Read the 2022 awards program CMA Honorary Membership Dr. Carolyn A. Lane Dr. Paul L. Toye Dr. Jeffrey C.E. Way

CMA Dr. Brian Brodie Organizational Leadership Development Award

This award honours the CMA's longest serving board chair and is given to a student and a resident who demonstrate exemplary leadership.

Mr. Mehul Gupta (student)

Class of 2023, Calgary

Mehul Gupta isn’t waiting for his MD to make an impact. In 2017, he founded Youreka Canada, a national non-profit empowering young innovators, thought leaders and active citizens through educational opportunities and mentorships. He has also worked closely with Kids Help Phone and on campaigns to increase awareness of mental health resources for Canadian youth. Mr. Gupta is currently studying medicine at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Stephanie Smith (resident)

Family Medicine, Calgary

After noticing the rise in burnout and depression among medical learners, Dr. Stephanie Smith developed a program called STRIVE — Simulated Training for Resilience In Various Environments. A medical officer at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick, she developed the program based on her experience deploying as a critical care nursing officer in the Canadian Armed Forces. She is now expanding STRIVE across Canada.

CMA Dr. Leo-Paul Landry Medal of Service

Dr. Leo-Paul Landry Medal of Service is awarded to a CMA member who has made exceptional contributions to the advancement of health care in Canada.

Dr. Jane Lemaire

Internal Medicine, Calgary

Dr. Jane Lemaire is a passionate advocate for recognizing physician wellness as a quality indicator of the health care system. Currently a clinical professor in internal medicine at the University of Calgary, she has helped lead the charge to better support physicians, create much-needed resources and ensure high-quality patient care in Alberta. Among her many achievements, she is the co-founder and physician lead for Well Doc Alberta, a pan-provincial physician wellness initiative focused on education and prevention.

CMA F.N.G. Starr Award

The F.N.G. Starr Award is the highest CMA award available to one of its members and recognizes outstanding and inspiring lifetime achievement.

Dr. John Conly

Infectious Disease Specialist, Calgary

Dr. John Conly’s work has improved human health on a global scale. An infectious disease specialist and professor at the University of Calgary, Dr. Conly has worked for decades on antimicrobial resistance, infection prevention and health care innovation; his contributions have significantly affected medical practice, research and policy. In 2002, he founded the research and test-site Ward of the 21st Century. More recently, he chaired the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Guidance Development Group. Dr. Conly is described by colleagues as humble, creative and a dedicated humanitarian. For his vision and collaborative leadership, he is this year’s recipient of the CMA’s highest honour.

CMA Award for Young Leaders (Early Career)

Dr. Shannon Ruzycki

Internal Medicine, Calgary

Recognized for advancing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the medical workplace, Dr. Shannon Ruzycki is leading tangible changes locally as a general internist at the University of Calgary, provincially with Alberta Health Services and nationally with the Canadian Resident Matching Service. Her work led to the development of a provincial peer support network for physicians who have experienced harassment or discrimination. As a champion for EDI principles, she advocates for structural changes in medicine and incorporating EDI literacy into medical education.

To see their full biographies, please visit www.cma.ca/cma-awards-and-nominations.

Read the 2021 awards program CMA Honorary Membership Dr. Charlotte A. Foulston, Pediatrics, Medicine Hat Dr. David B. Hogan, Geriatric Medicine, Calgary

CMA Dr. Ashok Muzumdar Memorial Award for Physicians with Disabilities

Dr. Vera Krejcik

Psychiatry, Calgary

Dr. Vera Krejcik has received the Dr. Ashok Muzumdar Memorial Award for Physicians with Disabilities in recognition of her passionate advocacy for patients, medical learners and/or physicians with disabilities.

Just before starting her residency in internal medicine, she underwent surgery to repair a vascular malformation in her brain. Though the procedure initially appeared to have gone well, Dr. Krejcik suffered a massive stroke during recovery, which led to a second urgent operation and paralysis on the left side of her body.

After two years of physical therapy, Dr. Krejcik managed to regain much function in her left leg, but her left arm and hand remained nonfunctional, and she walks with a brace to support a paralyzed left foot and ankle.

The physical challenges that Dr. Krejcik was facing forced her to reassess her dream of practicing internal medicine. Understanding that the physical demands of a residency in this specialty would be too taxing, she chose to pursue psychiatry and continue her commitment to medicine.

To see the full biography of Dr. Vera Krejcik, please visit www.cma.ca/cma-awards-and-nominations.

CMA Award for Young Leaders (Early Career)

Dr. Monty Ghosh

Addiction & Internal Medicine, Calgary

Dr. Monty Ghosh has received the CMA Award for Young Leaders (Early Career) in recognition of his exemplary creativity, initiative, and commitment to making a difference at the local, provincial/territorial or national level.

Dr. Ghosh’s work with marginalized populations started well before the pandemic. He established Alberta Health Services’ first comprehensive outpatient addiction treatment program, dubbed the Rapid Access Addiction Medicine. The program — which includes supports for individuals to detoxify at home instead of relying on inpatient facilities — has grown to become a lifeline for more than 5,000 clients.

Described as a “big systems thinker” by his colleagues, Dr. Ghosh continues to develop innovative harm reduction measures related to opioid use.

In December 2020, Dr. Ghosh realized a years-long passion project — the launch of a national hotline that opioid users can call when taking substances alone. The hotline is operated by peer support workers with lived experience who can dispatch emergency services to the caller’s home if an overdose occurs.

To see the full biography of Dr. Monty Ghosh, please visit www.cma.ca/cma-awards-and-nominations.

Read the 2020 awards program. CMA Honorary Membership Dr. William Walter (Bill) Anderson Dr. Daniel Jacob Barer Dr. Steven William Chambers Dr. Rowland Therol Nichol Dr. Ernst Paul O. Schuster Dr. Linda Maeford Slocombe

CMA Award for Young Leaders – Resident

Dr. Kimberly Williams

Dr. Williams is receiving the CMA Award for Young Leaders (Resident) in recognition of her exemplary dedication, commitment and leadership in education, research and community service.

It's probably not surprising that Dr. Kimberly Golding Williams is a community builder. From an early age, she watched her mother, a social worker, advocate for children and other vulnerable members of the community. Having that role model helped shape her own core values. "I believe the strength of any community depends on the strength of each and every person," she says. "If we want to build strong communities, we need to take care of each other and make sure those who are struggling get the help they need." That commitment inspired Dr. Williams to pursue a medical career, but she recognizes that finding ways to improve people's health and well-being often falls outside medical treatment. "As physicians, it's important for us to expand our focus and advocate for things like housing-first models and expanding telehealth options for northern and rural communities," she says.

Continue reading profile on CMA.ca

CMA John McCrae Memorial Medal

Colonel (Retired) Ian Anderson, MD

Colonel (Retired) Dr. Ian Anderson is receiving the John McCrae Memorial Medal in recognition of his exemplary service as a clinical health service member of the Canadian Armed Forces.

When Canadian troops are deployed throughout the world, they know there are skilled military surgeons standing by to provide medical care if needed. That knowledge brings peace of mind.

Dr. Ian Anderson was confident of this when he enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces at McGill University while still a medical student. After his compulsory service as a general practitioner, he continued to train with the Armed Forces as a general surgeon in Ottawa and Toronto.

He had less confidence, though, after four years of treating military patients, their families and civilians in Cold Lake, Alberta.

Times had changed. The Cold War was over. Canada was downsizing its military, releasing both soldiers and medical personnel — including medical specialists.

The predictions that the newfound peace would last, however, were wildly inaccurate. Many countries disintegrated. Military units supported by small medical and surgical teams were in high demand around the world. Specialists such as Dr. Anderson were faced with a lack of clinical work at home and high-frequency but low-intensity deployments abroad. Those competing demands put pressure on doctors to maintain and develop their surgical skills.

Dr. Anderson joined an arduous process of consultation with senior leaders, who finally realized the situation was untenable. The Armed Forces could not recruit and retain doctors to support military operations if they did not give them the chance to keep up their medical training.

Starting in 1997, the focus of military medical specialists became skill development. One of the first opportunities was trauma and critical care training at the University of Calgary, something Dr. Anderson pursued in 1999.

"Without this more robust high-intensity training, we would never have been able to go to Afghanistan and treat the high numbers of critical casualties, working with our allied military teams," he says. 

Continue reading profile on CMA.ca

CMA Honorary Memberships:

• Dr. Douglas B. Duval
• Dr. Steven M. Edworthy
• Dr. Brent T. Friesen
• Dr. Gordon H. Johnson
• Dr. Gerhard N. Kiefer
• Dr. Dale C. Lien
• Dr. Roger C. Rampling
• Dr. Fredrykka D. Rinaldi
• Dr. Peter M. Venner

CMA Sir Charles Tupper Award for Political Action: Dr. Alika Lafontaine

Written by the Canadian Medical Association

Dr. Alika Lafontaine still remembers the time in his life when he was afraid to speak. With a stutter and a learning disability, childhood teachers warned he would be “lucky” to finish high school. But his mother refused to accept this prognosis, telling her son he could become anything — even a physician.

“My mom really pushed me through with her vision of what I could be. She sponsored me into a lot of spaces I never imagined I could participate in.”

Today, as an anesthesiologist in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Dr. Lafontaine is taking the same tack with his own advocacy — using his voice to create spaces where Indigenous communities can work with physicians, politicians and policy-makers to improve Indigenous health care.

The Indigenous Health Alliance is one example of Dr. Lafontaine’s advocacy work. In 2013, he was helping Saskatchewan First Nations figure out why its residents were so sick and uncovered a gap in the quality improvement approach between Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients.

Committed to eliminating these differences across Canada, Dr. Lafontaine drafted and co-led a national strategy with territorial organizations representing 150 First Nations and several national health organizations. That proposal was then submitted to the federal government on behalf of those First Nations — the Indigenous Health Alliance — to advance health transformation.

Last fall, the federal government committed $68 million to the project, and with that money in place, Dr. Lafontaine proudly stepped back to ensure that implementation was led by First Nations.

“When it comes to advocacy, you create the forum and context and then let people have their own conversations about what they want to create.”

With the support of the CMA, Dr. Lafontaine is currently building a different space — a Community of Interest on Indigenous Health — a virtual platform where he hopes physicians and First Nations communities can become sensitized to other perspectives and openly tackle topics like discrimination and racism.

“Unless a practitioner can get to the point where they can honestly address those things, they’ll never start their journey of managing their bias and providing better care.”

In addition to his work with the CMA, Dr. Lafontaine sits on more than a dozen committees and boards related to Indigenous health and is playing an influential role in raising awareness with governments at all levels. His use of storytelling, and his descriptions of real patient encounters and his own experiences as a Cree-Ojibwe-Polynesian, are helping change mindsets.

“I’ve realized that when people are able to be open and share, that’s the beginning of change — that’s a real seed that’s been planted.”

Dr. Alika Lafontaine is receiving the Sir Charles Tupper Award for Political Advocacy for demonstrating recent leadership, commitment and dedication in advancing CMA goals and policies through grassroots advocacy