Educational Activities

The Postgraduate training program has flourished under Dr. Khalidi’s strong leadership who has handed over the reigns to Dr. Kimberly Legault in 2019, and the program continues to be nationally recognized for its excellent teaching. The applicant pool for trainees continues to be of the highest calibre. The Division has embraced Competency By Design and has had a successful Internal Review of its newly redesigned evaluation system implemented by Dr. Nader Khalidi, Dr. Kim Legault and Program Coordinator Renée Tremblay.

The program offers sub-specialty clinics in Lupus, Scleroderma, Vasculitis, Metabolic Bone Disease as well as multi-disciplinary clinics with Respirology, Nephrology and Neurology. The Division also provides educational support for Neurology, Physiatry, Internal Medicine, Dermatology, Family Medicine and Ophthalmology. Dr. Matsos will be Co-chair of the recently established Internal Medicine Competence by Design Committee.

The faculty has strong representation across the undergraduate program in tutoring, professional skills, MSK boot camp, clerkship selective and supervising Medical Foundation 5 under Dr. Carmona’s direction.

Outreach and community learning experiences are provided by the many associated clinical faculty in Hamilton, Burlington, Milton, St. Catharines, Cambridge and Kitchener-Waterloo.

Dr. June Lee, our first faculty at the St. Catharines campus has completed her Masters in Education while providing leadership in the undergraduate program.

Our highly-rated ‘Clinical Day in Rheumatology: the pearls you need to know’ was held again this year in November.

Research

Research activity and funding support have been broadly based in the areas of metabolic bone disease, lupus, scleroderma, inflammatory arthritis, and vasculitis.

Multiple grants have been supported by CIHR, HAHSO Innovation Fund, NIH, The Arthritis Society, The Canadian Rheumatology Association as well as industry partners.

Collaboration with Radiology, Respirology, Nephrology, Geriatrics, Engineering and Rehabilitation Sciences has continued.

Dr. Rick Adachi’s work continues to be recognized internationally as one of the most published faculty at St. Joseph’s Health Care. He has several peer-reviewed grants.

Dr. Khalidi continues to be very productive in expanding work in new treatments for vasculitis with NIH and industry funding.

Dr. Larché continues her work in Scleroderma and imaging in inflammatory arthritis.

Major Achievements

• Dr. Khalidi remains the Vice-President of CanVasc (Canadian Vasculitis Research Network). He is involved in numerous international research projects in Vasculitis (VCRC/PEXIVAS/DCVAS).
• Dr. Kim Legault continues to work on several research projects including guidelines in SLE and CAPS, and the cohort study rivaroxaban in antiphospholipid syndrome. This has led to the publication of new guidelines for CAPS and Lupus
• Dr. Mark Matsos is an investigator in the LuCIN (Lupus clinical investigator network) and co-author of new Lupus guidelines 
• Our fourth annual Clinical Day in Rheumatology was extremely successful
• New Fellowships in Vasculitis and Scleroderma have been established
• New faculty recruitment; Dr. Stephanie Garner having completed a Vasculitis and Rare Disease fellowship and Dr. Kostas Tselios having extensive experience in Lupus Clinical research
• Clinical Scholars Dr. Faiza Khokhar and Dr. Mary-Clair Yelovich supported by the division in completing their Master’s in Education and Quality Improvement respectively

Future Directions

Our vision is to be recognized for leadership and innovation in education, research and interdisciplinary patient-centred care.

As division director, I am excited about the developments in the division and interest in new clinical scholars who will bring new sets of skills to expand our potential.