David Banayan, MD, MSc, FRCPC

David J. Banayan, MD, MSc, FRCPC, is a specialist in General Psychiatry, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (formerly Psychosomatic Medicine), Transplant Psychiatry and Clinical Medical Ethics. Banayan completed his felllowship in consultation-liaison psychiatry at the University of Chicago, in tandem with a fellowship in medical ethics at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. After completing his residency in psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Banayan became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He holds a masters degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from McMaster University.

As part of Banayan’s keen interest in psychodynamic psychotherapy and other psychotherapy modalities, he supervises residents in psychoanalytically-oriented psychodynamic psychiatry. He also created the department’s first small group supervision formats in psychodynamic psychiatry and psychopharmacology. As a transplant psychiatrist Banayan removes barriers to organ transplantation that are conferred by a wide variety of mental health illnesses. He is also the clinical lead for the psychiatrist-led inter-professional quality improvement program with Rush’s University Transplant Program. Banayan has previously been invited by the National Kidney Foundation to speak on the subject of mental health issues affecting individuals with chronic kidney disease. In the sphere of clinical ethics, Banayan is involved in ethics education, assistance in the assessment of medical decision making capacity, organ transplant candidacy, and other situations where principles of medical ethics and and the challenges of clinical medicine intersect.