A respirologist and professor at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM), Flemons received the Canadian Medical Association's Dr. William Marsden Award, acknowledging his commitment to building a culture of patient safety in Alberta's health system through transparency, compassion, prevention, and education.
The national prize is an honour reserved for medical professionals who have demonstrated courage and leadership in challenging times.
Senior associate dean, Faculty Affairs at CSM, Dr. Richard Leigh, MBChB, PhD, has worked with Flemons for two decades and describes him as a consummate professional.
"As a member of the Respiratory Division at the CSM, I have experienced firsthand Ward's transparent leadership style that creates accountability and trust," Leigh says.
"As a friend and colleague, I don't know of a physician who exhibits greater integrity, honesty, sense of justice, and the courage to always do the right thing."
A Canadian authority
Flemons is the Department of Medicine vice-chair of Health Analytics, Quality and Safety, the former head of Respiratory Medicine at UCalgary and Alberta Health Services, and a national authority on quality improvement and patient safety. Several national health-care organizations have adopted patient safety standards he developed.
In 2022, Flemons co-authored the book Fatal Solution: How a Healthcare System Used Tragedy to Transform Itself and Redefine Just Culture. A chronicle of the healthcare system's response to a tragic medical drug mix-up in the former Calgary Health Region, the book examines what went wrong and how the tragedy sparked change in the years that followed. Lessons learned were also applied to patient safety courses Flemons developed.
"We believe it's important to talk about an event that cannot be forgotten or hidden. That people are ultimately better served by seeking the lessons from past mistakes," Flemons stated at the time.
Co-authored by CSM colleagues Dr. Jan Davies, MD, and Carmella Steinke, the book is one of many publications through which Flemons has shared his expertise and passion for transparency and justice in health care.
Flemons served as medical director of the Health System Improvement portfolio at the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) for over a decade, where he led the council's Just Culture initiative, a commitment to fairness and transparency in the event of errors in delivery of care.
He led the development of the HQCA's Healthcare Quality and Safety Management Framework, and several reviews of health system issues including the Continuity of Patient Care Study. He also served as vice-president of Quality and Safety at the former Calgary Health Region.
Co-created transdisciplinary master's degree program
Flemons also helped create the CSM's Precision Health Program, a transdisciplinary master's degree program designed for future health-care leaders, entrepreneurs and educators, where he instructs and leads the Quality and Safety specialization.
He helped create several important initiatives at Alberta Health Services, including regional patient safety policies, an electronic safety learning reporting system and a patient-family safety council.
"I am deeply grateful to the CSM for nominating me for the William Marsden Award," Flemons says, "and I am extremely fortunate to work with great colleagues across the faculty. It is a privilege to be recognized alongside former Alberta winners of this award, Drs. Scott McLeod, James Silvius, Ian Mitchell, Chip Doig, Paul Byrne, Eric Wasylenko and John Dossetor."
Ward Flemons is a professor in the Department of Medicine and a member of the O'Brien Institute for Public Health.
The Dr. William Marsden Award in Medical Ethics and Professionalism honours the Canadian Medical Association's first chair of its Committee on Ethics who presided over the original draft of the CMA Code of Ethics.
