The purpose of the Medical Advisory Committee is to offer advice to Lupus Ontario on
matters of a medical nature that impact the lupus community.
Read the full policy here.
Dr. Amanda Steiman
Assistant Professor, Rheumatologist at Sinai Health/University Health Network, Toronto
Dr. Amanda Steiman is a clinician in Quality and Innovation at Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network. She received her MD from Western University and completed Internal Medicine and Rheumatology training at the University of Toronto. She pursued a fellowship in lupus and Master’s training through the Institute of Medical Science, and further training in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. Her clinical focus is in lupus. She runs the Young Adult SLE (YASLE) Clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital with pediatric rheumatologist, Dr. Earl Silverman, to support young lupus patients through this formative period. Her quality improvement initiatives are focused on collaborative care models for patients with rheumatic diseases.
Dr. Catherine Ivory
Assistant Professor at University of Ottawa, Division of Rheumatology, University of Ottawa, Senior Clinician Investigator with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Catherine Ivory is an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa since 2018. She runs the Lupus clinic and the Lupus fellowship at the Ottawa hospital. Dr. Ivory is certified in internal medicine and rheumatology and has a PhD in basic science from McGill university. She is leading the immunology academic program with the Rheumatology residents and the lupus teaching series. She is a senior clinician investigator with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and is conducting clinical trials and translational research in rheumatology, mainly in lupus. She is a member of the University of Ottawa Center for Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, with which she collaborates in research projects. Her research is ongoing, both in immunology and inflammation as it related to pathogenesis of rheumatic disease, mainly lupus.
Dr. Deborah Levy
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics University of Toronto
Dr. Deborah Levy is a Staff Rheumatologist and Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto and Team Investigator at the SickKids Research Institute. She has received local and national honours, and most recently was awarded a Department of Paediatrics Clinical Excellence Award, and the 2018 Ontario Rheumatologist of the Year Award.
She is the clinic director of the Paediatric Lupus clinic at SickKids, and her research focuses on long-term outcomes of childhood-onset lupus. Other interests include Advocacy and Models of Care in Paediatric Rheumatology, ensuring access to care for patients in underserved areas of Ontario. She is the Vice-President – Paediatric of the Ontario Rheumatology Association and Past-Chair of the Paediatric Committee of the Canadian Rheumatology Association.
Dr. Earl Silverman
Pediatric Rheumatologist at SickKids Hospital
Dr. Murray Urowitz
Professor Emeritus, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Schroeder Arthritis Institute, Toronto Western Hospital
Dr. Murray Urowitz is a Professor Emeritus with the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He was the Director of the Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases Toronto Western Hospital from 1995-2022 and Director of the Toronto Lupus Program from 1970-2022.
Dr. Urowitz established the University of Toronto Lupus Clinic and Lupus Databank Research Program 1970. This extensive longitudinal database is one of the largest such databanks in the world with over 2150 patients and has allowed for numerous findings which have changed the way lupus is diagnosed and managed. He was Senior Scientist with the Krembil Research Institute and Schroeder Arthritis Institute. Dr. Urowitz has published over 469 peer-reviewed papers and 46 book chapters. He has supervised the training of over 130 fellows in rheumatology especially in SLE.
Dr Urowitz was a founding member of the Ontario Lupus Association (now Lupus Ontario). He was president of the Lupus Council of the American Rheumatology Association. He was a founding member of the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) group and Director of the SLICC Registry for Atherosclerosis. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for commitment to the field of lupus by Lupus Ontario in March 2016.
Dr. Janet Pope
Chair/Chief of Division of Rheumatology, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Schulich School of Medicine, London, Ontario
Dr. Janet Pope is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Schulich School of Medicine, London, Ontario, Canada. She is the Division Head in Rheumatology at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, London. She obtained her MD, and Fellowship in Internal Medicine at UWO and a Fellowship in Rheumatology and Masters of Public Health were acquired at Boston University. She then completed a Canadian Arthritis Society Research Fellowship in Scleroderma.
Her research includes epidemiologic studies in scleroderma, SLE and RA, including outcome measurements, clinical trials and disease manifestations. She has published over 455 peer-reviewed articles, 15 chapters, 500 abstracts and several Cochrane meta-analysis reviews. The h-index is 49 with more than 11,000 citations. She was the lead in the American College of Rheumatology and European League Against Rheumatism classification criteria for systemic sclerosis (scleroderma). Mentoring of students and trainees numbers more than 100 for research projects. She was awarded the Lupus Hope Award. She has received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Canadian Rheumatology Association, Rheumatologist of the Year from the Ontario Rheumatology Association, Department of Medicine Research Achievement Award, and the Dean’s Award of Excellence in Research.
Dr. Kostas Tselios
Rheumatologist at Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, Assistant Professor McMaster University, Hamilton
Dr. Konstantinos Tselios, works at McMaster University as an Assistant Professor, in the Department of Medicine, in the sector of Rheumatology. Dr. Tselios obtained his MD in, Greece, 2001, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He as well earned his PhD in Rheumatology-Immunology from the University in 2013. He relocated to Canada in 2014 to work as a Clinical Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Department of Medicine’s Centre for Prognosis Studies in Rheumatic Diseases. Dr. Tselios’ reasearch is focused on autoimmunity and systemic lupus erythematosus. He is published in various articles and abstracts. He is a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Rheumatology, and a manuscript reviewer for several journals including Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Lupus, Journal of Rheumatology, Clinical Immunology and PLoS One.
Dr. Zahi Touma
Dr. Murray B. Urowitz Chair in Lupus Research at UHN, Director, Toronto Lupus Program at UHN, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Institute of Medical Sciences, Adjunct Scientist, Institute for Work and Health, Clinician-Scientist, Rheumatology, University Health Network, Scientist, Schroeder Arthritis Institute, Krembil Research Institute.
Dr. Touma is a Rheumatologist and Clinical Epidemiologist whose research is focused on patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and measurement science with a particular interest in the assessment of disease activity, patient reported outcomes and cognitive function. Dr. Touma has developed SLE disease activity indices: the SLEDAI Responder Index-50 and the SLEDAI-2K Glucocorticoids Index. Dr. Touma has established the NeuroLupus Program which is a team of experts in psychometrics, neuropsychology, neurology, psychiatry, measurement and bioinformatics with the goal of developing improved methods of identifying cognitive impairment in SLE and understanding its course over time and impact on health-related quality of life and productivity. Dr. Touma is a member of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) committee for development of classification and response criteria for rheumatic diseases and the ACR methodologist on an ACR/EULAR funded project to develop response criteria for trials in giant cell arteritis. He leads the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) working group to update core set domains for SLE clinical trials. Dr. Touma’s work has been supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Arthritis Society of Canada, Lupus Canada and Physician Services Incorporated and Lupus Research Alliance. He is the recipient of an Early Researcher Award from the Government of Ontario.
