Pearls for Primary Care 2024 Faculty

Dr. Bhinder is an adult respirologist in Toronto practicing at the Scarborough Health Network Centenary site, the Toronto Lung Care Clinic, and the Heart Health Institute.

After having completed his MD degree, he went on to pursue training in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Adult Respirology, all at the University of Toronto. He is a lecturer in the Division of Respirology at the University of Toronto.

For the Scarborough Health Network (SHN), he has served in a number of leadership roles on the Corporate HSMR, Palliative, and Quality of Care Committees, as well as the Co-Chair of the Corporate Medical Education Committee and SHN Education representative for the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network. Recently he completed a term in the role of Corporate Chief and Medical Director for the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Pratap Chokka is a fully qualified and licensed psychiatrist in the province of Alberta and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.  He is a currently Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta and an attending psychiatrist and consultant at the Grey Nuns Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta. 

Dr. Chokka has been a licensed practitioner of medicine in the province of Alberta since January 1993, and a specialist psychiatrist since July 1995.  His main areas of interest in psychiatry include mood and anxiety disorders, specifically bipolar disorder, ADHD, and reproductive psychiatry. 

In addition to being a clinician, Dr. Chokka has been involved in clinical research for 18 years and has widely published in and peer reviewed medical journals.  He has sat on various provincial and national committees, more recently on the Canadian Anxiety Committee Guidelines.  At a provincial level, Dr. Chokka has both been a member of and chairman of the Workers' Compensation Board Medical Panel.  He has conducted several independent medical evaluations and has provided expert evidence in his areas of specialty in court. 

More recently, and based on science research, Dr, Chokka has become interested in understanding the role of the endocannabinoid system and the role of medicinal cannabis in treating mental disorders including but not limited to the treatment of nightmares, flashbacks, sleep anxiety, pain syndromes and mood. He oversees the assessments, treatments, and follow-ups of patients who are using medicinal cannabis and integrates it into the larger treatment milieu.

Menaka Pai is a Professor of Medicine at McMaster University, a Consultant Hematologist and Transfusion Medicine Quality Lead in the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program, and Clinical Lead for Hematology in the Ontario Laboratory Medicine Program. She is a benign hematologist and thrombosis physician at Hamilton Health Sciences. Dr. Pai completed her medical training at McMaster University and the University of Toronto. She holds a Masters Certificate in Healthcare Management from York University's Schulich School of Business and a Masters degree in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University. Her graduate work in hemostasis and thrombosis was supported by fellowships from Thrombosis Canada and the Canadian Hemophilia Society. Dr. Pai’s scholarly interests include venous thromboembolism, laboratory hemostasis, transfusion medicine, public scholarship, and quality management. She has deep expertise in clinical practice guideline development, and has led local, national, and international efforts to support clinicians, policy makers, and patients in making evidence-informed decisions. Dr. Pai was Co-Chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table’s Clinical Practice Guideline Group, and a past Chair of American Society of Hematology’s Guideline Oversight Subcommittee. She has published over 100 peer reviewed papers, contributed to medical textbooks as well as educational materials for the lay public, and delivered talks around the world. She maintains a busy clinical practice as well; she has a particular interest in thrombotic and bleeding disorders, rare hematologic diseases, and the care of equity seeking populations.

Dr. Amel Arnaout is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and the Director of Postgraduate Medical Education and Fellowship Program for the Department of Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital. She is the Clinical Director of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Diabetes Program where her team has developed nationally recognized protocols for the care of high-risk patients with diabetes and heart disease.

Dr. Luthra received her B.Sc. and Medical degrees from the University of Toronto where she also completed her Internal Medicine and Endocrinology training. She received her fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Internal Medicine in 2005, and her subspecialty certification in Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2006.

Dr. Luthra is a Clinician Educator at McMaster University with a clinical practice based at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. Her clinical areas of interest include the diagnosis and management of various endocrine disorders, including thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, and ovarian diseases, with a special interest in endocrine disorders in pregnancy. She serves as the Medical Director of the Diabetes Program at SJHH.

Her academic roles include teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is the Director for Faculty Development Lead for Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) and Program Director of the Endocrinology Residency training program at McMaster University. She was the recipient of the PGME Faculty Award for Excellence and Innovation in Residency Education this year.

Dr. Scott Fung completed his undergraduate and postgraduate medical training at the University of Toronto. After completing a fellowship in Gastroenterology, he received further training in Hepatology research at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is currently appointed as Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and is staff hepatologist at University Health Network and Sinai Health System. He is the site director for Gastroenterology education and General Internal Medicine educational coordinator for GI at Toronto General Hospital. In addition, Dr. Fung is a member of the University of Toronto Gastroenterology Residency Training Committee. Dr. Fung co-directs the Hepatology Fellowship program at University of Toronto and is the education director for the Toronto Center for Liver Disease. He serves on committees for the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver and volunteers for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He has published several articles on the epidemiology and treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.  Dr. Fung recently co-authored the Canadian national guidelines for the management of chronic HBV infection.

Dr. Jennifer Swainson is a psychiatrist at the Misericordia Community Hospital in Edmonton, AB.   She has expertise in complex mood disorders and their comorbidities.  In particular, she is certified in Obesity Medicine and has an interest in the reciprocal relationships between mood disorders, sleep, and obesity. 

Dr. Swainson is a co-author of the CANMAT 2023 Depression Treatment Guidelines and is a national leader in the use of ketamine for depression. She involved in clinical research and has authored/coauthored numerous publications on treatment resistant depression, and more recently, related sleep considerations including sleep apnea in women, and insomnia.  Dr. Swainson has provided consultation to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta and recently sat on an advisory committee for the CPSA on their reporting of physician prescribing practices of sedative hypnotics and other medications with potential for abuse.