In 2023, the Royal College Foundation (RCF) launched the Canadian Aid and Action Fund (CAAF) program in support of projects led by Royal College members who are addressing issues impacting the Canadian health care system. Since its launch, the program has contributed approximately $557,000 in cumulative investments, with more planned in future years. 

We are pleased to announce that seven new grant recipients will be supported through the CAAF. Click their names in the list below to learn more about their important work and contributions.

• Blair Bigham, MD, FRCPC
• Jeff Hawel, MD, FRCSC
• Emilie Joos, MD, FRCSC
• Jerry Maniate, MD, FRCPC
• Stephanie Tom, MD, FRCPC
• Cynthia Tsien, MD, FRCPC
• Yan Xu, MD, FRCPC

Blair Bigham, MD, FRCPC

Assistant professor, School of Public Health, University of Toronto 

Dr. Blair Bigham and his team are using CAAF funding to expand health advocacy education to universities across Canada.

“The grant will fund unique health journalism and science advocacy programs delivered directly to content experts, allowing them to share their expertise and stories beyond the clinic and into the community,” he says.

“These programs will enable health care professionals to effectively engage communities and to promote health, science and wellness.”

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Jeff Hawel, MD, FRCSC

Assistant professor, Western University

“Across the country, approximately 50 per cent of endoscopic procedures are done by general surgeons and this proportion is much higher in more rural and remote settings,” says Dr. Jeff Hawel. He explains that this is partly because of how endoscopy training is delivered across the country.

“The training varies widely,” he says. “Many programs train with rural surgeons, some exclusively with academic surgeons and some with gastroenterologists — and occasionally, it’s a mix of all three.”

Due to this varied training, Dr. Hawel and his team are developing a nationwide bootcamp to help teach surgical residents a foundation and technical skills on the procedure to ensure that they can get the most out of their endoscopy rotations. 

Part of the bootcamp is a hands-on course that the CAAF grant will support.

“The delivery of a hands-on endoscopy course has considerable start-up costs, which this grant will help address, allowing us to continue to train the best possible surgical endoscopists to treat our remote population,” explains Dr. Hawel. 

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Emilie Joos, MD, FRCSC

Co-lead, Global Surgery Lab, the University of British Columbia

Dr. Emilie Joos and her team are using CAAF funding to support the educational needs of physicians who provide care to millions of individuals in rural Canada. 

“Postgraduate surgical education predominantly occurs in urban centers, detached from the patients, care teams, pathologies, infrastructure and the resource limitation characteristics of rural Canada,” she says.

The CAAF grant will help address these challenges by supporting Dr. Joos and her team’s project to develop, deliver and evaluate the impact of a comprehensive Enhanced Surgical Skills (ESS) Virtual Education Platform tailored specifically to the needs of rural surgical providers across Canada.

“This platform will serve as a hub for educational opportunities pertaining to the unique environment of rural surgical practice. The funds will help us, together with our multidisciplinary working group, design key online features, such as procedural videos, self-assessments, case presentations, virtual workshops, mentor lists and consultation mechanisms,” says Dr. Joos.

“We ultimately seek to build a community of practice supporting rural surgical care, thereby improving access, sustainability and quality of surgical services in rural Canada.”

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Jerry Maniate, MD, FRCPC

Executive director, Equity in Health Systems Lab

“The CAAF grant will help us enhance health equity training and education for Canadian health practitioners, leaders and learners,” says Dr. Jerry Maniate. “These funds will increase the reach of our educational content to wider audiences in medical and health education, promoting topics of leadership development, health-promoting work and learning environments with an equity lens.”

He explains that the grant will also support educational initiatives for the next generation of health care workers and leaders by engaging with co-op students in secondary education, particularly those from underrepresented, racialized and equity-deserving communities.

Learn more on the Equity in Health Systems Lab website.

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Stephanie Tom, MD, FRCPC

Vice-president, Canadian Rheumatology Association

CAAF funding will help Dr. Stephanie Tom and her team develop a series of bilingual resources for the Rheumatology community on how to green their clinics and hospital working spaces. Resources will include a practical, easy-to-read toolkit, a podcast and an online forum hosted on the Canadian Rheumatology Association website. 

“Our goal is to deliver quality patient care while selecting environmentally conscious options, which often results in cost savings to the health care system as we work to improve patient and societal health outcomes,” Dr. Tom says.

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Cynthia Tsien, MD, FRCPC

Education director, Ajmera Transplant Centre, University Health Network

“Our project will address misinformation and cultural barriers that impede access to transplantation for individuals with end-stage organ failure, particularly patients from the Indigenous and African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities,” says Dr. Cynthia Tsien. 

She explains that this will be done through quarterly educational sessions, funded by the CAAF grant, that will assemble patients and health care professionals to facilitate dialogue, provide accurate information and cultivate trust.

“This grant will assist in providing culturally aware and responsive educational sessions designed to empower individuals with comprehensive knowledge about transplantation. The sessions will help dispel common myths and misconceptions and foster trust between health care professionals and Indigenous and ACB communities,” she says. 

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Yan Xu, MD, FRCPC

Haematologist and associate scientist, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

“Our goal is to develop an educational program that enables physicians, physician-scientists and medical learners to accurately and appropriately interpret and report scholarly work pertaining to race, ethnicity and ancestry impacted by thrombotic conditions,” says Dr. Yan Xu.

He explains that the program, funded by the CAAF, will help develop learning tools and cultivate a community that is focused on addressing inaccurate assumptions that are perpetuated.

“The program will also promote responsible use and interpretation of medical literature pertaining to these population descriptors,” Dr. Xu says. 

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2026 call for applications

The next call for CAAF applications will launch in 2026 and every two years going forward to accommodate the resources needed to support current projects. In the meantime, visit the grant’s web page to learn more about this unique funding opportunity for Royal College members involved in projects supporting the delivery of high-quality health care in Canada. 

If you have any questions, please contact the team at CAAF@royalcollege.ca.