I am a locum family doctor working in the inner city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I trained as a resident at St Paul's Hospital, anchored in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, and the epicentre of the opioid crisis in Canada. The burden of trauma that can be found here is unfathomable, the suffering is unjust, and the need for care and unconditional love is unparalleled. Walking a mile in one's shoes might mean to walk without shoes at all. And medical care is but one of the solutions to this heartbreaking phenomenon. Addiction medicine is a fascinating blend of public health, primary care, and socioeconomic interventions. It depends on interdisciplinary teams and compels treating health care providers to constantly reflect on their biases about what it means to provide good care. 

I wanted to become a doctor because of my curiosity for human physiology, but I chose to become a family doctor because I want to use this curiosity to help people pursue and protect lives of quality. I believe this requires a level of care that can only be achieved by knowing people well, and the longer the better. For people who suffer from addictions and other inner city afflictions, the need for a strong relationship of care is even all the more critical. This is the domain of the family physician, and it is my vocation.

I started this website as a way of reflecting on my growth as future family doctor while in my residency training. I have chosen to continue this website into practice with the same name, as it captures my sense of pursuit toward being the family doctor I aspire to be. Like nirvana, I expect this will be a lifelong quest. The principles of family medicine are the principles by which I hope to work and live by, emphasising durable relationships of care, responding to needs that change throughout life, and promoting quality and purpose in everyone's life. Namaste.