Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis

Center for Child Health
Behavior and Development
Seattle Children's Research Institute
USA

Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis is the director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute. He is the author of more than 170 original research articles, a textbook of pediatrics, and co-authored a groundbreaking book, The Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your Kids. He has appeared on CNN, NPR, Today, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and was recently featured as a TEDx speaker.

Christakis is a pediatrician at Seattle Children's Hospital in Seattle and a professor in the School of Medicine at University of Washington. He has devoted his career to investigating how early experiences impact children and to helping parents improve their children's early learning environments. He and his colleagues in the Christakis Lab have made a number of landmark findings, including discovering that young children who watch TV are more likely to develop attention problems and other health and behavioral issues.

Dr. Claire le Blanc

McGill University
Canada

Dr. LeBlanc is an associate professor of pediatrics at McGill University and member of the division of Rheumatology at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. She is board certified in pediatrics, Rheumatology and sport medicine. She is also a strong advocate for healthy active lifestyles. She is past chair of the Canadian Pediatric Society (CPS) Healthy Active Living and Sport Medicine Committee and past member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sport Medicine and Fitness.

Through these organizations she has published many articles and textbook chapters on sport or fitness-related topics. Dr Leblanc’s awards and distinctions include: Speaker of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada 2005; American Academy of Pediatrics Leadership Award 2009; Dr. Claire LeBlanc Teacher as Leader Protocol Recognition of Leadership, Royal Roads Masters in Leadership Course 2009; Noni MacDonald award: Pediatric Resident: Ziad Solh 2011; CPS Member Recognition Award 2012. 2015 The Thomas E. Shaffer Award. The Shaffer Award recipient is selected by members of the AAP Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. This award recognizes significant contributions to the field of sports medicine.

Dr. Hema Patel

Department of Pediatrics
McGill University
Canada

Dr. Patel is originally from South Western Ontario. A medical graduate of Western, she undertook her pediatric training at Dalhousie followed by training in Academic General Pediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children. After this she joined the MCH and McGill where she has remained currently at the rank of Associate Professor. Dr. Patel has made her mark in complex care having served as Program Head since 2005. Hema has forged a national and international reputation of excellence and innovation in this increasingly necessary and challenging service line. She is a sought-out speaker, advisor and educator on implementing and improving complex care services that are relevant to the needs of medically vulnerable children and their families that is resolutely family centred in its orientation.

She has also been an effective advocate for these services at a health system level forging effective alliances with varied stakeholders. In addition to Complex Care, Hema has led the Medical Day Hospital since 2015 which has emerged as an essential component of integrated medical care for diagnostic assessment and therapeutic intervention. Along her path here at McGill she has received external salary support awards and selection for the Faculty Honor List for Educational Excellence. She is also responsible for the formulation and implementation of newborn hearing screening programs that have had a manifold impact on the outcomes of hearing-impaired infants. For these advocacy efforts she has received national awards.

Professor Sir Terence Stephenson

Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
UK

Professor Sir Terence Stephenson is Nuffield Professor of Child Health at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London and Co-Director of the nationally funded Children’s Policy Research Unit.

He was knighted in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to Healthcare and Children's Health Services.

He is Chair of the Health Research Authority for England which approves all research undertaken on patients in England.

Professor Stephenson was Chair of the UK GMC 2015-2018. Before the GMC role, he was Chair of the UK Academy of Medical Royal Colleges 2012-2014 and President of the UK Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 2009-2012.

He is an Honorary Consultant in paediatrics at UCL Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital London. He has been elected an honorary Fellow of eleven colleges or academies, in the UK, Ireland, Hong Kong and Australia. He has been awarded Honorary Professorships at the Universities of Nottingham (2015) and Hong Kong (2018).

Dr. Yvan Vandenplas

Department of Pediatrics
University Hospital Brussels

Yvan Vandenplas did his medical studies at the “Vrije Universiteit Brussel” and trained in pediatrics (1981‑1986) at the same University. He became Head of the Unit for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition in 1987 and is Head of the Department of Pediatrics, at the University Hospital Brussels (UZ Brussel) and has the Chair of Pediatrics since 1994.  His Ph. D. Thesis was on "Oesophageal pH monitoring for Gastro‑Oesophageal Reflux in Infants and Children" in April 1991.

He has more than  350 publications listed in Medline. Yvan's main interests are gastro-esophageal reflux (diagnostic procedures, treatment), eosinophilic esophagitis, infant nutrition, probiotics and prebiotics, cow's milk protein allergy, functional gastrointestinal disorders, Helicobacter pylori. He published many original research and review papers on topics such as infant nutrition and gastro-esophageal reflux and other gastro-intestinal disorders.  He is now an associate editor of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition.

Dr. Michael Weinstein

SickKids Hospital
Canada.

Dr. Michael Weinstein is an academic clinician at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and an associate professor at the University of Toronto.

Areas of clinical expertise include neurofibromatosis, cyclic vomiting syndrome, children with complex medical needs and somatic symptom and conversion disorder. Educational expertise is in the area of examination and trainee assessment