Each year during the International Conference on Residency Education (ICRE), trailblazing medical educators and resident leaders are recognized for their valuable contributions and accomplishments within the field of residency training, advocacy and practice.

We’re thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2023 International Residency Education Awards:

International Medical Educator of the Year Award

This award is given to an international residency educator who has demonstrated a commitment to enhancing residency education as evidenced by innovation and impact beyond their program. The recipient of the 2023 award is Brian George, MD. 

Dr. George is chief of acute care surgery, as well as the director of the Center for Surgical Training and Research at the University of Michigan. He serves as the executive director of the Society for Improving Medical Professional Learning (SIMPL). Dr. George has won numerous local and national teaching awards, is an active research mentor, has authored over 100 papers and book chapters and has been awarded over $10 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, multiple boards, including the National Board of Medical Examiners, the Wellcome Leap foundation and many other national stakeholders in medical education. Dr. George studies how to improve the competence of physician trainees and, in partnership with others in SIMPL, is focused on improving the system of medical education.

International Resident Leadership Award

This award is given to an international resident who has demonstrated leadership in specialty education and encourages the development of future leaders in medicine. The recipient of the 2023 award is Lauren M. Granat, DO/MS.

Dr. Granat earned her undergraduate degree in Human Development from Cornell University and her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine/Master of Science degrees from the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, where received the Academic Medicine Scholarship. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., where she also completed the Clinical Scholar track. During residency, she was elected as the secretary, and later president, of the Resident Executive Committee, served as a member of the resident performance improvement and curriculum committees, developed a narrative medicine curriculum, instructed medical students on leading goals of care discussions, and completed multiple research projects within medical education and malignant hematology. Lauren is chief resident and is currently completing her chief resident year during the 2023-2024 academic year while also applying for Hematology/Oncology fellowship. She hopes to be an educator and mentor for both medical students and residents while caring for patients with hematologic malignancies. 

Kristin Sivertz Resident Leadership Award

This award is given to a resident who has demonstrated leadership in Canadian specialty education and encourages the development of future leaders in medicine. The recipients of the 2023 award are Fatemeh Ramazani, MD, and Brandon Tang, MD, MSc, FRCPC, ABIM. 

Dr. Ramazani is a fifth-year resident in Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Calgary. She received her medical degree from the University of Alberta. Dr. Ramazani is a passionate leader and educator whose interests and involvement in education include simulation, advocacy, and curriculum development. She has developed interactive classroom and simulation-based sessions for the delivery of Otolaryngology-based knowledge to medical students and residents, both locally and nationally. Her main area of interest is the incorporation of advocacy training into postgraduate surgical education, for which she’s developed a surgical advocacy curriculum specific to surgical training and its unique demands. 

Dr. Ramazani’s passion for teaching also influences her interactions and relationships with junior residents and medical students; she organizes teaching sessions for junior trainees on a formal and informal basis. Following the completion of her residency training this year, Dr. Ramazani will pursue a fellowship in laryngology at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Tang is a recent graduate of the General Internal Medicine subspecialty program at the University of Toronto. He is an academic general internist and clinician educator at the University of Toronto and a graduate student in medical education at Harvard Medical School. His impact in medical education has been recognized by the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine and the Royal College.

Dr. Tang is passionate about the intersection of medical education and health innovation. During residency, he was a TEDx speaker and championed the development of Vancouver Notes, a novel medical textbook for internal medicine. He also published a landmark systematic review on clinical teaching unit design. He is an active member of the ICRE community and served three terms as an ICRE Resident Co-Chair. Currently, Dr. Tang co-leads the GEMINI MedED initiative, which aims to leverage electronic health record data for the purposes of resident feedback and assessment.

Program Director of the Year Award 

This award is given to a program director who has demonstrated a commitment to enhancing residency education as evidenced by innovation and impact beyond their program. Up to two awards are presented. The recipients of the 2023 award are David Callen, MD, FRCPC, and Robert A. Woods, MD, FRCPC. 

Dr. Callen is a pediatric neurologist and an associate professor in the Division of Pediatric Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University.  Dr. Callen completed his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Toronto. He obtained his MD from McMaster University and completed his residency at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.  

Dr. Callen’s first task at McMaster was the creation and accreditation of the pediatric neurology residency training program in 2008. He has been program director since its inception. He has been consistently involved in the Specialty Committee for Neurology at the Royal College and has worked to implement national initiatives to advance residency education.  

Dr. Callen co-developed a national in-training examination for pediatric neurology, now a standard component of training for Canadian pediatric neurology residents. His most recent project is developing and organizing a National Pediatric Neurology OSCE and a National Pediatric Neurology Academic Half-Day to cover topics that are felt to be challenging to cover locally across Canada. 

At the undergraduate level, Dr. Callen is likely best known for his neurosciences curriculum in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, which introduced a variety of learning techniques, including team-based learning.

Dr. Woods is a professor of Emergency Medicine. He works clinically in the adult and pediatric emergency departments in Saskatoon, Sask. and as a transport physician for STARS Air Ambulance. He co-founded the Royal College Emergency Medicine Residency Program at the University of Saskatchewan in 2011 and has been the program director since inception. Dr. Woods started the Clinician Educator Diploma Program in 2020 and serves as its program director. He has been active in education scholarship and serves as a decision editor for the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Program Administrator Award for Excellence

This award is given to a Residency Program Administrator who has demonstrated a commitment to enhancing residency education as evidenced by innovation and excellence beyond their program. Read about Kathy Nowak, our 2023 recipient.

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These awards will be presented at the 2023 International Conference on Residency Education on Saturday, October 21, 2023.  Learn more and register.