Department of Medicine
Division of Hematology
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Providence Hematology consists of members of the UBC Division of Hematology at St. Paul’s Hospital and Providence Health Care. The group provides specialized hematological services to patients with hematological diseases from all over the province of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. We provide consultative services and accept referrals from family physicians and other specialist offices. Our scope of practice includes treating patients with benign hematological problems such as anemia, abnormal white blood cell and platelet counts, clotting and bleeding disorders and malignant hematological problems such as chronic leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. The provincial programs for adult inherited bleeding disorders, hemoglobinopathies and hemosiderosis are based at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC.
Dr. Lynda Foltz completed medical school, internal medicine residency training and hematology subspecialty fellowship at UBC. She practiced hematology for two years at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster before joining the Division of Hematology at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver in 2007. She is a Clinical Professor in the UBC Division of Hematology and was head of the St. Paul’s Division of Hematology from 2013-2018. Her area of special interest is myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). She is a principal investigator for MPN clinical trials and is a founding and executive member of the Canadian MPN Group.
Dr. Jackson is a hematologist primarily interested in non-malignant blood conditions including inherited and acquired bleeding disorders. She is a co-founder of West Coast Hematology, practices at St. Paul’s Hospital and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at UBC. She is the Medical Director of the Adult Provincial Bleeding Disorders Program with a background of investigator initiated clinical research. Dr. Jackson is passionate about measuring health outcomes that matter to patients and transforming to a Value Based Health Care model of care. She has trained with Dr. Michael Porter at Harvard University, obtained her Green Belt Certification from the Value Based Health Centre of Europe and is currently completing her Masters in Health Care Transformation with Dr. Elizabeth Teisberg and the Value Institute for Health and Care, at the University of Texas Austin. Dr. Jackson is working as the Physician Lead for Value Based Health Care at Providence Health Care and a member of the Physician Advisory Committee for Quality, Safety and Value.
Dr. Alaa Al Zaki is an adult hematologist at St. Paul’s Hospital and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She received her training in internal medicine and adult hematology at UBC. She also obtained certification in both fields from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Al Zaki has broad general hematology practice with a special interest in thrombosis medicine that she received further training for at UBC. She is also interested in red blood cell disorders and hemoglobinopathies and had recently joined the Provincial Adult Hemoglobinopathy Program of British Columbia.
Dr. Ezzat received her medical degree in 1995, and pursued specialist training in internal medicine and hematology at UBC. She obtained certification in internal medicine and hematology from the Saudi Board of internal medicine, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. She is currently a member of the Division of Hematology at St. Paul’s Hospital and holds the position of Clinical Associate Professor at UBC.
She had obtained Master of Science in Hemoglonbinopathy from University College London in England and currently is the director of the Provincial Adult Hemoglobinopathy Program of British Columbia and the director of the Provincial Adult Hemoglobinopathy Program of British Columbia and the director of the Provincial Home Hemosiderosis (Iron chelation) Program of British Columbia. She is the founder of the hemoglobinopathy association of Canada and she is the director of blood disorders program at MOH in Saudi. She cares for patients with all hematologic problems including hematological malignancies, while hemoglobinopathies and transfusion-related iron overload are of clinical and research interest to her. She plays an active role in clinical research. She had published in the field of Lymphoma and HIV and her most recent work is on liver iron overload and iron chelation therapy.
Dr. Léger received her medical degree, trained in internal medicine and completed her hematology fellowship at the University of Ottawa. She achieved her hematology subspecialty certification from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2001 and furthered her training as a Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplantation Fellow at UBC. She became a staff hematologist at St. Paul’s Hospital in September 2003 where she currently holds the position of Clinical Associate Professor. She is a co-founder of West Coast Hematology AND HER practice includes patients with malignant and benign conditions. She currently serves as a Board Director for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC and she is an examiner for the Hematology Examination Board for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Dr. Heather Leitch is a Hematologist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada and Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Leitch has a clinical and research interest in transfusional iron overload in acquired anemias such as the myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and a longstanding interest in lymphoproliferative and other blood disorders in the setting of HIV infection. She is Director of Hematology/Oncology Research at St. Paul’s Hospital, a reviewer of scientific papers for several medical journals, and an active member of the Canadian Consortium on MDS (CCMDS) and the UBC Department of Medicine Research Advisory Committee.
Dr. Hayley Merkeley joined the UBC Division Hematology as a Clinical Assistant Professor in 2019. She completed her undergraduate studies in Biopsychology and Spanish at the University of Victoria, followed by medical school and post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Hematology at the University of British Columbia. From 2016-2018 she completed a clinical fellowship in red blood cell disorders, including sickle cell disease and thalassemia, at the University of Toronto. She graduated from the Master’s of Science Program in Public Health from the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2019.
She has clinical and research interests in benign hematology including sickle cell disease and thalassemia, bleeding disorders and ITP. She works in the provincial Hemoglobinopathy and Adult Bleeding Disorders clinics based at St. Paul’s. She also has an interest in global health and has participated in UBC projects in rural Honduras and Uganda.
Dr. Khaled Ramadan received his medical degree in 1997 and completed his training in internal medicine in Ireland where he obtained his certificates from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (MRCPI) in 2000 and certificate of completion of General Professional Training (GPT) in Internal Medicine. He completed his hematology training in the UK with Membership of the Royal College of Pathologists of UK (MRCPath) granted in 2004. In 2008, he became a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of the UK (FRCPath). He then went on to do a clinical and research fellowship in lymphoma, leukemia and bone marrow transplant in Vancouver from August 2005 to December 2006. He joined the Division of Hematology at St. Paul’s Hospital in January 2007. He also a member of the Royal College of physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He currently holds an appointment at UBC as a Clinical Associate Professor. Dr. Ramadan is very dedicated to clinical research with a focus on lymphoid malignancies and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Dr. Paul Yenson completed his internal medicine and hematology training at the University of British Columbia in 2007. Before joining the Division of Hematology in 2009, he undertook fellowship training in apheresis medicine at the Puget Sound Blood Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle, Washington and in congenital blood disorders at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario. In addition to his general hematology practice, he is currently a staff physician with the Vancouver General Hospital Thrombosis Program, the Apheresis Program of British Columbia and the Adult Hemophilia Program of British Columbia.
Division of Hematology
440-1144 Burrard Street
Vancouver, B.C., V6Z 2A5
Co-Division Head
Dr. Lynda Foltz, Clinical Associate Professor
Co-Division Head
Dr. Shannon Jackson, Clinical Associate Professor
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West Coast Hematology
#411 – 1200 Burrard Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6Z 2C7
Phone: 236-479-0498
Pacific Hematology
#112 – 744 Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6C 1A5
Phone: 236-317-3083
