Esteemed physician, former Nova Scotia Minister of Health and beloved Dalhousie faculty member Dr. Ronald Stewart has pledged $1.3 million to the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation (DMRF).
The funds will support of the establishment of the Ronald Stewart Symposium in Emergency Medical Services Research and provide seed funding for a chair in the same field. This pledge, announced last week, will be paid out over the next ten years.
DMRF CEO Brian Thompson calls the gift "transformational," saying that it "will underscore the impact of our Emergency Health Services program, ensuring we are taking an evidence-based approach to delivering superior emergency care to this region. That's a win for all Nova Scotians."
Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation is an independent funding agency that supports innovative, life-saving medical research taking place at Dalhousie's Faculty of Medicine.
An accomplished career, a generous gift
Dr. Stewart is an accomplished physician, politician, and researcher who studied and worked at Dalhousie’s Medical School. A leader in health system reform, Dr. Stewart established the highly-recognized current Emergency Health Services (EHS) system and a major expansion of home care services.
After first coming to Dalhousie as a faculty member in 1990, Dr. Stewart later served as Director of Medical Humanities from 2004 to 2009. In that role, he integrated the arts and history into medical study to promote creativity and empathy in the medical profession, in particular through the Music-in-Medicine initiative.
Earlier this year, Dr. Stewart received an honorary degree from Dalhousie.
Capacity-building
The majority of Dr. Stewart’s gift will be used as seed funding to create a Chair in Emergency Medical Services Research, in an effort to build an endowment of $5 million to fully support a chair dedicated to research in the field.
In keeping with this commitment to emergency health care excellence is the creation of The Ronald Stewart Symposium in Emergency Medicine Research, a three-day conference that brings together EHS workers for advanced learning, collaboration, and celebration. This year, the symposium is named Celebration 20-50 and took place late last month. It provided EHS workers with an opportunity to recognize achievements from the past and present while engaging in knowledge sharing activities.
Notably, Celebration 20-50 paid tribute to two significant EHS anniversaries: firstly, the 50-year anniversary of the “Flying Squad” of Belfast, Ireland, a mobile coronary care team who created a revolutionary emergency health care model in 1967 by demonstrating the life-saving effectiveness of fast and efficient response for heart attack victims; and secondly, the 20-year anniversary of the refurbishment of Nova Scotia’s Emergency Health Services system. This symposium is slated be held in Halifax every five years.
Look for more about Dr. Stewart's gift in a future Dal News article.
Comments
comments powered by Disqus