McGill University medical students made a significant impact at the 2025 annual meeting of the American Osler Society (AOS) in Pasadena, California, winning top prizes for their presentations on medical history. Paris Dastjerdi earned first prize for "Restoring Avicenna's Tomb: A Historical Analysis of William Osler's Efforts," while Meygan Brody received third prize for "Justifying Judgment: How Canadian Temperance Textbooks Use Medicine to Teach Morality." Reda Hessi also presented on "Harold Griffith and Sir Robert Macintosh: Untold Stories of Curare's Journey to the Operating Room." Since the AOS established Best Medical Student Presentation awards in 2023, McGill students have won six of nine prizes, including first prize all three years.
The Bernadett Family International Medical Student Scholarship Program, established in 2024, funded Hessi's four-week research project in London titled "The Reception of Curare in Medicine and the Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry." Hessi expressed gratitude for the opportunity to engage with rare collections in the UK, which will enrich his research and broaden his perspective. The scholarship program aims to support medical humanities research in the United Kingdom, and details are available at americanosler.org.
The meeting also featured McGill alumni Brendan Ross and Ali Fazlollahi, and Annmarie Adams delivered the McGovern Lecture on Maude Abbott. The AOS meeting emphasized the intersection of medicine and the humanities, with McGill's participation playing a pivotal role. The Osler Library Board of Curators and the Montreal community supported student attendance. The Bernadett family's philanthropy, including Faustino Bernadett's contributions, is detailed at bernadett.org.
