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Dr. Richard Lewanczuk and Dr. Wayne Tymchak

The Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award, by the Government of Alberta, recognizes the contributions Albertans have made to improve the health-care system and patient outcomes, including:

• nurses who have provided, advocated and led improvements in care in emergency rooms or patient homes
• doctors who have improved the way patients access care in their communities
• health-care workers who have dedicated their lives to putting patients at the centre of their work with personalized, individual care, using cutting-edged techniques and advocating those techniques be made available to Albertans

Honourable mentions

Dr. Richard Lewanczuk

Dr. Richard Lewanczuk, a physician, health system leader and professor at the º£½ÇÉçÇø, is recognized for his extensive service to Albertans with an honourable mention for the Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award.

Born in Edmonton, Dr. Lewanczuk received his MD from the º£½ÇÉçÇø in 1983. He is an accomplished academic physician and leader, particularly in chronic disease management and public health. He has been instrumental in developing clinical models to integrate primary and specialist care for patients with complex chronic conditions. He is a strong advocate for rural and Indigenous communities and his dedication to addressing health-care inequity has left a lasting legacy of system integration and patient-centered approaches in Alberta. As Alberta Health Services’ Senior Medical Director for Health Systems Integration, Dr. Lewanczuk has played a major role in establishing Alberta’s Primary Care Networks and promoted the patient medical home as a model to improve transitions in care and system integration, focused on the patient and family perspective. He also had a key leadership role in the more recent Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Care System project.

As an academic and teacher, Dr. Lewanczuk has been a dedicated mentor to emerging health care professionals and researchers, shaping the next generation of leaders. He actively engages with medical students, residents and early career researchers, offering guidance and fostering their professional development. He is known for his empowering and collaborative leadership style. This has resulted in an extensive collection of publications, patents and editorial contributions in the fields of chronic disease management and health system integration.

"The Department of Medicine created the conditions that allowed myself and Dr. Tymchak to do the things we have done, so this is a testament to the Department and its impact as well," says Dr. Lewanczuk.

Dr. Wayne Tymchak

Dr. Wayne Tymchak, an Edmonton-based cardiologist and cardiac surgeon at the Mazankowski Heart Institute, is recognized for his extensive service to Albertans with an honourable mention for the Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award.

Dr. Tymchak has dedicated his career to interventional and transplant cardiology. He was a pioneer of interventional cardiology techniques when angioplasty was considered experimental and has introduced numerous technologies since then including atherectomy, aortic valve replacements and gene therapy techniques. Under his leadership, the º£½ÇÉçÇø Hospital and Mazankowski Heart Institute have become world-leading centres for cardiac care, offering cutting-edge care techniques, implementing the coronary care unit and the nationally renowned cardiology intensive care unit, and advancing the heart transplant and advanced heart failure programs. Since its introduction by Dr. Tymchak in 1985, coronary angioplasty is now used to treat over 300 patients annually at the º£½ÇÉçÇø.

Along with his clinical duties, Dr. Tymchak developed a strong reputation as a calm and positive colleague, mentor and leader. He fostered the development of many new physicians in the cardiology program and taught generations of medical students. His extensive research career has helped put Alberta on the map as a research hub, making the º£½ÇÉçÇø a place that students and doctors want to come to in furtherance of their education and research careers. Dr. Tymchak's countless contributions to cardiology in Alberta have helped create a world class system that has achieved extremely high success rates in patient care

Born in Lamont, Dr. Lewanczuk received his MD from the º£½ÇÉçÇø in 1980. He continues to serve as a practicing cardiologist in the Division of Cardiology at the º£½ÇÉçÇø.