COA Awards of Merit and Excellence
2009 Recipients

Peter J. O'Brien, M.D., FRCSC
Past President, Canadian Orthopaedic Association
Vancouver, B.C.

The Canadian Orthopaedic Association Award of Merit and the Presidential Award of Excellence are given to individuals who have made major contributions to Canadian Orthopaedics. These prestigious awards for 2009 were presented at the Annual Meeting in Whistler to two outstanding individuals. 

Award of Merit
The "Award of Merit" is awarded to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the art and science of orthopaedics and this year's deserving recipient was Dr. Paul Wright from Burnaby, British Columbia. Paul is well known to members of the COA as an energetic worker and enthusiastic supporter of Canadian orthopaedics. His contributions to our Association are too numerous to list but I would like to highlight some of them. He has worked tirelessly for the Foundation. He joined the Board of Directors of the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation in 1994, joined their executive team in 2000 and served as Chairman of the Foundation from 2004 to 2006. He has been a member of the COA executive committee. He introduced the concept of the surgeon initials on the operative site to Canadian orthopaedics in the early 1990's and by so, significantly reduced the risk of surgical error in our specialty. He was the R. I. Harris lecturer at the 2006 Annual meeting in Toronto. There is no one more deserving of the COA Award of Merit than Dr. Paul Wright and it is our privilege to recognize his contributions.

Presidential Award of Excellence
The 2009 Presidential Award of Excellence was presented to Dr. James Waddell of Toronto, Ontario. Jim is the role model for excellence for orthopaedics in Canada. He has been a leader in every facet of our profession - clinical, academic, administrative and political. His many contributions to the COA include serving as President in 1998. He has occupied a number of positions at St. Michael's Hospital including Surgeon-in-Chief and Medical Director of the Trauma Program. He recently completed ten years as the Professor and Chairman of the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at University of Toronto. Dr. Waddell has been active on behalf of orthopaedics with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He has served as co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Surgery. He is a founding contributor to the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation's Canadian Orthopaedic Research Legacy program. He is currently the Coordinator for the National Action Network for the Bone & Joint Decade in Canada, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation. No other individual in our time exemplifies excellence in orthopaedics more than Jim Waddell does.

This year's award winners have dedicated their careers to improving orthopaedics in Canada and both have made huge contributions in that regard. We are grateful to both of them for what the have done and what they continue to do for Canadian orthopaedics.