Emerging Leader in Neonatology Award

Current recipient(s): Dr. Yasser Elsayed

Dr. Elsayed trained in Egypt, where he completed his residency in paediatrics and discovered an early interest in neonatal hemodynamics which led him to complete a PhD in paediatric cardiology. This focus sharpened further when he joined the neonatal/perinatal medicine fellowship program at the University of Manitoba. There he combined study of neonatal hemodynamics with targeted echocardiography, then trained in Toronto as an echocardiology fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children. After completing the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography certification program, Dr. Elsayed was one of the few clinicians outside of Toronto to certify in targeted neonatal echocardiography and hemodynamics. He soon established a ground-breaking program in Winnipeg that integrated clinical and hemodynamic assessment with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) of the newborn brain and kidney: the first approach of this kind in the world. His program optimizes the management of critically ill newborns by assessing end-organ (heart, lung, and brain) performance. It not only improved the standard of care in Manitoba, but has become a proven  model for similar programs at other Canadian and international sites. More recently, Dr. Elsayed developed point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) protocols for NICU use. To reduce neonatal exposure to ionizing radiation, he found better, safer ways to diagnose and treat necrotizing enterocolitis and other serious conditions using lung and intestinal ultrasound. Here too, his approach integrates clinical and laboratory markers with imaging.

Dr. Elsayed is an associate professor in paediatrics and child health in the College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. He is a prodigious author, an accomplished teacher, and a passionate presenter of his programs and techniques both at home and worldwide.