Dr. Abdollah Behzadi receives the 2023 John Provan Outstanding Surgical Educator Award
Dear colleagues,
Please join me in congratulating Abdollah Behzadi MD, MBA, FRCSC, FACS, on receiving the 2023 John Provan Outstanding Surgical Educator Award in recognition for his outstanding contribution to undergraduate surgical education in Canada.
Sponsored by the Canadian Association of Surgical Chairs (CASC), this award was presented this year to Dr. Behzadi at the C-CASE Conference and will remain in his custody for a period of two years. More information about this award is available at www.cusec-ccecp.com/john-provan-award.
Dr. Abdollah Behzadi is a thoracic surgeon at Trillium Health Partners (THP), Credit Valley site, and a thoracic oncologist at Peel Regional Cancer Centre in Mississauga. He is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto.
He is the education lead for the Department Surgery at THP, the clerkship supervisor for surgery at Mississauga Academy of Medicine, and is the director of undergraduate medical education for the Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Toronto. As such, he is very much involved in teaching of medical students, training of surgery residents, and supervising fellows in thoracic surgery. He is also a formidable leader in education administration.
He is a graduate of the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and completed his surgical training at McGill University and University of Manitoba, where he also obtained a Masters degree in administration. He completed advanced fellowship training in thoracic and upper GI surgery at the Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota.
Dr. Behzadi has served as an executive member of the Canadian Undergraduate Surgical Education Committee (CUSEC) since 2018 and was the chair of the committee from 2020 to 2022. He is a co-founder of the Canadian Conference for the Advancement of the Surgical Education (C-CASE) and has been a member of the planning committee since 2019. He has received many awards in surgical education including the Tovee Award in Undergraduate Teaching from the Department of Surgery, University of Toronto.
His clinical interest is in the area of minimally invasive surgery, with a focus on uniportal video-assisted surgery of lung and mediastinal tumors. Dr. Behzadi’s areas of research interest are in the field of surgical education, clinical outcomes and quality improvement in surgery. As a thoracic oncologist, he works in close collaboration with medical and radiation oncologists at Peel and Odette (Sunnybrook) cancer centres.
He is a member of many professional societies including American College of Surgeons, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons to name a few.
Speaking about the award, Dr. Behzadi said "It was quite humbling to win this award, which I would like to share with my colleagues with passion for surgical education at Trillium Health Partners and University of Toronto. I do want to thank Drs. Swallow and Rutka for their unconditional support during my years of involvement in surgical education at the national level. And special thanks to all my previous and current students, residents, and fellows who contribute to my growth as a surgical educator."
Congratulations on this achievement, Dr. Behzadi.
Sincerely,
Carol J. Swallow MD PhD FRCSC FACS
RS McLaughlin Professor and Chair
Department of Surgery, University of Toronto