Winter 2021 (Volume 31, Number 4)

Awards, Appointments, and Accolades

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Dr. Susa Benseler
Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences

Congratulations to Dr. Susa Benseler on being elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. A Professor at the University of Calgary and pediatric rheumatologist at the Alberta Children's Hospital, Susa is an international leader in inflammatory diseases research. She trained at Sickkids in Toronto and established BrainWorks, a global precision medicine research program for children with brain inflammation advancing early recognition, effective treatment, and improved outcomes world-wide.

Her current work in the Understanding Childhood Arthritis Network (UCAN) aims to transform care and optimize outcomes for children living with arthritis. UCAN advances precision health strategies by integrating genomic research, innovative eHealth, and economic evaluations. Susa serves as the leader of the Child Health and Wellness Strategy and the Chair of the Canadian Maternal and Child Health Research Institutes Forum. She is the director of the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute – a dynamic community of researchers and partners accelerating outcomes for children.

Dr. Keltie Anderson
Adult Rheumatology Program Director

Keltie Anderson attended medical school at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as a student in the Island Medical Program. She then moved to Saskatoon to complete internal medicine residency and rheumatology subspecialty training. Since making this move, she has put down roots in the province and is happy to call this beautiful place home! She is a community rheumatologist with a busy clinical practice who is engaged in clinical research. She is involved in local initiatives to improve care, including a combined connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD) clinic and virtual care pilot projects. She is also passionate about resident/medical student education.

She took on the role of program director of the Adult Rheumatology program at the University of Saskatchewan in 2018. Since then, she has seen the program through the roll-out of Competency by Design (CBD), the introduction of virtual care and virtual education, and an external review which took place in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is pleased to count practicing rheumatologists in four provinces among her former trainees!

Keltie is deeply grateful to the rheumatology community at large, and particularly to the Saskatchewan group, who have been unfailingly supportive during her time as program director. She looks forward to more challenges in the years to come!