Longtime Faculty of Medicine supporters, member honoured

Posted May 28, 2010

David and Gail O'BrienSupporting health research and education is near and dear to the hearts of Gail and David O’Brien. As a team, the O’Briens have pumped millions of dollars and countless volunteer hours into the University of Calgary and especially the Faculty of Medicine. In recognition of their tireless efforts, the O’Briens were given honourary degrees at the university’s first convocation ceremony of the year.

Gail O’Brien is a passionate and committed supporter of arts, education and health. Starting in 2001, Gail chaired the Faculty of Medicine’s Dean’s Advisory Council. Her work with the council and deans helped the faculty triple its enterprises to $240 million, expand its student body, build the Health Research Innovation Centre and successfully raise $209 million for the Reach! campaign.

David O’Brien is a distinguished Calgary business and community leader and was recently appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. The O’Briens made a $5 million gift to the U of C to help establish the O’Brien Centre for the Bachelor of Health Sciences program. Their donation attracted another $9 million in funding. David also served on the U of C’s Board of Governors and is currently the Chancellor of Concordia University where he has created the David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise. The O'Briens were nominated for the honourary degrees by the late Dr. Grant Gall, former dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Merril Knudtson has been inducted into the Order of the University of CalgaryDr. Merril Knudtson, MD’75, U of C professor of medicine, was also honoured at the convocation ceremony.  The "father of interventional cardiology in Canada", as he's been dubbed in the past, was inducted into the Order of the University of Calgary. In 1981 the Camrose, Alberta native performed the first coronary angioplasty in southern Alberta and began training doctors in the same procedure. The wide-scale implementation of coronary angioplasty in Canada has directly resulted in the reduction of the number of bypass surgeries and a drastic reduction in heart attack deaths. It could be argued that Knudtson’s work has directly or indirectly added millions of years of life to the Canadian population.

In 1995 Knudtson started APPROACH (Alberta Provincial Project for Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease). This database enables the long-term monitoring and tracking of a patient’s cardiac related health care and quality of life. APPROACH has set the gold standard and become an invaluable resource for frontline and administrative health care providers.