This past weekend, my wife and I made our way to Winnipeg, a sleepy town nestled in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The occasion? A family celebration. My niece and her husband had just welcomed a beautiful baby girl, and they insisted, almost reverently, that my wife become the godmother. It was a request we could not, and frankly, did not want to, refuse.
Winnipeg, or “Winterpeg” as some Canadians jokingly …
I’ve practiced outpatient internal medicine for over a decade, joining my current group straight out of residency. Since then, I’ve watched the landscape shift—corporate takeovers, tightening regulations, staffing shortages, and endless debates over salary, documentation, and work-life balance.
And yet—I still believe in this work.
Reimbursements have been cut. Morale has taken hits. But that’s not just an internal medicine problem—it’s a health care problem. Across every specialty, we’re navigating a system …
The slow beeping of the monitor comes to a halt and someone eventually shuts it off.
Click clack.
The machines are quiet now. I take one more look at the innocent, boyish young face and wonder what kind of life he had led. I leave the room, along with the rest of the team. A hand draws the curtain closed.
Death.
Quite literally, the most final force on Earth. The permanent, irreversible cessation of …
In the current era of rapid health care changes, a very effective tool for workforce development is research mentorship based on evidence-based principles. As the health care industry faces a worsening shortage of professionals, the need to cultivate talent, empower early-career clinicians, and guide them through structured research and professional development is becoming more urgent. Research mentorship offers a replicable and transformative framework for addressing the health workforce crisis.
Research mentorship …
As we move through life, questions of identity echo through our minds—bouncing like a pinball, scattered and relentless.
Am I a doctor? A friend? A colleague? A leader? A husband? A parent? A son? These questions don’t just arise—they linger. Because every day, we’re asked to balance who we truly are with who we’re expected to be. We carry the weight of responsibility, chasing clarity, meaning, and success. We show up …
In the high-stakes, knowledge-driven world of medicine, we’re taught from day one to project an aura of certainty. From the anatomy lab to the hospital wards, the message is clear: know the answers, lead with confidence, and never let them see you sweat. But what if that fixation on “knowing” is holding us back? What if the very traits we’ve been trained to cultivate—the resolute certainty, the surgical precision, the …
An excerpt from The Doctor is Out—Justice vs Injustice in America.
In the hug of a crisp autumn morning, with the world adorned in the warm hues of changing leaves, the seed of an idea took root within me—an idea born from the necessity of expanding my medical practice to accommodate the growing needs of my patients.
Crossing the convoluted corridors of administrative tasks and logistical considerations, I found myself confronted …
Take a moment—not just to see where you are, but to remember how far you’ve come.
Through obstacles that once felt impossible.
Through stress that nearly broke you.
Through moments when the weight of it all made you question everything.
But still—you kept going.
Because medicine isn’t just a job. It’s a calling.
And here, decisions aren’t just professional—they’re life and death.
You meet people at their most vulnerable, in their most intimate realities.
There’s no room for …
When the full-scale war broke out in Ukraine, the country’s health care system was suddenly thrown into chaos. Hospitals were destroyed or severely damaged by missile attacks. Medical professionals were forced to flee, relocating to relatively safer areas in the western regions of the country. Millions of civilians became internally displaced. Amid this disruption, doctors in western Ukraine found themselves facing unprecedented challenges, trying to reorganize services and adapt rapidly …
I’ve been working with women physicians intensively now for six years, and I’ve noticed a few things.
The women I work with are amazing. They are altruistic and caring. They are resilient, independent, and able to put others’ needs before their own. They are smart, detail-oriented, and care about getting things right.
If you’re a patient (and we all are at some point), this is exactly what you want in your doctor. …
Let’s start with a simple truth: Medicine is hard.
It’s hard for doctors, and it’s hard for patients. The headaches of today’s health care ecosystem—endless paperwork, shrinking appointment times, and the ever-present shadow of insurance approvals—can make it feel like the heart of medicine is slipping away.
Lost in the system
For years, I practiced in the traditional insurance-based model. I loved being a doctor, but I found myself spending more time on …
An excerpt from Medicine is a Practice: The Rules for Healthcare Marketing.
“I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date!”
— The White Rabbit, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll wrote about the tardiness of the White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865. The problem of tardiness is older than the White Rabbit, and lack of punctuality plagues every profession and human interaction. Unfortunately, in the medical …
Medicine has long valorized the early riser – the physician who arrives before sunrise, who joins 7:30 a.m. meetings and stays for evening journal clubs, case conferences, and post-dinner networking events. These scheduling patterns have come to symbolize dedication, productivity, and professionalism. However, for many physicians, particularly those with caregiving responsibilities, these norms reflect more than tradition; they represent structural exclusion.
The architecture of medical professionalism was built on an outdated …
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Physicians are human. Medicine is a career—not a lifelong vow of self-sacrifice.
Yes, for some, it may feel like a calling. But let’s be clear: Choosing medicine doesn’t mean surrendering your identity forever. Times have changed. Our mindset must, too.
Working part-time, seeking balance, or transitioning into leadership, education, or non-clinical roles is not a betrayal of the profession. It’s growth. Yet these choices are too often dismissed as abandonment.
We must let …
“The value of intuition in clinical practice” prompted me to reflect on one of the deeper regrets I carry from my clinical practice—those moments when I didn’t fully acknowledge or act upon a parent’s intuition, often a mother’s, that something was wrong with their child.
As clinicians, we are trained to listen for clinical “buzz words”—specific complaints or symptom patterns that guide our diagnostic reasoning. These cues form the backbone …
The modern medical profession presents practitioners with an abundance of opportunities that extend far beyond traditional patient care. Today’s physicians navigate complex roles as clinicians, researchers, educators, administrators, and community leaders while maintaining personal relationships and spiritual well-being. Rather than viewing these diverse responsibilities as competing demands, successful physicians learn to integrate them into a balanced approach that prioritizes meaningful contribution over external recognition.
The myth of perfect balance
The concept of …
Health care regulatory bodies have embraced a dangerous “accuse first, prove later” strategy that is eroding the foundation of our health care system. Physicians, the bedrock of patient care, are being subjected to accusations based on flimsy, illegitimate reports or random audits. Rather than building cases on substantial initial evidence, these authorities thrive on retrospective scrutiny—analyzing old notes, reframing past actions, and bending interpretations of guidelines to validate their accusations. …
That was one of my uneventful night duties—until early morning. As usual, I had a hectic on-call day, where I barely got half an hour for dinner—which we consider routine. Around 3 a.m., I received a request for an abdominal CT scan for a middle-aged male patient with abdominal pain. The surgeons were suspecting mesenteric ischemia—blockage in abdominal vessels, which can be life-threatening.
I glanced through the scan, trying to open …
When I began the journey to becoming a doctor, I believed success was a destination—a finish line I’d reach if I just worked hard enough, studied long enough, and sacrificed deeply enough.
And I did all those things.
I pushed through sleepless nights in college. Carried the weight of relentless pressure in medical school. Survived the grind of residency, where time lost all meaning. I lived with my eyes fixed on the …
In the face of worsening health workforce shortages, Canada must shift from a culture of personal likability to a system of objective qualifications or merits in recruiting and retaining physicians. While team cohesion and interpersonal compatibility are essential, an overemphasis on “fit” or likability excludes talented physicians, particularly immigrants and racialized minorities, who may not share the cultural background, communication style, or social behaviors preferred by decision-makers. This practice undermines …
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