Oscar Casiro, the former Regional Associate Dean, Vancouver Island, has been awarded the Dr. Louis Levasseur Distinguished Service Award from the Medical Council of Canada (MCC).
Dr. Casiro served a one-year term as President of the MCC, which conducts over 12,000 assessments of medical students and graduates every year through its three examinations across Canada, and in its Evaluating Examination in over 500 locations in 73 countries. The MCC presidency had a personal meaning for Dr. Casiro — as an international medical graduate arriving in Canada in 1980, the organization was his first contact with the Canadian medical community.
As the first Regional Associate Dean, Vancouver Island, Dr. Casiro oversaw the creation of the Island Medical Program, in which 128 medical students receive almost their entire medical education on the island. He also spearheaded the expansion of residency training on the island.
Dr. Casiro, now a Scholar at the Faculty of Medicine’s Centre for Health Education Scholarship; is Chair of the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools and a voting member of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in the U.S.; and the Regional Director for Latin America of the Royal College Canada International.
The Dr. Louis Levasseur Distinguished Service Award is presented annually to a Council, staff or committee member of the MCC, past or present, or to a person whose collaboration has contributed in an extraordinary manner to the vision and mission of the MCC. It’s named for the former Chair of the Central Examination Committee.