Recipients of the Alumni of Distinction Award

Alumna of Distinction for Education

Dr. Melanie Woodin, PhD’01, is an innovative educator who is the current dean of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Arts and Science, leading over 27,000 undergraduate and over 4500 graduate students. Her educational leadership and dedication to enriching the student experience have been evident throughout her career. She has led transformational initiatives including establishing an internship program that provides work experience and professional development training. She advocates for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative teaching and has established new programs that address contemporary topics and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, including certificates in Black Canadian Studies, and Sustainability.  

Alumnus of Distinction for Research

Dr. Adam Kirton, MD, MSc’96, PGME’05, is an internationally renowned researcher in the field of pediatric stroke and perinatal brain injury research. Focusing on neuroplasticity, and using training and modulation with non-invasive brain stimulation, Dr. Kirton's team has been able to meaningfully improve function in children who have suffered strokes, even many years after the event. In founding the Pediatric Brain Computer Interface Laboratory (BCI4kids), new neurotechnologies are now allowing even children with severe disabilities to realize new levels of participation in life and achieve things they never thought possible. The long-term benefits of this work for children with disabilities are immeasurable.  

Alumna of Distinction for Service

Dr. Rabiya Jalil, MD, PGME’11, is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of marginalized and vulnerable populations. Her clinical work provides care to people who may have complex medical and social needs, such as those from gender and sexual minorities, persons at risk of HIV, new immigrants, and people who are unhoused or living in poverty. She amplifies her work through the education of her community, colleagues and students. This includes leading the highly successful Alberta Sexual Assault Course and Conference, and increasing training opportunities for learners in primary care and sexual health. Administratively, her work focuses on equity and diversity and includes working to reduce barriers for applicants from under-represented groups applying to medical school. In the community, some of her work has included working closely with legal professionals and systems to provide interdisciplinary sexual violence education.

Alumnus of Distinction for Research

Dr. Scott Patten, PhD '94, is a Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, where he holds the Cutherbertson and Fischer Chair in Pediatric Mental Health. He is the Research Director for the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Medical Director of the Mood Disorders Program at the Foothills Medical Centre.

Dr. Patten’s research applies epidemiological (population-based) approaches to answering questions related to mental health, including the prevalence of mental disorders, associated risk and prognostic factors and patterns of mortality. He has also contributed important studies of medical-psychiatric comorbidity and mental health stigma. He is an author on over 800 publications indexed in the Web of Science and was recognized as “highly cited” by Clarivate Analytics in 2018. In 2020 he was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Alumnus of Distinction for Education

Dr. Trevor Day, BSc'00, PhD'08, is a Professor of Physiology at Mount Royal University, where he teaches courses in basic and applied human physiology. His federally-funded research program includes undergraduate trainees in every aspect of the research endeavour. By involving students as active participates in research, he creates meaningful experiential learning opportunities that have a transformative impact. As evidence of this, Day’s students excel and have presented over 50 peer-reviewed abstracts at national and international conferences; and many of his students are included as co-authors on his peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. 

Dr. Day has over a decade of experience creating and performing music-driven art and science projects with his band as a form of science outreach. He also collaborates with veteran Canadian science broadcaster and author, Jay Ingram, and the pair were the recipients of the 2014 Canadian Science Writers Association "Science in Society Communication Award".  Dr. Day was recently inducted into the Royal Society of Canada as a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists (2020-2027). 

Alumnus of Distinction for Service

Dr. Maurice (Moe) Schroeder, MD'76,  who is an ordained priest as well as a physician, lived and worked in Peru from 1978 to 2017.  His first five years in this country were spent at a rural mobile clinic in the high Amazon on the Huallaga River. He left Peru briefly to study at the Prince Leopold School of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and then worked in the Hansen’s Disease program at GonaÏves, Haiti for three years.          

He returned to Peru in 1986 with his colleague Dr. Jack MacCarthy, to work in the Centro de Salud Santa Clotilde and the Micro-Red Napo, a jurisdiction of about 100 villages on 400 km of the Napo River in the tropical rain forest of the low Amazon.  Dr. Schroeder performed a wide spectrum of clinical medicine and surgery, both at the rural hospital and the riparian out-lying clinics while focusing on the education and development of local village health workers.  

Prior to leaving Peru in 2017, Dr. Schroeder co-founded two not-for-profit organizations for the continuing sustainability of health care programs – the Civil Association “Pango” program and the Santa Clotilde Hospital Endowment Fund (SCHEF).

Dr. Schroeder is retired from practicing medicine and now resides in Battleford, SK where he is involved in the First Nations dialogue with Nakoda and Cree reserves as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action.             

Alumnus of Distinction for Excellence in Research

Dr. Gerald Zamponi, PhD'93, conducts research looking at how ion channels and receptors contribute to neurological disorders such as chronic pain, with the goal of developing therapeutic interventions. His work also deciphers how different regions of the brain are functionally connected to processing pain signals.  

He has published 300 articles, holds 12 U.S. patents, has given over 250 invited lectures across the globe and has attracted more than $25 million in research support to his lab.  He is currently a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Neurobiology and a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada, and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.  

Dr. Zamponi is  the senior associate dean for research in the Cumming School of Medicine where he began his faculty position in 1997 and has been a full professor since 2003. He is also a member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. He received his undergraduate training in engineering physics from the Johannes Kepler University in Austria, followed by a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Calgary and postdoctoral work at the University of British Columbia. 

Alumna of Distinction for Excellence in Education

Dr. Suzette Cooke, MD'96, PhD'15, is an award-winning educator who designs curricula and conducts research in medical education. Her personal skills in education have resulted in awards both locally and internationally. She was instrumental in re-designing the Teaching Scholars in Medicine Program and offering faculty development workshops across the departments of Medicine and Surgery.  

She is passionate about creating, launching and directing the new Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) Fellowship program, one of the first programs of its kind in Canada. The program celebrated its first graduate in 2019 and now takes fellows on a yearly basis. The fellowship is helping to define the quality of training for future clinicians and advance the field of pediatric medicine in Canada and abroad. 

Dr. Cooke's research focuses on creating, teaching and evaluating medical education curricula in the areas of clinical reasoning, health care communications, interdisciplinary simulation and quality improvement. She is currently a  pediatrician at the Alberta Children's Hospital. She is also a clinical associate professor, clinician educator and researcher at the Cumming School of Medicine. Dr. Cooke enjoys the diversity of clinical work in the pediatric hospital setting.

Alumna of Distinction for Excellence in Service

Dr. Jaelene Mannerfeldt, MD'89, an obstetrician-gynecologist, has been called to remote and international service for most of her professional life.  She has worked in Inuvik, Iraq, Pakistan, Laos, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda. Her time in Pakistan with Doctors Without Borders strengthened her determination to make a difference in the lives of people in rural and remote locations around the world. Dr. Mannerfeldt has also dedicated  15 years to help establish and develop family medicine as a speciality in Laos. Today, the program has seen growth from zero to over 200 family medicine physicians working in rural Laos.  

Dr. Mannerfeldt has recently focused her teaching efforts in Uganda and Tanzania. On an annual basis, she takes medical students to Africa to expose them to the developing world and rural medicine with the hope of inspiring new doctors to enter rural practice. She has been involved in maternal-newborn health projects in Tanzania and is continuing to contribute towards improvement in sexual and reproductive health for adolescents in East Africa. 

Dr. Mannerfeldt is the director of Resident Affairs and Physician Wellness for Post Graduate Medical Education at the Cumming School of Medicine, where she works to improve the educational experience of residents in their various training programs.  

Alumnus of Distinction for Education
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Dr. Aleem Bharwani, PGME '08, completed his general internal medicine training in the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM). He is the Director for Public Policy and Strategic Partnerships at the CSM, and the Lead for Public Policy at the O’Brien Institute for Public Health at the University of Calgary. His work emphasizes global citizenship and helps position the university as a leader in public policy. Dr. Bharwani has received multiple awards, both locally and nationally, for his teaching and mentorship.

Alumna of Distinction for Research

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In a world of competitive grant writing, the push to publish papers and enormous pressure to make the next big discovery, Dr. Freda Miller, PhD ‘84, is remarkably humble. Despite being the first person in her family to graduate from high school, she is a trailblazer in the international neuroscience community. Her contributions have earned her the 2018 Cumming School of Medicine Alumna of Distinction Award for Excellence in Research. 

Dr. Miller grew up in Bowness as one of six children. Even without formal post-secondary education, her family included inventors and forward thinkers. She credits her father, who invented different types of vending machines, and her grandfather, who created a bowling alley pinsetter, among the people who encouraged her to think creatively. 

Miller’s love for science ignited in grade nine when her teacher presented the science curriculum as a series of puzzles to solve rather than a list of facts to memorize. The opportunity to ask questions, conduct experiments and make discoveries was a turning point for her as a student. After high school, her family moved to Saskatoon where she attended the University of Saskatchewan on scholarship. After completing a Bachelor of Biochemistry (Honours), she took a job at the University of Calgary medical school working as a technician in the lab of Dr. Hans van de Sande, PhD. It wasn’t long before she decided to return to school and eventually earn her PhD. “It was serendipity and an exciting time in science – molecular biology was advancing at a record pace and it was the birth of a true genetic era,” Miller explains. “I am an accidental scientist!”

She describes her time at UCalgary as critical to her current success, as she found herself in an interdisciplinary environment with young, enthusiastic faculty members and students with diverse interests.  “We were all young and excited about research, and perhaps a bit naive, but we really believed that anything was possible both in terms of the discoveries we might make and in terms of our careers as research scientists".  

It was her self-proclaimed “why not?” attitude and the encouragement of her colleague Dr. Quentin Pittman, PhD, that led her to The Scripps Research Institute for a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience despite having no knowledge of the brain. After spending three and a half years in San Diego, she returned to Canada – moving to Edmonton, Montreal and eventually to SickKids Hospital in Toronto. 

Dr. Miller is excited about the opportunities for women in science. “Being an academic scientist is an easy choice. You can be an idealist and work collaboratively. If you do have a family there is flexibility because you are not locked into a schedule.” Dr. Miller goes on to offer this sound advice: “People don’t judge you for changing direction. Try it. If it doesn’t work, you still have credentials. Do it your way and make it work for you.”

Alumna of Distinction for Community

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Dr. Rupinder Toor, MD ’96,  is the 2017 Cumming School of Medicine Alumna of Distinction. The award recognizes her outstanding service to our community and her significant and ongoing contributions to immigrant women’s health in Calgary.

During medical school, Dr. Toor Mangat realized that, due to gender, language, and cultural barriers, many immigrant women didn’t have a comfortable place to seek health care. In October 2007, she established the Northeast Calgary Women’s Clinic, a not-for-profit women’s clinic that provides quality health care to women who aren’t able to seek this care elsewhere.

The clinic hosts a team of female physicians with language skills in English, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, French, among others, and a special interest in serving women from different cultural backgrounds. The team offers two clinical services – primary women’s health care and intra-uterine device (IUD) care – and partners with stakeholders working with similar populations to support and co-ordinate care. Since opening, the clinic has served nearly 50,000 women.

Since 2013, Toor Mangat has organized the annual Women’s Health in Primary Care Conference. She also helped establish women’s health as an area of focus within the scope of family medicine. Her contributions have been recognized with many awards, including the Global Women of Vision Award, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and the Canadian College of Family Physicians Recognition of Excellence Award.

Alumna of Distinction for Education

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The Cumming School of Medicine is known for its innovative curriculum and dedicated educators who create a successful learning environment for our future doctors.

This year, one such innovator, Dr. Pamela Veale, MD '93, PGME ’98, MSc ‘00 has been awarded the 2016 Alumna of Distinction Award for Education. This prestigious award will be given in recognition of her significant and ongoing contributions to the education of students and the development of programs in the Cumming School of Medicine’s Undergraduate Medical Education portfolio. Dr. Veale is currently Associate Professor, Pediatrics and Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education (UME).

Over the past 15 years, she has served as Course Chair, Director of Student Evaluation and Assistant Dean, UME. She played a key leadership role in the recent successful UME accreditation process.  Dr. Veale’s leadership activities extend beyond UME to other levels of education. She has had various roles in Post Graduate Medical Education including past-Program Director for the Post-graduate Program in Developmental Paediatrics and she was part of the team responsible for the successful accreditation of this program in 2008.

While contributing to many administrative and leadership activities in medical education, Dr. Veale continues to demonstrate a passion for teaching at all levels. She regularly teaches in multiple UME courses, supervises residents and presents at Continuing Medical Education and parent education events. She has served on several supervisory committees for graduate students in medical education, and is a mentor in both student and faculty mentorship programs.

Dr. Veale’s contributions in leadership and education have been recognized both locally and nationally.  In 2012, she was appointed Faculty Fellow for the Cumming School of Medicine.  The quality of her teaching is reflected in multiple teaching awards. Nationally, she received the designation of Founder, Developmental Paediatrics from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2012.

Alumna of Distinction for Research

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Dr. Kym Boycott, PhD '97, MD '00 —a leading global expert in rare diseases—remembers discovering her first disease-causing gene back in 1997.  She had just started medical school and was working as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab.

“I remember rushing off to class and then high-tailing it out of there at the end to go back to the lab, working into the night for weeks,” says Boycott. “It was one of the most exciting times in my research career and the lab team was full of energy.”

Since that first discovery, Boycott has made many more. As an accomplished investigator, she has done much to advance the understanding of the genomics of rare genetic diseases which affect as many one in ten Canadians. 

Research that's next generation

Boycott’s brilliant career includes establishing important research programs on gene discovery, a busy clinical practice in neurogenetics and recognizing the potential of using next generation sequencing to better understand the causes of rare genetic diseases in the clinic.

In 2010, Boycott brought Canadian clinical genetics centers together with the FORGE Canada initiative, which went on to identify more than 67 new disease genes in just two years.  Building on that success, Boycott has started a new project "Care for Rare".  It includes research, clinical translation, new treatments as well as advocacy and education for rare diseases.

Research that makes a real difference

“I was trained at the University of Calgary in research, medicine and medical genetics,” says Boycott. “With the help of some rather good luck, I was able to take this training and make a real difference in the lives of patients and families living with rare diseases in Canada and world-wide.”

Boycott left Calgary for the University of Ottawa in 2005. “It was easily the most difficult decision I have ever had to make,” she says. “Coming back ten-years later to receive such a prestigious award is a tremendous honour, and one which I will never forget.”

Alumnus of Distinction for Mentorship

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Dr. Paul Beck, MD '90, Professor in the Department of Medicine, was awarded the 2014 Cumming School of Medicine Alumnus of Distinction Award for excellence in mentorship.

After completing his medical degree, residency and fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of Calgary, Dr. Beck accepted a research fellowship at Harvard University. He returned to the University of Calgary as a clinician scientist in 1999.

He has received numerous teaching, mentorship and research awards including the 2012 International Research Mentor Award from the American Gastroenterology Association, the 2013 Division of Gastroenterology Research Mentor Award, the Alberta Society of Gastroenterology Distinguished Research Award and the Canadian Gastroenterology Visiting Research Professor Award.

Dr. Morley Hollenberg, Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, was enthusiastic in his nomination of Dr. Beck for this year’s award. "Dr. Beck is a quintessential role model for our combined degree and post-graduate trainees and serves as a key mentor for these young individuals.”

Mentorship is an integral part of Dr. Beck’s professional and personal life. “I have been very lucky to work with incredible students in medicine, graduate school and the Leaders in Medicine program. Some need little mentorship and they fly, but the ones that I am most proud of are the ones that run into problems and need active mentoring. It has been really rewarding to see students excel when those around them, including themselves, felt they could not.”

Currently, Dr. Beck is the director of the Leaders in Medicine Program at the Cumming School of Medicine and the research director of the GI Fellows program. His research interests focus on inflammatory bowel disease and his work has been published several prestigious journals including Science. In 2013 he was award the Citation Classic Award from the University of Calgary for a single paper being cited over 1000 times.

Alumna of Distinction for Collaboration

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Dr. Roxanne Goldade was awarded the 2013 Faculty of Medicine Alumnus of Distinction Award in recognition of her outstanding commitment to collaboration in the pursuit of excellence in health outcomes.

 Her nomination described her extensive work in community paediatrics and her ongoing commitment to improve paediatric care in our community. The committee was impressed at the breadth of influence that P-KIC has had on the quality of care for some our most needy children. Dr. Goldade’s development of a Social Paediatrics Section was also seen by the selection committee as an extremely complimentary and necessary addition to the care of the most vulnerable in our community

Dr. Roxanne Goldade, MD ’90, a Panda, has been practicing Community Paediatrics in Calgary since 1995. Her practice focuses on Developmental, Behavioural, Psychiatric and Social Paediatrics. She is also the Physician Lead for P-KIC (Pediatrics for Kids in Care) and the new Social Paediatrics Unit.

Dr. Goldade’s passion is Advocacy and Communication. Roxanne will state that “so much can be solved if people would/could just dialogue. We ARE the leaders and need to help our society (and children) move forward to achieve its (their) full potential.”

When not busy with Medicine, Roxanne can be found singing with two Juno nominations, running, spending time at her cabin in Whitefish, and enjoying her Architect husband and her two teenagers.

Alumnus of Distinction for Community

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Dr. Evan Adams, MD '02, a Pangolin, has been awarded the 2012 Faculty of Medicine Alumnus of Distinction Award for his outstanding contributions to his community.

After completing his medical degree at the University of Calgary, Dr. Adams was Chief Resident in the Aboriginal Family Practice program at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, BC. He also completed a Masters of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

He won the 2005 (provincial) Family Medicine Resident Leadership Award from the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), and he was the 2005 national winner of the Murray Stalker Award from the CFPC Research and Education Foundation. Dr. Adams is currently a board member of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, a member of the Provincial Committee on First Nations Health and on the advisory committee of the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health.

Dr. Adams is currently involved in research to improve models of health care service delivery to inner-city Aboriginals. He is also involved in a study determining ways to improve access to mental health and addiction care for the same population.

In April 2012, Dr. Adams was appointed Deputy Provincial Health Officer for the province of BC. He is the past-President of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada and is the past Director of the Division of Aboriginal Peoples' Health, UBC Faculty of Medicine. He was appointed the first-ever Aboriginal Health Physician Advisor in the Office of the Provincial Health Officer, BC Ministry of Health and with the (BC) First Nations Health Council.

Adams is also a successful actor appearing various movies including the Emmy-winning TV-movie "Lost in the Barrens" and its nominated sequel "Curse of the Viking Grave". Evan starred as Thomas Builds-The-Fire in "Smoke Signals", which won the coveted Audience Award for best film and the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. He also won Best Actor awards from the American Indian Film Festival, from First Americans in the Arts, and a 1999 Independent Spirit Award for 'Best Debut Performance' for his portrayal of Thomas in "Smoke Signals". Recently, he won a Gemini Award for co-hosting the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards 2011, along with Adam Beach. Evan has also starred in numerous television series, made for TV movies, and in live theatre productions.

Alumnus of Distinction for Education

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Dr. Gurdeep Parhar, MD'92, is the Associate Dean, Equity and Professionalism, for the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine. Previously, he has served as Co-Acting Head and Associate Head of UBC’s Department of Family Practice. Dr. Parhar was the Course Director for the Family Practice Continuum and Fourth Year Family Practice Electives.  He remains the Week Chair for the Preparation for Medical Practice Course in Fourth Year. 

 Dr. Parhar is a family physician with a practice focused on immigrants, refugees, workers’ health and patients with severe disabilities.  He teaches extensively in the undergraduate and post graduate programs in the areas of professionalism, equity, psychosocial aspects of health care, medical disability, informatics, reflection and self-care.

During MD Curriculum Renewal, Dr. Parhar has chaired the Working Group on Continuity and more recently on Social Responsibility and Accountability.

Dr. Parhar co-hosts a weekly television program entitled Pearls for Success which targets the well being of new Canadians.  He is the national Co-Chair for the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) Resource Group on Equity, Diversity and Gender (EDG). 

In 2010, the BC College of Family Physicians recognized Dr. Parhar as the Teacher of the Year.  Dr. Parhar was awarded the 2011 Killam Prize which is UBC’s most prestigious teaching award.

Alumnus of Distinction for Research

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Dr. James Kennedy, MD ’84, already knew by high school that he wanted to study the brain and behaviour. Since then his passion has been to unravel the mystery of mental illness through a combination of patient care and research.  “Everyday there is hope for new answers and solutions for devastating psychiatric illnesses,” said Dr. Kennedy.

Jim has done Nobel Prize quality research and in fact has collaborated with many Nobel Prize winners," said Dr Nick Voudouris who nominated Dr. Kennedy, for the 2009 Faculty of Medicine Alumnus of Distinction. 

Before attending medical school at the University of Calgary, Dr. Kennedy completed a BSc in psychology and biology and his MSc in neurochemistry at York. While completing his MSc he applied to medical schools and he found the program in Calgary appealing because of its clinical presentation-based curriculum. In Calgary, he found himself in an environment where inquiry and research was encouraged in medical school. While he was completing his MD he teamed up with Calgary psychiatrist Dr. Roy MacKenzie to try and understand human behaviour from an evolutionary point of view by studying other primates. This project led to a paper that was featured on the cover of  the British Journal of Psychiatry in 1986and catapulted Dr. Kennedy’s research career. Dr. MacKenzie continued to mentor Kennedy even after he moved to Yale to complete his residency in psychiatry.

Today, Kennedy continues to push the boundaries of research and treatment for patients suffering with all types of mental illness. He and his team are pioneering new treatments that combine genetic testing and brain imaging to better understand brain structure and function. By combining genetic testing with brain imaging, Dr. Kennedy will be able to study the effects of neurochemical changes that occur while taking certain medications.

Currently he is also applying molecular genetics to the study of problem gambling, schizophrenia, manic depression, addictions and impulse control disorders.  In addition, he is searching for genetic factors that may predict response and side effects to psychiatric medications. All of these areas of research and patient care offer promising futures for those suffering with mental illness.

Dr. Kennedy is of Head, Section of Neurogenetics, at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.  He is also Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Department of Neuroscience Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. He has published more than 300 scientific articles, and he is an active lecturer at numerous international conferences.

Alumnus of Distinction for Research

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Dr. William Ghali’s, MD ’90,  passion for health services research was ignited during a journal club series during his latter part of his residency at Queen’s University that focused on critical appraisal. The primary focus of this journal series was to examine how to apply the information in published studies to best treat patients.

He trained in health services research and epidemiology at the Health Research Unit at Boston University, where he also completed a Masters of Public Health Degree. During his time in Boston, Ghali studied the variability in health care and the need for standardization as a way to reduce the potential for mistakes and errors. Upon returning to Canada, he turned his focus to improving the Canadian health care system. 

While Dr Ghali’s early research career studied the shortcomings of the health care system, he now focuses his efforts on identifying innovative solutions to improve care. As the Director of Research for the Ward of the 21^st Century at the Foothills Hospital, the focus is now on innovative health care delivery. For example, the Ward of the 21^st Century is developing web-based tool for that will standardize hospital discharge information for other health care providers who will see a patient once they have been released from the hospital.

“The common thread to my research is to examine why do we do what we do. The health care system has many places where quality can be improved and things can be standardized,” says Ghali.

His work focuses on evaluating health care delivery for four inter-related high incidence and prevalence conditions -- cardiac disease, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, and venous thromboembolic disease.  These are all serious conditions that represent a significant burden both in terms of human suffering and health economics. Improved effectiveness and efficiency of health care delivery for patients with these conditions is clearly important to all Canadians.   

Ghali’s research has significantly impacted the care of patients with the medical conditions that are the focus of his research.  Specifically, his work  dealt with equity, and in some instances inequity, of access to care for these conditions (by age, by sex/gender, by geographic location of residence, by income level, by race/ethnicity),He studies practice variation across regions and hospitals, the implications of such variation on quality of care, economic considerations in rationing of health services, cost impact of adverse events and waiting times for cardiac care.

Dr. Ghali’s work has already begun to impact public policy in Canadian health care. “In a practical community based setting, I am already using the fruits of Dr. Ghali’s research to make a difference in the lives of individual patients. On a much wider basis, Dr. Ghali’s work will influence all of us in applying best practices to provide the most efficacious care to patients in the population in general,” said Dr. John Hickie, who was one of two alumni who nominated Dr. Ghali for the 2009 Faculty of Medicine Alumnus of Distinction. 

Dr. Ghali, is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary.   He holds a Government of Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research, and is also a Senior Health Scholar in the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

Alumna of Distinction for International Health

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For Dr. Lanice Jones, MD’85, a day at work in the Calgary Refugee Health Clinic involves things you might expect – like screening new arrivals for tropical diseases. But it also involves many things that go well beyond what any of us expect from our family doctor.

“Last year she went to the top at City Hall when one of her patients was hit by a city transit bus and he needed compensation to replace his only mode of transportation – a bicycle,” says Dr. Jaelene Mannerfeldt, who nominated Jones for the 2008 Faculty of Medicine Alumnus of Distinction Award. In fact, when it comes to making the case for better health care for refugees, Jones has been known to write, phone and talk to just about anyone who will listen.

It’s that lifelong commitment to advocating for marginalized and vulnerable populations that was recognized when Jones was presented with the Alumnus of Distinction award on October 3. This year’s focus of the annual award was to recognize alumni who have demonstrated distinguished community or volunteer service at home or abroad, which has made a difference to the well being of others.

For Jones, who started her career as a nurse and went back to study medicine at age 27, family medicine has always meant looking beyond the four walls of her practice to the larger global community. From volunteering in Nepal on a leprosy mission to setting up a Youth Clinic and a Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Response Team as a family physician in Duncan, B.C., Jones ensures that no one is left behind in any community that she is part of. That philosophy is one she learned by example.

“I grew up watching my parents volunteering – it was just part of life at my house to do what needed to be done in your community,” says Dr. Jones. “I think because of that I tend to see solutions rather than problems.”

Part of finding those solutions has been to continually upgrade her skills and knowledge to meet the needs of the community she is serving. In 2004, she travelled to Lima, Peru to attend the Gorgas Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine. She also recently spent time refreshing her obstetrical skills to ensure prenatal patients at the Refugee Clinic would have a doctor to deliver their babies.

Her dedication to helping new immigrants also extends to those in her own profession. She finds time to volunteer with the Alberta International Medical Graduate Association to mentor and coach physicians from other countries so they can have the opportunity to practice in Alberta.

“She is simply an amazing physician,” says Dr. Mannerfeldt. “She works from a philosophy of generosity and that means she will help with whatever crosses her office and life’s doors. To me, she embodies what it means to be a physician – a compassionate teacher of patients and colleagues.” 

Alumnus of Distinction for Mentorship

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Some people out there might say a family doctor is hard to find these days. However, luckily for U of C's medical students, for almost 30 years, one of the very best has been welcoming them with open arms to his clinic in Black Diamond.

Since graduating himself from UCalgary's medical school, Dr. Les Cunning, MD '74,  has been a mentor and a teacher to dozens of students in the U of C's faculty of medicine. In addition to teaching classes at U of C, designing curriculum and evaluating the clinical skills of physicians in training, for almost as long as he's been practicing, Dr. Cunning has been hosting medical residents in his busy clinic in Black Diamond.

In recognition of his considerable contribution to the education of family physicians over the years, Dr. Cunning has been named the U of C's Faculty of Medicine 2007 Alumnus of Distinction. Nominated by his peers, the award recognizes Dr. Cunning's outstanding commitment to mentoring students, residents and family doctors in a rural setting over the last 30 years.

Dr. Cunning has been a key figure in the training of U of C's family medicine residents since establishing his practice in Black Diamond in 1976. His involvement with U of C's medical school in a teaching role began in the early 1980's when he would travel in to the U of C from Black Diamond to teach various courses in undergraduate medical education. "That's when I really began to understand the importance of continuous learning. I'd go back and forth between clinical encounters and the classroom and see new things as a result of having a foot in both. And so, that was the start of what became years of being back and forth between being a teacher and a student myself and wanting to be an active part of a community of knowledge that kept growing."

Dr. Cunning spearheaded inviting the first resident to come to Black Diamond on a trial basis in 1988. Since then, he and the three doctors in his practice have welcomed dozens of residents, clinical clerks, as well as inviting students earlier in their medical training to come to observe a rural family practice. Dr. Cunning was the initial preceptor, supervising and mentoring students as they acquired clinical experience, but has been credited with encouraging and supporting his colleagues in stepping up to a teaching role as well. As many students will attest, his enthusiasm for rural family practice has been contagious - in fact, the very first resident Dr. Cunning brought to Black Diamond has now joined the practice.  

"For me, the goal has always been to bring students into learning situations where you are also providing community service." This is perhaps not surprising given that Dr. Cunning worked in the field of community development before deciding to pursue a career in medicine. Graduating with an Honors BA and MA in Political Science from U of C, it wasn't until one day picking up a medical textbook from the university library that Dr. Cunning began to consider medicine. "I read it like a novel," says Dr. Cunning. "I was hooked on learning and I guess I still am. I think that's really why teaching appealed to me - because it meant I got to keep learning too."

Dr. Cunning credits the U of C's Continuing Medical Education Program with keeping family doctors in smaller communities engaged and part of the ongoing education in the field of medicine, "For me, there was never a sense of professional rural isolation," says Dr. Cunning. "Being a teaching site means becoming part of a vigorous intellectual community. I also always felt the U of C did a great job of making sure that resources for rural practitioners were always just a phone call or internet search away and I still feel that way. They truly do an outstanding job of facilitating that network of professional development."

Beyond running a busy practice as a family doctor and also taking the extra time to mentor and teach students, Dr. Cunning has found time over the years to lend his expertise to many other areas of medical education and to strengthening rural practice. This includes being involved in the Rural Physician Action Plan, the North American Primary Care Network, the Alberta Section of Rural Medicine Executive and the Alberta International Medical Graduate Program (AIMG) program, which works to accredit doctors who have been trained in countries other than Canada.

Now semi-retired, Dr. Cunning remains involved in many of these initiatives. Beyond his formal role, his colleagues marvel that Dr. Cunning still makes time to help students applying to medical school or foreign-trained docs to prepare for the interviews and exams that are part of the process. All they need to do is phone Dr. Cunning and he is willing to do whatever he can to help someone who shares his passion for learning, medicine and community. "I've always believed we get far more out of being teachers than the students do," says Dr. Cunning. "I'm still struck by that student that asks the right question and it's one you would have asked years ago, but this time have forgotten to ask. There is no perfect, no best, in medicine. All there is is a need to keep learning. That dialogue between students, new doctors and older doctors is what elevates our profession above the noise that sometimes surrounds it. There is something about the pure joy in learning that inspires me and I know inspires others and I've been proud to be part of that."