Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award

Important dates

Overview

The Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award recognizes the contributions Albertans have made to improve the health-care system and patient outcomes, including:

• nurses who have provided, advocated and led improvements in care in emergency rooms or patient homes
• doctors who have improved the way patients access care in their communities
• health-care workers who have dedicated their lives to putting patients at the centre of their work with personalized, individual care, using cutting-edged techniques and advocating those techniques be made available to Albertans

Eligibility

The nominee must demonstrate:

• a strong connection to the medical community in Alberta and a demonstrable impact on the health of Albertans
• a lasting impact of contributions throughout their career
• demonstration of leadership that focused on empowering and uplifting those who work on their teams
• mentorship of emerging members of Alberta’s health-care and/or life sciences sectors.

Considerations

To be considered for the award, a nominee must be:

• someone whose career in health spans more than 20 years
• a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident, residing in Alberta with substantial roots in the province and deep appreciation for its nature and people

You cannot nominate:

• yourself
• someone who is deceased
• an elected federal, provincial or municipal representative while they are in office

How to nominate

To nominate someone, read the guidelines and complete the form.

Step 1. Read the eligibility guidelines

Read the eligibility guidelines (above).

Step 2. Complete the nomination package

Complete and save the Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award nomination form.

Include the following documents in your nomination package:

1. Two letters of support from at least 2 people who know and support your nominee’s achievements.
2. The nominee’s resume.

Step 3. Submit the nomination package

Email your nomination package to [email protected].

In the email subject line, put ‘Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award Nomination.’

Include the nominee's last name in the file name of each attachment.

You can also mail your nomination package to:

Alberta Health, Research and Innovation Branch
13th Floor, ATB Place North
10025 Jasper Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB  T5J 1S6

Nominee selection

A selection panel, consisting of health-care leaders and experts, will review the received nominations. The panel will recommend a short list of candidates to the responsible minister for final selection.

Award recipients

Dr. Janice Pasieka

Dr. Janice Pasieka, an endocrine surgeon based in Calgary, is the recipient of the 2024 Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award.

Dr. Pasieka pioneered the field of endocrine surgery in Alberta and, over the course of her nearly 40-year career, became a world leader in her field. As the first female academic surgeon in the University of Calgary’s Department of General Surgery, Dr. Pasieka earned a well-deserved reputation as an expert in general surgery, endocrine surgery and surgical oncology. She developed and refined procedures for endocrine and oncological surgeries that have now become the standard of care internationally. As an operational leader, Dr. Pasieka applied her considerable skills to revamp the Foothills Medical Centre surgical call coverage model and developed multidisciplinary clinic models for endocrine cancers that are now used across Canada.

Outside of the operating room, Dr. Pasieka has received multiple international honours for her training programs in endocrine surgery and for her academic achievements. She was responsible for the development of the first American Association of Endocrine Surgeons-accredited fellowship program in Canada, which has gone on to train numerous endocrine surgeons worldwide. As a researcher, she has over 190 peer-reviewed publications, has written over 28 book chapters and has served as editor for both textbooks and scientific journals. Her impact was such that a Festschrift was held in Chicago in her honour in October 2023, with the proceedings published in the American Journal of Surgery.

Born in Ontario, Dr. Pasieka received her MD from the University of Western Ontario in 1983. She is recently retired and is enjoying all that the Alberta Rockies have to offer.

Honourable mentions

Dr. Richard Lewanczuk

Dr. Richard Lewanczuk, a physician, health system leader and professor at the University of Alberta, is recognized for his extensive service to Albertans with an honourable mention for the Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award.

Born in Edmonton, Dr. Lewanczuk received his MD from the University of Alberta in 1983. He is an accomplished academic physician and leader, particularly in chronic disease management and public health. He has been instrumental in developing clinical models to integrate primary and specialist care for patients with complex chronic conditions. He is a strong advocate for rural and Indigenous communities and his dedication to addressing health care inequity has left a lasting legacy of system integration and patient-centered approaches in Alberta. As Alberta Health Services’ Senior Medical Director for Health Systems Integration, Dr. Lewanczuk has played a major role in establishing Alberta’s Primary Care Networks and promoted the patient medical home as a model to improve transitions in care and system integration, focused on the patient and family perspective. He also had a key leadership role in the more recent Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Care System project.

As an academic and teacher, Dr. Lewanczuk has been a dedicated mentor to emerging health care professionals and researchers, shaping the next generation of leaders. He actively engages with medical students, residents and early career researchers, offering guidance and fostering their professional development. He is known for his empowering and collaborative leadership style. This has resulted in an extensive collection of publications, patents and editorial contributions in the fields of chronic disease management and health system integration.

Dr. Wayne Tymchak

Dr. Wayne Tymchak, an Edmonton-based cardiologist and cardiac surgeon at the Mazankowski Heart Institute, is recognized for his extensive service to Albertans with an honourable mention for the Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award.

Dr. Tymchak has dedicated his career to interventional and transplant cardiology. He was a pioneer of interventional cardiology techniques when angioplasty was considered experimental and has introduced numerous technologies since then including atherectomy, aortic valve replacements and gene therapy techniques. Under his leadership, the University of Alberta Hospital and Mazankowski Heart Institute have become world-leading centres for cardiac care, offering cutting-edge care techniques, implementing the coronary care unit and the nationally renowned cardiology intensive care unit, and advancing the heart transplant and advanced heart failure programs. Since its introduction by Dr. Tymchak in 1985, coronary angioplasty is now used to treat over 300 patients annually at the University of Alberta.

Along with his clinical duties, Dr. Tymchak developed a strong reputation as a calm and positive colleague, mentor and leader. He fostered the development of many new physicians in the cardiology program and taught generations of medical students. His extensive research career has helped put Alberta on the map as a research hub, making the University of Alberta a place that students and doctors want to come to in furtherance of their education and research careers. Dr. Tymchak's countless contributions to cardiology in Alberta have helped create a world class system that has achieved extremely high success rates in patient care

Born in Lamont, Dr. Lewanczuk received his MD from the University of Alberta in 1980. He continues to serve as a practicing cardiologist and Chief for the Division of Cardiology at the University of Alberta.

Previous recipients

• Dr. Keith Aronyk

About Dr. Peter B. R. Allen

This award is inspired by the achievements of Dr. Peter B. R. Allen, an Alberta neurosurgeon with almost 40 years of service.

Dr. Peter Baker Roderick Allen grew up in the small mining town of Coleman, in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, where his lifelong passion for Alberta’s natural beauty and its hardworking people flourished. Inspired by his town’s doctor and surgeon, Dr. Allen attended the University of Alberta (U of A) and graduated with a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) in 1956.

He began his surgical training at the U of A, winning the Royal College of Surgeon’s coveted Medal of Surgery in 1958 for work on liver disease. In 1960, Dr. Allen pursued a fellowship in neurosurgery at the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In 1963, he returned to Edmonton to start his neurosurgical practice and fulfil his goal of giving back to the people of Alberta. He pursued a rewarding career at the U of A until his retirement in 2001.

Family and colleagues remember Dr. Allen as a mountain of a man for his vision and determined leadership that built and nurtured relationships across different health professions. He became the Divisional Director of Neurosurgery in 1969 and started up the first formal training program in neurosurgery in Alberta under the auspices of the Royal College. He served as president of the Alberta and then Canadian Neurosurgical Societies, and was an examiner and then chairman of the Examination Committee in Neurosurgery for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Dr. Allen was also vice-president, medical, at the U of A hospital. During his tenure from 1985 to 1990, he was instrumental in leading the work to build and open a modern and fully equipped neurosurgical intensive care unit that could provide Albertans with leading edge treatments. The unit was named after him in 2012.

Dr. Allen died in 2013.

It is noted that Dr. Allen’s greatest legacy was the great care he took in his surgical and clinical service in neurosurgery. A ‘surgeon’s surgeon’, he was a master in the operating room and a superb instructor. His judgement was legendary, and his rapport with patients, their families and coworkers of every type, unequalled. These skills live on in many professionals trained by Dr. Allen, who remember fondly not only his expertise, but also his kindness and generosity.

Dr. Allen had a natural affinity with people – no one was ‘ordinary’ to Peter. He listened closely, asked many questions, and showed interest in their passions, concerns and fears, seeing them as whole people rather than just patients with a neurosurgical condition he was called upon to treat.

This account of Dr. Allen’s accomplishments is provided courtesy of Dr. J. Max Findlay and Dr. Allen’s family.

Contact

To learn more about the Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award:

Email: [email protected]