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Jul 14, 2017
The 2017 Doctors Nova Scotia Award winners, from left: Drs. Keri-Leigh Cassidy, Roland Genge,
Romesh Shukla, Elizabeth Mann; Sarah MacLaren, executive director of Leave Out Violence –
Nova Scotia; Drs. Gaynor Watson-Creed, Geoff Williams, Ron Hatheway, Pippa Moss and
John Sullivan
Each year, at the association’s annual conference, Doctors Nova Scotia honours physicians who are making a difference for patients in the province.
Dr. Romesh Shukla receives the Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his achievements during his 34-year career as an anesthesiologist. Dr. Shukla is currently head of the Department of Anesthesiology, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine for the Nova Scotia Health Authority. He is also a Past-President of Doctors Nova Scotia. “I really enjoy anesthesia. Every time I help a patient it provides me with instant gratification..”
Dr. Pippa Moss is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who is being recognized for her work providing specialized autism assessment services in the rural communities in and around Amherst, Truro, New Glasgow, and Sydney, N.S. “I went to medical school thinking that I wanted to be a family practitioner, then learnt that what I really enjoyed was working within the context of the family and community,” she said, “and what I wanted to do was to try to prevent disability and maximize people’s potential.”
Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed, Deputy Medical Officer of Health for Nova Scotia, has been awarded the Dr. William Grigor Award in recognition of her work to improve the health of all Nova Scotians. “Public health is fully multidisciplinary,” said Dr. Watson-Creed, who says she is perhaps most proud of her recent work on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on a Healthy and Livable Halifax. “Public health is all about starting, not about finishing. The work we’re doing is a long-term project.”
Dr. Keri-Leigh Cassidy is a professor of geriatric psychiatry at Dalhousie University and the clinical academic director of the Dalhousie University/NSHA Geriatric Psychiatry Program. She receives the Doctors Nova Scotia Physician Health Promotion award in recognition of her work in leading the Fountain of Health Initiative, a national effort to promote brain health and resilience. Dr. Cassidy is a recognized national expert in late-life mood and anxiety disorders and in psychotherapy, having developed an evidence-based group psychotherapy treatment approach for late-life depression and anxiety disorders.
Dr. Alexander Allen receives the Senior Membership Award in recognition of his 50-year career as a neonatologist at the Grace Hospital and IWK Health Centre. “I chose neonatology because when I was a resident in pediatrics, morbidity and mortality of newborn infants was extremely high,” he said. That led to 38 years as a practising academic clinician; following his retirement in 2003, Dr. Allen has been committed to neonatal-perinatal medicine research. Dr. Allen has contributed to a major improvement in the lives of newborn babies.
Dr. Rolland Genge receives the Senior Membership Award in recognition of his long career as a family physician. He practiced family medicine in Stephenville, Nfld., for four years following his graduation from Dalhousie Medical School in 1971, then moved to Cape Breton in 1975. He has lived and worked in Baddeck since then, sharing an office and hospital practice with Dr. Carlyle Chow. For 30 years, he travelled weekly to two First Nations clinics in Whycocomagh and Wagmatcook and to a clinic in Iona every second week.
Dr. Ronald Hatheway, a community cardiologist in Bridgewater, N.S., is being honoured in recognition of his service to patients and cardiology. Dr. Hatheway has been working as a cardiologist for 30 years – fulfilling a lifelong passion. Dr. Hatheway was instrumental in setting up an echocardiography lab and heart health clinics on the south shore of Nova Scotia, making it easier for patients to get the care they needed closer to home. These services have helped countless patients living with chronic heart disease.
Dr. Elizabeth Mann receives this award in honour of her 37-year career as a general internist in Halifax, working with patients at the VG Hospital, the QEII, and for a short time at the North End Community Health Centre. “I chose my specialty because it offers a wonderful combination of both the breadth of the generalist and the ability to delve more deeply into some areas of special interest,” said Dr. Mann. She has received several teaching awards, as well as honours from the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and the American College of Physicians.
Dr. John A. Sullivan receives the CMA Honorary Membership Award in recognition of a long career as a cardiovascular surgeon in Nova Scotia. He has spent almost 40 years performing life-saving heart surgeries for countless Nova Scotians, and is renowned for performing the first heart transplant in the province, in 1988. Dr. Sullivan is an academic clinician at Dalhousie University, teaching the next generations of cardiovascular surgeons, and a prolific researcher and writer, with more than 50 research publications to his name. In his former role as division head of cardiac surgery, he was instrumental in establishing a residency training program in cardiac surgery.
Do you know a doctor that deserves to be celebrated? Leave a comment and tell us all about it!
