Pediatrics chair returns to Australia

Dr. Peter Steer, chair of the Department of Pediatrics, will be leaving Hamilton early in the new year to return his native Australia to become the CEO of a major new 300-bed children's hospital to be built in Brisbane, Queensland.

Since January 2003, Dr. Steer has held multiple leadership roles in Hamilton. Besides chair of pediatrics for the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, he has been president of the McMaster Children's Hospital; chief of pediatrics for both Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton; and vice-president pediatrics, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.

“Dr. Steer has had an important impact on the development of pediatric training at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine,” said John Kelton, Dean and Vice-President of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. “We particularly appreciate his role in setting up the new McMaster Child Health Research Institute, which will advance research in all areas of child and adolescent health. He will be missed, but we wish him all the very best.”

Steer said: “It is with mixed emotions that I leave Hamilton, a community that has played such a significant role in my life and that of my family. I feel privileged to have worked with such dedicated and talented people who provide the highest quality of care possible for our children and their families.”