Dr. William (Bill) P. McKay (MD)
Professor Emeritus
College of Medicine
Dr. Bill McKay received a BSc in Agricultural Economics and MD from the University of Toronto, where he was the recipient of many scholarships and honor awards. He went on to complete specialized certifications and fellowships in anesthesia, life support and family medicine. Bill served as Associate Professor at Dalhousie University and at Camp Hill Medical Centre in Halifax before joining our College of Medicine and taking on clinical appointments with the SHR. He has been a key figure in anesthesiology trainees’ development in both clinical care and scholarly activity. Bill has published widely, and his many contributions include managing postoperative pain while minimizing side effects, ensuring safe operating room practices, improving patient safety during intubation during anesthesia, muscle physiology and function, the care and use of sedatives and analgesics, and ways to determine stroke volume. He patented a novel airway device, and his paper “Critical incidents detected by pulse oximetry during anesthesia” was named one of the ten most influential papers published in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesiology during its first fifty years. Very soon after it was published, pulse oximetry became routine. An outstanding educator, Bill was a recipient of the Barrie Reynolds Memorial Anesthesia Award for Excellence in Teaching. The annual Anesthesiology Resident Research Day Best Completed Project Award is named in Bill’s honour. Colleagues report that despite his retirement he continues to be more academically productive than almost anyone else! He continues to generously assist with editing colleagues’ experimental proposals, ethics and grant submissions, and statistical analysis of colleagues’ results. Thank you, Bill.