CAHH National Award for Excellence in the Health Humanities

The Canadian Association for Health Humanities (CAHH) National Award for Excellence in the Health Humanities was launched in 2026 to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the health humanities in Canada. The award celebrates scholarly and/or artistic innovation, educational and public leadership, and personal engagement with the humanities as a way of deepening understanding of the human experience in health and illness. It is awarded annually at the Creating Space conference.

Past Recipients

2026: Dr. Allan Peterkin

Allan Peterkin is a Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the University of Toronto, where he co-founded the Narrative-based Medicine Lab and served as Temerty Medicine's first Health Humanities Faculty Lead. He is the author of 15 books on medical humanities, cultural history, narrative medicine, human sexuality, and physician wellness, including Staying Human During Residency Training - How To Survive and Thrive After Medical School (now in its 7th edition). He has also published four picture books for children, the most recent, Peacock and Sketch (Magination Press). He received the US-based Health Humanities Consortium Visionary Award in 2023.