Profile: Dr. Shoo Lee
A Visionary for Our Tiniest Patients
Dr. Shoo Lee is revered for his big heart — and his commitment to improving the lives of Canada’s most vulnerable babies. Over his distinguished 40-year career, including more than a decade as Mount Sinai Hospital’s Paediatrician-in-Chief, Dr. Lee has transformed the field of neonatology, revolutionizing care for newborns. From introducing Ontario’s first human milk bank to integrating parents as care partners in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), his leadership has dramatically improved outcomes for premature infants.
Over the course of a decade Dr. Lee helped boost the rate of Canadian preemies surviving without major complications by 32 per cent. He also founded the Canadian Neonatal Network, bringing the country’s NICUs together to collaborate on research and share data for the past 25 years.
Dr. Lee’s appointment as Paediatrician-in-Chief at Mount Sinai in 2008 was hailed as a major milestone for the hospital. “I joined Mount Sinai because it is the best perinatal centre in the country,” Dr. Lee says. “It offered unparalleled opportunities to manage the care of babies with difficult complications you don’t see anywhere else.”
Now that his tenure is over, Dr. Lee is growing the world-leading research program he built at Sinai Health, fuelling future discoveries to reduce and prevent preterm birth.
Written by Anna-Kaisa Walker | Photo by Dave Chan