Dr. James Irvine has been a physician for more than 40 years. (Canadian Paediatric Society)

By Derek Cornet

recognition

Irvine awarded honourary membership to national health society

Jun 9, 2022 | 5:00 PM

Two decades of volunteer work with the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) has landed La Ronge’s Dr. James Irvine an honourary membership.

“I’m very honoured and a bit humbled because there have been some remarkable people who have received this honour in the past,” he said. “It’s like any sort of work that people end up doing. You feel like you’re hoping your contributing, but you also learn a lot and gain a lot from the work you’ve done. Even though they were rewarding me with that, I was still very honoured to be part of the committee over the years.”

Others to receive the award in recent years include Dr. Cindy Blackstock (2020), Irwin Elman (2019), Dr. Ian Gemmill (2018), Janet Austin (2017) and Dr. Leslie Rourke (2017).

Irvine, who has been a physician for more than 40 years, joined the CPS committee in 2001 after a special committee travelled to the community and were hosted by the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. The committee is comprised of a group of pediatricians who work in First Nations communities across Canada, as well as liaison members who work with First Nations, Inuit and Métis national political organizations.

“That group visited different northern communities across Canada over a 20-year period and they would provide education support and advice, but they also learned from the communities they visited,” Irvine said.

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“After I helped coordinate their visit here, they asked me to be part of the committee that helped with the development of position statements or guidelines documents to help in situations where there was some uncertainty about medical management or medical treatment in Indigenous communities.”

Since becoming a member, Irvine has written many CPS statements over the years, most recently the Preventing symptomatic vitamin D deficiency and rickets among Indigenous infants and children in Canada statement published in March 2022.

“I have also helped with the organizing of international meetings between the United States and Canada for a joint Indigenous child health meeting that would be held every two years,” he said. “I also helped them with some development of some training programs for people who were becoming pediatricians or child health specialists in orientation to northern communities and Indigenous health.”

Irvine was also a member of several planning committees for International Meetings on Indigenous Child Health between 2005 and 2013, and he’s currently a member of the Autism Spectrum Disorder Guidelines Task Force.

Although Irvine has retired as a clinician, he continues to work in public health on various national and provincial boards.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno