Endocrinology and Diabetes

A doctor examines a patients neck

At the Endocrinology and Diabetes program at Women’s College Hospital, we have expertise in the diagnosis and management of diabetes, thyroid disease, reproductive conditions, gender transition care, osteoporosis and calcium disorders, pituitary and adrenal gland diseases, as well as pregnancy and preconception care of endocrine conditions.  We take an interdisciplinary approach to provide comprehensive, patient-centred care.

Contact Info

76 Grenville St.
Floor 3
Toronto, ON M5S 1B2

Phone: 416-323-6013

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Centre for Integrated Diabetes Care: This program offers a multidisciplinary, integrated care approach for patients with diabetes. In addition, we have dedicated specialized programs for patients with Type 1 Diabetes, young adults with Type 1 diabetes (18-25) and complex patients with Type 2 Diabetes. Our endocrinologists have clinical, education and research expertise in taking a comprehensive and patient-centred approach to diabetes care and are supported by certified diabetes educators.

Centre for Osteoporosis & Bone Healthcare: Multidisciplinary program providing expertise in osteoporosis care and metabolic bone disease. Through collaboration with family physicians and other health care providers in rural/remote Ontario, the program also delivers clinical care to complex patients in the community through the Ontario Telemedicine Network.

Thyroid program: This groundbreaking thyroid program is a rapid access program that works like a one-stop shop for patients with all forms of thyroid dysfunction and thyroid cancer. The result is a patient centered model of care with the potential to cut wait times in half. This program is also the program in Ontario doing total thyroidectomies within an ambulatory surgery model.

Reproductive Endocrinology: We offer multidisciplinary consultation and management for reproductive disorders such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, premature ovarian insufficiency/early menopause and Turner’s syndrome; and specialized care for endocrine conditions before and during pregnancy.

We offer:

  • dynamic endocrine hormone testing to assess for disorders of the pituitary, pancreas and adrenal glands
  • thyroid biopsy
  • ultrasound

Dr. Eleni Dimaraki

Dr. Eleni Dimaraki headshot

Dr. Eleni Dimaraki graduated from the University of Athens Medical School and completed her endocrinology training at the University of Michigan. She also obtained a Masters of Science in clinical research design and statistical analysis from the University of Michigan. Prior to coming to Women’s College Hospital in 2016, she was on faculty at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. Her clinical interests include type 1 diabetes mellitus in young adults, pituitary disorders and osteoporosis. She is the clinical director of the Centre for Integrated Diabetes Care at Women’s College Hospital. Dr. Dimaraki is also very active in the education of University of Toronto medical students, residents and fellows.

 

 


Dr. Arno Kumagai

Dr. Arno Kumagai headshot

Arno K. Kumagai, M.D.  Arno Kumagai is Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair for Education, Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He also holds the F.M. Hill Chair in Humanism Education at Women’s College Hospital, where he has a clinical practice focused on working with individuals with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Dr. Kumagai received his B.A. in Comparative Literature from U.C. Berkeley and his M.D. from UCLA School of Medicine.  He completed postgraduate training and postdoc research fellowships at UCLA and in Tokyo, Japan.  He was on faculty at the University of Michigan Medical School from 1996 to 2016 and joined the University of Toronto’s Department of Medicine as Vice Chair for Education in April 2016.

Dr. Kumagai’s scholarly interests are in the use of narratives and humanities in medical education, dialogical teaching, and teaching for equity and social justice.  He is the recipient of numerous teaching awards in teaching, humanism, educational innovation, and diversity. He was most recently named as the 2018 Daniel C. Tosteson Visiting Professor in Medical Education at Harvard Medical School and is a member of the Editorial Board of Academic Medicine.


Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe

Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe headshot

Dr. Lipscombe is an endocrinologist and director of the Division of Endocrinology at Women’s College Hospital, as well as a scientist at the Women’s College Research Institute, a senior adjunct scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at University of Toronto. She completed her MD from McGill University in 1998, followed by Internal Medicine and Endocrinology training and an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology from University of Toronto. Dr. Lipscombe’s research program focuses on the epidemiology, care and prevention of diabetes, with a specific focus on diabetes in women.  She has extensive experience with the use of population-based databases to conduct diabetes research, and is currently leading a large clinical trial to evaluate a diabetes prevention program for women with gestational diabetes.

 

 


Dr. Geetha Mukerji

Dr. Geetha Mukerji headshot

Clinician in Quality and Innovation, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Mukerji’s primary appointment is in the Division of Endocrinology at Women’s College Hospital with cross appointment to Division of Endocrinology at UHN/MSH. She has a Master’s degree in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety from the Institute of Health Policy and Management Evaluation at the University of Toronto and is the Clinician Lead in Quality at the Women’s College Institute of Health systems solutions and Virtual care. Her academic interests include: 1) system improvement efforts for those with complex chronic diseases such as diabetes 2) quality improvement in endocrinology in pregnancy care and transitional care populations, and 3) safety and quality care processes in the ambulatory setting.   She is actively involved in the Young Adults Type 1 diabetes Transition Care program at WCH at the Endocrine in Pregnancy program at Mt Sinai and WCH. She has a special interest in the care of patients with chronic, complex diseases and examining innovative models of care delivery. She is an active clinical teacher in the endocrine division at WCH and also has a strong interest in teaching quality improvement and patient safety to undergraduate and post-graduate trainees.


Dr. Afshan Zahedi

Dr. Afshan Zahedi headshot

Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
She is the Medical Director of the Thyroid Program and staff Endocrinologist at Women’s College Hospital with cross appointment to Division of Endocrinology at UHN/MSH. She is the Fellowship Program Director for the Division of Endocrinology at University of Toronto. Dr. Zahedi is a clinician teacher and is involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate education at the Faculty of Medicine. She has been the recipient of several education awards. Her research focuses on Quality Improvement with a multidisciplinary approach to delivery of health care. Her research focuses on implementing multidisciplinary (surgical and medical) team approach to Thyroid cancer management and improving the healthcare experience for patients with thyroid cancer. Other research includes impact of continuing education for primary care and allied health professionals to improve outcomes for chronic disease management including diabetes in geriatric populations.

 


Dr. Iliana Lega

Iliana Lega, MD, MSc, FRCPC headshot

Dr. Iliana Lega is a scientist at Women’s College Research Institute, an endocrinologist at Women’s College Hospital, and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. In addition, she is an adjunct scientist at the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences. She completed an internal medicine residency in 2007 and an endocrinology fellowship in 2009 both at McGill University. She obtained a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Toronto in 2013. Dr. Lega’s research program has focused on diabetes in complex populations. Her work to date has focused on the relationship between diabetes and cancer. While she evaluated the impact of diabetes and diabetes medications on cancer outcomes, she has also shown that young cancer survivors are at increased risk of developing diabetes. More recently, Dr. Lega’s research focus has been on diabetes management and potential overtreatment in older adults, with an emphasis on the adverse effects of intensive glycemic control in this population. In other research projects, Dr. Lega is evaluating ways to improve care delivery and to prevent cardiometabolic disease among women with Turner syndrome. Dr. Lega’s clinical interests lie in the area of diabetes, as well as reproductive endocrinology, including Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI), Turner syndrome, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and Menopause.  Dr Lega has published over 20 peer-reviewed papers, and her research program is supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.


Dr. Sandra Kim

Sandra Kim, MSc, MD, FRCPC headshot

Dr. Sandra Kim is an Assistant Professor and Clinician Teacher in Department of Medicine and Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism at the University of Toronto.  She is Medical Director of the Centre for Osteoporosis & Bone Health at Women’s College Hospital, and she is the WCH co-lead with the Ontario Osteoporosis Strategy, in providing osteoporosis care outreach to underserviced communities, as well as inter-professional education, through the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN). Dr. Kim was appointed Chair of Osteoporosis Canada’s Scientific Advisory Council in 2018, and is involved in updating the Canadian Osteoporosis Clinical Practice Guidelines and is the co-chair of the guidelines’ pharmacotherapy working group. She also serves on the Canadian Panel for the International Society for Clinical Densitometry.  Dr. Kim is actively involved in teaching at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and is the recipient of several education awards. She is the co-chair of the Quality Operations Advisory Committee at Women’s College Hospital and her research activities include projects in evaluating outcomes of osteoporosis care delivered by telemedicine and transgender bone health.


Dr. Shoba Sujana Kumar

Shoba Sujana Kumar, MD, MSc, FRCPC headshot

Dr. Sujana Kumar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and has an MSc in Community Health and Medical Education.  She is an active teacher in both undergraduate and postgraduate education – she is director of the Internal Medicine Academic Half Day at the University of Toronto and site director for Endocrinology at Women’s College Hospital (WCH).  She has been co-chair of the annual “Diabetes Week” course for incoming PGY4s in Endocrinology since 2010.

At the hospital level, she is also chair of Medical Grand Rounds and the Education Committee at WCH and director of the Endocrine Preconception and Pregnancy Program. Her clinical interests include diabetes, endocrinology of pregnancy, PCOS and thyroid cancer, and she also works in internal medicine in the Acute Ambulatory Care Unit.

 


Dr. Adrian Lau

ADRIAN LAU, MD, MScCH, FRCPC, CCD headshot

Dr. Adrian Lau is an Assistant Professor and Clinician Teacher in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Women’s College Hospital. He obtained his medical degree in 2007 at the University of Toronto, where he also completed his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine, and Endocrinology and Metabolism. In 2016, he obtained his Masters of Science in Community Health (Health Practitioner Teacher Education program) at the University of Toronto.

His particular clinical interests are in osteoporosis and metabolic bone diseases. He is actively involved in teaching at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In research, he is currently involved in a study to better understand the genetic risk factors associated with atypical femur fractures. Dr. Lau is involved with the osteoporosis community nationally and internationally. He currently serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of The International Society For Clinical Densitometry (2017 to present), and a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of Osteoporosis Canada (2018 to present).


Dr. Rosario Briones

Dr. Rosario Briones-Urbina, MD, PhD, FRCPC headshot

Dr. Rosario Briones-Urbina, MD, PhD, FRCPC

Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. PhD in Biochemistry

Dr. Briones-Urbina is an active teacher in undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education. She has been the recipient of multiple education awards.
She fulfilled many leadership roles in education and is the former Chair of the Women’s College Department of Medicine Education Committee and the Chair of the Medical Grand Rounds Committee. She served in the Division of Endocrinology Postgraduate Education Committee.  She was the Division of Endocrinology representative to the University of Toronto Department of Medicine task force on Continuing Education and Knowledge Translation & Exchange.
Her clinical interests are in thyroid disease, adrenal disease, and osteoporosis.


Dr. Olexandra Koshkina

Olexandra Koshinka headshotDr. Koshkina received her Honors Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the University of Toronto. She went on to receive her medical degree from the University College Dublin School of Medicine and Medical Sciences. She completed her postgraduate training in internal medicine at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center (Tuft’s University School of Medicine) and endocrinology training at the University of Toronto. Dr. Koshkina’s academic interest is in medical education and she is currently pursuing further training in this area from the University of Dundee Center for Medical Education. She is involved in undergraduate medical education at the University of Toronto as a clinical skills tutor for the second year medical students.

Her clinical interests are in general endocrinology as well as women’s health, which includes endocrine disorders in pregnancy, PCOS and reproductive endocrinology.

 

Endocrinology and Diabetes

How to refer a patient

NOTICE

Due to capacity limits, our Diabetes Program is restricting referrals for the time being. We are temporarily closed to new referrals for diabetes in patients older than 25.

We continue to accept referrals for:

  • Young Adult Diabetes program (patients 18-25 years old with diabetes)
  • Diabetes in pregnancy
  • Other endocrine conditions

Thank you for your understanding.

Ocean eReferral Network: For more information about eReferral or to sign up for an account, please email: eServicesToronto@uhn.ca

Patients are seen only by referral from a family doctor, other specialist or nurse practitioner.

Please send a referral to fax number 416-323-6534 with the following information

  1. Your name, billing number, contact information
  2. Preference for a specific program, endocrinologist if applicable.
  3. Patient demographic and contact information
  4. Reason, urgency for referral
  5. Past medical history/cumulative patient profile (CPP)
  6. Medication list
  7. Relevant recent investigations, e.g.:
    • HbA1c for diabetes
    • TSH for thyroid disorder
    • Thyroid ultrasound for thyroid nodule
    • DEXA report for osteoporosis

Making an appointment

Patients are seen only by referral from a family doctor, other specialist or nurse practitioner.

If you do not have a family doctor, refer to How to Find a Doctor page.

If you are already a patient at WCH and require information about an existing appointment, please contact clinics or programs directly.

Once a completed referral has been received, you will be notified of an appointment date and time by a member of our administrative staff and by your referring provider within 14 days of your referral submission.

What to Expect

We would ask that you plan to arrive at least 10-15 minutes before your scheduled appointment time to complete your registration.

Please remember to bring your Ontario Health Card with you to this appointment. Please Note: If you do not have a valid Ontario Health Card, you will be required to pay directly for the clinical service(s) provided at the time of your visit. Details are available from any of our program secretaries.

At your first appointment please bring:

  • List of medications, supplements or herbal remedies
  • Home glucose meter if you are using one
  • Insulin pump printouts if able. You can also download at WCH
  • Any laboratory blood work or diagnostic test you may have

If you are unable to keep your appointment, please notify the program scheduling secretary at 416-323-6013 to cancel and/or re-schedule your appointment. Please try to give 2 business days notice of cancellation or rescheduling requests.

Please note: WCH is a teaching hospital. During your visit you may be seen together, by our teams of professionals and learners.