Dr. Vincent Chan to Receive Colin Woolf Award
The University of Toronto’s Department of Anesthesia is pleased to announce that Dr. Vincent Chan has been named co-winner of the 2014-2015 Colin Woolf Award for Long term Contributions to Continuing Education. Along with Dr. Shelly Weiss (Hospital for Sick Children), Dr. Chan is being recognized by the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine for his long-standing contributions to continuing education programs for health professionals.
Dr. Chan’s efforts in regional anesthesia education in the past decade have established him as one of the most sought after and renowned educators both in Canada and around the world. In addition to this most recent honor, Dr. Chan received the Gold Medal Award from the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society in 2009 for his excellence in teaching, research, and professional practice in ultrasound guided regional anesthesia. His efforts were also recognized in 2013 by the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS) with the Teaching Recognition Award for Achievement in Education as well as the Distinguished Service Award from the European Society Of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Therapy.
Dr. Chan has demonstrated his commitment to ultrasound education over the years through a number of educational resources and programs, including the establishment of curriculum and guidelines, the development and administration of practical hands-on workshops (www.usra.ca/combinews.php), textbook publications, and the creation of numerous electronic resources (such as The Virtual Spine – www.usra.ca/vspine.php). He has led hundreds of ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia workshops and trained more than 40 postgraduate clinical and research fellows during his academic career. Dr. Chan also serves on the editorial boards for the Anesthesia Analgesia Journal and Regional Anesthesia Pain Medicine journal and has published extensively with over 200 peer-reviewed articles and numerous book chapters.
As current chair of the Academic Committee of the Department of Anesthesia at Toronto Western Hospital and a mentor for the Perioperative Point-of-Care Ultrasound clinical research group (http://www.anesthesia.utoronto.ca/perioperative-point-care-ultrasound) at Toronto Western Hospital, Dr. Chan remains active in the educational and research development of anesthesia programs in Toronto. He continues to promote knowledge transfer via the usra.ca (hyperlink: http://www.usra.ca) website, e-learning modules, and various continuing education events focused on ultrasound guided regional anesthesia, pain interventions and perioperative ultrasound applications.
The Department of Anesthesia is grateful for Dr. Chan’s many contributions to the program and looks forward to his continued success.