Sonia Anand recognized with HRF Diversity & Equity in Research Award

Sonia Anand has been awarded the Health Research Foundation’s (HRF) Diversity & Equity in Research Award, a recognition she says she is honoured to receive.

The award is distributed annually by the Health Research Foundation of Innovative Medicines Canada to honour individuals who have significantly advanced diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in health research. It was presented to Anand at the HRF Awards Reception in Toronto on Nov. 19, 2024.

“I am honoured and humbled to receive this award. I want to thank McMaster University for nominating me, and for their continued support of my research,” says Anand, a professor with the Department of Medicine and Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact.

“Continued efforts are needed to ensure participants recruited into research studies in Canada, be they observational studies or clinical trials, represent our country’s incredible ethnic diversity. By doing so we will decrease the health equity gaps, improve quality and quantity of life, and reduce the health care system burden and costs we face today.”

Anand is the associate vice-president of Global Health, director of the Chanchlani Research Centre, and a senior scientist at the Population Health Research Institute. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Ethnic Diversity and Cardiovascular Disease and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario/Michael G. DeGroote Chair in Population Health Research.

Anand’s accomplishments have significantly advanced equitable access to research and care across Canada and beyond, removing economic, social and other barriers. Her research prioritizes women’s cardiovascular health, identifies health risk factors in diverse ethnic groups and develops new therapies that benefit high-risk vascular patients globally.

“Throughout her career, Dr. Anand has advocated for equity, diversity and inclusion through her research and leadership roles, breaking new ground and old barriers,” says Paul O’Byrne, dean and vice-president of the Faculty of Health Sciences. “Dr. Anand has gained a global reputation for her work and is exceedingly deserving of this important recognition.”

Anand has collaborated extensively with First Nations communities over her career, including a study she led involving families living on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. She has conducted more than five epidemiologic studies and randomized trials with them, culminating in a First Nations cohort comprised of eight communities and 1,300 participants.

She is also active in the South Asian community. In 2012, she received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award, in 2020 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Diabetes from the U.K.-based South Asian Health Foundation, and in June 2022 she received the Hindu Federation OverAchiever Award, recognizing her work in the South Asian community to improve heart health.

Anand’s work focused on health equity and cardiovascular disease has formed the basis of her recognition in 2019 as a Fellow to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, in 2022 as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 2023, Anand received the YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Hamilton.