Scientific Advisory Board
To ensure the development and delivery of effective, evidence-based health assessments and interventions, INTERxVENT Canada works with leading Canadian and international experts in areas including disease management, workplace health and preventive medicine. These experts include:
Dr. David Alter, Scientific Advisor
Dr. David Alter is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, and is associated with the Division of Cardiology and The Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, as well as The Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Dr. Alter is also an Associate Professor with the department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. In addition, his cross appointments include Senior Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research Program at Sunnybrook Hospital and Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
Graduating from medical school at the University of Toronto in 1990, Dr. Alter completed his cardiology fellowship in 1996. He subsequently received his Doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Toronto in 2000, for his work on equity and access determinants of cardiovascular care in Ontario.
Dr. Alter has published many peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Many of his publications have received national and international media attention. Dr. Alter is also principal or co-investigator in more than 15 peer-review grants, totaling in excess of $15 million in funding.
Dr. Alter’s research interests extend across many disciplines, including the examination of chronic vascular disease management, cardiovascular outcomes and the process-outcomes relationship, physician decision-making behaviours, evaluating the effects of regionalization and decentralization of specialized cardiac services, waiting-list management systems, and determinants of noninvasive cardiac testing in Ontario.
Dr. Alter is a Career Investigator with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.
Dr. David Fell, MD, FRCPC, FACC
Dr. David Fell is the Physician Leader of the Regional Cardiac Care Program at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario. He has been in a leadership role overseeing the development of this advanced cardiac service centre for 10 years.
Dr. Fell is also Co-Chair of the York/Simcoe/Muskoka/Dufferin Cardiac System Planning Team and has served on the board of directors of the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario for four years. In addition, he works as a full-time invasive cardiologist out of Southlake Regional Health Centre.
Prior to joining Southlake in 1999, Dr. Fell worked as a cardiologist at the Scarborough Grace and Toronto Western Hospitals for 12 years and was Chief of Staff at Scarborough Grace from 1998 to 1999.
Dr. Michael Gagnon, MD
A community family physician in Bolton, Ontario, Dr. Gagnon serves as INTERxVENT Canada’s Medical Director. He currently works with the Bolton Family Health Group as a family practitioner in the outpatient setting. From 2004 to 2007, Dr. Gagnon was also a Family Medicine Resident at Abington Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Cynthia Jackevicius BSc, MSc, PharmD, BCPS, FCSHP
An Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and a Pharmacy Practice Leader with the Heart and Circulation Program, Dr. Jackevicius is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, Western University of Health Sciences in California, and an Associate with the Women’s Health Program of the University Health Network in Toronto.
Dr. Cam Mustard, PhD, MD (hc)
Dr. Mustard is President and Senior Scientist, Institute for Work and Health, and a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He currently serves as Chair of the Population Health Review Panel of the Medical Research Council.
Previously, Dr. Mustard was a member of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba. He was a recipient of an MRC Scientist award (1997-2002). In the period 1997 to 1998, Dr. Mustard served as a member of the federal Advisory Committee on Health Information Structure. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Health Information where he served as Chair of the Canadian Population Health Initiative Council. During the period of February 1999 to April 2000, Dr. Mustard was a member of the Interim Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
Dr. Mustard was a Fellow of the Population Health Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (1998 to 2003) and a past recipient of a CIHR Scientist award (1998 to 2003). He has a background in public health sciences, with an emphasis on epidemiology and health policy. He completed his doctoral training in epidemiology, health policy and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Mustard has active research interests in the areas of work environments and health, the organization and deliver of health services and the adequacy and equity of disability income security programs.
Dr. David Satok, BSc, MD, CCFP, FCFP, CCTI
Dr. Satok has been the Corporate Medical Director of Rogers Communications Inc. since April 2008. He is also the Director of Insurance Medical Services at Gamma Dynacare Medical Laboratories. Prior to 2008, Dr. Satok held the position of Chief Medical Officer at Apotex Research Inc. (Canada’s largest pharmaceutical company). As an Associate Physician at the University of Toronto Department of Family and Community Medicine, Dr. Satok teaches medical students in his office. He also continues working in the area of Family Medicine, seeing patients on a daily basis.
Dr. Satok graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1991 and completed a residency in Family Medicine in 1993. He received his fellowship in 2003. Dr. Satok has privileges at multiple hospitals in Toronto and is involved in committees at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and Toronto Public Health.
Dr. Sheldon Tobe, MD, FRCPC
Since 1993, Dr. Tobe has combined his position as staff nephrologist at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre with that of assistant professor of medicine at U of T.
A graduate in medicine from the University of Calgary, Dr. Tobe served his internship and residencies in internal medicine at the University of Toronto teaching hospitals from 1985 to 1988. This was closely followed by a one-year term as resident in nephrology at the Toronto Hospital where, in 1993, he completed a three-year MRC research fellowship in nephrology.
Dr. Tobe served as principal investigator in a comprehensive research project devoted to bicarbonate dialysis. In addition to being awarded the 1996 Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Department of Medicine Young Clinician-Teacher Award, in 1999 he was appointed Sunnybrook’s acting division director in the division of nephrology, becoming the director in January 2000.
A member of various professional and volunteer organizations including medical director for the Kidney Foundation of Canada’s Central Ontario Branch board of directors, Dr. Tobe also sits on numerous committees, including the Toronto Region Dialysis Committee, the Canadian Hypertension Society Clinical Practice Guideline Committee (renal and renal-vascular subgroup) and the executive of the Ontario Association of Nephrologists.
With an overriding interest in community-based, patient-focused research, Dr. Tobe concentrates his investigation in two distinct areas. The first is prevention of ESRD in populations at risk (i.e., hypertension and diabetes), and the second is prevention of morbidity and mortality in dialysis.