Rachel Ellaway receives 2019 Duncan Graham Award

A researcher, innovator and prolific contributor toscholarly journals, Rachel Ellaway, PhD, is this year’s winner of the DuncanGraham Award for Outstanding Contribution to Medical Education.

Dr. Rachel Ellaway is a professor of medical education incommunity health sciences and co-director of the Office of Health and MedicalEducation Scholarship at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary.An internationally renowned scholar and leader in medical education, hersubstantial contribution is reflected in 328 presentations, 201 publicationsand 24 book chapters.

Dr. Ellaway’s work with the Royal College includes servingas a reviewer and member of the Educational Research and Development Committee(since 2016). She was also a major contributor to the eHealth competencies forCanMEDS 2015 and has given multiple presentations at Royal College events.

Colleagues praise Dr. Ellaway’s focus on excellence andinnovation in medical education. “Her work on framing the use of digitaltechnologies in medical education has underpinned much of the developments inthe field, and her work on e-health and digital professionalism has similarlyproved influential,” said Jon Meddings, MD, FRCPC, dean of the Cumming Schoolof Medicine.

Her graduate students describe her as a “valued and dynamicmentor,” added Kent Stobart, MD, FRCPC, vice dean of education and a professorof Pediatrics at the University of Saskatchewan. “She is an excellent teacherwho supports the development of a questioning attitude.”

Dr. Ellaway’s contributions to innovation in medicaleducation include developing free and open source online teaching tools. Amongother achievements, she created the virtual patient platform, OpenLabyrinth.

“Dr. Ellaway committed to all these activities with strongenthusiasm and devotion, and with the clear goals of improving medicaleducation delivery for her colleagues and the provision of outstanding healthcare to the Canadian public,” said Geneviève Moineau, MD, FRCPC, president andCEO of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC). “She is knownto our community as an innovator, effective participant in scholarlyactivities, deep thinker, scholar and leader.”

Dr. Ellaway will take over as editor-in-chief of the journalAdvances in Health Sciences Education in 2020. She has also been an associateeditor of the Canadian Medical Education Journal, a member of the MedicalTeacher editorial board and editor of the CAME Voice. She was the creator ofthe AMEE Fringe in 2004 and continues to serve as its “maîtresse desceremonies.”

Among her many awards and recognitions, Dr. Ellaway is arecipient of the CAME Ian Hart Award for Distinguished Contribution to MedicalEducation (2019), the AFMC-Infoway e-Health Faculty Award (2014) and AFMC’sJohn Ruedy Award for Innovation in Medical Education (2011).

“Her work as a peer, critic and innovator in medicaleducation is of the highest quality. Medical education in Canada is much moreengaging and robust as a result of her constructions and ongoing participationin our community,” said Dr. Meddings.