2023 Award Winners

Blum Award - Ann Wilson

Ann Wilson is a graduate of the Medical Laboratory Technology program at Dawson College in Montreal and worked as bench technologist in Hematology and then Transfusion Services at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.  When Quebec opened Transfusion Safety Officer positions in 1999, she was hired as a Transfusion Safety Technologist at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), responsible to develop and implement a Transfusion Medicine QA system at the four sites of the MUHCDesignated Transfusion Centre and oversee QA at its four associated sites. She was instrumental in the planning and implementation of TraceLine, the Quebec-wide computer system for transfusion.  She has served on the TraceLine Users’ Committee since its inception and on the CCNMT, Quebec’s National Advisory Committee (CCNMT) since 2004.She joined the TESS pilot project in 2005 and gained a keen interest in transfusion error surveillance and management. Ann retired as TSO in March 2021 and now works part-time as TM Quality Advisorat the MUHC and as Assistant Advisorfor the Quebec DBBM (Direction de la biovigilance et de la biologie médicale), with a current focus on its IVIG project.
Ann joined the CSTM Board of Directors in 2012 as Central Director andstarted the Translation Team of fluentbilingual volunteers to increase the number and quality of CSTM’s translated communications and documents. She served as Vice-President, President, then Past President from 2016-2022 and enjoyed the challenge of streamlining and standardizing various CSTM processes, and most of all the opportunity to meet, work with, and learn from so many knowledgeable and dedicated TM enthusiasts across the country.

 

Ortho Award - Donald M. Arnold, MDCM, MSc, FRCP(C)

Dr. Donald M. Arnold is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University, and Director of the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Transfusion Research at McMaster University. Dr. Arnold’s research is focused on improving blood transfusion practices and advancing the care of patients with bleeding disorders. Dr. Arnold was co-principal investigator for the CONCOR-1 trial, which evaluated the use of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 at 52 sites across Canada, the US and Brazil.  The trial informed policy on the use of convalescent plasma in Canada and throughout the world.  Leveraging the success of CONCOR-1, Dr. Arnold and colleagues are building the Canadian Clinical Trials Group to support large, efficient clinical trials in Transfusion Medicine in Canada with a focus on mentorship. 
 

Buchanan Award - Carole Ethier

Carole graduated from Cégep de Sainte-Foy in 1985 as a medical laboratory technician. She then worked in various analytical laboratories for the Canadian Red Cross.
 
In 1998, she specialized in erythrocyte immunology.
 
While working at Héma-Québec's reference laboratory, she provided training to blood bank technicians from several Québec hospitals for 8 years. She obtained the position of department head in erythrocyte immunology at Héma-Québec's reference laboratory in 2010.
 
During this period, Carole reviewed serological studies before their results were sent to hospitals and participated in the identification of antibodies for many interesting cases. Training residents completing a subspecialty in transfusion medicine was also part of her duties.
 
Over the years, Carole has presented at various conferences and has contributed to numerous abstracts and publications. Her passion for erythrocyte immunology has remained strong throughout these years. Providing state of the art antibody identification, interacting with transfusion medicine partners and staying up to date on the various blood grouping systems, reagents and technologies have been a priority and motivation for her throughout the years.