The David Hawkins Lecture in Rheumatology

Born in St. John's in 1937, Dr. David Hawkins received his medical degree from Dalhousie University and did postgraduate training at Dalhousie and McGill Universities. This was followed by three additional years of training at Scripps Research Foundation in La Jolla California where he worked with Dr. R. Farr. In 1968 he returned to McGill as a Medical Research Council of Canada Scholar and subsequently became professor of medicine and director of rheumatology at the Montreal General Hospital. In addition he started what would become the academic paediatric rheumatology program at McGill. In 1980 he became chair of medicine at Memorial University and from 1987-1995 served as Memorial's third dean of medicine. In 1991 he was vice-president of the Medical Research Council of Canada and served as interim president. From 1995 to 2005 Dr. Hawkins was executive director of the Ottawa-based Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada and secretary of the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools.

Dr. Hawkins commitment to academic medicine and patient care was evident throughout his career.  A renowned clinician and medical researcher he was a role model and mentor for both medical students, residents and rheumatology trainees. He encouraged them to pursue additional training at other academic medical centers prior to assuming faculty positions. He also worked at increasing the pool of medical school applicants from rural areas of Newfoundland by founding the program known as MedQuest, whereby high school students from around the province had the chance to spend a week in the summer exploring careers in the Health Sciences Centre. His leadership skills were frequently sought out by national (e.g. The Arthritis Society of Canada where he vice-president for Medical and Scientific Affairs) and international organizations particularly in the accreditation of medical schools in the Caribbean, South America and the Middle East.

In a tribute to Dr. Hawkins, Dr. Johannes Roth, Pediatric Rheumatology Group at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, said that “Behind all these achievements was an extraordinary but also very approachable person with a very kind nature. Nothing can illustrate this more than the fact that he, who had been trained as an adult rheumatologist, joined the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario as a pediatric rheumatologist during the last phase of his career because there was an urgent need for pediatric rheumatology care in Eastern Ontario.”

Additional insight into Dr. Hawkins generous nature and his appreciation of the importance of excellent role models is reflected in his personal recollection of Dr. John (Jack) Woodbury, co-founder of the Society of Atlantic Rheumatology.  Dr. Hawkins recalled that “in the fall of 1956 I entered my second year of medical school at Dalhousie University” and “with three of my classmates we had the great good fortune to be assigned Dr. John Woodbury as our clinical skills tutor. John Woodbury became not only our tutor but simultaneously our patient. At the age of 38 he already had fairly advanced inflammatory back disease and he was able to demonstrate to us all the well known clinical features of spondylitis. The term student-centered medical education was not yet part of the lexicon in 1956, but he was clearly an early proponent. He was also a superb generalist clinician, a fine doctor with concern for our patients, and always a gentleman. As I find myself practicing rheumatology nearly 50 years later I cannot help but believe that much of what John Woodbury tried to inculcate into those four young students eventually found expression in my choice of career”.

David Hawkins was widely known, respected and admired as a clinician, mentor, scientist, teacher, humorous and witty raconteur and patriotic Newfoundlander. In recognition of his many professional achievements and human qualities, the Society of Atlantic Rheumatology established the David Hawkins Lecture in Rheumatology at its annual scientific meeting in June 2013.

Past lecturers:

2014 Dr John Esdaile

2015 Dr Paul Haroui

2016 Dr. Troy Torgerson

2017 Dr. Philip Seo

2018 Dr Diane Lacaille

2019 Dr Kevin Winthrop

2020 Postponed due to COVID

2021 Dr Janet Pope