Queen’s surgical pioneer receives top health science award

Queen’s surgical pioneer receives top health science award

By Dave Rideout

September 18, 2017

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Queen’s University researcher John Rudan (Surgery) has been formally inducted into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Fellowship, one of Canada’s premier academic honours. An internationally recognized trailblazer in orthopaedic surgery, Dr. Rudan was selected for his global leadership, academic performance and scientific creativity.

"John Rudan"
John Rudan (Surgery) has been inducted into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Fellowship, one of Canada’s premier academic honour, for his global leadership, academic performance and scientific creativity. (University Communications)

“I am extremely honoured to be elected as a fellow to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences,” says Dr. Rudan, Head of the Department of Surgery at Queen’s and the Britton Smith Chair in Surgery. “Throughout my career I’ve remained focused on the innovative clinical outcomes of research so as to improve quality of life for patients sooner. I owe this recognition to an interdisciplinary approach that brought together a variety of expert perspectives to solve complex problems.”

Notably, Dr. Rudan helped to establish the Human Mobility Research Centre (HMRC), which engages experts in tissue biology, kinematics, biomaterials and imaging to improve clinical practice in orthopaedics. Within this group of clinicians, basic scientists, and electrical, mechanical and software engineers, he was able to pioneer many new treatments and technologies.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Rudan has engineered several procedures, including the design and implementation of computer-assisted surgeries – even performing the world’s first-ever computer-assisted knee re-alignment.

“Dr. Rudan is an accomplished researcher whose clinical research innovations have greatly improved patient health and mobility,” says John Fisher, Vice-Principal (Research) at Queen’s University. “This recognition speaks to his research excellence, his forward-thinking approach to surgical science and his desire to continually improve operative and post-operative care. On behalf of Queen’s, I extend my sincerest congratulations on this important award.”

Dr. Rudan’s efforts to integrate computer-assisted procedures into the operating theatre have generated over 240 peer-reviewed publications and over $20 million in grant funding.

Impressively, Dr. Rudan is also a named inventor on 23 patent applications and 20 patents worldwide – a testament to his ability to identify and fix clinical problems using an approach that expedites the manner in which technologies are prototyped and clinically validated.

“My philosophy in orthopaedics recognizes that as much as it is my personal goal to improve the mobility and function of my patients, surgical intervention will never fully recreate the exquisite engineering of the human skeleton,” says Dr. Rudan. “That said, by drawing on expertise across disciplines we can continue to design solutions that will vastly improve patient care.”

Health Sciences