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 2011-12 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, Chair of the Department of Medicine at McMaster University; Dr. Gerard Cox, Division Director of Respiratory Medicine; Dr. Lori Whitehead, Program Director for Adult Respiratory residency training at McMaster University; and Dr. Malcolm Sears, 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 2011 / 2012, Firestone had 42,462 registrations including Sleep and Tuberculosis clinic patients. Over 27,800 of these patients underwent over 37,500 clinical tests during their visits with their physicians. The remaining patients seen in the clinic were referred from the community for pulmonology or allergy testing, without specialist consult. The total number of procedures performed, as testing may involve multiple procedures, is well in excess of 80,000.

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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 2011, FIRH faculty was listed as authors on 106 peer-reviewed publications, including several in high impact international publications. Since 2009, current FIRH faculty were listed as an author on over 355 peer reviewed publications and presented their research at over 100 conferences and events throughout the world.

Faculty have been very successful in obtaining major grants. In April 2012, Dr. Mark Larché received a prestigious National Institutes of Health grant of $6.4M to investigate mechanisms of allergy tolerance. In March 2012, Dr. Malcolm Sears, the nominate principle investigator of the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development study (CHILD), and Dr. Paul O'Byrne, the lead for Clinical Investigators Collaborative, were part of the successful renewal of the $36.M AllerGen NCE program.

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FIRH PEOPLE

FIRH faculty have been actively engaged in education activities at the undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate and continuing medical education levels.

FIRH research faculty supervised 11 full-time graduate students (candidates for Masters and for Ph.D.) along with 3 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.

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. In 2011 / 2012, the McMaster University Adult Respirology Training Program in association with FIRH provided training to 6 respirology residents, 53 medical residents (on rotation), 26 medical students and 5 clinical fellows.

The following is a list of the incoming and outgoing residents for 2012 / 2013.

Outgoing Residents, Fellows and Clinical Scholars

• Dr. Juliana Li completed her Clinical Scholarship of June 30, 2012. Juliana will be joining McMaster faculty as of September 1, 2012 and will be doing Sleep Medicine and Respirology at FIRH.
• Dr. Ganesh Subramanian completed his Clinical Scholarship on June 30, 2012 and has accepted a position with Sleep Medicine working with Dr. Raymond Gottschalk and his team located on Frid Street in Hamilton.
• Dr. Ali AlMusawi completed his Clinical Fellowship in COPD on June 30, 2012 and will be returning home after his Respirology exams in October.
• Dr. Angira Dasgupta completed her Clinical Fellowship with Dr. Nair on June 30, 2012 and has returned to India.
• Dr. Jodi Goodwin completed her Residency training on June 30, 2012 and will be moving to London, Ontario.
• Dr. Saima Husain also completed her Residency training on June 30, 2012 and plans to travel and work on Locums for the balance of the coming year.
• Dr. Anushya Chelvanathan completed her Residency training on June 30, 2012 and has accepted a position as Clinical Scholar with the Sleep Medicine Program working with Dr. P. Powles, Dr. N. Drost and Dr. R. Gottschalk.
• Dr. Jacob Gelberg completed Residency training on June 30, 2012 and has accepted a Clinical Fellowship in Interventional Pulmonary Medicine her at MUMC training with Dr. D. Stather in Calgary, Alberta.

Residents and Fellows Remaining in Program

• Dr. Nooreen Popat, PGY5 has entered her 2nd year of residency training commencing July 1, 2012. Nooreen has accepted the role of Chief Resident for the academic year. She will be working in clinic with Dr. Gerard Cox.
• Dr. George Yuan, PGY5 entered his 2nd year of residency training commencing July 1, 2012. He will be working in clinic with Dr. Marcel Tunks.

Incoming Residents and Fellows

• Dr. Rami Abdelshaheed, PGY4, entered the Respirology Training Program on July 1, 2012. Rami is a graduate of the Internal Medicine Program at McMaster University and will be working in the clinic with Dr. Helen Neighbour.
• Dr. Tamer Abdelshaheed, PGY4, will be entering the Respiratory Training Program on July 31, 2012. Tamer is a graduate of the Internal Medicine Program, University of Toronto and will be working in the clinic with Dr. Nicole Drost.
• Dr. Nathan Hambly, PGY4, will be entering the Respirology Training Program on July 31, 2012 and is a graduate of the Internal Medicine Program at McMaster University. Nathan will be working in clinic with Dr. Andrew McIvor.

New Clinical Scholars

• Dr. Anushya Chelvanathan, graduated from the Respirology Program, June 2012 and accepted a Clinical Scholar position in Sleep Medicine commencing July 1, 2012. Anushya will be working in the FIRH clinic with Dr.'s Powles and Drost.

 

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Looking for Research Volunteers

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE PART OF A RESEARCH STUDY?

We are looking for people who wish to volunteer for our studies. It starts with getting your permission to talk to you about our research. Because we value your privacy, our ethics board requires us to get your permission to talk to you about specific research opportunities.

We have created a "research registry" to obtain and document your permission. It is called "PURR@FIRH". It is short for Pulmonary Research Registry at Firestone.

The Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health built its reputation on translating research into clinical use. During the past 10 to 15 years, the FIRH group has standardized techniques related to symptom assessment, physiological impairment, allergen challenge, methacholine responsiveness, and the cellular and mediator changes in induced sputum. These techniques have proved to be powerful tools in the investigation of biological mechanisms contributing to disease, and in developing effective treatment strategies.

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?

It could be as simple as filling out a questionnaire or agreeing to be part of an observational study. For some people, we can offer an opportunity to participate in a clinical trial using an investigational therapy. Before we can contact you, however, we need your permission.

We are looking for people who have breathing difficulties, allergies and, for people who don't.

Send us an e-mail or give us a call to find out more!

PURR@FIRH

Pulmonary Research Registry
Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health

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

905-522-1155 X32722

email: PURR@stjoes.ca