Remote medicine is one of Dr. Guylène Thériault’s interests. A family physician, educator and volunteer, she started her career practicing family medicine in northern Quebec and now decades later, has succumbed to the pull of going North once again.
Her dual role in seeing patients in the urban south in Gatineau, Quebec and a remote Cree village with no road in the province’s north ensures she uses a broad range of clinical skills.
“In the North, we pretty well need to do everything or send people for care by plane,” says Dr. Thériault.
In addition to clinical work, teaching is a key focus in the south. As an educator, Dr. Thériault does lots of teaching of clerks and residents, with an emphasis on evidence-based medicine. She develops new courses for medical students at the Universite du Montreal, instructs residents at McGill University and is vice president, Choosing Wisely Quebec and primary care co-lead for Choosing Wisely Canada. And if that’s not enough, she is also Chair of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care and active on several guideline working groups, including the breast cancer screening guideline.
What drives Dr. Thériault after decades of patient care, research and teaching?
“I want to instil the ability in learners to challenge established teachings and think for themselves,” she says about the importance of continuous learning and the role of evidence-based medicine.
And when it comes to patient care, her career has come full circle with her work in northern communities.
“I started my practice up North and I’ll finish it there.”