Critical Care Medicine

About the Department

The Department of Critical Care is part of the Faculty of Medicine at McMaster University. Our attending intensive care physician specialists provide care to patients who either have, or are at high risk of developing, a life-threatening disease or injury, or those who have had major surgical procedures.

Our critical care units consist of highly trained inter-disciplinary teams, advanced life-support technology and monitoring equipment. Our academic mandate includes a significant commitment to medical education at all levels of training, including medical students, resident physicians, critical care fellows and nursing/allied health learners. Our faculty members are active researchers making significant contribution to the latest evidence-based critical care medicine.

As part of comprehensive inter-disciplinary teams, we provide direct care to patients in 70 critical care beds at Hamilton Health Scienes (HHS) spread across five intensive care units, including 2 Medical-Surgical Intensive Care Units at Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre (JHCC), 3 Intensive Care Units at Hamilton General Hospital (HGH) and a Women’s Reproductive Health (WRH) Intensive Care Unit at McMaster University Medical Centre (MUMC). We also provide 24/7 coverage outside of the ICU to acutely ill or deteriorating patients on our hospital wards via our Critical Care Response Teams, locally called RACE Teams (Rapid Assessment of Critical Events) at both the Juravinski and General Sites.

About the Chief – Dr. Craig Ainsworth

Dr. Craig Ainsworth is the current Chief of Critical Care at Hamilton Health Sciences. Dr. Ainsworth is an Associate Professor of Medicine at McMaster University. He has Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada certifications in General Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Critical Care Medicine. He has also completed a fellowship in Advanced Adult Echcardiography. Dr. Ainsworth currently works as a Clinician-Educator with the Divisions of Cardiology and Department of Critical Care at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences. Prior to taking on the Chief role for Critical Care, Dr. Ainsworth was the Medical Director of the Regional Tertiary Cardiac Care Unit at Hamilton General Hospital and the Site Lead of the RACE Team at Hamilton General Hospital.

Chief Assistant

Joti Dhillon
dhillonda@hhsc.ca, 905-521-2100 ext. 44051

Our Area Leaders

  • Chief of Critical Care: Dr. Craig Ainsworth
  • HGH Neurotrauma ICU Site Lead: Dr. Sunjay Sharma
  • HGH Medical-Surgical ICU Site Lead: Dr. Heather Whittingham
  • HGH Cardiovascular ICU Site Lead: Dr. Julian Owen
  • JHCC ICU Site Lead: Dr. Bram Rochwerg
  • MUMC WRH ICU Site Lead: Dr. Simon Oczkowski
  • HGH RACE Team Site Lead: Dr. Alison Fox-Robichaud
  • JHCC RACE Team Site Lead: Dr. Farzin Visram
  • Critical Care Clinical Assistant Lead: Dr. Emilie Belley-Cote