Speakers: Drs. Marat Slessarev & Teneille Gofton

Moderator: Dr. Jeff Singh

Dr. Gofton completed medical school at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) followed by Neurology residency training at Western University. She has dual fellowship training in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, New York, USA) and in Neurocritical Care and Electroencephalography at Western University (London, Ontario, Canada). Dr. Gofton is currently an Associate Professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry (Western University) in the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences and has been a faculty member since 2012. She is the acting director of the Neurocritical Care fellowship training program.

Dr. Gofton has been an invited speaker at national and international meetings and has received research grant support from national funding agencies. Her research interests and publications are on topics in neurocritical care and neuropalliative care. In neurocritical care, Dr. Gofton’s research focuses on disorders of consciousness, status epilepticus and neurophysiology as it relates to deceased organ donation. In neuropalliative care, Dr. Gofton investigates challenges and barriers to initiation of neuropalliative care, neuropalliative care in serious neurological illness and neuropalliative education for trainees.

Dr Marat Slessarev is an adult intensivist at the London Health Sciences Centre, in London, Ontario, and an Assistant Professor and Clinician Scientist in the Department of Medicine, Western University. He is also a Regional Medical Lead for Donation with the Ontario Health – Trillium Gift of Life Network, where he co-chairs provincial working group for adoption of Normothermic Regional Perfusion, and co-leads the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program Theme 2 that aims to Inform Universal Practices for Donation.

Marat’s research is focused on innovation at the intersection of neurosciences, critical care, and organ donation. He is a co-PI of the CIHR and New Frontiers in Research-funded and CDTRP-endorsed Neurologic Physiology after Removal of Therapy (NeuPaRT) multicentre study that aims to establish the temporal relationship between cessation of brain activity and circulation in patients who undergo planned withdrawal of life sustaining measures in the ICUs, and interpret these findings from the ethical, legal, and social perspectives to inform DCD policy and practice.