April Kam
Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Dr. April Kam is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Director of Research and Quality for the division of PEM. She joined the division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine after completing her pediatrics residency and an academic pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Dr. Kam completed her Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and her Masters of Science in Public Health (Health Promotion stream) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK.

Dr. Kam has interest in global health education and has taught and worked in several countries including Rwanda, Nicaragua, Guyana and St. Lucia. She is the Pediatric track lead for the Developing EM conference (Sri Lanka, Fiji, Colombia) and is a Canadian Red Cross Emergency Response Unit physician. She is a founding member of the McMaster Pediatrics Anti-Racism Coalition.

Dr. Kam has revamped the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Quality Improvement and Patient Safety rounds and is also part of the McMaster Children’s Hospital Quality Improvement and Innovations Committee. She is an original member of the McMaster Global Pediatric Quality Improvement and Patient Safety initiative that has provided QIPS workshop and training to partner children’s hospitals in India, Singapore and Guyana. In 2017, April and the Speak Up team has brought “Speak Up at MCH”, an initiative that integrates patients and their families in communicating for patient safety to McMaster Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Kam is the McMaster Evaluations Portfolio Lead for the Pediatric Postgraduate Education Committee. In 2014, she was recruited to become a CAEP Education Champion. She is a member of the Program for Faculty Development and has been leading workshops on the hidden curriculum, simulation and coaching in medical education. Dr. Kam sits on the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s Specialty Committee in Emergency Medicine, Emergency Medicine Examination Board and the Leaders Resource group. She is a faculty for the ASPIRE course and a CPSO assessor.

She is the founding chair for the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Research Oversight Committee (PEMROC). Dr. Kam currently sits on the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board and has recently led the creation of PEMMREP the PEM research enrichment program. Her research interest includes antibiotic stewardship in PEM, post resuscitation debriefing, ethics in EM, the hidden curriculum in medical education and quality improvement processes in the ED.