Speakers
Michael Bonert, BASc, MASc, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Michael Bonert is a Staff Anatomical Pathologist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and an Associate Professor at McMaster University. He attended medical school at the University of Toronto, and subsequently trained in Pathology at the University of Toronto. He was certified by the Royal College in Anatomical Pathology in 2012 and then did subspeciality training in Urologic Pathology at the University of Calgary. Dr. Bonert also has a Bachelor of Applied Science (Mechanical Engineering), and a Master of Applied Science (Mechanical Engineering/Biomedical Engineering) from the University of Toronto. He founded Libre Pathology (https://librepathology.org), an open access web site directed at healthcare providers that delivers pathology information. His interests include urological pathology, numerical modelling, data analysis and quality improvement. He is the Steering Committee Pathologist for the Canadian Kidney Cancer Information System.
Marion Cooper
Marion Cooper is a long-time kidney cancer patient. She was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer in 2006 following the birth of her son. She was a volunteer with KCC from 2008 to 2015 having served on the Board with her last position being Vice Chair National and then remaining involved in patient education forums and supporting outreach across the Prairies. Marion is currently the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association for Manitoba and is a mental health and substance use health leader with a passion for innovation, co-design and community based mental health service transformation. With over 25 years of progressive leadership experience in the public and non-profit health and social services sectors she has worked expansively in population health to advance health equity and address the disparity in mental health funding. She lives in Winnipeg with her husband Greg and son Carter.
Jeffrey Graham, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Dr. Jeffrey Graham is a staff medical oncologist at CancerCare Manitoba, assistant professor in the department of internal medicine at the University of Manitoba, chair of the provincial genitourinary disease site group, and affiliate scientist at the CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute. He completed medical school at the University of Manitoba in 2012. He subsequently completed residency training in Internal Medicine followed by subspecialty training in Medical Oncology at CancerCare Manitoba. He went on to pursue a clinical and research fellowship in genitourinary oncology at the University of Calgary, with a research focus on advanced kidney cancer. He also obtained a master in public health (MPH) in epidemiology from Harvard University.
Dr Breffni Hannon, MB, BCh, BAO, MMedSci
Dr. Hannon is a graduate of University College Cork in Ireland. She completed subspecialty training in palliative medicine through the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland before moving to Toronto to complete a clinical research fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PMCC). She has been the site lead for palliative care at PMCC since 2019 and is the research lead for the Divisions of Palliative Medicine in the Department of Medicine and Palliative Care in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Her research interests include early integrated palliative care for patients with advanced cancer, symptom screening and caregiver interventions.
Daniel Heng MD, MPH, FRCPC
Dr. Heng is the Head of Medical Oncology at the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Calgary, Canada and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is the Chair of the International mRCC Consortium Database (www.IMDConline.com) which is the largest data base of patients with metastatic kidney cancer treated with contemporary therapies in the world. The IMDC criteria (aka Heng Criteria) are used for kidney cancer prognostication. He has a keen interest in outcomes, prognostic factors and clinical trials research in metastatic renal cell carcinoma and other genitourinary malignancies. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General of Canada for his work in Kidney Cancer.
Kristen McAlpine, MD, FRCSC
Dr. Kristen McAlpine is a urologic oncologist at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario. She recently completed the Society of Urologic Oncology Fellowship at The University of Toronto and remains active with the urologic oncology program at UofT. Dr. McAlpine is also completing a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology through the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at UofT with a thesis focusing on the use of machine learning to improve the personalization of care for patients with renal masses. Her research interests include personalizing the care of patients with urologic cancers, developing tools to improve shared decision-making for patients facing challenging decisions, optimizing peri-operative thromboprophylaxis strategies and assessing the outcomes of various urologic cancer surgeries.
Patrick Richard has obtained his MD from the Université de Sherbrooke and completed his urology residency at Sherbrooke and McGill University in 2013. He then completed a urologic oncology fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and a master in clinical epidemiology at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. He is an associate professor and research clinician at the Université de Sherbrooke since 2016. He was awarded the FRSQ Clinician Scientist Research Scholar- Junior 2 Award in 2022 and holds the CRMUS research chair in kidney cancer. He serves on the board of directors for the Kidney Cancer Research Network of Canada and on the guidelines steering committee for the Canadian Urological Association. He is also the author of several manuscripts, book chapters and guidelines. Dr. Richard research program aims at reducing overtreatment and burden of care in urological cancers, with a focus on kidney cancer.
Karen Ross, Director
Kidney Cancer Canada
Karen has been a volunteer Director for Kidney Cancer Canada for the Maritimes since 2008. She is responsible for patient support, community development, patient meetings and webcast hosting as well as advocating for equal access to drug treatment. She works to increase awareness of Kidney Cancer Canada as an organization and has also advocated for the need for a catastrophic drug programme in New Brunswick. Karen was caregiver for her husband David from his diagnosis of kidney cancer in August, 2000 until his passing in June, 2012. She has had 18 years of learning about and dealing with kidney cancer firsthand. Karen continues to work with Kidney Cancer Canada in the quest to create awareness about kidney cancer as a significant health issue in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador as well as across Canada.