The Canadian Dermatology Association (CDA) has announced the recipients of the 2017 awards for demonstrating excellence in Canadian dermatology education, research, and leadership.
Dr. Alain Brassard is the recipient of this year's Award of Merit. Dr. Afsaneh Alavi has received the first CDA Practitioner of the Year Award, which recognizes contributions to the field of dermatology and the community through clinical practice and in providing the best possible care. The Barney Usher Research Award in Dermatology for 2017 will go to Dr. Sunil Kalia and the Louis Vogel Resident’s Writing Award will be presented to Dr. Adriane Schreiber.
The awards reception and ceremony will take place at the Fredericton Convention Centre on June 24, 2017 during the CDA Annual Conference in Fredericton, NB.
Award of Merit
“Dr. Brassard is being recognized for his enduring commitment to the CDA and to the field of Dermatology in general,” noted the CDA in a press release.
Elected as Treasurer of the CDA (2015-2017), Dr. Brassard has also served as an elected member of the Ethics Committee (2014-2017), the Québec regional representative from 2006-2007 on the Board of Directors and has been chairing and organizing the New Investigators Program at the CDA Annual Conference since 2011. He is also a member of the Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee. In addition, from 1994 until 2001 he was the founder and director of the Leg Ulcer Clinic in Sacre-Coeur Hospital in Montreal, which at the time, was the largest in Canada.
He has continued his work in Wound Healing at McGill University in Montreal and the University of Alberta in Edmonton where he is currently. He is a noted world expert in wound healing who has lectured nationally and internationally. Also, he has been organizing as Chair the Wound Healing Session at the CDA Annual Conference since 2005.
“Furthermore, in his role as chair of the Dermatology Examination Board at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, he has worked tirelessly to establish high evaluation standards anchored by fairness and transparency,” said the CDA. “Dr. Brassard’s accomplishments are hallmarks of his continuing leadership and contribution to the field of Dermatology, which exemplify the spirit of the Award of Merit.”
Practitioner of the Year Award
Dr. Alavi is a consulting dermatologist at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto and an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
She “is being honoured for bringing an orphan skin disease called Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) into the spotlight for Canadian dermatologists. She founded the Canadian Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation, authored a paper on HS that was published in the CDA Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery, co-chaired and organized the first-ever symposium on HS last fall, and has provided exceptional care to patients suffering from the chronic skin condition.”
The Barney Usher Research Award in Dermatology
Dr. Kalia is an assistant professor in the Department of Dermatology and Skin Science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
He is being recognized for his research involving the melanin quantification by in vitro and in vivo analysis of near-infrared florescence.
“What is particularly noteworthy is his exploration of a non-invasive, novel method as a potential tool to measure melanin to differentiate between melanoma from benign pigmentary lesions, and to monitor disease progression and treatment response in other pigmentary disorders.”
Louis Vogel Resident’s Writing Award
Dr. Schreiber, a resident in Dermatology at Université Laval in Quebec city, receives the writing award for her paper, Generalized Recalcitrant Pruritus as the Presenting Manifestation of Hypereosinophilic Syndrome, which appeared in the CDA’s Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery (Jul 2016; 20(4):346-348).