One of my regular writing gigs is penning profiles of doctors with interesting hobbies for the National Review of Medicine. I've written several of these profiles over the past few months and it's always interesting to learn about the things these doctors do outside of medicine. They climb mountains, write books, collect Japanese samurai art, and on it goes. Here are some of my most recent profiles.
Dr Béliveau, cancer samurai
Oncology researcher draws strength from Japanese art
The Charles-Bruneau Cancerology Centre, at Montreal's St Justine
Hospital, is your typical sterile laboratory — all fluorescent lights
and gleaming linoleum. But turn one doorknob, the one with the Asian
stuffed toy dangling from it, and suddenly you're in a Zen oasis. The
walls are a deep red and covered in Japanese art. Two samurai swords
stand carefully arranged on a wooden table. A Japanese shade filters
light from the large window. Welcome to the world of Dr Richard
Béliveau, PhD, director of the centre's molecular medicine laboratory,
author of bestseller Foods That Fight Cancer, and one of Canada's leading collectors of Japanese and samurai art...
To catch a cheat
Sports doc helps nab Austrian Olympians in IOC doping raid
When Italian police carried out their
dramatic evening raid on the Austrian biathlon and cross country
Olympic teams in Turin last month, one Canadian doctor was on hand to
witness the whole thing. As one of only five doctors on the medical
committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Guelph GP Dr
Margo Mountjoy's most important job was to devise tough testing
programs to catch cheaters and keep the games clean...
MD's Rocky mountain high
Honouring a dead hero, Dr Lampard scales Mt Davidson
Although
Dr Robert Lampard can claim first ascent of the 9,568 foot Mount
Davidson in the Rockies, he has to admit the experience wasn't all he'd
hoped it would be. Sure, the weather was perfect, the climb
exhilarating and the team distinguished, but Dr Lampard wanted more: to
stake the claim for his Alberta hero and the mountain's namesake, James
Wheeler Davidson. But uncharacteristic government efficiency by some
unlikely villains at the Canadian Geographic Naming Board scuppered his
gesture...
Docs with brooms
On-ice consults at the Edmonton Doctors' Curling League
Man,
by his very nature, has a burning desire to cast the first stone. Some
are mesmerized by its quiet thunder as it glides up the ice. Others by
the rhythm of the broom polishing its path to glory. Then there are
those who can't help but answer the call of the skip chanting "sweep,
sweep, SWEEP!"
But for Dr Alastair
Rankin, the motivation is far more primal. "I took it up because
somebody told me that you get off work early if you go curling."...
Rushing on the gridiron: Dr Dave Fleiszer, football legend
Dr David Fleiszer is still running.
On
this crisp autumn morning he bounds between performing minor' surgery
and sparing some precious moments for our interview in his office as
his first patients take their seats out in the hall. The rest of the
day will be a marathon, though that's no challenge for the football
champ turned surgeon — he's already run three of those. And at some
point this week Dr Fleiszer, who is also co-director of the Cedars
Breast Cancer Clinic at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, will
lace up his sneakers and steal an hour for a run past his old stomping
grounds, McGill's Percival Molson Stadium...