CMA Awards and Nominations

Owen Adams Award of Honour

Being nominated for an award — and having every Alberta Medical Association (AMA) president since 2001 support you — is surely an accolade in itself. Mr. Mike Gormley, the AMA’s executive director, now also has the honour of being the second recipient of the newly named Owen Adams Award of Honour.

Medal of Service

As a pioneer in nephrology and bioethics, Dr. John Dossetor has helped establish Canada as a world leader in both fields. In 1958, he organized the first kidney transplant from a living donor, and he subsequently established the first kidney transplant program at McGill University in 1964 — the same year he co-founded the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

F. N. G. Starr Award

As a leading academic and clinician, Dr. Andreas Laupacis’ career is full of noteworthy achievements — from developing the NNT (the ”number needed to treat”) as a standard measure of efficacy for health interventions, to helping establish the importance of patient engagement in health care delivery.

May Cohen Award for Women Mentors

Dr. Janice Willett’s leadership spans local, regional, provincial and national jurisdictions. But her biggest impact has arguably been at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), where she’s worked to amplify the voices of northern physicians within Canada’s health care and education systems.

Sir Charles Tupper Award for Political Action

Dr. Albert Schumacher was still early in his career when he was encouraged by his obstetrician uncle to get involved with their local medical society. Then the Ontario doctors’ strike of 1986 happened, and in his role as the Essex County Medical Society’s secretary, Dr. Schumacher quickly moved from being simply involved in physician advocacy to being truly committed to the cause.

Award for Young Leaders (Student)

Described as a citizen of the world, Dr. Aline D. Khatchikian — now a radiology resident — has put leadership at the forefront of her medical career right from the start. As a medical student at Université Laval, Dr. Khatchikian was the youngest member elected to the board of the Québec Medical Association (QMA).

Award for Young Leaders (Student)

For Ms. Lerly Luo, medical issues are global issues. In her first year of medical school, Ms. Luo co-founded the first Global Health Conference at the University of British Columbia, which brought together 150 students from diverse backgrounds, building partnerships between health care professionals, engineers and entrepreneurs.

Award for Young Leaders (Resident)

Few residents would be better qualified to write a news story about their own career than Dr. Blair Bigham. In addition to being an emergency medicine resident at McMaster University in Hamilton and a qualified helicopter paramedic, Dr. Bigham is also a medical journalist.

Award for Young Leaders (Resident)

It’s no overstatement to say that Dr. Christopher Charles’ Lucky Iron Fish project has revolutionized the treatment of iron deficiency in Cambodia. If you’re curious about the project name, the explanation is simple: Dr. Charles created a small piece of iron shaped as a fish — a symbol of good luck in Cambodia — for families to use in their cooking pots.

Award for Young Leaders (Early Career)

With her backpack on her shoulders, Dr. Cara Bablitz is always ready to respond to a call to care for a person who is homeless, on the street and dying. In her role with the Palliative Care Outreach and Advocacy Team in Edmonton, Dr. Bablitz helps provide care to socially vulnerable patients across the city.

Award for Young Leaders (Early Career)

Although he currently practises emergency medicine on the outskirts of Toronto, Dr. William Cherniak may be having the greatest impact on health care a world away, in Uganda. He is co-founder and chairman of the board at Bridge to Health Medical and Dental, a Canadian charity working in southwestern Uganda.

Dr. William Marsden Award in Medical Ethics

“Beyond simply being frontline providers and having a good understanding of health and the social determinants of health, we have an added responsibility, because of our status in society, to act in a socially accountable manner,” says Dr. Ritika Goel.