Distinguished Career Award

The ASPHO Distinguished Career Award is given in recognition of outstanding service and significant scientific contributions to the understanding and treatment of blood diseases and cancer in children. The award is presented annually at the ASPHO annual meeting.

2012 Distinguished Career Award Winner

Victor Blanchette, MB Bchir (Cantab) FRCP (C) FRCP
Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Distinguished Career Award is presented annually by the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology to a senior physician or other professional who during his or her career has had a major impact on the subspecialty, through some combination of research, education, patient care, and advocacy.

We are pleased to honor the illustrious career and contributions of Dr. Victor S. Blanchette, head of the haematology section, Division of Haematology/Oncology; medical director, Comprehensive Care Hemophilia Program; medical director, Paediatric Thrombosis Program, Division of Haematology/Oncology; and senior associate scientist, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, in Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Blanchette was born and raised in Barbardos, departing for Cambridge University where he completed his undergraduate studies and received his medical degree. He completed his postgraduate training in London, England, resulting in Membership of the Royal College of Physicians and specialist certification in internal medicine and pediatrics. He joined Johns Hopkins Hospital as a pediatric resident in 1975. Two years later, he moved to McMaster University Medical Centre in Hamilton, ON, to be a pediatric hematology/oncology fellow under the supervision of Dr. Alvin Zipurksy. Following his training, Dr. Blanchette accepted a faculty position at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa. In 1983 Dr. Zipursky recruited Dr. Blanchette to join the Division of Haematology/Oncology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto as a faculty member, where he distinguished himself as an outstanding clinician, researcher, and educator.

From 1998–2011 Dr. Blanchette served as chief of the Division of Haematology/Oncology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. During his tenure as chief, he doubled the number of faculty in the division and established disease-specific sections. The establishment of these subspecialty programs allowed the Division to provide highly specialized care and education. Dr. Blanchette was also integral to the process of establishing pediatric hematology/oncology as a standalone specialty at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC), heading a task force charged with making recommendations for specialty training requirements and standards of accreditation for residence programs and was appointed the inaugural Chair of the new specialty in 2004.
Dr. Blanchette’s contributions to research in the field are abundant, making him an internationally recognized expert in the field. His primary focus has been inherited and acquired bleeding disorders in children, specifically childhood immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and hemophilias. Dr. Blanchette has helped organize several important studies related to his research interests. In 1986 he collaborated with pediatric hematologists from several Canadian centers to conduct two randomized trials of management approaches to ITP, which are still considered definitive in this area of study and resulted in the establishment of the Canadian Pediatric Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network, of which Dr. Blanchette is chair.

Dr. Blanchette also initiated the Canadian Hemophilia Primary Prophylaxis study, which has the potential to considerably influence the management of hemophilia among young boys.
Furthermore, Dr. Blanchette’s worked to create the Association of Hemophilia Clinic Directors of Canada and the Council of Canadian Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Directors (C17).

Dr. Blanchette’s contributions to the field of pediatric hematology/oncology are numerous and far-reaching. Because of his tireless commitment, his generosity, his passion, his modesty, and his work as a mentor, he has secured his status as a leader in the field. ASPHO is pleased to join his colleagues in their praise and admiration for his work.

Previous winners of this prestigious award are:

2011 William G. Woods, MD Atlanta, GA
2010 Sam Lux IV, MD  Boston, MA
2009 Sharon Murphy, MD Washington, DC 
2008 Laurence Boxer, MD Ann Arbor, MI
2007 George R. Buchanan, MD Dallas, TX
2006 W. Archie Bleyer, MD, Bend, OR
2005 J. Bruce Beckwith, MD, Missoula, MT
2004 Anna Meadows, MD, Philadelphia, PA
2003 William Krivit, MD PhD, Minneapolis, MN
2002 Jeanne M. Lusher, MD, Detroit, MI
2001 Beatrice Lampkin, MD, Cincinnati, OH
2000 Elias Schwartz, M.D, Wilmington, DE
1999 Alfred G. Knudson, Jr.,MD PhD, Philadelphia, PA
1998 William (Bill) Hathaway,MD, Denver, CO
1997 Mark E. Nesbit Jr., MD, Madison, WI
1996 Howard A. Pearson,MD, New Haven, CT
1995 Audrey E. Evans, MD, Philadelphia, PA
1994 Teresa J. Vietti, MD, St. Louis, MO
1993 Frank A. Oski, MD, Baltimore, MD
1992 G. Denman Hammond,MD, Arcadia, CA
1991 David G. Nathan, MD, Boston, MA
1990 Giulio D'Angio, MD, Philadelphia, PA
1989 Louis K. Diamond, MD, Los Angeles, CA
1988 Mila Pierce Rhoads, MD, Roseville, MN