Introducing the new NSA Chair
Dr. Dmitry Rozenberg brings experience, ideas, and passion to his role
When Dr. Dmitry Rozenberg talks about his recent appointment as the National Sanitarium Association (NSA) Chair in Respiratory Rehabilitation Research, he exudes excitement and energy. “This is an amazing opportunity at this stage in my career,” he says. “It’s also an opportunity to give back to patients and help them with their daily function.”
Dr. Rozenberg was born in Belarus, moving to Canada with his parents when he was six. He grew up in Thornhill and attended York University to study kinesiology. Then it was off to Ottawa for medical school, where he worked with cardiologists on cardiac stress testing and fitness-to-drive research. As a resident in internal medicine in Toronto, he continued to seek out opportunities for research.
During his respirology residency, he spent three months at UHN’s West Park, where he worked with Dr. Roger Goldstein, inaugural holder of the NSA Chair. “That’s where my career really started,” Dr. Rozenberg says. “Dr. Goldstein’s years of experience and mentorship helped me get excited about pulmonary rehabilitation research.” He also appreciated the multi-modal approach and team dynamic at West Park. He decided to focus his research on pulmonary rehabilitation and was accepted into a four-year Eliot Phillipson clinician-scientist program at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Rozenberg’s research focuses on patients with advanced lung disease, including those preparing for and recovering from lung transplantation.
“Transplantation offers a survival benefit, but it also offers a marvelous quality of life and functional benefit,” he says. “Being able to see patients develop their fitness level pre-transplant and then go through the transplant journey and realize the quality-of-life benefit is very rewarding.” He is currently leading a major study looking at the impact of inspiratory muscle training on patients before lung transplantation across all four transplant centers in Canada.
He completed his PhD in 2017, joined the faculty of the University of Toronto in 2018, and was recently made an Associate Professor (July 2025). In 2018, he was awarded the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Professorship in Rehabilitation Medicine, a position he held until December 2024.
The NSA Chair was created in 2002 with a $1 million donation from the NSA matched by West Park Foundation through the generosity of donors.
During his tenure, Dr. Rozenberg looks forward to advancing research on chronic lung disease, especially COPD, the third leading causeof morbidity and mortality globally. He sees many potential research avenues, from the development of effective tele-rehabilitation programs and personalized medicine approaches to the impact of COPD on cognition.
He believes that West Park is an ideal centre for clinical trials and hopes to attract a number of trainees. “This is an awesome opportunity to build the next generation of scientists,” he says. He’s also excited about the potential to collaborate across the UHN hospital sites and beyond.
Dr. Rozenberg says, “hard work and good fortune” have helped advance his career. Then he adds, “But the most important element is being able to ask the right patient centered clinical questions. When you speak to patients day to day, you realize where the gaps are, and can ask the right questions.”
