Firestone is based at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton Ontario Canada. It is also an Institute of McMaster University. Clinical, research and educational activities are closely integrated and largely collaborative within FIRH.The intent is to create a link between patient care, translational research and training of health care professionals.

Providing leadership and strategic direction for the Firestone Institute in 2010-11 were Dr. Paul O'Byrne, Executive Director; Dr. Stewart Pugsley, Clinical Director; and Dr. Martin Kolb, Research Director.

Members of the FIRH faculty hold important administrative posts locally, including Dr. Paul O'Byrne, who is the current Chair of the Department of Medicine at McMaster University; Dr. Gerard Cox, who is the Division Director of Respiratory Medicine; Dr. Lori Whitehead, who is the Program Director for Adult Respiratory residency training at McMaster University; Dr. Mark Inman is the Firestone Scientific Officer; and Dr. Malcolm Sears, who is the Principal Investigator for the national Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study.

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FIRH provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient respiratory care as the regional respiratory service for the City of Hamilton and the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integrated Network (LHIN). FIRH has a unique Chest Programme that encompasses the spectrum of respiratory medicine together with affiliated head-and-neck and thoracic surgery services; all are located on one site.

FIRH's patient-centred focus on care is achieved through the tremendous efforts of allied health care professionals, including nurses, respiratory therapists and technicians, and through the efforts of FIRH's administrative staff. In 2010 / 2011, 41 physicians saw 38,800 patients, totalling 63,160 visits and procedures.  Additional tests not connected to these physicians, but conducted in the FIRH labs, totalled an additional 23,340 procedures.  Therefore, the total number of procedures and visits captured at FIRH was 86,504.

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Research within the FIRH is wide-ranging, not only from bench to bedside, but to population health and policy; extending from studies of smooth muscle physiology and intracellular signalling through experimental disease models to clinical trials to enhance patient quality-of-life. FIRH is particularly known in the field of asthma biomarkers including: measures of BHR, sputum inflammatory cells, reactivity testing and allergen challenge as diagnostic tools and as experimental medicine approaches to understand disease mechanisms, therapeutic responses to interventions and natural history of different airway disease phenotypes. The research productivity of FIRH is attested to by the high quality and impact of the peer reviewed publications.

The research productivity of FIRH is attested to by the high quality and impact of the peer-reviewed publications. In 2010, FIRH faculty was listed as authors on 109 peer-reviewed publications, including several in high impact international publications. Since 2009, current FIRH faculty were listed as an author on over 245 peer reviewed publications. In 2010-2011, FIRH faculty had over 40 "open" studies that had been approved by the St. Joseph's Research Ethics Board. Many of these studies (12) were investigator initiated and self-funded.

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FIRH faculty have been actively engaged in education activities at the undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate and continuing medical education levels. FIRH is also the home for the Respirology Residency Training Program of the Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University. The following is a list of the incoming and outgoing residents for 2011 / 2012.

Outgoing Residents, Fellows and Clinical Scholars

• Dr. Naomi Spitale completed her training in March 2011 and has accepted a 3rd year position as Clinical Scholar in Sleep Medicine at the University of Ottawa commencing September 2011.
• Dr. Juliana Li completed her training as of June 30, 2011 and has secured a 3rd year position as Clinical Scholar in Sleep Medicine at McMaster University supervised by Dr. Peter Powles, Dr. Raymond Gottschalk and Dr. Nicole Drost.
• Dr. Salima Amlani completed her training as of June 30, 2011 and will be doing locums in community Respirology and Sleep Medicine in Ontario.
  
• Dr. Ali AlMusawi will complete his training July 31, 2011 and has accepted a 3rd year Clinical Fellowship in the COPD/Rehabilitation program supervised by Dr. David Todd and Dr. Stewart Pugsley at McMaster University.

Residents and Fellows Remaining in Program

• Dr. Jodi Goodwin, PGY5 will be on maternity leave from August 1 – January 31, 2012. She will return in February 2012 to complete her residency training. Her Mentor is Dr. Lori Whitehead.
• Dr. Saima Husain, PGY5 has entered her 2nd year of residency training commencing July 1, 2011. Saima has accepted the role of Chief Resident. She will be working in clinic with Dr. Martin Kolb, Mentor.
• Dr. Jacob Gelberg, PGY5 entered his 2nd year of residency training commencing July 1, 2011. He will be working in clinic with Dr. Marcel Tunks, Mentor.
• Dr. Anushya Chelvanathan, PGY5 entered her 2nd year of residency training commencing July 1, 2011. Anushya will be working in clinic with Dr. Andrew McIvor, Mentor.
• Dr. Farhan AlEnezi, Clinical Fellow will remain with the Respirology Training Program until October 31, 2011 when he will complete the Respirology portion of his training before returning to complete the second half of his dual training experience within the Critical Care Program at McMaster. Farhan will be working with various physicians in our outpatient subspecialty clinics. His Mentor is Dr. Lori Whitehead.

Incoming Residents and Fellows

• Dr. Nooreen Popat, PGY4 commenced her training July 1, 2011. Nooreen is an Internal Medicine graduate of McMaster University. She will be working in clinic with Dr. Gerard Cox, Mentor.
• Dr. George Yuan, PGY4 commenced his training July 1, 2011. George is an Internal Medicine graduate of the University of Alberta. He will be working in clinic with Dr. Lori Whitehead, Mentor.
• Dr. Ali AlMusawi, mentioned earlier, will commence his Clinical Fellowship August 1st with Dr. Todd and Dr. Pugsley
  Dr. Angira Dasgupta will soon commence her Clinical Fellowship under the supervision of Dr. Parameswaran Nair. Angira will be doing research and clinical work during her one year fellowship.
• Dr. Nizar Naji will soon commence his Research/Clinical Fellowship in September 2011 working under the supervision of Dr. Paul O'Byrne.

New Clinical Scholars

• Dr. Juliana Li will remain at McMaster University as a Clinical Scholar, Sleep Medicine, July 1, 2011. Juliana is a graduate of the Adult Respirology Program, McMaster University. She is currently working with Dr. Raymond Gottschalk and his sleep medicine team but will return to the Firestone in September 2011 where she will do Sleep Medicine and Respirology clinics. Mentors include Dr. Peter Powles, Dr. Raymond Gottschalk and Dr. Nicole Drost.
• Dr. Ganesh Subramanian joined McMaster University as a Clinical Scholar, Sleep Medicine, on July 1, 2011. Ganesh is a graduate of the Adult Respirology Program, University of Alberta. Ganesh is currently doing Sleep Medicine clinics at the Firestone and will be working with Dr. Gottschalk in September 2011. Mentors include Dr. Peter Powles, Dr. Raymond Gottschalk and Dr. Nicole Drost.

In 2010 / 2011, the McMaster University Adult Respirology Training Program in association with FIRH provided training to 9 respirology residents, 49 medical residents (on rotation), 28 medical students and 1 clinical fellow.   FIRH research faculty supervised 15 full-time graduate students (candidates for Masters and for Ph.D.) along with 5 postdoctoral fellows. In addition, FIRH hosted numerous placements for nursing students, respiratory therapist students, undergraduate and post secondary work placements as well as countless hours of high school students earning mandatory community service hours.

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We are pleased to announce the creation of a Pulmonary Research Fellowship in memory of Dr. Frederick (Freddy) Hargreave, who died suddenly in June 2011. We would appreciate if you could post this and/or pass this on to those who you believe would be interested in this opportunity. Our goal is to find and nuture clinician researchers who will become leaders in translational pulmonary research in the years to come.

Paul M. O'Byrne, MB, FRCPI, FRCPC, FCCP, FRCP(Edin)
E.J. Moran Campbell Professor
Chair, Department of Medicine, McMaster University
Executive Director, Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton

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Hargreave Research Fellowship

A new position is available for a 2 year Fellowship named for Dr. Frederick (Freddy) Hargreave a pioneer in the field of translational pulmonary medicine and a dearly missed colleague. The position will be based at the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, St. Joseph's Healthcare and affiliated with McMaster University.

The ideal candidate will have an inquisitive nature, clinical training and basic research lab skills. All candidates will be expected to have an interest in translational research, strong communication and collaboration skills, along with an interest in chronic lung disease (asthma, COPD, interstitial lung disease). We encourage interested candidates to review the research interests of FIRH faculty as presented on the web site for other areas of interest.

Current Research Interests of FIRH Faculty

Letters of Interests, accompanied by curriculum vitae, should be sent to:

Professor Martin Kolb, Research Director
Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health

50 Charlton Avenue East Room T2131,
Hamilton, Ontario Canada L8N 4A6

email: kolbm@mcmaster.ca

PDF - Hargreave Research Fellowship

To learn more about Dr. Hargreave