About Us

Dr Charles Breau studied at the University of Ottawa where he completed his MD in 2010. He is a graduate of the family medicine residency training program at the Montfort Hospital class of 2012.

Dr Breau has been practicing as an emergency room physician since 2013, after he completed a training in Emergency Medicine at the Univerité de Sherbrooke.

Dr Breau has a Certificate of Added Competency from the Canadian College of Family Physician in Addiction Medicine and has been practicing comprehensive community based addictions treatment since 2015. He is also the consulting Addiction Medicine Physician at the Montfort Hospital as well as Montfort Rennaissance.

Dr Breau is involved in many community and Public Health initiatives aimed at helping reduce morbidity and mortality related to the opioid crisis in Ottawa.

In his spare time, Dr Breau enjoys golfing, running and the great outdoors.

Dr. Dufresne was born in a small town in rural Eastern Ontario. Prior to studying medicine, Dr. Dufresne obtained a Bachelor in Science, Physiotherapy, from the University of Ottawa. She then continued her education at the University of Ottawa and obtained a Doctorate in Medicine. 

She did her post doctorate training in family medicine at the Montfort Hospital in Ottawa. After different professional opportunities, she has decided to focus her practice in substance use health, and has been at Recovery Cornwall since January 2016. Dr Dufresne is fluent in both French and English.

Dr. Leclair was born in Montreal and was trained at University of Montreal faculty of medicine. He then did his residency in family medicine at Sacré-Coeur Hospital. He was awarded a Masters degree in pharmacology and an undergraduate degree in medical biology. 

Dr. Leclair has privileges at Montfort Hospital and is attached to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He is now focusing on his practice in substance use health at Recovery Care Cornwall. Dr. Leclair serves his patients in both French and English.

Dr. Mira Pavan left her job in the engineering world and completed her medical degree in 2017 at the University of Limerick in Ireland before moving back home to Canada. In 2019, she completed her rural family medicine residency in Prince Albert, SK, through the University of Saskatchewan.

Early in her medical training, Dr. Pavan was introduced to the world of substance use health, and decided to make this a part of her practice, receiving her OAT prescribing privileges while in residency. Once finished her residency in 2019, she practiced full scope rural family medicine, with an interest in substance use health, HIV / HepC care, transhealth and gender non-conforming care and hospitalist medicine.

Dr. Pavan has recently moved back to Ontario with her husband, and locums in family medicine alongside her days at Recovery Care - Byward.

Outside of work, she lives for making and eating great food, catching up on everything MCU and Disney, and planning her next travel adventure.

Dr. Sanjay Acharya is the medical director of the Chronic Vent Ward at St Vincent’s Hospital, a retired provincial coroner and chair of the AFP governance committee.  He currently practices in Ottawa at the Queensway Carleton Hospital (“QCH”) and Bruyere Continuing Care. He was the president of the medical staff at QCH for 10 years and was also the chief of staff. He served on the hospital board and is also a past president of the OMA Ottawa Branch Society. 

Sanjay has served as vice-chair of OMA council for several years and in 2018 was elected chair.  He was a Canadian Armed Forces medical officer who served as a primary care physician in Petawawa and overseas as an anesthesiologist. He graduated from the Memorial University of Newfoundland before completing his postgraduate training in anaesthesia at the University of Ottawa. Sanjay holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Dr. Gopalan has been working as a physician in substance use health since 2015. He also works as an emergency medicine physician at the Queensway Carleton Hospital and has been doing so since 2007.

Dr. Shouldice is an active member of the Department of Emergency Medicine at QCH and a physician at Recovery Care Bells Corners since 2018. After receiving her medical degree and family medicine residency from Dalhousie in Halifax, Elizabeth returned home to Ottawa to pursue a further residency in emergency medicine. She was very excited to join the staff of the QCH in the summer of 2008. With a keen interest in public health and health policy, she completed a Masters of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD in 2013.

Expanding on that interest, she gained extra training in substance use health in 2017 and continues to broaden her knowledge in this growing field. Having an interest in health policy and prevention, she works with both the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians and with Meta:PHI. She is also proud to be the medical director of the paramedic programs at Algonquin College.

Bio coming soon

Dr. Smith was raised in rural Manitoba. He completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Winnipeg and his Bachelor of Science and Medical Degree at the University of Manitoba. He then completed his Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine training at the University of Ottawa. Along with substance use health, Dr. Smith currently works as a Primary Care and Emergency Medicine Physician. He lives in West Ottawa with his family.

Picture and Bio is coming soon.

Dr. Bowling studied at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine, where he completed his MD,CM in 2015. He graduated from Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency in the United States in 2018.

Since graduating, Dr. Bowling has been working full-time in the field of substance use health. He received Certification in the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and moved back to Ottawa in 2021.

Dr. Bowling is currently working on board certification in Addiction Medicine through the American Board of Preventive Medicine.

In his free time, Dr. Bowling enjoys exploring all that Ottawa has to offer, hiking, and running.

Anthony was born and grew up in the national capital region. Prior to becoming a Physician Assistant he obtained an Honours Bachelor of Health Sciences degree in 2015 at the University of Ottawa with a focus in the social determinants of health and health program development.

Anthony then went on complete his Physician Assistant training in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His training included extensive work with vulnerable and underserviced populations in rural northern Ontario. He successfully completed the national entry to practice examination in 2018 and has been designated as a Canadian Certified Physician Assistant by the Physician Assistant Certification Council of Canada.

Since graduation Anthony has been able to gain valuable experience in the evaluation and treatment of cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders. He joined the Recovery Care team in 2020 and now proudly provides primary care walk-in services and substance use health serivecs to our patient population. Anthony primarily works out of our Byward Market and Vanier locations.