Sinai Health/UHN Geriatrics Program Staff Honours and Awards

SINAI HEALTH/UHN ESTHER AND SAUL BAKER AWARDS

The prestigious Esther and Saul Baker Awards are presented annually to clinicians and medical trainees in recognition of their excellent and outstanding contributions in the care of older patients across the University Health Network (UHN) and Sinai Health in Toronto.

The original Saul Baker Awards were established in 1995 by the late Dr. Gerald Baker, Head of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at Sinai Health’s Mount Sinai Hospital and Dr. Michael Baker, UHN’s former Physician-in-Chief after their father, Saul Baker, died in 1993. Mr. Baker’s sons and family created these awards for two reasons, first – to-honour their father and second – to thank and recognize the staff of the UHN Geriatrics Program who provided him with the compassionate and expert care he needed near the end of his life.

Since 1995, outstanding medical residents, nurses and allied health professionals at UHN who demonstrate excellence and outstanding contributions in the care of older patients have been continually honoured with this distinguished award.

In 2011, with the Baker family’s continued support, this awards program was expanded to include Mount Sinai Hospital and later the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute in recognition of the development of a new combined and expanded Healthy Ageing and Geriatrics Program that now spans all Sinai Health and the University Health Network and has grown to become the largest academic geriatrics program in the Greater Toronto Area and possibly Canada.  In recognition of the continuously growing number of trainees that rotate through the program, new award categories were also created to specifically honour additional categories of outstanding medical students, residents and fellows.  Finally, the family also supported the renaming of this new expanded awards program to also honour Esther Baker, Saul’s wife as well, who has for nearly 20 years presented the award to its recipients.

The Esther and Saul Baker Awards are presented each spring at an annual event that includes all generations of the Baker family and help provide an opportunity to reflect on the growth of geriatrics as a specialty in Canada, and the contributions that the Baker Family have made in supporting its development for nearly three decades.