2025 Dr. N. Blair Whittemore Visiting Professor of Sarah’s Fund for Cedars in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
Dr. N. Blair Whittemore is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at McGill University, former Director of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Director of Clinical Hematology Laboratories at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and the Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) site.
Dr. Whittemore graduated in Medicine from McGill University, and did a residency in Internal Medicine and Hematology at the Montreal General Hospital (MGH) followed by a research fellowship in Hematology at the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., thereafter returning to the MGH. He served as Director of the Undergraduate Teaching Program for the MGH Department of Medicine and Chairman of the Undergraduate Teaching Committee of McGill University. He was CTU Director and Associate Physician-in-Chief at the MGH. For several years, he served the Canadian Red Cross as a volunteer and, in 1988, became the National Director of the Transfusion Service, a position he held until mid-1989, when he was recruited to the MGH as Director of Professional Services.
In 2002, he “retired” to the MCH to direct the Hematology laboratories and, 18 months later, was asked to head the division. During this time, he oversaw the re-establishment of the Clinical Fellowship Program after a lapse of 13 years, the renovation of the in-patient unit (Sarah’s Floor), the accreditation of the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Program, and the recognition of the division by the Quebec government (Lutte contre le cancer) by giving it the highest grade it can grant a centre, 4A. In 2015, Dr. Whittemore retired from clinical duties at the MCH but he continues teaching students and residents as a Helen Karounis Agora Program Fellow (H-KAP) at the MCH. In recognition of Dr. N. Blair Whittemore’s outstanding contributions, Cedars and Sarah’s Fund are proud to name this important professorship in his honour.