Dr. Kanwal Shankardass is the recipient of the 2008 Award of Excellence presented by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. This Award recognizes physicians who have made outstanding contributions in one or more of the following areas: patient care, community service, hospital or health care institutions, College activities, teaching, research or other elements of the academic discipline of family medicine.

Dr. Shankardass is a family physician in Dundas and has been practicing since 1976. "This award has given me encouragement to continue to work even harder for the betterment of humankind," he says.

In addition to his family practice, Dr. Shankardass is also the Medical Director of St. Peter's Residence at Chedoke and Medical Director of the Rehabilitation Program at St. Peter's Hospital. "We are very fortunate to have someone of Dr. Shankardass' caliber on the medical staff at St. Peter's," says St. Peter's Chief of Staff Dr. Richard Seeley. Having worked at St. Peter's for almost 25 years, Dr. Shankardass is currently the longest serving medical staff member at the organization.

During his career, Dr. Shankardass has also held leadership positions at Hamilton Health Sciences and other long term care facilities, and is the founding President of the Indo-Canadian Networking Council. "The activities that I have been involved with which led to this award have really been a team effort with many other individuals with whom I have had the great pleasure of working with," he says.

Dr. Shankardass is the recipient of two Paul Harris awards by the Rotary Club of Dundas and the Four Avenues of Service Award by the Rotary International for his work on Rotary projects in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Deeply committed to ongoing learning and the sharing of knowledge with future health care professionals, Dr. Shankardass is also a part time faculty member of the Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University and has received three awards for excellence in teaching by medical students.