A number of our Emergency Department (ED) physicians at Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) recently received esteemed awards in Emergency Medicine and teaching. These awards demonstrate our physicians’ commitment to innovating and providing high-quality, patient-centred care at MGH and their dedication to nurturing the next generation of healthcare providers.
Please join us in congratulating these physicians on these incredible achievements!
Dr. Nadia Primiani
Winner: 2024 University of Toronto Emergency Medicine – Anna Jarvis Award for Teaching Excellence
This award recognizes contributions to the advancement of the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CCFP) Examination of Added Competence in Emergency Medicine (EM) Program and excellence in medical education and leadership. It is awarded to a physician educator throughout the Greater Toronto Area who has contributed to the education of the EM residents. The recipient is chosen and nominated by the EM cohort.
Dr. Nadia Primiani works as a full-time Emergency Physician at MGH and Sinai Health System’s hospitals. She has provided care at MGH since 2020. She completed her medical degree at McGill University and her residency program at the University of British Columbia. She is involved in medical education and is one of the Co-Leads for the CCFP(EM) Simulation Program. She is also the associate program director for the Mount Sinai Emergency Medicine Fellowship and past chair of the 2SLGBTQIA+ committee for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians.
Dr. Primiani is interested in learning through simulation and is working to develop complex simulation cases for the curriculum. She co-developed an in-situ simulation program at Mount Sinai Hospital in which she worked with multidisciplinary teams running cases such as perimortem hysterotomies, code whites and massive upper gastrointestinal bleeds. She has become an advocate for marginalized patients and has an interest in increasing awareness of their health needs, while promoting non-violent communication between physicians and patients. She has been an invited speaker nationally and internationally to advocate for trans and non-binary patients.
Dr. Ruchi Mohindra
Winner: TWEM Mentor/Sponsor of the Year Award
The Toronto Women in Emergency Medicine (TWEM) Mentor/Sponsor of the Year Award is awarded to a physician who has demonstrated a strong commitment to their colleagues and trainees through mentorship and sponsorship. The recipient has a notable track record of mentoring students, residents and colleagues in their academic and clinical careers, and is a role-model emergency medicine clinician.
Dr. Ruchi Mohindra has been an emergency physician at MGH since 2009. During this time, she has been deeply committed to emergency medicine and improving this practice at every level. To the betterment of the lives of her patients and their families, she also strives every day to provide thoughtful and high-quality care in her own practice.
As the inaugural MGH Emergency Department Quality Improvement (QI) Lead and now as Associate Chief of Quality Improvement, Dr. Mohindra has taken her passion for QI work to lead transformative change in the MGH ED throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and health system recovery. Dr. Mohindra has been recognized as an organizational leader thanks to her roles in co-leading the development of the Child and Youth Emergency Zone in the MGH ED; implementing rapid Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles around Protected Code Blue, ventilator training and operationalizing resuscitation in resuscitation tents; and participating in various hospitals’ QI committees.
Dr. Mohindra also oversees faculty development in the Medical Education Department at MGH and is a Kids Health Alliance Physician Lead. Her efforts have had powerful impacts on how the MGH ED serves and cares for some of the city’s most vulnerable populations. She was instrumental in the MGH ED achieving consistent performance rankings as a top-five ED in the province.
Dr. Michael Charnish
Winner: MD Program Teaching Award of Excellence for the 2022-2023 academic year
The MD Program Teaching Award for Excellence was introduced in 2017 by medical students to recognize faculty, residents, graduate student teachers and clinicians in the MD Program at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine that have attained exceptional Teaching Evaluation Scores in one or more of the teaching activities to which they have contributed.
The award honours recipients’ invaluable contribution to the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s educational mission and their significant commitment to undergraduate medical education teaching.
Dr. Michael Charnish grew up in Toronto and studied science at Queen’s University, medicine at Western University, and family and emergency medicine at the University of Toronto. He has been a physician at MGH since 2006, when he began training as a resident. He works full-time in the Emergency Department and has been involved in many projects and initiatives over the years, including the development of the Child and Youth Emergency Zone.
He is passionate about improving the patient experience in the ED and teaching medical students and residents as a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Toronto. He lives in East Toronto with his wife and two boys (both born at MGH) and loves music and food – especially the local culinary scene in the east end. He believes MGH is the hub of the community – the heart of the east – and sees it as a privilege to contribute to the health of his neighbourhood.
Dr. Brittany Cameron
Winner: DCFM Award of Excellence – Excellence in Leadership
The University of Toronto’s Department of Community and Family Medicine (DCFM) Awards of Excellence recognize outstanding work by the department’s faculty and staff. They acknowledge individuals or groups whose contributions go well beyond what is expected in advancing the department's mission. The DFCM Award of Excellence is awarded to any faculty member within the DCFM who has demonstrated leadership in the discipline.
Dr. Brittany Cameron is a staff physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine (EM) at MGH. Her special interests include physician wellness and medical education. She acts as the Wellness Co-Lead in EM at MGH and as a part of the University of Toronto’s Tri-Divisional EM Academic Wellness Collaboration. She is an executive member of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians’ (CAEP) Wellness Executive and a representative on Toronto Women in Emergency Medicine’s (TWEM) executive.
Dr. Cameron is currently a Master of Science in Community Health in Family and Community Medicine (MScCH) candidate at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Outside of medicine, she enjoys swimming in the ocean, hiking and design.
Dr. John Ihnat
Winner: DCFM Education Program – Excellence in Advocacy
The University of Toronto’s Department of Community and Family Medicine (DCFM) Undergraduate Education Program’s Excellence in Advocacy Award recognizes outstanding contribution in student, patient or community advocacy related to undergraduate family medicine. Nominations for this award are submitted by students and faculty, and the winner is chosen by the Undergraduate Education Awards Adjudication Committee.
Dr. John Ihnat works with both the Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Emergency Medicine at MGH. His family practice is at Health Access Thorncliffe Park, a clinic that serves mostly refugees and immigrants. There, he works in an interdisciplinary team to address both the medical and social determinants of health.
He did a fellowship in Global Health and Vulnerable Populations and has taught family-medicine residents in Ethiopia as part of the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration. Passionate about global health, equity, advocacy and social justice in medicine, he is honoured to have recently joined the Emergency Medicine Team at MGH.