When I was eight years old I decide I wanted to be a doctor. I never changed my mind. I went to medical school when I was 17 and have been studying medicine ever since. I have worked in over 25 hospitals in five countries on four continents. Almost every penny (or cent) I have ever earned, spent or invested came from the practice of medicine.

My speciality is anesthesiology. I come to work every day with the aim of making things better for people, specifically by getting them through difficult and painful experiences like surgery and childbirth as safely and painlessly as possible.

I enjoy my work. It is a rare privilege to be able to earn good money by doing something you believe is good and right. But it is not all sweetness and light. There is a lot which happens in healthcare I am concerned about. Those issues will be the theme of this blog.

I am appalled by the six million unnecessary deaths caused, every year, by tobacco. I am dismayed that, more than sixty years after we learnt how lethal cigarettes can be, we are still allowing them to be manufactured and sold. This issue was featured in a series of blog posts during Canada’s National No Smoking Week, January 17th – 24th, 2016.