The Da Vinci Gala

How It Started

Due to a generous donation from the Joseph and Mildred Sonshine Family in September 2005, Mount Sinai Hospital was able to celebrate the opening of a Centre for Head and Neck Diseases in December 2008.

The Centre is a state-of-the-art facility for the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer. It has allowed Mount Sinai Hospital to maintain its leadership in the medical and surgical treatment of thyroid cancer, both in our community and worldwide. Under the direct supervision of Dr. Paul Walfish and Dr. Jeremy Freeman, the centre continues to remain at the forefront of research and is able to apply the latest advances in diagnosis and treatment for its patients.

Each year the DaVinci Gala is held to offset some of the operational costs of patient care and research associated with the centre’s efforts. The Gala is a single evening of dinner and dancing in the spring, dedicated solely to raising funds for the Centre for Head and Neck Diseases. It is the support of our attendees and sponsors during this special event that make the centre such a resounding success!

Dr. Paul Walfish

Paul G. Walfish, C.M., O.Ont., M.D., FRCP(C), FACP, FRSM(Engl), FCAHS is Professor Emeritus of the Departments of Medicine, Paediatrics, Otolaryngology, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Toronto, a past Senior Scientist at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital and a past Director of the Mt. Sinai Hospital Endocrine Division. He is currently a Senior Consultant to the Head & Neck Oncology Programme and Endocrine Division at Mt. Sinai Hospital.

He was appointed to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honour Medical Society in 1957 and received his M.D. degree (Magna Cum Laude) from The University of Toronto in 1958. He subsequently did Post Graduate Training Internal Medicine with a subspeciality interest in Endocrinology and obtained an F.R.C.P.(C.) degree in 1963. He then received an R. Samuel McLaughlin Travelling Fellowship to the Thyroid Unit of the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1963-1964. Subsequently, he was appointed a Scholar, Medical Research Council of Canada (1964-1969).

Since 1964, he has been an Academic Full-Time Physician-Scientist in the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto at Mount Sinai Hospital and has directed the Thyroid Research Lab/Gene Expression Laboratory as a Senior Scientist within the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Walfish has also served as the Director of Endocrine Division within the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto from 1971 to 1989 and was promoted to the rank of Full-Professor of Medicine in 1982 and Honorary Full-Professor of Paediatrics in 1983, Otolaryngology in 1996 and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine in 2007.

His research laboratory has made numerous contributions to the study of thyroid disease which have led to the improved management of several thyroid disorders at both a national and international level (over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapter publications) to include the early detection and treatment of congenital hypothyroidism in newborn infants and the prevention of its mental retardation sequelae, the application of ultrasound and needle aspiration biopsy in the detection and management of thyroid nodules with cancer, the detection of post-partum thyroiditis and its thyroid dysfunctional consequences. He continues to perform both clinical and basic science research to improve our understanding of many aspects of thyroid physiology and pathology. Since 1988, he has performed studies on the molecular mechanisms of gene activation of thyroid hormone, which have been published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. He has also continued clinical and basic science studies applied to the management of thyroid cancer.

In 1983, he received an Award of Merit from the City of Toronto for his contributions in establishing newborn screening for congenital hypothyroidism in Metropolitan Toronto and the province of Ontario. Dr. Walfish has been honoured by election to Fellowship in The Royal Society of Medicine of England, Endocrinology Section in 1986, appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1990, and awarded the 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation Commemorative Medal in 1992. In 1995, he received an Ambassador Award from The Metropolitan Toronto Convention and Visitors Association and a special citation from the American Thyroid Association for his activities as Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee for the 11th International Thyroid Congress held September 1995 in Toronto, Canada. In 1998, he was selected as the first recipient of the Council Award from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Toronto honouring his contributions in thyroidology, which have had a significant impact on healthcare delivery in Ontario and worldwide. He also received a 2001 Jonas Salk Prize co-sponsored by the Ontario March of Dimes and Aventis-Pasteur for the elimination of newborn cretinism in Ontario and throughout the world as well as a 50th Anniversary Jubilee Medal on the Reign of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002. For outstanding contributions in clinical thyroidology, he was honoured in 2004 as the first Canadian to receive the Paul Starr Award from the American Thyroid Association. In 2007, he was awarded the Canadian Medical Association Medal of Service and the American Thyroid Association Sidney H. Ingbar Distinguished Lectureship Award. In 2008, he was honoured by an appointment to the Order of Ontario.

In 2009 Dr. Walfish was honoured with a third award from the American Thyroid Association by receiving the John B. Stanbury Medal in Thyroid Pathophysiology for his research contributions which has impacted on patient care and he was elected to Fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences for outstanding career contributions to the advancement of health care in Canada and abroad.

Dr. Jeremy Freeman

Dr. Jeremy Freeman was born in Hamilton, Ontario and grew up in Toronto. He attended medical school at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1973 with high honours. After one year of general internship, he spent three years in the Otolaryngology program at the University of Toronto followed by one year in General Surgery at the University of California in Los Angeles.

After receiving his Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in 1978, he spent two further years of advanced training, one as a Gordon Richards Fellow at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto in Radiation and Medical Oncology and a second year as a McLaughlin Fellow, training in Head and Neck Oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, UK. He was the first fellow of the Advanced Training Council sponsored by the two head and neck societies.

Returning from Europe in 1980, he assumed a staff positions at the Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto Hospital, Sunnybrook & Women’s Health Sciences Centre and the Princess Margaret Hospital. A Full Professor, he occupies the Temmy Latner/Dynacare Chair in Head and Neck Oncology at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine. He is Otolaryngologist-in-Chief at the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Director of the Division of Head and Neck Oncology in the Department of Otolaryngology. He has an active practice focusing on head and neck oncology with a primary interest in endocrine surgery of the head and neck.

Dr. Freeman is very involved in teaching undergraduates, residents and fellows. He is Director of the University of Toronto Head and Neck Fellowship Program, which in combination with colleagues at the University Health Network, is one of seventeen worldwide under the auspices of the American Head and Neck Society for the advanced training in head and neck oncology. Numerous international fellows who have participated in the program have gone on to be program chairs. He has also collaborated with several renowned basic scientists and has reported on a number of major breakthroughs in head and neck oncological research. In addition to his clinical and basic science research, Dr. Freeman has won numerous teaching awards at the University of Toronto.

He has given over 500 scholarly presentations, has been invited as a visiting professor and surgeon internationally, and has published over 200 papers in the scientific literature. He has been an invited speaker all over the world and has delivered many eponymous lectures. These include the Sholem Kay lecture in South Africa, the Schliffer lecture in Israel, the Foundation lecture of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in New Zealand, the Royal College of Surgeons Lecture (twice) to the Eastern Canada Otolaryngology Society, the Stell and Maran Lecture in London, and the H. S. Birkett Memorial Lecture at McGill University. He has been involved in a number of administrative roles in the American Head and Neck Society and is also on the editorial board of a number of high impact journals focusing on head and neck oncology.

Dr. Freeman spends his spare time exercising, playing basketball, fly-fishing, traveling, collecting oriental rugs and vintage militaria, studying history and watching old movies. He is married to Elayne Bonnie Freeman, a graphic designer, and is the proud father of Lauren, Ph.D in Philosophy at Boston University, soon to relocate to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and Allison, a fine arts graduate of Concordia and University of Toronto and presently an MA candidate at Yale University