LEILA KASRAI

About Dr. Leila Kasrai

Dr. Leila Kasrai is a Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon at St. Joseph’s Health Centre and an Assistant Professor with the University of Toronto’s Department of Surgery. Her areas of clinical interest span both pediatric and adult plastic surgery, and she has been an invited keynote speaker on the topic of ear reconstruction both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Kasrai holds a Masters of Public Health from Harvard University with a specific interest in International Health. Her primary research focuses on the identification of factors that lead to burns in children in Africa, including assessments of community perceptions towards individuals with burn injuries.

Efforts Abroad

With 95% of global burn deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries, the need for funds and programs addressing burn prevention is an urgent public health issue. Through a grant from mining company IAMGOLD Corporation to the University’s Division of Plastic Surgery and a partnership with the American Medical Research and Education Foundation (AMREF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Dr. Kasrai has conducted extensive qualitative research and focus groups to examine the issues of burn prevention and treatment. She has collaborated with Dr. Shahla Yekta, a global health researcher and co-founder of Mind the Health Gap, to collect and analyze the data. Currently, funding is being sought for the development and evaluation of e ective burn prevention strategies.

She has also travelled to Ethiopia and Nepal to carry out both surgical and educational missions, including the establishment of a partnership with the AMREF to develop burn prevention programs in Kenya. e partnership is also aiding in a University of Toronto research project investigating the gaps in its surgical care accessibility.