Dr. Manuel Tisminetzky is a senior international fellow in the medical/surgical ICU at Toronto General Hospital. He completed his medical education and residency in critical care medicine at Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires in Argentina. Dr. Tisminetzky holds a Master’s in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. His academic interest focuses on bridging the gap between evidence-based practice and real-world care in critically ill patients, especially those with respiratory failure. He is a member of the A-FREE study team, a pilot safety and feasibility randomized control trial designed to assess an anitcoagulation-free strategy for VV-ECMO in patients with acute respiratory failure. 

Dr. Jonathan Taylor is an intensivist and respirologist, currently appointed as a Clinical Associate in the Division of Respirology at the University Health Network/Sinai Health System. He completed Internal Medicine training at Oregon Health & Science University, followed by a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital, Icahn School of Medicine in New York City. He recently finished a subspecialty fellowship in Extracorporeal Life Support at the University of Toronto and joined the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at Toronto General Hospital. His research interests include acute respiratory failure, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and pulmonary vascular disease.

Dr. Diana Morales Castro is an Anesthetist and Critical Care Specialist from Costa Rica, practicing at Toronto General Hospital and Hospital Calderón Guardia. With a Master's in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Toronto, she bridges clinical pharmacology and ICU practice. She led Canada's first pharmacokinetic studies of intravenous sedatives in ECMO patients and is principal investigator of several trials, including the PSI-funded Vol-ECMO study and CIHR-funded SPA trial. Her research focuses on optimizing sedation and analgesia through precision dosing in patients supported by extracorporeal techniques, while also working to improve ECMO delivery in resource-limited settings.

Dr. Richard Greendyk is a postdoctoral researcher at the University Health Network / Toronto General Hospital. He attended medical school at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and completed postgraduate residency in internal medicine and fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center / New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He completed a Master of Science in biostatistics in patient-oriented research from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. His research focuses on mechanical ventilation parameters during extracorporeal life support in acute respiratory failure, and he is working on the JULIET RCT, a trial of near-apneic ventilation during ECLS. 

Dr. David Granton received his medical degree from McMaster University and subsequently completed his internal medicine and critical care training at the University of Toronto. He is currently completing graduate studies in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in methods to detect heterogeneity of treatment effect in acute respiratory failure.

Dr. Timothy (Tim) Weir is an Australian-trained intensivist (FCICM) who completed his medical training at The University of Queensland before completing specialist Intensive Care Medicine training in Adelaide and Melbourne. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the University of Toronto while undertaking subspecialty fellowship training at Toronto General Hospital in Critical Care Echocardiography and Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS). His academic interests include acute respiratory failure, ECLS, quality improvement in ICU, long-term outcomes following critical illness, and end-of-life care. He enjoys spending whatever time is left over with his young family, playing and watching Australian Rules football, running, baking, and music.

Dr. Stephan von Düring is a senior clinical associate at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), Switzerland, with specialty training in Internal Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine. He completed his MSc in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the University of Toronto, where he explored the relationship between mechanical power and patient outcomes. Dr. von Düring’s research focuses on the management of acute respiratory failure, particularly lung-protective strategies in both invasive and non-invasive mechanical ventilation. His main interests include the mechanisms of ventilator-induced lung injury and the concept of mechanical power.

Dr. Shannon Fernando is a Critical Care Physician at Lakeridge Health, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at Queen's University. He completed his MD at Queen's University and postgraduate training in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care at the University of Ottawa, along with an MSc from the University of Toronto. He has published over 170 articles in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. His primary research interests are in cardiac arrest, cardiogenic shock, and extracorporeal life support, with particular focus on long-term outcomes among ICU survivors. He is the PI of the Long Term Outcomes of Survivors of Critical Illness (LOTUS-ICU) research program that uses administrative data to study long-term physical and mental health outcomes in survivors of critical illness.

Dr. Lucia Larrañaga Sigwald is a Critical Care resident from Spain, currently completing her residency at the Complexo Hospitalario de Ourense in Galicia. She obtained her Medical Degree from the Universidad del Pais Vasco in San Sebastian, her hometown. Her primary interests lie in extracorporeal life support (ECLS), acute respiratory failure, cardiogenic shock, transplantation and organ donation. She is also passionate about the integration of innovation and emerging technologies, especially AI into a critical care environment to improve clinical decision-making and patient outcomes. She is currently working on the EVOLVE study with Dr. Fan focused on optimizing ventricular unloading strategies in VA-ECMO, with the aim of improving outcomes in critically ill patients. Outside of medicine,  Dr. Larrañaga Sigwald is passionate about sports and has a background as a competitive athlete. She finds balance and inspiration in hiking, exploring nature and discovering new cultures through traveling. 

Dr. Varsha Venkataraman is an Intensivist who completed Internal Medicine residency and Critical Care fellowship in Saint Louis. She also finished fellowships in general critical care and subspecialty ECLS training at Toronto General Hospital. She is currently pursuing a MHSc in Bioethics with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at University of Toronto. Her areas of interest include Ethics in the ICU, with a particular focus on non-beneficial care, long-term outcomes of prolonged ICU stays of both ECLS and non-ECLS patients, moral distress and burnout, and decision-making in the ICU.

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Dr. Erminio Santangelo is an Anesthesiologist and Critical Care Physician in the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, University of Toronto. Dr. Santangelo received his Medical Degree from University Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore in Rome and his PhD in Medical Science and Biotechnology from Università Del Piemonte Orientale. Dr. Santangelo serves as an Adult Critical Care Clinical Fellow at the University Health Network and Sinai Health System. Dr. Santangelo’s research focuses on observational data analysis to evaluate patient outcomes across key domains, including mechanical ventilation, long-term outcome after critical illness, and adult congenital heart disease. He is also collaborating on risk stratification strategies for patients with pulmonary embolism.

Dr. Teijeiro Paradis obtained his Medical Degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Mexico. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine, Critical Care, and a fellowship in Cardiopulmonary physiology before joining the Critical Care Medicine fellowship program at UHN/MSH. While in Canada, Dr. Teijeiro Paradis completed subspecialty training in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), advanced critical care echocardiography (NBE), and a master’s degree in medical sciences at the Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto. His main research interests include liberation from respiratory and cardiac mechanical support.

I’m a fourth-year medical student at Queen’s University with interests in transfusion medicine, thrombosis/hemostasis, critical care, and emergency care, particularly at their intersection. I work with this team on projects relating to the causes and consequences of hemolysis during ECMO, in-vivo platelet and red blood cell dysfunction from shear stress and artificial surface exposure, and complications of invasive ventilation in acute respiratory distress syndrome. Outside of medicine, I enjoy building and recently worked on a deck. I’m also a dedicated film and music fan, aiming for a movie in theatres each week and a concert every month!