NSAC President Inducted into Canadian Academy of Health Sciences

When the President of the United States wants advice on a public health issue, he calls the United States’ National Academies. When the Prime Minister of Great Britain wants to seek similar counsel, he usually turns to the Royal Society of Britain. But when the Prime Minister of Canada wants similar advice, who does he call?

Well, that’s not always entirely clear, given the more narrowly defined mandates of many Canadian organizations. Now, however, owing to a recent initiative by a group of leading health care leaders and researchers, the Prime Minister will be able to call the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS)recently created to:

1. Develop informed, strategic assessments on urgent health issues;
2. Inform public policy on these issues;
3. Enhance Canada’s readiness to deal with global health issues; and,
4. Provide a recognized and authoritative Canadian health science voice internationally.

According to one of the Academy’s key organizers, the establishment of the Academy is long overdue—and all the more pressing given the potential global health threats to Canadians, most recently exemplified by the SARS threat. “Ask Canadians what they care about most, and they answer unequivocally: ‘health,’” explains University of Alberta Professor of Medicine Paul Armstrong, CAHS’s first president. “It makes sense, therefore, that Canada should have an organization that government—and Canadians—can turn to for sound, impartial advice and research on pressing health issues.”

NSAC President, Dr. T. Philip Hicks has been elected a Fellow of this prestigious organization, one of only 63 members selected nationwide.

Members elected to the CAHS are well recognized by their peers nationally and internationally for their contributions to the promotion of health science, have demonstrated leadership, creativity and distinctive competencies and commitment to advancing academic health sciences.

“I am at the same time proud and humbled at this honour that has been given to me by my peers,” said Hicks. “Having a representative from NSAC contributing on a national scale to policy development and advice-giving at the highest levels of government gives NSAC and our community national recognition.”

The CAHS, will form the third pillar of three founding member academies under the umbrella of the Canadian Academies of Science (CAS), joining its sister organizations, The Royal Society of Canada and The Canadian Academy of Engineering.

The induction ceremony will take place in Vancouver, September 21, 2005