Gold Medal

Dr Peter Slinger

Toronto, ON

Over the course of his 39 years as an anesthesiologist, Dr Peter Slinger has significantly contributed to the practice of thoracic anesthesia on an international scale, through education, mentorship, and leadership. Dr Slinger has authored over 200 peer reviewed journal articles in several highly regarded anesthesia journals including the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Anesthesiology, Anesthesia and Analgesia, and the British Journal of Anaesthesia. He has also written 20 editorials, contributed to 63 book chapters, and is widely recognized for his role as editor of the gold standard reference books of their time, Thoracic Anesthesia, and Principles and Practice of Anesthesia for Thoracic Surgery, now in its second edition.  

With a keen interest in education and continuing professional development, Dr Slinger has been the director and driving force behind the Thoracic Anesthesia Fellowship offered by Toronto General Hospital since 1992 and served as the Director of Continuing Education at the University of Toronto between 2003-2018, and Chair of the Continuing Professional Development Committee at the University of Toronto between 2015-2018. Within CAS, he has been the Chair of the CVT Section between 2006 – 2009, and a member of the CEPD Committee since 2014.  
 
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society. It is an inscribed medal given in recognition of excellence in a career in service to anesthesiology. 
 

Clinical Practitioner Award

Dr Lakshmikumar Venkat Raghavan

Toronto, ON

Dr Lakshmikumar Venkat Raghavan is recognized for his skills in neuroanesthesia, particularly awake craniotomy and emergence management of neurosurgical patients. He has published over 120 papers and 20 book chapters on his many areas of interest within Neurosciences and conducted research on clinically relevant neuroanesthesia topics. Furthermore, he has played a significant role in the development of clinical practice guidelines for many neurosurgical procedures which are implemented both locally, nationally, and internationally, such as Same Day Discharge after Craniotomy, Perioperative Management of External Ventricular Drains, Anesthesia for Awake Craniotomy, and Etomidate WADA test. He is often consulted by anesthesia and surgical colleagues for his expertise on the perioperative care of patients with deep brain stimulation in situ and intracranial stenosis.  
 
Dr Venkat Raghavan has served many administrative roles both at the Toronto General Hospital and University of Toronto levels, including medical director of the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, Departmental Quality Assurance Lead, and Continuing Medical Education (CME) lead. He has also been heavily involved in the Neuroanesthesia Section of the CAS (2016-2018), as Secretary and Treasurer, and Vice Chair, and Society of Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC). 
 
Given in recognition of excellence in clinical anesthesia practice. 

Clinical Teacher Award

Dr Michelle Chiu

Ottawa, ON

Dr Chiu’s dedication to teaching, her immense clinical expertise as well as her unique ability to engage and relate to learners has made her an instrumental educator to residents, fellows and medical students throughout her career. In daily practice, Dr. Chiu teaches residents in the operating room, with expertise in regional anesthesiology. In addition, she is a master simulation instructor for anesthesiology residents completing their core curriculum at the University of Ottawa (uOttawa). She is known as an innovator in simulation teaching locally, nationally, and internationally. In 2011, she created the Department of Innovation in Medical Education Foundational Elements of Applied Simulation Theory (FEAST) course, a diverse simulation curriculum with over 50 Fellows graduates so far. She was also the inaugural Chair of CanNASC (Canadian National Anesthesiology Simulation Curriculum), which is now a well-accepted Required Training Experience of Canadian Anesthesiology residency programs. Through her contributions to CanNASC, Dr Chiu has made a significant impact on the education of anesthesiology residents nationally. Her leadership also integrated simulation into the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada exams to enhance the realism of the oral exam and enable assessment of the important intrinsic competencies (ie. communication, collaboration). At an international level, Dr Chiu has had an influence on programs as vast as Beijing, Shanghai, and Kathmandu, as a Simulator Educator at the Royal College. 
 
As evidence of her administrative and managerial roles, Dr Chiu was the former Vice-Chair of Education for the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Ottawa, overseeing all aspects of education in her department from undergraduate education to postgraduate education to Fellowship, Wellness, EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion), and Continuing Professional Development. 

 

Emeritus Award

Dr Vincent Chan

Toronto, ON

Dr Vincent Chan has contributed to global clinical anesthesia practice for the past three decades and is known as a world leader in the development of ultrasound as an adjunct to performing regional anesthesia. His efforts to advance this technology and subsequent years of training generations of physicians and disseminating his knowledge across the world have made regional anesthesia an accessible strategy for anesthesiologists everywhere.  
 
Dr Chan has held 36 peer reviewed funded research grants, published over 200 peer reviewed publications, and has presented his work numerous times across Canada and the world, continuously expanding the profile of Canadian Anesthesiology. Furthermore, he has led numerous international conferences, establishing the University of Toronto and Canada as a leader in global anesthesia teaching.  
Dr Chan has also worked as a reviewer and editor for several prestigious anesthesiology journals including the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Anesthesia and Analgesia, Regional Anesthesia and Pain medicine and Anesthesiology.
  
Within CAS, he was the Vice Chair of the Regional Anesthesia Section between 1998 – 2003, and member of the Chronic Pain Subcommittee in 1996.  
His leadership and advocacy in regional anesthesia led to his election as President of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA), and he remains the only Canadian to have held this international position. In recent years, Dr Chan has held the position of Director of Faculty Development for the University of Toronto Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management. Dr Chan retired from clinical practice in June 2022. 
 
Given to a current member of CAS in any category who has been a member of the Society for 25 years or more and has retired from clinical practice. 
 

Emeritus Award & CAS Outstanding Volunteer Award

Dr Richard Chisholm

ISLANDVIEW, NB 

Dr Richard Chisholm has been an active CAS member for 33 years and a volunteer for over three decades. He began as the New Brunswick Division Secretary-Treasurer in 1989, immediately after completing his residency at Dalhousie University, and upon embarking on his 33-year anesthesiology career in Fredericton NB at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital. Throughout the years he has served as the New Brunswick Division Chair and CAS Board Representative two times, CAS Vice President, Chair of the Physician Resource Sub-Committee, CAS Representative to the CMA Conjoint Accreditation Services Process, and a member of the CAS Member Economics, Allied Health, and Human Factors committee. He was also the Chair of the Planning/Implementation Committee, and prime organizer for the 2009 CAS Regional Atlantic Canadian Meeting in Fredericton NB. In 2010 Dr Chisholm ascended to the Presidency of the Society for a two-year term, while continuing to maintain a full clinical practice (with full on call duties) and serving without any local administrative support. He represented the Society across the globe, attending meetings on behalf of CAS in Asia, Europe, South America, and across North America, and he presented for CAS to the Federal Government of Canada, Parliamentary Committees in Ottawa, including those on physician manpower and critical drug shortages. 

In addition to his involvement with CAS, Dr Chisholm has served on multiple hospital and provincial committees where he has represented patients, his colleagues, and his profession and was a member of the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine.  

The Emeritus Award is given to a current member of CAS in any category who has been a member of the Society for 25 years or more and has retired from clinical practice. 

The CAS Outstanding Volunteer Award is given to a CAS member who has made a significant and sustained contribution to the Society and has helped improve its image as a volunteer.  
 

CAS Humanitarian Award

Dr Jane Heggie

Toronto, ON

Dr Jane Heggie is an anesthesiologist and the Medical Director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at the Toronto General Hospital and an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of anesthesia for adults with congenital heart disease, cardiac anesthesia, and trans-esophageal echocardiography, and has devoted a considerable amount of her personal time to humanitarian missions with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). 

Her numerous overseas volunteer activities include a 4-week anesthesia deployment with the ICRC to Mosul, Iraq, during the war in 2017, which involved providing anesthesia care to civilian and military wounded patients, teaching of trainees and management of new facilities and equipment, and 2 weeks on the front line as medical team leader at the trauma stabilization unit in Scorpion Junction.  

In the same year, Dr Heggie went on another deployment with the Red Cross to Bangladesh, providing dire patient care and teaching local medical personnel during the mass migration of the Rohingya people to southern Bangladesh. This included emergency surgical and obstetrical care and management of measles and diphtheria epidemics at a field hospital in the refugee camp. 

Two years later, in 2019, followed an 8-week deployment with the ICRC to Yemen, where she provided anesthetic care and taught local anesthesia providers in a regional hospital near the front lines of the war.  

Most recently in 2021, Dr Heggie was the Medical Lead for the Central Mediterranean mission of the Red Cross on a ship off the coast of Libya to provide medical care to refugees.  

In Canada, she shelters new immigrants in her home until they can establish themselves, and she takes a very personal interest in all newly arrived non-Canadian Anesthesia Fellows, seeing that they are not alone during holidays and vacations. Moreover, she has inspired many of her colleagues to take up overseas anesthesia volunteer assignments.  

Given in recognition of excellence in global anesthesiology.

John Bradley Young Educator Award

Dr Diana Noseworthy

Sudbury, ON

Dr Diana Noseworthy works at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) where she has made significant local and national impact in Anesthesia education. She co-leads the NOSM Family Practice Anesthesia Boot Camp, a nationally recognized immersive program which hosts learners from almost all training programs each year and helps foster the growth of a professional identity, a community of practice, anesthesia skills and deep understanding of crisis resource management. 

Dr Noseworthy is the Chair of the Canadian National Anesthesiology Simulation Curriculum (CanNASC) Task Force, and she is recognized for her work with the CanNASC standardized simulation examination for Anesthesiology residents in Canada.  

Dr Noseworthy has supported the anesthesia program and the broader Health Sciences North community, helping create in situ, interdisciplinary simulation events for thoracic surgery, pediatrics as well as supporting the knowledge translation needed in the early stages of the COVID 19 pandemic. 

In addition, she is an excellent bedside teacher and mentor for residents, and has served as Transition to Discipline Stage Lead, a coach and mentor for residents in their early transition into the residency program. Residents have recognized her as the NOSM Anesthesiology Program “Teacher of the Year” on three separate occasions.  

The John Bradley Young Educator Award recognizes excellence and effectiveness in education in anesthesia. 

Research Recognition Award

Dr Ki Jinn Chin

Toronto, ON

Dr Ki Jinn Chin is a clinician-scientist and professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Toronto, and his academic productivity, research, technical achievements, knowledge translation and dissemination have moved the practice of anesthesia forward on a global level. 

Since his initial appointment in 2008, Dr Chin has been an innovator in the field of regional anesthesia, developing several new techniques and refining existing ones. More importantly, he has been instrumental in disseminating the knowledge and instruction of these techniques to the worldwide anesthesia community, not only through conventional scientific research and publication in peer-reviewed medical journals, but also by the creation of numerous educational videos that are hosted on a YouTube channel. Among his many accomplishments are demonstrating that ultrasound imaging of the spine could reduce the difficulty of spinal and epidural anesthesia in the older adult population with challenging anatomical factors such as obesity, scoliosis, or previous spine surgery, being the lead author on a review article describing the fundamental technique for ultrasound imaging of the spine, which remains the standard to this day, and developing and describing the superior trunk block.  

Dr Chin has held 15 peer reviewed grants as either principal investigator or co-investigator, among them the 2011 CAS Abbott Laboratories New Investigator Award in Anesthesia and has an extensive publication history with over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts published in top tier journals with the highest impact factors.  

Within CAS, Dr Chin has served as Vice Chair and Chair of the Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Section, from 2014 to 2018. 

Presented by the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society to honour a senior investigator who has made major contributions to anesthesia research in Canada.