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. 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.

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.

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.