Aline Demirdjian Khatchikian
Described as a citizen of the world, Dr. Aline D. Khatchikian — now a radiology resident — has put leadership at the forefront of her medical career right from the start.
As a medical student at Université Laval, Dr. Khatchikian was the youngest member elected to the board of the Québec Medical Association (QMA). She also developed extensive international experience by giving training sessions in Switzerland, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Macedonia, amongst other countries, to encourage the next generation of medical students to become health advocates.
In January 2015, during her second year of medical school, Dr. Khatchikian attended the Americas Regional Meeting of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations in Colombia. “That’s when I met hundreds of students with a passion for global health like me, and that really sparked my interest to do more.”
In May 2017, she organized the Youth Pre-World Health Assembly in Geneva, where she had the opportunity to collaborate with the World Health Organization. Throughout her extracurricular activities, she has aimed to promote the importance of social accountability in medicine.
To play this role globally, she says, it was important to become better educated about the day-to-day realities of health care in Quebec and Canada, which fueled her involvement with the QMA and CMA. In 2015 and 2017, Dr. Khatchikian participated in the CMA’s General Council meetings and was able to discuss the role of young Canadians as advocates with then Health Minister Jane Philpott.
“What I enjoy the most is analyzing other health systems and seeing what works and what doesn’t.”
Dr. Khatchikian’s interests also extend to the clinical and research fields. She has contributed to multiples research projects involving breast imaging, artificial intelligence in liver imaging and PET scanning. She is currently pursuing her residency training at McGill University in diagnostic radiology.