The Vancouver Medical Staff Hall of Honour of Vancouver Coastal Health was created, with the approval of the hospital administration, to commemorate both the 110th anniversary of the Vancouver General Hospital (2016), and the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation (2017).
Although it is appreciated that all health care professionals at VGH and its allied institutions have provided outstanding service since 1906, the intention of the Vancouver Community of Care Medical, Dental, and Allied Staff Association (VMDAS) is to recognize and honor those who have provided exceptional leadership and dedicated clinical/academic service that has profoundly benefited the residents of BC as well as advanced the practice of medicine/surgery in this province. In doing so, the Hall’s inductees have brought great distinction and honor to VGH and its allied institutions
The UBC Department of Medicine is proud to announce that Dr. Mark FitzGerald (Respiratory Medicine) and Dr. Jerilynn Prior (Endocrinology & Metabolism) were inducted into the VGH Medical Staff Hall of Honour on June 26, 2023
Dr. John Marcus FitzGerald (1955-2022)
Division of Respiratory Medicine
Dr. Mark Fitzgerald was born in Dublin, Ireland and attended University College there, receiving his diploma in medicine (MB BCh BAO) in 1978. He completed his training in internal medicine at the College of Physicians Ireland in 1981 and, post-training, worked as a physician in Lesotho in southern Africa for two years. Mark then moved to McMaster University in Hamilton where he trained in respirology and clinical epidemiology, obtaining his specialists certificate from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1987. He was appointed an assistant professor at McMaster University before moving to Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia in 1989. Mark returned to Ireland for a few years in the 1990s, obtaining a medical doctorate (MD) in 1995 and a fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1996 before returning to Vancouver where he became a full professor of medicine in 2002.
Dr. Fitzgerald’s academic and clinical interests were in asthma, tuberculosis, and respiratory outcomes. He developed a national and international profile in these areas, publishing many peer-reviewed papers and being involved in many studies. He was a founding member of the Aller Gen Clinical Investigator Consortium in asthma. Dr. Fitzgerald was a member, and later, chair of both the scientific committee and the executive committee of the Global Initiative in Asthma (GINA). Nationally, he served the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS) with distinction. He was chair of the CTS TB Committee (1993-98), an original member and chair of the CTS Asthma Guidelines Working Group and president of the society (2013-14). Dr. Fitzgerald advised the government of Canada on TB control as a member of the Expert Committee on Tuberculosis (1996-99) and was chair of the advisory group on HIV and TB to the federal government (1994-2021). Dr. Fitzgerald was head of the Division of Respirology at VGH from 2004-15 and the UBC Head of Respirology from 2006-15. He also had leadership appointments within the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) as director of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation (2001-08) and of the Centre for Respiratory, Cardiac and Critical Care (2015-21).
During his distinguished career at VGH/UBC, Dr. Fitzgerald received many prestigious awards reflecting his excellence in clinical and academic medicine. He was one of the few at VGH-UBC Hospital-GF Strong to be the recipient of two medical staff awards: the Special Service Award for exceptional service extending beyond the walls of the institution in 2006, and the Scientific Achievement Award in 2017. Dr. Fitzgerald was the recipient of the VGH Scientific Award (2000-03), and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Michael Smith Foundation Health Research (2004-09). He was the recipient of the UBC Department of Medicine’s Martin J. Hoffman Award for Research Excellence in 2012 and was the recipient of many other honours and awards. One of the last major awards that he received was the CTS Honorary lecture Award in 2019.
Dr. Fitzgerald is survived by his spouse, Dr. Celine Bergeron, who is a faculty respirologist at VGH and UBC.
Dr. Jerilynn Prior
Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism
Dr. Jerilynn Prior was born in Mount Vernon, Washington and raised on a farm there before her family moved to Alaska. There she attended primary school in a one-room schoolhouse. Attending high school required moving to a boarding school in Kodiak. After high school, Dr. Prior studied science and English literature at Linfield College in Oregon on a scholarship from the National Science Foundation, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. She then studied medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, graduating with her MD in 1969. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital, then was a research fellow in endocrinology at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York. Moving to Vancouver, she was a teaching fellow in medicine and obtained her fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in 1977. She completed an endocrinology fellowship at the University of British Columbia in 1978 and joined the staff of Vancouver General Hospital, with a UBC academic appointment in the Department of Medicine. She became a full professor of medicine in 1974.
During her long-distinguished career at VGH and UBC, Dr. Prior has become a renowned international expert in menstrual cycle and ovulation endocrinology and metabolic bone disease. She has published over 300 papers in medical and scientific journals of which approximately 230 were peer-reviewed. She has obtained many competitive research grants from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the Michael Smith Foundation in Health Research, and the Vancouver Foundation, as well as other granting agencies. Dr. Prior’s outstanding international stature in research was recognized in 2019 by the Michael Smith Health Foundation in Health Research, which awarded her the Audrey J. Tingle Prize given to an internationally recognized BC health research clinical scientist. Dr. Prior has also received the Ann Voda Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research in 2011 and the UBC Faculty of Medicine Honorary Alumni Award in 2004.
It is important to note that Dr. Prior has been a leader while at VGH and UBC. She was the acting head of the Division of Endocrinology (1994-95), the president of the Society of Menstrual Cycle Research (2007-09), the scientific director of the UBC Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (2002-present) and an elected counsellor with the Canadian Society for Endocrinology and Research.
Outside of formal clinical and academic activities, Dr. Prior has been the author of several fiction and non-fiction books, including the award-winning Estrogen’s Storm Seasons: Stories of Perimenopause. She has been a strong advocate for women’s health, receiving the Muriel Duckworth Award from the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women and a strong advocate for peace, receiving the Edith Adamson Award for Leadership in Issues of Conscience from Conscience Canada in 1999.