with two other doctors, and together they serve about 400 patients in total. They’ve even opened up a satellite clinic in Waterloo as of January 2010. Once Dr. Zajdlik’s clinic in Guelph was in place, she turned her attention to Lesotho, Africa—an enclave of South Africa with a population of just under 2 million people. Lesotho has one of the world’s highest rates of prevalence of HIV with almost a quarter of adults having HIV, according to UNICEF. Dr. Zajdlik was already scheduled to go to Lesotho’s Tsepong Clinic, and she knew they badly needed more funding. She recalls, “I turned to my community... and said ok guys, if you can help me build an HIV clinic here [in Guelph], then help me raise money for a clinic in Africa.” And they did just that, raising more than one million dollars in two and a half years. It was the community’s involvement


that introduced the idea of bracelets into the campaign. In 2006, a group of four students from the University of Guelph pledged to raise $100,000 on campus by selling bracelets that they imported from a South-African craft agency. The students not only reached their goal within only about nine months, but the bracelets became the symbol of the entire campaign. Now, the campaign’s overall goal is to get a bracelet on the wrist of every Canadian—a goal, which Dr. Zajdlik says, would raise enough funds to end the pandemic in Lesotho. While Dr. Zajdlik plays more than one


role—as a physician, social advocate and clinic director—she says her greatest joy is still that one-on-one interaction with her patients in her exam room. “If you’re doing your job well as a physician, you know and love your patients,” she says. “And that’s where the trust comes from. And that’s where their health and well- being can grow from.” She says, and hopes, that the mental- ity in the medical profession is changing towards being more socially minded. “[As a physician] there’s no room for the 7,000 square-foot house, the three-car garage and the jewellery, that’s not who you should be. If you’re a physician you should be down and dirty and broken- hearted with your patients...and giving most of your money away.”


“For me, it would be pretty hard to be a doctor without being a social activist. If medicine is about helping people to be healthy, we have to act on social issues.”


Advocating for Life


AS THE CHIEF OF FAMILY MEDICINE AT MARKHAM STOUFFVILLE HOSPITAL AND FOUNDER OF THE GIVE A DAY TO WORLD AIDS MOVEMENT, DR. JANE PHILPOTT WEARS MANY HATS. SHE BELIEVES THAT IN ORDER FOR PHYSICIANS TO BE TRULY EFFECTIVE IN IMPROVING THE HEALTH OF THEIR PATIENTS, THEY MUST ADVOCATE FOR THEM ON SOCIAL ISSUES.


When Dr. Jane Philpott was invited to speak about the HIV pandemic at the Markham Stouffville Hospital’s medical staff association dinner back in May 2004, she tried to awaken people’s interest in the cause by suggesting that on World AIDS day on December 1, each person in the room give up one day’s pay to an organization that would effectively use the money in the fight against HIV. Dr. Philpott didn’t know it at the time, but that day a movement was born—since then, the “Give a Day” movement has thousands of people involved and they’ve raised about 3 million dollars to help people affected by HIV. Dr. Philpott is uniquely positioned as both a doctor and a social activist—she has spent much of her career in Africa involved with the HIV pandemic there, and has witnessed firsthand how the greatest determinants of health are actually social determinants. “For me, it would be pretty hard to be a doctor without being a social activist,” says Dr. Philpott. “If medicine is about helping people to be healthy, we have to act on social issues. Doctors have such access to power that few others in the population enjoy. It is our responsibility to use such power on behalf of those who have less power.” Dr. Philpott studied medicine at the


University of Western Ontario. She went on to complete her Family Medicine residency at the University of Ottawa, followed by a Tropical Medicine fellowship at the Toronto General Hospital through the University of Toronto. During the final year of her train- ing, in 1983, Dr. Philpott set out to work in western Kenya—where, she says, she first began to understand the implications of the HIV pandemic for sub-Saharan Africa. Since then she’s practiced medicine in several sub-Saharan countries including liv-


ing and working in Niger in West Africa for nine years practicing general medicine and developing a training program for local health workers. She also worked with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) during a 2005 food crisis in Niger. For the past three years, Dr. Philpott has


spent several weeks every year in Ethiopia as part of the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration (TAAAC), a partnership between the University of Toronto and Addis Ababa University (AAU) to support post-graduate clinical training programs in Ethiopia. She is the point person working on the very first family medicine training pro- gram in the country. For Dr. Philpott, the HIV pandemic cap-


tured her interest, in part, she says, because it has so clearly demonstrated the inequalities that exist in the world—tragic inequalities that she has witnessed firsthand. She says, “I have always been deeply saddened to watch friends, colleagues and patients with HIV who are unable to access appropriate preven- tion and care because of where they live.” Dr. Philpott says she’s highly impressed with the character and commitment of the new generation of physicians, and is hopeful that this will make a difference in remedying some of the inequalities that are barriers to receiving preventative care and treatment for HIV. “Young physicians today are highly inclined to think about their social respon- sibilities,” she explains. “I hope they don’t lose the vision and the passion to act on their convictions. Young physicians clearly under- stand concepts of equity, justice, humility and reciprocity. I hope they can sustain their convictions, energy and optimism. These are the qualities that will help us to beat HIV.”


Thinking Positive verge: 9


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