Faculty of Medicine
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Last year in MUNMED we began looking at the careers of graduates from our medical school, showing that more than half of the Newfoundlanders who graduated from 1973-75 stayed in the province, with 56 per cent serving in rural areas. From 1976-79, 42 per cent spent their entire careers in Newfoundland, with 65 per cent practising for at least one year in the province. In this issue we look at the careers of students from 1980-84.
Because most of our medical graduates practising in Newfoundland and Labrador seem to think their news may not be of interest (if we judge by their infrequent notes to MUNMED or Luminus) we are deliberately giving them priority of place in these updates. Before giving examples of where individuals from the classes of 1980-84 have practised, it is important to note some factors that undoubtedly influenced their decisions:
1. In 1978 the experiment of admitting eight students (advanced standing) to second year was cancelled -- reducing each class size to 56 rather than 64, although the number of Newfoundlanders remained similar (40).
2. By 1980 the Newfoundland Medical Register listed 112 MUN grads in the province -- about the same number listed in our two previous articles as spending their entire career in Newfoundland and Labrador -- an average of 20 per year after the first small class in 1973. The register listed 424 physicians in general practice, 318 of them rural. Compare this with 330 in the whole province in 1965, 178 of them rural and 152 urban.
3. Even before 1980 some members of the local profession were openly expressing concern that too many MUN grads were (or would be) practising in St. John's.
4. The 1980s recession was making itself felt and the Consumer Price Index was rising: from 44 in 1975 to 100 in 1986. It was not only physicians who were looking outside Newfoundland: the net loss in migration in 1981 was nearly 20,000 according to Statistics Canada.
5. The need for specialists was recognized by an excellent Department of Health Financial Assistance Program for Physicians in Residency Training, suggested by the Newfoundland Medical Association and announced in September, 1980. A bursary was offered in the final two years of training; the practice location was chosen by the physician but final decision was by consensus with a committee of hospital and other representatives. This program still exists and is a significant example of what can be accomplished by positive inducements, rather than negative or punitive measures.
Of the Newfoundland graduates from 1980 to 1984, 59 per cent spent more than one year practising in the province. There are also several non-Newfoundland graduates of Memorial who have remained in the province in rural as well as urban locations, in either family practice of specialist practice. A good example from the Class of 1980 is Connie Hull, who graduated from the three-year physicians assistant program at the University of Colorado before entering medical school at Memorial. After graduation and a two-year family practice residency here, she spent a year in Papua, New Guinea, and New Zealand, followed by a year in each of Botwood and Bonne Bay before joining the Discipline of Family Practice, at first on a part-time basis and, for more than six years, as a full-time faculty members based primarily at the Shea Heights Community Centre.
Of the 38 Newfoundlanders in this class, 58 per cent spent more than one year in rural Newfoundland before deciding on their later careers. Up to 1995, 12 had spent their entire careers in this province. While space does not permit detailing everyone's career, we would like to highlight a few examples. Tom Costello, after a rotating internship in Regina, set up a practice in Labrador, at Wabush, and has been there ever since. Gary Tarrant completed the two-year family practice residency at Memorial and spent a year in Fogo, followed by three years in Brookfield, after which he settled in Bay Bulls. In 1995 he joined the Family Practice Unit as an assistant professor.
Don Cook (like several of our graduates, fortunately) chose the important specialty of pathology and has been based at St. Clare's Hospital. Jim Flynn spent five years postgraduate in anesthesia training at Memorial, with special emphasis on pain relief; he is director of the Pain Clinic at the Health Sciences Centre and consultant on chronic pain management at the Miller Centre.
Sean Hamilton, after a year as a family practitioner in Old Perlican, became a rheumatologist, based at St. Clare's, and is active in the undergraduate teaching program. Heidi Kravitz chose the specialty of obstetrics/gynecology and has practised in St. John's, where she is also a part-time faculty member. David Price passed the Royal College specialty examinations in general surgery in 1986 after his MUN-based training, and has been on the staff o the Janeway Child Health Centre since then. Also at the Janeway is Debbie Reid, a New Brunswicker who stayed on for postgraduate training in pediatrics, with increasing emphasis on the demanding field of intensive care; she took two additional years training in this during 1988-90.
Michael Bautista is one of the significant number of our graduates (referred to in the July 1996 issues of MUNMED) who have obtained their specialist training in anesthesia at Memorial, helping to relieve the desperate situation that previously existed when loci, anesthetists used to be flown in for one to three months from the UK or other countries. Dr. Bautista is chief of anesthesia at the Grace Hospital and a clinical assistant professor at the medical school.
Vic Carrigan continues with the Kelligrews Medical Clinic, a stable group practice. Peter Collingood became Memorial's chief resident in radiology by 1986-87, at which time he obtained his FRCPC. He became a staff member at the General Hospital and is a clinical associate professor. Brenda Galway, after two years postgraduate at Memorial, continued in internal medicine at the University of Toronto followed by a productive research fellowship emphasizing reproductive endocrinology at the University of California in San Diego. In spite of pressures to return to Toronto, Dr. Galway chose Newfoundland and is extremely busy with her combined career in clinical endocrinology, research, and teaching as a full-time assistant professor of medicine (see November 1990 MUNMED).
Robert Green, having won his heroic battles with health problems as a student, completed postgraduate training in anesthesia and is on the staff of the General Hospital and a clinical assistant professor. John Janes is with the Commonwealth Clinic in Mount Pearl, started by three of our graduates several years before Mount Pearl became a city. David Jewer completed specialization in plastic surgery at Toronto in 1987. He was selected as Memorial's Alumnus of the Year in 1993, a recognition of the province-wise contributions he has made with his reconstructive skills.
Brian Murphy spent a few years doing locums in Grand Falls and Old Perlican and then moved to Brownsdale, C.B. and has remained there.
A sustained contribution to pathology is being made by Paul Neil who, after completing his postgraduate education at Memorial, has settled happily in Corner Brook with his family.
Chris Randell, after a period as senior medical officer in his home town of Bonavista, became mayor. Carol Ann White sampled practice in New Brunswick for several years and then returned to join the Avalon Clinic and, more recently, practice at Ropewalk Lane in St. John's. Anne Williams did most of her cardiology training at Toronto, obtaining her FRCPC in 1987. She then practised with Medical Consultants Group for several years and, more recently, at her own Churchill Square office, also serving the faculty as clinical assistant professor.
Slightly more than half of this class have practised in Newfoundland (20 out of 38 Newfoundlanders) and 16 have spent their entire careers in this province, seven of these remaining in rural areas while another has divided her time equally between rural and urban practice. The eight others remaining in the province have specialized. There are several impressive examples of the pressures involved in balancing domestic and career plans, especially when rural medicine is part of that plan.
Lydia Bhattacharya Hatcher completed the two-year family medicine residency and then began the difficult balancing act between her own career and family plans. While her husband was an Anglican rector in Mount Pearl, Dr. Hatcher practised part-time in emergency at the Janeway and St. Clare's and then full time at the Janeway from 1985-89. In 1989, her husband was posted to Whitbourne and she accepted a Newhook Clinic staff position and family practice faculty appointment, before long becoming chief of staff at the Newhook Clinic. Now that her husband is based in Petty Harbour, she commutes daily.
Cathy Bradbury and Peter Hollett provide similar yet different examples. Dr. Bradbury did a family practice residency at the University of Western Ontario while Dr. Hollett did a rotating internship followed by postgraduate training in nuclear medicine at Memorial. During this time Dr. Bradbury worked for a year in Carbonear and then a year at the Grace Hospital emergency department. They then moved to Winnipeg so Dr. Hollett could completed his nuclear medicine training; following their return to St. John's in Dec. 1988 Dr. Bradbury paused long enough to have a baby and six months later began practice with the Newfoundland Drive group. In Feb. 1994 she became medical director of MCP. Dr. Hollett is a key member of the two person Nuclear Medicine Department at the General Hospital and is active in the medical school's teaching program.
Wanda Parsons is part of another spousal team (with Jim Flynn of the class of 1980). She completed her family practice residency and then practised for several years with the Newfoundland Drive group. For the past five years she has been a full-time faculty member in family medicine, also serving as assistant dean for admissions during a particularly demanding time.
Key contributions to gastroenterology in the province are being made by two members of this class. Ford Bursey obtained his postgraduate GI preparation at Memorial and Ottawa, after which he returned as a full-time faculty member and became chief of the Divison of Gastroenterology and associate professor of medicine in 1991. John Fardy chose the University of Wester Ontario as his main training base for GI and added to this, in Memorial's Division of Community Medicine, a master's degree in epidemiology and biostatistics. He too is active on all fronts: teaching, research and patient care.
Wayne Gulliver has carried a heavy load as one of the very few fully-qualified dermatologists in the province. Fred Jardine did the two-year family medicine residency and has built up a good practice in Manuels during the past 11 years. Peter Matthews, a native of Grand Falls, appears to have settled happily in Gander: 12 years there by 1995.
David Morgan has divided his time between Come by Chance and Paradise. Frank Noftall spent his postgraduate years of orthopedic training, with a special interest in sport medicine, at Saskatchewan, Memorial and Toronto, obtaining his FRCSC in 1987. Since then he has based his practice mainly at St. Clare's and the Health Sciences Centre, and served as a clinical assistant professor of surgery.
Calvin Powell chose Bay Roberts as his base for family practice and has been there ever since. Robert Randell, after a year of general practice in Carbonear in 1983-84, embarked on six years of postgraduate training in surgery. Having been bitten by the Carbonear bug, he returned there as a welcome addition to the surgical staff when Dr. Leslie Wells retired. Edwin Redmond has been on the staff of the General Hospital for the past decade as one of that significant number of MUN grads, already referred to, who chose a career in anesthesia.
Of the 55 members of this class, 41 were Newfoundlanders and 24 of them (60 per cent) have practised more than a year in the province. A total of 18, including some non-Newfoundlanders, have chosen to spent their entire careers in the province and of these, 12 have specialized in areas of provincial need.
Caroline Harley Alteen, who came from Corner Brook, has based her family practice career in St. John's, where her husband (a Memorial business graduate) also works. Stephen Battcock, having sampled emergency work and general practice in Gander, St. John's and New Brunswick, decided in a career in radiology and have postgraduate studies at Memorial he is now based at St. Clare's.
David Collins did postgraduate training in psychiatry at Ottawa and has been practising that specialty in St. John's for over five years. Josh Foley completed a family practice residency at Memorial, then spent a few years in Wabush before moving on to Burin, where he has taught medical students and contributed to rural medicine conferences.
After a year in Carbonear, George Fox decided to pursue postgraduate studies in chest diseases at Memorial and the University of Western Ontario. He has been back at the General Hospital for five years, with a faculty appointment as assistant professor of medicine.
Kuljit Grewal did postgraduate training in hematology at Memorial and Montreal, and has now been on faculty here for over five years as assistant professor of medicine. Andrew Hutton, following a two-year family medicine residency at Memorial, has divided his time almost equally between rural and urban medicine: five years in Bonavista and the remained in St. John's. He is also active with the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association.
Linda Ivany worked at the Newhook Clinic in Whitbourne from 1984-94, and since then at Bay Roberts. Wade Kean is another who has done his bit for rural medicine: after five years on Fogo Island he moved to Clarenville from 1989-94 and then to Brookfield. Bren Lewis specialized in orthopedics at Memorial and Halifax and since then has practised in Corner Brook.
After a two year trial period in general practice, Don MacIntosh completed postgraduate training in GI at Memorial and Ottawa, After a brief interlude of private practice in Nova Scotia, he accepted a faculty position as assistant professor of medicine at Memorial, and is on the GI Division at the General Hospital.
After internship at Memorial and five months at Springdale, Andrew Major embarked on anesthesia training in Halifax, having been inspired as a second-year medical students by the enthusiasm of anesthesia professor Dr. Bev Holt. After two years in British Columbia, their Newfoundland roots brought them home to an anesthesia position at St. Clare's and a part-time faculty position.
Cherry Pike specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, worked in Clarenville for a year and, since then, in St. John's. Peter Rockwood and Dan Squire both specialized in orthopedics and both now practice in St. John's with appointments as clinical assistant professor of surgery.
Cathy Vardy added additional training in pediatrics to a family practice residency, and obtained a staff position at the Janeway Child Health Centre and a faculty appointment as assistant professor of pediatrics, with a special interest in behavioral problems. Patricia Wadden did her internship in Montreal, then completed a residency in pathology at Memorial, leading to the FRCPC in anatomical pathology in 1988 and, in 1989, in general pathology. She holds a staff position in the Department of pathology at the General Hospital and serves as assistant professor of pathology in the Faculty of Medicine.
Kimberly St. John is another good example of a "come from away" who has made her career in this province. Born in Manitoba, she obtained her B.Sc. from Mount Alison University before attending medical school at Memorial. Following graduation, she did postgraduate graining in psychiatry at Memorial, obtained her FRCPC in 1988, followed by a fellowship in pediatric psychiatry in 1988-89. Since then, she has been on staff at the Janeway, and is now an associate professor with responsibility for the residency program in psychiatry.
Last updated 18 Jun 1997 by 