Physician Changemakers

It is a situation every physician dreads — treating a critically-ill patient and realizing the necessary medical resources are not available. For Whitehorse pediatrician Dr. Katharine Smart, working with marginalized groups in under-resourced communities has shaped her commitment to improving health equity.

Access to ultrasound services in La Loche, a remote community in northern Saskatchewan, is limited, leaving people who need them to travel long distances. When COVID-19 emerged, access was hindered even further. But Dr. Scott Adams had already been investigating telerobotic sonography technology as a potential solution.

Growing up in rural New Brunswick, the oldest of eight children, Dr. Ann Collins had always thought about working in the field of medicine. Her father encouraged her dreams and shared his insight. “He said ‘Ann, I think you’d make a good doctor. Why don’t you think about doing that?’” Dr. Collins recalls. “So that set my future in stone.”

As the medical director for hospitals in western Prince Edward Island (PEI), Dr. Wassim Salamoun is familiar with the challenge of recruiting physicians to remote, rural areas. Yet nothing prepared him for the critical doctor shortage at Western Hospital in Alberton, PEI, in the fall of 2017.

For many family physicians, it’s a common scenario. A teenage patient comes to their office in crisis, seeking care for a mental health issue. The wait is up to a year to see a child psychiatrist, and the family can’t wait. As Dr. Jennifer Russel explains it, it’s exactly the situation the Compass program set out to address.

People who visit Maple Ridge, BC, often come to salmon fish in the Fraser River or to hike the 100 kilometres of trails. But when Dr. Matthew Chow first visited the Greater Vancouver suburb in 2015, his reasons were more serious than scenic.

Back in 1984, Dr. Sandy Buchman was busy building his career as a family physician. Just three years out of medical school, he had a practice in Mississauga, Ontario, treating mostly young families. But one day, a very sick young man walked into his clinic and unknowingly changed his career path.

It was in a slum in Djibouti, in 2010, where Dr. Courtney Howard hardened her resolve to fight the negative impacts of climate change on health. Working at a clinic run by Doctors without Borders, she saw hundreds of infants and children suffering from malnutrition. Many were dying.