Welcome from the Head | Pediatrics

Constantine Samaan, Professor & Head Department of Pediatrics

Welcome to the Department of Pediatrics at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario and Kingston Health Sciences Centre. Our members include a diverse group of health professionals including academic pediatricians, educators, scientists, and trainees dedicated to serving the needs of infants, children, and youth in Southeastern and Northern Ontario.

As the single tertiary pediatric academic centre in our region, our mission is to provide specialized, evidence-based, and high quality clinical care to our community. Our integrated system includes neonatal and intensive care, in-patient pediatric medicine and surgery, general and subspeciality out-patient clinics, and KidsInclusive child development and Rehabilitation services-together providing a comprehensive system of care for our community.

We envision a pediatric system of care that is accessible, responsive, excellent, and delivers the care children and families need, when they need it, and as close to home as possible.

Our work is guided by our values of teamwork, respect, compassion, excellence, reliability, responsiveness, inclusion, and equity. These values inform the way we provide care, support each other, and help us build a culture where our people excel and innovation, learning, and research thrive.

As an academic department, we are deeply committed to educating and mentoring the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric healthcare professionals. Our residency program is recognized for its strength, and our faculty are national leaders who are consistently recognized for their excellence in medical education, child health advocacy, and healthcare system quality improvement.

Research is a central pillar to our mission. Our researchers transform child health outcomes regionally and globally. Through research in gut health, rare diseases, and pediatric obesity and diabetes, and other emerging fields, our researchers are creating new knowledge in a supportive training environment. We highly value undergraduate Health Sciences and medical students and graduate and postgraduate trainees. Interdisciplinary research in pediatrics ensures that the trainees get immersed in our research environment to ignite life-long passion for discovery.

We welcome diverse perspectives to build an excellent pediatric system of care with strong teams to serve the needs of children and families. We believe that we have a bright future for child health that is grounded in a strong care system supported by strong people to tackle the challenges and create opportunities to meet the needs for children and families locally and globally.

Dr. M. Constantine Samaan
Professor & Head,Department of Pediatrics,
Queen's University & Kingston Health Sciences Centre