Copyrights © 2024 Whistler Institute.
This event explored how health care is evolving and how those changes inform the training of medical professionals as well as the services that are offered to individuals who access health care. The audience heard from a panel comprising of industry experts and academics who discussed the changing field of health care and what those changes translate to at a local level.
If you were unable to join us for the event in person, you can watch the event recording here:
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Dominique Vallée, Dr.TCM, R.Ac.
Dominique Vallée has been a long-time Whistlerite for over 25 years. She was a professional snowboarder and part of the Canadian Snowboard Team for over a decade and competed in the Olympics in Half-pipe and snowboard-cross. After learning her anatomy through injuries, she returned to school to become a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Together in 2021, Dr. Dom and Dr. Danielle Lewis opened Creekside Health to build a clinic with a team of allied health professionals. In the last year, they have been able to recruit 4 family physicians, with 2 more joining us in the coming months, to help improve access to primary care in the Sea-To-Sky. The clinic has a whole integrative team filled with Naturopathic Doctors, RMTs, acupuncturists, clinical counselors, a chiropractor, a physiotherapist, a sleep consultant, a dietitian, and an osteopath, all working together alongside family physicians to create better health together for every patient.
Kate Tairyan, MD, MPH, SFU Senior Lecturer, Health Sciences
Dr. Tairyan obtained her medical degree in preventive medicine from the State Medical University in Armenia and a diploma in health management from Armenia’s National Institute of Health. She received the Ed Muskie graduate fellowship award to obtain a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration on global health leadership from Emory University. Her public health expertise and work experience includes several positions at the Ministry of Health of Armenia and collaborations with international experts on health policy development and poverty reduction issues at national and local levels.
From 2007 to 2010, Dr. Tairyan completed post-doctoral studies at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health and worked at the National Core for Neuroethics spearheading a project to evaluate investigator needs for integrating ethics into neuroscience using neuroimaging as the model.
As a public health physician and educator, Kate strives to bring planetary health and climate justice to public health and medical education, empowering our health leaders of tomorrow to engage in climate frontlines and advocate for a sustainable future for all. Kate is an active member of SFU’s Planetary Health research group and serves on Pacific Northwest Health Equity Network’s leadership team.
Nick Collins (MBBS Newcastle University, 2013, MRCGP 2020, CCFP)
Dr Nick Collins has recently joined the exciting new Whistler 360 team as a family physician. Nick graduated from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Medical School in 2013, before going on to work as a doctor in the NHS. During this time, he also spent time working in Perth, Western Australia. He returned to the UK to train as a family physician, completing this in 2020. Since then, he has continued to work in Newcastle, before moving to Whistler in October 2023 with his family.
Tim K. Takaro, MD, MPH, MS.
Dr. Takaro is a professor emeritus and physician-scientist in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. He trained in occupational and environmental medicine, public health and toxicology, at Yale, the University of North Carolina and the University of Washington. Dr. Takaro’s research is primarily about the links between human exposures and disease, and determining effective public health based preventive solutions to such risks.
Planetary change poses complex problems for public health that demand an interdisciplinary approach both in research and action. In this vein, Takaro is a member the Planetary Health Research group at SFU and a lead author of the Health Canada 2022 report, Health of Canadians in a Changing Climate: Advancing Knowledge for Action. His current research program explores the impacts of resource extraction on human health and the relationship to our land and waters. With immense gratitude to the First Peoples, he is beginning to use Indigenous knowledge to relearn environmental health as he tests different interventions in climate action and planet protection.
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