Schulich Rapport 2023

SEEING WITH TWO EYES

DR. CHATBOT WILL SEE YOU NOW

EYES ON THE SKIES

Space travel is beckoning. Will we survive?

Puff.Puff.Pass.

Teen vaping at a crisis point

Seeing with Two Eyes

Nicole Redvers brings an Indigenous perspective to the effects of climate change on our health

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry Alumni Magazine / 2023

Schulich Medicine & Dentistry

The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University is one of Canada’s preeminent medical and dental schools. For more than 140 years, the School has helped to educate generations of dentists, physicians and surgeons, scholars and scientists who continue to transform the practice of dentistry, medicine and research in Canada and around the world.

Rapport

Rapport Magazine is published annually by the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University.

Publisher April Kemick

Art Director Allan Lewis

Editors

Cam Buchan, Emily Leighton, MA’13

Design

Aegis Design Inc.

Contributing Writers

Cam Buchan, Jane Gadd, April Kemick, Annamaria Leahey, Patrick Morley, Jennifer O’Brien, Sharon Oosthoek, HBA’88, Prabhjot Sohal

Photography

Chloë Ellingson, Mac Lai, Sandy Nicholson, Nation Wong

Illustrations

Jessica McGaw

Contributed photography and images

Eric Arts, PhD, Dr. Carol Brock, BA’71, MD’72, Dr. Douglas Busby, MD’60, MSc’64, Dr. Andrew House, Dr. Kris Lehnhardt, MD’03, Dr. David MacPherson, DDS’08, David Milburn, Ravi Menon, PhD, NASA, Grace Parraga, PhD, Dr. Jelena Poleksic, MD’23, Dr. Ramez Salti, DDS’07, Vasyl Salyga, Dr. Sarah Shell, DDS’16, Western Archives and Special Collections

For more information

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University

Rix Clinical Skills Learning Building London, ON Canada N6A 5C1

To receive additional copies or for information contact comms@schulich.uwo.ca

www.schulich.uwo.ca

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY

JIBRAN KHOKHAR

BY SANDY NICHOLSON

27

Breaking Down Barriers on the Path to Better Care

The experiences of two Schulich Medicine & Dentistry alumni have led to a bursary to bring students from diverse backgrounds into a career in medicine

28

Doctor Chatbot Will See You Now

The AI revolution has arrived – in case you haven’t heard – and its benefits and drawbacks are the subject of speculation, especially in the world of medicine. At Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, many worldleading experts and scientists have been using AI for years

32

Opening Wider

43

A Big Idea for Small Mouths

Combining creativity and dental science, Dr. Sarah Shell has embarked on an altogether new career – one that has a very personal connection to her family

20

Code Blue

For many Canadians, the pandemic is over – but not for our health-care workers

24

Less is More COVID-19 showed us how quickly innovation can happen. What if we applied that same ingenuity to health-care challenges in remote places?

Federal plans to fund more patients mean both opportunity and disruption for Schulich Dentistry. And that’s a good thing, as the School expands its servicelearning opportunities

44

Eyes on the Skies

34

Got Doc?

The pandemic laid bare the widening gaps in a health-care system that is battling the dual problems of lack of staffing and burnout. How do family doctors fit into the mix?

The boom in Space travel poses massive challenges in keeping astronauts healthy in Space. Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers, faculty and alumni are already out there, carving out a leadership role for the School – a journey that has benefits for health care on planet Earth

Old Friends, New Foes Decades ago, they scratched out ideas for a viral vaccine seed bank on a paper napkin. Now, a trio of old friends is finally making it happen, positioning Schulich Medicine & Dentistry as a world leader in the fight against emerging infectious diseases

In June, I had the pleasure of addressing the MD’23 graduating class at their ceremony. These future physicians, as well as the next generation of dentists graduating from our Dentistry program, all began their professional training just months before their worlds – and ours – were taken over by COVID-19.

Suddenly, we were all thrust into the unknown.

And then in May 2023, the World Health Organization declared the pandemic over – just in time for their graduation.

However, old threats that were eclipsed by the pandemic still linger, and new challenges are emerging.

Widespread physician shortages. Environmental challenges that threaten our planet, and our health. Communities that, because of socioeconomic or diversity issues, are held back from access to care and realizing optimal well-being. Health challenges – from vaping that is hurting our youth to neurodegenerative diseases that afflict older adults. Even our need to prepare for the next pandemic.

I have expressed this message to our students, to our staff, and to faculty – and repeat it here to you as our valued alumni: Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry is making great strides in the wake of the pandemic. We are setting our sights on a future that is filled with greater promise, deeper compassion, and is more inclusive than ever before. We have never been so ready – nor more capable – of facing these challenges.

In this issue of Rapport, you’ll read more about some of the trailblazers in our community who are establishing the groundwork for this better future, including:

Powerhouse scientists on the leading edge of research into youth vaping, a cultural phenomenon that threatens our young people and our health-care system.

“We are setting our sights on a future that is filled with greater promise, deeper compassion, and is more inclusive than ever before. We have never been so ready – nor more capable –of conquering these challenges.”

A husband-and-wife alumni pair who established a financial lifeline for medical students from diverse backgrounds who are facing the economic, racial, and equity-related challenges of a career in medicine.

Expanded service learning opportunities for our dentistry students in communities facing socioeconomic challenges.

A trio of old friends – all experts in the field of infectious diseases – who are building the School’s reputation as a global front-runner in the fight against emerging health threats.

As you read these stories, I hope you feel pride as alumni in having contributed to laying the foundation for this important work. I invite you to consider how you can continue to be a part of the Schulich Medicine & Dentistry story – one that, with your support and engagement, will help us realize our bold vision.

Dr. John Yoo

IN THE NEWS

Across the country – and around the world – Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry experts made headlines, breaking new ground in health research and providing critical insight on the most pressing health issues of the day.

Face of hope

Clinical Fellow Dr. Ivanka Nebor can’t fix the emotional scars left on those damaged by Ukraine’s war with Russia. But together with her colleagues, she took her surgical skills to patients in Ukraine requiring complex head, neck and facial reconstruction – making a real difference in lives, as shown on CTV and many other news outlets.

Post-COVID smell problems?

Dr. Leigh Sowerby, associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, made headlines for his work examining parosmia, a well known, post-COVID disorder that distorts a person’s sense of smell so scents once found pleasant – like coffee, chocolate or perfume – smell foul instead.

Hungry for care

Kelly Anderson, PhD, a researcher at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, found children in food-insecure households relied more on the health-care system to cope with mental health and substance use disorders than their peers – a study that received extensive media coverage across the country.

Wildfires

As wildfires raged across Canada, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry experts helped national and international media outlets understand the health context from a variety of angles. Associate Professor Nicole Redvers, PhD, was widely quoted on how Indigenous communities have been disproportionally impacted by wildfires in Canada, while Associate Professor Dr. Anna Gunz provided expert insight on the health impacts of wildfire smoke.

Improving access to care

From Earth to Space

What rules and laws govern Space?

Are licensed doctors on Earth able to transfer their skills into Space?

In a thought-provoking piece picked up by national and international media, a team of researchers, including Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry’s Dr. Adam Sirek and Alex Zhou, a third-year medical student, proposed changes to the medical licensing framework to allow for medical care in Space.

Pandemic pandemonium

Dr. Sameer Elsayed continued to make headlines as a world-leading expert on infectious diseases, providing critical insight into COVID-19, vaccines and monkeypox for dozens of media outlets in Canada and beyond. His thoughtful editorials and much-needed context on these emerging health threats led him to become one of Western University’s most widely quoted faculty members over the past year.

As COVID-19 exposed our health-care system to severe workforce shortages and a massive backlog of patients waiting to be seen, more than six-million Canadians were reported to be without family doctors this year. But – as Dean Dr. John Yoo and Western University President Alan Shepard wrote in a joint editorial carried in newspapers across Canada – medical schools can help address many of our current and future health resource challenges through decentralized medical training.

Dr. Ivanka Nebor and colleagues in Ukraine. Photo Credit: Vasyl Salyga

Windsor Campus celebrates 15 years of impact

15 years later and the results are in: The Windsor Campus has had a major impact, building a 35-per-cent increase in family physicians and 31-per-cent increase in specialists in the region. “Many of our students complete their medical school and residency here, and then set up practice here,” said Dr. Larry Jacobs, associate dean of the Windsor Campus. “We’re building something that’s sustainable, and it is changing the face of what we do in health care here.”

Western’s first Black medical graduate

Schulich Medicine & Dentistry honoured Dr. Lewis H. Milburn’s legacy as Western’s first Black medical graduate. Milburn lived both his dreams: To serve in the military and be a doctor. Now, his story lives on to inspire future generations.

Expanded training, more help

With 16 new medical education spots added this fall and 22 residency training spots coming in the future, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry is training more future doctors to serve our region – a beacon of hope for areas in the region facing physician shortages.

Preserving planetary health

Many health-care professionals are turning their attention to the health of the planet, while also caring for human health. So is Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. Along with other schools, we signed the Academic Health Institutions’ Declaration on Planetary Health this year, highlighting the urgency of prioritizing our planet’s well-being and underlining our commitment to building climate-resilient health systems.

Pioneering program opens doors to high-school students

The Experiential Learning Academy for Biomedical Sciences (X-LABS) was designed to make biomedical sciences accessible for students from diverse backgrounds. This summer, the program did exactly that – 10 students from area high schools were exposed to every aspect of a potential career in biomedical sciences, from participating in scientific environments, lab work and research to observing state-of-the-art demonstrations and establishing relationships with world-renowned faculty and student leaders.

Dental outreach in Uganda

What better way to learn about dental disparities than experiencing first-hand what global health looks like in Uganda? Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry’s dental students continue to connect, learn and feel inspired by their partnership with communities across Africa through the International Oral Health Service Program.

Discovery Week program reaches 25-year milestone

For 25 years, first-year medical students have “discovered” what life and medical practice in regional Ontario have to offer through Discovery Week. Since its beginning in 1998, the program has placed approximately 3,700 students in regional communities – many of whom eventually return to practise medicine in those very places. As a first-year MD student, Dr. Adam Fehr, MD’12, experienced Discovery Week in Chatham, Ontario, and later returned to the community as a general surgeon. “Discovery Week is the first time you truly see what community medicine is really like,” said Fehr. “And because of my interest in general surgery, I really got to see what a general surgeon does. It was about discovering medicine outside of the academic side.”

Dental clinic expands to address unmet needs

To address the unmet treatment needs of Oxford County residents, Oxford County Community Health Centre’s dental clinic has expanded its dental services thanks to a partnership with Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. The dental clinic program offers fourth-year Schulich Dentistry students, under the supervision of a community dentist, the opportunity to serve patients in the community. More than 60 people – many of whom require longer, more frequent visits due to multiple conditions – have been served since April 2022, adding up to around 200 encounters overall.

Gold trek

More than 150 years ago, Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke, co-founder of the medical school, set out on a gold-seeking expedition through the Sierra Nevada mountains. He was the sole survivor. This year, a team of athletes retraced the adventurous steps of Bucke in appreciation of this harrowing adventure.

FAILING FASTER

How can we make it less expensive and risky to develop cures for diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s? That’s the question Ravi Menon and his all-star team are pursuing. And their mission is intensely personal.

By April Kemick Photography by Mac Lai

For a while, it was FaceTime calls.

From his Vancouver nursing home, Kochu Menon would tap his son’s name on his iPhone and wait for his face to appear on the screen.

With 4,000 kilometres between them, the weekly chats were bright spots in the 95-year-old’s routine; a lifeline that connected him to his son and everything he used to be.

Then the calls stopped.

“He doesn’t remember how to use FaceTime anymore,” said Ravi Menon, PhD, scientific director of the Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping at Western University. “I called him last week on his birthday and he had no idea what day it was.”

It’s strange for him, listening as the elder Menon –a former Harvard astrophysicist obsessed with unravelling the mysteries of the universe – struggles for words. And it’s not any easier with his mom, Rama, now 93.

She suffers from tremors and memory loss, likely the results of a Parkinson’s-like condition, and is mostly confined to her bed. A far cry from the driven, PhD-educated electrical engineer she once was – one of North America’s first women ever to achieve the designation.

“It’s sad,” Menon said softly, losing a little of the emotional detachment so often ascribed to scientists, as he clicked through digitized photos of his childhood on a spring day in his office.

The images – many taken by his father – illustrate a childhood in several acts, the result of his

father’s uncompromising pursuit of his academic interests across countries and continents.

Menon and his sister, Kusum, born just one year apart, with relatives in Bombay, India. The kids and their friends, dressed in Hawaiian leis, celebrating the end of a school year in Honolulu. Hugs in front of a Christmas tree in West Virginia. The children posing in gardens, always tended lovingly by his mom, wherever her husband’s academic journey landed them in the world.

Now Menon’s parents share a nursing home.

It’s a story all too familiar for many Canadians. More than half a million are currently living with dementia alone, a number that’s expected to double by the end of the decade.

And not even someone like Menon – a globally recognized scientist specializing in using MRI to study neurodegenerative diseases – has a solution.

There are no viable treatments to slow down these memory-stealing thieves; no conclusive answers around why the brain is a safe haven for disease to take hold, wreaking havoc on functions like attention, decision-making and planning.

But he’s working on it.

Menon has mobilized a team of world-leading experts in physics, neuroscience, imaging, philosophy and technology that is poised to speed up the race for treatments to slow or stop diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lewy body dementia and ALS.

It’s too late now for his mom and dad.

But it might not be too late for his generation. g

On the team Zoom call on this sunny June afternoon, it’s mostly administrative details at hand.

Menon and his collaborators have won a massive federal grant – the kind specifically geared toward “high risk, high reward” projects that have the potential to transform human health.

The team is made up of powerhouse researchers from Western University, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the University of British Columbia, McGill University and the University of Toronto. They have $24 million for their novel plan to fast-track drug development to treat neurodegenerative diseases – and there’s a lot of paperwork to get through.

This is the boring part for Menon, described as a “relentless, dogged” scientist, by his wife of 30 years, Anne. He’s eager to get to the science.

His specialty is applying physics to neuroscience, working with Canada’s most powerful MRI systems to explore brain function in minute detail.

And even for a career scientist who was a key member of a team that demonstrated functional MRI in his late twenties – leading to whispers of a Nobel Prize – this project is shaping up to be his life’s opus.

“We’re doing something nobody’s ever done before,” said Menon of the TRIDENT project, which stands for TRanslational Initiative to DErisk NeuroTherapeutics. “We’re creating a one-stop shop to help us identify and predict the success of drugs in human trials faster and cheaper.”

The problem is simple, but enormous in scale. Drug development is very expensive, particularly when it comes to treatments for diseases that affect cognition, which is notoriously difficult to study. It can cost more than $50 million to bring a single compound to clinical trial and more than $1 billion to gain market approval.

“Even though we’ve ‘cured’ Alzheimer’s in mice a hundred times, inevitably, when you get a treatment to the stage where you’re testing it in clinical trials in humans, it fails,” said Menon, professor of Medical Biophysics and Medical Imaging at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. “Because of these high rates of failure, and the astronomical costs, many pharmaceutical companies are opting out of drug development in this space. The result is that there are very few therapies in the pipeline to tackle the immense problem of neurodegenerative diseases.”

TRIDENT’s goal is to ‘de-risk’ the drug development cost, by doing better, more efficient testing on new drugs before the clinical trials phase – essentially, enabling them to predict, with far greater accuracy, whether a therapy will be successful in humans, before actually testing it in humans.

To do this, they’re bringing together a series of cutting-edge tests to evaluate how potential therapies impact cognition – including skills like memory, learning, thinking skills and planning –from cell cultures to animal models.

They’ll probe the brain’s inner workings at a molecular level with unparalleled precision, using some of the world’s most powerful imaging machines. They’ll analyze special lab-grown cells that mimic the human brain – so called “brains in a dish”. They’ll explore how sex plays into neurodegenerative diseases. And they’ll leverage Western University-led technology that’s on the forefront of cognition testing worldwide.

“Determining whether a drug impacts cognition is very challenging, but ultimately, that’s what we want to fix when we’re looking at diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,” said Menon, a Robarts Research Institute scientist. “Our team has the tools to assess cognition in a way that will help us predict with great accuracy whe- ther a drug will succeed in humans.”

This includes using a Western-developed platform – called MouseTRAP – to test cognition in the

“We’re doing something nobody’s ever done before. We’re creating a one-stop shop to help us identify and predict the success of drugs in human trials faster and cheaper.”

—Ravi Menon

top: Ravi Menon with sister, Kusum, and parents Kochu and Rama.

bottom: Menon with his mother Rama.

same way in both animal models and humans, giving a much better indication of how new therapies will likely impact human cognition. Using iPad touch-screens with prompts and rewards, the team can map complex cognitive processes like decision-making and attention and planning across species, to help them assess drugs in ways that have never been attempted before.

Nowhere else in the world offers such an expansive suite of testing, cutting-edge infrastructure and scientific expertise under one collaborative umbrella, said Menon, adding, “This is going to save a lot of time and money.”

Since he was young, Menon has been asking questions and taking risks, fueled by unyielding curiosity. He’s had a lifelong passion for taking things apart, “tinkering” as he puts it – radios, watches, you name it. Driven to understand what’s inside, as much as his own father ruthlessly tracked a greater understanding of what’s “out there,” in the universe.

These days, he’s probing the inner workings of the world’s most formidable MRI machines, when he’s not tinkering with the old Porsche he’s restoring in his garage.

“The key to doing interesting science is, you don’t know what the answer is,” he said, laughing. “Good experiments fail. If you know what the answer is, that’s not interesting.”

It’s a philosophy that extends to the TRIDENT team’s commitment to a radically open science approach.

“We’re going to share the successes, and the failures, too,” Menon said. “So much time is wasted by not sharing knowledge, when we could be learning from failures and trying new things. We need to fail faster and move on.”

BY THE

NUMBERS

$293 BILLION estimated combined direct and indirect costs of dementia in Canada by 2040

$16.6 BILLION estimated annual Canadian healthcare costs for those affected by dementia by 2031

$1 BILLION typical cost to move a drug forward to market approval

$50 MILLION typical cost to bring a single compound to a clinical trial for testing

$13 MILLION cost of the two powerful MRI machines used by the TRIDENT team

1.4 MILLION expected cases of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias among Canadians by 2031

24 number of faculty collaborators working on the TRIDENT team

6 YEARS

Six years. That’s the length of the $24-million Government of Canada New Frontiers in Research Fund grant supporting the team’s groundbreaking research.

It’s also the amount of time within which the team is aiming to identify new treatments they believe will address neurodegenerative diseases in humans.

“We think we can do it,” said Menon, glancing over as his constant companion, a six-year-old German Shepherd named Xander, snoozed in a nearby chair in his office.

Not that he’s afraid to fail.

The team’s time-and-money-saving approach is already attracting significant interest from the pharmaceutical industry, and they’ll begin running three new compounds through rigorous testing this fall.

Identifying effective treatments for neurodegenerative diseases is an immensely personal mission for many on the team, he said.

“Almost every one of us has someone in our immediate circle who has Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS or dementia,” said Menon, a fact that prompted the team to open their pitch for the grant with a slide filled with photos of their affected loved ones.

“The team is incredible,” he said. “If anybody can do it, we can do it.”

the team’s timeline for uncovering promising new treatments they believe will work in humans

61.8% of those living with dementia in Canada in 2020 were women

ZERO

cures for neurodegenerative diseases

“So much time is wasted by not sharing knowledge, when we could be learning from failures and trying new things. We need to fail faster and move on.”

—Ravi Menon

Ravi Menon: A passion for taking things apart.

About 20 years ago, they scratched out ideas for a viral vaccine seed bank on a paper napkin. Now, a trio of old friends is finally making it happen, positioning Schulich Medicine & Dentistry as a world leader in the fight against emerging infectiousdiseases.

By Prabhjot Sohal Photography by Mac Lai

OLD FRIENDS, NEW FOES

Nestled within the order of his neatly arranged office, Miguel E. Quiñones-Mateu, PhD, recalled the chaos of the Orinoco gold mines in Venezuela some 30 years ago.

Fresh out of university with a degree in science, the future virologist ventured into the dense rainforests of the “Kilometro Ochenta y Dos,” near Brazil’s border, where he tried his luck at gold trading – and succeeded. He used his profits to fix his first car and never returned to the mines.

“It was fun while it lasted, but I really wanted to do something with my undergraduate degree,” said Quiñones-Mateu.

That year, after the brief Amazonian escapade, Quiñones-Mateu met his first success in virology while working as a scientist at the Instituto Nacional de Higiene “Rafael Rangel” in Caracas, Venezuela. He was part of a team of researchers at the institute who were responsible for the first isolation of the

Venezuela strain of HIV-1.

Quiñones-Mateu later took a few samples of those early HIV-1 isolates with him to Spain – sealed in vials on dry ice inside an airplane cabin – as the subject of his doctoral research at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

“The first HIV-1 molecular epidemiology data from my country resulted from me sequencing the genome of these viruses back in 1995,” said Quiñones-Mateu, who is Western Research Chair in Viral Pathogenesis and professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Decades later, the lessons learned at the mines, the insights gleaned from those early HIV-1 isolates, and the friends and colleagues made along the way serve him well as he prepares for the fight of his life.

Protecting against the inevitable Quiñones-Mateu’s expertise lies in virus evolution and pathogenesis – essentially, extracting valuable details about viral behaviour from a chaotic mass and using that knowledge to develop antiviral strategies – like finding gold in grit.

This expertise has forged his reputation as one of the world’s leading virologists.

“The process of isolating a virus, especially a novel one, is like discovering something precious. Once you have the isolated virus, you can analyze it, comprehend its structure and behaviour and use this knowledge to develop diagnostics, vaccines and treatments,” said Quiñones-Mateu.

Over 25 years, he has harnessed his skills and knowledge in the battle against HIV and other deadly viruses, including SARS-CoV-2.

As the world rebounds from COVID-19 and braces for the next inevitable virus outbreak – which Quiñones-Mateu warns could arrive before this decade’s end –the Venezuelan virologist is at the forefront of the world’s pandemic preparedness efforts.

Quiñones-Mateu leads Western’s participation in the federally funded Canadian Hub for Health Intelligence and Innovation in Infectious Diseases (HI3). This is a new coalition of universities, hospitals, and industry partners formed to fight existing and emerging infectious diseases.

“The cause of the next pandemic will most likely be a respiratory virus. Since the 2003 SARS outbreak, a new coronavirus seems to jump from animals to humans roughly every decade. The next one could be sooner,” he said.

To prepare for battle with these emerging new foes, Quiñones-Mateu is establishing a viral vaccine seed bank at Western that would develop and house ready-to-use vaccines against future viruses.

It’s an idea that’s been 20 years in the making, and he’s doing it with a “dream team” that includes long-time colleagues and friends Eric J. Arts, PhD, and Richard Gibson.

They have come together across countries and continents to make it happen.

Building the right team

A viral vaccine seed bank of this scale requires a visionary to put all the pieces together – from funding to personnel –and Arts is a master problem solver.

Arts, one of the world’s leading HIV researchers, believes there is only one way to do science right: In a team.

“Lone scientists can’t match the impact of a team,” said Arts, who is professor and Canada Research Chair in HIV Pathogenesis and Viral Control at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.

Arts came to Western in 2014 with a vision for a multi-disciplinary Pathogen Research Centre that would bolster the University’s existing infectious diseases program, enhance its capacity to conduct cutting-edge research on human pathogens, and build strong industry partnerships to bring research to market.

Today, that vision is becoming a reality – partly because of a funding boon, but also because of the right mix of talent on his team.

Last year, Arts, who is Executive Director of the School’s level 2 and 3 biocontainment laboratory, Imaging Pathogens for Knowledge Translation (ImPaKT), secured $16 million in federal funding to expand the facility to house a vaccine seed bank, among other enhancements.

The funding also enabled him to add world-class talent to the team, including long-time colleague and friend, Quiñones-Mateu – something he had wanted for many years. g

Miguel E. QuiñonesMateu (left), Eric Arts, and Richard Gibson are building a world-leading viral vaccine bank in the battle against infectious diseases.

“This journey has taught us that it’s not just about the destination, but also the extraordinary people we meet along the way and the incredible stories we create together. It’s all coming together now at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.”

—Richard Gibson

The right opportunity – at last Arts’ connection with Quiñones-Mateu and Gibson goes back to 1997.

When Arts set up his first independent lab to study HIV at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio 25 years ago, the Venezuelan virologist was the lab’s first postdoctoral fellow.

“When I came to meet him at his lab, it was empty. We built the Arts Lab from scratch. We have come a long way and now we will be working together again, shoulder-to-shoulder,” said QuiñonesMateu.

A few years later at Case Western, they met the final piece of the puzzle, Gibson, who is now the Director of Operations for ImPaKT.

Gibson joined the Arts Lab as its manager in 2003. He has been instrumental in executing some of the team’s biggest ideas. With a knack for managing numerous projects concurrently, the research scientist is a critical liaison between ImPaKT and its academic and corporate partners.

Together, over nearly three decades, Gibson, Arts and Quiñones-Mateu have conceived several innovative ideas.

The viral vaccine seed bank may be their biggest yet.

“Decades ago, we had the knowledge and the skill, but there was no technology to support it,” said Gibson. “Second chances are rare in life, and even rarer in science – this is our third chance to make it happen.”

When Arts moved to Schulich Medicine & Dentistry from Case Western in 2014

Gibson followed. However, QuiñonesMateu stayed back to finish some ongoing projects in Cleveland, Ohio.

“I had an offer from Western. It was a great opportunity to work on our ideas together,” Quiñones-Mateu said. “But I decided to stay put. I disappointed Eric, Rick (Gibson) and my colleagues at Western. It broke my heart. However, we continued to work on our joint projects and did some great research together, collaborating at a distance. But there were times when I would second-guess my decision of not coming here.”

In 2019, Quiñones-Mateu surprised everyone when he moved to New Zealand to join the University of Otago as the Webster Family Chair in Viral Pathogenesis.

There, he struck gold again.

Only a couple of months into the COVID-19 pandemic, he led a team of researchers in isolating SARS-CoV-2 for the first time in the country. His was the only lab in New Zealand, and one of the initial groups worldwide at that time, to have isolated the virus responsible for one of the deadliest pandemics of the last 100 years.

“It opened doors to the possibility of developing a multitude of really interesting projects, including a vaccine candidate for COVID-19 in New Zealand,” said Quiñones-Mateu.

A phone call and a flight

But an intricate web of guidelines in New Zealand made his research work particularly challenging. It nudged him into looking for other opportunities.

As if on cue, around the same time Arts secured the federal funding for ImPaKT’s expansion. The phone calls were made and soon after Quiñones-Mateu was on a trans-Pacific flight to Canada. Coming to Western, said QuiñonesMateu, felt like coming home.

Leading the way in pathogen-fighting research

Today, with Arts’ out-of-the-box thinking, Quiñones-Mateu’s technical acumen, Gibson’s knack for managing and implementing large-scale projects and the critical research of another Schulich Medicine & Dentistry professor, Ryan Troyer – another of Arts Lab’s postdoctoral fellows at Case Western – the idea for a world-leading viral vaccine seed bank and a one-of-its-kind Pathogen Research Centre is about to be realized.

“The time is just right. The COVID19 pandemic has awakened the world from a global amnesia of sorts,” said Quiñones-Mateu. “There’s a realization that vaccines will be our strongest line of defense against future pandemics.”

While the Pathogen Research Centre will facilitate several cutting-edge research projects, one of the interesting scenarios the researchers are investigating is how disease-causing pathogens swiftly travel the globe, for example, via airplanes.

“We are interested in studying scenarios, like the inside of an airplane, to see how pathogens spread within different settings,” said Arts. “We will be wheeling in a slice of an airline cabin to study how pathogens, such as SARSCoV-2 and influenza, transmit themselves under different conditions.”

The Pathogen Research Centre will also include a containment level 3 simulation laboratory designed to accommodate real-world testing modules and a small batch production facility, where therapeutics and products will be tested per industry standards before they are launched into clinical trials.

“We are uniquely positioned in terms of talent, resources and industry partnerships to be the leader in pathogenfighting research in Canada,” said Arts.

But now it’s also more than just research and science – and always has been.

“Our paths may have diverged and converged in unexpected ways, but each finding in our labs, each experience, has led us to where we are today. This journey has taught us that it’s not just about the destination, but also the extraordinary people we meet along the way and the incredible stories we create together,” said Gibson. “It’s all coming together now at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.”

Miguel (left) and Eric at the Arts/ Quiñones-Mateu/ Troyer Annual Lab Retreat at Circle R Ranch in London.

“Lone scientists can’t match the impact of a team.”

—Eric J. Arts

Back to a better future

The School’s very first MD+ graduate is shaping her future as a psychiatrist by exploring her passion for psychiatry and history. Her subject?

Patient care in 19thcentury asylums.

BY ANNAMARIA LEAHEY ILLUSTRATION BY JESSICA MCGAW

How can a birdcage give us insight into what it was like to be in an asylum in the 1800s?

This is one of the questions Dr. Jelena Poleksic, MD’23, explored on her path to becoming Schulich Medicine’s first MD+ graduate – a first-ofits-kind program that allows students to explore interests beyond traditional medical education while staying on track to obtain their MD.

As part of the program, Poleksic – an aspiring psychiatrist – took a year of academic leave to complete a master’s degree in history and philosophy of science at University College London, which was generously supported by a Chevening Scholarship.

She had long been intrigued by the history of medicine – specifically psychiatry – and believed delving deeper into her passion during her MD degree would help her become a better psychiatrist.

“I have always been interested in the lives of psychiatric patients: In addition to symptomatology and diagnosis, what did their day to day look like? What relationships did they form with

this experience will help me become a better clinician. One who will be able to use the lessons of the past to consider the best treatment for my patients in the future.”

other patients, staff members, even objects? It’s about understanding the patient – their needs, values, experiences –treating them with dignity and respect,” said Poleksic.

“Engaging with history opens up conversations about past and present mental health care.”

A bird’s eye view

By exploring the images and objects found in asylums centuries ago, Poleksic learned how patients were treated. For

example, while many are familiar with the harsh symbolism of a straitjacket, lesser-known objects in asylums, such as birds and birdcages, had rich meanings.

“I knew that the birdcage symbolized a patient’s entrapment within these institutions. But it was also perceived to hold significant therapeutic value in teaching patients caretaking and social skills to facilitate their return to society,” said Poleksic. “Understanding this history can humanize the inner life of an asylum and challenge some of the stigmatization of psychiatry’s past and its patients.”

The work also raises issues relevant to psychiatric practice today, such as our understanding of restraint, patient identity, and the dynamics between patients and their care teams.

She believes her experience will prove invaluable when encountering similar cases in the future.

“I am positive this experience will help me become a better clinician. One who will be able to use the lessons of the past to consider the best treatment for my patients in the future.”

“I am positive

—Dr. Jelena Poleksic, MD’23

At the crossroads of teen culture and technology lies vaping – a health crisis that few are paying attention to, and fewer still understand. At Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, researchers are attempting to deconstruct this phenomenon and its impact on the health of our youth.

By Prabhjot Sohal

PUFF. PUFF. PASS.

Photography by Sandy Nicholson

At a basketball court in the heart of London, Ont., a late afternoon game is underway.

The rhythmic thud of the ball, punctuated by the squeak of sneakers and the gasp of laboured breaths, echoes through the air.

Suddenly, a wispy plume of vapour rises from the corner, silencing the court.

Heads turn. The tricksters have arrived.

On the sidelines, a group of teens huddle together, eyes fixed on the ‘vape artists’ or ‘vaping tricksters,’ as they are known. The spectators watch in awe as the teen performers – their peers – exhale a dozen ‘O’ rings and jellyfish-shaped clouds of vapour that disappear into thin air leaving behind a lingering fruity residue.

The teens pass around a slim device, no larger than a USB stick, each taking turns to attempt the newly-learned ‘ghost inhale’ – inhaling, releasing and swiftly recapturing, drawing the vape cloud back into their mouths.

This spectacle of teens vaping is now all too familiar, not just limited to one basketball court, but seen at playgrounds, bus stops, schools, university campuses and mall entrances alike.

The hullabaloo over vaping

Vaping is essentially inhaling a fatty liquid, a concoction of one or more substances, commonly mistaken for ‘water vapour,’ using handheld electronic devices like e-cigarettes or vape pens. This mixture is super-heated by vape pens to vapourize substances, including nicotine, flavours and solvents. Beyond nicotine, vaping can be used to inhale aerosolized forms of cannabis, vitamins, melatonin, milk thistle and essential oils.

Vapes and traditional cigarettes both deliver nicotine, but the critical distinction is their delivery mechanism: Vapes use heat to transform a nicotine liquid into an aerosol, where cigarettes contain tobacco leaves that are burned to generate smoke.

This difference, though seemingly minor, significantly impacts user experience and health outcomes, undermining vaping’s introduction as a harm reduction strategy.

“Vaping was initially promoted as a way to wean people off their nicotine dependency, gradually reducing their intake while mitigating the dangerous effects of tar and harmful toxins and carcinogenic substances associated with smoking,” said Jamie Seabrook, PhD, adjunct professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Paediatrics.

“However, its perceived ‘cool’ factor and the allure of flavoured e-liquids soon captured a demographic it was never intended for – non-smokers and especially teenagers.”

The ease of use and sleek design of the devices, plus the false perception of vaping as a harmless activity have led to a concerning number of young people experimenting with these products, many of whom have never used nicotine before.

“The statistics are shocking,” said Seabrook, chair and professor in the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences at Brescia University College at Western University.

In a recent study conducted in collaboration with Evan R. Wiley from Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Seabrook found 26 per cent – one in four – of Canadian high-school students had vaped in the previous month. Within this group, 12 per cent reported using vapes filled with nicotine exclusively. This study made national headlines, raising critical questions about policies and regulations around vaping in Canada.

According to statistics from the Canadian Student, Alcohol and Tobacco Survey, during 2006-2007, 12 per cent of grade 10 and 11 students reported smoking cigarettes. And while cigarette use has decreased since then, nicotine consumption has not, mainly attributed to vaping. g

Photography by Ruslan Alekso via Pexels

Professor Jason Gilliland, PhD, and a team of researchers at his Human Environments Analysis Laboratory (HEAL) are working with Seabrook to better understand factors that draw teenagers to vaping.

They’re using various methods – from youth-focused surveys to leveraging big data – to understand the root causes of teen vaping, and to enable them to strategize appropriate prevention methods.

In 2021, Gilliland, professor in the Departments of Paediatrics and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, oversaw a unique student-led project to capture insights directly from young people. Named Teens Talk Vaping, the group’s mission was to understand why teenagers continue to vape, even when they are cognizant of the health hazards associated with it.

They conducted approximately 1,000 surveys and multiple focus groups with teens aged 13-19. They found most teens were introduced to vaping by their peers, purchasing vapes in stores was easy, and resources to quit, especially those that resonated with their age group, did not exist.

Gilliland and Seabrook are now turning their attention to the geographic distribution of vape stores within communities, examining how these businesses may disproportionately affect certain demographics.

“The hypothesis is that the concentration of vape stores in these specific locations is making the accessibility to vapes easier and influencing the prevalence of vaping among vulnerable populations, such as students and lower-income residents,” said Gilliland.

By understanding the location of vape stores and convenience stores where vapes are sold, the researchers hope to gain deeper insights into their potential influence on community health and socioeconomic disparities.

Playing catch-up

The world has witnessed a swift surge in the use of vaping products since they first hit the market in 2006. From simple devices to intricate, customizable ones, users can now choose between refillable and non-refillable cartridges or pods, a variety of vape liquids called ‘vape juice’ or ‘e-juice,’ as well as devices with adjustable power settings.

“The Canadian market is booming with vape products – everything from innovative new flavours to different forms of nicotine,” said Jibran Khokhar, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Canada Research Chair in Translational Neuropsychopharmacology at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.

“Unlike traditional cigarettes, which burn continuously and contain accelerants to facilitate this, there is no unit measure (such as, cigarettes per day) with e-cigarettes. Instead, a dose of nicotine is available on demand and can be consumed discreetly. ”

Khokhar’s research focuses on understanding the effects of substances like nicotine and cannabis on the brain, especially on the adolescent brain. What is unique about his research is that he simulates the realworld use of substances in his experimental designs with animal models. This involves mimicking not only the methods individuals use to ingest these substances, such as using vapes or edibles, but also factoring in real-world variables such as the strength of the substance consumed and even preferences among different genders.

By closely aligning the experiment conditions with real-world situations, he’s able to draw more accurate conclusions about the effects of substances on the developing brain.

“The hypothesis is that the concentration of vape stores... is making the accessibility to vapes easier and influencing the prevalence of vaping among vulnerable populations, such as students and lower-income residents.”

—Jason Gilliland

In the absence of accurate data related to product trends and consumption patterns, Khokhar visits vape stores to monitor what’s available, observe customer preferences and assess new products on the shelf.

Khokhar and his team even turn to social media platforms and online discussion threads to make sense of the teen vaping subculture.

“The vaping industry is an evolution of ‘big tobacco’ and may be using vaping to create future customers for combustible tobacco,” said Khokhar. “And there are so many players in the market – local to international –we are struggling to even catch up.”

Health Canada recently introduced Vaping Products Reporting Regulations to gather detailed information about the vaping product market, including product types and designs popular with Canadians, especially young people who vape, as well as to report ingredients in vaping substances.

“More data is needed to know whether tobacco control measures are working. And now with the legalization of cannabis, what are the multi-substance use trends among youth?” said Khokhar.

Khokhar’s research has found adolescents respond differently to e-cigarette vapour than adults. Using animal models, he found the adolescent brain finds nicotine vapour more rewarding compared to adult

“The vaping industry is an evolution of ‘big tobacco’ and may be using vaping to create future customers for combustible tobacco... And there are so many players in the market – local to international – we are struggling to even catch up.”

—Jibran Khokhar

brains, even with shorter exposure durations, indicating a greater risk of nicotine addiction.

He has also found that even a single exposure to cannabis vapour can impact the brain, causing brain wave changes like those seen in schizophrenia, especially in regions involved with cognitive function. This is true even in individuals lacking risk factors for the illness, while having risk factors produces further impairments.

The researcher is now investigating the long-term effects of adolescent e-cigarette vapour exposure on behaviours linked to future combustible tobacco consumption and the brain mechanisms that make young people who vape more vulnerable to future smoking or cannabis use.

The worst-case scenario

In 2019, a local case of severe lung injury requiring intensive care was treated at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) in London, Ont.

The patient, a teen who had vaped for a brief period, experienced lung damage akin to what his physicians and researchers called ‘popcorn lung’ – a condition observed in microwave popcorn factory workers exposed to a chemical called diacetyl that inflames and damages the small airways in the lungs. g

Vaping products are booming in Canada. (Eric Albrecht/The Columbus Dispatch)

“We had not seen anything like that before,” said Grace Parraga, PhD, professor of Medical Biophysics and Canada Research Chair in Lung Imaging at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. Parraga, whose research focuses on developing new imaging methods to measure small airway function in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), quickly turned her attention to examining the lungs of vape users. Relying on a specialized MRI method that her team pioneered, research participants inhale a polarized gas that is visible in MRI scans. The team discovered crucial insights into both the destroyed airways and lung alveoli in damaged lung tissue among vape users.

“Unlike young healthy lungs, young vaper lungs reveal widespread airway inflammation, obstruction and alveolar damage,” said Parraga.

“Using an MRI, we could see that the inhaled gas did not fill the lung normally, revealing airways that were choked off and could not ventilate, revealing dark empty lung regions. In young asymptomatic vapers, these abnormalities cannot be detected using chest CT or pulmonary function tests.”

The sensitivity and sophistication of the stateof-the-art lung imaging technology developed at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry also enabled Parraga to see the damage done to the tiny air sacs in the

“Lungs have been designed to endure the extreme physical demands of everyday life. Because of this, symptoms don’t present during day-to-day activities until the damage is quite severe.”

lungs and the fine tissue lining the air sacs – a place where an important exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide happens.

“Lungs have been designed to endure the extreme physical demands of everyday life. Because of this, symptoms don’t present during day-to-day activities until the damage is quite severe,” said Parraga. “The new imaging technology is helping us more deeply understand what’s actually going on.”

The way forward

The first case of lung injury linked to vaping use, identified by Professor Dr. Karen Bosma and her colleagues at LHSC, sounded an alarm about the potential extent of harm vaping can inflict. Now London is quickly becoming the epicenter of vaping research in the country, as a diverse array of experts are banding together across disciplines to elucidate the wide range of health effects of vaping.

For most scientists, it’s not just the worst-case scenario that’s worth studying: They insist that even seemingly minor effects of vaping on the body are a matter of concern.

“There’s an entire generation of vape users arising, and our health-care system isn’t equipped for this.

—Grace Parraga

Image of a human lung damaged by vaping.

There’s not much research on the long-term effects, and we don’t completely understand how vaping and the substances and chemicals it involves impact our health,” said Ruud A. Veldhuizen, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.

Veldhuizen’s Lung Lab focuses on studying pulmonary surfactant – a substance that facilitates the smooth inflation and deflation of the lungs with each breath by reducing surface tension and increasing lung stability.

Now, they are using years of research to comprehend the nature of injuries caused by vape aerosols and develop potential treatments to address or reverse the damage.

“When e-cigarette aerosol is inhaled, it first and most crucially interacts with the pulmonary surfactant in the small airways and alveoli,” Veldhuizen explained. “We wanted to investigate whether the vapour affects its lung function.”

To do this, they placed a surfactant film inside a syringe and used a vaping device to force aerosol into the syringe. This process was repeated 30 times to simulate the inhaling and exhaling activity during a typical vaping session. Their findings indicated the e-liquid alone, even without nicotine

or any other substance, when heated and inhaled as vapour, had noticeable effects on the surfactant.

The team also examined several types of vaping devices, flavours, additives, and nicotine, discovering that some flavours, such as menthol e-liquid, caused more damage to the surfactant.

Veldhuizen emphasized the need for understanding the unique health needs of vape users, especially when the lung gets challenged, such as during air quality advisories, following COVID-19 infection or during exercise.

“When vape users present with any other health issues, it’s important to know what the underlying problems are. Does being a vape user alter the scenario? How should we respond to the health needs of vape users? These are the questions we need to answer,” said Veldhuizen.

Time is short

Meanwhile, as the sun sets on the basketball court, the players plan their next move. Their rules are fluid, as ever-changing as the vaping phenomena the researchers are attempting to grasp.

The clock is ticking, the game is on.

“There’s an entire generation of vape users arising, and our health-care system isn’t equipped for this.

—Ruud A. Veldhuizen

A typical research vaping session.

Amanda looked at the face that stared back at her from the bathroom mirror – chafe marks from the mask, lines around the mouth, sleepless eyes rimmed with black. Who was that person? “I’ve got to get out of here,” thought the 30-year-old family physician, now pulled into the emergency room by the demands of the pandemic, the rising death counts and the shortage of physicians. Beyond the bathroom came the sounds of doctors and nurses yelling, patients calling for help, the beeping, the buzzing, the crying. And piercing through it all, the sound of a monitor emitting that flatline tone that indicated another death. Another reason to give up, quit, hide, or worse. Amanda shoved shaking hands into the pockets of her scrubs, and shouldered the door open, heading back into battle.

By Sharon Oosthoek

FOR MANY CANADIANS, THE PANDEMIC IS OVER – BUT NOT FOR OUR HEALTH-CARE WORKERS. HOW HAVE THEY FARED THROUGH THE PANDEMIC? AND ARE WE DOING ENOUGH TO TAKE CARE OF THOSE WHO TOOK CARE OF US?

CODE BLUE

Photography by Mac Lai

In May 2023, the World Health Organization declared “with great hope” the end of COVID-19 as a public health emergency. Yet physicians, nurses, and other health professionals are still suffering the effects of three years on the frontlines, including drug abuse, suicides, and mental health issues.

And while fictional, the above account captures some of the pressures faced by health-care workers as a result of the pandemic.

Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers have uncovered some alarming details about how widespread the problem is. Dr. Don Richardson’s work highlights the problem. Richardson is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and scientific director of the MacDonald Franklin OSI Research Centre at St. Joseph’s Health Care London.

His 18-month study reveals an alarming mental health crisis among health-care workers during the pandemic: 39 per cent suffered from probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 52 per cent

battled major depressive disorder, while 19 per cent experienced suicidal thoughts, emphasizing the urgent need for support. Additionally, 44 per cent considered leaving their positions due to moral distress, highlighting the profound impact of the pandemic on health-care workers.

“Health-care workers faced excruciating moral dilemmas,” explained Richardson. “On one end, it could involve being directed to reduce patient treatment frequency, while on the other, they had to make heart-wrenching choices, such as allocating respirators or denying dying patients’ loved ones access to their bedside. These decisions also sparked personal fears about falling ill and being in the ICU without the support of their loved ones.”

‘Physicians are people and they get sick, too’ When two prominent Alberta surgeons died by suicide last year, it was a wake-up call that some physicians were in critical condition, but afraid to admit it. g

A health-care worker dons a bouffant cap at Humber River Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on April 29, 2021.

Photo by Cole Burston via Getty Images.

TRUTH ABOUT PHYSICIAN HEALTH

“Physicians are people and they get sick, too,” said Dr. Andrea Lum, vice dean, Clinical Faculty Affairs, at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. “But no physician wants to come in the front doors of their emergency room.”

With that in mind, the School’s much-emulated Peers for Peers program is leading the charge to approach physician mental health in a new way. While organizations such as the Ontario Medical Association offer specific mental health support for physicians, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry provides the only comprehensive peer-based program in the country specifically for clinical faculty.

The Peers for Peers training program is now being used in coastal British Columbia, at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and in Saskatchewan. Plus, health-care authorities from as far away as India have expressed interest.

Peers for Peers – the brainchild of Lum – was inspired by a similar empathetic listening program created for airline pilots. Despite having the same access to employee assistance programs as everyone else at the airline, pilots just weren’t reaching out because they felt only other pilots could understand their stress.

“Pilots are not unlike physicians,” said Dr. Laura Foxcroft, assistant dean of Faculty Well-Being, who was hired in October 2022 to run the program. “They’re highly skilled in looking after people and mostly things go well. But when they don’t, it’s devastating.”

Shifting the culture Launched at the start of the pandemic, Peers for Peers has now trained more than 55 faculty members in the skill of physician peer support, which is rooted in empathetic listening.

Lum and Foxcroft feel Peers for Peers has shifted the culture around physicians seeking help, making it more acceptable to reach out, despite concerns of confidentiality, stigma, and professional identities. While they don’t track numbers, the doctors said in the three years since it has been operating, approximately one-third of clinical faculty have used the program.

“We found eight out of 10 times a physician talked to a peer, that was enough. That gave them the feeling somebody understood the space they were in and it gave them the energy to go on,” said Foxcroft.

In the two out of 10 interactions where peer support wasn’t enough, peer supporters provided resources to “psychologically safe” mental health resources that allowed them to get help.

“We found eight out of 10 times a physician talked to a peer, that was enough. That gave them the feeling somebody understood the space they were in and it gave them the energy to go on.”

—Dr. Laura Foxcroft

What comes next? Peers for Peers is now evolving to include three new training modules that will be ready this fall. The first involves something called ‘Check you, check two,’ whereby physicians are trained to rate their own mental health at the beginning of the day, and if it’s good, check in with two colleagues.

“Most physicians will say, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,’” admitted Foxcroft. “But we find that two or three weeks later, it opens the door to physicians reaching out to their peer supporter to say, ‘I’m actually not OK. I need resources for this, this and this.’”

The other new modules will focus on two important topics: Intimate Partner Violence amongst physicians, and providing trauma-informed care to physicians. These two new modules are being created by Dr. Susan McNair, a faculty member with expertise in this area.

Foxcroft is one of many who know what the current environment feels like: “I am an emergency medicine physician. When I go in for my shift tonight, the waits will be long and the first patient I see is often angry because they have waited so long. Physician well-being is contingent on working in a system that has the resources available in a timely manner to provide the care I was trained to provide.”

In a groundbreaking move, Richardson and Dr. Anthony Nazarov at the MacDonald Franklin OSI Research Centre launched the Public Health Agency of Canada funded Healthcare Worker WellBeing Initiative in June 2022. Their initial goal was to adapt the Road to Mental Readiness program originally designed for the Canadian military, focusing on addressing PTSD and improving mental health literacy.

After extensive feedback from physicians and health-care workers, it became clear that conventional mental health modules, such as yoga and mindfulness, were not what health-care workers needed amidst their already stressful work life. The prevailing message was, ‘We need support in an environment not conducive to mental health right now.’

This feedback prompted Richardson’s team to shift the focus towards a comprehensive framework – the Revel Method. This innovative approach empowers health-care workers through engaging strategies, tackling workplace well-being, burnout, and demoralization, while transforming the work environment for these dedicated professionals.

In the meantime, health-care workers continue to face the demands and experience the impact of a system that doesn’t provide the necessary support they need to thrive. But with programs like Peers for Peers and the Revel Method, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers are paving the way for a better future.

LESSONS FROM THE PANDEMIC

If COVID-19 has taught us anything about the health-care system, it’s that focusing solely on the mental resilience of individual physicians, nurses and others is a mistake.

“It can detract from the underlying problem,” said Dr. Ruth Lanius, professor of Psychiatry and Harris-Woodman Chair in Mind-Body Medicine. “We’re in desperate need of making significant changes to our health-care system.”

Lanius, along with colleagues at McMaster University, developed five recommendations for retaining skilled health-care workers.

“If these important issues are not addressed, we will likely face an ongoing exodus of skilled health-care workers,” she said.

Tips for maintaining healthy health-care workers

1 Support healthcare provider mental health and well-being

2 Use concise and transparent communication when distributing updates or changes to policy

3 Explain the rationale for all decisions and offer opportunity for input

4 Provide organizational support dedicated to fostering strong teams in the workplace

5 Encourage professional autonomy and respect at all levels of the organization

“Health-care workers faced excruciating moral dilemmas... They had to make heartwrenching choices, such as allocating respirators or denying dying patients’ loved ones access to their bedside.”

—Dr. Don Richardson

“Physicians are people and they get sick, too. But no physician wants to come in the front doors of their emergency room.”

—Dr. Andrea Lum

LESS IS MORE

COVID-19 showed us how quickly innovation can happen, when demand for traditional medical supplies and devices outstripped supply. What would happen if we applied that same ingenuity and energy to health-care challenges in remote and resourceconstrained places?

By April Kemick Photography by Mac Lai

As three students gathered in a Robarts Research Institute boardroom this summer to discuss their plans for a low-cost oral camera, the lights suddenly flickered and died.

Only the glow of one laptop remained, illuminating their surprised grins.

Power outages are rare in this state-of-the-art research building, but in remote and resource-constrained places, intermittent electricity is just one of many challenges that can make providing health care difficult.

“Costs, access to trained professionals, infrastructure challenges – they can all prevent people from getting the care they need in remote places,” said Tasnia Nabil, a recent Western graduate with a medical sciences module, offered by Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. “We’re considering all of these factors in our design for a frugal intra-oral camera to improve dental care in rural Kenya.”

Nabil is among the growing cohort of innovators collaborating across disciplines to fuel medical technology advancements that can improve health care in remote parts of the world.

They’re part of Western’s recently established Frugal Biomedical Innovations program, which is housed at Western Engineering, and backed by Western’s medtech incubator BioNext, as well as The Africa Institute.

“In health care, the fanciest gadget is often assumed to be the best thing, and that’s not the same as an efficient and effective solution,” said Margaret Mutumba, PhD, director of the program. “COVID underlined the notion that health care needs innovation and flexibility, especially when facing constraints. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

01 Exploded view of a microscope that identifies malaria.

02 High-performance intra-oral camera.

03 Low-cost design will help improve dental care. 02

“Costs, access to trained professionals, infrastructure challenges – they can all prevent people from getting the care they need in remote places.”

—Tasnia Nabil

Biomedical devices are often donated or developed for resource-challenged areas, with little or no consultation with the communities themselves – so they sit on a shelf. Western’s innovators are taking a different approach: One rooted in a true understanding of the community where the innovation is needed.

“To develop truly sustainable biomedical innovations, we must engage with the stakeholders from concept to commercialization,” Mutumba said.

That’s where Melanie Katsivo, PhD, associate director of The Africa Institute, which is housed at Schulich Medicine, comes in. She helps facilitate reciprocal partnerships between university teams and African collaborators – an “essential” step in developing healthcare solutions that meet African priorities and make sense in each country’s landscape.

“We call them ‘equipment graveyards’ – equipment that’s brought to the continent with good intentions, but wasn’t designed with the end user in mind. We’re trying to change that,” she said.

For Nabil’s team, that means developing their lowcost, high-performance oral camera in close partnership with University of Nairobi faculty, dental trainees and care providers – or, as Nabil called them “the experts on the ground.”

Working together, the global team is using LED lights, 3D-printed technology and a low-cost, opensource electronics platform to develop a $300 camera that can identify issues like plaque, cavities and abscesses. In North America, a typical oral camera costs upwards of $3,000.

“In remote regions, this camera can take detailed imagery of a person’s mouth to be sent to a dentist in a city centre, who can then advise on diagnosis, care and treatment,” Nabil said. g

“In health care, the fanciest gadget is often assumed to be the best thing, and that’s not the same as an efficient and effective solution.”

—Margaret Mutumba, PhD

One of the defining features of the program is its highly interdisciplinary approach, said James Lacefield, PhD, a professor of Medical Biophysics and Director of Western University’s School of Biomedical Engineering, who helped secure strategic University funding for the initiative.

Dozens of faculty and students from across the University are working shoulder-to-shoulder on diverse frugal innovations, which “helps us and our students become more creative problem solvers, and results in better, more sustainable innovations,” said Lacefield.

Justin Yang is a recent BMSc graduate who started in Schulich Medicine’s MD program this fall. As part of team “ParaSight,” he’s working alongside two Western engineering students, including one with an Ivey Business School background, to develop a low-cost microscope that can diagnose malaria cheaper and more efficiently.

While traditional microscopes use a single light source, ParaSight’s model – which stems from a collaboration with Uganda’s Mbarara University of Science & Technology – uses hundreds of LED lights to capture higher-resolution images of blood smears to identify the malaria parasite using low-cost technology.

“Our microscope can be manufactured for around $200, compared to $10,000 or more for a traditional microscope,” said Yang. “At the same time, we’re also improving the microscope’s performance.”

“Our microscope can be manufactured for around $200, compared to $10,000 or more for a traditional microscope. At the same time, we’re also improving the microscope’s performance.”

Yang’s group, under the direction of Ian Cunningham, PhD, a professor of Medical Biophysics, was among 10 Schulich Medicine & Dentistry-affiliated frugal innovation projects that received a boost of up to $30,000 through special grants this summer – from 3D printing hands and legs for people with disabilities to designing a frugal way to measure blood oxygenation to monitor brain injuries in newborns.

While many of the program’s innovators are focused on solutions to improve health care in rural parts of Africa, Mutumba noted the program is designed to support innovations for any remote or resource-constrained part of the world, including Canada.

“Whether we’re innovating to improve health outcomes here or abroad, the same principles apply, and the goal is the same: To contribute to truly sustainable biomedical solutions,” said Mutumba.

01 From left, Raymond Li, third-year Software Engineering, Brandon Pautler, second-year Electrical Engineering, and Justin Yang, first-year Medicine.

02 Microscope design costs about $200.

03 From left, Tasnia Nabil, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Fadi El-Richani, Engineering and Jeffrey Donado Visbal, Engineering.

—Justin Yang

Breaking down barriers on the path to better care

The experiences of two Schulich Medicine & Dentistry alumni have led to the Thakur/Jayaraman Family Bursary in Medicine, and a way to bring students from diverse backgrounds into a career in medicine.

BY CAM BUCHAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHLOË ELLINGSON

was personally transformational – they met, married, started a family and both did their residencies at the School – it also allowed them to meet and learn from a diverse group of classmates.

“Even though our classes got smaller compared to undergrad, our worlds got bigger,” said Jayaraman, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and associate program director of its General Surgery residency program. “There were people from all across Canada – representing different religions, rural areas, economic differences and sexual orientations – I had never interacted with people like this on such a scale.”

Thakur said this unique classroom experience provided important context for future physicians into the nuances of care required in different communities and socioeconomic backgrounds. And the idea was born.

The dream of two alumni is now turning into reality for deserving medical students from different socioeconomic, racial and equity identifying backgrounds.

During their time at Schulich Medicine, Dr. Varsha Thakur, MD’03, and Dr. Shiva Jayaraman, MD’02, experienced first-hand how tuition deregulation in Ontario changed the makeup of their classes. Then later in their careers, they saw the obstacles faced by different racial communities brought on by COVID-19 – distrust, misinformation, discrepancies in health care and more.

Something had to be done.

T heir concern led to the creation of the Thakur/Jayaraman Family Bursary in Medicine, a much-needed financial lifeline for medical students from diverse backgrounds facing the economic,

racial and equity-related challenges of a career in medicine.

Both from south Asian backgrounds and as second-generation Canadians, they knew the challenges facing immigrants in Canada. Thakur’s father first landed in Montreal, but left for Toronto with the rise of the Parti Quebecois in Quebec and its unfriendly immigrant policies. She studied at the University of Toronto before coming to Schulich Medicine. Jayaraman’s family settled in Ottawa where he did his undergrad at the University of Ottawa.

Neither faced overt racism, but “I was very aware that I was very different from other people,” Jayaraman said. “We both saw medicine as a way of applying what we were good at and helping people along the way, too.”

While their time at Schulich Medicine

“The best way to ensure there is a diversity of thought in care providers is to ensure there is a diversity of thought in students coming into the program,” said Thakur, a paediatric and fetal cardiologist at the Hospital for Sick Children and Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. She is also the head of the EDI committee for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Mount Sinai. “This should allow for better patient care and be more reflective of the patients we are taking care of.”

Now they want to ensure this experience is shared with all students through their Family Bursary and hope others will become part of this initiative to ensure broader experiences in the education of future medical students.

The next step in their vision is to provide a full-year’s tuition for a student and see the endowment grow so that one deserving student in every year is having their medical school tuition fully paid.

“That’s the dream,” they echoed.

“The best way to ensure there is a diversity of thought in care providers is to ensure there is a diversity of thought in students coming into the program.”

—Dr. Varsha Thakur

Dr. Shiva Jayaraman, MD’02 and Dr. Varsha Thakur, MD’03.

The AI revolution has arrived – in case you haven’t heard – and its benefits and drawbacks are the subject of speculation, especially in the world of medicine. At Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, many world-leading experts and scientists have been using AI for years. While most of them are optimistic about the role AI will play in revolutionizing health care, their positive outlooks are tempered with concerns.

By Patrick Morley

Illustration by Jessica McGaw

Luke Stark, PhD, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Information & Media Studies (FIMS) at Western, knows AI.

As a New York Times-quoted author and researcher, he’s an expert in the ethical, historical, and social impacts of AI systems and how technologies, such as ChatGPT, will affect society. He’s also doing preliminary work with Schulich Medicine & Dentistry’s curriculum committee to prepare for AI entering the classroom.

“AI in medicine is fascinating and comes with a long history of possibilities,” said Stark. “The question has always been, ‘how will AI work within the three areas of research, patient experience and medical expertise?’”

Stark believes the answers are a moving target because AI’s medical future is still unknown.

“If saving time is a priority for, say, a family doctor, AI will probably create more volume, which means more patients – not more time,” said Stark. “At the end of the day, time saving, and volume increases (attributed to AI) will not equal increased empathy and patient care. It’s not difficult to see where this might lead.”

Down a path to a two-tiered system where the marginalized get off-loaded to an AI chatbot while the privileged maintain access to human doctors?

Maybe, said Stark.

“Automation is often associated with progress, and it often makes promises of creating more time. But time for whom?” warned Stark. “Traditionally, the privileged benefit the most from technology while the working class are the most negatively affected, and health care is no different.”

The big questions

Four Schulich Medicine doctors and researchers are trying to understand how AI fits into their practice, the healthcare system, and the world at large.

Dr. Wael Haddara

A scarecrow or a beacon?

“Developments are so fast paced that the present state of being has been labelled ‘liquid modernity,’” said Haddara. “But while the world has changed, and human beings have struggled, the essence of that struggle remains the same. Technology can either be a scarecrow or a beacon. We can use and implement technology uncritically or we can examine the meaning of our humanity in light of these disruptive and radical technologies.”

Haddara believes the main challenge for the medical profession is to use AI to protect and advance the essence of medicine, which means recognizing the essential dignity of all human beings.

“Medical education must continue to emphasize humanity,” said Haddara. “Failing to recognize this challenge will mean that AI will define humanity rather than the other way around.”

Lorelei Lingard, PhD

An Rx for clear communication?

“Medical education must continue to emphasize humanity. Failing to recognize this challenge will mean that AI will define humanity rather than the other way around.”

—Dr. Wael Haddara

When Haddara, Chair of Critical Care Medicine, is on rounds in the ICU, he has often pondered big questions: Can a robotic physician powered by artificial intelligence offer more knowledge and empathy than actual physicians when responding to patient questions? What happens when AI models default to systemically racist, biased or discriminatory conclusions?

“AI in medicine is fascinating and comes with a long history of possibilities. The question has always been, ‘how will AI work within the three areas of research, patient experience and medical expertise?’”

—Luke Stark, PhD

“Artificial Intelligence holds much promise and also considerable fear and anxiety,” said Haddara. “And while AI presents us with new challenges, I believe this juxtaposition of hope and fear has been an integral feature of the human condition since the advent of modernity several centuries ago.”

Haddara has serious concerns about the pace at which AI is being embraced in medicine.

“Think of generative AI as a counterpoint to the limits of our imaginations. There’s huge potential here for AI to expand the breadth of medical research questions, to disrupt the shape of our assumptions, and to brainstorm.”

—Lorelei Lingard

One of Lingard’s many interests is exploring the socializing power of language where medical learners develop their ability to ‘talk the talk’ of medicine. These days, she is exploring ChatGPT and how it can influence, improve and mediate research writing. As a world leader in health communication, Lingard sees enormous potential in an AI-mediated world.

“For me,” said Lingard, professor in Medicine and senior scientist in the Centre for Education Research & Innovation, “the problem with scientific writing is that it can be boring and full of jargon.”

Will AI alleviate these issues?

“Think of generative AI as a counterpoint to the limits of our imaginations,” said Lingard. “There’s huge potential for AI to expand the breadth of medical research questions, to disrupt the shape of our assumptions and to brainstorm.”

As experts in their fields, doctors and researchers will be able to identify when AI is wrong and when it’s not, said Lingard, pointing out the danger for undergrads who are not experts using AI without confirming the information they are receiving.

“I can easily envision a world where we will teach students incremental ChatGPT prompting techniques.”

Dr. Robert Arntfield EQ or IQ?

Dr. Arntfield uses AI to recognize patterns in lung ultrasound images, mimicking the interpretation of a trained clinician. Through a project called Deep Breathe, Arntfield and his team are creating a data-driven AI ecosystem where portability and computer vision can unlock new possibilities for those treating or suffering from respiratory problems.

“Four or five years ago I began expecting a revolution in AI in medicine,” said the associate professor in Critical

Care Medicine. “With an AI-driven ultrasound, for example, it will be a lot like a stethoscope 3.0.

“We need doctors with front-of-mind knowledge, but the mark of an excellent doctor is not the memorization of knowledge,” says Arntfield. “It’s empathetic knowledge, emotional intelligence that matter most. When encyclopedic knowledge is no longer advantaged because of AI, empathy, and emotional intelligence (EQ) can reign supreme.”

Arntfield is an optimist when it comes to generative AI, but he is aware of the potential dangers, and said a full embrace of AI should come with formal regulations.

“It will take both the optimistic and apocalyptic thinkers to fully understand the implications of AI,” said Arntfield. “Some say we’ve failed to fully predict the dangers of the internet, and that there’s always a price to pay for progress.”

Maitray Patel, MD/PhD candidate An end to critical thinking?

“Where old-school research methods can’t identify complex relationships in a broad-spectrum test. AI is able to pick up non-linear trends and patterns that would normally be very challenging and time-consuming to figure out.”

—Maitray Patel, MD/PhD candidate

Patel has been on the AI bandwagon for more than four years, first studying concussions. These days, machine learning is helping Patel identify key markers in broad-spectrum blood work to help classify long COVID in patients. Without AI, Patel said, researchers would miss patterns and intricacies between molecules.

“Where old-school research methods can’t identify complex relationships in a broad-spectrum test,” said Patel, “AI is able to pick up non-linear trends and patterns that would normally be very challenging and time-consuming to figure out.

At the same time, Patel worries that generative AI will prevent people from critical thinking, allowing false narratives to emerge that could be damaging. However, in the right hands, the sky for AI is the limit.

—Dr. Robert

“ChatGPT can provide a model for my literature review. It can help me with my research question by opening a door to broader ideas I may not have considered,” said Patel. “It’s basically a good sounding board that helps me take a step back and reconsider my original questions.”

“The mark of an excellent doctor is not the memorization of knowledge. It’s empathetic knowledge... When encyclopedic knowledge is no longer advantaged because of AI, empathy... can reign supreme.”

Arntfield

Federal plans to fund more patients mean both opportunity and disruption for Schulich Dentistry. And that’s a good thing, as the School expands its service-learning opportunities.

OPENING WIDER

By Jane Gadd Photography by Mac Lai

With the federal government finalizing its ambitious dental-care plan for uninsured Canadians, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry is anticipating opportunities and potential disruption to its student-delivered dental care clinics.

“Dental schools are major service providers to many of the populations identified as not having reasonable or equitable access to dental care,” said Dr. Carlos Quiñonez, vice dean and director of Schulich Dentistry, who came to the School with a mandate to help students understand their professional responsibilities.

“The federal insurance plan has the potential to be a disruptor of what we do, because if you are a low-income adult or family, and now you have some dental care coverage, the incentive to visit a dental school for low-cost care is lessened.”

As a result of the changing policy picture, but also because Quiñonez strongly believes it’s the right thing to do, the School will be exploring how it can further expand its outreach or servicelearning programs, which places students in community agencies to offer care to people in need.

“The dental school’s mission is to be of service,” said Quiñonez, who has advised governments at all levels on dental care policy issues. “There will be a much stronger emphasis on equitable access to care and the professional responsibility to meet everyone’s needs, not just those who can pay.”

Dr. Abbas Jessani, Schulich Dentistry’s assistant director of curriculum renewal and servicelearning, has grown a small 2020 pilot project into a full and permanent part of the curriculum this year.

Schulich Dentistry clinics have approximately 20,000 patient visits a year in clinics throughout the province. Thanks to Jessani’s program, many of those come from disadvantaged groups, including domestic-violence victims, high-risk youth, 2SLGBTQ+ people, as well as those experiencing homelessness and refugees.

Through the newly launched Community Service Learning program, students visit several community centres in London to screen people needing dental care and refer them to Schulich Dentistry clinics.

“These patients would not normally come to us because of social disparities and unpleasant experiences with the health-care system,” said Jessani, whose clinics and placements range from downtown London to Moose Factory in Northern Ontario and to East Africa in Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya. “These community members have several competing priorities and unfortunately have no means to seek any form of dental care; they have no bus pass, they’re extremely anxious about dentistry and sometimes experience stigma and discrimination when interacting with the health-care system. So, we take our students to them to show that we are here for them, and that we care.”

Dental students need to be trained in traumainformed care and poverty-related issues, he stressed.

Ana Barbakadze and her baby boy Daniel, 15 months, refugees from the eastern European country of Georgia. Photo by Rene Johnston via Getty Images

“Our goal is to not only alleviate financial constraints but also assume the role of primary health-care provider to deliver ‘risk-based dental care’ to these high-in-need individuals.”

Through service-learning, approximately 140 students a year are exposed to patients who lack many opportunities, including the ability to meet basic hygiene, Quiñonez said.

“When you’re sitting beside a homeless person who needs dental care, that’s a very different reality than the populations traditionally treated in private dental offices,” he said. “How do you, as a health-care professional, behave in that context? What do you consider so that you can effectively do the job in front of you, which is to care for someone in need? I want our students not just to think about teeth. I want them to think about human beings.”

Student Kevin Zhou, who started fourth year this month, has appreciated the opportunity to serve newcomer communities due to his own life story. His immigrant family lived in Toronto social housing when he was little, and Zhou suffered a double trauma there when he was just six, losing two front teeth in an accident on the same day as another child in the apartment complex fell from a balcony and died.

These accidents made a deep impression on Zhou. “This serves as a really painful reminder of the social determinants of health,” he said. “As somebody who was a beneficiary of dental services myself, I find it really rewarding to be able to go back now on the other side and provide dental care.”

Accessibility is also top of mind as part of the School’s commitment to serving the needs of the entire community.

In the Paediatric Dental Clinic, doorways are being widened to accommodate wheelchairs and the reception desk is being lowered, thanks to a donation from alumnus Dr. Bryan J. Williams, DDS’74. Similar accessibility renovations were part of the Dentistry Surgical Care Unit (DSCU), making two operatory rooms accessible for people with mobility challenges who use assistive devices.

“This September, persons with disabilities will be better able to access the clinics, and that’s great for students, too,” said Dr. Keven Hockley, associate director of Schulich Dentistry’s clinics.

Children in wheelchairs will be screened in the paediatric clinic and can then receive one-day treatment for all their dental problems in the recently reopened DSCU, which had to stop operations due to the pandemic.

“Now we’ll be able to get these people in, and provide them with the treatment they deserve,” he said.

“I want our students not just to think about teeth. I want them to think about human beings.”

—Dr. Carlos Quiñonez

Dr. Abbas Jessani and students prepare for community visits.

The pandemic laid bare the widening gaps in a health-care system that is battling the dual problems of lack of staffing and burnout. How do family doctors fit into the mix?

By Patrick Morley

The acute crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic is over but as the dust settles, the chronic pressure points in the health-care system have been exposed.

More than two-million Ontarians are without a family doctor, and studies predict the shortage will get worse before it gets better. Older physicians are retiring, and their younger counterparts are taking on fewer patients, determined to create a work-life balance that seemed out of reach for their predecessors.

Family doctors are the backbone of the healthcare system. Studies show that a system with a robust, functioning family medicine system saves massive amounts of health-care dollars. That’s enabled medical schools such as Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry to evolve its admission policies and curricula to admit and inspire a more diverse group of students to explore family medicine in new and exciting ways.

“We’re expanding spots within the School, pushing for a more generalist curriculum to create a broader scope, creating experiential learning in communities to see what that could look like as a career,” said Dr. Scott McKay, Chair of Family Medicine.

The Schulich Medicine & Dentistry Solution McKay believes more medical students will be inspired to enter family medicine, thanks to Schulich Medicine’s new teaching strategies, along with an increase in the number of training spots – the School will add 16 medical education spots this fall. As well, at least 15 new family medicine residency training spots are anticipated over the next several years.

At the heart of these strategies is a more general approach to medical curriculum where “there is strong focus on a broader scope approach to medicine, rather than a very specific sub-specialty of knowledge,” said McKay. “This will allow students to see the potential of a career as a family physician, rather than honing in on one speciality.” g

GOT DOC?

Photography by Chloë Ellingson

As well, experiential learning, where students are exposed early to family medicine, will motivate more students to choose it as a career, said McKay. Ten half-days spread out over the first year of medical training exposes students to family medicine. As well, Discovery Week caps off the first year of studies, where students spend several days in surrounding communities shadowing a family doctor.

“Our emphasis,” said McKay, “is on experience and a learner-focused, forwardthinking curriculum that will prepare our students for the complex needs of diverse and under-served communities. All of these initiatives will inspire more students to choose family medicine.”

The early results of these strategies are working.

At Schulich Medicine, 40 per cent of medical students chose to pursue family medicine compared to 30 per cent across Canada.

“We’re doing great at promoting family medicine as a viable career,” said McKay.

At the same time, a new Practice Ready Assessment Program developed by the provincial government and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario will allow practising international physicians to begin careers in Canada, which should help also relieve some of the shortages.

Thinking beyond grades

Medical students are shifting focus, looking at practising medicine more locally, or in smaller communities they might not have considered in the past, McKay said. Pandemic lockdowns and travel bans forced doctors, both new and old, to look closer at working in their own backyards.

“The pandemic might have forced people to see their own communities in a new light. This may be helping students consider a career in family medicine,” said McKay.

While academic performance is a critical element for entry, the admissions process at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry also takes into account the importance of a broader, more diverse cohort, with a process that opens the door for

under-represented groups, such as students from rural areas or a lower socioeconomic status.

It gives special consideration to applicants from Indigenous communities, the Canadian Armed Forces, and those who have faced barriers on their path to applying to medical school.

Making a connection

Interest in family medicine lags behind some other streams. But those who do choose family medicine do so because they see the tremendous value of helping people in struggling or marginalized communities, of connecting with the people on a personal level and helping to stop health problems from spiralling.

“The family doctor is the vital link in

a whole stream of health-care services in the community,” said McKay. “For vulnerable patients, continuity of care can be a problem. That’s why we focus our training on interdisciplinary, teambased care.”

At the post-graduate level, doctors are more likely to stay where they train, said McKay. This trend, along with more family medicine spots on-boarding in 2024, will lead to the creation of more residency sites in under-served regions. These regions include rural and northern regions, but also cities such as London, where an estimated 100,000 residents are without a family doctor.

In Windsor, for example, there’s been a 35 per cent increase in family physicians since the medical school campus

“The family doctor is the vital link in a whole stream of health-care services in the community. For vulnerable patients, continuity of care can be a problem. That’s why we focus our training on interdisciplinary, teambased care.”

—Dr. Scott McKay

Overleaf and inset: Making an impact at family medicine clinics.

first opened in 2008, and more than 80 per cent of graduates from the family medicine residency program have chosen to stay in Windsor-Essex.

Embracing challenges

Dr. Monty Hackett, MD’23, specializing in family medicine at Queen’s University and serves as president of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, said he and his classmates are eager to help ease the shortage, but they do so aware of the challenges.

“My classmates and I talk all the time about the challenges of family medicine,” said Hackett. “We chat about the burdens placed on us, the aging population. We face nine to 12 hours of paperwork a week. In some cases, especially in rural areas, we can be stretched too thin, working 24-hour shifts.”

So, why would Hackett and his classmates choose family medicine?

“We make significant impacts on our community,” said Hackett. “We have a strong will and desire to help. We have significant needs in Canada, in our northern communities, in rural areas. London, too. There are needs for family medicine everywhere.”

The needs that Hackett points out can be addressed by the type of doctor Schulich Medicine is eager to train.

“I know that the School has worked tirelessly to bring in more diverse students and now we’re seeing the fruits of this shift,” said Hackett, who noted his graduating cohort was incredibly diverse and that the new curriculum, with its emphasis on doing and not simply knowing, is working to inspire more students to explore the privileges of family medicine.

Both McKay and Hackett believe that being a family doctor is one of the most unique professions on the planet.

“You’re there with families as they celebrate a newborn, you’re there through the tragedies, through death,” said McKay. “In a career you serve entire generations of families, it’s a career like no other, with endless variety and the ability to control and grow your interests.”

THE TRENDSETTERS

We asked some of the School’s “trendsetters” to share their favourite book, TV, music, and podcast recommendations. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find your next weekend indulgence here.

By Annamaria Leahey

Melanie Katsivo Associate Director of The Africa Institute

Most recent ‘binge’ watch: Virgin River on Netflix – shot in BC. The fresh, wholesome, and normal way of life as depicted in the series provides relaxation and a good sense of connection with humanity –Africans call this Ubuntu.

Dr. Carlos Quiñonez

Vice Dean and Director of Schulich Dentistry

Favourite book: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, partly because it reminds me of my youth, and partly because I remain fascinated by the nature of belief, discipline and redemption.

Top podcast or music: I’ve been listening to a lot of Michelle Gurevich. I like the simplicity of her music, her irreverent humour, and her understanding of love and commitment.

Dr. Taureef Mohammed PGY5, Geriatric Medicine

Top movie: Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway. It is a movie about an immigrant family. How tragic it is when we fail - or refuseto understand another person!

Kenisha Arora

Third-year Medical Science student

I absolutely love ending my days by tuning in to The Knowledge

Project. This podcast expands your mind in ways you couldn’t have imagined. The guests offer profound insights that challenge conventional thinking and encourage you to question the fundamental aspects of life.

Dr. Noha Gomaa

Assistant Professor of Oral Medicine

Favourite book: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, by Malcolm Gladwell. It takes an interesting perspective on resilience and go-getting, all the while highlighting that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger - my kind of motto.

Top movie: Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse It started off through an Avengers movie marathon with my kids. Now, I am a Marvel fan.

Gelila Alemayheu

Third-year MD student

I’ve been listening to Lana Del Rey. Her music, especially in the summer, feels so peaceful and feels like you’re floating. I especially like the songs, Radio and Love.

By Jennifer O’Brien

Photography by Mac Lai

Nicole Redvers brings an Indigenous perspective to the effects of climate change on our health.

he strawberries were ready in late June. Then, there’d be a break – more time for exploring – before the raspberries, then gooseberries, and finally the cranberries.

As a Deninu Kųę First Nation child growing up in the ’80s in the Northwest Territories, Nicole Redvers may not have realized that the land was her teacher.

But she knew hunting, trapping and harvesting medicines were part of life. And she knew summers were for picking berries with her kokum.

“It was one of my favourite things to do. I’d be out there in the bush with my grandma, probably eating more than picking,” said Redvers, associate professor and Western Research Chair and director in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and director of Indigenous Planetary Health.

“She would be leaned over for hours. My dad always worried a bear would come around and she wouldn’t even notice, but my grandma couldn’t care less. I always loved being out on the land with her.”

Back then, harvesting seasons were predictable around the remote communities of Deninu Kųę (“Deneh-nookweh) and nearby Kátł’odeeche (KatLow-Dee-Chee) First Nations.

It’s different now.

Recent reports show Northern Canada warming at four times the global rate. But that’s not news to Indigenous Elders who’ve long been talking about signs of the climate crisis and how it is affecting the health of the planet and all living things.

“The ground is dry. The vegetation is changing and there are fewer animals. We’ve had drops in caribou… from climate change and from industry,” Redvers said. “Elders have been talking about these things for decades. That’s what started me on this track.”

Redvers’ role at Schulich Medicine is part of a global move by medical schools to include climate change in health education. The goal is to get graduates addressing the causes of health problems, rather than just learning to treat them.

“Medical and health students should be thinking about planetary health because everything is interconnected,” said Redvers, who is co-founder and past board chair of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation in Yellowknife and worked as a naturopathic doctor and global medical volunteer for more than a decade before turning to academia.

“We can treat something like asthma until the cows come home, but if we aren’t addressing the origins, for example, air pollution, it will continue putting a heavier burden on the health system.”

While Canada’s medical schools have agreed to add climate change to their curriculum, only Schulich Medicine & Dentistry includes a position focused on Indigenous worldviews in planetary health. It also has one of the few Master of Public Health programs (MPH) in Canada that requires an Indigenous Health course – all with Redvers at the helm.

“Her course is a big reason I went to Schulich Medicine & Dentistry for my

Master’s,” said Gurleen Braich, a student in the MPH program. “I knew Indigenous communities face so many barriers to health care, but it was something I never learned about during my undergraduate journey. I was very happy, we’d be learning from an Indigenous scholar who came from an Indigenous community.” Redvers partners with Elders or Indigenous communities for all research, and often cites their work in class. Focusing on strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing passed down by Elders, course topics include food systems, traditional plants as medicine and sustainable practices Indigenous communities have used to protect the environment.

Students study the strengths of Indigenous knowledge systems and ways of being that are healthy for the Earth and humans. They also explore government policies that create health disparities for Indigenous communities.

“I don’t think anyone who took that course would forget what they learned. The lessons in Indigenous Health were transferrable to everything.”

—Jennifer Jones

“Indigenous Health is inherently linked to planetary health because an Indigenous worldview puts the health of Mother Earth first,” Redvers said. “If the planet is healthy, humans can be healthy.”

Her teaching is based on a “Two-Eyed Seeing Approach,” coined by Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall, which looks at issues through both Indigenous- and Western-based perspectives. She asks students to reflect on where their knowledge comes from and consider ways people with other worldviews might see the same thing they are looking at.

“For every topic, she would emphasize there are two ways of seeing this,” said Jennifer Jones, a former student in Redvers’ class. “Every section of the course added layers to Western knowledge by bridging it with Indigenous knowledge and worldviews – like con-

“The ground is dry. The vegetation is changing and there are fewer animals. We’ve had drops in caribou… from climate change and from industry. Elders have been talking about these things for decades. That’s what started me on this track.”

“We learned it’s okay to ask what specifically works for a specific community,” said Braich. “I think all doctors, nurses and other health professionals need this course to make sure they do no more harm.”

Before joining Schulich Medicine, Redvers helped develop a PhD program in Indigenous Health for the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. There, most of her students were Indigenous, so she didn’t need to spend much time on colonization, or punishing government policies that have led to all sorts of health disparities. They knew.

But at Schulich Medicine, where most students are non-Indigenous and many are international, Redvers brought a more “global perspective” on the health issues and perspectives from Indigenous Peoples around the world.

“While there are diverse cultural differences in our societies, the marginalization and the experiences of colonialism are often very similar. The barriers are there. I’m trying to make those connections more apparent for students,” said Redvers.

“I don’t think anyone who took that course would forget what they learned,” said Jones. “The lessons in Indigenous Health were transferrable to everything.”

Throughout her life, Redvers has seen how modern structures and policies hurt Indigenous Peoples in ways that can’t be fixed in a hospital. It’s what drove her from the clinic and eventually to Schulich Medicine, with the goal of tackling the structural issues themselves.

sidering how actions will affect people seven generations into the future. In my opinion, if we had taken that approach 40 years ago, the world would be different now.”

With so much evidence proving standardized health systems don’t work for all, Redvers teaches her students to add context into every component of public health.

“The stark marginalization and racism and inequities in our communities are obvious to those who provide services and support, but sometimes the broader society is blind to those issues,” she said. “Having Indigenous Health programs will create more folks out there who are able to deal with the structural issues from both a research and practice standpoint.”

There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about my home,” Redvers said. At the time of the interview, she was planning to take her daughters on holiday there to the Northwest Territories.

“Fingers crossed; we’ll see some raspberries.”

—Nicole Redvers

Nicole Redvers in the classroom.

Alumni share memories of their time at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.

“In the fall of my second year in medical school, I invited one of my favourite professors, Dr. Allan C. Burton, professor of Biophysics, to attend my presentation on aerospace medicine. While most thought my presentation was more speculative than scientific, Burton – a pioneer in aviation medicine – disagreed. A few days later, Sputnik opened the door to space travel. And a year later I was working with NASA researching the hazards of space travel.”

Dr. Douglas E. Busby, MD’60, MSc’64

Without question, my favourite memory was teaching Rick Mercer, television personality and comedian, how to be a dentist! Mercer and his crew came to Western to shoot a segment for the CBC TV show The Rick Mercer Report. As University of Western Ontario Dental Student Society (UWODSS) president, it was my task to teach him how to use the drills on our mannequins.

We spent about an hour learning how to use the drills on the plastic teeth in the mannequins – just like a first-year dental student. At one point, Mercer drilled the teeth with no water and the teeth gave off a burning plastic smell. It was hilarious. I exclaimed that the mannequin will now need a root canal – he was stoned-faced as he stared at me, then he smiled as he did on his show. Of course, Rick was playing around with the water source, moving the mannequin’s head around, and genuinely laughing at his experience. He fit right in as a dental student.”

“I served 20-plus years as a Combat Arms Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces before beginning my second career in dentistry in 2004. I very much enjoyed the time with my inevitably younger classmates, and many bonds of friendship developed that have lasted over the years. Schulich Dentistry opened the doors to a fulfilling and wonderful second career – providing care for the sons and daughters of our nation, our soldiers, sailors and aviators in our armed forces, and also serving as a postgraduate program director and professor, teaching and mentoring young clinicians. It has been a fantastic journey. Thanks, Schulich Dentistry!”

“One of my most favourite (and impactful) professors was Dr. Misha Eliasziw. Lectures and labs on introductory statistics involved repeated sampling of coloured M&Ms. These lessons formed the early backbone of my statistics training. And we could eat the study materials when we were finished!”

Dr. Andrew House, HBSc’88, MSc’02, MD, Professor of Medicine and William F. Clark Chair in Nephrology

“The friendships established through four years of shared experiences with 76 others in MD’72 stand out for me. My husband, Dr. Robert Brock, MD’71, and I have loved going back for Homecomings. We love catching up with classmates and love walking the campus, reminiscing, and seeing the changes. For one, my son and I were on the synchro and swim teams respectively in the old Thames pool.”

Dr. David G. MacPherson, CD, MSc, DDS’08, FAGD, ACD, ABGD, Canadian Armed Forces Veteran 1981 - 2018

Dr. Carol Brock, BA’71, MD’72

Dr. Ramez Salti, HBSc, MBA, DDS’07

A big idea for small mouths

Combining creativity and dental science, Dr. Sarah Shell has embarked on an altogether new career – one that has a very personal connection to her family.

Shell, DDS’16, had already launched a successful venture designing handbags worn by the likes of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. She also went to fashion school, studied science at McGill University and qualified for both medical school and dental school while sidelining as an extra in television.

At last, she came to Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry – where she studied something that would shape her current business enterprise.

“I never wanted my own business again. It’s so all-encompassing,” said Shell, who remains a licensed dentist in

the U.S. and lives with her husband Dr. Eric Cohen, son Geddy, five, and daughter Masha, one year. But, her latest initiative – a child-resistant plastic enclosure that snaps around the end of a USB charger to protect curious kids from electrical injury – was a perfect fit for her creative skills and training as a dentist.

It was also very personal.

When Geddy was 10 months old, he put a USB charger that was plugged into an electrical socket in his mouth. Shell took the cord away from him. No damage done.

However, during her time at Schulich Dentistry, Shell had studied a case of a child with a severe facial scar caused by an electrical injury, and it wouldn’t leave her mind. The thought of these ubiquitous chargers that “you just as-

sume are safe” sparked an idea. After researching products, connecting with experts and learning about the devastating trauma that can result from children putting chargers in their mouths, Shell knew she had to act.

She worked closely with doctors, designers and engineers and Geddy’s Mom LP and its simple enclosure, called Watch Your Mouth, were born. The device – which is now sold online through Amazon and at Walmart – is considered a new standard in child safety and is a popular addition to baby registries.

“I left the fashion industry because I didn’t feel I was true to myself,” said Shell, who has received multiple awards for her innovation.

“I entered dentistry because I wanted to make a difference. Who would have thought a case study would go on to shape how I applied what I learned at Schulich Dentistry? That was the spark, and now I’m educating parents on the dangers of USB chargers around little ones, while providing a device that mitigates this danger.

“Though not a traditional application of dentistry, what I learned at Schulich Dentistry is going on to make a real difference.”

BY CAM BUCHAN

“Though not a traditional application of dentistry, what I learned at Schulich Dentistry is going on to make a real difference.”

—Dr. Sarah Shell, DDS’16

EYES ON THE SKIES

SKIES

By Cam Buchan

Welcome to the Wild West.

“It’s hard to think of another time in space exploration that was more exciting than this,” said Dr. Kris Lehnhardt, MD’03, and the top doc in the NASA Human Research Program.

“The amount of investment in space ventures, the amount of interest in human spaceflight projects is unparalleled,” said Lehnhardt, Element Scientist for Exploration Medical Capability at the NASA Johnson Space Center. “The number of vehicles that are designed to take people into space is more than has ever existed in our history.”

The investment in space travel is astronomical: More than US$270 billion over the last decade. Space is also calling to billionaires, startups and visionaries, among them Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon entry called Blue Origin. And just this year, Western University students created a mini satellite, slightly bigger than a Rubik’s Cube, recently launched from the International Space Station (ISS).

“It has been called the Wild West because there’s so much going on, it’s hard to keep track of everything,” said Lehnhardt, whose NASA group has partnered with dozens of companies to work on the medical side of human spaceflight at NASA.

But there are dangers out there that test our ability to leave this planet. Exploring the medical solutions to these challenges is a journey Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry has been on for more than 60 years.

A journey that is really just beginning.

A new dimension in space diagnosis COVID-19 ushered in technologies like Zoom and Microsoft Teams that allowed physicians to treat patients over the phone or on two-dimensional screens.

Dr. Adam Sirek, a faculty member at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, and Western Space, and a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut candidate, added another dimension to this capability last summer. Sirek and a group of Western students, including medical student Adam Levschuk, demonstrated that holograms of a person could be virtually transmitted or holoported to another location, enabling them to interact with viewers there in 3D. Believed to be the first-of-its-kind, the technology would enable physicians to have an interpersonal conversation with a patient in another location.

Now Sirek and students are trying to take this technology to the next level.

“Our goal is to extend it to the next phase of a clinical encounter and be able to touch a hologram of a patient and literally do a physical exam remotely,” said Sirek. “We’re working with Western Engineering Professor Ana Louisa Trejos and her amazing group of engineers to look at how to integrate actual physical feedback into a hologram.”

Here’s how their idea works: A physician on Earth could wear a virtual reality headset and a pair of gloves that can receive sensory feedback. In Space, an astronaut requiring medical care would wear a special suit or blanket that can transmit feedback to the physician’s gloves. g

The boom in Space travel poses massive challenges in keeping astronauts healthy in Space. Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers, faculty and alumni are already out there, carving out a leadership role for the School – a journey that has benefits for health care on planet Earth.

Photography by Mac Lai

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“The force I apply with my fingertips would be translated to your body virtually,” said Sirek. “I can do a physical exam remotely in order to diagnose a problem. This has huge implications for Space because it’s hard to fly a doctor up to Space to examine you at $80 million a rocket.”

Holoportation has already been successfully tested on the International Space Station as part of the Ax-1 mission by Canadian Mark Pathy.

But what does medical care look like beyond the space station? How do we care for patients on a journey to the Moon? Or Mars?

Solving the challenges remotely

If we could solve one key medical problem that would enable better care for astronauts going into space, what would it be?

Lehnhardt has one answer: “Help astronauts make good medical decisions, when those decisions are time-sensitive or emergent, or when they cannot talk to Earth or seek consultation from the space medicine experts on Earth.”

One solution comes in the form of a “clinical decision support system” that

“Our goal is to... be able to touch a hologram of a patient and literally do a physical exam remotely... This has huge implications for Space because it’s hard to fly a doctor up to Space to examine you at $80 million a rocket.”—Dr.

has the necessary capabilities – likely in an AI format that draws information from personal and ship-wide sensors –to walk astronauts through a diagnosis, determine the correct treatment and assist in that treatment. One component of this future system is called Autonomous Medical Officer Support (AMOS), which is an early module for kidney and bladder ultrasounds that was recently tested on the International Space Station (ISS).

“We asked non-ultrasound-trained astronauts to upload the software and get us medical diagnostic quality images from space. We told them, ‘Here are the tools, you figure it out.’ Then we turned off the radios.” Lehnhardt said the first few images weren’t great. “But within the hour, we were getting images physicians could use to look for things like

kidney stones, which is a condition that we’re worried about in spaceflight.”

Along with better resource use, like creating IV fluids onboard, NASA sees autonomy as a critical element in the transition to more Earth-independent medical operations during a deep space mission.

The future is nearly here

When Lehnhardt made his way through the medical world, armed with a passion for both space travel and medicine, he was boldly going where few Canadian medical students had gone before. He found a home at Schulich Medicine, and advises students considering space medicine as a career direction: “If you know the area you are interested in, and it doesn’t exist, then carve your own path.”

Adam Sirek

5 DANGERS OF LONG-DISTANCE SPACE TRAVEL

u Radiation exposure can increase cancer risk and damage the central nervous system

u Isolation and confinement result in sleep loss and work overload

u Distance from Earth and the length of the journey mean there’s no turning back

u

Lack of gravity affects bones, muscles, and the cardiovascular system

u

A closed environment can be an inhospitable home for astronauts

WE’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE

Dr. Doug Busby, UWO MD’60, MSc’64, travelled his own path into Space medicine nearly 60 years ago.

In 1964, Busby left the surgery residency program at Western to join a small group of physicians who were conducting information analyses for NASA at the Lovelace Foundation in Albuquerque, New Mexico – an institution featured in the movie: The Right Stuff

Is there a path for medical students interested in Space?

“Yes… and no,” said Sirek, who authored a paper on the opportunities and pathways in Canada. Right now, the training path in Canada leads through the military, or overseas through the European Space Agency or in the U.S. at NASA.

“We’re going to see a huge increase in the amount of health-care research done in Space and supported by nontraditional entities, not just at NASA or the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It’s going to be SpaceX or Axiom Space that are going to be doing this, so if you want a job at SpaceX or Axiom, you’ll have to pack up and pursue your training in the U.S.”

Meanwhile, Canada is investing heavily in our participation in Space through such initiatives as Health Beyond, leveraging our experience in providing care across long distances and our capabilities in robotics and astronaut development.

“We are thought of very well in Space circles and it’s now up to our generation and the generations following to step up and do more,” said Sirek.

“My first task was to identify possible medical problems from hazards of Space operations, specifically beyond Apollo and of long duration and great distance from Earth,” Busby wrote in his book, My Experiences in Medicine, Theology, and Along the Way

During this time, Busby spent time with test pilot Chuck Yeager, consulted many scientists already working in aerospace medicine, and sat in the training capsules for Space missions from Mercury through to Apollo, and consulted on pilot safety during long-distance bomber missions. His detailed report – called Clinical Space Medicine – A Prospective Look At Medical Problems From Hazards Of Space Operations – became an important resource for the medical support of Space travel.

What was it like to work in this new environment? “For me, my work every day was excitingly creative,” said Busby, who is optimistic that, with all of the progress made in Space medicine today, we have the ability to go on extended Space missions to places like Mars.

“I am hopeful that the velocity of future spacecraft will reduce travel times, and consequently minimize the potential for adverse effects of weightlessness and radiation on Space travellers.”

01 Dr. Kris Lehnhardt stationed as NASA medical officer at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

Photo courtesy: Dr. Kris Lehnhardt.

02 Dr. Adam Sirek demonstrates holoportation technology.

New leader. Fresh perspective.

As the School’s new Chief Administrative Officer, Rachel Halaney guides operations and strategy to ensure the School delivers on its health education and research goals. With 10-plus years in postsecondary leadership, she’s expertly fashioning the right mix of people, resources, policies and plans to widen the School’s impact on a national and global stage.

What is something you’re good at that would surprise other people?

I’m an avid seamstress and quilter. I’ve been involved in these crafts since I was a child, completing my first embroidery project at age four and my first quilt at age eight. Some of my earliest memories involve rummaging through my mother’s fabric scraps to find the perfect piece for sewing doll clothing. It’s a creative outlet that brings me joy and allows me to express my artistic side.

What is your most marked characteristic?

Authenticity. I strive to be absolutely true to myself and to engage others with honesty and openness. I believe genuine connections are built when people feel they can be their most authentic self.

Any items on your bucket list you want to share?

I’ve always dreamed of seeing the Egyptian pyramids. The history and grandeur of these ancient structures fascinate me, and I hope to have

the opportunity to experience them firsthand. I had childhood ambitions to be a paleontologist and hope to excavate a real fossil someday.

What do you hope to accomplish in your role as CAO at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry?

Our exceptional faculty, staff, and learners provide health care for millions, drive discoveries into action, and amplify research through global partnerships. As CAO, my aim is to fortify our potential, enabling impactful contributions from all members of our community by strengthening local and international engagement, and empowering positive change led by strong, interdisciplinary teams.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Growing up in the Southern United States, my idea of perfect happiness is spending a summer night with good friends under the stars in Texas’ Big Bend National Park. The vastness of the night sky and the tranquility of the desert create a sense of contentment and peace that are hard to surpass.

Can you share with us your greatest fear? Being unable to help a family member or friend who is in need.

If you were to die, who or what would you come back as, and why?

I would want to come back as a Giant Sequoia tree – seeing the passing of thousands of years would be fascinating.

What do you value most in your friends? Staying power – life has many seasons and very few people walk with you throughout your entire journey through it.

Apart from its people, what is Schulich Medicine & Dentistry’s superpower? Our potential for meaningful impact – individually and collectively. I was attracted to the School in 2018 to contribute to educating the next generation of health-care leaders while supporting the local health-care needs of Southwestern Ontario. We have a unique opportunity to impact the lives of more than two-million Ontarians in our region by providing the best health care and research, and training the next generation of health-care providers.