Echo Lab Faculty
Dr. Amer M. Johri
MD MSc FRCPC FASE
Dr. Amer Johri is a member of the echocardiography group at Queen’s University and the Director of CINQ. He arrived after completing a research/clinical fellowship in imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA under the supervision of Drs. M.H. Picard, J. Hung, and J. Passeri. His clinical interests are in 3D echocardiography, quality control in the echo lab, and interventional echocardiography. He also has extensive experience in echo-guided CRT optimization and TEE guided percutaneous aortic valve replacement.
Dr. Anthony J. Sanfilippo
MD, FRCP(C)
Dr. Sanfilippo received a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Life Sciences in 1976 and an MD in 1981, both at Queen’s University. He undertook training in Internal Medicine receiving his Royal College Fellowship in 1985 and certification in Cardiology in 1987. He went on to do a postgraduate research fellowship at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital returning to Queen’s in 1989. Since then he has been a clinical cardiologist associated with Hotel Dieu and Kingston General Hospitals. He also holds a teaching position with Queen’s University as a Professor of Medicine and Cardiology.
Dr. Sanfilippo’s major clinical interest has been in Echocardiography. He has published numerous articles, including research in echocardiography, valvular heart disease and cardiac disease in women.
At Queen’s he has held numerous administrative positions. He is currently Associate Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education.
Dr. Peggy DeJong
Dr. Peggy DeJong received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Waterloo and her medical degree from Queen’s University. Her clinical training consisted of Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Queen’s University. She completed an additional year at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver General Hospital in echocardiography. She joined the Division of Cardiology at Queen’s University in 2014.
Dr. DeJong’s chief academic interest is medical education. She is working on a Masters in Medical Education from Dundee University, Scotland (supported by the Department of Medicine, Queen’s University). She is also working on the development of Competency Based Medical Education curriculum and assessments for the Cardiology training program at Queen’s University. She currently serves as Director of the Adult Cardiology Residency Training Program at Queen’s University.
Dr. Zardasht Jaff
Dr. Zardasht Jaff completed his medical degree from Hawler Medical University, Kurdistan 1999. He then completed his Core Internal Medicine Residency (2014), Cardiology (2016) and Echocardiography Fellowship (2017) at Queen's University. Subsequently, he joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology at Queen's in 2018 as a staff cardiologist and assistant professor. He is also the co-director for the echocardiology fellowship program at Queen's University as well as part of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program.
His academic interest includes General Cardiology/CCU, transesophageal echocardiogram and stress echocardiogram. He also has an interest in medical education.
Dr. Samir Hazra
Dr. John Smythe
MD, FRCPC
Pediatric Cardiology
Dr. Smythe is the center’s pediatric cardiologist and as such oversees the pediatric and fetal echocardiography services. He also attends the Adult Congenital Heart Disease clinic, a transition clinic for adolescents with congenital heart disease. His current research interest is in the use and promotion of mindfulness in medical practice. He is currently studying the impact of a Mindfulness Training Program on perceived stress levels, coping strategies and empathy in medical students and residents.
Dr. Henryk Kafka
Dr. Amar Thakrar
BSc (Honours), MD
Dr. Raveen Pal
MPH, MD
Dr. R.S. Pal is a cardiologist specializing in echocardiography and Cardiac CT. Dr. Pal gained her MD from the University of Toronto, followed by Internal Medicine residency at the University of Ottawa, then Cardiology residency at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. She then spent 2 years based in California, first at UCLA training in cardiac computed tomography (CT) with Dr. Matt Budoff, then at UCSF training in Echocardiography with Dr. Elyse Foster, Dr. Nelson Schiller, and Dr. Kirsten Fleischmann. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Epidemiology at Harvard University.
She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiology both in Canada and the USA. She also holds Level 3 board certification in cardiac CT and echocardiography. She joined Queen’s faculty in 2009. Her clinical practice includes interpretation of echocardiograms, cardiac CT and a clinic practice with a focus on women’s health and valvular heart disease. She has an interest in medical education and is an active participant in undergraduate medical education as well as postgraduate education in echocardiography. Her research interests include investigation of 3D echocardiography, 3D strain and cardiac CT imaging applications. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications in both cardiac CT and echocardiography. She is committed to providing excellent clinical care to the local community, to enhancing quality medical education, and to advancing the field of imaging to optimize patient care.
Dr. Aws Almufleh
MBBS, MPH, FRCPC, FACC
Dr. Aws Almufleh received his medical degree with First Class Honors from King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2012. He then completed a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the University of Miami focusing on epidemiology and clinical research. He did internal medicine residency at McGill University where he served as the Chief Medical Resident. Following cardiology fellowship training at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (2016-2019), Dr. Almufleh completed an advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School (2019-2020) and earned the Pierce Fellow Award for Scholarship in Cardiomyopathy in recognition of his clinical and research achievements. Dr. Almufleh also completed an advanced echocardiography fellowship at Vancouver General Hospital/University of British Columbia (2020-2021). Concurrently, he pursued research training through the Global Clinical Scholars Research Training (GCSRT) program at Harvard Medical School with emphasis on advanced quantitative research methodology and study design.
Dr. Almufleh’s clinical and research interests lie in optimizing outpatient management of patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, particularly in light of the rapid expansion of heart failure pharmacotherapy and the increasing challenges of therapeutic inertia. Besides research pursuit, Dr. Almufleh, under the mentorship of Dr. Parvathy Nair from the University of British Columbia, is leading a medical education project aimed at optimizing echocardiography competency training during cardiology fellowship which earned the Canadian Cardiovascular Ultrasound Research Excellence Award for Technology & Education – $50,000 CREATE Grant.
Dr. Almufleh published over 20 peer-reviewed articles and is a co-investigator of the large-scale randomized controlled trial comparing Milrinone with Dobutamine in the Treatment of Cardiogenic Shock; published in the New England Journal of Medicine in August 2021.
In September 2021, Dr. Almufleh joined the Department of Medicine at Queen’s University as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and the Physician Lead of the Heart Function Clinic in addition to his role in the Echocardiography Laboratory.