Dr. Bruce Pollock named Vice President of Research

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is pleased and honoured to welcome Bruce Pollock MD, PhD, FRCP to the hospital’s senior leadership team as the Vice President of Research. Dr. Pollock is also Professor and Head, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at the University of Toronto as well as the Sandra A. Rotman Chair in Neuropsychiatry, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest.

A researcher and clinician, Dr. Pollock is internationally recognized for his work in geriatric psychopharmacology (studying actions, effects, and development of medications that impact brain function). “CAMH is extremely fortunate to have one of the world’s leading clinical psychopharmacologists at the helm of our research program,” said President and CEO Dr. Paul Garfinkel. “Dr. Pollock’s pioneering research, clinical and administrative skills are the catalyst we need to take CAMH science to the next level of excellence.”

The keen interest and dedication to growing the Research Program is mutual. “I am energized by the remarkable depth and breadth of CAMH’s scientific work and scientific achievements, and the program’s commitment to research excellence that translates into improved care,” said Dr. Pollock. “My goal is to nurture this compassionate approach to science and foster synergies among the diversity of disciplines and paradigms, so that CAMH science stands as a beacon of hope to patients and families in our community, throughout the province and around the world.”

As a scientist, Dr. Pollock is part of CAMH’s Geriatric Mental Health program – a rapidly emerging leader in this area of study. This dynamic program completed the first known positron emission tomography (PET) study of elderly patients with schizophrenia, and was awarded its first significant external grant from the National Institutes of Health. As co-principal investigator, Dr. Pollock, will join forces with scientists from three US-based universities and CAMH colleagues, to continue exploring novel treatments for the behavioral disturbances of dementia.

In this new role, Dr. Pollock is also actively working to bring together the Rotman Research Institute’s world-class strengths in cognitive neuroscience and functional imaging with CAMH’s substantial capacities in genetics and PET. As he explains, linking investigators and resources from these two scientific powerhouses will enhance the scientific activity in both research programs for the benefit of our community.

Part of the ‘reverse brain drain’, CAMH attracted Dr. Pollock back to Toronto and CAMH from Pittsburgh in 2006, where he was Chief of the Academic Division of Geriatrics and Neuropsychiatry and Professor of Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, as well as Director of the Department of Psychiatry’s Clinical Therapeutics Research program. He is the first Canadian President of the 2,000-member American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP).

Dr. Pollock earned his medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Toronto and his PhD in pharmacology from the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine. He completed his internship at the Toronto Hospital and was Chief Resident at the former Clarke Institute in Toronto, now part of CAMH. Dr. Pollock has held several prestigious research career awards such as the Centennial Fellowship of the Canadian Medical Research Council, an Academic Award in Geriatric Mental Health, and an Independent Scientist Award from the United States’ National Institute of Mental Health.