The Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) has recognized three physicians and a medical student who have inspired their colleagues with their achievements and their outstanding leadership during the pandemic.

The 2021 SMA Physician of the Year award was presented to Dr. Breanna Davis during the SMA’s 2021 Fall Representative Assembly (RA) on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. Dr. Davis is a family physician who works in Prince Albert and the Sturgeon Lake First Nation.

Awards for SMA physician, resident and student leader of the year were also announced at the RA (click here), which was held virtually. The recipients are:

• 2021 Physician Leader of the Year: Dr. Michael Bayda, a family physician serving La Ronge and northern Saskatchewan
• 2021 Resident Leader of the Year: Dr. Amit Persad, a neurosurgery resident in Saskatoon
• 2021 Student Leader of the Year: Carissa McGuin, a student at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine.

“The recipients of these SMA awards have shown extraordinary leadership during the pandemic by taking on new roles and advocating for their colleagues,” said Dr. Eben Strydom, SMA president. “Their leadership is needed now more than ever as the province remains in the grip of the most devastating wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to date.

“We had hoped to meet in person, as is the tradition, but those plans were scuttled by the sustained pressures on the health system from the fourth wave of the pandemic,” said Dr. Strydom. “I miss engaging with my colleagues at the RA, but we are still able to honour well-deserving physicians, residents and students, and conduct the business of the SMA.”

Dr. Breanna Davis honoured as SMA 2021 Physician of the Year

For Prince Albert family physician Dr. Breanna Davis, practising medicine is “all about relationships.”

“Once I’m invested, and relationships have been formed, you are stuck with me,” said Dr. Davis, the Saskatchewan Medical Association’s (SMA) 2021 Physician of the Year. “I’ve been at the Associate Medical Clinic in Prince Albert for 12 years and have been holding a clinic at Sturgeon Lake First Nation for 11 years. It’s not ‘work’ when you are connected to the people and communities you are serving.” 

Dr. Davis said she is “honoured, surprised and overwhelmed” to receive the award. She noted every physician and all staff in health care and essential services have worked harder and faced more challenges during the past year than ever before.

“I feel like every one of my colleagues deserves an award for the consistent, competent and compassionate care they provide every day,” Dr. Davis said. “I’ve never been more proud to be a health-care worker and I’ve never felt more like part of a team. To receive this award, in this environment – I feel undeserving, even a bit guilty, but obviously honoured.”

Those teams include the “incredibly compassionate, caring, effective teams” at work, and the “home team – the most important of all.” Home is in Melfort, 100 kilometres from her work in Prince Albert – a fact noted by one of her nominators for the award. “An example of her dedication to her patients is that despite marrying and moving 100 kilometres away to Melfort, Breanna continues her practice in Prince Albert, including obstetrical care. She made this choice to keep continuity with her patients. This is another example of Breanna’s commitment to the patient- physician relationship.”

Dr. Davis graduated from the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine in 2007 and completed her family medicine residency in 2009 in Prince Albert. Nominators for the Physician of the Year award praise Dr. Davis’ focus of her patients and willingness to do whatever she can, anywhere at any time, on their behalf.

“She genuinely cares about the lives of her patients. I saw her laugh with them, cry with them, and simply be what they needed,” wrote a resident physician in support of Dr. Davis’s nomination. “I do not believe you could find a better candidate for the SMA Physician of the Year, especially during the pandemic, than Dr. Breanna Davis. She is an inspiration, and I would be proud to be a family physician who is half as amazing as she someday.”

As lead for the COVID-19 Assessment Centre and hospitalists, Dr. Davis coordinates physicians in both programs established in response to the pandemic. She has also been continuously involved in teaching and precepting medical students and residents.

She received the Award of Excellence from the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 2016, the Clinical Teacher of the Year for Prince Albert by the College of Medicine 2015 graduating class, and Community Teacher of the Year by the Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians in 2014.

“I love what I do and feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to have a job that I am passionate about,” said Dr. Davis. “As trying as it can be at times, I spend a lot more of my day laughing (I have a pretty boisterous laugh I’m told) with my co-workers and patients.”