Welcome Message from the Division Head

It is with pleasure that I invite you to review McMaster University's Division of Thoracic Surgery website. It offers a brief history of the division and outline of our clinical programs.

Clinical service

Our clinical program serves southwest Ontario an area with a population of 1.8 million. The thoracic division is a regional program situated at St Joseph’s Healthcare - Hamilton campus. At full capacity we are four active thoracic surgeons. More than 600 major thoracic cases and 800 endoscopies are performed each year. St. Joseph’s is one of the largest single institutions practicing tertiary thoracic surgery in the country

The program is supported by high quality chest radiology and chest pathology clinical and research and strong relationship with our respirology colleagues at the Firestone Institute.

Research

The division is productive academically and holds several million dollars in both peer review and industry research funding and is involved in research for both benign and malignant thoracic disease. Our division has played a central role in the Canadian reduction surgery trial as well as the development for surgery for asthma bronchial thermoplasty. We are a member of several inter-group studies and continue to contribute to these trials.

Dr. Yaron Shargall
Associate Professor
Thoracic Surgery
Academic Division Head, Division of Thoracics