cancer group’.

During COVID, Anna was also able to support the McGill nursing students with a preceptorship in the oncology department. She was able to demonstrate the importance of the interdisciplinary team, communication, patient advocacy, and strengths-based care in keeping with the McGill model. She instilled her love of oncology to her students and dismissed the fear and sadness many associate with oncology.

MedConference 2022

Claudia Beghé, MD, FACP

Claudia Beghé, MD, is Associate Chief of Staff for Palliative, Geriatrics and Extended Care at the James A. Haley Veterans Administration, in Tampa, FL. Her academic affiliation is with the University of South Florida, also in Tampa, at the Associate Professor level.

She received her medical degree at the Universitá Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, Italy, and completed her residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in medical genetics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

Dr Beghé’s scholar activities have dealt with preventive medicine, the physician/patient relationship, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, anemia, medical education and geriatric care. She has authored or co-authored several publications in these areas.

She has been a member of the local Ethics Committee for over 20 years.

She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Member of the American Medical Association, the Society for General Internal Medicine, the American Geriatric Society, and the American Academy on Physician and Patient.

Dr Beghé has been listed as one of “America’s Best Doctors” uninterruptedly since 2001.

MedConference 2014

Francesco Belia, med student

Francesco Belia is a fifth-year medical student at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. After graduating high school in Perugia (Umbria, Italy) he moved to Rome. Over the past year he started an internship in general surgery at Gemelli Hospital. He shares an apartment with six other students, very close to the Colosseum. He likes to play guitar, sing together and any kind of sport, especially soccer.

MedConference 2015

Lorenzo Berra, MD

After his medical school at the University of Milan, Dr. Berra spent three years under the mentorship of Dr. Theodor Kolobow in a research laboratory at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). From 2006-2011 he completed his residency in Anesthesia and fellowship in Critical Care both at the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at MGH. Since 2011 he is a staff anesthesiologist and intensivist and a member of Dr. Warren Zapol's MGH Anesthesia Center for Critical Care Research. His current patient care activities are focused on caring for critically ill patients and their families. His primary research and academic interests involve translational research to improve diagnosis, treatment and care of critically ill patients with cardio-pulmonary failure or severe infections.

MedConference 2022

Brian Billion

Brian Billion is a pianist originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He began piano lessons at the age of eleven under the tutelage of Julie-Melik Stepanov, with whom he continues to study to this day when home in South Dakota. He has won top prizes at national and international competitions, including 1st prize at the Lancaster International Piano Competition (2015), The 1st Catholic University of America International Piano Competition (2014), The Mu Phi Epsilon Scholarship Competition (2015), the Aberdeen Civic Orchestra Young Artists Concerto Competition (2009), and the 2nd Annual Grant Competition (2012). Mr. Billion has also received awards for his pianism such as the DAR “Nellie Love Butcher Music Scholarship”, the “Luciana Montanari-Mendola Award” from the Italian Cultural Society, and the Mu Phi Epsilon Scholarship for undergraduate performers. Mr. Billion began studying under Dr. Ivo Klatchev (Bulgaria) in 2012 at The Catholic University of America as the recipient of the Archdiocesan Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship for university based on academic excellence. Upon graduation in 2016 he received a special award from the university for best undergraduate instrumentalist. He has performed at such international venues as the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Cascais Cultural Center in Lisbon, Portugal, the Teatro Comunale Degli Industri in Grosseto, Italy, Mariahilferkirche in Vienna, Austria, The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, among many others. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Orquestra de Camara de Cascais e Oeiras, the Aberdeen Symphony, and the Millersville University Orchestra. Mr. Billion is currently is pursuing a Master’s degree in piano performance under Hung-Kuan Chen at the Juilliard School.

MedConference 2017

Francesco Boin, MD

Dr. Francesco Boin is Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of California San Francisco and the Director of the UCSF Scleroderma Center. Dr. Boin received his M.D. degree from the University of Padova Medical School (Italy). He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) and a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical and experimental rheumatology at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland). He has been Director of the Translational Research program at the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center for a decade before joining UCSF. Dr. Boin’s research has been focusing on the genetic basis and biology of immune cells involved with autoimmune diseases. He has been involved with teaching and mentoring medical students, residents and post-doctoral fellows throughout his academic career.

MedConference 2016

Kasey Brennan, MS

Kasey Brennan is the Assistant Director of the Laboratory of Environmental Precision Biosciences at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She graduated from Sacred Heart Academy, received her Bachelor of Science in biology from Tufts University, and obtained her Master of Science in epidemiology from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. With a background in molecular biology and epidemiology, her expertise is in applying wet lab molecular techniques to large-scale studies. She currently oversees numerous projects related to molecular epidemiology, epigenetics, mitochondriomics, cell-free DNA, and non-coding RNA.

kasey.brennan@columbia.edu

MedConference 2018

Michael J. Brescia, MD

Michael J. Brescia, MD is Executive Medical Director of Calvary Hospital. He received his medical degree from Georgetown University in 1958. He is cofounder and Executive Medical Director of Calvary Hospital, a fully accredited acute care hospital that cares for adult patients who suffer primarily from end stage cancer. He is the co-inventor of the Brescia-Cimino fistula, an internationally renowned methodology for hemodialysis that represents a milestone in the treatment of kidney disease. Dr. Brescia has received many awards acknowledging his professional work.

MedConference 2017

Pilar Calva is an acclaimed international speaker, professor of bioethics, and physician with expertise in genetics, end-of-life coaching, and fertility/infertility.

Dr. Calva trained under Prof. Jerome Lejeune at the Hopital des Enfants Malades in Paris, France, and received her certification in cytogenetics from Sorbonne University in 1987. She teaches at the Pontifical University of Mexico and the Catholic University of Dallas. Dr. Calva has served as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (2002-2012), the Bioethics Council of the Mexican Bishops’ Commission for the Family (2004), the Pan-American Society of Bioethics, and several other societies. She has four children and a granddaughter.

drapilarcalva@gmail.com | +52155 9107 9720

MedConference 2018

Amedeo Capetti, MD

Dr. Capetti is the Head of Research and Development, Infectious Diseases First Division of the Luigi Sacco Hospital in Milan and a Professor of Human Physiology at the University's Nursing School. He is a technical consultant for the Holy See at the World Health Organization. He is married to Maria and a father of four. Two of his children are now physicians as well. He and Maria have 13 foster children, two still living with them.

COVID-19 Discussion Series 2020

Catherine Chen, B.A., M.ADS, RP

Catherine Chen is a Behavior Clinician at Spokes Autism, a private organization that provides evidence-based treatment for children affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities. She has been working with children and young adolescents with ASD since 2012. She received an Honors Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from York University (Toronto, Ontario) in 2011 and her Master’s in Applied Disabilities from Brock University (St. Catharines, Ontario) in 2021. She has provided both Intensive Behavioral Intervention and Applied Behavioral Analysis services in multiple settings, including clinic, home, school, and daycare settings.

MedConference 2021

Andrea Cooke, RN

Cooke is a registered nurse with the breast cancer team at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. She received her Master of Science in nursing from McGill University and subsequently worked on acute medical and surgical in-patient units. Since nursing school, she had a passion for oncology and palliative care nursing, and in July 2007, she started working in the oncology clinic at the Jewish General Hospital. She is now the nurse navigator for breast cancer patients: helping support patients and families cope with the disease. Patients who are referred to her include individuals with little or no social support, mental health issues and patients with young children. Ideally, she meets her patients at the time of diagnosis, and supports them through curative treatments, recurrences, the stress of living with breast cancer as a chronic illness and at the end of life. She works closely with an extensive interdisciplinary team, and helps patients find resources that they need for their unique situation. In 2013, she received her certification in oncology nursing. She is presently working on a research project looking at women's experiences with fear of a breast cancer recurrence.

MedConference 2015

Sr. Kathleen Mary Coonan, MA, ASCJ

Sr. Kathleen Mary Coonan, MA, ASCJ, is the principal of Sacred Heart Academy, a nationally recognized Catholic college preparatory school for young women in Hamden, Connecticut. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Duquesne University and a Master of Arts in administration and supervision from Manhattan College. Sr. Kathleen Mary has extensive experience as both a teacher and administrator at the elementary and secondary levels of education. She entered the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus after graduating from Sacred Heart Academy.

MedConference 2018

J. Kevin Croston, MD

J. Kevin Croston, MD, is the chief executive officer (CEO) of North Memorial Health. Dr. Croston has been with the healthcare system since 1993 when he became surgical director of trauma at North Memorial Medical Center which, under Dr. Croston, became a Level I Trauma Center in 1998. He was appointed to the Board of Trustees for the health system in 2007 where he served until becoming the president of physician services and chief medical officer (CMO) in 2010. He is currently a board member for St. Catherine’s University and Maple Grove Hospital, where he is board chairman.

In addition, Dr. Croston served as chairman of the Minnesota State Trauma Advisory Committee from 2005-2010 and was pivotal in developing a formal state-wide trauma system. He has previously served as president of Specialists in General Surgery, Ltd, Minnesota Trauma Consultants, and is currently president of Advanced Surgery Consulting, Ltd.

A board-certified surgeon and fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Croston studied at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine and completed his surgical residency at Hennepin County Medical Center. He continues in his surgical practice at North Memorial Health in collaboration with Specialists in General Surgery, Ltd. and has been named one of the regions’ "Top Doctors" through a survey of doctors and nurses conducted by Minneapolis/St Paul Magazine every year since 2006.

MedConference 2017

Farr Curlin, MD

Farr Curlin is Josiah C. Trent Professor of Medical Humanities and Co-Director of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) at Duke University. Dr. Curlin’s ethics scholarship takes up moral questions that are raised by religion-associated differences in physicians’ practices. He is an active palliative medicine physician and holds appointments in both the School of Medicine and the Divinity School, where he is working with colleagues to develop a new interdisciplinary community of scholarship and training focused on the intersection of theology, medicine, and culture.

MedConference 2016

Dr. de Vinck earned his doctoral degree from Columbia University, and is widely known for his book about his disabled brother, Oliver: The Power of the Powerless: A Brother's Legacy of Love. He is the author of 13 books and his essays have been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and in the NJ Bergen Record. De Vinck brings a unique voice to the issues of goodness and compassion woven into our everyday lives that John Updike called "excellent and often very moving."

MedConference 2015

Dr. Ferrario received his MD degree in 2001 and his Specialty Certificate in Medical Oncology in 2005, both from the University of Milan in Italy. After training in Milan (Istituto Nazionale Tumori), Dr Ferrario moved to Montreal (Canada) to work in basic research at the Lady Davis Institute for two years. In 2007 he was awarded the Terry Fox Foundation Post MD Research Fellowship Award and then started on a clinical fellowship program for four years in the Oncology Department of McGill University, training in clinical research in breast cancer, hepatobiliary and prostate cancers. In 2011 he moved back to Italy, where he worked for two years as a medical oncologist at the “IRST” (Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la cura dei Tumori) in Meldola, focusing on breast cancer and on the treatment of refractory testicular cancer with high-dose chemotherapy. In 2012 he accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Oncology Department of McGill University (Montreal) and Medical Oncologist at the Segal Cancer Centre (Jewish General Hospital, Montreal), where he is currently working. In 2012 he was the recipient of the Kate McGarrigle Fellowship Award.

Dr. Ferrario is very involved in the training of McGill Medical Oncology Residents, and he is the Lead of the Competence Committee of the Residency program. In his busy clinics, Dr. Ferrario treats several patients with prostate, bladder, and breast cancers at the Segal Cancer Centre and is particularly dedicated to clinical research. He is the local responsible for more than 20 phase 1-3 clinical trials, offering innovative treatments to patients with advanced cancers. Many of these trials include new immunotherapy strategies and genomics-driven personalized therapies, also integrating ct-NDA screening.

As the local PI for the CCTG study Captur, Dr. Ferrario started the first Molecular Tumor Board in Quebec, which he has been co-leading in biweekly meetings since September 2018.

MedConference 2015, 2022

Federica Fromm, DO

Federica Fromm, DO, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Classics at New York University, New York, and then attended New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she obtained her DO degree. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, NY, practiced as an internal medicine hospitalist for two years at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, NY, and is currently a full-time Hospitalist at St Cloud Hospital in Minnesota, where she has been practicing for seven years and serves on the executive leadership council for her hospitalist group. She helped found and has been on the board of the American Association of Medicine and the Person, and she has been on the planning committee for the annual MedConference since its first event in 2009.

MedConference 2016, 2021

Before working in IRST I spent a few years as an IT analyst in the private sector, in the fields of production, logistics, and quality. Since 2006 I have been working for the Romagnolo Institute for the Study of Tumors (IRST) "Dino Amadori" Research Institute. In IRST I worked as an IT for the first years (system administration, database administration, developer, ...). My curiosity has been oriented to the use of data, to the representation of reality through data, in order to support comparison, and discussion. In the meantime, I obtained a bachelor's degree in computer science and technology. During my experience in IRST I dedicated a few years to activities in the Institute's Outcome Research Group: explored clinical pathways and System issues (use of per capita resources, unwarranted variations, value in health, ...). In the meantime I started collaborating with SIMM (Italian Society of Leadership and Management in Medicine). With these friends we continued the lines of work already addressed with the IRST Outcome Research Group bringing the comparison at regional and national level. Context analysis, professional collaboration, training and communication have always been at the core of our activities. We have developed two small pieces of forum theater: the first was taken from a UK experience and is dedicated to the representation of the care path of a stroke patient, the second is an original piece that we created involving a focus group of patients suffering from breast cancer.

I started the second cycle of studies in Data Science but during the pandemic I suspended it and now I'm studying Digital Transformation Management. In recent years I have been working for the Health Department of IRST and of the Local Health Authority of Romagna, supporting the organization of processes and the use and sharing of information. I've written the Digital Strategy of Romagna with the Heads of ICT of IRST and Health Authority of Romagna with the collaboration of some professors of University of Bologna, Alma Mater Studiorum, Department of Engineering and Information Technology. Finally, in recent months, we have set up a small "Data Unit" to enhance our ability to extract knowledge from the information collected in all healthcare processes, including through artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques.

MedConference 2022

David Goodwin, MD

Dr. David Goodwin completed his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of North Dakota. He is a Board Certified Family Practitioner and a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He completed his residency with the Duluth Family Practice Program. Dr. Goodwin has special interests in sports medicine, pediatrics, maternal/child health care and general family medicine. He joined the medical campus in Crosby in 1994. In 2013 he left clinic practice and started Geriatrics Physician Service to serve those in Skilled Nursing Facilities in Long Term and Transitional care settings.

MedConference, 2015

Monica Goodwin, MD

Dr. Monica Goodwin is a board-certified family physician and practices at Cuyuna Regional Medical Center in Crosby, MN. Her special interests include women's health, obstetrics, and pediatrics. Dr. Goodwin obtained her undergraduate degree in Nutrition Science at the College of St. Benedict in MN and her medical degree from the University of North Dakota. She completed her residency with the Duluth Family Practice Program in Minnesota. She and her husband, David, also a physician, have five children. She enjoys running, biking, swimming, and making music in her free time.

MedConference 2016, 2015

Jerome Groopman, MD and Pamela Hartzband, MD

Dr. Groopman and Dr. Hartzband are both on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and attending physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is a hematologist/oncologist and she is an endocrinologist.

Dr. Groopman holds the Dina and Raphael Recanati Chair of Medicine and is Chief of Experimental Medicine. He received his B.A. from Columbia College summa cum laude and his M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He served his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and his specialty fellowships in hematology and oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Children’s Hospital/Sidney Farber Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School in Boston. He has published more than 180 research articles. In 2000, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He writes regularly about biology and medicine for lay audiences as a staff writer at the New Yorker Magazine. More information can be found here.

Dr. Hartzband is an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Medical School and Attending Physician in the Division of Endocrinology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She specializes in disorders of the thyroid and pituitary glands. A magna cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College, Harvard University, she received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She served her internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and her specialty fellowships in endocrinology and metabolism at the University of California, Los Angeles. More information can be found here.

Together they have coauthored articles in the New England Journal of Medicine on the changing culture of clinical care. They have addressed the impact of electronic records, uniform practice guidelines, monetary incentives, the Internet, economic language used to describe medical professionals, and pitfalls of medical decision analysis. They have written for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and now their first book together, “Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What is Right for You.” In 2011, each received the Humanism in Medicine Award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

MedConference 2015

Enrico Grugnetti, RN

Enrico Grugnetti is a Registered Nurse in Florida. He works in the Home Care Program for MCCI Group Holding taking care of elderly in their home setting. The main goal of his activity is to provide continuity of care for patients, as an intermediary between Primary Care Physicians, hospital and other medical and social care providers. The large majority of his patients are elderly who suffer from unstable chronic illnesses.

Grugnetti received his Nursing License in Italy in 1995. He worked for 7 years in the Cardiac-surgery department in Torino, Italy, as RN and as Head Nurse for a year. In 2002 he started his own activity in home care in Milan, Italy, first as a visiting nurse and then as a Nurse Manager. In 2008 he moved to the US, where he obtained RN Florida License.

MedConference 2014

Curt is Quality Director for the Mayo Clinic Health System. He previously served as Operations Manager and Instructor for the Quality Academy in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Quality Advisor and Project Manager in Surgery, and as Senior Principal Health Systems Engineer in numerous areas within Mayo Clinic.

Before joining Mayo, Curt was the Quality Manager for Embria Health Sciences as well as a consultant specializing in quality, food safety, food allergens, fumigation, forensics, and entomology.

Curt previously worked for Pearson Education as Director of Process Engineering and Quality and for General Mills in quality, auditing, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and management roles.

He has served as a Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner and has successfully led organizations to achieve ISO 9001 and CMM Software Engineering Institute certifications as well as FDA approvals. Curt is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Mayo Clinic Gold Quality Fellow.

MedConference 2017

Mariane Hamel, BScPT, FCAMPT

Mariane Hamel obtained her Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy in 1987 after an exotic experience at an orphanage in Zimbabwe as a medical aid. She then went on to work in sports therapy as the physiotherapist for the Grands Ballets Canadiens. Subsequently she passed her board exam and became Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Manual and Manipulative Therapy. From 1995-1998 she was clinical instructor at McGill in Orthopaedics. In 2004 she opened her own practice and in 2011 she started clinical teaching at Montreal University in a new postgraduate program in perineal therapy.

MedConference 2014

Kevin Hay, MD

Bio coming soon

MedConference 2022

Jonathan B. Imber is Jean Glasscock Professor of Sociology. Prior to that he was the Class of 1949 Professor in Ethics. His research is both sociological and historical, addressing the moral and ethical foundations of modern medicine and the role that religious authority has played in defining the medical vocation. His book, Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine, published in 2008, examines how physicians acquired a revered place among all modern professions. His present work focuses on the rise in recent years of what has come to be called religious bioethics, represented in all the major faith traditions. He has also edited numerous books on a variety of sociological topics, including philanthropy, therapeutic culture, science policy, and the relationship between markets and religion.

Professor Imber taught Classical Sociological Theory for many years as well as Global Health and Social Epidemiology. At the introductory level, he has regularly taught the Social Problems of Youth. In recent years, he has developed several new courses, including Celebrity, Fame, and Fortune, The Sociology of Conservatism, and the forthcoming first-year seminar, “So You Want to Be a Doctor.” He has worked with students on various independent studies and honors theses on the epidemiology of nutrition, the public controversy over abortion, and bioethics and religion.

Jonathan Imber has been editor-in-chief of Society since 1998, and before that, he was editor of The American Sociologist and co-editor of Qualitative Sociology. These professional responsibilities have enabled him to maintain a close view of new research and commentary from scholars across all the social science disciplines, both young and established.

MedConference 2014

Dr. Bahram Jam is a Canadian Physiotherapist with 25 years of clinical experience and is the founder / chief instructor at Advanced Physical Therapy Education Institute (www.aptei.ca). He has instructed over one thousand post-graduate orthopaedic and pain science courses and has been a guest presenter at several physiotherapy conferences across Canada and internationally. He has written several controversial, yet evidence-based papers which are all are freely available here.

He is the author of the patient education manual The Pain Truth & Nothing But! (English & French), which has sold more than 5000 copies. There are now three short patient education videos that are freely accessible on YouTube based on his book.

He is passionate about preventing patients from becoming a VOMIT (Victim of Medical Imaging Technology). His VOMIT posters have helped thousands of patients by reducing fears and anxieties which are often a result of over-medicalization. His VOMIT poster has been translated into six languages and distributed internationally. You may download and print any of the VOMIT posters complimentary.

His primary clinical approach is to identify relevant functional impairments and determine the best self-management strategy to maximize patient independence. His influences include greats such as Robin McKenzie, Brian Mulligan, Peter O’Sullivan, Lorimer Mosely and David Butler.

You may directly contact Bahram Jam at bjam@aptei.com.

MedConference 2017

Radoslawa Jasik

Radosława Jasik is an internationally acclaimed pianist and performer. She began her musical education at seven and then studied under Prof. Anna Górecka at the Karol Szymanowski State Music High School in Katowice, Poland. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and a Master of Music and a Professional Studies Diploma, both from the Mannes College-The New School for Music, New York. In 2018, she received the outstanding performer Steinway Award, the most recent recognition of a rich list of awards from North America, Asia, and Europe. At the 2018 MedConferece, Ms. Jasik will present a piano concert featuring pieces by Scarlatti, Schubert, Szymanowski, and Gershwin.

radoslawa.jasik@gmail.com

MedConference 2018

Lisa Kilgard is a BSN-prepared registered nurse at St. Cloud Hospital. She has a certification in Med/Surg nursing, public health nursing, and school nursing. She loves spending time with her family and finds comfort in the simple things in life. She became a nurse because when she was 9 years old, she was a patient for over two weeks in the hospital after an accident. From then on, she knew being a nurse was what she wanted to be. With 19 years of floor nursing experience, including progressive units and working as a charge nurse, nothing could have really prepared Lisa for her last 1 1/2 years on a COVID unit. She notes that throughout this time, maneuvering through the unknown has been difficult yet rewarding.

MedConference 2021

Elena and Patrick Kilner

Pat and Elena live in Rockville, MD where Pat runs a real estate business and Elena is a homemaker. In 2011, their fifth child, John Paul, was born with SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) Type 1. After spending the first three month of his life in the NICU, John Paul came home to live with his family until he passed away in February of 2013. During John Paul's life, Pat and Elena learned how to be advocates for their son's many needs in dealing with the medical specialties of all varieties.

MedConference 2014

Margaret Laracy, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Notre Dame, where she was valedictorian of her graduating class. She went on to complete doctoral studies at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, writing her dissertation on "The Role of Beauty in Psychotherapy." Dr. Laracy is in full-time practice at Vital Sources, a group practice in Frederick, Maryland. Working from a psychodynamic paradigm, she does therapy with individuals and couples, runs therapy groups, and does personality and cognitive assessments. She has taught at several graduate institutions and continues to teach on a part-time basis.

MedConference 2016

Michelle R. Lawson, RN, BSN

Michelle Lawson is a bedside RN in the Neonatal ICU at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in New York City. Her education includes bachelor degrees in Psychology from St. Joseph's University and Nursing from Columbia University. Michelle is currently working on a Masters of Nursing in Pediatric Health at Stonybrook University. Her passions include exercise, health, and travel.

MedConference 2014

Rochelle Lebovitch Steinwurtzel, PsyD

Rochelle Steinwurtzel received her M.S.Ed. in School Psychology in 2008 and her Psy.D. in School and Clinical Psychology in 2011. She has worked clinically in psychiatric in-patient and out-patient units in urban hospitals in the Bronx. Before becoming an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology as a staff psychologist for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Columbia University Medical Center in 2014, she was the Assistant Director of the McShane Center for Psychological Services, a community-based out-patient clinic affiliated with Pace University’s Psychology Doctoral Training Program.

MedConference 2016

Julien Leduc, RN

Julien Leduc completed his studies in nursing at the University of Montreal, Canada in 2009, and since he has been working at the Notre Dame Hospital in Montreal in the department of neurosurgery as a registered nurse. In 2011 he attended a training course in the neurosurgical intensive care unit. Currently, he is an assistant head nurse and trains first-year nursing students during their internships.

MedConference 2014

David Loxterkamp, MD

David Loxterkamp is a family physician who lives and works in Belfast, Maine. He is the author of two books, A Measure of My Days: The Journal of a Country Doctor (1997) and What Matters in Medicine: Lessons from a Life in Primary Care (2013), as well as numerous articles for professional and lay publication. He was featured in the 2015 documentary, "Rx: The Quiet Revolution," by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin. His interests include running, choral music, the history of American architecture, and potato farming.

MedConference 2016

Dr.Suzanne Mac Donald graduated from McGill University Medical School following a Bachelor's Degree in Physiology at the same University. She did three years of core pediatric residency training at McGill University/Montreal Children's Hospital, followed by a 2-year fellowship in adolescent medicine and pediatric emergency medicine at the same site. She is an assistant professor of pediatrics in the discipline of adolescent medicine. She is an associate member of McGill University’s Institute for Health Sciences Education and the Division Educational leader(McGill Department of Pediatrics) for the division of Adolescent Medicine. She spends most of her time doing clinical work and teaching.

MedConference 2021

Dennis Manning, MD

Dr. Dennis Manning practices Hospital Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota where he serves as Research Chair and Faculty Development Chair for his Division. He is:

• Associate Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine

• Board-certified in Cardiovascular Diseases, and Geriatric Medicine

• Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biomedical Ethics at the Pontifical St. John Paul II Institute, Washington DC

• Mayo Clinic Quality Academy’s 2017 Diamond Lifetime Achievement Awardee for QI leadership

Dr. Manning graduated from the College of the Holy Cross and Hahnemann Medical College. He completed Residency in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh and a Primary Care Fellowship at Mayo Clinic. Before returning to Mayo Clinic in 2001, Dr. Manning was in practice for 16 years at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh and twice served as Medical Staff President.

He and his wife, Libby, have been married 19 years and have eight nieces and five nephews.

MedConference 2017

Fran McCarthy, RN

Fran McCarthy has been a nurse for over 30 years. She was a bedside NICU nurse for 28 years, manager of the NICU and Pediatrics at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Manhattan for 2 years and is currently the Clinical Coordinator of the Neonatal Comfort Care Program at New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, working under the direction of Dr. Elvira Parravicini. Fran received her BSN from Fairleigh Dickinson University and her Master of Science as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner from Columbia University in 1998. She has always been interested in the psychological, emotional, and spiritual perspective of nursing care in conjunction with clinical care. She has taught about bereavement care and support to new staff in the NICU core course and has lectured about Neonatal Comfort Care nationally and abroad. In her current role, Fran is responsible for arranging prenatal consults, coordinating interdisciplinary team support, attending deliveries, educating and assisting staff, follow-up support to families, and research.

MedConference 2016, 2011

Heather McGlashan Meyerend, RN, BSN, CHPN

Heather was born in Kingston, Jamaica, where she lived until she was 19 years old. She has been a Registered Nurse since 1980 and a Hospice nurse for over 20 years. She has also worked as an Oncology nurse, a Pediatric Rehab nurse at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, and a Visiting nurse. Heather found her niche as a certified Hospice and Palliative care nurse with MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care in New York. She received her BSN in nursing from Herbert H. Lehman College and is currently a Nurse Team Leader with MJHS. In addition to her degree in Nursing, Heather holds a degree in Cross Cultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. She has always believed that Nursing is a ministry and that Hospice care requires attention to the whole person. Heather was featured in the New Yorker Magazine in an article about Hospice care by Larissa MacFarquhar, "The Threshhold" (July 2016). Her interests include playing and watching tennis, hiking and reading.

MedConference 2017

Chiara Mezzalira, MD

Chiara Mezzalira graduated from Medical School in 1972 and completed her pediatric residency in 1975 at the University of Milan, Italy. In 1979 she attended a course in Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and in 1983 she also completed her fellowship in Neonatology at the University of Milan.

Her work experience includes mainly medical practice as a pediatrician in Africa, with very short intervals of pediatric practice in Italy in the area of Milan. Her African experience consists of 5 years in Kitgum, North Uganda, at St. Joseph’s Hospital, in the ’70s, in time of war. In the 80-90s she worked in Lagos, Nigeria, for a project supported by AVSI, a not-for-profit organization. There she started a Primary Health Care Centre in Lagos's suburban areas and remained there until 2008.

She participated in several ‘emergency missions’ in Rwanda, South Sudan, and Haiti, mainly collaborating with AVSI projects.

Since 2012 she has been in North Burundi as Director of the Pediatric department of the Hospital of Ngozi, which has a capacity of 332 beds. Besides her clinical work, she has been obviously involved in administrative tasks in educational and scientific collaboration with the University of Lagos, The National Institute of Medical Research, and other international institutions.

MedConference 2014

John E. Morley, MB, BCh

John E. Morley, MB, BCh, is the Dammert Professor of Gerontology and Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and the Director of the Division of Endocrinology at Saint Louis University Medical Center. He also serves as Medical Director for two nursing homes. Dr. Morley earned a medical degree at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. After an internal medicine residency in Johannesburg, he completed a fellowship in endocrinology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has edited more than 20 books and published more than 1300 papers, with major research emphases on the role of neuropeptides in the modulation of hormonal responses and behavior and on nutrition and hormones in the elderly. He serves as Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.

MedConference 2016

Melissa Moschella

Melissa Moschella is an Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics at Columbia University and an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received her Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Princeton University. Her book, To Whom Do Children Belong? Parental Rights, Civic Education, and Children’s Autonomy was published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press. Dr. Moschella speaks and writes on a variety of contemporary moral issues, including brain death, end-of-life ethics, parental rights, reproductive technologies, and conscience rights. Her articles have been published in scholarly journals as well as popular media outlets, including Bioethics, The Journal of Medical Ethics, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, The American Journal of Jurisprudence, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, and The Public Discourse.

mrm2256@cumc.columbia.edu | moschella@cua.edu

MedConference 2018

My career has evolved over two significant periods, having lived and worked in two countries with different approaches and different customs on two very distant continents. My professional training in various schools has stoked my passion for diversity by questioning the administrative, legal, and ethical issues raised by the surgical environment.

After receiving my Certificate in Nursing, I practiced as an Obstetrics-Gynecology registered nurse in a hospital in Romania. There I fell in love with the operating room, which would later become my specialty.

In 2005, I moved to Canada and started a new journey. I began to work for a nursing placement agency, first as a nurse’s aide and after licensed practical nurse. At the same time, I had to earn back my registered nurse status. This happened in 2008 when I was given the opportunity to work in the operating room at Jewish General Hospital. But that wasn’t enough for me, so I started a Bachelor of Nursing program that I finished in 2012. And because I can’t stay away from school, last year, I started an MBA program.

I don’t know how time passed because I was a full-time nurse, full-time student, full-time mom, and wife…. on availability.

However, I learned that I have the strength of will and character to face and overcome challenges.

Now, as Nursing Coordinator for the Operating Rooms, with over eighteen years of experience, I can say that I’ve developed skills that promote quality patient outcomes within a perspective of the protection of the public and efficient personnel management, optimal utilization of resources and operative time, in a financially responsible manner.

My success would not have been possible without the valued support of the whole OR team. I know that we can achieve anything we put in our minds because we carry in our hearts a boundless optimism and will to succeed.

MedConference 2017

Matt is an administrative professional with eighteen years of service at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. He has a very interesting background, since he completed his education at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, MA, where he obtained a diploma in theology and a master of arts in Religion and Education. In these almost 20 years of service at Massachusetts General Hospital, he covered different roles from Operating Room Associate to Administrative/Fellowship Coordinator to the current position of Administrative Operations Manager in Emergency Medicine. Of note, during COVID time he was the Administrative Supervisor for Emergency Medicine. He received several awards, including the Partners in Excellence award for multiple years.

MedConference 2022

Mark graduated from The University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2014 with a B.S. in Biology and subsequently entered the Graduate Program in Immunology at the University of Michigan. During graduate school, he studied how HIV evades the immune response and establishes a persistent infection, discovering a new class of drugs that could help the immune system recognize and kill HIV-infected cells. Mark completed his PhD in Immunology in November 2020 and began a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in January 2021. His postdoctoral research focuses on human immunology, and he currently co-leads a team that has published several high-profile studies on the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and infection, appearing in journals including Science Immunology, Immunity, Nature Medicine, and Science.

MedConference 2021

Yvonne Parent

Yvonne Parent is a Registered Nurse at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She obtained her nursing diploma from Sprott Shaw College in Victoria. Her work includes medical and surgical acute care, palliative care, and rehab medical nursing. She is the Corresponding Secretary and Founding Board Member of the Canadian National Association of Catholic Nurses. She is also a CICIAMS Committee of Nurses and Medico-Social Assistants member. She has participated in lectures and panel discussions by contributing her insights into the experience of suffering as a nurse.

yvonne.parent@gmail.com

MedConference 2018

Lucia Pederia

Lucia Pederia graduated from the University of Brescia, Italy, in 2010. Her research thesis was “The awareness of HIV-positive mother about the transmission of the virus through breast milk”. She worked as a midwife at Kitgum's hospital, Uganda, at Milton Keynes Hospital, UK and at Trento's Hospital, Italy. Currently she works in high risk delivery room at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, UK.

MedConference 2015

Lise Poirier-Groulx, MD

Dr. Poirier-Groulx is a graduate of the University of Ottawa Family Medicine Residency Program. She obtained her fellowship in the College of Family Physicians of Ontario. She is a certificant of the General Practice Psychotherapy Association. She is currently a part time lecturer for the Family Medicine Department at the University of Ottawa, is a member of ACTheals (Association of Christian Therapists), giving talks in North America on topics regarding spiritual and developmental disability issues, and has focused her practice on medical psychotherapy for the past 14 years. She does therapy with those who have development disabilities such as Down syndrome and Autism Spectrum disorder, and their families. She was a founder of the Adult Down Syndrome Medical Clinic in Ottawa in 2004, the first specialized medical clinic in Canada for adults with Down Syndrome. She has a 16 year-old son with Down syndrome and complex congenital heart disease, whose story has been published as The Case Study of C G in the Journal of Christian Healing, Spring/Summer 2007, and in Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics by Melinda Tankard Reist, 2006.

MedConference 2015

Louis Profeta, MD

Dr. Profeta is an Emergency Physician from St. Vincent Hospital of Indianapolis. He is a clinical professor of Emergency Medicine at Indiana University and Marian University Schools of Medicine. He graduated from Indiana University and its School of Medicine and did his post-graduate training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a dynamic and sought-after public speaker and writer, a frequent guest on TV and radio who has gained critical acclaimed for his essays and writings on topics such as his eye-opening look at our national preparedness for Influenza pandemics in "What Scares me More than Ebola." In 2015 he was named LinkedIn's Top Voice for readership in health care. His scathingly sarcastic but passionate essay "Your Kid and My Kid Aren’t Playing in the Pros" was honored as one of the best articles on sports in 2014 by the Society of Professional Journalism. His best-selling book, The Patient in Room Nine Says He’s God, continues to earn critical acclaim as a poignant and passionate look at society, god, and life through the eyes of an ER doctor. His most recent essay, "I Know You Love Me Now Let Me Die," has been read more than three million times on Linked in and the Huffington Post and has sparked a whole new debate on end-of-life care.

MedConference 2016

Giuseppe Quaglia was born in Turin, Italy, where he currently lives. He obtained his MD at the University of Turin, Italy, in 1984. Subsequently, he completed his residency in Rehabilitation Medicine in 1987 at the same university and attended the Center for Rehabilitation for para-tetraplegic patients at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He obtained a master’s in osteopathic medicine in 1994 in Paris, France, and a master's in Acupuncture at the University of Turin, Italy, in 2014. He has worked in Cottolengo Hospital in Turin since 1999 and has been named the Division Chief of the Department of Rehabilitation since 2001. He has been an invited speaker to several medical conferences and a great teacher to younger faculty, trainees, and medical students.

MedConference 2016

Antonella Rastelli, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Division of Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Rastelli obtained her MD at the University of Verona, Italy, in 1991 and shortly thereafter moved to Washington University for her residency in Internal Medicine, followed by a fellowship in Women’s Health in the Divisions of Bone and Mineral Diseases and Oncology. She focuses on bone health in women with breast cancer and on post-transplant osteoporosis. At the 2018 MedConference, Dr. Rastelli will offer her presentation of her father, Dr. Giancarlo Rastelli (1933–1970), a pioneer cardiac surgeon, scientist, and innovator who developed a novel surgical procedure that revolutionized the management of children with congenital heart disease.

MedConference 2018

James Roembke, PsyD

James Roembke, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and senior partner at Vital Sources Psychological Services, a group psychology practice in Frederick, Maryland. Dr. Roembke completed his doctoral studies in clinical psychology at Biola University, Rosemead School of Psychology, where he wrote his dissertation on "Prevention of Burnout among Graduate Students and Young Professionals in Mental Health." In 2002, he and a colleague started Vital Sources, which has grown to 11 clinical staff and an intern and post-doctoral training program. The mission of Vital Sources is to create an authentic Christian community of health service providers to more fully serve their communities. Dr. Roembke is a psychodynamic therapist who works with adults and couples. He particularly enjoys his work with religious and seminarians.

MedConference 2016

Damiano Rondelli, MD

Prof. Damiano Rondelli graduated from the Medical School of the University of Bologna, Italy, where he also completed a fellowship in Hematology. He started his research on hematopoietic stem cell transplant immunology as Research Associate at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. In 1995 he became an Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna and focused his clinical work on blood cancers and transplantation of blood and marrow stem cells. In 2002 he joined the University of Illinois at Chicago as Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program. He is currently the Michael Reese Professor of Hematology, and Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, and Director of BMT. He is the Principal Investigator of clinical studies in stem cell transplantation for adult patients with hematologic malignancies or for sickle cell anemia. His lab research is focused on stem cell transplant immunology and strategies for the induction of immune tolerance.

He authored over 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and multiple book chapters and is a member of the Editorial Board of several journals. He is a member of UIC Cancer Center, where he serves as Assoc. Director for Clinical Research and of UIC Center of Global Health, where he leads the Global Hematology-Oncology Program. His global health interest has focused on supporting the development of Stem Cell Transplant programs at Ramaiah University in Bangalore (India), Civil Service Hospital in Kathmandu (Nepal), and Ibadan University College Hospital (Nigeria), and on collaborating with physicians in other low-middle income countries, such as Cuba and Ukraine.

MedConference 2017, 2011

Francesco Rotatori, MD

Dr. Rotatori is the Head of the Cardiology Department at Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC), Staten Island. He is a skilled interventional cardiologist, board certified in cardiology, internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, interventional cardiology, nuclear cardiology, and echocardiography. Dr. Rotatori graduated from the Medical School of the University of Milan, Italy. He completed his internal medicine residency at Richmond University Medical Center and served as Chief Resident. He completed a Fellowship in Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology at SUNY Downstate. He served as a Associated Chief of Cardiology at RUMC before being recently appointed Head of Cardiology at RUMC.

COVID-19 Discussion Series 2020

Sibani Sengupta, Ph.D., is the Dean of Academic Affairs at Sacred Heart Academy, a nationally recognized Catholic college preparatory school for young women in Hamden, Connecticut. Dr. Sengupta earned BS and MS degrees from the University of Calcutta, India, and a Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry from the University of Connecticut. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, she teaches Advanced Placement Biology, Human Gene discovery, and Microbiology. Dr. Sengupta previously served as chair of the science department at Sacred Heart Academy and has received numerous teaching awards.

ssengupta@sacredhearthamden.org

MedConference 2018

Rick Sheff, MD

Rick Sheff, MD, is a family physician with over thirty years of experience in medicine. Known as a doctor’s doctor, his career has taken him from practicing family medicine to serving as a physician executive to helping integrate complementary and alternative medicine with conventional medicine.

Dr. Sheff has dedicated his life to healing patients and healing healthcare. He currently serves as chief medical officer for The Greeley Company, a highly respected healthcare solutions company dedicated to helping physicians and hospitals provide outstanding care to the communities they serve.

A prolific author and nationally recognized thought leader. Dr. Sheff has recently turned his cutting-edge creative thinking to bridge the gap between science and spirituality. His latest book, Joyfully Shattered: A Physician’s Awakening at the Crossroads of Science and Spirituality, tells the true story of his journey from a passionate atheist to a tentative seeker and finally to a profound mystic.

Dr. Sheff is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Brown University residency program in family medicine. He was an undergraduate at Cornell University and recipient of the Keasbey Scholarship for studying politics and philosophy at Oxford University. At 60, Dr. Sheff professed vows as a monk in the Spirit of Peace interfaith monastic community.

MedConference 2017

Dorothy Smok, MD

Dorothy Smok is a member of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Smok graduated from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University. After completing her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, Dr. Smok pursued fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, of Columbia University. Dr. Smok joined the Columbia faculty in 2005, where she has worked as a core member of the Obstetric team. Dr. Smok oversees the obstetric care of high risk pregnancies. She has a particular interest in medical diseases that affect pregnancy, including infectious diseases, maternal cardiac conditions, pregnancy associated cancers, psychiatric illnesses, and medical ethics. Dr. Smok is the clinical obstetric director of the Women and Children Care Center (WCCC) where comprehensive care is provided to expecting mothers with HIV and their children. Dr. Smok serves as a member of the pediatric ethics committee. Her interest in ethics is applied clinically in caring for expecting mothers who request neonatal comfort care, where multidisciplinary collaboration with maternal fetal medicine, neonatology, nursing, social work, and child life specialists result in optimal care of the patient. Dr. Smok is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a member of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine.

More about Dorothy Smok…

MedConference 2015

Katherine Steere, MS CCC-SLP

Katherine Steere, MS CCC-SLP, is a Senior Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) who has spent her career in the acute care setting, specializing in pediatric and infant populations. She received her Master’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill where she initiated her training in pediatric dysphagia with a focus in the Neonatal ICU. While at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center she continued her work in acute care as well as served on the Cleft Lip and Palate team. Prior to starting in November 2012 as an SLP at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York Presbyterian/Columbia in Manhattan, she worked at the Center for Pediatric Feeding Disorders at St. Mary's Hospital in Bayside, NY. Katherine practices full time in the NICU at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York Presbyterian in addition to serving as a member of the Aerodigestive, Single Ventricle, and Comfort Care teams.

MedConference 2016

John M. Stulak, MD

John M. Stulak, MD, is a Professor of Surgery in the Department of Cardiovascular surgery. His clinical focus includes the management of coronary artery disease, especially multiple arterial revascularization and redo coronary artery bypass surgery, valvular heart disease, mechanical circulatory assistance, heart transplantation, surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation, and pericardiectomy.

Dr. Stulak currently serves as Surgical Core Clerkship Director in the Mayo Medical School, Program Director of the Advanced Cardiovascular Surgery Fellowship, Program Director of the Fellowship in Mechanical Circulatory Assistance and Heart Transplantation, Associate Program Director of the Thoracic Surgery Residency, and Program Director of the General Surgery Residency.

MedConference 2018

Daniel Sulmasy, MD

Dr. Sulmasy is the Kilbride-Clinton Professor of Medicine and Ethics in the Department of Medicine and Divinity School at the University of Chicago, where he serves as Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and as Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion. He has previously held faculty positions at New York Medical College and at Georgetown University. He received his AB and MD degrees from Cornell University, completed his residency, chief residency, and post-doctoral fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University. He has served on numerous governmental advisory committees and was appointed to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues by President Obama in 2010. His research interests encompass both theoretical and empirical investigations of the ethics of end-of-life decision-making, ethics education, and spirituality in medicine. He is the author or editor of six books: The Healer’s Calling (1997), Methods in Medical Ethics (1st ed., 2001; 2nd ed., 2010), The Rebirth of the Clinic (2006), A Balm for Gilead (2006), Safe Passage: A Global Spiritual Sourcebook for Care at the End of Life (2014), and Francis the Leper: Faith, Medicine, Theology, and Science (2014). He also serves as editor-in-chief of the journal, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.

MedConference 2015

Brad Stuart, MD

Dr. Stuart has been a general internist for 40 years, and a hospice and palliative medicine specialist for the last half of his career. He was Senior Medical Director at Sutter Care at Home for 20 years, during which he helped found Advanced Illness Management (AIM®), a system of home-based care for seriously ill seniors that won a $13 million Health Care Innovation Award in 2010 from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). He is now Chief Medical Officer for the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) in Washington, DC, where he helps health systems, health plans and other organizations design and implement integrated systems of care for people with advanced illness.

MedConference 2016, 2014

Victoria Sweet, MD

Dr. Sweet is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and a prize-winning historian with a Ph.D. in medical history. For over twenty years, she practiced medicine at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco. In her first book, God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine (Riverhead, 2012), she laid out her evidence—in stories of her patients and her hospital—for some radically new ideas about medicine and healthcare. She was a Guggenheim Fellow during 2014-2015. In 2017 she published what The New York Times calls her "wonderful new memoir," Slow Medicine: A Way to Healing, where she used her life as a doctor to show the Way of Slow Medicine, which is thoughtful, methodical, and personal. Her most recent work has to do with Conscience in Medicine, "Patients Need Doctors With Consciences," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 2019.

MedConference 2022

Dr. Sarah Timmapuri is a board-certified cardiologist and partner at Bergen Invasive Cardiovascular Consultants. She has been a full-time attending physician at the Hackensack University Medical Center (UMC) since 1997. She is the Chief Quality Informatics Officer for Hackensack UMC and Chief Clinical Information Officer at . In this position, she has brought a clinical lens to information technology with a focus on quality.

Dr. Timmapuri is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Life is Great Global Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing medical and non-medical volunteers to underserved populations around the world. She is happily married to her husband of more than twenty-five years and enjoys her precious time with her eighteen-year-old daughter. Although she loves cooking, reading, and photography, her passion lies with on-going charitable medical work and the delivery of high-quality patient-centered medical care.

MedConference 2018

Laura Toso, MD

Dr. Toso received her medical degree with honors from the University of Milan-Bicocca. She was then a post-doc fellow at the National Institute of Health (NIH) doing research on prevention of mental retardation in Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, and cerebral palsy. Following that, she completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University. She is interested in comprehensive women's care, especially high-risk obstetrics.

MedConference 2015

Kristina Tzinevrakis, Physiotherapist

Kristina Tzinevrakis is a physiotherapist currently working at St-Mary’s Hospital Center, in Montreal Canada, in the emergency department and intensive care unit. She graduated from McGill University in 2013, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master degree in Science, applied in Physical Therapy. She has experience in all sectors of acute care, with further training in cancer rehabilitation and back care. She is passionate about the well-being of others, and believes that developing strong relationships with her colleagues and patients is the foundation of her work.

COVID-19 Discussion Series 2020

Dr. Patrick Vinay holds a B.A and an M.D. from the Université de Montréal. After two years of post-doctoral training at Oxford University under Professor Hans Krebs, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, he began a career in research at l'Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal. He is Pprofessor Emeritus of Medicine at the Université de Montréal. Throughout his 40-year career, Dr. Vinay has published more than 200 articles, mostly related to nephrology and kidney metabolism. Since 2004, he has focused his academic and clinical activities on palliative care. A talented administrator, he was President of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, Chief of the Department of Medicine at Notre-Dame Hospital and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at l'Université de Montréal for two terms. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and a knight of l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques de France.

MedConference 2018

Markwalter is a third-year medical student at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Originally from Virginia, he studied biomedical engineering and chemistry at Bucknell University. It was in his final year there that an English professor encouraged him to write during his medical pursuits. In March of 2015, his first piece, a reflection on his own experience as a patient as well as the modern practice of empathy and compassion titled “In the Hands of Another,” was published in JAMA. He views writing as a method for self-improvement but also hopes to encourage dialogue among health care providers regarding the importance of patient perspectives and narrative medicine.

MedConference 2015

Cory Yarke MD, PhD received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He subsequently obtained a PhD in Immunology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis followed by an MD at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He then completed his Internal Medicine residency training at Abbott Northwestern residency program in Minneapolis, MN followed by taking a hospitalist position at St. Cloud Hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He was also elected a council member of the American College of Physicians (ACP), Minnesota chapter and serves on the ACP Hospitalist group.

MedConference 2016

Luca Zazzeron is currently completing his residency in Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Luca Zazzeron graduated from the University of Milan, Italy in 2010. He completed his residency in Anesthesia at the same University of Milan and he worked as a faculty anesthesiologist at the Policinico Hospital in Milan before moving to the US. While working at the Anesthesia Center for Critical Care Research of the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Dr. Zazzeron participated and developed a number of research projects, with 16 peer-reviewed publications and a number of abstract presentations to international professional meetings.

MedConference 2022