Gopal Bhatnagar

Gopal Bhatnagar is an Indo-Canadian cardiac surgeon based in Toronto, Canada.^[1] Bhatnagar is the Head of Cardiovascular Surgery unit^[2] at the Trillium Health Centre, which he himself established in 2000.^[3] He teaches part-time at the University of Toronto and contributes to medical research. In 2012, Dr. Bhatnagar founded 180 Smoke, a company that provides harm reduction tools like e-cigarettes, e-juice, e-cigars and portable e-hookahs.^{[4] [5][6]} His best advice "Don't Smoke! And if you do, do everything to stop it!"^[7] (CTV National News)

He was the Chief of Staff at the Trillium Hospital from 2005 to March 2013. He is a practitioner of beating heart surgery and one of a few surgeons in North America to perform minimally invasive cardiac surgery.^[8][9][10] He continues to contribute to medical research and education.^[11][12]

Education & Early Career

Bhatnagar obtained his M.D. at the University of Western Ontario^[13] in 1986 and was on the Dean's Honour List. He holds fellowship in general surgery, thoracic surgery and cardiac surgery with both the American Board of Surgery and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. In 1999, Bhatnagar also obtained a Master of Education from OISE at the University of Toronto. In the past he was a cardiac surgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre as well as the University of Toronto.

Canadian Forces

From 1978-1982, he served with the Canadian armed reserved forces and with the regular standing forces for another year, as part of the medical corps.

Teaching

Bhatnagar has been teaching as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto since 2009.^[14]

Awards

In September 2009, the New York weekly newspaper India Abroad included Bhatnagar in its Power List of the 30 most influential Canadians of Indian descent.^[15]

He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.^[16] On March 8, 2013, Trillium Health Partners announced the endowment of the Dr. Gopal Bhatnagar Chair in Cardiac Health System Leadership to honour his services to the medical profession and the Trillium Health Centre.^[17]

180 Smoke - Electronic Cigarette & E Juice

After 6 months of extensive study of available science, Bhatnagar co-founded 180 Smoke Electronic Cigarette, a company dedicated to helping eradicate tobacco smoking with vaping, a harm reduction method of delivering nicotine. On November 6th, 2014, Dr. Bhatnagar made a presentation^[18] to Government of Canada's Standing Committee on Health that studied e-cigarettes and reported its study^[19] and recommendation on how to regulate electronic cigarette in Canada.

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