Division of Gastroenterology
University Health Network (UHN)/Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH)

Overview

A. Hillary Steinhart, MD, MSc, Division Head

The Divisions of Gastroenterology at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network officially merged in January, 2001. This brought together, under a single leadership, 20 gastroenterologists and hepatologists into an integrated program providing a wide range of expertise in the management of complex gastrointestinal and liver disorders. The staff members of the Division provide outpatient and inpatient clinical service at 4 hospital sites (Mount Sinai Hospital and the 3 sites of the University Health Network: Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital). Areas of clinical strength include nutrition and home parenteral nutrition, inflammatory bowel disease, gastrointestinal tumors, gastrointestinal disorders in pregnancy, viral and autoimmune liver diseases, end-stage liver disease and portal hypertension and liver transplantation.

The Division also provides a broad educational experience at all levels of medical training from the level of the undergraduate medical student to the subspecialist wishing to obtain more specialized clinical or research training. The Division has also been at the forefront of the University Health Network's Telehealth initiative. This program is intended to provide clinical support and continuing medical education to health care professionals in outlying regions of Ontario and Canada where access to highly specialized medical consultation and care is not readily available.

Research is a major focus of the Division of Gastroenterology of Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network. Approximately half of the faculty members have obtained funding for their research programs from peer review granting agencies such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the National Institutes of Health, the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada and others. Areas of active research include the genetics of inflammatory bowel disease and its complications, antioxidants and nutrition, autoimmune and viral liver diseases, portal hypertension, transplant immunology, regulation of pancreatic insulin secretion and therapeutics of inflammatory bowel disease. Division members also hold grant support to develop and evaluate remote monitoring methods for chronically ill patients.