(Photo credit: UHN)
Toronto General Hospital (TGH) is home to four of the top-rated global experts in liver disease, according to Expertscape, an organization that ranks expertise and excellence in health care. The rankings are broken down by specialty and are based on publications and citations.
The quartet includes Dr. Harry Janssen, Francis Family/Dr. Jenny Heathcote Chair in Liver Research (ranked No. 1 in chronic hepatitis B); Dr. Jordan Feld, R. Phelan Chair in Translational Liver Research (ranked No. 9 in chronic hepatitis C); Dr. Gideon Hirschfield, Lily & Terry Horner Chair in Autoimmune Liver Disease Research (ranked No. 2 in primary biliary cholangitis); and Dr. Morris Sherman (ranked No. 2 in liver cancer). All four have published multiple papers as lead authors in the New England Journal of Medicine and continue to influence global guidelines in care and research, all while maintaining busy clinical practices and educating future leaders in the field.
Dr. Janssen, Director of the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease and the Francis Family Liver Clinic, is particularly proud because the ranking includes 40,000 liver experts worldwide. “There’s no other liver group in the world with this level of combined expertise,” says Dr. Janssen. “Combine that with our unmatched patient volumes – more than 26,000 visits annually – and we are the largest, and best, liver unit in North America.”
Even though the expert ranking was bestowed on these four individuals, Dr. Janssen is quick to point out that they are part of a faculty of 11 hepatologists, all of them, “…are extremely hardworking, very smart, and have been trained at the best institutions, including Harvard, Mayo Clinic, NIH, Duke, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as UHN” says Dr. Janssen. “International recognition of this kind doesn’t happen without the dedication and support of an incredible group of colleagues in the clinic, the lab and the classroom.”
Donors make it possible
Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation donors have played a vital role in helping to recruit top talent and build North America’s biggest and best liver site, and put the liver program at the top of the world stage.
“By establishing chairs and fellowships, funding infrastructure and equipment investments and directly supporting research, philanthropy has been essential in helping us to create an environment at TGH that draws the best talent from around the world to Toronto,” says Dr. Janssen.