Department of Medicine’s Allen Eaves, Professor Emeritus and Eric Yoshida, Professor were among the sixteen civic leaders appointed to the Order of British Columbia, the Province’s highest form of recognition.
Dr. Allen Eaves as Head of Hematology in the Department of Medicine, Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) and the BC Cancer Agency for 18 years, launched one of the finest bone marrow transplant programs in the world which, by the early 1990s, had treated more than 1,500 patients. He is founder owner of Vancouver’s STEMCELL Technologies Inc. (STEMCELL), now the largest biotechnology company in Canada.
Dr. Eaves has published over 200 papers in leading peer-review scientific journals. He has been elected as president of the International Society of Cell Therapy; president of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation; founding treasurer of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cell Therapy; and a member of Health Canada’s Expert Working Group on the Safety of Organs and Tissues for Transplantation.
Dr. Eric Yoshida is recognized throughout Canada and around the world for his clinical care and research excellence in liver disease. Formerly medical director of the BC Liver Transplant Program, he found a way for patients with hepatitis B to have successful liver transplants and established the first program in Canada to provide HIV patients with the right to be allowed liver transplantation. He also discovered that BC’s First Nations communities suffered disproportionately from primary biliary cirrhosis and autoimmune liver disease, destroying the stereotype that alcoholic liver disease was the problem, and clearing the way for First Nations patients to undergo liver transplantation.
Dr. Yoshida built a centre for excellence in liver disease that provides treatment, research, education and collaboration with the medical community and the citizens of British Columbia. He is an outstanding teacher, committing many hours to convey the sophisticated knowledge of hepatology and hepatitis to medical trainees of all levels. In particular, he has worked with S.U.C.C.E.S.S., a large multicultural social agency, to bring its clients awareness that hepatitis is a silent disease until the latter stage.
The Order of British Columbia investiture ceremony will be held for recipients and invited guests at Government House in Victoria on July 26, 2016.