Medical Advisory Board

Dr. Shubhayan Sanatani, Chairperson

   Dr. Shubhayan Sanatani obtained his medical degree from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1993, followed by a pediatric residency at Queen’s University and a pediatric cardiology fellowship at UBC. He has advanced training in cardiac electrophysiology from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and UBC. Afterwards, Dr. Sanatani joined the faculty as the director of cardiac pacing and electrophysiology at BC Children’s Hospital in 2001. He was promoted to associate professor in 2008 and full professor of pediatrics in 2017. Dr. Sanatani assumed the role of division head and medical director of the Children’s Heart Centre in 2015, and is the section head of the Heart Rhythm Service. He holds the Canadian Certified Physician Executive (CCPE) credential.

Dr. Sanatani’s academic focus includes sudden unexpected death in the young, as well as supraventricular arrhythmias in the pediatric population. He is the pediatric lead of the British Columbia Inherited Arrhythmia Program and serves on both the Canadian and American Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome Foundations medical advisory committees. A collaborative approach to clinical and translational research has supported 200 publications. He is a founding member of the Canadian Heart Rhythm Society and previously served as the vice president of research for the Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society (PACES) prior to becoming president in 2016. 

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Dr. Michael D. Fridman

   Dr. Michael Fridman is an attending Pediatric Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. After completing a Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where he specialized in cardiorespiratory physiology and pharmacology, he went on to complete his medical degree at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine. After completing his medical school training, he completed a residency in general pediatrics followed by fellowships in both pediatric cardiology and pediatric cardiac electrophysiology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario. It was during this time where he developed clinical and research interests in electrophysiology, especially in the realm of inherited arrhythmias – genetic disorders with increased risk of heart rhythm disturbances and sudden death. He is actively involved with the Canadian Heart Rhythm Society and the Hearts in Rhythm Organization (HiRO).

Dr. Fridman is also an active and highly accomplished educator. He received awards from both the Division of Cardiology and the Department of Pediatrics acknowledging his outstanding contribution to education within the training program and the broader hospital community. The Canadian Federation of Medical Students named him one of 2020’s Champions for Contribution to a Positive Learning Environment for the meaningful difference he made to promoting positive change in medical education. He has authored and co-authored several textbook chapters and online education modules. His work has been recognized with numerous additional awards for his significant contribution to resident teaching, education, and research.

Dr. Fridman currently holds an appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine where he continues to teach the next generation of clinicians and allied health professionals both in Calgary and abroad. He is the current Pediatric Cardiology Undergraduate Medical Education Lead, a faculty advisor, and is actively involved in other aspects of medical education within the hospital and medical school.

Research Interests: Inherited arrhythmias, precision medicine, electrocardiography, medical education.

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Dr. Cecilia Gonzales Corcia

   Dr. Cecilia Gonzalez Corcia is a pediatric and congenital cardiologist with an expertise in electrophysiology, devices and inherited cardiac conditions. Cecilia is originally from Argentina, where she did her medical studies in the University of Buenos Aires, and her pediatric training in the Gutierrez Children’s Hospital. She underwent further training in pediatric cardiology and electrophysiology at Children’s Hospital of Boston. After finishing her training, she moved with her family to Belgium where she lived for 7 years and helped develop the Pediatric Electrophysiology Program in Clinique St Luc, the Catholic University Hospital in Brussels. In 2018, she relocated to Bristol, UK where she is now the lead of the team of Paediatric Electrophysiology at “Royal Bristol Hospital for Children”.

Cecilia has a deep research interest in inherited cardiac conditions and sudden cardiac death during childhood and was mentored for her PHD in Brugada syndrome in the young by Professor Pedro Brugada.

Cecilia and her family consisting of husband and 3 children spend their free time in Nature and love to walk and bike along the many paths and ancient sites the South West of England has to offer to those open to the Mysteries of the Past.

In September 2022, Cecilia and her family have relocated to Montréal, Canada, where she holds a position of Professor of Pediatric and Head of Pediatric Electrophysiology at “Centre Hospitalier Sainte-Justine”, University of Montréal. 

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Dr. Kathleen Hodgkinson

  Dr. Hodgkinson is a genetic researcher interested in the epidemiology of genetic disease: the natural history and the clinical course.

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Dr. Thomas Roston

  • Clinical Assistant Professor and Clinician-Scientist, UBC, SPH and VGH
  • 2022 UBC CIHR/CSCI Resident Research Manuscript Prize Winner, UBC Faculty of Medicine
  • 2021 and 2022 1st Place, Clinician-Investigator Program Research Day, UBC Faculty of Medicine
  • 2022 Best Subspecialty Fellow Teacher, UBC Cardiology Residency Program
  • 2020 George Mines Travelling Fellow in Electrophysiology, CHRS/CCS, Harvard & UBC
  • 2020 Friedman Scholar, UBC & Harvard
  • 2018 AHA Early Career Investigator Award
  • Clinical Fellow in Critical Care, University of Alberta (2021-2022)
  • Certified ECMO Specialist (2022)
  • Clinical and Research Fellow in Cardiovascular Genetics, Harvard Medical School (2020-2021)
  • PhD in Medicine (Arrhythmia Genetics), University of Alberta (2016-2020)
  • >60 peer-reviewed manuscripts

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Dr. Rafik Tadros

   Dr. Tadros is a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at the Cardiovascular Genetics Centre of the Montreal Heart Institute. He holds a PhD in cardiovascular physiology and is trained in cardiovascular genetics and genomics. His clinical expertise are cardiac arrythmias, cardiomyopathies and genetic heart diseases. Rafik holds the Canada Research Chair in Translational cardiovascular genetics, with a research focus on applying complex genetics into clinical cardiovascular care.

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