New chief appointed at UHN Techna

TORONTO – UHN is pleased to announce that Dr. Shaf Keshavjee (pictured) has been named the new Techna scientific director and chief of clinical innovation at UHN. This leadership will advance UHN’s commitment to translating world-class discoveries into new treatments and technologies for a healthier world.

The appointments follow Dr. Keshavjee’s 12-year tenure as UHN’s surgeon-in-chief, through which he led the Sprott Department of Surgery through a period of many exciting changes, innovations and commercialization opportunities. He will remain UHN’s Surgeon-in-Chief until a new candidate is identified.

As Techna’s scientific director, he will lead the strategic transformation of the Research Institute into a technology accelerator platform. In addition to establishing a strong and engaged network of innovators across UHN, he will create and implement an innovation program that will identify and develop medical and digital health technologies. With the UHN Commercialization Team, he will advance the commercialization of scientific discoveries to the bedside to improve tomorrow’s healthcare.

Also, in this new evolved version of Techna, he will work cooperatively with Techna’s core platforms and other key technology expertise within and external to UHN.

In the new role of chief of clinical innovation at UHN, Dr. Keshavjee will cultivate and facilitate innovations destined for the patient bedside, including the implementation of new technologies and models of patient care throughout the organization. Dr. Keshavjee will collaborate with research, education and clinical experts to build a health technology innovation strategy and infrastructure to develop new, viable and scalable business opportunities. This will include leveraging Techna as a technology accelerator.

These activities are strongly aligned with the priorities of the UHN Foundation and The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation and UHN’s many generous donors. Dr. Keshavjee will actively work with foundations and donors in attracting investments to advance key research, clinical and business initiatives.

Dr. Keshavjee’s past achievements and expertise are perfectly matched to inform and guide the adoption of new technologies at UHN. He has led clinical and research teams in lung transplantation, resulting in significant advances in the field and the translation of novel applications across organ transplantation. His pioneering research to recondition and repair injured human donor lungs with the Toronto Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion system has more than doubled the number of lung transplants performed each year at UHN. This technology is now being used at transplant centres around the world, including Asia, Australia, South America, Europe and the United States, and at leading centres such as Duke, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic.