Program: Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency
Year in Program: 5
I came to medicine with a background in health policy and economics, and through all of my clinical training I maintained a separate interest in how our public systems impact and address health. Initially my interest was in health system policy, but over time it has grown to include the public health system (e.g. the branch of medicine responsible for the ongoing response to COVID-19), and the political and economic systems that impact health. Public health medicine explores practical ways to improve population health through health promotion and health protection, and instead of using medication or surgical procedures, it uses policy tools and programs.
Intellectually, public health allows me to check the boxes on academic interests, and so it was a natural fit.
COVID-19 has largely taken over the public health agenda, and so I’m looking forward to being involved in that response. As always, learning how to communicate risk, science, and recommendations is critical, and so I’ll be spending much of the year learning from public health leaders on how they talk to Canadians about our ongoing response to the pandemic.
The pandemic has not only been a challenging professional time, but it’s also been personally difficult as my partner who lives in Ontario developed a temporary full-body paralysis and ended up in an ICU on life support for most of the spring. He’s thankfully recovering, but being present for him while working full-time in a health emergency has required every wellness tool that I know of. The basics of nutrition, exercise, and sleep can’t be overstressed, but especially in a pandemic they become routines of self-care that can’t be forgotten.
I’ve also relied heavily on my family, and there have been some joys here that have helped me get through. A newborn, a milestone birthday, shared family moments, laughing through our failures to make IT connections work – the small constant moments of connection. I think this pandemic has brought us closer and these moments have become important parts of keeping well.
Exploring music together. Music changes the day, and I love discovering a new album or playlist with someone. During COVID-19, I restructured my song library to be categorized by colour (e.g. ‘red’ is my high-energy playlist for spinning, and ‘yellow’ is the light-hearted beach playlist). I share it and get recommendations, and it’s helped create these crowd-sourced collections to help fill times when I’m alone.