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Argerie Tsimicalis, RN, PhD
Associate Professor

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Argerie Tsimicalis, RN, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Ingram School of Nursing with an Associate Member Status in the Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ. She also holds two scientific appointments in the hospital sector in Clinical Research at Shriners Hospitals for Children-Canada and in the Injury Repair Recovery Program at the Montreal University Health Centre Research Institute (MUHC-RI). In 2019, Dr. Tsimicalis was awarded a competitive career award called ‘Chercheur-Boursier Junior 1’ from the Fonds de recherche Québec-Santé (Quebec Medical Research Council). Dr. Tsimicalis serves as one of the National Collaborators for Pain in Child Health, which offers national and international training opportunities. Her program of research is devoted to understanding the costs (and benefits) of childhood illness and disability. Understanding these costs and benefits have set the stage for the creation and evaluation of cost-effective, child- and family- ‘friendly’ innovative health services (e.g. e-health, m-health, virtual reality, and gaming), arts-based resources (e.g. songs and books) and policies (e.g. policy briefs, evidence-informed practice guidelines). Innovations arise through transdisciplinary thinking, global partnerships, and a rich trainee environment. Dr. Tsimicalis’ students come from an astonishingly wide range of backgrounds. She also supervises students with childhood onset illnesses and the siblings of a child with a childhood onset illness. Dr. Tsimicalis strives to ignite the research spark in her trainees, which finds its expression in the many ongoing collaborations that she maintains with her former students.Ìý

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680 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, H3A 2M7 | Office: 1835
argerie.tsimicalis [at] mcgill.ca | 514-398-8142

Sofia Addab, MSc
Clinical Research Coordinator

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Sofia holds a BSc (anatomy and cell biology) from Ï㽶ÊÓƵ. She continued her path at McGill and pursued a masters in science, with a focus in clinical innovations. Her thesis study, which was conducted at the Shriners Hospitals for Children®-Canada under the supervision of Dr. Reggie Hamdy and Dr. Argerie Tsimicalis, explored the feasibility of virtual reality use as a distraction tool to help patients cope with painful and anxiety-inducing medical procedures. Sofia graduated from her masters in 2021, and since then has been working for the Nursing Research team at the Shriners hospital in Montreal as a clinical research coordinator.

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Laura Massochin, PhD

Laura is a biologist with a master’s and doctoral degree in Biology. She has extensive experience as an educator, having worked as a teacher for adults, youth and children. At the Shriners Hospitals for Children - Canada, she supports the creation of the Virtual Reality Child Care Website and leads the UX research to develop the Teens OI E-health platform.Ìý

Reggie Hamdy, MD, FRCS(C)

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Department of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ and Shriners Hospital for Children®-Canada

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Panagiotis Glavas, MD,ÌýFRCS(C)

Department of Surgery, Université de Montréal and CHU Sainte Justine

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Mitchell Bernstein, MD,ÌýFRCS(C)

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, Shriners Hospital for Children®-Canada and Montreal Children's Hospital

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Gianluca Bertolizio, MD, FRCP(C), Pediatric Anesthetist

Department of Anaesthesia, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, Shriners Hospital for Children®-Canada, Montreal Children’s Hospital

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Thierry Benaroch, MD, MSC, FRCS(C)

Department of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ and Shriners Hospital for Children®-Canada

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Juliana Marulanda, DDS, PhD

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Faculty of Dentistry, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ and Shriners Hospitals for Children®-Canada

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Beatriz Ferraz dos Santos, DDS, MSc

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Faculty of Dentistry, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ and Montreal Children’s Hospital

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Kelly Thorstad, PHCNP, MSc

Shriners Hospitals for Children®-Canada

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Sylvie Le May, RN, PhD

Faculté des sciences infirmières, Université de Montréal and CHU Sainte Justine

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Tina Athanasoulias, RN, Clinical Nurse Specialist

Shriners Hospitals for Children®-Canada

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Raissa Passos dos Santos, PhD

Raissa has a background in Nursing with a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM)

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Yi Wen (Jenny) Wang, RN, M.Ed

Jenny is a registered nurse and PhD Nursing student at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ. Jenny works with chronically ill children, families, and clinicians to develop child-centric educational resources in the hospital setting. In 2021, she graduated with her Master of Education degree from Ï㽶ÊÓƵ. For her PhD project, she is working under Dr. Argerie Tsimicalis to develop a user-centred VR software prototype to education children about their surgeries. In her free time, you can find her painting, biking, and swimming.

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Yu Tong Huang, MDCM Candidate

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Yu Tong is a medical student at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ in the class of 2024 whose research interest broadly lies in the use of opioids and non-pharmacological adjuncts in the management of acute and chronic pain. Namely, she is currently exploring the various emerging applications of virtual reality to the field of anesthesia, as an adjunct to anxiolytics and analgesics in the acute and chronic setting. In her free time, she enjoys dancing and trying out various restaurants around town.

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Sarah Moussa, MDCM Candidate

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Sarah Moussa is a registered nurse and medical student at McGill university. Sarah is passionate about medical education and researches the ways to integrate virtual reality in orthopedic residency surgical education.

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Jéssica Ding, RN

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Jéssica Ding is a registered nurse who works with paediatric patients in orthopaedic and surgical settings. Jéssica has an interest in paediatric research and is currently exploring the use of virtual reality as a non pharmacological method of pain and anxiety control. She is also passionate about the creation of culturally adapted medical resources for children in Brazil and the integration of technology in the process of enhancing autonomy in teenagers with chronic disorders.

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Peter JosephÌýMounsef,ÌýMDCM Candidate

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Peter is a first year medical student at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ who is eager to learn more about working with pediatric patients, specifically in an orthopedic setting. He currently works on redrafting articles to target a younger audience, to help educate and inspire the future generation of scientists. He loves to spend his free time teaching swimming lessons and playing sports.

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Ummy Sylla

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Ummy Sylla is a second year CEGEP student at Collegial International Sainte-Anne, currently in the Health Science program. Psychology, biology and artificial intelligence being scientific branches that greatly interest her, she dedicates her time to the exploration of these fields. As for her leisure, she spends it working on various forms of art, whether it be cinematography, literature, music, etc.

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Brandon Benchimol-Elkaim, MA, PhD Student, Counselling Psychology

Brandon is PhD student in Counselling Psychology at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ. His doctoral research focuses on investigating whether mindfulness nature-based training using virtual reality is acceptable and performs better than the standard of care in improving pediatric patients’ preoperative anxiety. In addition to research, Brandon has completed a practicum in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy at the McGill Psychoeducational and Counselling clinic. He also volunteered at the Cedars Cancer Centre for three years providing active listening to patients undergoing cancer treatment.

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Meshach Stanislaus

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Meshach Stanislaus is a Secondary 5 student currently enrolled in the Scimatic program at College Sainte Anne. As a student in this specialized math and science program, he spends a great deal of his time both inside and outside of school conducting extensive research on a wide variety of scientific topics. Meshach's passion for science and technology is further reflected in his accomplishments, which include writing articles for Quebec Science, creating several technological machines, and conducting in-depth research and science reports. He has contributed hundreds of hours to various charitable organizations, including HPIC, the only charity licensed by Health Canada to handle donated medicines. He has also completed a three-day internship at Shriners' Children's Hospital.

Angie Gugliotti, Child Life Specialist

Angie Gugliotti is a Child Life specialist at Shriners Hospitals for Children – Canada, who is championing the integration of virtual reality (VR) as a transformative tool in patient care. As the hospital's first VR Champion, Angie combines her expertise in non-pharmacological techniques with VR distraction therapy, providing young patients with an innovative and engaging approach to managing pain and anxiety.ÌýÌý

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Alexandra de Almeida Vicente, RN, MScAÌý

Alexandra is a senior nurse advisor at Shriners Hospital specializing in Virtual Reality (VR) and technology adoption for pain management and pediatric care. With a strong background in healthcare administration and research, she advocates for comprehensive user-focused approaches to technology implementation, ensuring optimal impact on patient care and engagement. Her expertise lies in addressing the needs of all stakeholders, from medical staff to pediatric patients, to create a holistic and effective User Experience.

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Camille Costa, MD, MSc, FRCP(C)

Department of Pediatrics, Université de Montréal, CHU Sainte Justine and Shriners Hospital for Children®-Canada

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