Research Day Chair's Message

Dear Faculty, Staff and Trainees,

Harvey Stancer Research Day (HSRD) has been a major function of the Department of Psychiatry at U of T for 46 years.

 This year, COVID-19 has forced us all to adapt, take on new roles and remain physically distant. At this challenging time, it is more important than ever that we maintain the connections that make our community strong. To achieve this goal, HSRD will also be adapting.

This year, we will run a half-day, online program from 9:00 am to 11:30 am on June 18. The program will start with the Trevor Young Lecture in Psychiatry Research Keynote Presentation delivered by Dr. Catherine Monk entitled: Prenatal Programming: Drawing on Perinatal Psychiatry and Developmental Neuroscience to Identify the Earliest Influences on Child Outcomes. 

The keynote will be followed by a diverse set of plenary talks presented by our Department faculty spanning from psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological interventional research, to mechanistic studies and knowledge synthesis. See the full program here.

To showcase the abstracts submitted to HSRD, we are hosting an asynchronous e-poster session. E-poster presenters have prepared graphical abstracts that visually summarize the key message of their research. We are using a new online format for dissemination across the Department. 

Awards for best graphical abstract by a graduate student, resident, post-doctoral clinical or research fellow, and early career investigator (within five years of starting an independent research program) will be announced on June 18 as part of the online HSRD program.

Graphical abstracts can be viewed online here.

The transition to the online format has been a team effort. Thank you to Sean Nestor, Tyler Kaster, Joshua Rosenblat, Simina Toma, Benjamin Goldstein, Nicole Kozloff, Sophie Soklaridis, and Simone Vigod for your extraordinary contribution to developing the online program this year as part of the HSRD 2020 Planning Committee. Thank you to Anastasia Paramonova, Ben Gane and Chris Meledes our fantastic administrative team. Thank you to Dr. Alastair Flint, our Vice-Chair, Research, and Dr. Benoit Mulsant our Department Chair, for your enthusiasm and support for the re-envisioned event. Finally, thank you to each of our presenters for your flexibility, creativity and willingness to try something new.

I hope that you’ll join us at Harvey Stancer Research Day 2020!

Sincerely,

Stephanie Ameis MD, MSc, FRCPC
Harvey Stancer Research Day Chair
Associate Director, Cundill Centre for Child and Youth Depression
Clinician-Scientist, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute,
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.