News & Events

Dr. Dolores McKeen and the new Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol was featured on CTV News last week (March 28).

In February, the IWK Health Centre became the first health centre in the Maritimes to implement ERAS.

The program is currently focused on in-patient uro-gynaecology and gynaecology surgeries and is designed to help patients prepare for surgery, promote faster recovery and shorten hospital stays. Hospitals that use ERAS have significantly fewer complications and better patient outcomes and experiences.  

Dr. McKeen is an anesthesiologist with the Dalhousie Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine, Associate Director of Research with the IWK Health Centre and a full professor at Dalhousie University.

Learn more about ERAS

Congratulations to Dr. Blaine Kent for receiving this year’s R. Wayne Putnam Award for his outstanding contributions to community CME.  Dr. Kent is an anesthesiologist with the Dalhousie Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine, the QEII Halifax Infirmary Site Chief and the Director of the Perioperative Blood Management Services at the QEII.

In Dr. Kent’s nomination, he was singled out for his outstanding contribution to Continuing Professional Development across the Maritime provinces through his leadership of the Blood & Beyond Conference. Dr. Kent Chairs the Planning Committee and provides leadership and direction to the conference each year. Recognizing the need for more continuing medical education in this subject area, he championed the cause of creating and sustaining such a conference, which celebrated its 10^th anniversary last year.  The Blood & Beyond Conference has provided Atlantic physicians with a world-class meeting where they can hear about the most recent research and best practices on a variety of blood management and perioperative medicine topics.

Dr. Kent was nominated by Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine Head, Dr. Romesh Shukla. The R. Wayne Putnam Award recognizes and rewards those who consistently contribute in an exceptional way to the continuing education of physicians at the community level.

Congratulations to Dr. Richard Hall who is a 2018 Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society (CAS) Gold Medal winner. CAS announced its 2018 award recipients earlier this week. The Gold Medal is the highest award given by CAS. It is a personal award consisting of an inscribed medal given in recognition of excellence and leadership in anesthesia.  

Dr. Hall will be honoured for the award at the CAS Annual Meeting in Montreal, June 16-18.

The Department’s Applause Committee, tasked with celebrating and recognizing the Department’s culture of excellence, nominated Dr. Hall for this award.

Dr. Richard Hall trained as a pharmacist at Dalhousie University followed by a transition into medicine, anesthesiology and critical care. Since that time, he has contributed to the advancement of anesthesiology, to its scientific body of knowledge and to the cultivation of a new generation of anesthesiologists, while simultaneously maintaining a demanding full-time clinical practice.

His accomplishments range from publishing over 80 peer-reviewed articles and numerous book chapters to conducting over 70 multicentre clinical trials, speaking at a wide variety of national and international conferences and being awarded 54 research contracts from industry. Dr. Hall initiated and chaired the Perioperative Anesthesia Clinical Trials (PACT) Committee.  As the chair, he led the creation of a well-functioning mechanism for conducting perioperative clinical trials in Canada.

He is a recipient of the prestigious Doctors Nova Scotia Distinguished Service Award as well as a founding member of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group.

Recently retired, Dr. Hall was a Professor of Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine, Pharmacology and Critical Care Medicine and an Associate Professor of Surgery at Dalhousie University.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has awarded the Department’s, Dr. Dolores McKeen, $40,000 to support her project, “Canadian Anesthesia Research Priority Setting Partnership”.

The project’s aim is to identify unanswered questions about anesthesia and perioperative care from the perspectives of patients, clinicians, and researchers and then prioritize those that they agree are the most important. Ultimately, the results of the priority setting partnership can help shape the agenda for anesthesia research in Canada. Funding agencies, like CIHR and the Canadian Anesthesia Research Foundation, could use these priorities to develop dedicated funding opportunities for research.

The funding is complemented by $58,643 in matching funds from the Association of Canadian University Departments of Anesthesia (ACUDA), Canadian Perioperative Anesthesia Clinical Trials Group (PACT), the University of Manitoba, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and Dalhousie University.