Steering Committee

Dr. Beattie assumed the role of Chair in October 2021. Dr. Beattie is a founding member of PACT and acknowledges the vision and wishes to thank the previous Chairs, Drs. Richard Hall and Eric Jacobsohn for the commitment and hard work.  Dr. Beattie  is an internationally recognized expert in cardiovascular physiology and anesthesia and has authored (or co-authored)  more than 200 peer-reviewed articles while holding numerous peer-reviewed grants in aid of clinical investigation. Dr. Beattie joined the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management at the Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network in 2000. During his tenure at UHN he has served as the Deputy Anesthesiologist-in-Chief (Toronto General), the Director, Anesthesia Research and held the R. Fraser Elliott Chair in Cardiac Anesthesia. Dr. Beattie has served as an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia and the Associate Editor-in-Chief (Cardiovascular Anesthesia) for Anesthesia and Analgesia.

Dr. Beattie has retired from active clinical practice but continues to maintains a active clinical research program. Presently, this involves collaboration several national and international projects. Most recently the focus his investigations has been on establishing Standardized Endpoints for Clinical Trials, Canadian Anesthesia Critical Incidents and Patient Safety Measures , and the Patient Centred effects on peri-operative myocardial injury.

Dr. Beattie encourages any and all interested in peri-operative investigation to join the PACT family.

André Denault is an academic-physician with special interests in ultrasound. His medical qualifications and specialties include internal medicine (1991), critical care medicine (1993) and anesthesia (1996). In 2010 he completed a PhD in biomedical Science at the University of Montreal. He has advanced certification in National Board in Echocardiography (NBE) in perioperative transesophageal echocardiography and critical care ultrasound. Dr Denault has written more than 350 peer-reviewed articles, 71 book chapters and 3 textbooks on perioperative transesophageal and critical care ultrasound. He has been invited as speaker in local, national and international meeting. He won several teaching awards including the Canadian Anesthesia Research Award in 2022. He currently works as a cardiac anaesthesiologist at the Montreal Heart Institute. He is the director of research in the department of Anesthesia and the director of the whole-body ultrasound fellowship program at the University of Montreal. Major interest includes right ventricular function, venous congestion, brain monitoring and bedside whole-body ultrasound.

His range of research interests, include:

• Perioperative transesophageal echocardiography and bedside ultrasound
• Post-op complications from heart surgery: fluid overload, renal failure, delirium
• Extracorporeal circulation and hemodynamic instability
• Right ventricular failure and portal hypertension
• Inhalation therapy of pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular dysfunction
• Cerebral and somatic oximetry monitoring in the operating room and the ICU

Dr. Rick Hall has quietly and methodically improved anesthesia care and safety in Canada and beyond for more than 25 years. He was recently named the 2016 recipient of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society Research Recognition Award for his efforts. The award is the society’s most prestigious research honour.

Before graduating with an MD, Dr. Hall conducted a prospective study of the influence of influenza vaccination on theophylline pharmacokinetics under the supervision of Dr. Ken Renton at Dalhousie. The results of the study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 1980, led to a hypothesis that the systemic inflammatory response to infection alters drug metabolism – the crux of Dr. Hall’s career-long program of related basic and clinical research.

After accepting a position at Dalhousie University as assistant professor of anesthesia and pharmacology in 1987, Dr. Hall began to merge his interests in the influence of inflammation on drug response with cardiac anesthesia. He has since conducted studies examining almost every facet of the practice of cardiac anesthesia.

Dr. Hall’s work has so far resulted in more than 56 peer-reviewed research funding awards as principal or co-investigator, 200 publications and 180 invited presentations. And he has helped change the research landscape in Canada as a founding member of the Canadian Critical Care Clinical Trials Group, one of the leading clinical trials collaboratives in the world, and the Canadian Perioperative Anesthesia Clinical Trials Group (PACT).

Dr. Hall is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anesthesia Perioperative Medicine and Pain Management at Dalhousie University. Prior to retiring in 2017 he was recognized as a world-expert in cardiac anesthesia and cardiovascular intensive care, and a Canadian authority on research ethics, particularly as it relates to end-of-life care.

Dr. David Mazer’s research program focuses on perioperative blood conservation, cardiac physiology and metabolism and perioperative organ protection. He is actively engaged in translational research as an investigator in both pre-clinical and clinical studies in these areas and has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications. He is currently principal investigator of a global randomized trial of transfusion triggers in cardiac surgery.

Dr. Mazer is a professor and vice chair of research in the Department of Anesthesia and a professor of physiology at the University of Toronto. He is also associate editor of the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia and chair of the research ethics board of St. Michael’s Hospital where he is actively engaged in clinical practice and research in anesthesia and critical care. Dr. Mazer received his medical training at the University of Saskatchewan (MD 1978) and worked as a family physician in Inuvik NWT, Whakatane New Zealand, and Cudworth Saskatchewan before attending the University of Toronto to complete his residency in Anesthesia (FRCPC 1985). He subsequently completed his fellowship training in cardiovascular anesthesia research at the University of California San Francisco from 1985-87.

Stuart McCluskey is a clinician investigator in the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management, University Health Network, whose areas of interest include perioperative blood management, fluid management, abdominal organ transplantation, and perioperative outcomes research.

Dr. Dan McIsaac leads a CIHR-funded research program focused on improving outcomes for high-risk surgical patients. Dan’s program, which includes the Aging Innovations in perioperative Medicine and Surgery (AIMS) team and Canadian Prehabilitation Knowledge Network, works to identify key knowledge gaps impacting patients and the healthcare system, synthesizes and develops promising interventions, and then evaluates these interventions using innovative, multicenter clinical trials. Dan’s team has led- or co-led several practice changing perioperative trials, including PREHAB, PREPARE and STRIVE (prehabilitation), TRACTION (tranexamic acid policy) and VICTORY (virtual recovery after surgery). Along with his role on PACT’s steering committee, Dan is also a member of the board of directors of the International Anesthesia Research Society.

Jessica Spence is a cardiac anesthesiologist and intensivist at Hamilton Health Sciences, a Scientist at the Population Health Research Institute, and an Assistant Professor at McMaster University who began her faculty position in 2021. She completed residency in anesthesiology, a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine, and a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at McMaster University. She completed a fellowship in Cardiac Anesthesiology and TEE training at the University of Toronto. She is an active Clinician Scientist, and leads a research program that evaluates the effect of non-surgical intraoperative interventions on the postoperative outcomes of patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Alex Turgeon’s research program focuses on the evaluation of prognosis in critically ill patients with severe traumatic brain injury and the comprehension of level of care decisions in neurocritically ill patients. He leads the CIHR-funded TBI-Prognosis Study, a pan-Canadian study aiming to develop a prognostic model of long-term prognosis following severe traumatic brain injury.  Dr. Turgeon is an associate professor in the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Laval University. He is Director of Research, Division of Critical Care Medicine, and Associate Director, Population Health and Optimal Health Practices Research Unit of the CHU de Québec Research Centre. He practices critical care medicine at the CHU de Québec – Enfant-Jésus Hospital. He is a FRQS-funded scientist in the Trauma – Emergency – Critical Care Medicine Research Group within the Population Health and Optimal Health Practices Unit at the CHU de Québec Research Centre.

Dr. Wijeysundera’s research program focuses on developing methods to better predict and prevent medical complications following major surgery. His program has generated more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, and received more than $5 million in peer-reviewed funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Ontario government. In addition to his research activities, Dr. Wijeysundera is an Associate Editor at Anesthesiology, and a member of the editorial boards of Circulation and the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia.