Isaac Odame

Isaac Odame, MD is the Hematology Section Head in the Division of Haematology/Oncology and a Member of the Centre for Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He is Professor and Director of the combined Division of Adult and Pediatric Hematology in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He holds the Alexandra Yeo Chair in Hematology in the University of Toronto. The focus of Odame’s academic work and clinical care are patients with sickle cell disease and thalassemia and other related hematological disorders. He is involved in several clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of new therapies for sickle cell disease. Isaac was instrumental in the design and implementation of universal newborn screening for sickle cell disease in Ontario, Canada, and has had a major influence on its implementation in other Canadian provinces. He founded the Canadian Hemoglobinopathy Group. Currently, Isaac is the Medical Director of the Global Sickle Cell Disease Network based at the Hospital for Sick Children Centre for Global Child Health Under his leadership, sickle cell disease clinicians and scientists across Africa, the Caribbean, Middle East, India, Europe, North and South America are working more collaboratively in research initiatives aimed at delivering interventions that are evidence-based, cost-effective and sustainable over the long-term, particularly in low-income countries with the highest disease burden. Isaac was previously Associate Professor at McMaster University where he was also the Director of the Residency Program in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. He is a medical graduate of the University of Ghana and did his specialty training in pediatrics and hematology/hematopathology in the U.K. at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow and the Hammersmith Hospital in London.