COA Awards of Merit and Excellence
2006 Recipients

Robert B. Bourne, M.D., FRCSC
Past President, Canadian Orthopaedic Association
London, ON

One of the highlights of each Canadian Orthopaedic Association Annual Meeting is the opportunity to recognize individuals who have made major contributions to orthopaedic surgery in Canada. The COA Award of Merit is awarded, at the discretion of the President in consultation with the Executive Committee, to an individual that has made an outstanding contribution to the art and science of orthopaedics. The recipient of the Award does not necessarily need to be an orthopaedic surgeon.

At the 2006 Annual Meeting, Dr. Don Sweet was awarded the COA Award of Merit posthumously. Dr. Sweet was an American pathologist who worked with Dr. Tom Smallman to develop the COA Basic Science Course. Dr. Sweet gave unselfishly of his time, energy and enthusiasm to support and teach a large portion of the COA Basic Science Course for 17 years. It is out of recognition for this significant and sustained contribution, that the COA presented the Award of Merit to Dr. Sweet. Dr. Tom Smallman accepted the award on behalf of Dr. Sweet’s family.

The COA Awards of Excellence were presented to Dr. Bob Bell and Dr. Cy Frank. This award recognizes a member of the Association for outstanding contributions to orthopaedic surgery in Canada. Dr. Bell is internationally recognized as a clinician/scientist, educator, health care executive and access to care advocate. He has had many key accomplishments including the founding of the Musculoskeletal Oncology Unit at the University of Toronto, the publication of over 170 peer-reviewed papers, the recipient of over $7 million in research grants, the training and mentoring of 35 Fellows, the Presidency of the Musculoskeletal Tumour Society, the PAIRO (1993) and the R. B. Salter (1994, 1998) Awards for teaching excellence and for being named the Chief Operating Officer of the Princess Margaret Hospital.

Dr. Frank is also internationally recognized as a clinician/scientist, a former Division Chairman, a Scientific Director and an access to health care advocate. Dr. Frank has had many notable accomplishments including being named Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of MSK Health & Arthritis, being current Director of the Alberta Bone & Joint Health Institute, having been President of the Canadian Orthopaedic Research Society, being the recipient of the endowed McCaig Professor in Joint Injury & Arthritis Research, having written over 200 publications, having been the recipient of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sport Medicine and University of Calgary Research Awards of Excellence and being named one of the top 40 alumni from the University of Calgary.

Canadian orthopaedic surgery is much richer for the considerable contributions of Drs. Sweet, Bell and Frank.