CAEP 2002: Residents' Section Awards

Resident Issues

CJEM 2002;4(4):302-303

The 3rd Canadian EM Residents' Workshop took place in sunny Hamilton this year, at the time of CAEP's AGM, and 3 individuals were honoured for their outstanding emergency medicine achievements.

Dr. Ivan Steiner

Dr. Ivan Steiner (L), receiving the Teacher of the Year Award from Dr. Gene Filanovsky

Dr. Steiner was presented with the CAEP EM Teacher of the Year Award. This award recognizes the contribution of practising emergency physicians to teaching and resident education. Dr. Steiner has made a career of promoting resident education on local, national and international levels. During the mid 1980s he developed the first academic EM program for family medicine residents at McGill University. He then relocated to the University of Alberta (U of A), where he founded the CCFP-EM program in 1991 and served as its director until 2000.

Throughout his career, his bedside teaching has won him acclaim. He has won the U of A CCFP-EM Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award so many times that it was re-named "The Ivan Steiner Award for Teaching Excellence."

On a national level, he helped to organize a formal committee for CCFP-EM Directors and began the standardization of learning objectives for CCFP-EM residents. He also helped to develop a uniform selection process for CCFP-EM applicants across the country, which was adopted in 2000. Dr. Steiner is a strong proponent of international EM and recently served as a Medical Education Advisor to the Israeli Association for Emergency Medicine on "Residency Program Standards and Curriculum Development."

Throughout all of this Dr. Steiner has maintained a rigorous level of scholarly activity. He has published regularly on topics relating to the development of residency education and continues to review manuscripts for CJEM. Recently he was promoted to the rank of full Professor at the University of Alberta.

Dr. James Thompson

Dr. James Thompson (middle), recipient of the Resident Leadership Award. With Dr. Thompson are Drs. Doug Sinclair (L) and Jim Ducharme.

Dr. Thompson was presented with the CAEP EM Resident Leadership Award. This award recognizes resident contributions to EM and EM residencies and serves to promote the development of future leaders in Canadian EM.

Being Dalhousie University's first Royal College EM resident, James has been a trailblazer for the residents who followed. His creativity, affability, perseverance and leadership skills have helped to define what the role of an EM resident is at Dalhousie. His commitment to fellow learners is reflected by initiatives such as the development of a thoracotomy and surgical airway lab. He has also passed a major barrier to research in critically ill patients by obtaining ethical approval, using a model of waived consent, to prospectively evaluate non-invasive ventilation in the prehospital setting. Despite his heavy leadership roles, James continues to find time to enjoy the Atlantic waves on both board and kayak.

Dr. Jason Frank

Dr. Jason Frank: Resident Outstanding Achievement Award

Dr. Frank was presented with the CAEP Resident Outstanding Achievement Award. This one-time award recognizes Jason's unique and extensive contributions to the CAEP Residents' Section and emergency medicine in general. Of Jason's many accomplishments, he is best known as the founder and past-chair of the CAEP Residents' Section. He organized the 1st Annual CAEP Residents' Section Workshop in June 2000, and we have since seen the workshop grow to involve over 75 residents at CAEP 2002!

Throughout his residency he has been instrumental in effecting important changes to his own program and to residencies on a provincial and national level. He has been actively involved in many internal committees within the University of Toronto, a vocal advocate for Ontario residents through the Professional Association of Residents of Ontario, and assisted in the development of CANMeds 2000 roles throughout Canada.

Jason has also excelled clinically. In 1998 he received the E.B. White Memorial Award for resident of the year. Jason has been very involved with research in medical education and has published prolifically. In 2001 he won the CAEP Resident Research Competition for his work on "Resident Outcomes of Scholarly Activity." He was the first resident Section Editor for CJEM and continues to serve as an Associate Editor.

The CAEP Residents' Section would like to congratulate these three physicians on their achievements once again!