Chair's Message

The University of Toronto is home to Canada's largest Department of Paediatrics. The Department’s overall goal is the improvement in child health locally, provincially, nationally and internationally through the creation, evaluation, dissemination, and application of knowledge. Our clinical, education and research programs have been developed to ensure the emergence of leadership in paediatric medicine in Canada and abroad.

The Department of Paediatrics is committed to medical and allied health care professional education and mentoring through its undergraduate, postgraduate (residency) and continuing education programs. Our faculty participates in the ongoing assessment, adaptation, and improvement of our Undergraduate Medical School Curriculum, Paediatric Residency and CME programs. These processes and programs provide an outstanding opportunity for professional development at all levels.

The state-of-the-art clinical care provided by our department is recognized daily by our patients who come, not only from our own region, but also from many other regions of Ontario, Canada, and around the world. Patient care provided by the Department of Paediatrics does not only occur within the walls of The Hospital for Sick Children. Recently, an increasing proportion of the department’s primary, secondary and selective aspects of tertiary paediatric care have been provided by our partner hospitals within the Child Health Network. As an example, the Division of Developmental Paediatrics is now housed largely within Bloorview Kids Rehab. Our clinical faculty provides the entire spectrum of child care from "first encounter primary care", consultative general paediatrics, tertiary subspecialty care, and provincial and nation-wide quaternary care in such areas as bone marrow and solid organ transplantation. Furthermore, members of our faculty actively participate in provincial networks, such as those in cardiac, diabetes, intensive and neonatal care.

The third component of our academic mission is to provide excellence in fundamental, translational and clinical research. Most of our full-time faculty have an appointment within The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute. We believe strongly that it is imperative that we continue to strive to develop even better health care strategies for children. The three roles of academic paediatrics, education of the future generations of health care providers, delivery of superb clinical care and cutting edge research are wonderfully demonstrated by enormous accomplishments of the outstanding members of the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Meredith Irwin
Paediatrician-in-Chief, Department of Paediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children