Anna Banerji

Anna Banerji M.D., O. Ont. is a Toronto infectious disease doctor, tropical disease specialist, pediatrician, public health specialist, academic, and activist. She is the founder and chair of both the North American Refugee Health Conference in Canada and the Indigenous Health Conference, and the co-founder of the Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers.

Education Banerji studied Arts and Science at the University of Toronto from 1983 to 1985. In 1989, she graduated from the University of Toronto as a Doctor of Medicine. She completed a pediatric residency at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa from 1992 to 1995, then Infectious Diseases at McGill University from 1995 to 1997. Subsequently she completed a clinical research fellowship while studying Tropical Medicine in 1998.

She obtained a Masters of Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health

Academic career From 2007 to 2016, Banerji was an assistant professor at University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine, specialising in infectious and tropical disease and pediatrics. and the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine. She did economic analyses to show that it was cheaper to give the RSV antibody palivizumab than to pay for hospitalization. Following a petition ("Provide #FairMedicine to protect Inuit babies from RSV deaths") with almost a quarter of a million signatures at change.org, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s (NACI) decided to recognize the increased risk for RSV admissions among Indigenous infants and prioritize them for the vaccine.

Banerji has been working with refugee populations for most of her career, and created refugee children's clinics when there was a surge of Syrian refugees and more recently Afghan refugees. She is the founder and chair of the North American Refugee Health Conference in Canada, which occurs on alternate years. how to safely navigate family gatherings, COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and the need for better public policy. She was very involved in addressing COVID-19 in Indigenous communities in Ontario, including petitioning for more resources, being part of the Nishnawabe Aski Nation Covid-19 Task-force, and spending five weeks vaccinating First Nations Indigenous youth in Northern Ontario.

She was the recipient of the Dr. Peter Henderson Bryce Award in 2019. Order of Ontario, 2012 Diamond Jubilee Medal, 2012 Pillars of the Pandemic Award 2022 Banerji, with friends, set up two scholarships in her son's name for Indigenous medical students, and has advocated for improving access to mental health services, especially for Indigenous youth.