Dr. Johannes Keunen appointed Director, Continuing Professional Development
FROM: Dr. John Kingdom, Chair
It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. Johannes Keunen, MD, PhD to the role of Director, Continuing Professional Development, for an initial 4.5-year term beginning January 1, 2023. This appointment followed an internal search process.
Dr. Keunen received both his medical degree and his PhD training at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, where his PhD focused on fetal sheep physiology. He then spent a year of post-doctoral research at the Fetal Physiology Research Centre at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, before returning to undertake his six-year residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Maastricht hospitals. He moved to Toronto in 2004 to conduct further research at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute before undertaking our Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship, graduating in 2007. Dr. Keunen decided to build his career in Toronto, and joined the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division at Mount Sinai Hospital in 2007. Here, he progressively developed his clinical practice in fetal diagnosis and therapy as a member of the Ontario Fetal Centre. For his wide academic achievements, he was promoted to associate professor in 2021.
Dr. Keunen has always displayed an active interest in continuing professional development, with a focus on inter-professional obstetric ultrasound education, and in teaching the skills needed for advanced fetal diagnosis and therapy. At the international level, Dr. Keunen has served on the online education task force at the International Society for Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology since 2018. At the national and provincial level, Dr. Keunen has been very active in providing inter-professional education in obstetric ultrasound, and is a sought-after speaker on many ultrasound topics year after year at our “Setting the Standard” annual courses. He has lectured extensively across Canada each year since 2007, and is a renowned workshop facilitator. In fetal therapy, Dr. Keunen has played a major role in the development of advanced simulation courses to teach invasive procedures to physicians at the international level through the Fetal Therapy Academy, linked to the Ontario Fetal Centre. His research interests focus on ultrasound and fetal pathophysiology, and have attracted more than $3.7 million since 2015, to support his research trainees. To date, he has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles. For his acclaimed teaching skills, Dr. Keunen has received several awards, most notably the Chair’s Award for Excellence in Continuing Medical Education Teaching in 2015.
Clearly, Dr. Keunen brings extensive skills and experience to this role and we are delighted that someone of his stature will build on our Department’s current reputation as a leader in continuing professional development in obstetrics and gynaecology.
In making this announcement, I would like to take the opportunity of formally thanking my colleague Dr. Rory Windrim, recently appointed as Head of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, for his exemplary service as Director, Continuing Professional Development since 2014. Dr. Windrim has led in this role with widespread admiration, especially for his impressive efforts to sustain our continuing medical education courses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
