The University of Calgary is a Top 5 research university in Canada for the first time ever – and the youngest university to reach the Top 5.
This extraordinary achievement is based on the sponsored research income generated in 2019/2020 and it demonstrates why our university — and particularly the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) — is increasingly becoming the destination for top learners and scholars, driven by discovery, innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit that is ingrained in the culture of southern Alberta.
I say proudly that this spirit is on full display in our 2022 CSM Report to Community. In this report, you will learn about how the visionary philanthropy of community leaders like Edith Rodie is driving transdisciplinary innovation and how Sanders Lee’s vision for the Hopewell M.I.N.D. Prize is inspiring a generation of researchers to new heights in brain and mental health research.
I encourage you to learn more about the Azrieli Accelerator, a $25-million gift from the Azrieli Foundation that is designed to stimulate new discoveries in neurodevelopmental disabilities. And how donations to the OWN.CANCER campaign are helping shepherd the dream of a new world-leading cancer care centre into reality.
These last two years, through the darkness of a global pandemic, have been difficult on all of us. But our talented people have been working tirelessly to push our mission forward. Thank you to everyone for delivering on our commitment of an innovative medical school focused on people, platforms and partnerships.
The University of Calgary is a Top 5 research university in Canada for the first time ever – and the youngest university to reach the Top 5.
CSM Dean, Dr. Jon Meddings, MD

Nowhere is that more evident than with our researchers teaming up with The City of Calgary to monitor COVID-19 transmission
in our wastewater. This work was so impactful, it quickly grew to a provincewide collaboration with the University of Alberta.
We are also focused on continuously improving the education delivered to our learners. This is exemplified in our project to re-imagine undergraduate medical education and our leadership in partnering with Abu Dhabi-headquartered VPS Healthcare to design distinctive and innovative medical education and research programs in the United Arab Emirates.
Despite many hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, there are also tremendous milestones to reflect on and acknowledge. UCeed marked a significant achievement, completing the link between discovery, entrepreneurship and impact.
It is the largest university-based startup investment fund in the country, and after the first year of investments, $14 million is under management and $1.95 million is invested in 15 UCalgary and community-based startups.
I am also proud of our history. This year, for example, marks 100 years of the first Alberta Children’s Hospital and 65 years of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation – our strong CSM partners. Congratulations to both on your tremendous legacy of collaboration and impact in our community.
After 10 years in the role, it is nearly my turn to pass the torch of leadership to someone new. As I leave my role as Dean of the
CSM, I am incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished together. And I look forward to continued success for the medical school and a bright future ahead with Dr. Todd Anderson at the helm. I’ll see you around.
Table of Contents:
Transdisciplinary Research
- The RESTORE Network leads innovative and transdisciplinary neurorehabilitation research
World Leaders in Neuroscience Research
- Attracting the brightest minds, sharing Open Science, igniting transdisciplinary discoveries
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Harnessing artificial intelligence to treat stroke faster
Working Together to Meet the Cancer Challenge
- We OWN.CANCER
Excellence in Education
- Supporting innovation that drives our medical education further
- Rhodes to success
Societal Change
- Learning from COVID-19 to prepare for the future
- Helping the health-care system work smarter
- Highlighting gender-based research through the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative
Precision Public Health
- COVID-19 wastewater monitoring tool could be key to detecting future infectious threats
Sharing the indomitable resolve of the Calgary philanthropist and equestrienne whose gift helped ignite it, the RESTORE Network is reaching new heights with transdisciplinary research in spinal cord injury, stroke and movement impairment. In the Neuro RecoVR Treadmill Project, RESTORE researchers are developing treatments to help patients with neurological injury or disease learn to
walk better using an instrumented split-belt treadmill and integrated virtual reality (VR) screens. Every aspect of their gait is recorded, as they adjust and react to VR obstacles in this engaging form of rehabilitation.
In the Trexo Projects, researchers are testing robotic gait training to help children with mobility impairments get moving using an exoskeleton. Researchers want to know how it helps these young patients at home and in the community, as well as how it affects sleep, control of their body, walking and mood.
“In just two years, the RESTORE Network has skyrocketed to international recognition through publications in the top journals
in the world, millions of dollars in grants, numerous patents and other neurotechnology engineering and clinical trials changing
the lives of people in our community,” says RESTORE Network Director Dr. Aaron Phillips, PhD.
The network is supported by a $4.7-million gift from the estate of Edith Rodie to UCalgary and the Calgary Health Foundation. Rodie was a well-known southern Alberta equestrienne, coach and horse trainer who rode well into her 80s, despite living with a painful spinal condition.
The RESTORE team has already leveraged the gift to secure an additional $6.8 million from grants, industry and philanthropy with several other funding applications under review.
All these accomplishments would make Rodie very proud, her friend and estate executor says. “She would want her gift to impact peoples’ lives. It’s wonderful that the University of Calgary is honouring that,” Alberta lawyer Allyson Jeffs says.

This split belt treadmill, located at Foothills Medical Centre, can play recorded, real-world video or a simulation (pictured), where the operator can add obstacles to test the user’s vision and cognition while they walk. It also has a full safety harness to support patients.

Children with physical disabilities benefit from use of the Trexo robotic gait trainer as part of research led by the RESTORE Network, which is also funded by the community through the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Sanders Lee, Hopewell M.I.N.D. Prize donor
Hopewell M.I.N.D. Prize
The $10-million Hopewell M.I.N.D. (Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discovery) Prize, created through a philanthropic commitment by Calgary business leader Sanders Lee, is the largest-ever prize for innovative research at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI).
“I’ve always been a supporter of the HBI, and its Director, Dr. David Park, approached me with what he called a bold idea,” says Lee. “Calgarians are entrepreneurs and risk takers, and I loved the idea.”
The Hopewell M.I.N.D. Prize is unique in Canada, offering up to $1 million annually for 10 years to launch innovative, high-risk, high-impact brain and mental health projects that are ‘ahead of the curve.’ The first prize will be awarded in Fall 2022.

Larry Tanenbaum, Larry and Judy Tanenbaum Family Foundation
Tanenbaum Open Science
A new $2-million partnership between the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute (TOSI), the Larry and Judy Tanenbaum Family Foundation and HBI links the institute’s researchers with McGill University’s The Neuro to propel advancements in brain and mental health through Open Science.
Open Science encourages collaboration and information sharing between researchers to find solutions more quickly — in this case, to help patients with neurological diseases and mental health disorders. This partnership is part of a future network of Open Science institutes around the world.

Naomi Azrieli, Azrieli Foundation
Azrieli Accelerator
A $25-million gift from the Azrieli Foundation leverages UCalgary’s global research leadership in neurodevelopment to transform research in the field. The Azrieli Accelerator will launch new transdisciplinary research to advance understanding of how neurodevelopmental conditions arise, how they impact overall health and how we can improve the supports, services and systems across society that support well-being — at all ages — for individuals and families living with neurodevelopmental conditions.
“UCalgary is a well-established global research leader in neurodevelopment, known for excellence in brain and mental health, and child health and wellness,” says Dr. William Ghali, MD’90, vice-president (research) at UCalgary. “Working together, and through strong partnerships with our community, we can address some of the greatest brain and mental health challenges of our time.”
Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Dr. Bijoy Menon, MD
Technology invented at the CSM is helping to improve health care and stroke outcomes for patients around the world. Circle Neurovascular Imaging (Circle NVI) was created at the University of Calgary by stroke neurologist-researchers from the internationally renowned Calgary Stroke Program, whose world-leading clinical research and innovation has transformed stroke care across the globe.
Stroke is the second leading cause of death globally, after heart disease. Circle NVI is on a mission to improve the outcomes of stroke patients through its clinically validated StrokeSENS technology – the first of its kind in Canada. Designed to bring timely diagnostic expertise to support front-line physician decision-making and collaboration, StrokeSENS uses AI-assisted advanced technology to identify the right treatments for patients faster than traditional methods. It can instantaneously share that information across treatment teams and geography for improved patient care.
“StrokeSENS is an excellent example
of what is possible in Calgary: cutting-edge technology for patient care built because of a flourishing health technology ecosystem promoted by the University of Calgary and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute,” says Dr. Bijoy Menon, MSc’15, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Circle NVI, Professor of Neurology, Radiology and Community Health Sciences at the CSM and member of the HBI and Calgary Stroke Program.n 1,000 sites in more than 40 countries around the world.
The company has received approval from Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and regulators in Europe, Australia and India, to roll out its StrokeSENS technology to clinicians and health systems.
It also partners with technology companies, such as global health technology giant GE Healthcare, to implement StrokeSENS
into existing clinical workflows to aid front-line clinicians in the triage and diagnosis of acute stroke.
“This is the future of stroke care and research and to be at the front edge of things is an amazing experience,” says Dr. Nishita Singh, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow with the Calgary Stroke Program.
Dr. Singh, who moved from India to Calgary for the fellowship, is publishing research which shows StrokeSENS’s ability to identify clots and assess stroke severity is more accurate than the trained eyes of the average clinician.
She’s one of several young, highly qualified personnel training with the Calgary Stroke Program and contributing to the Calgary health technology ecosystem through Circle NVI. The neurologist-researcher and internal medicine clinician intends to continue her career in Canada and hopes to work at one of the future StrokeSENS implementation sites across the country.
“We’re a small, determined group of doctors, engineers and computer scientists. Everyone is so motivated to reach our goals and in such a short span of time we've won Health Canada approval. That’s very rewarding,” Dr. Singh says.
Circle NVI is joining the UCeed Health portfolio — a philanthropic fund to support, train and mentor startups — which is part of UCalgary’s innovation ecosystem to translate laboratory-based research to real-world impact.
Circle NVI is a subsidiary of Circle Cardiovascular Imaging, another groundbreaking startup out of UCalgary which began nearly 18 years ago, and offers a comprehensive reading and reporting solution for Cardiac MR and CT used in more than 1,000 sites in more than 40 countries around the world.

Neurologist-researchers Dr. Petra Cimflova, MD, PhD, (centre) and Dr. Nishita Singh, MD, PhD, (right) are Calgary Stroke Program postdoctoral fellows whose research supported the Health Canada approval of StrokeSENS. Dr. Chris Duszynski, PhD’20, VP Operations, (left) is a UCalgary alumnus who helps to lead Circle NVI’s efforts.

Pat and Jim Burns
For donors Pat and Jim Burns, owning cancer means supporting groundbreaking immunotherapy cancer research in memory of their son, Jeff. Being able to advance this work in Calgary, the city Jeff was so proud to call home, is a natural way to honour his life. “If it can save someone, it will be well worth it,” says Jim.

Katie Smith-Parent
For campaign volunteer and breast cancer survivor Katie Smith-Parent, owning her diagnosis at age 32 meant going public immediately. “I felt that by sharing my story, others, especially my girlfriends and female colleagues and peers, would take their health seriously and get regularly screened.” She continues to own cancer by raising awareness and funds for the new centre.

Milan Heck
For Milan Heck, a third-year CSM Bachelor of Health Sciences student and cancer patient, owning cancer means donating her alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) tumour samples to UCalgary’s biobank. “Knowing that my donation could eventually help generate treatment for ASPS, I immediately said ‘yes.’ Even if I don’t see that happen in my lifetime, I know that there’s potential for someone else down the line to benefit from the knowledge that’s being created.”

Dr. Aaron Goodarzi, PhD
For Canada Research Chair Dr. Aaron Goodarzi, BSc’99, PhD’05, owning cancer is about halting it in its tracks. He and his team at the Evict Radon national study are working to find new and innovative ways to prevent cancers caused by toxic exposures in our environment. “I’m owning cancer for the future generations of Canadian children.”
Writing a brave new ending
Researchers and clinicians across the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute and AHS will own cancer through innovation, working side-by-side to weave research into the fabric of care, harnessing real-world evidence to improve patient outcomes.
Philanthropic support will take us from great to world-class. We are determined to make the most of this opportunity – starting in Alberta and rippling into our global community.
It’s time to take back some of the power cancer has over us.
Learn more at owncancer.ca.
Excellence in Education
Emphasis on impact in rural communities
Bringing the highest quality research and education to our rural communities is central to the identity of our medical school. The CSM’s Distributed Learning and Rural Initiatives (DLRI) offi ce connects students to preceptors, researchers and health-care professionals in rural and remote communities in Alberta and Western Canada.
Since the late 1990s, we’ve been providing rural educational experiences to learners built on a foundation of social accountability to help meet the needs of underserved populations. This includes DLRI presence in undergraduate programs and 26 postgraduate residency programs. From modest beginnings, we now encompass more than 4,000 weeks of rural education experiences every year.
Re-Imagining Medical Education
Back in Calgary, a team of CSM faculty and students is building on our history of innovation, bringing to life an even better Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) curriculum.
The project, known as Re-Imagining Medical Education (RIME), will implement a new co-designed, pre-clerkship curriculum that is patient-centred and focused on providing opportunities for creativity, active learning and professional identity development. Consultation with the CSM community is underway with the goal to begin the new curriculum next year to attract top learners from across the country to our city.
Supporting excellence in education and student experience
CSM’s undergraduate medical students were supported by our alumni and friends with more than 225 scholarships, bursaries and awards totalling more than $1.6 million in 2020-21. Next year, we will add two more important donor-funded awards in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – furthering our commitment to a more inclusive medical school for all.
CSM is an essential part of the province’s advanced education and health-care system, and a leader in improving lives in our community and beyond. We are proud to be growing the next generation of medical leaders who will drive the future of health locally, nationally and internationally.
It is a day that Dr. Juliet Guichon, PhD, remembers clearly. While attending the 40th Anniversary Celebration at UCalgary’s medical school in October 2010, she met both a past UCalgary Rhodes Scholar, Dr. William Hughson, MD’73, and then-medical student Braden O’Neill, who had just received an invitation to interview for the prestigious scholarship. She introduced the two knowing that the young medical student would benefit from meeting an alumnus who had received the scholarship in 1974.
A graduate of Oxford University herself, Dr. Guichon aimed to support O’Neill for his Rhodes Scholarship interview and to provide him with mentorship to help him prepare for what lay ahead. While she listened to the conversation, she realized that more might be done to help UCalgary candidates succeed.
Since 2010, her desire to support applicants has blossomed into a unique committee that helps identify and encourage UCalgary students’ Rhodes Scholarship nominations, including those from the robust pipeline at the CSM, which has trained nearly three-quarters of the recent winners.
“Our committee of community and university members encourages young people who are applying for a Rhodes Scholarship,” says Dr. Guichon, associate professor in the departments of Community Health Sciences and Paediatrics. “A number of distinguished Calgarians have served on
this committee over the years, including Chancellor Emerita Joanne Cuthbertson and the late Charlie Fischer; Anne Fraser, past member of UCalgary’s Senate; Professors Tom Feasby (former CSM dean), Tom Keenan, Elizabeth Jameson and Bob Schulz; and Professor Emeritus of St. Mary’s University, Dr. Michael Duggan.”
Dr. Guichon notes that each member of this committee provides a distinct perspective that helps prepare students for their formal Rhodes Scholarship interviews.
It works. Since the committee launched in 2010, University of Calgary students have won 10 Rhodes Scholarships in the last 11 years – with 70 per cent of those winners having studied at the CSM. In the previous 44 years, UCalgary students claimed nine scholarships. Five of those students were from the CSM.
Here is a snapshot of accomplishments from several past CSM students in this prestigious group.

Dr. Juliet Guichon, PhD
Societal Change
Another way they’re doing this is through a collaboration with The City of Calgary staff, which will help to understand when, where, and why people wear masks. As part of a World Health Organization (WHO) multi-site study, other O’Brien Institute researchers are uncovering evidence to inform future policies and protocols to protect health-care workers during infectious disease outbreaks.
Further health emergency preparedness research will involve health equity, digital health technologies, mental health and addictions and aging. Our experts are working hard to ensure Calgary and Canada have the knowledge and tools to respond to future public health emergencies and to help keep families and communities safe.

David and Gail O’Brien, O’Brien Institute
Helping the health -care system work smarter
Health-care spending reached $267.5 billion in Canada in 2019. It now represents an average of 37 per cent of each provincial budget, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated public health-care spending growth. We know that in its present state, our health-care system is not sustainable.
Backed by the philanthropic vision of David and Gail O’Brien, both Hon. LLD’10, the interdisciplinary team of researchers at the O’Brien Institute for Public Health is making major strides to inform transformational change in our health-care system. Key research projects include improving medical care in the home, improving the design of medical devices, medical environments, systems and procedures, using eHealth tools for better care and enhancing the patient and family care experience.
"We know there are innovative and effective ways to bring Canada’s health-care spending more in line with other comparable countries, while at the same time actually improving patient outcomes. And we believe the national initiative led by the O’Brien Institute is on track to achieve that goal — and, most importantly, to improve the health and wellbeing of our children and our grandchildren," says David O'Brien.

Thanks to treatment she received at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute, Bonnie Eckert can now safely enjoy trail walking near her home in Okotoks.
Highlighting gender-based research through the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative
For years after her kids were born, Okotoks mother and corporate strategic advisor, Bonnie Eckert, BA’02, MBA’04, struggled with chest
pain and debilitating exhaustion from undiagnosed stiffening of her small blood vessels, caused by severe high blood pressure during pregnancy. There were countless trips to emergency with frightening symptoms, never certain how worried she should be.
“How many women out there are like I was – they put their kids to bed at night and then they go to emergency after they're all tucked in because everyone is taken care of?” Eckert says.
Too many women. In fact, cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of women in Canada, claiming a life every 20 minutes. Heart attacks go unrecognized in women up to 54 per cent of the time. This is because women often present with different symptoms than men, leading to later diagnosis and fewer options for treatment.
The Libin Cardiovascular Institute’s (LCI) Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative is working to change this. It’s a formal program focused on research, education and clinical care — with a strong emphasis on outreach. Launched in 2019, it has already attracted more than $6 million in philanthropic giving, including from many women donors.
This is thanks to Libin’s exceptional strength in this area, which includes leading research by clinicians-scientists like Dr. Kara Nerenberg, MD, to prevent heart disease after pregnancy and by Dr. Sandra Dumanski, MSc’20, MD, to identify how lower levels of fertility hormone raise heart disease risk for young women with chronic kidney disease.
These physicians, along with Dr. Sofia Ahmed, MD, are tackling gaps in women’s cardiovascular health by contributing to a new chapter on sex and gender-related risk factors for cardiovascular disease in the Canadian Women's Heart Health Alliance ATLAS on the Epidemiology, Diagnosis,
and Management of Cardiovascular Disease in Women. It helps physicians recognize the unique aspects of women’s heart health care and provides policy-makers with the information they need to ensure equitable care for women with cardiovascular disease.
The LCI is working to recruit a world-class clinician leader who will establish a women’s cardiovascular clinic and associated translational research program and mentor rising stars to enhance the program.
Eckert, who first learned heart disease can be caused by high blood pressure during pregnancy at a 2018 information session led by the LCI, now takes medication to treat her stiffened vessels. It has greatly reduced her symptoms and she’s safely exercising to rebuild her stamina. “I am so thankful for Libin and Dr. Nerenberg. I don’t even want to think where I’d be without them,” Eckert says.
Precision Public Health
The process works by finding evidence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater — like the way detectives look for DNA at crime scenes. Partnering with ACWA, Alberta Health Services and The City of Calgary made the idea actionable. The system can be scaled to help predict and monitor COVID-19 outbreaks in a city, neighbourhood or even a building. This can help direct health supports to where they are needed most. Partners including the Government of Alberta and Alberta Precision Laboratories came on board to support and expand the project.
The joint effort now monitors the wastewater of approximately 3.2 million people, or nearly three-quarters of the population of Alberta, via sampling at 20 wastewater treatment plants and facilities across the province.
As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, wastewater monitoring allowed health officials to track the virus, whether those infected had symptoms or not.
With continued resources and support, the process has the potential to be tweaked to monitor for other health threats, like influenza, measles and mumps.