Following a diligent review process underpinned by a robust scoring system, the Awards Committee takes great pride in selecting the successful recipients from a myriad of nominations. Year after year, it’s a truly outstanding group and 2024 is no exception.  

Please join us in congratulating this year’s award recipients and Honorary Fellows. Look for their stories in upcoming publications to read about the exceptional contributions that led to this well-deserved recognition. 

National Awards

Royal College/AMS Donald Richards Wilson Award for CanMEDS Integration

JoAnn Corey, MD, FRCPC, is the recipient of the 2024 Royal College/AMS Donald Richards Wilson Award for CanMEDS Integration. Dr. Corey is an associate clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University.

This award recognizes a medical educator or an individual leader of a team, program or department who has demonstrated excellence in integrating the CanMEDS roles into a Royal College or other health-related training program.

Duncan Graham Award for Outstanding Contribution to Medical Education

Anurag Saxena, MD, FRCPC, is the recipient of the 2024 Duncan Graham Award for Outstanding Contribution to Medical Education. Dr. Saxena is a professor of Pathology, as well as associate dean, Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME), at the University of Saskatchewan.

This award recognizes an individual who has made a lifelong contribution to medical education.

Early Career Leadership Award

Kathryn Darras, MD, FRCPC, is the recipient of the 2024 Royal College Award for Early Career Leadership in Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development. Dr. Darras is the co-program director for Nuclear Medicine at the University of British Columbia.

David Campbell, MD, FRCPC, PhD, is the recipient of the 2024 Royal College Award for Early Career Leadership in Health Policy/Health Systems. Dr. Campbell is the co-director of the Health Policy Trials Unit at the O'Brien Institute for Public Health at the University of Calgary.

Venkat Bhat, MD, FRCPC, MSc, is the recipient of the 2024 Royal College Award for Early Career Leadership in Professional Practice/Patient Care. Dr. Bhat is a staff psychiatrist at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University Health Network, as well as an assistant professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

This award recognizes new Royal College Fellows (with seven or fewer years of post-training full-time practice) who have shown outstanding leadership, initiative, service and/or innovation.

James H. Graham Award of Merit

Ellen Lipman, MD, FRCPC, is the recipient of the 2024 James H. Graham Award of Merit. Dr. Lipman is a child psychiatrist and professor in the Division of Child Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, as well as chief of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at McMaster Children’s Hospital, Hamilton Health Sciences.  

This award of merit is given to a person whose outstanding career achievements reflect the aims and objectives of the Royal College.

Dr. Thomas Dignan Indigenous Health Award

Danièle Behn Smith, MD, CCFP, MPH, is a recipient of the 2024 Dr. Thomas Dignan Indigenous Health Award. Dr. Behn Smith is British Columbia’s deputy provincial health officer, Indigenous health.

Michael Perley, ONB, MD, CCFP, FCFP, is a recipient of the 2024 Dr. Thomas Dignan Indigenous Health Award. For close to 40 years, Dr. Perley has practised family medicine at the Neqotkuk Wellness Centre, a clinic he established on Tobique First Nation.

This award acknowledges and celebrates Canadian Indigenous physicians or physicians-in-training, Elders or Knowledge Keepers who epitomize a zeal and devotion to Canadian Indigenous rights and the dogged pursuit of justice for Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. In support of the Royal College’s commitment to reconciliation and in acknowledgement of their exemplary work, the Royal College decided to bestow this award upon two recipients for 2024. 

Teasdale-Corti Humanitarian Award

Peter A. Adamson, OOnt, MD, FRCSC, is the recipient of the 2024 Teasdale-Corti Humanitarian Award. Dr. Adamson is a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Toronto.

This award recognizes an individual who goes beyond the norms of routine practice to provide health care.

Honorary Fellows

Muhammad Masudul Hasan Nuri, MBBS (Pb), FCPS (Pak), MRCP (UK), is named a 2024 Honorary Fellow of the Royal College. Dr. Nuri is CEO and chief cardiologist at Tahir Heart Institute, in Rabwah, Pakistan.

Frank W. Stahnisch, MD, MSc, PhD, is named a 2024 Honorary Fellow of the Royal College. Dr. Stahnisch is a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, History of Medicine and Health Care, at the University of Calgary. 

This recognition is bestowed upon exceptional physicians, surgeons or other individuals who are not eligible for Fellowship and have demonstrated outstanding performance in a particular vocation or a specific area of professional activity directly or indirectly related to the field of medicine.

Note: Our website is currently undergoing a transformation; the names of the 2024 award recipients and Honorary Fellows will be reflected on the respective web pages shortly.