Nutrition knowledge—on the move

Pharmacist Dora Chan has built a career as unconventional as it is rewarding—splitting her time between Canada, the United States and Mexico while balancing pharmacy care with a growing nutrition and functional medicine practice. “I’m not tied down to a particular place or pharmacy,” says Chan, who earned her pharmacy degree from the University of Toronto and her PharmD from the University of Florida. “When I graduated, it was something I never would have imagined.”As a part-time pharmacist with Northwest Telepharmacy Solutions since 2015, Chan supports family health teams and ambulatory care services remotely. She also helps her clients make sustainable changes to their diet and lifestyle through her virtual nutrition and functional medicine practice 'Doctor Dora.'This unconventional path began more than a decade ago when her husband accepted a job in California. Pregnant with twins at the time, Chan decided against pursuing U.S. pharmacist licensure (a process that would have required extensive additional training and internship hours). Instead, she used the opportunity to pursue a long-standing interest in nutrition.While raising her daughters and continuing to practise pharmacy, she completed a Master of Science in Human Nutrition degree, laying the foundation for her later work in functional medicine and nutrition coaching. She says she is particularly passionate about helping people improve their health through evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle interventions. In fact, her mission is "to help people reduce the need for medications by empowering them to take control of their health naturally."Today, most of Chan's nutrition clients are based in the Greater Toronto Area and participate in structured three-month programs that include an in-depth assessment, personalized recommendations and ongoing coaching. “The most rewarding part has been seeing the transformations in health that my clients get from changing their diet and lifestyle,” says Chan whose patients seek support before beginning treatment for conditions such as hypertension or elevated blood sugar. “Sometimes they’re able to avoid starting medications altogether.”Her professional flexibility has also created opportunities for her family. Chan’s twin daughters, now 12, are homeschooled, allowing the family to spend time in multiple locations throughout the year. Recently, they settled on a farm in Georgia, where goats roam just beyond the family’s front door.“Time management is probably the biggest challenge,” says Chan. “Making sure my nutrition clients, my pharmacy work and my kids are all thriving.” Marketing her virtual practice, she says, has also required developing new skills that she never learned in pharmacy school.Still, the flexibility to combine her interests in pharmacy and nutrition while living life on her own terms has made the challenges well worth it.“Now that you ask me,” she says, “I feel like I'm exactly where I want to be.”

Nutrition knowledge—on the move

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