McGill.CA / McGill Mini-Med / Archive / Mini-HealthSciences 2013

Faculty

Here are short biographies for our Mini-HealthSciences lecturers:

Amir Raz PhD

The Twilight Zone of Hypnosis


October 16, 2013


Professor, Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, and Psychology, McGill University
Canada Research Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention, McGill University, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital

Amir Raz holds the Canada Research Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, and heads both the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at McGill and the Clinical Neuroscience and Applied Cognition Laboratory at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital (JGH).

With peer-reviewed publications in such journals as Nature, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Psychological Science, Archives of General Psychiatry, PLoS Medicine, and NeuroImage, Professor Raz has received multiple accolades, including the 2006 Young Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) and the 2005 American Psychological Association's Early Career Award (Division 30). Professor Raz is a researcher at the JGH, a member of the faculty of McGill's Department of Psychiatry, and an associate member of the Departments of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Psychology, and the Montreal Neurological Institute. He is a clinical, interdisciplinary cognitive neuroscientist with a strong experimental approach and neuropsychological sensibilities. He holds diplomate status with the American Board of Psychological Hypnosis.  

Major Research Activities

Dr. Raz conducted his award-winning research in two of the top psychiatry departments in the United States prior to his recent transition to McGill University.  Having studied the neural correlates of developmental psychopathology in impulse control disorders, he has worked with clinical populations, including individuals with Tourette's syndrome, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance use disorders, bulimia nervosa, and pathological gambling.  His active research interests span the neural and psychological substrates of attention, suggestion, placebos, self-regulation and effortful control.  He is also conducting research into the cognitive neuroscience of authorship processes, altered consciousness and atypical cognition. Using imaging of the living human brain (neuroimaging), genetics, and other state-of-the-art techniques (e.g., eye-tracking), his research brings together basic and clinical science. Dr. Raz is a leader in unlocking the brain substrates of attention.  He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Mind-Body Regulation and a member of the McGill Board of Governors.

Sean Clarke PhD

Nursing:  So What Do Nurses Do, Anyway?


October 23, 2013


Sean Clarke, is a health services researcher and nurse educator specializing in health policy and hospital safety issues.  He was named the inaugural Susan E. French Chair in Nursing Research and Innovative Practice and the Director of the McGill Nursing Collaborative for Education and Innovation in Patient and Family Centred Care, effective July 1, 2012.  The McGill Collaborative is a unique initiative designed to increase synergies between practice, research and teaching between the School of Nursing and McGill-affiliated hospitals and to build new local, national and international collaborations that capitalize on the rich and unique opportunities for clinicians, researchers and leaders in nursing in Montréal and  Québec.  After completing his master’s and PhD education at McGill and advanced clinical and research training at the University of Pennsylvania, he taught and managed research groups at both the University of Pennsylvania and University of Toronto for over a decade.  From 2008 to mid-2012, he held a research chair in cardiovascular nursing endowed by the RBC Foundation that involved a joint appointment between the Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto and the University Health Network system of teaching hospitals.   He is currently active in scientific journal editing in nursing and health services research and in the peer review of grants for national competitions in Canada, the U.S. and beyond and holds affiliate appointments at the Université de Montréal and the University of Hong Kong.

Howard Steiger PhD

Understanding Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa: DNA, TLC or MTV?


October 30, 2013


Howard Steiger directs the only large-scale, specialized program for the treatment of adults suffering eating disorders in the Province of Quebec, a program offering a full range of Inpatient, Day Hospital/Day Program and Outpatient treatments. He is an active clinician, researcher, and teacher, and has published numerous clinical, scientific and theoretical articles and chapters on the Eating Disorders (EDs). Through the research arm of the program, Steiger and his colleagues have recently been studying: a) Genetic and epigenetic processes thought to influence the development of eating disorders and associated symptoms. b) Factors that predict response during and after specialized ED treatments. c) The efficacy of a system-wide effort to transfer specialized knowledge on ED treatment to 1st and 2nd line services. Steiger is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders, a recent Past President of the Eating Disorders Research Society (2007-2008) and past Board and Executive-Committee member of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED: 2007-2009). He is currently Co-President of the Quebec Government’s committee to develop a “Charter for Healthy and Diversified Body Images”. He was recipient, in 2010, of the Academy for Eating Disorders’ Leadership Award for Clinical, Educational or Administrative Service, and in 2013, received the Douglas Institute’s “Innovaction” Award for work in Knowledge Transfer.

Dr. Dan Deckelbaum

Global Health: Past and Future Directions


November 6, 2013


Dr. Dan Deckelbaum is assistant professor at the Divisions of Trauma and General Surgery at the McGill University Health Centre. He obtained his subspecialty training in trauma surgery and critical care at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. During his fellowship training he also completed a Masters of Public Health at the University of Miami. In addition to his passion for clinical practice, Dan has developed an avid interest in global surgery education and development, as well as disaster preparedness and response, establishing and co-directing the MUHC Centre for Global Surgery. Recently he was appointed the interim director of the McGill University Global Health Programs. Much of this interest is founded upon on-site clinical work in government hospitals in East Africa as well as disaster response missions in Somalia, Kenya, Turks and Caicos, and most recently in Haiti. This clinical experience is the basis for ongoing capacity building programs in low and middle income nations such as Haiti, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ukraine and in the middle east.

Dr. David Mulder

The Epidemic of Sport Injuries: The Need for a Collaborative Approach


November 13, 2013


David Mulder was born in Eston, Saskatchewan and graduated, Magna Cum Laude, from the College of Medicine, University of Saskachewan in 1962. He has been at McGill since 1963 and was the first recipient of the Rocke Robertson Chair in Surgery. Dr. Mulder has been Head of the Department of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery at McGill; Chairman of the McGill University Dept of Surgery; Surgeon-in-Chief of the Montreal General Hospital and has won the Award of Merit at the Montreal General Hospital. He is the Club Physician for the Montreal Canadiens Hockey Club and was the President of the N.H.L. Physician’s Association. In 2004, he was appointed Medical Consultant for the N.H.L. and N.H.L.P.A. for the World Cup of Hockey in Helsinki, Stockholm, Cologne, and Prague.

He has published over 220 papers and book chapters including; ‘Educating Tomorrow’s Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons in Canada; An Evolving Process’; ‘The Historical Evaluation of Clinical Research: The Many Roles of an Academic Surgeon’, and the ‘History of Trauma Care from Homer to Telemedicine’.

David Mulder was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1997. He is married and has three children and nine grandchildren.

Annette Majnemer PhD

Rehabilitation Professionals: Making a Difference in People’s Lives


November 20, 2013


Annette Majnemer is an occupational therapist with doctoral training in the neurosciences. She is Director of the School of Physical & Occupational Therapy and Associate Dean, Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. She is a Professor, cross-appointed to the Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology & Neurosurgery, and is a Research Associate at the Montreal Children’s Hospital-McGill University Health Centre. She is a nominated Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Her current research interests in childhood disability focus on intrinsic and extrinsic determinants of participation, rehabilitation service needs and utilization patterns and knowledge translation strategies that promote best practice. Dr. Majnemer is Co-Editor of Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics and Associate Editor of Developmental Medicine Child Neurology. She leads a bilingual website called Childhood Disability  that provides user-friendly information about recent research findings to families and clinicians.


 

Dr. Brian Ward

Microbes: Are They Pathogens or Partners?


November 27, 2013


Dr Ward received his medical training at McGill University (1980) followed by residencies in Internal Medicine (1988) and Infectious Diseases (1990) at Johns Hopkins and in Microbiology at McGill (1991). His research training began as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford (MSc 1980) and continued at Johns Hopkins (1986-90).  He joined the Faculty of Medicine at McGill in 1991. He is currently professor of Medicine and Microbiology as well as Deputy Director of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (Fundamental Science). He is also Associate Director of the JD MacLean Centre for Tropical Diseases, Director of the McGill Vaccine Study Centre and Medical Director of the National Reference Laboratory for Parasitology. Since late 2011, he has served as the Medical Officer for Medicago Inc. His work has been supported by a wide range of funding agencies (CIHR, NIH, WHO), foundations (Thrasher, Rockefeller), government programs (CIDA, US AID, PHAC) and industry. His research interests can be divided into three areas: 1) micronutrient-virus interactions, 2) vaccine development and evaluation and 3) international health issues with a particular interest in parasite diagnostics and factors that influence HIV transmission. He has published more than 175 peer-reviewed manuscripts/chapters and was recently elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2011).

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