Integrated Knowledge Translation Committee

Michael McDonald is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and the inaugural Martha Rogers Chair in Heart Failure Training and Education. He is the Medical Director of the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Program at the University Health Network/Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, and past chair of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s Heart Failure Guidelines Committee. Dr. McDonald obtained his MD from the University of Ottawa and completed Internal Medicine and Cardiology training at the University of Alberta, followed by subspecialty fellowship training in Advanced Heart Failure/Transplantation and Implantable Device Therapy at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto.

Nathaniel Hawkins is a clinician-scientist cardiologist and Associate Professor at UBC with training in heart failure and electrophysiology. Based in Vancouver, his leadership roles include: Medical Lead for Quality and Research at Cardiac Services BC; Director of Research for the UBC Division of Cardiology; and Physician Lead for the Vancouver Coastal Health Regional Heart Failure Program Nat’s research group examines cardiovascular outcomes, health services, and comorbidities in patients with heart failure and arrhythmia. He has published in leading journals, including Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and European Heart Journal. In addition to leading MYCOVACC, Nat is Co-Principal Investigator for the MAPLE-CHF and international SYMPHONY heart failure screening trial, and a member of the CIHR Canadian Heart Function Alliance.

Tahir Kafil completed his internal medicine residency and an adult cardiology fellowship at Western University in London, Ontario. He subsequently completed an advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation fellowship at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. During his time in Ottawa, he helped establish the Post-Vaccine Myopericarditis Clinic. He is a co-Investigator in the CIHR-funded COVID-VIHPR study assessing rare cardiovascular complications of COVID-19 vaccination. For his research work he was awarded the prestigious Myocarditis Foundation’s Fellowship Grant. Dr. Kafil then moved to the United States and completed further training in advanced cardiac imaging at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. While there, Dr. Kafil won the Lawrence Award for Cardiac Imaging Research. As a dual cardiac imaging and heart failure trained cardiologist, he started on faculty at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Kafil is active in the Center for Cardiac Sarcoidosis and Myocarditis, and Center for Pericardial Diseases at the Mayo Clinic. 

Michael Khoury is a pediatric cardiologist and assistant professor at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, University of Alberta. He completed his pediatric residency at the University of Toronto and pediatric cardiology fellowship at the University of Toronto and Alberta. Dr. Khoury underwent subspecialty fellowships in pediatric preventive cardiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) and advanced heart failure and transplantation at CCHMC and University of Alberta. He is a co-lead of the Kawasaki Disease/MIS-C/mRNA Vaccine-Associated Myocarditis Clinic at the University of Alberta.

Adriana Luk completed her cardiology and critical care training at the University of Toronto and pursued a fellowship in heart failure at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. She is an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist, as well as a cardiac intensivist at Unity Health Network in Toronto. She serves as the Medical Director of the Coronary Intensive Care Unit (CICU) and is a physician at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and Ajmera Transplant Centre. Dr. Luk is also a scientist at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. Her academic interests include quality improvement and patient safety for critically ill patients admitted with heart failure.

Alexander Singer is an associate professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Manitoba where he serves as the director of research and quality improvement. As the network director of the Manitoba Primary Care Research Network, he leads and collaborates on several practice-based research studies. Dr. Singer is the measurement and evaluation lead for eConsult Manitoba and a family physician clinician-teacher in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Based in Ottawa, Meredith Wright leads MYCOVACC governance, operations, stakeholder relations, and reporting for the CCS. Meredith has held clinical, teaching, research, research ethics and leadership positions in hospital, university, and not-for-profit settings. Through her education and experience as an allied health leader, Meredith has a broad knowledge of issues related to professional practice and standards, professional development, research, regulatory requirements, and health policy.