Welcome to the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care
It is a privilege to serve as the Director of the University of Toronto's Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine.
The "IDCCM" comprises faculty members across the University's Departments of Anesthesia, Medicine, Pediatrics and Surgery, who care for critically ill patients admitted to all of the University of Toronto-affiliated hospitals, in addition to clinicians and scientists from Nursing, Pharmacy, and other University of Toronto Departments who collaborate through cross-appointments.
The IDCCM enjoys a high degree of academic scholarship. Among our approximately 160 members, a majority are clinician-scientists or investigators who conduct clinical, translational and basic science research, leading to approximately 400-500 peer-reviewed publications annually, supported by grants from provincial, national, and international funding agencies. Our teachers and educators invite approximately 10 critical care post-graduate trainees to our adult and pediatric Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada speciality training programs each year. In addition, we have the opportunity to work with over 80 speciality trainees and post-graduate scholars from around the world who spend a year or more at our fully affiliated teaching hospitals - the Hospital for Sick Children ("Sick Kids"), St. Michael's-Unity Health, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital. Many trainees undertake elective rotations at affiliated hospitals in the greater Toronto community - St. Joseph's Health Centre-Unity Health, Michael Garron Hospital, Humber River Hospital, Scarborough Health Network, North York General Hospital, Trillium Health Partners; and, Community Hospital Affiliate sites Oak Valley Health, Lakeridge Health, Southlake Regional Health Centre, William Osler Health System, among others.
Critical care training in Toronto is inter-disciplinary, inter-professional and comprehensive, caring for patients across all medical and surgical specialties. We offer dedicated adult and pediatric sub-speciality training opportunities in extra-corporeal life support, echocardiography, neurocritical care, oncological critical care, transplantation critical care, trauma critical care, and an advanced curriculum on mechanical ventilation and respiratory support, among others. Many of our trainees undertake additional research, education or quality improvement training through one of the University's many graduate schools, such as the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation or the Institute of Medical Science, and benefit from participating in one of our surgery, medicine, anesthesia and pediatrics clinician-scientist training programs.
The IDCCM is supported by Administrative Assistant Fahima Nasreen; adult Education Program Director Dr. Jenna Spring, Curriculum Lead Dr. Maria Jogova, Program Coordinator Mr. Simon Chung; pediatric Education Program Director Dr. Briseida Mema, Program Coordinators Samantha Morin, Sydney March; Adult Research Directors Dr. Margaret Herridge and Dr. Neill Adhikari; Wellness and Mentorship lead Dr. Shelly Dev; and Visiting Professor Program leads Dr. Victoria McCredie and Dr. Luciana Rodriguez.
Each of our fully affiliated hospital critical care sites have terrific site leadership, including:
Hospital for Sick Children: Chief Dr. Steven Schwartz, paediatric intensive care medicine division head Dr. Elaine Gilfoyle, cardiac critical care medicine division head Dr. Roxanne Kirsch, paediatric intensive care unit medical director Dr. Andrew Helmers, associate education program director Dr. Alex Floh, Research Director Dr. Anne-Marie Guerguerian, quality and safety lead and director of the critical care response team Dr. Gail Annich.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre: Chief Dr. Damon Scales, deputy chief and quality lead Dr. Andre Amaral, CVICU medical director Dr. Naheed Jivraj, critical care response team and neurocritical care lead Dr. Martin Chapman, research director Dr. Neill Adhikari, residency director Dr. Alya Kamani, international fellowship directors Dr. Shelly Dev and Dr. Cameron Guest.
St. Michael's-Unity Health: Chief Dr. Andrea Rigamonti, department of medicine critical care division head Dr. David Hall, medical director of medical-surgical ICU and site director of Trillium gift-of-life Dr. Michael Sklar, medical director of trauma-neuro ICU and critical care medicine fellowship education co-lead Dr. Alberto Goffi, medical director of critical care response team and critical care medicine residency-fellowship education co-lead Dr. Nava Maham, medical director of cardiovascular ICU Dr. Ahmad Alli, interim cardiac ICU medical director, Dr. Akshay Bagai, and director of research Dr. John Marshall.
University Health Network and Sinai Health Interdepartmental Center for Critical Care: Head Dr. Matteo Parotto, quality lead Dr. Maha Al Mandhari, international fellowship director and deputy directors Dr. Mika Hamilton and Dr. Maria Jogova.
Toronto General Hospital medical-surgical ICU site lead Dr. Niall Ferguson, cardiovascular ICU site lead Dr. Jane Heggie, cardiac ICU and quality lead Dr. Adriana Luk, medical-surgical ICU education site lead Dr. Ghislaine Douflé, cardiovascular ICU education site lead Dr. Konstantinos Alexopoulos, medical-surgical critical care research lead Dr. Lorenzo Del Sorbo, and cardiac ICU education site lead Dr. Mena Gewarges.
Toronto Western Hospital medical director Dr. Andrew Steel, medical-surgical-neuro ICU education lead Dr. Alyssa Louis, and research lead Dr. Jeff Singh.
Mount Sinai Hospital site lead Dr. Christie Lee, education site lead Dr. David McAlpine, research lead Dr. Sangeeta Mehta and quality lead Dr. Jenna Spring.
In 2026, building on an incredible decade of activity and impact under the leadership of Dr. Laurent Brochard, the IDCCM will undertake a new Strategic Planning exercise.
On behalf of the IDCCM, we invite you to connect and collaborate with our members and leaders, and a very warm personal welcome to reach out to me!
Rob Fowler
Director, Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine
University of Toronto