Brian Day

HONORARY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Division:
Arthroscopy

Hospital Site:
Vancouver – UBC Hospital

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Dr. Brian Day graduated in medicine from the University of Manchester in 1970 and undertook further training at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London, obtaining British specialist qualifications in both internal medicine and general surgery. He later completed orthopaedic specialist training at the University of BC. He was awarded the degree of M.Sc. for research work done during that period. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and he is certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. He received the Canadian Orthopaedic Association’s most prestigious research award, the Edouard Samson Award, for outstanding orthopaedic research. After his specialist training at UBC, he undertook post-graduate training in Basel (Switzerland), Oxford (England), and Los Angeles and began practice at the Vancouver General Hospital in major trauma, later focusing on orthopaedic sports injuries.

He is a past president of the Arthroscopy Association of North America, the world’s leading academic society in his specialty field and was previously chair of its research committee. He was only the second Canadian to serve in that role. He is a former member of the Scientific Committee of the European Society of Sports Traumatology. He has chaired five international seminars on arthroscopic surgery and pioneered the introduction and teaching of arthroscopic surgical techniques in Canada. He is a former vice president of the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation (a national charity), a past director of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association, and a former executive member of the Canadian Orthopaedic Research Society. For three years, he chaired the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Test Committee in Orthopaedics, responsible for setting the qualifying examinations for orthopaedic specialists in Canada. He has served as associate editor of the Journal of Arthroscopy and on the editorial board of several other medical journals. He has served as the Osler lecturer and as a board member of the BC Medical Association. In 2014, he received their Don Rix leadership award.

He is a staff member at Vancouver Coastal Health, and an honorary associate professor at the University of British Columbia. He has served on many university committees. For six years he chaired the post-graduate orthopaedic academic programme at UBC. He has been invited as a visiting professor and lecturer at many universities and learned societies, including McGill, Manitoba, Ottawa, N. Carolina, Yale, Cambridge (England), Taipei, Manila, Hong Kong, Madrid, Santiago, Mexico, Athens, Rome, Mumbai, and Sydney. He has published over 200 articles and book chapters.

Dr. Day has been the medical officer for multiple national and international sports teams and events, including as a medical consultant to the Canadian Davis, Federation Cup, and Olympic teams. His patients have included CFL, NHL, NBA, NASL, and PGA athletes, soccer players from the English Premier League and other European and South American teams, and Olympic medalists from countries as far away as Russia and Australia. His international patients also include many world-famous celebrities, actors, and dignitaries.

He is also the author of a forthcoming book, My Fight for Canadian Healthcare: A thirty-year battle to put patients first,” to be published by Sutherland Press in August 2025.

Awards and recognitions

Dr. Day was recently honoured in January 2025 with the King Charles III Coronation Medal, a prestigious award recognizing individuals who have made significant contributions to their communities or achieved outstanding accomplishments abroad that bring credit to Canada. He received the title of Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London (FRCP)—the specialist society for internal medicine in the UK founded in 1518 and the oldest medical society in the world—a very rare honour for a surgeon.

In 2023, he became the first orthopaedic surgeon to be inducted as a member of the BC Sports Hall of Fame in recognition of his international role in the introduction and teaching of advanced techniques for the treatment of sports injuries. In 2022, he received the award of honorary membership in the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons. The Globe and Mail placed him on the Power 50 list of Canadians with the influence and desire to affect sport in Canada.