Sue Harris Family Practice Research Fund
The Sue Harris Family Practice Research Fund aims to support an annual research grant. This grant will be awarded to a family practitioner or family practice resident in B.C. and is meant to support a new investigator in the development and initiation of a research project. Sue’s values are reflected in the eligibility criteria for the grant:
- her love of family practice, innovation, and commitment to her patients,
- her desire to assist new researchers,
- her interest in collaborative teamwork both in the investigation team and in the idea for the project,
- her personal interest in all aspects of women’s health from birth to end of life care.
By donating to this fund you are supporting family doctors who are trying to find new and better ways to provide care to women and their families, and thus continuing the legacy of Dr. Sue Harris.
Dr. Susan Harris - Profile
Dr. Susan Harris was a family physician who practiced in Vancouver for over 30 years and pioneered many of the innovative models of care that have developed at BC Women’s Hospital. She was instrumental in the creation of the Single Room Maternity Care unit in 1997, which allowed women to labour, birth and recover in a single, more home-like room. From 2002 to 2008, she was the head of the Department of Family Practice at BCWH. In this position, she was a tireless champion in addressing the challenges in delivering maternity care to all women. She was passionate about the need for improved collaboration between physicians, nurses, midwives, and other care providers, and developed a number of education initiatives bringing students from different disciplines together. She was also the co-founder of the South Community Birth Program, a unique program in which midwives and family doctors share the care of patients, and nurses and doulas are fully integrated into the team. In her role as co-director of the Collaboration for Maternal and Newborn Care, she hosted some of the most successful international conferences calling experts together to address issues in maternity care. She has also been committed to research, publishing papers on Evidence-Based Prenatal Care, Single Room Maternity Care, and Collaborative Practice.
In 2008, she was the recipient of a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Health and Active Living. She was also selected for the BC College of Physicians’ Award of Excellence and was named Family Physician of the Year for BC by the Canadian College of Family Physicians.
Words hardly do justice to the difference she has made in the lives of so many and to her creation of enduring models that will serve women, learners and practitioners into the future. The respect in which she is held, the awards she has won for her work and the genuine commitment she has to the health of her community cannot be overstated.
