Family physician recognized with national early career award

Claire Bodkin, assistant clinical professor (adjunct) in the Department of Family Medicine, has won the Early Career Development Award from the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC).

This award recognizes the efforts of new family physician leaders of tomorrow for their outstanding contributions today. Bodkin is honoured for her contributions in research and clinical care supporting people deprived of housing and people who use drugs. She has been engaged in this work since she was a medical student at McMaster.

“Claire began medical school with a strong passion for being an ally of people who experience exclusion and misunderstanding, and for correcting the systemic flaws in our social and health services that perpetuate all of this. To this end, she has directed her clinical, teaching, administrative and research efforts to address all of this,” says Dale Guenter, a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Bodkin’s supervisor for her research fellowship.

During the early months of the pandemic, Bodkin worked alongside the Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team (HAMSMaRT) to provide clinical care for the larger community including people who use drugs and those experiencing homelessness. In the fall of 2021, Bodkin co-founded the Support and Safer Supply (SASS) program as part of her work with HAMSMaRT, which was Hamilton’s first safer supply program for those at high risk of opioid overdose and other drug-related harms.

As a researcher, Bodkin has been a leader in engaging people with lived experience in all aspects of the research process. She is leading multiple research projects in Hamilton, successfully engaging communities and individuals with lived experience of housing deprivation and/or the harms of Canada’s prohibitionist drug policy who wish to contribute to research relevant to them.

Robin Lennox, assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine, collaborates with Dr. Bodkin on research projects: “Claire is an exceptional family physician who embodies what it means to be a family physician to the fullest. She has had an enormous impact on her community, her colleagues, and her patients, and I have no doubt she will continue to build an extraordinary career.”