Rory Windrim to assume role of division head of Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Dr. Rory Windrim, professor and director of Continuing Professional Development & Knowledge Translation
The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology is pleased to announce, following a competitive search process, that Dr. Rory Windrim (Mount Sinai Hospital) will assume the role of Head, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, effective May 1, 2022, for a five-year term.
Rory is very well-known across our citywide Department for his many contributions to both obstetrics and maternal-fetal medicine. He received his medical training at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, then relocated to St. John’s, Newfoundland where he undertook his residency training in obstetrics and gynaecology, followed by four years on staff as an assistant professor at Memorial University. During this time, he developed his research interests in obstetrics, conducting one of the first randomized control trials of oral misoprostol for induction of labour at term, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology in 1997. He was drawn to a career in maternal-fetal medicine and thus moved to the University of Toronto in 1995 to undertake his fellowship training. Directly after, he joined the staff of the emerging MFM Division under the inspirational leadership of J. W. Knox Ritchie. Dr. Windrim quickly developed several interests in MFM; first, he opened the first preterm birth prevention program in Canada and, in a moment of brilliance, challenged Dr. John Kingdom, Department chair, to join him in opening the first-ever placenta clinic worldwide in 1999.
In addition to these major accomplishments, he joined Greg Ryan and Gareth Seaward to develop the U of T Fetal Therapy Program – the forerunner of today’s Ontario Fetal Centre. In tandem, he continued to take a very active interest in labour and delivery obstetrics. Consequently, he has had a very wide range of academic interests thus far in his career, with two notable themes being simulation and interprofessional education. Dr. Windrim has become renowned as a versatile teacher, receiving over 20 major awards – perhaps the most ever achieved in our Department’s history, including our Master Teacher Award and an Anderson Wightman-Berris Academy award. At the national level, Dr. Windrim has chaired the ALARM committee and served on the inaugural Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Examination Committee for maternal-fetal medicine, from its inception in 2007 to 2021. As each facet of his career has evolved, Dr. Windrim has continued to publish his research, with over 150 publications to date that include an impressive 18 randomized control trials. For all these contributions, he was promoted to full professor in 2008. Dr. Windrim brings a wealth of academic and administrative experience to our expanding city-wide Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division, now comprising over 40 faculty members.
Dr. Windrim takes the helm of the MFM Division from Dr. Nan Okun, who has held this role with distinction since 2014. We are enormously grateful to Dr. Okun for her dedication to this role. The past eight years under her leadership have seen remarkable harmonious growth across all segments of the division. This period has been marked by her nurturing the establishment of several highly effective MFM units in community hospitals, notably Trillium Health Partners, North York General Hospital, Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie, Humber River Hospital and the Scarborough Health Network. Several of these units are closely associated will fully affiliated hospital MFM Divisions, thereby fostering a sense of growing unity across the GTA region. This period has also been marked by the creation of the GTA Obstetrics Network (now aligned with McMaster University under the SOON umbrella), a five-year CIHR team grant co-led by Dr. Howard Berger and Dr. Nir Melamed with McMaster University, and most recently the launch of the CIHR-funded SNACS trial co-led by Dr. Sarah McDonald at McMaster and our own Dr. Kellie Murphy. We wish Dr. Okun many continuing successes in her new role as of 2021, as Head of the MFM Division at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
Please join the Department in wishing Dr. Rory Windrim every success in his new leadership role.
