OUR SPEAKERS
Dr. Unni Narayanan
Dr. Unni G. Narayanan is a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto (U of T) and a Senior Scientist at the Bloorview Research Institute. He also acts as a paediatric orthopaedic consultant at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, Erinoak Children’s Treatment Centre in Mississauga, Grandview Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in Oshawa and Five Counties Children’s Centre in Peterborough.
A native of Madras (Chennai), India, and a graduate of Madras Medical College, he completed his orthopaedic residency at the University of Minnesota, a cerebral palsy/gait analysis fellowship at Gillette Children’s Hospital, and his paediatric orthopaedic fellowship at SickKids. He followed this with a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology at U of T before being appointed to his current position.
His clinical practice is focused primarily on the care of children with cerebral palsy (CP). He also has an interest in the management of congenital, and acquired lower limb deformities and length discrepancies and paediatric trauma.
Dr Jason Howard
Jason Howard, MD, is a board-certified pediatric neuro-orthopedic surgeon. Prior to joining Nemours Children's Health in Wilmington, Delaware (formerly Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children), Dr. Howard was the Chief of Orthopedic Surgery and the Director of Clinical Research at Sidra Medicine in Doha, Qatar. He was also Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, during that tenure. Prior to joining Sidra, Dr. Howard was a full-time Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary (Calgary, Canada) and a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at the Alberta Children's Hospital.
In February 2014, he accepted a new post in Qatar helping to develop the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation programs for Sidra Medicine. In addition to his medical training, Dr. Howard holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering and graduate studies in Biodesign at Stanford University, focusing on the development of new medical technologies. Dr. Howard is a global thought leader in cerebral palsy and has focused his research on the hip displacement in patients with CP. He is also one of the lead editors of a highly accessed text: ˜The Pediatric and Adolescent Hip: Essentials and Evidence'. From a clinical standpoint, Dr. Howard specializes in treating children with cerebral palsy, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and other neuromuscular disorders. Specific areas of interest include neuro-orthopedic deformities including scoliosis, hip displacement, gait analysis, and patient reported outcomes.
Erich Rutz
A/Prof. Erich Rutz joined the orthopaedic department and The Hugh Williamson Gait Laboratory at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in April 2020. For the last 15 years he worked as a consultant at the University Children’s Hospital Basel, Switzerland, where he was Head of the Gait Laboratory and Head of Neuromuscular Hip Surgery Programme.
Erich has a strong interest in all neuromuscular conditions and in particular in cerebral palsy (CP). In 2009/2010 he worked as a research fellow in the Hugh Williamson Gait Laboratory at RCH on a major project “Outcomes of Single-event Multilevel Surgery (SEMLS)” in children with CP. Erich focuses on the surgical treatment of disabled, ambulant and non-ambulant, children. His surgical expertise is in both surgery for ambulant children (SEMLS) and one-stage, hip reconstruction.
Dr Rutz has experience in and enjoys the challenges of all areas of paediatric orthopaedics and trauma surgery.
He has written more than 90 scientific papers and 22 book chapters and completed his habilitation thesis (“Venia Docendi”) in 2013 at the medical faculty of the University Basel, which is the highest university degree that can be awarded for orthopaedics and traumatology of the musculoskeletal system. In addition, he completed of his PhD thesis in biomechanics by June 2021.
Dr. Rutz’ academic work has been recognised by eight national and international awards.
In March 2022 he was appointed as inaugural Bob Dickens Chair for Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Melbourne.