MD Physician Council

He has also served as president of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students and as a public member on the board of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. In addition to his medical training, Dr. Kancir earned graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Karaivanov served as president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association and as board member of the Canadian Medical Association and the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Currently, he is Division Chief of Patient Safety and Quality of Care at NL Health Services and sits on the council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Originally from Ontario, Dr. Martin earned her MD at McGill, and completed her residency in pediatrics at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. She worked in general consulting pediatrics in rural Newfoundland before moving to Saskatoon. She joined the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Saskatchewan to pursue her interest in medical education and had a consulting pediatric practice, teaching students and residents. She held several undergraduate and post graduate roles, including pediatric residency program director and course director of a new clinical skills course. She later earned a postgraduate diploma in Medical Education from the University of Dundee. Subsequently, Dr. Martin led the undergraduate assessment program at the University of Saskatchewan and chaired the Assessment and OSCE subcommittees, implementing numerous quality improvement initiatives in student assessment.

Dr. Martin has served on the boards of the Saskatchewan Prevention Institute and the Canadian Pediatric Society, and has liaised with the American Academy of Pediatrics on two educational subcommittees. She has also volunteered extensively with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, in accreditation as well as in examination development and administration. Additionally, Dr. Martin served as chair of the multiple-choice exam subcommittee and served on the Pediatric Specialty Committee during the transition to competency-based medical education, where she formed part of the working group developing the pediatric entrustable professional activities.

Although officially retired she continues to teach in the undergraduate program and participate in standard setting and exam quality reviews, while spending more time travelling and continuing with lifelong learning.

Dr. Rizzuti’s interest areas within public health include emergency and disaster planning, environmental public health and health system design. He was involved in elements of the COVID-19 pandemic response and was a co-creator of the Alberta COVID-19 Exposure Response Team, AHS’ rapidly mobilized contact tracing program. Dr. Rizzuti is a passionate educator, teaching across the pre-clerkship, clerkship and residency curriculums and is part of a small team overseeing the new MD curriculum at the University of Calgary.

In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Rizzuti has extensive experience as a medical leader, having served as President of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, the Professional Association of Resident Physicians of Alberta, the Graduate Student Association of the University of Calgary and Chair of the Alberta Graduate Council. He has also served on the boards of the Canadian Medical Association, the Alberta Medical Association (AMA), the Canadian Resident Matching Services, Resident Doctors of Canada and the Board of Governors of the University of Calgary. Currently, he serves as President of the Canadian Association of Physicians with Disabilities and is an executive member of the AMA’s Public Health and Preventive Medicine section.

His clinical interests include MRI, sports medicine, advanced cartilage imaging and innovative 3D modelling techniques. As a clinical investigator with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Dr. Rakhra is actively involved in imaging based, multidisciplinary basic science and clinical research projects in collaboration with researchers from the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. He also has a special interest in metrics-based evaluation systems in the academic setting.

Dr. Rakhra earned an MD at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He completed his residency in Radiology at the University of Alberta and his fellowship in Musculoskeletal Imaging at the University of Toronto.

As a faculty lecturer for the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University and for the Canadian Medical Association Joule’s Practice Management Curriculum, Dr. Tremblay is passionate about medical education, with particular interest in the transition to practice for family medicine residents.

Dr. Tremblay earned an MD at McGill University in 2011 and completed his residency program at McGill in 2013.

Dr. Belliveau earned his B.Sc. in biology and M.Sc. in neuroscience, studying Parkinson’s disease, at McGill University. As a member of the MD Physician Council, Dr. Belliveau looks forward to voicing the concerns of junior physicians and ensuring sustainability in MD Financial Management’s services for Canada’s physicians.

Dr. Zieroth earned her MD at the University of Manitoba and went on to train in internal medicine and cardiology at the same centre. She completed her postdoctoral clinical fellowship in advanced heart failure and cardiac transplant at Toronto General Hospital.

Dr. Zieroth is involved in several international heart failure clinical trials as principal investigator, national lead or executive committee member. She is the past president of the Canadian Heart Failure Society and the Federation of Medical Women of Canada as well as co-chair of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society for heart failure guidelines. She also serves as co-chair at Canada’s largest annual heart failure meeting, Heart Failure Update, and is associate editor for the Journal of Cardiac Failure and the European Heart Journal.

Dr. Zieroth is actively engaged on social media and promotes its use for rapid access to clinical trial data, publications, and free online access to medical education. It is through these engagements that Dr. Zieroth is now recognized as a global supporter and sponsor of women in medicine and cardiology.

Dr. Varley is the Physician Lead of Advisory Services at Cleveland Clinic Canada, where her responsibilities include developing annual strategic and financial planning, setting of corporate policy, talent management, risk management, as well as monitoring corporate performance against business plans and key performance indicators. In addition, she is an executive board member of the Women’s Professional Staff Association at Cleveland Clinic.

As a clinician leader, Dr. Varley has a unique management background that combines the rigor of medicine with the corporate training excellence of management consulting. She has deep experience with McKinsey & Company across a broad spectrum of international corporate mandates including due diligence, corporate finance, operations, human resources and talent, enterprise strategy and organizational agility, as well as digital transformation.

Dr. Varley earned a master’s degree in Public Health at Harvard University, an MD and Certification of the College of Family Physicians at McMaster University and a B.Sc. at Western University. She gained work experience at the Harvard Business School, the University of Toronto and SickKids Hospital, and is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation.

Dr. Finley joined the MD Physician Council (the Council) at its inception, months before the pandemic began. He says there is clearly a health and human resources crisis in the wake of COVID; and in its face, he believes that healthcare professionals must find joy and a more balanced lifestyle, which has long tended to be evasive for busy physicians.

Dr. Johnson is currently secretary of the Doctors Manitoba family practice section, and he serves as executive committee member and audit committee chair for the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA). Since 2015, he has been CMPA councillor for Manitoba/Nunavut.

Dr. Johnson was president of the Manitoba College of Family Physicians (2003–2004) and president of Doctors Manitoba (2007–2008). He has also served on the boards of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and Canadian Medical Association, across many committees and working groups. He was a member of the Manitoba Medical Review Committee from 1997 to 2002, and is past chair of Concordia Hospital’s Department of Family Medicine.

In 2008 Dr. Johnson received a CFPC award of excellence, and in 2009 he was named Manitoba's Family Physician of the Year, as well as one of Canada’s Family Physicians of the Year. He graduated from the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine in 1981.

Dr. Mehl joined the MD Physician Council for its unique nature, for the chance to hear diverse perspectives and opinions, and to gain greater financial acumen. She thinks financial literacy is a critical knowledge base for physicians, particularly early in their careers.

She is a member of many organizations, including the Public Health Physicians of Canada and the Canadian Public Health Association. Dr. Tabien’s professional interests focus on immigrant and refugee health, family health, women’s health and physician health.

She earned an MD at the University of Milan, as well as a PhD in anatomy and cell biology and a master’s degree in public health at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Tabien’s residency and fellowship training were in public health and preventive medicine.

Dr. Papanikolaou’s interest in business and finance led him to take additional programs at the Rotman School of Management and Schulich School of Business, and widened his network through the MD Physician Council.

Dr. Perry is assistant professor of pediatrics at Dalhousie University and clinical assistant professor at Memorial University. She is involved in the clinical education of third-year medical students — via Dalhousie’s longitudinal integrated clerkship — and of pediatric PGY4s.

She earned a B.Sc. from the University of New Brunswick in 1989 and an MD at Dalhousie University in 1992. Subsequently Dr. Perry completed a one year Rotating Internship at Dalhousie followed by Pediatric residency training at Dalhousie and the IWK Health Centre.

Dr. Tootoosis was one of the first members of the MD Physician Council and says she found it refreshing and energizing to share perspectives and strategies with her fellow Council members across diverse specialties, geographies and career stages.