Welcome to the newest members of the Department of Surgery
Dr. Waleed Kishta, Adjunct Professor/MD, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery
Department of Surgery, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Western University
Dr. Waleed Kishta joined the Department of Surgery this past August. While completing his residency in orthopaedic surgery in Egypt, Dr. Kishta also obtained his master’s degree and PhD in Perthes Disease. He pursued further residency training in Halifax, Nova Scotia, followed by fellowships in paediatric orthopaedics at Dalhousie University, spine surgery at McGill University, and orthopaedic trauma/foot and ankle surgery at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Western University.
Dr. Kishta received his FRCSC designation in orthopaedic surgery in August 2014. He served as a locum consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon last year at Manitoba University, receiving the Teacher of the Year in Orthopaedic Surgery award for the 2015-16 academic year.
Dr. Kishta’s surgical specialties lie in the areas of paediatric orthopaedics, paeditric spine disorders, trauma, and foot and ankle deformities and conditions. Clinical and research interests include medical teaching, simulation, paediatric foot, paediatric spine, bone growth, and osteogenesis imperfect. His practice is based at Victoria Hospital, where he will be holding a locum position for Dr. Megan Cashin during her leave of absence until March 31, 2017.
Dr. Anton Skaro, Associate Professor, Division of General Surgery
Department of Surgery, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Western University
Dr. Anton Skaro joined the Division of General Surgery and Multi-Organ Transplant Program, Department of Surgery, Western University in September as an Associate Professor. Dr. Skaro completed medical school at Western University followed by residency and a PhD at Dalhousie University. He completed a fellowship in Transplantation Surgery at Northwestern University in Illinois after which he joined the Northwestern Department of Surgery as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor at Northwestern in 2014.
Dr. Skaro’s research in liver transplantation has garnered significant grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) / National Institute on Aging/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). He has more than 50 publications in the peer-reviewed literature and has presented his research nationally and internationally.
Dr. Hongji Yang, Assistant Professor, Division of General Surgery
Department of Surgery, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Western University
Dr. Hongji Yang joined the Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery at Western University this summer as an Assistant Professor with the additional research roles of microsurgeon in the Matthew Mailing Centre; Director of Microsurgery; and Director of the Non-Human Primate Transplantation Research Program of LHSC’s Multi-Organ Transplant Program (MOTP). The MOTP is one of the leading transplant programs in Canada – with a strong history of transplant research and clinical care – which currently performs approximately 160 transplants annually.
Dr. Yang completed medical school at Harbin Medical University and an MSc at Jinan University in China, followed by a research and clinical fellowships in the Multi-Organ Transplant Program at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). Dr. Yang returned to China and most recently held the roles of Professor at Sichuan Medical University and Director of the Department of HBP surgery and Multi-Organ Transplant Center at Sichuan Provincial Hospital, China; a Centre he established in 2007 and which now performs volumes exceeding LHSC.
Dr. Yang’s research focus will be to enhance the development of new microsurgical models in the microsurgery program as well as to develop an international training program for microsurgery fellows based on translational transplant research. He has served as an invited speaker at the International Liver Transplant Society and the World Transplant Congress. He received the Young Investigator Award from the World Transplant Congress, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Transplant Society, and the American Society of Transplantation.
