Jean-Pierre Despins Award

The Jean-Pierre Despins Award is named in memory of Dr. Jean-Pierre Despins, who served as the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) President from 1995/96 and Chair of the Board of the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine (FAFM; formerly known as the Research and Education Foundation) from 1999/2000 This award honours a family physician CFPC member identified as an outstanding advocate and public spokesperson for family medicine, family physicians, and their patients.

The award may be presented during Family Medicine Forum (FMF). The recipient will receive complimentary four-day registration to FMF. In addition, the recipient may receive up to $2,000 to offset the costs of accommodation, meals, and travel to attend FMF.

Eligibility criteria:

Each nominee must be a CFPC member who has been in good standing for at least one year and has made presentations on family practice issues to the public and/or other audiences.

The nominee must demonstrate many of the qualities that defined and were greatly valued by Dr. Despins, including statesmanship, leadership, diplomacy, courage of conviction, sense of humour, compassion, and consideration of others.

The nominee cannot have received this award in the past three years.

Please refer to the Guidelines for eligibility and additional considerations. 

Nomination process:

CFPC members, Chapters, and the public are invited to submit nominations for those meeting the criteria.

Nominations are due to the CFPC National Office by 4:00 p.m. (ET) on April 13, 2026.

Nominations must be submitted online.

Please refer to the Nomination Guidelines for requirements.

Submit your nomination now.

Selection process:

The joint CFPC and Foundation for Advancing Family medicine (FAFM) Honours and Awards Committee uses peer endorsements from a national review process to compile their recommendations to be approved by the CFPC and FAFM Boards of Directors.  

Nominees will be formally notified of results in August.

Recognition of support:

This award is made possible through the generosity of the FAFM’s donors.