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tions through his work and research. His colleagues have had a mentor and a reliable practice partner, and the hospital has had a visionary leader.”
We recently spoke to Dr. Smith about his life and work:
How did you end up practising medicine and pediatrics in particular? I always liked the sciences. One summer, I worked for a local pharmacist in Orillia and after that I went to the University of Toronto to study pharmacy. But by the time I finished my first year, I knew pharmacy wasn’ t for me – I wanted to write the prescriptions, not just fill them. And I wanted to take care of people. My medical training included several rotating internships in different specialities as well as electives at the Hospital for Sick Children. In the end, I found pediatrics to be the most fulfilling. Adult medicine tends to be all about disease. But with kids, the care is mostly about wellness. Yes, children get sick, but for the most part they get better.
What was your vision? I really believed that patients in the region needed and deserved the same standard of care available at any tertiary level centre in other parts of the province. That meant having multi-discipline teams for a variety of health conditions. Thirty years ago, medicine in Orillia was very much steeped in the idea of physicians managing all aspects of care through their office. Kids with chronic illnesses were often sent to Toronto for treatment as we didn’ t have the resources to properly manage severe incidents. I knew there was a better way to do this, that we needed a model that brought all allied health-care workers together so that, for example, when a kid with diabetes walked through the door, he or she could see not only a pediatrician, but also all the other professionals, such as dieticians, social workers and education specialists, necessary to meet the child’ s needs.
You have expertise in a variety of sub-specialities, why did you choose to so broadly expand your knowledge? I didn’ t exactly choose them! They’ ve usually come to me because of a problem or issue I had to deal with in the community or at work. It’ s just the way my mind works: when I see a problem and that problem doesn’ t sit right with me, I have to do something about it. The sports medicine grew out of my kids’ involvement in figure skating. At skating events, other parents would often ask me about their children’ s sport-related injuries. I didn’ t know enough to give proper advice so I decided to take additional training in pediatric sports medicine. Over time, pediatric sports medicine grew to become a regular part of my practice. It was the same with other areas – kids with asthma, diabetes or developmental disabilities were presenting in my clinic or at the hospital and we needed to find better ways to help them.
Was it difficult to rally your colleagues and the community around the new idea of multi-discipline teams? Not at all. It was an easy sell. People’ s only concern was where to find the money to fund it – that’ s a problem that continues in health care today. But there’ s no doubt that it was a move away from the idea of the physician knowing and doing everything. Now we have multi-discipline clinics in so many areas – it’ s the standard that is whole-heartedly accepted.
You recently accepted a part-time position as Chief of Neonatal and Pediatric Medicine at the Timmins and District Hospital. What compels you to keep contributing? I like finding solutions to system problems. I did a master’ s in health administration a few years back, which gave me insight into how hospitals and health systems work. Over the years, I did locums in Timmins – unfortunately they have limited health resources. Right now there is only one acute care pediatrician in Timmins with locums providing additional coverage. I have a bit of a fix it role at Timmins to help reshape their pediatric program. We are actively hiring more pediatricians and working on a plan to move them forward into a more modern health-care delivery model. They have huge potential and the work is a new challenge I enjoy. MD
About the Council Award The College is now accepting nominations for the 2018 Council Award. Further details can be found on page 18 and on the College’ s website www. cpso. on. ca.
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Dialogue Issue 2, 2017