Dr. Catalina Casas Lopez
Associate Professor
Biography
Dr. Catalina Casas Lopez received her medical degree from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and completed her Anesthesia residency training at Fundación Santa Fe de Bogota in Bogota, Colombia. As an International Medical Graduate, she met the requirements and certified by Education Commission of Medical Graduates (ECFMG) in the United States. She is a certified Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) instructor by the American Heart Association and Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
Dr. Casas went on to pursue four years of subspecialty fellowship training. Three of them: Cardiac anesthesia at Toronto General Hospital, Critical Care at University Health Network, and Advanced Clinical Practice in Anesthesia at Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital at the University of Toronto. The last year of training was Clinical and Quality Improvement in Anesthesia at Western University.
Dr. Casas also achieved the National Board of Echocardiography (NBE) certification at a level of diplomate in peri-operative echocardiography. She is certified by the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) in critical care ultrasonography or Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS). She is proficient in the use of POCUS; she is proud to be an Instructor for the ACCP, has been internationally invited as a speaker and has helped to build a program in this field in South America.
In 2015 Dr. Casas completed the Certificate in Patient Safety and Quality Management at the University of Calgary. In 2017 the certificate on Safety, Quality, Informatics, and Leadership (SQIL) program at Harvard Medical School. In 2019, she graduated with a Master of Applied Science in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality at Johns Hopkins University. During her year of fellowship at Western University, she mentored medical students in QI initiatives and worked in the project “Making the Handover Better” enhancing communication and redesigning the process of transferring patients from the Operating room to the Intensive Care Unit.
Her primary focus is to continue to construct a strong quality and patient safety program in Anesthesia at LHSC and St. Joseph’s Health Care, one that will excel the outstanding clinical work that is delivered to patients and position the Department of Anesthesia as a leader in Canada.
Honours and Awards
LHSC Professional Staff Organization Recognition and Reward Award (2019)
Publications
Casas Lopez C [co author and contributor]. In: Denault A, Vegas A, Lamarche Y, Tardif J, Couture P, editors. Basic Transesophageal and Critical Care Ultrasound. USA: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group Ltd; 2018.
Denault AY, Casas C, Puentes W, Eljaiek R, Iglesias I. Head to Toe ultrasound: Current opinion on its role in hemodynamic instability, hypoxemia, oligoanuria and the patient with altered neurological status. Rev Colomb Anestesiol. 2017; 45(4):317-326.
