The Cy Frank Legacy Lectureship.

For current lectureship details — including upcoming dates, speakers, and registration — please see the official page at mccaig.ucalgary.ca/news-events/cy-frank-legacy-lectureship.

About Dr. Cy Frank

Dr. Cyril Frank, MD, PhD, was an orthopaedic surgeon and scientist whose career was largely spent at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine. He was a Professor in the Division of Orthopaedics, Department of Surgery, a Senior Investigator at Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions, and the McCaig Professor of Joint Injury and Arthritis Research.

He served as Executive Director of the Alberta Bone & Joint Health Institute, and was one of the founders of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health. At the time of his death in 2015, he was the Director and CEO of Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions.

Dr. Frank was internationally known for his visionary leadership in multidisciplinary clinical research and the translation of research into innovative clinical care. The Globe and Mail described him as a “surgeon, innovator [who] wore many hats.”

The lectureship

Established by the McCaig Institute, the Cy Frank Legacy Lectureship is a travelling lecture that brings nationally and internationally recognised speakers to Alberta and other Canadian centres to address themes Dr. Frank championed: health innovation, the application of research to clinical care, and improvements in health policy and practice.

Past lectures have been hosted at venues including the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, in Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver — frequently in partnership with the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute.

Selected past lectures

• Innovation in Healthcare: Lines of Sight to Policy and Practice— delivered by Dr. Tom Noseworthy at UBC’s Centre for Health Services and Policy Research (June 2017).
• The Promise of the Health Sciences — delivered by Dr. Alan Bernstein.
• Additional lectures held in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver in subsequent years.

Cy Frank’s legacy at the institute

Beyond the lectureship, Dr. Frank’s work continues to shape the institute’s direction in three lasting ways:

• The McCaig Institute itself. Dr. Frank was one of its founders, and the integrative model — basic scientists working alongside surgeons, rheumatologists, and kinesiologists — reflects the multidisciplinary approach he championed throughout his career.
• The Alberta Bone & Joint Health Institute. A provincial body that grew under his executive leadership, focused on care-pathway redesign for hip, knee, and spine surgery in Alberta.
• The McCaig Professorship in Joint Injury and Arthritis Research, which he held — and which continues to support translational work at the institute.