President’s message

Greetings colleagues,

As we approach a winter with the COVID-19 pandemic foremost in our minds, this issue of the Digest magazine couldn’t come at a better time. It gives us a chance to stop for a second, take a breath, and read about colleagues who inspire and amaze us.

The theme of this issue is: “One career, many paths” – in other words physicians don’t fit into a cookiecutter mould. We all go to medical school, but from there the similarities begin to blur.

In this issue you can read about our Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, who was initially trained in internal medicine, but after witnessing poor health conditions in his home country decided he could make a difference in the field of public health. After moving to Saskatchewan, he rose through the ranks to his current position, where he has become the face of medicine in Saskatchewan during the pandemic.

You can also read about the experiences of three physicians who took on new duties during the pandemic. Dr. John Gjevre returned to intensive care; Dr. Eben Strydom, a GP anesthetist from Melfort, assisted colleagues in Prince Albert, and Dr. Myles Deutscher volunteered to work at a Saskatoon COVID assessment centre. With the pandemic closing their medical school, University of Saskatchewan students wasted no time in helping to support the health-care system. Read about their highly successful GoFundMe fundraiser that brought supplies to La Loche when that community experienced an outbreak of coronavirus.

Medicine has taken physicians from our sports fields to our hospices – as I said, “One career, many paths.” In this Digest we learn about Dr. Vivian Walker, medical director of Saskatoon’s palliative care program. “People ask, ‘How can you do that work? Isn’t it depressing?’ It is a privilege to be alongside people as health changes and to help make life still rich and fun and storied as best we can.” We also read Dr. Lilian Thorpe’s first person account as a MAID assessor and her views on the challenges that lie ahead for physicians as the eligibility criteria is broadened. Two physicians – Drs. Mike Nicholls and Cole Beavis – also share their thoughts on sports medicine, their beginnings in a field they didn’t know existed when they were in medical school to their experiences travelling the globe with Canadian sports teams.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Digest – that it gives you a welcome reprieve during the pandemic. I hope you learn from inspiring colleagues such as oncologist Dr. Nelson Leong, who writes about the intrinsic rewards working in cancer care, and Dr. Veronica McKinney, who is working toward better health care for Indigenous communities as director of Northern Medical Services. All of the physicians in this magazine started on the same path. Our unique and varied interests took us in different directions, but our goal is the same – to provide the best possible care for our patients, now during the pandemic and always.

Have a safe fall and winter, and best wishes.

DR. BARB KONSTANTYNOWICZ SMA President president@sma.sk.ca