About Us
Webmaster & Creator of NASHnet.ca
- Michael Betel has been a leader in the area of liver disease, in both commercial and not-for-profit organizations for over 25 years, as a Director at Hoffmann-La Roche and Canadian Blood Services, and a sales and marketing leader at Schering-Plough. He was a director on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Liver Foundation for 9 years. He was the creator of one of the first health related websites in the world, HepNet which highlighted news and current hepatitis related information for physicians, nurses and patients (launched in 1995).
Contributor
- Dr. Mark Swain has been a practicing hepatologist and clinician-scientist since his arrival in Alberta in 1993. He holds numerous leadership roles in the Faculty of Medicine including (i) the Cal Wenzel Family Foundation Chair in Hepatology (a research chair), (ii) Head, Translational Research Core, Snyder Institute of Chronic Diseases, University of Calgary, (iii) Head, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Calgary. He has published widely in the areas of liver disease and autoimmunity, publishing more than 110 peer-reviewed articles to date. He has been invited extensively to speak at local, National and International medical and research conferences. He has served on a number of Editorial Boards (ie. Gut, American Journal of Physiology, Clinical Sciences) and has been frequently invited as a participant on a number of peer review committees at CIHR.
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Contributor
- Cheryl Dale is a nurse practitioner with over 20 years of specialization in hepatology and liver transplant and is an Adjunct Clinical Professor at Western University- Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing. She presently oversees the clinical and nursing operations at a national specialty pharmacy. Additionally, she provides healthcare industry consulting, and maintains a clinical practice in hepatology and addictions medicine. She has been an invited speaker at local, national, and international meetings, and has co-authored many abstracts and publications. Cheryl is a past President of the Canadian Association of Hepatology Nurses and was part of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease- Hepatology Associates Committee from 2016-2018, and co-chaired the 2018 associates course at the 2018 Liver Meeting. Presently she is vice-chair of the global outreach committee of the AASLD Associate Special Interest Group. Cheryl has acted as an advisor for various hepatology and liver transplant related projects nationally. She is a member of numerous professional organizations including the American Association for Study of Liver Disease, Canadian Association for Study of Liver Disease, Canadian Association for Hepatology Nurses, and the International Transplant Nurses Society.
Contributor
- Dr. Stefano Brillanti is a Senior Clinical Researcher in Hepatology and Associate Professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Siena. Director, Liver Unit (Hepatology), Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Senese, Siena. M.D. and Board Certified Gastroenterologist.
Over 25 years experience and expertise in clinical research programs, patient management and care in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C (HCV) and hepatitis B (HBV). Author of seminal works leading to the knowledge and adoption of ribavirin in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. First ever use of interferon-alfa plus ribavirin combination therapy as standard treatment for chronic hepatitis C (published in Gastroenterology, 1994). Leading expert in the management of liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, in the selection and evaluation of candidates for liver transplantation, and in the post-liver transplant patient management. Author of over 100 papers published as abstracts in scientific journals or proceedings.
Contributor
Dr. Supriya Joshi is a Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. After completing her medical degree at Western University, London, Ontario, Dr Supriya Joshi completed residency in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at The University of Toronto. Following completion of her GI fellowship she accepted a CIHR sponsored fellowship in Hepatology at The University of Toronto with Dr. Jenny Heathcote. After working at Toronto Western Hospital as a clinical Hepatologist supervising and educating learners in an autoimmune liver disease clinic for 3 years she has since been working solely at The Credit Valley Hospital, Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ontario which is one of the largest community hospitals in Canada. She has a special interest in autoimmune liver disease, viral hepatitis and fatty liver disease. She enjoys speaking and educating others on these topics, especially regarding the incoming volume of fatty liver disease and its impact and management with Hepatology. She is an active member of Canadian Clinicians for Therapeutic Nutrition (CCTN) which is a group aiming to educate Canadians on whole food nutrition as therapy for the epidemic of nutrition induced chronic disease. She has been writing and educating about the negative impact of sugar and poor diet on metabolic health and is actively taking measures to become knowledgeable in Obesity Medicine, which has tremendous overlap in patients with Metabolic Syndrome and NASH. Outside of medicine she is a mom to 3 young kids and enjoys travel, hot yoga and a good HIT class.
Contributor
Dr. Robert Gish was first in Pharmacy School at the University of Kansas and then obtained his medical degree from the University of Kansas Medical School in Kansas City, Kansas. He completed a 3-year internal medicine residency at the University of California, San Diego, and a 4-year gastroenterology and hepatology fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles which included transplant medicine.
Dr. Gish is a fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, the American
Society of Transplantation and the American College of Physicians.
He has served on the editorial boards of American Journal of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, Digestive Diseases and Sciences, and Gastroenterology, among many others. He has co-authored a public health policy for liver health in Vietnam focusing on HBV and is also assisting with the development of viral hepatitis health care policies in Georgia, Armenia, and the Philippines. He was a major early contributor to decipherment methods for the detection of hepatitis B and C virus and characterizing its epidemiology and clinical presentation in humans. He was involved in studies that led to the genotypic classification strategies and methods now in use worldwide. He has published more than 700 original articles, review articles, abstracts, and book chapters.
Robert G. Gish, MD, is currently an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Nevada Schools of Medicine in Las Vegas and in Reno. He serves as an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacy at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCSD. In addition, he is also Medical Director of the Hepatitis B Foundation in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Contributor
Dr. Giada Sebastiani is Associate Professor of Medicine at McGill University and Clinician Scientist at the Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada. She provides clinical services in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. She received a medical degree and specialized in internal medicine at the University of Padua, Italy. She had training in clinical and basic research at Harvard Medical School (US), University College of London (UK), University of Bordeaux (France) and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research (Montreal, Canada). Her work focuses on fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis and non-invasive diagnostic tools in liver disease, with a current focus on at-risk populations, including people living with HIV, diabetics, patients with inflammatory bowel diseases and women with polycystic ovary syndrome. She is author of 94 articles in peer-reviewed journals in the infectious diseases and hepatology fields (including Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Journal of Infectious Diseases, AIDS; h-index=33, total number of citations>4,000), 15 book chapters, 190 conference publications at national and international congresses. She has been invited speaker in 70 international congresses and universities, including European, Asian Pacific, Mexican, Italian and Canadian Associations for the Study of the Liver. She was awarded the prestigious Clinical Research Salary Award from Fonds Recherche Sante Quebec. Other honors include: honorary membership of the Romanian Association for the Study of the Liver; Emerging Stars in Hepatology Award (Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver, 2010); Top 10 cited papers 2006-2008 Award by Journal of Hepatology - European Association for the Study of the Liver. She is funding and steering committee member of the Canadian NASH Network (https://cannash.ca) and the sole North American representative in the guidelines of the prestigious European AIDS Clinical Society.