Appointment of Dr. Vidhya Nair as Chair, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine; Department Head, TOH; Chief, Department of Laboratory Medicine, CHEO; and Chief of Staff, EORLA
Dr. Bernard Jasmin, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa (uOttawa), Dr. Virginia Roth, Chief of Staff of The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), Dr. Lindy Samson, Chief of Staff at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and Jeffrey Dale, CEO of the Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association (EORLA) are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Vidhya Nair to the following positions for a five-year term effective June 1, 2021:
• Chair, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, uOttawa Faculty of Medicine*
• Department Head for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, TOH
• Chief, Department of Laboratory Medicine, CHEO
• Chief of Staff, EORLA
As Chair/Head of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Dr. Nair will replace Dr. John Veinot, to whom we extend our warmest regards and deepest gratitude for his 10 years of exemplary leadership and dedication in this role.
Dr. Nair demonstrated to the selection committee that she is committed to the mission evolving clinical expertise and creating new academic and research opportunities within pathology and laboratory medicine and will work collaboratively with the faculty members and the four institutions to achieve that goal. Indeed, she views the alignment of the roles of Chair at the University, Department Heads at TOH and CHEO, and the Chief of Staff at EORLA as necessary in developing an integrated model of clinical service, academic achievement and growth of our research capabilities.
Dr. Nair’s experience and approach position her to take on this challenging mandate with the four institutions. Dr. Nair joined the Faculty of Medicine as an Associate Professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in 2018; since 2019, she has served as Deputy Chief of the Division of Anatomical Pathology at The Ottawa Hospital, Clinician Investigator in the Clinical Epidemiology Program of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and Regional Director of Surgical Pathology with EORLA. She previously held positions since 2010 with McMaster University, appointed as Assistant then Associate Professor of pathology and molecular medicine.
Dr. Nair moved to Canada in 2002 after completing her medical training and residency in Anatomical Pathology in India. She completed her residency in Anatomical Pathology and earned FRCPC (Pathology) from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada; she then completed a fellowship in cardiovascular and general surgical pathology with the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Toronto and the Department of Pathology and Molecular medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She subsequently became a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO)-Certified Pathologist.
Prior to moving to Ottawa, Dr. Nair was a staff pathologist at Hamilton Health Sciences and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. She served as the Director of Residency Training Program for General Pathology for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) at McMaster University (2011 to 2018). She was one of the founding members involved in designing the “Competence-By-Design” based General Pathology curriculum for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Canada. She was a member of the committee that created the Competency Model document in Cardiovascular pathology for the College of American Pathologists. She is an invited content developer for the Kuwait Institute for Medical Specialization–Royal College Histopathology & Cytology Examinations, an academic outreach program supported by the Royal College Canada International.
Dr. Nair is a Clinical Investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and her current research interests include cardiac transplant biopsies for rejection, temporal artery biopsies and the molecular characteristics of sudden cardiac death. She has been Co-PI and Co-Investigator on research grants funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Diabetic Association. She has authored 55 peer reviewed manuscripts and 6 book chapters. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology, as well as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pathology and the Section Editor of Human Pathology Case reports.
Dr. Nair is the recipient of several awards, including the Young Investigators’ award in 2010 from the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology; the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017 from the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine; and the award for outstanding contribution to the General Pathology Program from McMaster University; and is the inaugural recipient of the 2020 Margaret Billingham Award for the most important review in Cardiovascular Pathology in 2020 by the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology.
The Ottawa Hospital Board of Governors, the CHEO Board of Trustees and The EORLA Board of Directors have approved this appointment and final approval at the University of Ottawa governance is expected shortly.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Vidhya Nair and congratulating her on her appointments across the four institutions.
*subject to University approval