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The Charles G. Drake Professorship Lecture

The Charles G. Drake Professorship Lecture is named for London’s first and one of the world’s foremost neurosurgeons.  Dr. Drake was trained by Canada’s first neurosurgeon, Dr. Kenneth McKenzie of Toronto. In the early 1950's there were very few direct operations being done for ruptured brain aneurysms.  However, Dr. McKenzie thought there might be a future in it and suggested that Charlie Drake should have a “crack” at it.  The person and the opportunity had met.  Dr. Drake carefully developed and perfected methods for tackling aneurysms in various locations under the brain. He and his radiologist partner Dr. John Allcock were among the first to recognize the condition of delayed cerebral vasospasm after aneurysm bleeding.  With his anesthesiologist partner Dr. Ron Aitken (see Aitken Memorial Lecture), he evaluated profound hypotension and hypothermia to protect the brain during surgery.  He invented new devices including the fenestrated clip to better treat unusually complex aneurysms.  Most importantly, Dr. Drake looked critically at the results of his work, recording observations on track sheets, and asking himself why things sometimes went wrong during surgery, and how it might have been done better.

Dr. Drake had an engaging manner, and had the knack of bringing out the best in the people around him.  It was London’s good fortune that he persuaded Dr. Henry Barnett to come from Toronto in 1969 to form a combined department of neurological physicians and surgeons, along with pathologists, radiologists and others dedicated to the study and treatment of neurological diseases.  To a large degree, his legacy is the influence he exerted through his students, who are now leaders in their fields throughout Canada and around the world.

2021 Drake Neurovascular Lecture

Michael Kelly, MD, PhD, FRCSC, FACS

Michael Kelly, MD, PhD, FRCSC, FACS is a professor and Head of Neurosurgery at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. He completed his undergraduate, medical school, neurosurgery residency and PhD at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Kelly then completed an open cerebrovascular neurosurgery fellowship at Stanford University in 2006 and an endovascular neurosurgery fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in 2008. He returned to the University of Saskatchewan in 2008.

Dr. Kelly specializes in endovascular and cerebrovascular neurosurgery. He is the Heart and Stroke Foundation/Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation Clinical Stroke Research Chair and Provincial Pandemic Safety Officer for the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Dr. Kelly's research interests are basic science stroke imaging, stroke clinical trials and quality improvement.

Lecture Title: “The Saskatchewan Acute Stroke Pathway”
Date: Tuesday November 16 2021, 8:00 - 9:30 a.m.
This session will be virtual through Zoom.