SimKids Virtual Simulation Symposium

Director, Systems Leadership and Innovation, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. Director, Leadership Wellness Lab. Assistant Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Senior Krembil Fellow, Krembil Centre for Health Management and Leadership, Schulich School of Business, York University

Dr. Abi Sriharan is a Senior Scientist and the Research Director at the Krembil Centre for Health Management and Leadership at the Schulich School of Business. Before joining the Schulich School of Business, she served as the Program Director of the Systems Leadership and Innovation program at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Dr. Sriharan's research focuses on the interplay between work and human factors. Her current research explores two broad questions: How can organizations prevent burnout, promote wellness, and support performance? How do individuals find meaning in their work and achieve their fullest potential as leaders? Dr. Sriharan' serves as a consultant to global health organizations and governments on issues related to workforce recruitment, retention and well-being strategies. As a professional leadership coach, she is extensively involved in coaching physicians and high-performing women leaders. Dr. Sriharan received her M.Sc. and D.Phil. from the University of Oxford and her bachelor’s from the University of Toronto. 

Paediatric Emergency Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children

Sabrina is currently an advanced training fellow in POCUS at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. She completed her medical school and paediatric residency training at McMaster University, then her subspecialty training in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is an enthusiastic bedside teacher with a passion for medical education at all levels of medical training. Off-shift, she enjoys scrapbooking, writing, dancing, and music.

Staff Physician, Paediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM), PhD candidate in simulation in HPE at MGH Harvard, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Simulation Educator and SIM staff lead in Resuscitation and Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS) Course Director, Resuscitation Lead in PEM, Director, Paediatric Emergency Medicine Clinical Fellowship Program and Accreditation Lead Staff at Learning Institute.

Dr. Jabeen Fayyaz completed her medical training at Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi, Pakistan. She was awarded her diploma, MCPS and FCPS Pediatrics from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan. She then completed her Masters in HPE from Aga Khan University and currently is a PhD candidate in simulation in HPE at MGH Harvard. Dr. Fayyaz was actively involved in the development of the Emergency Medicine program in Pakistan and Oman throughout her career. In 2010, she developed a virtual blended learning course for the management of acute paediatric emergencies, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, which ran across the Aga Khan development network.

In Toronto, Dr. Fayyaz completed her Paediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) Fellowship and Simulation Fellowship at SickKids and facilitates several simulation-based courses including APLS, procedural sedation, acute care resuscitation training for residents, PEM fellows. She has been Resuscitation Lead for the competency based medical education program for PEM faculty since 2018, the first of its kind in Canada. She has been Resuscitation Lead in the department and led various initiative including implementing Acute Event Debriefing, incorporating virtual simulation and virtual gaming simulation into the residents, fellows and faculty simulation-based educational activities.

She has made partners with various international simulation leaders including, INSPIRE, IPSS, SSH and IMPACTS. She is leading various virtual simulation-based courses with McMaster University (Canada), Yale University (USA), and Indus Hospital & Health Network (Pakistan), and Tel Aviv University (Israel).

Her interests include resuscitation, virtual simulation, acute event debriefing and patient safety and quality improvement practices utilizing simulation. She is passionate about incorporating equity, diversity, and inclusion in simulation. She recently won the Teaching Award for Subspeciality Teaching from University of Toronto and two education grants to incorporate cultural sensitivity and virtual simulations.

Simulation Educator, The Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children

Alison joined the SickKids Simulation Program in 2013 as a simulation educator. She also co-leads the SickKids Mentorship Academy. Alison is passionate about education and completed a Master of Education Program at Brock University. Alison joined SickKids in 2000 and has worked as a charge nurse within CCCU and a project manager for an inter-professional career advancement initiative.

Alison received simulation training through the Royal College of Physicians, Simulation Educator Training Course. She also completed a Train-the-Trainer Video Debriefing Course, delivered by the Israel Centre for Medical Simulation (MSR) and received Human Factors Training from the University Health Network, Human Factors Group.

As a Simulation Educator, she collaborates with professionals to develop simulation-based education, evaluation and training that supports innovation, research and learning with an emphasis on patient safety.​ Alison also partners with the Project Horizon Team and Emergency Preparedness Team to create innovative evaluation simulations to test out spaces, systems, and processes within the organization. She has also developed simulation training programs for health care professionals both locally and internationally.

Quality Improvement Specialist for Quality Management & Clinical Practice & Quality Lead, The Hospital for Sick Children

Katherine Kung Cheung is currently a Quality Improvement Specialist for Quality Management & Clinical Practice & Quality Lead for the outpatient program at SickKids. In her role, she focuses on using QI methodologies to increase Emergency Preparedness and improve workflow during a color code event. Katherine is a graduate of the University of Toronto Master of Nursing in Health Systems Leadership and Administration and enjoys reading and travelling in her spare time.

Simulation and Resuscitation Educator, Simulation Program, The Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children

Roger is a Simulation and Resuscitation educator at the Learning Institute. He's been with the Learning Institute since 2015. He is also a Registered Respiratory Therapist, and has worked at SickKids primarily in the pediatric intensive care unit, emergency department, and in-patient wards, since 2012. In the role of Simulation and Resuscitation Educator, Roger has contributed to the development of simulation-based education curriculum, workshops, and materials that are utilized across the organization, as well as with external partners. As part of these programs, he has assisted in broadening the capacity of leaders across the organization in utilizing best practices to facilitate simulation-based education. 

Medical Director, Paedaitric Advanced Care Team (PACT), The Hospital for Sick Children. Medical Director, Emily House Children’s Hospice

Adam Rapoport is a general paediatrician with a Masters in bioethics. In July 2011 he became the first Medical Director of the Paediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT), the palliative care service at SickKids. PACT provides both inpatient and outpatient palliative care to children with life-threatening illnesses, and their families, including grief and bereavement support. In 2013 Adam became Medical Director at Toronto’s first pediatric residential hospice – Emily’s House. Adam’s academic work focuses on the intersection of his 3 primary interests: paediatrics, palliative care and ethics.

Simulation Educator, The Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children

Alison joined the SickKids Simulation Program in 2013 as a simulation educator. She also co-leads the SickKids Mentorship Academy. Alison is passionate about education and completed a Master of Education Program at Brock University. Alison joined SickKids in 2000 and has worked as a charge nurse within CCCU and a project manager for an inter-professional career advancement initiative.

Alison received simulation training through the Royal College of Physicians, Simulation Educator Training Course. She also completed a Train-the-Trainer Video Debriefing Course, delivered by the Israel Centre for Medical Simulation (MSR) and received Human Factors Training from the University Health Network, Human Factors Group.

As a Simulation Educator, she collaborates with professionals to develop simulation-based education, evaluation and training that supports innovation, research and learning with an emphasis on patient safety.​ Alison also partners with the Project Horizon Team and Emergency Preparedness Team to create innovative evaluation simulations to test out spaces, systems, and processes within the organization. She has also developed simulation training programs for health care professionals both locally and internationally.

Director of Clinical Ops Readiness, Project Horizon, The Hospital for Sick Children

Tanya joined SickKids in 2021 as the Director of Clinical Operational Readiness with Project Horizon.  She is a PMO Director with more than 25 years of progressive experience in Ontario hospitals with a proven track record of implementing multiple, complex projects successfully to completion. Tanya has expertise in workflow analysis, process redesign, stakeholder engagement, systems and strategic thinking. Tanya believes in coaching and mentoring teams and individuals through transformation in order to promote solutions-based thinking, communication, team cohesion, and results.

Craniofacial and Cleft Surgery, Division of Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery, The Hospital for Sick Children

Dr. Dale Podolsky completed residency training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Toronto where he was enrolled in the Surgeon Scientist Training Program completing a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. Following residency training, Dr. Podolsky completed fellowship training in Pediatric Craniofacial Surgery at the University of Washington at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Prior to medical school at the University of Toronto, Dr. Podolsky completed concurrent degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Physics at Western University.

During his PhD, he developed a novel robotic instrument for cleft palate repair using a high-fidelity cleft palate simulator and founded the company Simulare Medical to commercialize the simulator resulting in widespread adoption in over 60 countries worldwide. The company was acquired by Smile Train, the worlds largest cleft organization in 2020. Dr. Podolsky’s academic career has resulted in numerous international patents, awards, publications and presentations.

Paediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow, The Hospital for Sick Children

Dr. Dana Singer Harel is a Paediatric Emergency physician at The Hospital for Sick Children since 2020, where she is about to finish her fellowship. She is also a simulation fellow with the SickKids Learning Institute in the past year.

Dana trained in paediatrics and paediatric emergency medicine at Schneider’s Children Health Center in Israel where she was a lead in medical education and PEM fellowship director. 

Dana has a passion for simulation and medical education research and she is currently involved in multiple research projects in that field

Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children

Dr. Maya Harel-Sterling is a Paediatric Emergency physician at the Hospital for Sick Children. She is also an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. She completed her PEM fellowship and POCUS fellowship training at the Hospital for Sick Children. She is currently enrolled in a Master’s Program in Health Practitioner Teacher Education through the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She is involved in medical education research, especially as it relates to competency setting and education in point-of-care ultrasound. She is also leading POCUS training initiatives for the PEM fellows, including through the integration with simulation-based teaching.

Neonatologist, McMaster Children’s Hospital. Associate Professor, Paediatrics

Dr. Connie Williams completed a Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine fellowship and PhD in Health Policy and Bioethics at the University of Toronto with thesis work in perinatal end-of-life decision making. Her academic interests lie in bioethics, qualitative research, and interprofessional education.  She is currently a staff neonatologist at McMaster Children’s Hospital and course director of ‘Teaching Bioethics’ in the MHSc Program at the Joint Centre for Bioethics in Toronto.

Director Occupational Health and Safety Services, The Hospital for Sick Children

Laura Alexander received a Masters of Health Science from the University of Toronto in Occupational and Environmental Health. Laura first joined SickKids in 2002 as an Occupational Hygienist. She worked briefly in Organizational Development leading the staff engagement and performance management programs before moving into formal leadership in 2017 as the Senior Manager, Occupational Hygiene and Safety and then in 2018 as the Director, Occupational Health and Safety Services. In this role, Laura successfully lead a team of professionals through the COVID-19 pandemic with unprecedented demands placed on the department’s services. It was also during this time that the organizational importance of staff wellness was highlighted, and the health and well-being strategy was developed.  

Chief of DPLM (interim), Division Head, Pathology, Physician Peer, Peer Support and Trauma Response Team, Physician Lead for Wellness, The Hospital for Sick Children. Professor and Vice Chair, EDI and Wellness, University of Toronto

Dr. Somers is Division Head of Pathology and interim Chief of Laboratories at the Hospital for Sick Children and Professor at the University of Toronto. His research has included independent grant-funded projects and numerous collaborative projects focusing on the biology and pathology of pediatric sarcomas. He has over 110 publications and book chapters and over 40 invited talks. Dr. Somers has won numerous international prizes for his research and his work led to the first description of a novel Ewing-like sarcoma family in pediatric patients. This resulted in the development of the first diagnostic assay for pediatric sarcomas using a NanoString-based assay. His recent work has focused on implementing cutting-edge molecular diagnostics for pediatric cancer, including NanoString and NGS-based technologies. Dr. Somers is the past president of the Society for Pediatric Pathology. In 2018, Dr. Somers joined the Physician Peer Support group at Sick Kids and has been the Physician Lead for Wellness since November 2020. He is an advocate for wellness across the hospital and is actively seeking solutions to prevent burnout and improve the wellbeing of healthcare workers.

Dr. Somers has many years’ experience in medical and laboratory leadership and has won both the Medical Staff Association’s Citizenship Award and the President’s Award, the latter as part of the Peer Support Team.

Occupational Therapist, Department of Rehabilitation Services, Hospital for Sick Children. Lecturer, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto

Lisa Hoffman is an occupational therapist at the Hospital for Sick Children in the Labatt Family Heart Centre and Cardiac Critical Care programs. Lisa's clinical expertise is in acute care rehabilitation of infants and children with neurodevelopmental, cardiorespiratory, cognitive, and feeding and swallowing issues. Lisa has expertise in assessment and intervention approaches to transition children with feeding and swallowing problems from tube feeding to oral feeding in both the hospital and community settings. She has co-authored a book chapter on feeding and swallowing assessment and intervention in the CHD population. Lisa is also a Lecturer and provides teaching and supervision to students at the University of Toronto Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy.

Clinician Educator/Clinical Specialist, Respiratory Therapy/Cardiac Critical Care Unit, The Hospital for Sick Children

Leanne Davidson is a Clinical Educator at SickKids and has been an RT for over 30 years. She developed international educational curricula for programs in the Middle East and China and has organized and lead annual provincial and national conferences to educate community health care workers. She has been involved in utilizing simulation in multiple education platforms and was a lead facilitator in the “Immersive Reality” program at SickKids, a simulation based team training program used to improve team performance.

Staff Physician, Paediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM), PhD candidate in simulation in HPE at MGH Harvard, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Simulation Educator and SIM staff lead in Resuscitation and Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS) Course Director, Resuscitation Lead in PEM, Director, Paediatric Emergency Medicine Clinical Fellowship Program and Accreditation Lead Staff at Learning Institute.

Dr. Jabeen Fayyaz completed her medical training at Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi, Pakistan. She was awarded her diploma, MCPS and FCPS Pediatrics from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan. She then completed her Masters in HPE from Aga Khan University and currently is a PhD candidate in simulation in HPE at MGH Harvard. Dr. Fayyaz was actively involved in the development of the Emergency Medicine program in Pakistan and Oman throughout her career. In 2010, she developed a virtual blended learning course for the management of acute paediatric emergencies, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, which ran across the Aga Khan development network.

In Toronto, Dr. Fayyaz completed her Paediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) Fellowship and Simulation Fellowship at SickKids and facilitates several simulation-based courses including APLS, procedural sedation, acute care resuscitation training for residents, PEM fellows. She has been Resuscitation Lead for the competency based medical education program for PEM faculty since 2018, the first of its kind in Canada. She has been Resuscitation Lead in the department and led various initiative including implementing Acute Event Debriefing, incorporating virtual simulation and virtual gaming simulation into the residents, fellows and faculty simulation-based educational activities.

She has made partners with various international simulation leaders including, INSPIRE, IPSS, SSH and IMPACTS. She is leading various virtual simulation-based courses with McMaster University (Canada), Yale University (USA), and Indus Hospital & Health Network (Pakistan), and Tel Aviv University (Israel).

Her interests include resuscitation, virtual simulation, acute event debriefing and patient safety and quality improvement practices utilizing simulation. She is passionate about incorporating equity, diversity, and inclusion in simulation. She recently won the Teaching Award for Subspeciality Teaching from University of Toronto and two education grants to incorporate cultural sensitivity and virtual simulations.

Simulation Educator, The Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children

Alison joined the SickKids Simulation Program in 2013 as a simulation educator. She also co-leads the SickKids Mentorship Academy. Alison is passionate about education and completed a Master of Education Program at Brock University. Alison joined SickKids in 2000 and has worked as a charge nurse within CCCU and a project manager for an inter-professional career advancement initiative.

Alison received simulation training through the Royal College of Physicians, Simulation Educator Training Course. She also completed a Train-the-Trainer Video Debriefing Course, delivered by the Israel Centre for Medical Simulation (MSR) and received Human Factors Training from the University Health Network, Human Factors Group.

As a Simulation Educator, she collaborates with professionals to develop simulation-based education, evaluation and training that supports innovation, research and learning with an emphasis on patient safety.​ Alison also partners with the Project Horizon Team and Emergency Preparedness Team to create innovative evaluation simulations to test out spaces, systems, and processes within the organization. She has also developed simulation training programs for health care professionals both locally and internationally.

Simulation Specialist, The Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children

Patrick is a Simulation Specialist at the SickKids Learning Institute. He has joined the program in the fall of 2022, having completed his Master's of Engineering in the biomedical field. His previous experience in simulations involved computational fluid dynamic simulations. Patrick has contributed in the technical support and setup of the different simulators and task trainers for the simulation program. He aims to innovate in the field and improve simulation-based learning by introducing the latest hardware and software, as well as creating highly demanded task trainers that are not in circulation.

Simulation Specialist, Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children

Ashley is a Simulation Specialist at the Learning Institute. She completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. Her graduate thesis involved designing and validating surgical task trainers for open airway surgery. As a Simulation Specialist, she partners with educators to deliver a variety of simulation-based training sessions within SickKids and with external partners. She manages the Simulation Program’s medical simulation technology and provides technical expertise for in-person and virtual simulation sessions. 

Simulation and Resuscitation Educator, Simulation Program, The Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children

Roger is a Simulation and Resuscitation educator at the Learning Institute. He's been with the Learning Institute since 2015. He is also a Registered Respiratory Therapist, and has worked at SickKids primarily in the pediatric intensive care unit, emergency department, and in-patient wards, since 2012. In the role of Simulation and Resuscitation Educator, Roger has contributed to the development of simulation-based education curriculum, workshops, and materials that are utilized across the organization, as well as with external partners. As part of these programs, he has assisted in broadening the capacity of leaders across the organization in utilizing best practices to facilitate simulation-based education. 

Paediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow, The Hospital for Sick Children

Dr. Dana Singer Harel is a Paediatric Emergency physician at The Hospital for Sick Children since 2020, where she is about to finish her fellowship. She is also a simulation fellow with the SickKids Learning Institute in the past year.

Dana trained in paediatrics and paediatric emergency medicine at Schneider’s Children Health Center in Israel where she was a lead in medical education and PEM fellowship director. 

Dana has a passion for simulation and medical education research and she is currently involved in multiple research projects in that field

Interprofessional Education Specialist, Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children

Linda Nguyen has been a registered nurse for 14 years at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). In her current role as an Interprofessional Education Specialist, she co-leads an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Champion program. In addition, she also supports Project ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) which is an online virtual medical education program for community providers.