DEPARTMENT OF PEDIATRIC ORTHOPEDICS
WE DIAGNOSE AND TREAT A BROAD RANGE OF MUSCULOSKELETAL PROBLEMS
As well as providing general pediatric orthopaedic services, we offer specialized clinics for children with scoliosis and spinal deformities, neuromuscular diseases, leg length discrepancies, musculoskeletal oncology, and traumas.
TRAUMA SERVICES
Our programs and services are available to BC children and adolescents. Thousands of children attend the clinics annually.
RESOURCES
The health-care team has several surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists, an occupational therapist, researchers, orthopaedic technologists, and several support staff. These specialists work in conjunction with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.
OUR TEAM
The Orthopaedics Department has both surgeons and researchers. Many of the surgeons have specialties within orthopaedics in which they conduct research. The department is composed of surgeons, researchers, orthopaedic technologists, clinic nurses and many valuable support staff.
Our Team
Dr. Anthony Cooper
Department Head
Dr. Anthony Cooper graduated from the University of Leeds - School of Medicine in 2003. He did his basic surgical training in Leeds and then moved to Sheffield for his higher surgical training. After completing his pediatric orthopaedic fellowship at BC Children's Hospital, Dr. Cooper joined BCCH as a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon in 2014. Dr. Cooper is the first surgeon to receive the IGAP award from BCCH. He is also a Clinical Investigator at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.
Dr. Cooper specializes in limb reconstruction, hip deformities and trauma. He runs the multidisciplinary Pediatric Limb Reconstruction clinic and research program. His research involves studies on patient reported outcomes, quality of life, complications of limb reconstruction, geometrical modelling and medical imaging studies. He has ongoing research collaborations with various orthopaedic surgeons and researchers across Canada, Ethiopia, India, UK and USA.
Dr. Christine Alvarez
Dr. Christine Alvarez completed her orthopaedic residency at the University of Western Ontario in London and her medical training at the University of British Columbia. Since joining the team at Children’s, she has completed a Masters of Surgery in Molecular Biology. Dr. Alvarez is the Medical Director of the Shriners Gait Lab located at Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children. Her role includes patient selection for gait assessment, clinical interpretation of the analyses and research for children with various walking difficulties. Dr. Alvarez has been responsible for the formation of the Clubfoot Clinic and the Hereditary Multiple Exostoses (HME) Clinic. Dr. Alvarez’s current areas of research include clubfoot, HME and trauma.
Dr. Kishore Mulpuri
Dr. Mulpuri completed his medical and orthopaedic training at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University in India and went on to pursue orthopedic fellowships at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide, Australia and the Melbourne Orthopedic Group and Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He subsequently completed a clinical research fellowship in orthopedics at BC Children’s Hospital and a MHSc in Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia. He is now a Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at BC Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor in the Division of Pediatric Orthopaedics at the University of Columbia. His clinical practice and research interests have a major focus on the pediatric hip and cerebral palsy. He regularly treats patients with a wide range of conditions including developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), cerebral palsy, Legg–Calvé–Perthes (Perthes) disease, osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE) and trauma.
Research: http://bcchr.ca/our-research/researchers/results/details/kishore-mulpuri
Academic: http://orthopaedics.med.ubc.ca/dr-kishore-mulpuri/
Dr. Firoz Miyanji
Dr Miyanji completed his medical school training at the University of Ottawa. He joined the UBC Orthopaedic Residency Program in 1999 and graduated in 2004. He then completed a one year spine fellowship at Toronto Western Hospital and a one year pediatric orthopaedic fellowship at San Diego Children’s Hospital. Dr Miyanji joins the orthopaedic group in providing emergency and elective orthopaedic care at Children’s Hospital. He, alongside Dr. Reilly and Dr. Ghag provide a combined spinal clinic and operative spinal care service. Dr. Miyanji's areas of research interest include spine surgical outcomes and spinal deformity research. Dr. Miyanji is currently BC’s specialist in vertebral body tethering for scoliosis management. The spine clinic at BC Children’s is part of the Harms Study Group and Growing Spine Study Group, which are multi-center prospective research studies that focus on pediatric spinal deformities.
Dr. Ravi Ghag
Dr. Ravi Ghag received his Doctor of Medicine degree and completed a residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine. He has acquired a Masters of Science in Health Economics Policy and Management from the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom. Dr. Ghag joined the BC Children's Hospital Orthopaedic team this year after completing a fellowship in Pediatric and Adult Spinal Surgery at the Oxford University Spine Unit in Oxford, United Kingdom. His clinical interests include management of pediatric spinal deformity and back pain. His research areas of interest include surgical outcomes and economic analyses of surgical intervention.
Dr. Lise Leveille
Dr. Lise Leveille completed her medical school training and orthopaedic residency at the University of British Columbia. She then completed her pediatric orthopaedic fellowship at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas before joining BC Children’s Hospital in 2015 as a staff pediatric orthopaedic surgeon. She currently acts as the Medical Director of the Shriners Gait Lab at the Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children. Her clinical and research interests include athletic knee injuries, gait abnormalities and cerebral palsy.
Orthopaedic Technologists
Fidel Brooks and Ricardo Botia
Fidel Brooks and Ricardo Botia are the Orthopaedic Technologists at BC Children's. Mr. Brooks and Mr. Botia have extensive training in orthopaedics and medicine.
Research Associates
Emily Schaeffer
PhD
Dr. Emily Schaeffer is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for Dr. Mulpuri. She completed her undergraduate studies in Honours Biochemistry at UBC and holds a PhD in Experimental and Molecular Medicine from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She has an extensive background in basic science and translational research and her research interests include pediatric hip conditions such as developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE), hip displacement secondary to cerebral palsy and the genetics underlying DDH. In addition to her role as Postdoctoral Research Fellow, she is also the Study Coordinator for the International Hip Dysplasia Institute and Head Research Coordinator for the International Hip Dysplasia Registry.
Email: emily.schaeffer@cw.bc.ca
Eva Habib
BSc
Eva holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Physiology from SFU and is a research coordinator for Dr. Mulpuri and Dr. Reilly. She coordinates pediatric trauma, hip, and spine research for Dr. Mulpuri and Dr. Reilly.
Email: eva.habib@cw.bc.ca
Harpreet Chhina
PhD Candidate
Harpreet manages the Pediatric Limb Reconstruction Research Program for Dr. Anthony Cooper. She has a Master’s Degree in Human Anatomy (Panjab University) and a Master’s Degree in Experimental Medicine (University of British Columbia). She is currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine UBC. For her PhD thesis, Harpreet is developing a patient reported quality of life questionnaire for children with lower limb deformities. She has particular interest in qualitative research methodologies, quality of life studies, patient reported outcomes and psychometrics.
Email: hchhina@cw.bc.ca
Staff Members
Brenda Whitworth, Administrative Secretary
Emily Schaeffer, Research for Drs. Reilly and Mulpuri
Eva Habib, Research for Drs. Reilly and Mulpuri
Harpreet Chhina, Research for Dr. Cooper
Fahimeh Karimi, Research for Dr. Miyanji
Michele Stark, MOA to Dr. C. Reilly
Marilynn Timbrell, MOA to Dr. C. Alvarez
Salima Damani, MOA to Dr. K. Mulpuri
Susan Ramiscal, MOA to Dr. A. Cooper
Valerie Walsh, MOA to Dr. F. Miyanji and Dr. A. Ghag
Melissa Hart, MOA to Dr. Leveille
Lauren Paul, Nurse Clinician
Wendy Krishnaswamy, Nurse Clinician
Angela Nowak, Clinic Nurse
Jennifer Dunlop, Nurse Practitioner
Fidel Brooks, Cast Technician
Ricardo Botia, Cast Technician
Shelinah Kabani, Orthopaedic Clinic
Manjit Bains, Orthopaedic Clinic
Victoria Lum, Orthopaedic Clinic
Stacey Miller, PT, CP Hip Surveillance
Maria Juricic, PT, Ortho Clinic
Daphne O’Young, OT, Ortho Clinic
Former Members
Dr. Chris Reilly
Former Department Head
Dr. Chris Reilly is the Head of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at BC Children’s Hospital and Head of the Division of Pediatric Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia. He completed his fellowship in Pediatric Orthopaedics at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas before joining the orthopaedic group at Children's. He is a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon specializing in the management of paediatric trauma and spinal deformity. He is also the orthopaedic consultant to the Neuromuscular Clinic. His current research interests include functional and surgical outcomes surrounding pediatric trauma, spinal deformities, neuromuscular conditions and athletic knee injuries.
Research: http://www.bcchr.ca/our-research/researchers/results/Details/christopher-reilly