St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group Ophthalmic Association - Canada
Asim Ali, MD FRCSC
Nishaant Bhambra, MD CM
Michael Balas, BHSc
Asim Ali received his BASc Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He completed his undergraduate medical education and residency in Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto. He then went on to further postgraduate training with separate fellowships in Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus and Cornea and External Disease at Washington University, St. Louis, USA.
Since returning to Canada, his practice and clinical research have focused on glaucoma and cornea/external disease disorders in children, as well as paediatric cataract and other anterior segment abnormalities. He is a co-developer of the minimally invasive corneal neurotization procedure with sural nerve grafts for the treatment of corneal anesthesia. At SickKids, Ali is also the Co-Director of the Paediatric Cornea Fellowship.
Michael Balas, BHSc
Nishaant Bhambra, MD CM
Michael Balas, BHSc
Michael Balas is a third-year medical student at the University of Toronto who previously earned his Bachelor of Health Sciences degree with a Minor in Computer Science at McMaster University. Among his many interests, machine learning and data science have always held a leading role in his research activities and discoveries. Michael has previously led the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Student Society (AIMSS) and has been invited to speak for the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM) Trainee Rounds for his work in automated brain hemorrhage classification and quantification. Currently, one of his primary endeavours involves building AI systems that can understand ophthalmic surgical procedures and quantify the proficiency at which they are performed. As a self-proclaimed budding ophthalmologist, Michael is passionate about bridging AI with vision sciences to develop new innovations and further his knowledge in the field.
Nishaant Bhambra, MD CM
Nishaant Bhambra, MD CM
Netan Choudhry, MD FRCSC DABO
Nishaant (Shaan) Bhambra is a Glaucoma and Advanced Anterior Segment Surgery (GAASS) research fellow under Dr. Ike Ahmed. He is also a student fellow of the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM). He previously completed his medical degree at McGill University, and his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, where he studied bioinformatics and molecular genetics.
His primary research interests are in using artificial intelligence and computer vision to improve the detection and classification of ophthalmic disease, including anterior segment and retinal pathologies. He looks forward to developing his career as a clinician-scientist in artificial intelligence and ophthalmology.
Netan Choudhry, MD FRCSC DABO
Netan Choudhry, MD FRCSC DABO
Netan Choudhry, MD FRCSC DABO
Dr. Netan Choudhry is the founder and medical director of the Vitreous Retina Macula Specialists of Toronto, a premier academic retina practice. He is an internationally recognized Vitreoretinal Surgeon with affiliations at both the University of Toronto and Harvard Medical School and is a faculty member at Cleveland Clinic Canada. He is universally recognized as a thought leader in retinal imaging and the diagnosis and treatment of rare disorders of the retina and vitreous.
Dr. Choudhry is an experienced cataract surgeon with expertise in premium cataract surgery & Femtosecond laser cataract surgery. As a retina surgeon performing cataract surgery, he specializes in complex cataract surgery including, but not limited to eyes with pre-existing retinal disease.
He has published in the world’s most read/indexed journals including: The New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, Ophthalmology and the Retina Journal. Dr. Choudhry’s innovative work in the field of retina has also been published on the covers of numerous journals further earning him the distinction of a pioneer in retinal imaging.
Tina Felfeli, MD
Netan Choudhry, MD FRCSC DABO
Joshua Herman, BSc
Dr. Felfeli's research expands across multiple disciplines and methodologies in biomedical and clinical epidemiology. On one had, she looks at trends in the population’s eye health, in order to answer important questions such as what is the prevalence of uveitis in Ontario, who are the patients affected, are they being diagnosed on a timely manner, what are their needs and are they able to access their required treatments. AI allows for meaningful trends to be identified in the population.
The second part of her research involves a close look at individuals with various eye conditions and their specific disease characteristics, response to treatment and how we can best optimize management for each patient, using a more personalized approach to patient care. The analysis of hundreds of the intraocular inflammatory biomarkers can help us understand these diseases better. AI enables pattern recognition and identification of associations not possible to identify using traditional statistical methods. I am exploring ways we can use machine learning to combine the data for the inflammatory markers, the patients’ unique characteristics and the details about their disease to help narrow down useful targets for more research on personalized medications.
Joshua Herman, BSc
Netan Choudhry, MD FRCSC DABO
Joshua Herman, BSc
Josh Herman is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Toronto in the combined MD/MBA program with a keen interest in ophthalmology. He previously earned his Bachelor of Sciences from the University of Western Ontario, where he majored in Biology and Medical Science. Josh’s focus is on the design and integration of technology into health systems, which he has studied as part of his MBA program at Rotman and as a consultant with HERO AI at Sick Kids. In cofounding the Prototype design thinking program for medical students and the multidisciplinary DELTA (Design, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Technology, AI) conference, Josh has worked to ensure that healthcare students with similar interests can be connected with mentors. His primary research focus is using AI to automate time-intensive tasks in ophthalmology research, screening and clinical assessments.
Michelle Khan, MD FRCSC
Muhammad Mamdani, PharmD MA MPH
Michelle Khan, MD FRCSC
Dr. Michelle Khan is a comprehensive ophthalmologist with an interest in oculoplastics.
She received her Bachelor of Science from Queen’s University, where she was the recipient of the Loran Scholarship. She obtained her Doctor of Medicine from Queen’s University. She completed Residency training in Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto. She received further training in Oculoplastics at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, England.
Dr. Khan is passionate about humanitarian work and has been extensively involved in global medical outreach, having performed several medical missions to conflict-stricken parts of the world, including Jordan and Jerusalem. She is the current Chair of the St John Ophthalmic Association of Canada, and is actively involved in teaching and lecturing at the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem.
Rahul G Krishnan, PhD
Muhammad Mamdani, PharmD MA MPH
Michelle Khan, MD FRCSC
Rahul G. Krishnan is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology within the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. He received a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2020, as well as an MS from New York University and a BASc from the University of Toronto. After completing his PhD, Krishnan spent a year as a senior researcher with Microsoft Research New England. He was recently awarded a CIFAR AI Chair to further his research.
Krishnan’s work lies at the intersection of machine learning and health care. He is interested in developing new machine learning models and algorithms from clinical data with a view to building tools that will assist clinicians in making challenging decisions about patient health. Krishnan is particularly interested in a class of models known as deep generative models. These blend recent successes in deep neural networks with those from classical statistical models known as Bayesian networks.
Muhammad Mamdani, PharmD MA MPH
Muhammad Mamdani, PharmD MA MPH
Muhammad Mamdani, PharmD MA MPH
Dr. Mamdani is Vice President of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Unity Health Toronto and Director of the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM). Dr. Mamdani’s team bridges advanced analytics including machine learning with clinical and management decision making to improve patient outcomes and hospital efficiency. Dr. Mamdani is also Professor in the Department of Medicine of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation of the Dalla Lana Faculty of Public Health. He is also adjunct Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and a Faculty Affiliate of the Vector Institute. In 2010, Dr. Mamdani was named among Canada’s Top 40 under 40. He has published over 500 studies in peer-reviewed medical journals. Dr. Mamdani obtained a Doctor of Pharmacy degree (PharmD) from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and completed a fellowship in pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research at the Detroit Medical Center. During his fellowship, Dr. Mamdani obtained a Master of Arts degree in Economics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan with a concentration in econometric theory. He then completed a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University with a concentration in quantitative methods.
Austin Pereira, MD MEng
Laura C Rosella, PhD MHSc
Muhammad Mamdani, PharmD MA MPH
Austin Pereira is a resident physician (PGY3) in Ophthalmology & Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto. He graduated from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine in 2020, while also receiving a Master’s of Engineering degree in 2019. His clinical research interests are in artificial intelligence modelling for vitreoretinal surgery and optimizing cataract surgery refractive outcomes using deep learning algorithms.
Marko Popovic, MD
Laura C Rosella, PhD MHSc
Laura C Rosella, PhD MHSc
Marko Popovic is a resident physician (PGY4) in the Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto. He is also a Master of Public Health candidate in epidemiology at Harvard University. He earned his medical degree at the University of Toronto and Bachelor of Health Sciences at McMaster University. In residency, he served as an executive member of the planning committee of the 61st Annual Walter Wright Symposium and the Research Director of the Council of Canadian Ophthalmology Residents. Marko is the recipient of numerous conference awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, Canadian Ophthalmological Society, European Society of Ophthalmology, and European Society of Retinal Specialists. Marko’s research interests include retinal detachment, vitreoretinal surgery, retinal vascular disorders, as well as cataract surgery. He has published widely on these topics and is focused on working collaboratively with diverse teams to design impactful studies that translate into practical improvements in the care of patients with vision loss.
Laura C Rosella, PhD MHSc
Laura C Rosella, PhD MHSc
Laura C Rosella, PhD MHSc
Laura Rosella is the Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of the Population Health Analytics Lab at the University of Toronto. She is an Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, where she holds Canada Research Chair in Population Health Analytics. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, the Stephen Family Research Chair in Community Health at the Institute for Better Health, Trillium Health Partners, the Education Lead for the Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM), and the Associate Director of Education and Training at the University of Toronto’s Data Science Initiative (DSI). Her additional scientific appointments include Faculty Affiliate at the Vector Institute and the Schwartz Reisman Institute, and Site Director for ICES UofT. Her research interests include population health and health equity, data science, predictive models to support public health planning, knowledge translation and evaluation, and population health management.
Matthew Schlenker, MD MSc FRCSC
Matthew Schlenker, MD MSc FRCSC
Matthew Schlenker, MD MSc FRCSC
Dr. Schlenker is a glaucoma, cataract, and advanced anterior segment surgeon. His research interests include observational study design and big data projects related to functional outcomes following cataract and glaucoma surgery, glaucoma surgery comparative analysis, glaucoma and cataract outcome predictive modelling, eye health economics, and other health systems research.
Allan Slomovic, MD MSc FRCSC
Matthew Schlenker, MD MSc FRCSC
Matthew Schlenker, MD MSc FRCSC
Dr. Slomovic is the University Health Network Marta and Owen Boris Endowed Chair in Cornea and Stem Cell Research, as well as Research Director of the Cornea/External Disease Service at Toronto Western Hospital. He is the past President of the Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS) and past Chair of CPD and the Canadian Cornea and External Disease Society of COS.
He is also the past Program Director of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto (1991-2001) and a past director of the department's Residency and Continuing Professional Development programs.
As well as being a leader in cornea and external disease treatment, Dr. Slomovic has trained scores of residents and fellows from all over the world, including Canada, United States, Israel, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Great Britain. In 2001, he was awarded the Mentor of the Year Award by the Royal College of Physicians of Canada. Together with Dr. Michelle Khan, he was co-chair of the AI and the Eye conference.
Andre Stanberry, OD
Matthew Schlenker, MD MSc FRCSC
Adnan Tufail, MBBS MD FRCOpth
Andre Stanberry completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Western Ontario and subsequently earned a Doctor of Optometry degree from the State University New York College of Optometry in New York City. Following graduation, he completed a residency in Ocular Disease and Family Practice at the East New York Diagnostic and Treatment Center. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Waterloo he was an Assistant Clinical Professor at the State University of New York College of Optometry. Andre is currently a Clinical Associate Professor and Clinic Director at the University of Waterloo, School of Optometry and Vision Science.
Adnan Tufail, MBBS MD FRCOpth
David Verity, BMBCh MA(Oxon) MD FRCOpth
Adnan Tufail, MBBS MD FRCOpth
Adnan Tufail is the clinical and research lead for AMD at Moorfields, and he’s achieved a lot in that role. He was a co-principal investigator in the seminal ABC Trial that focused on examining bevacizumab for the treatment of neovascular AMD, which had a profound effect on eyecare in the UK: it defined anti-VEGF treatment protocols for wet-AMD therapy within the NHS. He’s also an early pioneer of big data and machine learning in ophthalmology, with numerous publications to his name on that topic to date. He founded an ARVO AI special interest group that grew into an all-day course, and is involved in the validation of machine learning algorithms that are being introduced into the UK for diabetic screening.
David Verity, BMBCh MA(Oxon) MD FRCOpth
David Verity, BMBCh MA(Oxon) MD FRCOpth
David Verity, BMBCh MA(Oxon) MD FRCOpth
David Verity is a full-time Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, where specializes in the management of eyelid, lacrimal, socket and orbital disorders (ocular ‘adnexal’ disease).
His qualifications include an undergraduate medical training at Oxford, a research degree in immunogenetics in London, and ophthalmic and advanced subspecialty training in the Thames region, including Moorfields Eye Hospital.
Mr Verity’s areas of clinical expertise encompass a wide variety of oculoplastic diseases, including watery and uncomfortable eyes, all lid, lacrimal, orbital and socket disorders, thyroid eye disease, and eyelid and conjunctival reconstruction where there is a risk of ocular exposure.
In addition to his clinical practice, he publishes widely in the field, trains ophthalmic doctors, and lectures regularly on oculoplastic disease in the UK and abroad. Finally, in 2019 he was elected President of The British Oculoplastic Surgery Society.
Mr Verity is Hospitaller of the Order of St John, and is involved in running national and international courses and training programs.
Alexander Wong, PhD PEng
David Verity, BMBCh MA(Oxon) MD FRCOpth
David Verity, BMBCh MA(Oxon) MD FRCOpth
Alexander Wong is currently the Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Medical Imaging, a Member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada, co-director of the Vision and Image Processing Research Group, and a professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He received his BASc degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2005, his MASc degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2007, and his PhD degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2010. He was an NSERC postdoctoral research fellow at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and has published over 600 refereed journal and conference papers, as well as patents, in various fields such as computational imaging, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and multimedia systems.
David Wong MD FRCSC
David Wong MD FRCSC
David Wong MD FRCSC
David Wong, is a vitreoretinal surgeon and Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at Toronto's St Michael's Hospital. After completing his undergraduate medical education and residency in Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto, he undertook a fellowship with Dr. Michael Shea in Toronto, followed by a second fellowship with Dr. Stanley Chang at Columbia, New York. He is the recipient of numerous awards, both locally and internationally, including the American Society of Vitreoretinal Surgeons (ASRS) Senior Award. He is the past director of the fellowship programs in the Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto, and is the founder of the national fellowship committee of the Canadian Ophthalmology Society. Locally, he started the GTA Retina subspecialty group rounds in 1998, which has been running ever since. His recent interests include better diabetic retinopathy surveillance, and the developing new ophthalmic biomaterials.