16/10/2019
Ottawa, Ontario — Wednesday October 16, 2019
The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) is pleased to announce that Dr. Leanne Ward MD FRCPC has been elected to the 2019 class of Fellows of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).
“It is an honour to be recognized as a Fellow of the ASBMR,” said Dr.Ward. “My team at CHEO, and our national and international partners, including the Canadian Steroid-Associated Osteoporosis in the Pediatric Population (STOPP) Consortium, have worked hard over the last two decades to develop new knowledge that optimizes the care of children with debilitating bone diseases. It means the world to us to know that our work is recognized by our peers as having made important contributions to the care of such children”.
For the past number of years, Dr. Ward has served as the Medical Director of the CHEO Pediatric Bone Health Clinic, the Scientific Director of the Ottawa Pediatric Bone Health Research Group, the Principal Investigator of the Canadian STOPP Consortium, and the Founder and Chair of the Canadian Pediatric Bone Health Working Group. During this time, her research and clinical care have focused on children with bone morbidity due to serious illnesses such as cancer and glucocorticoid therapy, and with rare bone diseases including osteogenesis imperfecta and heritable forms of rickets. Dr. Ward has held sustained research funding from CIHR since 2003, and has played a leadership role in numerous landmark trials impacting the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of pediatric osteoporosis and rickets.
The Fellow of the ASBMR designation recognizes long-term members who have shown a commitment to the ASBMR through service as a volunteer of the Society, have made outstanding contributions to the field of bone and mineral science, and have published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. Fellows are nominated by their peers, followed by an evaluation and selection by a review committee and approval by the ASBMR Council.
Dr. Laura Bachrach, a Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University, made the following statements in Dr. Ward’s nomination letter: “Leanne has made extraordinary contributions to the skeletal health field with her research and advocacy in the areas of primary and secondary osteoporosis in pediatrics. Many of her sentinel contributions to the literature are the product of studies from the Canadian STOPP Consortium, established and led by Leanne. She has a quiet, highly effective leadership style that inspires cooperation and collaboration towards the common goal, and every publication, lecture and research study by Dr. Ward is meticulous. Over the years, Leanne has shared her pediatric bone wisdom in numerous forums, as an articulate and engaging lecturer who has been in-demand at the international level, and as a member of several working groups including the Scientific Program Organizing Committee for the International Conference on Children’s Bone Health, the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy 2018 Clinical Care Considerations, and the International Society for Clinical Densitometry”.