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2023 Cumming School of Medicine Alumni of Distinction Awards

Learn more about our winners.....

Since 2006, the Cumming School of Medicine has been celebrating our outstanding alumni. Each year we are honored to receive a diverse group of nominees in three categories – education, research, and service. We are proud to announce our 2023 winners – an innovative educator who reimagines the ways students engage, a clinician-scientist whose research has improved outcomes for cardiac patients and a family physician who works tirelessly to meet his community’s needs.  

 


Rahim Kachra

Adrian Shellard

EDUCATION | Dr. Rahim Kachra, MD'10, PGME'15

Dr. Rahim Kachra, MD’10, PGME ’15, is committed to improving the educational experience of Cumming School of Medicine medical students. An enthusiastic educator, he is continually looking to improve, reimagine and challenge the ways students engage.  

As an educator, Dr. Kachra has simultaneously led major teaching portfolios in undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing medical education and excelled at these, winning multiple teaching awards.  

As an innovator, Dr. Kachra is spearheading the Re-Imagining Medical Education (RIME) initiative, which will fundamentally change the way the Cumming School of Medicine trains physicians and will place the School at the forefront of innovation in medical education in Canada. Specializing in design thinking, Dr. Kachra co-founded the Calgary Interprofessional Challenge, a university-wide inter-professional event bringing together undergraduate students from different faculties, including the arts,  business, engineering, and medicine, to solve community problems 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Kachra took on the role of Team Lead for Physician Training and Education, ensuring that students and clinical faculty received the necessary training to work in new settings.  

Dr. Kachra is a role model who is widely admired by students not only for his medical expertise and teaching but for his mentorship and sincere interest in their well-being and education.  An Avenue magazine Top 40 under 40 recipient, Dr. Kachra is an outstanding ambassador for the Cumming School of Medicine, and a unique voice for medical education in Canada.


Dr. Subodh Verma

RESEARCH | Dr. Subodh Verma, MD'00

Dr. Subodh Verma, MD’00 is an internationally renowned cardiac surgeon-scientist who is an active contributor to Canadian clinical practice guidelines and has co-authored  recommendations for atrial fibrillation, antiplatelet therapy, cardiorenal protection, diabetes,  heart failure, and peripheral artery disease. Dr Verma is the current Scientific Program Committee Chair for the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons and has served in various capacities on the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia since 2008. Dr Verma’s over 600 peer-reviewed publications have been cited more than 60,000 times. In 2022, Dr. Verma was named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in Clinical Medicine.

Dr Verma founded the CardioLink platform at St Michael’s Hospital that united cardiac surgeons from across Canada to conduct robust clinical trials to better inform on surgical decision-making pathways. His current research is centred around alleviating cardiometabolic risk.  

He is a professor at the University of Toronto and the current Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery, having previously served as the Canada Research Chair in Atherosclerosis (2007-2017). Dr Verma is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, one of the highest national honours that recognizes scholars for their promotion of health science. He is a past recipient of the Howard Morgan Award for Distinguished Achievements in Cardiovascular Research from the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Gold Medal in Surgery. Dr Verma is an appointee of the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS) and a member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. 


Adam Byse

SERVICE | Dr. Adam Vyse MD'93, PGME'95

Dr. Adam Vyse, MD’93, PGME’95, has spent his medical career going above and beyond for the people in his High River community. While many rural physicians like Dr. Vyse work in a full-scope family practice, do inpatient care, and shifts in the local Emergency Department, Dr. Vyse is also an outstanding advocate for his community.  

In 1999, Dr. Vyse was a leader in establishing the High River Community Cancer Clinic. This clinic was one of the first community cancer care sites established in Alberta by the Alberta Cancer Board. When the call came for a medical director/GP oncologist, Dr. Vyse stepped forward. His extra training and collaboration with his oncology specialist colleagues in Calgary ensures that the treatments received by patients from throughout southern Alberta are of the same high quality as those received in a larger centre, but with the convenience of home.  

Dr. Vyse’s commitment and leadership were again evident during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. As chair of the board of the Calgary Rural Primary Care Network, Dr. Vyse led a group of colleagues who sounded the early alarm about a large Covid-19 outbreak in a local meat packing plant. Working with other local physicians, Dr. Vyse set up an intake telephone line, a testing site, and a mass vaccination strategy for the employees of the meat packing plant. Dr. Vyse helped to develop the Covid-19 management pathway for primary care providers which later was rolled out across the province and attracted national and international attention. As a result, care was provided confidently and competently by patients’ primary medical providers and local hospitals were not overburdened.  

Dr. Vyse works tirelessly to meet the community’s needs. His compassion for patients, collaboration with colleagues, and dedication to the community are unsurpassed.