The John McNeill Excellence in Health Research Mentorship Award recognizes faculty members at any stage in their academic career, in any of UBC’s health-related disciplines, who have formally been identified as mentors and who exemplify a deep commitment to fostering the professional and personal development of faculty colleagues, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows in the early stages of their academic career.  This prestigious award was established by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences in honour of Dean Emeritus John McNeill, whose leadership helped distinguish the Faculty as one of Canada’s best graduate programs and research environments, paving the way for future excellence in research and research capacity in health at UBC.  

The 2022 recipient is Dr. Christopher Overall, Full Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair Emeritus (2000-2022) in the Centre for Blood Research, Department of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, UBC. Dr. Overall has developed an unparalleled research program in biochemistry and molecular immunology and drug target validation. He has developed a diverse, interdisciplinary, supportive training environment and mentored numerous junior faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students and fostered their educational, professional, and personal development. His mentorship is characterized by integrity, creativity, and fairness, which has led his 40 trainees to achieve successful scientific careers, with 20 of them holding academic appointments across the world, presenting at international conferences, earning authorships, and holding joint patents. Dr. Overall inspires his students to become distinctive and skilled scientists who pursue ingenious projects and strive to be leaders in their fields.

The John F. McCreary Prize for Interprofessional Teamwork recognizes and promotes interprofessional teamwork in the health and human service professions. The award is named after Dr. John F. McCreary, the first coordinator of health sciences at UBC, and is intended to draw attention to Dr. McCreary’s vision of interprofessional collaboration in clinical work and education and the value of a team approach in meeting the health care needs of British Columbians.  

The 2022 recipient is The Independence Model at St. Paul’s Hospital at Providence Health Care. The Independence Model (TIM) is a pilot designed to address functional deterioration in hospital. An interdisciplinary team of a lead rehabilitation therapist, rehabilitation assistants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and nurses work collaboratively to deliver care focusing on mobilization, communication, swallowing, cognition, and overall function to help patients maintain independence, stay safe, build confidence, and return home sooner. TIM has shown exemplary interprofessional teamwork by using communication and education strategies to target specific disciplines and increase patient referrals, identifying gaps in training, strengthening areas for supervision, and encouraging interdisciplinary relationships to ensure the focus is early holistic reactivation and prevention.

Team members are Indershini Pillay (team lead), Sandra Squire, Parvin Asgari Kachalami, Emily Power, Eduardo Naranjo, Michelle Brosnan, Sarah Murphy, Milynne Borason, Juhyeong (Ruse) Park, and Larissa James.

The R. Paul Kerston Community Educator Award was named after long-time community educator, R. Paul Kerston to honour outstanding community educators who have made a difference to student learning in health and human service programs at UBC. 

The 2022 recipient is Jory Mitchell. Jory has been a passionate community educator with UBC Health for eight years through his involvement with the UBC Interprofessional Health Mentors Program, Patient and Community Voices Workshop, Living Library, and Integrated Curriculum. He imparts his knowledge and wisdom as a caregiver with humility, kindness, compassion, and humour. He talks to students about the challenges as well as positive encounters within the health system, recognizing the value for students to hear both perspectives. Jory consistently engages with students, asks thought-provoking questions, and encourages the future health professionals to advocate for improved care. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing autonomy and individuality in patient care and the need for interprofessional collaboration. Jory inspires students to develop new ways to collaborate using each other’s strengths and across practice areas and to consider how to be better practitioners, with the goal to improve healthcare on both individual and systems levels.

The Professor Jessie Gordon MacCarthy Memorial Scholarship recognizes a student in the final year of any pre-licensure health science program who best combines academic excellence, demonstrated interest, and leadership in the field of community health. The scholarship was established through an endowment in memory of Jessie Gordon MacCarthy, long-term contributor to the development of health sciences at UBC.

The 2022 recipient is Danielle Busayong, a second-year student in the Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology Program in the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine. Danielle was recognized for her leadership in community health through her contributions to equity, diversity, inclusivity, and social justice. She developed a guide for speech language pathologists to utilize FirstVoices, an online resource for Indigenous languages. She established a summer language program for underserved populations at Strathcona Community Centre in Vancouver that addressed inclusivity in a language-rich environment in the community. In addition, Danielle runs a social media account that focuses on sharing knowledge in the field of speech-language pathology through equity, diversity, inclusivity and social justice lenses. Among her accomplishments, Danielle also serves on the board of directors for Speech-Language & Audiology Canada.

The ImpactBC Scholarships in Health Care Research and Development recognize outstanding students in a UBC health discipline who have completed a research or development project focusing on patient/client involvement in health care decision-making or in health professional education. The scholarships were established through an endowment by ImpactBC.

2022 Recipients

Amninder Dhatt is a third-year student in the Entry-to-Practice Doctor of Pharmacy program in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Amninder was involved in a health advocacy project to assess the integration of a novel health advocacy workshop into the pharmacy curriculum. She assisted with evaluating the impact of the workshop on student conceptualization and enactment of health advocacy in practice. The project intended to ensure health professional students received educational material that was effective in instilling professional knowledge and core healthcare competencies. The research project helped advance healthcare improvement by evaluating new material to address a perceived gap in health education and enabling students to better understand and recognize health advocacy opportunities to promote and improve patient-directed care.

Simroop Ladhar is a third-year student in the Entry-to-Practice Doctor of Pharmacy program in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Simroop was involved in a research project that evaluated the quality and readability of online written heart failure medication resources available to people living with heart failure. She assisted with research protocol design, data collection and analysis, and manuscript development. Results found that most resources were of acceptable educational quality but could be improved, including reading grade level to reduce limitations in utility for people with low literacy. The project highlighted the importance of patient engagement and the need to develop more patient-friendly heart failure medication resources. The research could also be used as a guideline for creating patient-friendly resources for other chronic conditions.

Leora Pearl-Dowler is a second-year student in Doctor of Medicine program in the Faculty of Medicine. Leora was part of a research project that engaged families of children across the developmental spectrum in the co-development of a platform for in-home data collection, which offers researchers an opportunity to collect longitudinal data that is more representative of how patients function in their daily lives. Leora helped conduct, transcribe, and analyze patient and family interviews, collaboratively developed recommendations for future phases of research, and contributed to manuscript preparation. The new platform will enable underrepresented populations to participate in research, facilitate the integration of research and clinical care, and enable patients to take an active role in their health.