This award was first presented in 2002. It is awarded to a CCS Member-in-Training to acknowledge his or her extraordinary accomplishment in all aspects of medical education in any of the cardiovascular fields, including adult cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, pediatric cardiology, or pure research.

Dr. Gilbert Tang

Surgeon, Educator, Mentor

Gilbert Tang, chief resident in the cardiac surgery program at the University of Toronto, envisages a day when cardiac education will be more customized to individual learning needs.

To help bring his vision to life, he has taken on many roles: Chair for Trainee Day in 2008; Medical Director for the Advanced Cardiac Life Support program with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada; representative for the Residency Program Committee in cardiac surgery at U of T, teacher in the Mount Sinai Surgical Skills Laboratory in Toronto—where his video tutorial on suturing allowed him to teach and supervise each resident as needed.

"Trainees appreciate that I give them hands-on experience," he says. "It motivates them."

Tang brought his past teaching experience to cardiac surgery residents preparing for the Royal College exam at UofT. He is adding wet-labs to the curriculum he designed—a complementary innovation to the weekly seminars that will ensure trainees gain the best combination of knowledge and skills from their attendance.

Mentorship is equally an important part of his vision for education.

"As Trainee Representative on the Society's Council, I like to impart the experience I gained abroad to the trainees in Canada," he says.

Tang actively encourages trainees to travel to learn new skills. He himself recently travelled to the world-renowned heart centre in Leipzig, Germany, to learn about percutaneous valve surgery with a former mentor—an experience he called eye-opening.

"I enjoy training and mentoring people," he says. "To see them succeed afterwards is tremendously rewarding."