My Why
Why I’m here and why you should follow along
How it all started…
Let’s rewind back to Spring 2020. I’m an ER doctor working in both a large pediatric ER as well as an inner city ER in the heart of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This new coronavirus is spreading across the globe and all I see are the stories coming out of Italy, India, and New York about people getting very sick and dying. I see stories of healthcare workers running out of PPE and getting sick themselves. I am terrified.
I first took to social media not to inform and advocate, but to learn myself. I used it to hear what healthcare workers around the world were doing to keep themselves and their families safe. I used it to learn about the latest information on COVID-19 from other scientific experts.
Over time, I became one of those voices myself. It became apparent very quickly that in addition to the credible information that was spreading, misinformation was beginning to spread even more rapidly.
Credible and reliable medical information seemed to be the only way to help cut through the noise of this growing misinformation, so I dove right in.
Protecting Public Healthcare
The pandemic put immense stress on the healthcare system. As an ER doctor on the frontlines, I saw all of this unfold. I saw how our precious public healthcare system became more fragile and faced a growing risk of crumbling. Without a public and accessible healthcare system for everyone, I knew that health inequities would just worsen, putting our most vulnerable at even more risk.
I had to figure out what I could do to use my voice and expertise to protect this gift that we too often take for granted.
Simply put, healthcare is a human right. This is the hill I will die on.
Knowledge is Power
I am privileged to be an expert in health. As an ER doctor, I get to occupy a unique space in the healthcare system at the interface of community care and hospital/acute care. This allows me the ability to see the system with a bird’s eye view that many others don’t.
When patients come to the ER, I see first hand the importance of preventative medicine and health education. So many patients don’t have access to a family doctor and the foundational and preventative care that these specialists offer. Further, health literacy is at an all time low. So many patients and their families, through no fault of their own, lack the fundamental health knowledge that they deserve.
By using my voice and expertise to educate the general public with credible and easy to understand health information, I get to do my part to protect our system. By arming all of you with information that is accessible, it means ERs stay less busy, people wait don’t wait as long, and those who need care get it.
My Platforms
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been using Instagram and Tik Tok to make videos on various health topics to keep my followers informed, healthy, and out of the ER. The topics cover a broad range of ages and ailments. I love the ability to make visual content on these platforms, but a major downside is the inability to easily search topics when you need them most.
Enter, my substack! Over the coming weeks, I’ll start populating my existing content here, so that you can easily search through when a health question pops up in your home. Of course, I’ll be adding new content to this platform as I create it too!
Go ahead and subscribe now, so you can stay up today with all of my health topics, and more! And be sure to share with your friends and family too.