Practice Management Curriculum sessions are delivered by our outstanding faculty of physicians from diverse fields, experiences and geographies.
Stephanie Atkinson, MD, FRCSC
Stephanie practises general orthopedics, with a subspecialty in foot and ankle reconstruction, in Corner Brook, Newfoundland.
In the short years she has been in practice, she has worked to create a safe, inclusive and respectful environment with a focus on sustainability and limiting waste — often challenging in a fee-for-service environment. The COVID-19 pandemic brought additional challenges, including floating the practice financially during shutdowns, safely bringing staff and patients back, managing staffing changes and adapting to virtual models of care.
Outside of work, her greatest joy is connecting with nature – whether it be gardening, urban beekeeping or spending time outside with her two dogs, Story and Lupa.
Cathy Clelland, MD
Practising family medicine since 1986, Cathy maintains a maternity and newborn practice in British Columbia while providing outreach services to a First Nations primary care clinic. She sees herself as a clinician educator, using her clinical training to help patients define and reach their health care goals.
For Cathy, one of the keys to running a successful practice is fully understanding the business aspects of medicine, including fees and billing rules. When she’s not sharing with medical students, residents and practising physicians the lessons she has learned — or out on the golf course — she’s contributing to quality improvement projects to reform primary practice in Canada.
Kevin Lee, MD, FRCSC
Kevin is a vascular surgeon and clinical instructor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Royal Columbian Hospital who has a special interest in advanced aortic and peripheral endovascular work. Having learned the hard way how to strike the right balance between work and personal life when setting up his own practice, he now makes it a priority to help future physicians get started on the right foot.
He is an undergraduate medical site lead at Royal Columbian Hospital for UBC’s Vancouver Fraser Medical Program and a UBC associate for faculty development and the Transition into Postgraduate Education and Practice program. He also sits on MD Financial Management’s physician council. Outside of work, he enjoys a round of golf, a great meal and time with his family.
Rob Obara, MB BCh BAO, MIPH
Having completed his medical training at Trinity College Dublin and coming to Canada as an international medical graduate, Rob is now a full-scope family physician in Manitoba with a special interest in transgender health. He strives to provide comprehensive care and encourages general health and wellness among his patients.
With a passion for advocacy, Rob has worked on various initiatives related to women's reproductive rights and health training, and on 2SLGBTQIA+ wellness and health promotion; he has also served on the Manitoba College of Family Physicians’ board. In his spare time, he enjoys playing volleyball.
Elise Sirois-Giguère, MD, CSPQ, FRCSC
As a general surgeon, Elise implemented an innovative rapid recovery protocol to improve perioperative care for patients undergoing colorectal surgery. She then switched her focus to broader issues of population health and health care access. She has been a member of the Clinical Excellence Committee on Health Services of Quebec’s Institute for Excellence in Health and Social Services since 2019.
Elise is an assistant clinical professor at Université de Sherbrooke, where she teaches medical students and trains professors. She believes that prevention is the key to health and strives to lead by example by engaging in outdoor sports including skiing, mountain biking and kitesurfing.
Mark Soth, MD, FRCPC
A trained respirologist and intensivist, Mark is an associate professor at McMaster University and chief of the Department of Critical Care at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. When teaching and mentoring up-and-coming physician leaders, he stresses the importance of working smarter, not harder, to improve patient care.
Mark also develops training to improve physicians’ financial literacy, drawing on his personal experience managing money and debt. He shares his lessons in the Loonie Doctor blog, providing guidance to help physicians realize their full potential and live life on their own terms. Outside of work, Mark collects various injuries through martial arts, mountain biking, home renovations and sleeping in the wrong position.
Jayson Stoffman, MD, FRCPC
Jayson is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at the Children’s Hospital of Winnipeg. He strives to create an environment where patients are comfortable asking questions — a philosophy that makes it easy to bring medical learners into his practice. He’s eager to share the many lessons he’s learned during his career so residents can learn from his mistakes.
Actively involved in international advocacy and medical education, Jayson is a member of the World Federation of Hemophilia and Canadian Hemophilia Society. He and his wife run I AM Ministry, which encourages Christian counselling and outreach. While he’s also an assistant scuba diving instructor, Jayson admits it’s hard to get time underwater on the Prairies.
Ka-Ho Tong, MD, CCMF
Dr Tong completed his MD degree and training in family medicine at Université Laval. He then completed additional training in geriatrics.
He is currently an assistant professor with McGill University. He practices family medicine and geriatrics and provides teaching to clerkship students and residents at the GMF-U Jardins-Roussillon in Châteauguay, QC. He also serves as the chief of the geriatrics and in-hospital rehabilitation department and does hospitalization rotations at the CISSS Montérégie-Ouest. He is also actively involved in providing primary care to the growing Chinese community living in Montreal’s South Shore.
As a board member of the Association des Médecins Omnipraticiens du Sud-Ouest, he is also active in the representation of the interests and well-being of family physicians from his region of Quebec.
Robert Tremblay, MD CM, CFPC
Robert is a general practitioner in the Cree community of Chisasibi in northern Quebec. He has a special interest in serving vulnerable populations and knows the importance of working collaboratively with allied health professionals to optimize patient care.
A faculty lecturer with McGill University, Robert teaches students and residents at Chisasibi Hospital, sharing his experiences working in multiple provinces and the unique challenges each jurisdiction can bring. As the hospital’s chief of medicine and clinical representative on the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay, Robert’s free time is limited — but he loves being outdoors and travelling with his family, experiencing new foods and cultures.
Saahil Vij, MD
Practising emergency medicine in Toronto in both academic and community settings, Saahil has learned how to efficiently manage conflicting priorities in an often-hectic workplace so that he can carve out time to connect with patients beyond their presenting complaints.
In transitioning to practice, one of the biggest lessons he learned was how to adapt to the change in his financial situation and balance his desire to pay down debt quickly against his goal of investing for the future — knowledge he hopes to share with others through PMC.
A self-proclaimed foodie, Saahil loves travel and exploring new cuisines. He can also often be found at the beach playing volleyball and paddleboarding.
Scott Wilson, MD
Scott received his training in internal medicine from the University of Alberta and University of Calgary, completing neurology at McGill University at the Montréal Neurological Institute. He is currently involved in teaching and hospital responsibilities at the University of Calgary, in the neurology division in clinical neurosciences, through the Calgary Health Region.
He was an early adopter of the electronic medical record (EMR), using EMRs and working paperless for the past decade. He is currently the president of the neurology section for the Alberta Medical Association, and is one of the AMA representatives overseeing the Physician Office Support Program coordinating the funding and implementation of EMR systems for physicians in his province. He has also been active in peer mentoring for EMR implementation.
Norman Yee, MD, CCFP, FCFP
Norman opened a three-doctor practice in suburban Calgary that eventually grew from three to nine family doctors. He was the group's managing associate and IT leader in a fully electronic records practice environment. He now works as a family practice consultant and IT resource for a semi-private health care centre. Norman is a preceptor and lecturer in the undergraduate and postgraduate medical program at the University of Calgary's Department of Family Medicine.
In addition to being a consultant to the Alberta Medical Association and Alberta Wellnet, Norman is a peer reviewer for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
Yan Yu, MD, MPP, MBA, CCFP
Yan provides full-scope family medicine in Calgary and rural locum coverage in northern Canada. He runs his practice based on the Quadruple Aim framework and strives to epitomize the Patient’s Medical Home model of care: collaborative, non-hierarchical and patient centred. In his first few years of practice, Yan worked in multiple regions under many remuneration schemes, and he is passionate about sharing his experiences with medical learners.
During his training Yan founded The Calgary Guide to Understanding Disease. He is also a volunteer director with the College of Family Physicians of Canada, helping shape national strategy for training and advocacy. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling, trail running and cooking.
Stephanie Zhou, MD, MSc, CCFP
Stephanie practises addictions medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and runs her own family medicine practice in Toronto. She takes an egalitarian approach to practice management, moving away from hierarchical structures to ensure all team members feel valued and contribute to decision-making.
Coming from a low-income household, Stephanie is a strong advocate for increasing medical students’ knowledge on personal finance, managing debt and transitioning to practice. She is a lecturer on financial literacy with the University of Toronto and uses social media (Instagram and YouTube) to mentor students on these topics on a broader scale.
Stephanie also has a side business doing home renovations and staging, and serves on the board for the Greater Toronto Area Habitat for Humanity, helping to advocate for more affordable housing.