Who we are
 | Joao L. Pippi Salle PhD, MD, FRCSC, FAAP |
Joao Pippi Salle is a consulting pediatric urologist at The Hospital for Sick Children. After completing his medical degree in 1972, at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, Dr. Pippi Salle underwent his 7 years surgical training in General Surgery, Pediatric Surgery and Pediatric Urology in the USA, South Africa and Canada. He completed his PhD studies while in Brazil, developing a surgical technique for the treatment of refractory urinary incontinence in children.
Dr. Pippi Salle was an Associate Professor of Surgery (Urology) at McGill University from 1996 to 2003. During this time he was the Chief of the Division of Urology at The Montreal Children’s Hospital. He moved to Toronto in 2003 as an Associate Professor of the Dept. of Surgery. Dr. Pippi Salle has been involved in several educational activities since early in his career. He has chaired several pediatric urological events and workshops. He has always been involved in post-graduate teaching and received the Surgical Teaching Award of the Montreal Children’s Hospital and the McGill Urology Teaching Award in 1997.
Over the last year Dr. Pippi Salle has been developing an Interactive Multimedia CD-ROM for Teaching Pediatric Urology which was supported by a successful application for the ITDF competition in 2004-2005.
Dr. Pippi Salle has 51 published papers in peer reviewed journals and is the author of 25 book chapters. He has been invited by several institutions around the world where he delivered more than 150 lectures.
His wife Nicola and 4 children Michelle, Alexandre, Gabriela and Ana Claudia have been supportive companions on his ventures.
 | Walid Farhat MD |
Walid Farhat graduated from the American University of Beirut with a B.Sc in Biology (’88), and his M.D. in 1992. He then took training in General Surgery and Urology and graduated as a Chief Resident in Urology in 1998. He then completed a 3-year Clinical/Research fellowship in Pediatric Urology at the Hospital for Sick Children. In 2001, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Urology at The University of Toronto, and joined the Division of Urology at The Hospital for Sick Children.
Dr. Farhat maintains a clinical practice in Paediatric Urology and has a particular interest in mini invasive surgery including Laparoscopic and Endourologic procedures in children. He maintains an active research interest in clinical trials of Paediatric Voiding Dysfunction and Vesicoureteral Reflux. Since his appointment to SickKids, Dr. Farhat has initiated an active research programme in Tissue Engineering. His focus is on re-population of acellular matrices for the purpose of bladder reconstruction or substitution. This work is exploring the factors necessary for urinary bladder development, and should facilitate translational research into therapies for bladder abnormalities.
 | Darius Bagli MDCM, FRCSC, FAAP, FACS |
Dr. Bagli was recruited back to Canada from the United States to initiate a major new direction in the evolution of the Urology Division at The Hospital for Sick Children to create a basic research sphere of activity within the division.
Dr. Bagli became a member of the surgical staff at The Hospital for Sick Children and the Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, in 1995. He is certified in Urologic Surgery by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons, the American Board of Urology and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Paediatrics. He directs a laboratory in cell and matrix biology in the hospital Research Institute, as well as oversees a busy clinical practice in paediatric urology and reconstructive surgery. He is one of the few paediatric urologists with an independent cell and molecular biology programme in North America and the only one in Canada. Dr. Bagli continues to hold peer–reviewed funding for his research and is actively involved in both the basic science and clinical training of the paediatric urology fellows in the hospital. Dr. Bagli has been principal author and co-author of many papers and book chapters in both clinical paediatric urology as well as basic research. He is currently investigating extracellular matrix biology as it pertains to wound healing and biomechanically-mediated injury in the lower urinary tract. He has an international reputation in this area and has been an invited speaker at numerous clinical and basic research symposia. Dr. Bagli continues to pursue innovative collaborations with clinicians and investigators at University of Toronto, in Canada and the United States.
 | Armando Lorenzo MD |
Dr. Lorenzo is a native of Panama, where he completed medical studies graduating easily at the top of his class. He completed his Urology Residency at the University of Texas Southwestern medical School, in Dallas, Texas and began his fellowship at SickKids in 2004. Dr. Lorenzo has consistently won top medical and urological honours in his native panama, the U.S., and Canada. Most recently he was the recipient of an American Urological Association Research Fellowship for 2006-07, where he has been working with Dr. Bagli in the field of bladder pathomechanics. Equally versed in the language of basic science and outcomes research, he will be specializing in the latter following completion of an MSc in Epidemiology though the Faculty of Medicine Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. Well published in several areas of Urology, Armando also has a keen interest in enhancing minimally invasive surgical alternatives for patients, and establishing a field of outcomes research in Pediatric urology which has not formally existed up to now. Dr. Lorenzo is a superbly gifted technical surgeon with an inquiring mind, and boundless enthusiasm for improving the life of the young patients we all care for.