Richard Reznick, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, has been named the recipient of the Medical Council of Canada’s 2017 Outstanding Achievement Award in the Evaluation of Clinical Competence. The award is given to an individual who has made a significant and vital achievement in the field of assessment and evaluation of clinical and professional competence in the health professions.

“The Medical Council of Canada has been pursuing its vision to strive for the highest level of medical care for Canadians through excellence in the evaluation of physicians for over 100 years,” says Dr. Reznick. “So to be recognized by an organization that has contributed so much to the excellent standards of health care we have in Canada is truly an honour.”

The international jury responsible for selecting the recipient chose to recognize Dr. Reznick for his leadership within the Medical Council of Canada and at Queen’s University, along with his innovative educational approaches.

Dr. Reznick notes that it was the Medical Council of Canada that gave him his first big break as a young surgeon who was interested in medical education. It was there that he led a national committee to develop the first objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) for national licensure in Canada (and in the world) – an examination that is still used to demonstrate competence in thousands of medical trainees each year.

At Queen’s, Dr. Reznick has overseen the development of new educational programs, such as the Clinician Investigator Program, an intensive, research-based postgraduate medical education program which aims to develop the next generation of Clinician Scientist research leaders; the Queen’s combined MD/PhD program; the Queen’s University Accelerated Route to Medical School (QuARMS); and a fully-online Bachelor of Health Sciences. Recently, he led the charge for competency-based medical education, making Queen’s the first university in Canada to fully deploy this new methodology across all of its specialty programs. Dr. Reznick has also deepened the Faculty of Health Science’s focus on research.

“We are delighted to award Dr. Reznick with the Outstanding Achievement Award,” says Dr. Ian Bowmer, Executive Director and CEO of the Medical Council of Canada. “Richard has made tremendous contributions to medical education and assessment. We are very pleased that this year’s award recipient has such deep roots within the Medical Council of Canada, including as the Chair of the Examination Development Advisory Committee for many years. As a father of the MCC’s Qualifying Examination Part II, Richard has had a tremendous impact on how we assess clinical skills for licensure in Canada.”

In addition to serving as Dean, a position he has held since 2010, Dr. Reznick is Chief Executive Officer of the Southeastern Ontario Academic Medical Association, a professor in the Department of Surgery, and a member of the boards of Kingston Health Sciences Centre and Providence Care.

The award was presented to Dr. Reznick Sunday night at the Medical Council of Canada’s annual general meeting in Ottawa.