CMA Awards and Nominations

F.N.G. Starr Award

A global leader in the field of lung transplantation, Dr. Shaf Keshavjee broke new ground with his research on using stem cells and genetic modification to treat and repair injured donor lungs. This innovative work led to the development of the Toronto Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion System, an incubator-like device that keeps lungs alive while outside the body.

Sir Charles Tupper Award for Political Advocacy

After a 20-year career in the Canadian Armed Forces, Major (Retired) Dr. Karen Breeck is leveraging political and public discourse to raise awareness of the health inequities faced by military women in and out of uniform, by volunteering at the municipal, provincial and federal political levels.

Dr. William Marsden Award in Medical Ethics and Professionalism

As director of the Clinical Ethics Unit at Centre hospitalier universitaire (CHU) Sainte-Justine, pediatrician and neonatologist Dr. Antoine Payot ensures physicians receive proper training in ethical decision-making and that patients and families have a say in difficult ethical situations involving prenatal diagnosis, the care of premature infants, pediatric complex care and mortality.

Owen Adams Award of Honour

For more than two decades, Rosemary Conliffe has been a central figure in the success of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students. As general manager, she helped coordinate large projects and was influential in helping transform medical students into effective advocates and leaders.

John McCrae Memorial Medal

He has served as a medical director in war zones such as Bosnia, Kuwait and Iraq, but it was a disaster right at home, off the coast of Nova Scotia, that shaped Major Trevor Jain’s military and medical career. In 1998, he was called upon to help with the recovery of Swissair Flight 111 and its 229 passengers.

May Cohen Award for Women Mentors

While she is known as one of Canada’s top researchers in kidney and cardiovascular disease, Dr. Sofia Ahmed has committed her career to passing on that knowledge to the next generation. She has been recognized with four distinguished mentorship awards for her efforts to develop future medical leaders in her field.

Dr. Ashok Muzumdar Memorial Award for Physicians with Disabilities

In 2011, Dr. Vera Krejcik faced a major health setback that changed her life and the trajectory of her medical career. In embracing her new reality, however difficult, she became an advocate and mentor for physicians with disabilities.

CMA Award for Young Leaders (Early Career)

During the first wave of the pandemic, internist and addictions specialist Dr. Monty Ghosh spearheaded a plan to establish COVID-19 screening programs, isolations spaces and strategies to contain outbreaks at shelters in downtown Calgary. Within weeks, he became a lead in Alberta’s efforts to minimize the spread of the virus among people experiencing homelessness.

CMA Award for Young Leaders (Early Career)

Halifax general internist Dr. Ashley Miller is passionate about transforming the health care system through technology. When the pandemic struck, she used her expertise in virtual care to establish the province’s first remote monitoring program to support patients with COVID-19 at home.

CMA Award for Young Leaders (Resident)

While some resident physicians were concerned about the loss of hands-on learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Brandon Tang saw it as an opportunity to re-envision the future of medical education. In 2020, he helped bring together more than 1,500 virtual participants at the International Conference on Residency Education – the world’s largest conference on postgraduate medical education.

CMA Award for Young Leaders (Resident)

As a medical resident, Dr. Thomas Brothers is already a key player in transforming addictions services in Nova Scotia hospitals. He helped build an inpatient addiction medicine consultation service for patients admitted to hospital with medical complications of addiction and developed a protocol for emergency departments to initiate treatment for opioid use disorder.

CMA Award for Young Leaders (Student)

Before starting medical school, it was Dr. Meghan Kerr’s work as an outdoor educator — including a 12-day whitewater rafting trip in northern Ontario — that sparked her commitment to fight climate change. Since then, she has become a planetary health advocate within her own medical school and at international climate summits.

CMA Award for Young Leaders (Student)

It was while studying at Université de Sherbrooke that Dr. Dax Bourcier began his work to empower medical students. Through the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, he co-chaired a task force to build a national wellness framework for medical schools.

Dr. Brian Brodie Organizational Leadership Development Award (Student)

A third-year medical student, Kay Wu is already becoming a leader in using technology to transform health care. During the pandemic, she helped launch an organization that used 3D-printing technology to create more than 22,000 face shields for health care workers in Ontario.