Clinical Services
All members are actively involved in providing clinical consultative services in Allergy and Immunology to the community.
A major initiative at St. Paul’s Hospital is to improve the care of patients with primary immunodeficiency. We have been at the forefront of providing home subcutaneous immunoglobulin therapy (SCIG) as well as maintaining our intravenous immunoglobulin therapy (IVIG) at St. Paul’s Hospital. The Primary Immunodeficiency Transition Clinic led by Drs. Catherine Biggs and Persia Pourshahnazari has not only provided advanced diagnostic tests including exploring the genetic origins of many immune diseases but provides team based care for patients previously followed at BC Children’s.
Our division has created many clinical programs which are the first of its kind in the country. Drs Raymond Mak and Juan Ruiz have established the first Perioperative Anaphylaxis Clinic in Canada at Vancouver General Hospital which services the entire province. Dr Mak also helped establish the MED Safe clinic, a unique interdisciplinary adverse drug reactions clinic with a focus on severe cutaneous adverse reactions . This clinic combines translational research with clinical care. Dr. Mak is also involved in Canada’s first dedicated pregnancy penicillin allergy clinic at BC Women’s hospital.
Our entire faculty provides community and hospital care for patients with a wide variety of allergy and immunology conditions. These include: allergic rhinitis, asthma, aspirin/NSAID sensitive asthma (also known as aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease-AERD), chronic sinusitis, nasal polyps, drug allergy, food allergy, insect sting allergy, atopic dermatitis (eczema), urticaria (hives), angioedema, anaphylaxis, mast cell disorders such as mastocytosis and mast cell activation syndrome, eosinophilic esophagitis, other eosinophilic disorders, hereditary angioedema and immunodeficiency conditions such as common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) and IgA deficiency.
Many members of our Faculty are also actively involved in local, national and international committees dealing with their areas of interest.
Dr. Angeliki Barlas is an Allergist and Clinical Immunologist at Aera Medical Specialists Clinic in Port Moody and a Clinical Instructor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. In addition to her outpatient practice at Aera Medical, Dr. Barlas is a consultant at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. She cares for children and adults in her outpatient practice with a special interest in allergic rhinitis, severe allergic asthma and urticaria. She also offers patch testing for contact dermatitis, which is currently a limited resource in the Vancouver area.
Dr. Amin Kanani is an attending physician in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at St. Paul’s Hospital and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is the past president of the BC Society of Allergy and Immunology and former interim program director of the adult allergy and clinical immunology fellowship program at UBC. Dr. Kanani’s areas of interest and research include hereditary angioedema, chronic spontaneous urticaria, allergic rhinitis, food allergy and cannabis allergy. Dr. Kanani has participated in developing guidelines for the management some of these conditions at the provincial, national and international level.
Dr Manstein Kan is an allergist and immunologist working in Langley and Burnaby. He is a Clinical Instructor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. His areas of interest and research include angioedema, chronic urticaria and food allergy. Dr. Kan is the Provincial Immunology Chair for Expensive Drugs for Rare Diseases.
Dr. Godfrey Lam graduated from UBC medical school, and completed his allergy and clinical immunology fellowship in London. He works in a community clinic in Vancouver, and at both VGH and St Paul’s Hospital. He is currently a clinical instructor of UBC department of medicine and on the executive board of the BC Society of Allergy and Immunology. His interests include food allergy and allergy immunotherapy.
Dr. Ryan Lo is a clinical immunologist and allergist practicing both in a community setting in Richmond and Burnaby where he sees both adults and children, and as an attending physician at St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. His primary research interest is cannabis allergy, in which he has had the pleasure of contributing as a member of the International Cannabis Allergy Collaboration. Other interests include interdisciplinary management of severe asthma and rhinitis.
Dr. Raymond Mak has a special interest in drug reactions and Quality Improvement. He sits on the BC Provincial Antimicrobial Clinical Experts (PACE) panel as an allergy representative and is collaborating with antimicrobial stewardship at VGH, BC CDC and PHSA to establish penicillin allergy de-labelling programs.
Dr. Siobhan Perkins graduated from McGill University’s Adult Clinical Immunology and Allergy program. She currently works out of the Surrey Allergy Clinic where she sees both pediatric and adult Allergy/ Immunology patients. She is the previous Vice-President of the British Columbia Society of Allergy and Immunology and she is a current clinical instructor with the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of British Columbia. Her specific area of interest is in medical education and she is the current medical undergraduate lead for the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. She is currently pursuing a Master of Education in the Health Professions at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Persia Pourshahnazari is an allergist and clinical immunologist working out of Vancouver, BC. She cares for mainly adolescent and adult patients with a variety of hypersensitivity and immunodeficiency disorders. She enjoys teaching and is a clinical assistant professor at UBC. She is a member of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Saint Paul’s Hospital, where she is co-director of the Primary Immunodeficiency Transition clinic and co-physician lead of the Subcutaneous Immunoglobulin clinic. She sits on the BC Secondary Immunodeficiency Provincial Working Group in guideline development. She also has the privilege of providing outreach clinics to beautiful Haida Gwaii, BC.
Dr. Juan Ruiz graduated from the Allergy and Immunology program at the University of British Columbia. He is the director of the Peri-Operative Anaphylaxis Clinic (POAC) at Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Ruiz is a national leader in the field of perioperative anaphylaxis, and he has helped create similar clinics across the country. Dr. Ruiz started a multidisciplinary clinic with Otolaryngology at St. Paul’s Hospital to serve patients with NSAID exacerbated respiratory diseased (NERD), nasal polyposis and severe T2 inflammation. He was part of a panel to create guidelines regarding use of biologics in upper airway disease.
Dr. Peter Stepaniuk is a clinical immunologist and allergist currently working in the community. His clinical interests include urticaria, angioedema, severe asthma and primary immunodeficiencies.
D. Kateryna Vostretsova is the Program Director for Allergy & Clinical Immunology at UBC. She works for both Providence Health Care and Vancouver Coastal Health and has a diverse outpatient practice where she sees both children and adults with allergies and immunodeficiencies. She is interested in quality improvement and has started a penicillin delabelling program at Richmond Hospital.