Nine Nova Scotia physicians receive special honours
Doctors Nova Scotia honoured nine physicians for exemplary achievement at the association’s annual conference on Saturday, June 9, in Cape Breton, N.S.
Dr. Stephen Beed received the Distinguished Service Award. An intensivist and anesthesiologist, Dr. Beed was honoured for his work improving critical care and organ donation in Nova Scotia. For the past 18 years, he has worked at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax; he has been the medical director of the Legacy of Life Provincial Organ and Tissue Donation Program since 2006. Under his leadership, the program has boosted Nova Scotia’s organ donation rate to be one of the highest in Canada. Dr. Beed has also transformed critical care by creating the Adult Critical Care Subspeciality Training Program at Dalhousie, the only program of its kind in Atlantic Canada.
Dr. David J. Brake received the Rural Physician of the Year Award. Dr. Brake is a respirologist and intensive care specialist recognized after 27 years in practice for his dedication in caring for patients at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Sydney. Dr. Brake runs a chest clinic and cares for patients who are struggling with respiratory disease. He is the medical director for Critical Care Medicine at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital as well as medical director and co-founder of both the Cape Breton Chest Clinic and Cape Breton Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program. Dr. Brake spearheaded the first supervised and closed ICU on Cape Breton. Dr. Brake is also an assistant professor at Dalhousie.
Dr. Colin Audain received the Dr. William Grigor Award. This award is in honour of Dr. Audain’s commitment to improving health-care access for Nova Scotians. As the physician scheduler for the Anesthesia Department with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, Dr. Audain manages a complex, 24-hour schedule for over 80 physicians working in over 40 operating rooms and clinics at five sites within the Central Zone, ensuring the proper allocation of physicians and resources, with the goal of reducing waitlists and preventing operating room closures. He has been in this role since 2011. Dr. Audain is also an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Dalhousie University.
Dr. Stephen Ellis received the Physician Health Promotion Award. This award is in recognition of Dr. Ellis’ work developing a community-based walking program in Truro, N.S., to improve the health and wellness of people in his community. In 2016, Dr. Ellis helped launch the first Atlantic Canadian chapter of Walk with a Doc, a grassroots walking program where family doctors facilitate free weekly walks with their patients and members of the public. Dr. Ellis has enjoyed an exciting career over his 23 years in practice, including working as a flight surgeon with the Royal Canadian Air Force. For the past 19 years, he has been a family doctor in Truro.
Dr. Rob Macneill received the Doctors Nova Scotia Senior Membership Award. He received the Senior Membership Award in recognition of his 36-year career as an anesthesiologist and advocate for chronic pain patients in Cape Breton. He is the medical director of the Cape Breton Pain Clinic in Sydney, providing primary, secondary and some tertiary services in pain management for patients in eastern Nova Scotia. “I am proud of having developed a multidisciplinary pain management clinic in Cape Breton, as well as contributing to the provincial committee, which resulted in the system of primary care clinics currently used in Nova Scotia today,” he said.
Dr. Michèle Murphy received the Doctors Nova Scotia Senior Membership Award. Dr. Murphy received the Doctors Nova Scotia Senior Membership Award in recognition of a life devoted to family practice. She has been caring for patients in Antigonish for over 45 years, in multiple settings over the decades, often treating different generations of the same family. With a compassionate, can-do attitude and dogged pursuit of the correct diagnosis, Dr. Murphy always puts her patients first. A mentor for many physicians in her community, Dr. Murphy also enjoys collaborating with her specialist and subspecialist colleagues.
Dr. Muhammad Humayun received the CMA Honorary Membership Award. The longest-serving ophthalmologist in Dartmouth, Dr. Humayun has spent 45 years providing medical and surgical vision care. Dividing his time between his two practices and the Eye Care Centre at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Dr. Humayun has devoted much of his practice to treating eye disease and vision loss for underprivileged and disabled Nova Scotians. For many years he was assistant editor of the Pakistan Journal of Ophthalmology. In addition, as a member of the Dalhousie Medical School Department of Ophthalmology, Dr. Humayun has helped train medical students and ophthalmology residents.
Dr. Robert M. Miller received the CMA Honorary Membership Award in recognition of his 40-year career as a radiologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He has served on the Doctors Nova Scotia (DNS) Board of Directors and as DNS President; he was also board chair and president of the Canadian Association of Radiologists and served five years on the CMA Political Action Committee. An integral member of the Department of Radiology at Dalhousie, Dr. Miller was instrumental in developing cardiac MRI scans in Halifax. He also served as the head of the division of cardiac radiology. He has dedicated much of his practice to mentoring and training radiology learners.
Dr. Chris Soder received the CMA Honorary Membership Award in recognition of his contributions to the care of acutely ill and injured children in Nova Scotia. After training in both pediatrics and anesthesia at the University of Toronto, Sick Kids, Dr. Soder moved to Halifax in 1981. He helped establish a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at the IWK, working as its chief until 2012. Beyond his clinical work, Dr. Soder is a national expert in pediatric transport medicine. He helped pioneer the pediatric critical care continuum for the region, including ground and air pre-hospital care, pediatric emergency care and pediatric intensive care.