Source: Northern Ontario Medical Journal | 2016/06/10 Written by: Norm Tollinsky 

A member of the Pic River First Nation, Zoe is proud of her Aboriginal heritage and looks forward to giving back to her community.

Becoming a doctor was most likely the furthest thing from her mind as Zoe Michano-Furlotte daydreamed during the two or more hours she spent commuting from Caramat to high school in Geraldton every day.

Doubting she was cut out for university, Zoe enrolled in a fitness and health promotion program at Fanshawe College in London, but moved back to Northern Ontario “because (she) missed (her) family so much.”

With a little more confidence, she went on to earn a nursing degree at Lakehead University, worked for a year at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and was accepted at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in September 2012.

A member of the Pic River First Nation, Zoe is proud of her Aboriginal heritage and looks forward to giving back to her community.

She had several experiences in Aboriginal communities through her four years in med school, beginning in first year with what was supposed to be a four-week placement in Attawapiskat that was cut short when spring flooding forced an evacuation of the community. Later that year, she also spent a week in Summer Beaver, a remote fly-in community north of Sioux Lookout.

She spent one month in Geraldton and one month in Gore Bay in second year, followed by a one-month elective in Sioux Lookout focused on Emergency Medicine and a prenatal tapering program for women with opiate addictions.

“My eight-month clerkship in Kenora during third year was a really great experience,” she said. “The family docs there do so much. I can’t say enough about them.”

Zoe matched to NOSM’s Thunder Bay family medicine residency program, which is perfect for her given her deep roots in the region and her interest in Aboriginal medicine. As a bonus, she gets to visit often with both of her grandmothers, as well as a sister who live in Thunder Bay.

She also likes to keep active lifting weights, hiking, jogging, playing baseball in summer and hockey in winter.

Source: Northern Ontario Medical Journal | 2014/07/01 Written by: Norm Tollinsky 

“If you have a dream, you can achieve it with dedication and perseverance no matter what the challenges are.”

That, according to Northern Ontario School of Medicine grad Dr. Catherine McGuire of Thunder Bay, is the advice she would share with anyone contemplating a career in medicine.

An aptitude test in high school to determine what career she would be suited for pointed to medicine. “Unfortunately, I was discouraged from going that route because, according to my guidance counsellor, my family didn’t have the necessary resources,” she recalled. A member of the Métis Nation of Ontario, Catherine went to college to train as a law clerk instead. She worked in the legal field for a while, had three children, became a stay-at-home mom and did volunteer work with the Métis community.

“Obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, addiction and suicide,” she said, “were all around me and I felt I needed to help.

“A lot of people were still using traditional medicines, so I tried to persuade them to go see a doctor, but it was a fight. They didn’t seem to trust Western medicine and I could see where they were coming from, but not completely.”

She had long given up on the idea of becoming a doctor herself, but while serving as a community co- ordinator for three NOSM medical students performing their first year Aboriginal placement with the Métis Nation of Ontario, the long abandoned dream didn’t seem so far-fetched after all.

Lacking an undergraduate degree, Catherine applied to Lakehead University as a mature student, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Gerontology and graduated as an MD from NOSM in May.

“The school’s mandate with its focus on community engagement and cultural diversity was trying to bridge the exact same gap that I was trying to bridge on my own,” she remarked. “That was exactly what I was looking for, so it was a perfect fit.”

Catherine was assigned to Fort Frances for her eight-month clerkship in third year, and loved it.

“The people were extremely friendly, open and helpful,” she remarked. “The experience opened my eyes to how a practice in a rural area is so much broader. The physicians in the clinic also do ER work. They go to the old folks home, make house calls and assist in surgery, so that’s my plan – to end up in a rural, remote setting in Northern Ontario.”

In July, Catherine – now Dr. McGuire – begins a two-year residency through the University of Manitoba’s Family Medicine Northern/Remote Stream, so the journey is not over yet, but the goal is finally in sight.