CRAJ Summer 2022

Summer 2022 (Volume 32, Number 2)

Awards, Appointments, and Accolades

Dr. Dafna Gladman – Women Who Lead Honoree

Congratulations to Dafna Gladman on being honoured by The National Psoriasis Foundation at their Commit to Cure Gala in June 2022, as one of three exceptional women recognized for their contributions to the community impacted by psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

Dr. Gladman is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Senior Scientist at the Krembil Research Institute and Schroeder Arthritis Institute. She is Deputy Director of the Centre for Prognosis Studies in The Rheumatic Diseases; Director, Psoriatic Arthritis Program, University Health Network; and co-Director of the University of Toronto Lupus Clinic. Dr. Gladman’s research focuses on psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and systemic lupus erythematosus, with emphasis on database development, prognosis studies, genetic markers, assessment instruments, and quality of life measures. The Toronto PsA Clinic was established in 1978 and is the largest PsA longitudinal cohort in the world. Dr. Gladman’s laboratory research program involves genetic and biomarker studies of PsA, making this a truly translational research program.

Dr. Gladman has over 900 peer-reviewed publications, 141 chapters and invited publications and over 1,250 published abstracts. Dr. Gladman established the International Psoriasis and Arthritis Research Team (IPART) and is Past-President of the international Group for Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA), and a Co-Principal Investigator with the SpondyloARthritis Research Consortium of Canada (SPARCC).

Dr. Gladman has received numerous awards including the Verna Wright Prize for outstanding contribution to the field of psoriatic arthritis, the Carol Nachman Prize for outstanding research activities in the field of rheumatology, and the American College of Rheumatology Clinician Investigator Award. Dr. Gladman is a Master of the American College of Rheumatology and the Canadian Rheumatology Association, and she has been elected to the Canadian Academy of Science.

Dr. Gladman has served on the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) Medical Board twice, and is a member of the NPF Task Force on COVID-19. She has frequently served as an NPF grant reviewer. Dr. Gladman has 2 children, 11 grandchildren and a great-grandson.

CRA Master Awards

Newly created in 2019, the CRA Master designation is one of the highest honours bestowed by the Canadian Rheumatology Association, honouring outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology through clinical care, education, research and leadership over an entire career. The following are the 2022 CRA Masters awardees:

Dr. David Cabral – CRA Master

David Cabral is a Pediatric Rheumatologist and Clinical Professor at BC Children’s Hospital (BCCH) and the University of British Columbia (UBC). He joined Dr. Ross Petty’s Vancouver team from Australia in 1991. He cofounded the Young Adult Rheumatic Disease (YARD) “transition” clinic in 1992. He was Division Head from 2004-2021. He has wide research interests and has participated in, or helped establish, a number of research registries. For the past 10 years he has been the Principal Investigator for the Pediatric Vasculitis initiative (PedVas) for which he has established a patient registry, biobank and international network of investigators. In 2012, he helped establish a basic science research laboratory for pediatric rheumatology within the BCCH Research Institute. He was the recipient of the Ross Petty/Arthritis Society Research Chair in Pediatric Rheumatology at UBC in 2015.

Dr. Rayfel Schneider – CRA Master

Dr. Schneider has been Program Director and Head of the Division of Paediatric Rheumatology at the Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto, and most recently Vice-Chair (Education) of the Department of Paediatrics. Under his leadership the training program established a substantial international footprint. He has made important contributions to the care of patients with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), with studies of prognosis and the development of international clinical trials and treatment guidelines. He has served on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Special Committee on Pediatric Rheumatology, as Vice-Chair of the Canadian Paediatric Rheumatology Association, was a founding member of the AMIGO Mentorship Program, and was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Pediatric Rheumatology Collaborative Study Group (PRCSG).

Dr. Rachel Shupak – CRA Master

On receiving this designation, Dr. Shupak writes: “I am deeply honoured to receive the CRA Master’s Award for 2022. I have dedicated my academic career as a clinician-educator at St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, to the care of complex patients with inflammatory multisystem diseases and to educating medical students, residents, rheumatology residents and allied health professionals. The Advanced Clinician Practitioner in Arthritis Care (ACPAC) program promotes inter-professional models of care with the aim to close the widening gap between the rising prevalence of arthritis and the inequity of delivery of arthritis care in Canada. I thank my outstanding colleagues for their unwavering support and collaboration that fostered the success of this program.”

The CRAJ would like to recognize the contributions of its readers to the medical field and their local communities. To have any such awards, appointments, or accolades announced in an upcoming issue, please send recipient names, pertinent details, and a brief account of these honours to JyotiP@sta.ca. Picture submissions are greatly encouraged.