The Dr. Parminder Singh Award of Distinction recognizes the vital relationship between community and hospital-based pediatricians and sub-specialists that plays a significant role in the health outcomes of BC children and youth. This award is offered by the BC Pediatric Society in co-operation with the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. Information about previous award recipients can be found here.

Congratulations to Dr. Garth Meckler
2024 Dr. Parminder Singh Award

Here’s what Dr. Meckler’s nominators said about him:

Dr. Garth Meckler is a leader, clinician, researcher, and educator in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. He has served as Division Head of Pediatric Emergency Medicine since his arrival to UBC in 2013 and has received local, regional, and national awards recognizing his leadership and service to the field. He is a member of multiple advisory committees at the university, health authority, provincial, national and international level aimed at improving the care of children. Garth’s leadership is distinguished by his improvement of “systems” while attending to the needs of paediatricians and other health-care providers. His outreach and engagement in British Columbia has been exemplary and has led to enhanced emergency room care through the recent pandemics.

The Dr. Judith Hall Award recognizes excellence in research (particularly evidence-based medicine), policy development, community involvement and improving the status of or empowering pediatricians. Information about previous award recipients can be found here.

Congratulations to Dr. Tommy Gerschman
2024 Dr. Judith Hall Award

Dr. Gerschman selected Save a Child’s Heart Canada to receive the $500 monetary amount that accompanies this award.

Here’s what Dr. Gerschman’s nominators said about him:

Community Involvement and Empowering Pediatricians: Dr. Gerschman has been a champion for community-based specialists, helping to create the Community Based Specialists Working Group at SSC. This initiative has resulted in several services now available to community pediatricians and all community-based specialists, including access to CareConnect, Zoom licenses, and a Translation Services line for offices. During COVID-19, they also secured access to PPE for community specialists. As the Physician Lead (2022-2024), Dr. Gerschman led the development of a program for “Specialist Team Care,” including for pediatricians. This will support pediatricians who are interested in hiring nurses or allied health providers to enhance the care that they provide. This initiative is enabling several pediatric clinics to benefit, with more expected to follow. Dr. Gerschman continues to advocate for ensuring that pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists in the community have equitable and appropriate access to resources that they need to provide care to their patients (within their communities). This includes helping advise advocacy efforts by BCPS relating to special authority, developmental assessments, and equitable funding supports through Doctors of BC (ie disparity corrections). Policy Development: In 2020, Dr. Gerschman advocated for broad access to virtual care by specialists, including telephone services. This effort resulted in Canada’s most liberal virtual care policies and equitable remuneration. Pediatricians and our patients have benefited greatly by having the ability to conduct clinical visits via telephone (and pediatricians receiving full payments for that care provision). Dr. Gerschman helped support and lead changes to the re-referral process so that specialists no longer need to ask the referring doctor to submit a re-referral every six months. This change is particularly beneficial for long-term pediatric patients. Working with Adolescents: Dr. Gerschman supported BCPS in creating two new fee codes for adolescent care by pediatricians in the community. Given the complexities of caring for adolescents, this is a significant step towards ensuring appropriate compensation for this type of care. While more needs to be done, it is a promising start.