The Manitoba Medical Service Foundation (MMSF) is delighted to announce that the 2024–2025 R. Samuel McLaughlin / MMSF Research and Education Fellowship Award in Medicine has been awarded to Dr. Sabrina Lee.

This prestigious award, totaling $75,000, is jointly sponsored by the MMSF, The University of Manitoba McLaughlin Foundation, and the Dean of Medicine’s Education and Research Fellowship Fund at The University of Manitoba, with each contributing $25,000. The award aims to support the scholarship of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences by training future clinical faculty members in research and medical education. Dr. Lee will hold this fellowship for one year, beginning July 1.

Dr. Lee has an impressive educational background, having earned a BHSc in Health Sciences from the University of Ottawa in 2013, an MD from the University of Ottawa in 2017, an MSc in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research (RSHR) from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2020, and an MSc in Health Services Research (HSR) from the University of Toronto in 2022. They recently completed their FRCSC in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Manitoba after five years of dedicated training. Additionally, they are undertaking an extra year of specialized education as the incoming Clinical Fellow of the UBC Advanced Training in Family Planning to further enhance their expertise.

Dr. Lee holds current appointments as a locum physician in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Manitoba, and as a clinical instructor in General Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of British Columbia. Their dual roles reflect their commitment to both clinical practice and medical education, highlighting them as a clinician-researcher with a thoroughly comprehensive understanding of reproductive health.

Dr. Lee's project, titled, "How far is too far? Creating an evidence base for safe provision of abortion among people living far from emergency services," seeks to determine the safe distance from facilities capable of blood transfusion and emergency surgery at which first-trimester medication abortion can be provided. This project is being done as part of Dr. Lee's work with the Contraception and Abortion Research Team – Groupe de recherche sur l’avortement et la contraception (CART-GRAC) network of researchers.  

This multifaceted study will address whether medical abortion services can be extended to areas requiring considerable travel to such facilities. The project will investigate the experiences of individuals in remote areas accessing abortion services and gather insights from healthcare professionals providing care in these communities. It will also analyze government health administrative data to identify risk factors associated with medical abortions requiring blood transfusion, using a case-control analysis to better understand the key risk factors in remote first trimester abortion care.

Ultimately, Dr. Lee’s research will provide crucial guidance on the safe provision of medical abortion in remote settings across Canada, ensuring that more people can access essential reproductive healthcare without compromising their safety. With their significant academic background in health sciences, sexual and reproductive health, medicine, and health services research, combined with their clinical expertise in reproductive sciences, obstetrics, and gynecology, Dr. Lee is well-positioned to make significant contributions to medical research and education.

With the support of this award, Dr. Lee’s work promises to have a lasting impact on healthcare accessibility and safety, particularly for those living in remote and rural communities.

The Manitoba Medical Service Foundation (MMSF) is pleased to announce that the 2023-2024 R. Samuel McLaughlin / MMSF Research and Education Fellowship Award in Medicine has been awarded to Dr. Alain Beaudry.

The $75,000 award is co-sponsored by the MMSF, the University of Manitoba McLaughlin Foundation and the Dean of Medicine’s Education and Research Fellowship Fund at the University of Manitoba– with each contributing $25,000.

The award aims to support the scholarship of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences through the training of future clinical faculty members in research and medical education. The term of the award is one (1) year, commencing on July 1, 2023.

Dr. Beaudry, Chair of the Indigenous Admissions Stream at the University of Manitoba, has been awarded for his project, “Tailored Cancer Screening Among Canadian Indigenous Populations.”

Rates of cancers among Indigenous populations in Canada often diverge significantly from the base Canadian rates. Recommendations for cancer screening are usually based on overall population incidence and do not often account for significant variation in subpopulations– the costs and benefits used to develop these recommendations are often based on predominantly non-Indigenous data.

Dr. Beaudry seeks to understand whether a tailored approach to cancer screening for Indigenous populations offers improved early detection and survival to some of Canada’s most vulnerable people.

Dr. Beaudry is an Indigenous physician and has first-hand experience working with both the diseases at hand as well as the affected Indigenous communities in Manitoba and Nunavut. His in-depth understanding of applied economics supports this project’s quantitative analysis. Dr. Beaudry has previously published several impactful papers on chronic disease and is well-connected to Indigenous communities in Manitoba and Canada as a whole.

With the support of the McLaughlin Fund, the MMSF, and the Dean’s Fellowship Fund, this important reconciliatory work toward equitable health outcomes will continue. In the context of increasing Indigenous self-determination in health care delivery, it will allow Indigenous communities and Nations to choose an approach to cancer screening which works best for their citizens and which saves more lives and improves health outcomes.