Meet the winners of the 2023 Medical Post awards!

“So are you more optimistic or more pessimistic about the healthcare system?” Dr. Alika Lafontaine asked me as I was part way through visiting and interviewing the 2023 Medical Post Award physician winners in their communities this fall.From Golden, B.C., to Grande Prairie, Alta., from skyscrapers in Toronto’s hospital zone to a clinic in Kitchener, Ont., I had the privilege of visiting all seven Medical Post Award winners. (This involved twists like: Arriving at the car rental location in Grande Prairie and being told they had no cars—so instead I drove a four-door Ram truck, which kind of fit in that northern Albertan town. Or realizing that Vesia [Alberta Bladder Centre] is actually above the public parkade in front of Calgary’s Rockyview General Hospital.)It is hard to say whether I’m more optimistic or pessimistic about the healthcare system, but I certainly got again that the healthcare system is complicated. I saw this as Dr. Trina Larsen Soles, one of the 2023 recipients, showed me around the Golden Medical Clinic as staff came in before opening and chatted about all the things they have to do to successfully operate a rural clinic while liaising with a health authority. And I saw that seeing the new Grande Prairie Regional Hospital that just opened last year at a cost of almost $1 billion.However, one thing the trip did underline for me: I am super optimistic about Canada’s doctors!You can’t help but be wowed by how impressive Canadian physicians are when you get to meet folks like you’ll read about on the pages that follow like Dr. Richard Baverstock, one of the owners of Vesia, an innovative clinic; Dr. Linda Lee, who has done incredible work developing the MINT Memory Clinic; Dr. Monty Ghosh, who cares for substance-using patients in new ways; Dr. Ripudaman Singh Minhas, who has created kids’ health info targeted for different cultural groups; or Aditi Sivakumar, a med student who developed the My Empowerment Platform, which tackles domestic violence.Dr. Lafontaine, also one of the 2023 winners, said: “We know that physicians are people who fix things, and we’ve never needed fixers more than we do right now.”With the “fixers” you’ll find on the following pages, I’m optimistic we can improve Canada’s health system. The Medical Post Award winners are selected by panels of physician juries.This week we’ll be profiling one 2023 winner each day in our Doctor Daily newsletter—however the full list is available below now.You can see videos of all the winners here. Be the first to know when The Medical Post Awards open for nominations next year: Join the 2024 nominations waitlist on the Medical Post Awards website.

Meet the winners of the 2023 Medical Post awards!

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