Scientist, Women's College Research Institute
Staff Physician, Women's College Hospital
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Mona Loutfy is a scientist at Women's College Research Institute, where she heads the Women and HIV Research Program. She is research director at the Maple Leaf Medical Clinic (MLMC) — the largest HIV practice in Canada with 10 physicians who manage more than 2,500 HIV-positive patients — where she oversees a research staff of seven with 20 active research projects. An associate professor in the department of medicine at the University of Toronto, Dr. Loutfy holds medical appointments at Women's College Hospital, North York General Hospital and St. Michael's Hospital, and a courtesy appointment at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. In addition to her medical specialties, Dr. Loutfy holds a master's degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

An expert in infectious disease, Dr. Loutfy's research interests focus on the clinical management of HIV infection, particularly in women. She is developing a multidimensional research program on women and HIV that will serve women across Ontario and have an impact on care across Canada. In particular, Dr. Loutfy is studying the use and toxicities of combination antiretroviral therapies (cART) used by HIV-positive women. The goal of this research is to identify strategies to improve quality of life for the women involved, and to increase the virological and immunological efficacy of drug therapies for HIV.

Public perception of HIV lags behind the past decade’s medical advances. With funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Dr. Loutfy works to break down HIV-related stigma through the Canadian Women’s HIV Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort and the Interdisciplinary HIV Pregnancy Research Group. Dr. Loutfy and her team employ advocacy and community outreach to educate health-care workers, policy makers and communities that people with HIV can plan healthy families.

Dr. Loutfy collaborates extensively with researchers at other sites to investigate the risk, diagnosis and management of HPV and other sexually transmitted infections in HIV-positive women. She works with the community agency Women's Health in Women's Hands to engage women living with HIV in setting their own research priorities. She has also studied the feasibility of offering preventive treatment for HIV to survivors of sexual assault at all Ontario Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Care and Treatment Centres.

In 2010, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research honoured Dr. Loutfy for World Aids Day 2010. Soon after, she was awarded a $1.2-million grant to lead a national study on women and HIV. In April 2011, Loutfy co-chaired the 20th Annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research.