Division of Gastroenterology
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Biosketch

Dr. Lawrence B. Cohen

Dr. Lawrence B. Cohen is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Cohen received his Master of Science in Pharmacology at the University of Toronto in 1976 and his Doctor of Medicine from McMaster University in 1979. He completed his Internal Medicine Fellowship in 1984 (University of Toronto) and subspecialty training in Gastroenterology (University of Toronto) and Therapeutic Endoscopy in 1985 (Wellesley Hospital, Toronto).

Dr. Cohen is an active member of many medical associations, including the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology, Canadian Medical Association, American College of Gastroenterology, American College of Physicians and American Gastroenterological Association.

Dr. Cohen has received many awards including the Award in Therapeutics from McMaster University, the Young Clinician Teacher Award from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and the Continuing Education award from the Peters-Boyd Academy.

Over the past twenty years Dr. Cohen has published numerous peer-reviewed publications and has participated in numerous clinical trials in gastroenterology and hepatology.

Biosketch

Dr. Mary Anne Cooper

Dr. Cooper graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1992. She completed her postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto and her Gastroenterology training at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. She joined the staff of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in 1997. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Cooper has a general gastroenterology practice. She sees patients with issues that range from the need for colon cancer screening to the management of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. She has a particular interest in the treatment of chronic viral hepatitis and the treatment of hepatitis B and C in patients co-infected with HIV.

Dr. Cooper's academic interests are primarily in the field of medical education and she completed a Masters of Education in 2003. She teaches at both the undergraduate and postgraduate medical level. She is a coordinator for part of the first year medical school curriculum and is a tutor for the first year introductory clinical course. She is the Postgraduate Medical Education coordinator for Gastroenterology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Biosketch

Dr. Linda Rabeneck

Dr. Rabeneck is Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She currently is Chief, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Regional Vice President, Cancer Care Ontario. Dr. Rabeneck is also a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto.

Dr. Rabeneck received her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of British Columbia, where she also completed her residency training in Internal Medicine. Dr. Rabeneck received her Gastroenterology training at the Universities of Toronto and British Columbia. She spent the first 7 years of her career in full-time private practice in Gastroenterology at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, BC. Because of her interest in clinical investigation, she closed her successful practice in 1988 to pursue formal research training. From 1988-90 she trained under the mentorship of Dr. Alvan Feinstein as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, where she received her MPH degree. From the fall of 1990 until her move back to Canada in the spring of 2002, Dr. Rabeneck was a staff physician at the Houston VA Medical Centre and served on the full-time faculty in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where she held joint appointments in the Sections of Gastroenterology and Health Services Research. While she was in the US, Dr. Rabeneck received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to support her research.

Dr. Rabeneck has served the professional societies and funding agencies in various capacities, as a member of the Editorial Board of GASTROENTEROLOGY, the Board of Trustees of the American College of Gastroenterology, and NIDDK Special Committee-C, a study section of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Rabeneck's major research interest is colorectal cancer screening for which she is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Dr. Rabeneck serves as Medical Director of ColonCancerCheck, Ontario's Colorectal Cancer Screening Program.

In 2004 Dr. Rabeneck was the recipient of a national "Women's Health Hero" Award from Chatelaine magazine, for her contributions to colorectal cancer screening in Canada. In 2007 Dr. Rabeneck was awarded the distinction of Master of the American College of Gastroenterology.

Biosketch

Dr. Fred Saibil

Dr. Saibil was born in Montreal, and attended McGill University for both his undergraduate degree in Science and his medical degree. Following two years of Internal Medicine training in Montreal, and one year in Toronto, he trained in Gastroenterology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He returned to Toronto in 1972 and became a member of the full-time staff of Sunnybrook. His areas of special clinical expertise include inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), colorectal cancer prevention, transfer dysphagia, and nutritional support. He co-directs a multi-disciplinary familial colorectal cancer clinic in the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook.

Dr. Fred Saibil's best-selling book "Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis" which is available in many countries and on the web was written for patients and their families, but has proven valuable to many physicians as well. The 2nd edition (2003) describes the recent discoveries of genes associated with IBD, the latest theories about the causes of IBD, advances in diagnostic testing, including use of capsule endoscopy and MRI, the latest treatments - infliximab (Remicade), natalizumab (Antegren) - and other treatment options, including probiotics. Dr. Saibil is well known across Canada for his activities in education of the general public on medical topics via the media and through public lectures. In addition to his clinical activities at Sunnybrook, he is responsible for the supervision of both Gastroenterology residents and surgical residents on the Gastroenterology service, and is the Coordinator of the Clinical Trials Research Program of the Sunnybrook Division of Gastroenterology.

Biosketch

Dr. Jill Tinmouth

Dr. Jill Tinmouth is a Gastroenterologist and a Clinical Epidemiologist. Dr. Tinmouth graduated from New York University School of Medicine in 1995. She completed her fellowships in Internal Medicine in 1999 and Gastroenterology in 2000 at the University of Toronto. Subsequently, she pursued further study in Clinical Epidemiology, receiving her PhD in 2004 from the University of Toronto. She is currently appointed as Associate Staff at Sunnybrook & Women's and is an Instructor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Her research focus is in the area of gastrointestinal cancers. Currently, she is studying anal cancer on a population level using secondary databases as well as investigating strategies to prevent anal cancer in high risk populations. Her research extends to the study of research methodology in digestive diseases. Her clinical interests are anal cancer and HIV-related gastrointestinal problems. She is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and has received funding from the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG), the Canadian HIV Trials Network and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network in the past.

Dr. Tinmouth is a member of several national and international organizations including the CAG, the American College of Gastroenterology, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American Gastroenterological Association.

Biosketch

Elaine Yong

Dr. Elaine Yong graduated from Queen's University medical school in 1999 and completed her Internal Medicine as well as her Gastroenterology residency at the University of Toronto. In addition, she trained as a fellow in therapeutic endoscopy at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, and subsequently in endoscopic ultrasonography at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

She recently joined the Division of Gastroenterology as a Clinician-Teacher. She is an associate staff at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where her clinical interests are in endoscopic oncology and therapeutic endoscopy. She remains a Visiting Assistant Professor with the Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University.