Edward Tsoi MB BCh BAO MRCP(UK) FCFP

William M. Glenn

After graduation, Dr Edward Tsoi stayed on at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Ireland, for some 7 years pursuing postgraduate training in internal medicine and cardiology. One afternoon while thumbing through a medical journal, a little advertisement down in the corner of the page caught his attention. A clinic in Estevan, Sask, was looking for a family physician with training in his 2 areas of special expertise.

“When I applied they said I was just the guy they needed,” Dr Tsoi remembers. “With intensive training in the family medicine curriculum and plenty of clinical experience they assured me I would be OK. And I was.”

When he and his wife first came to Estevan, a prairie town of 13 000 residents just 15 km from the Saskatchewan–North Dakota border, Dr Tsoi originally planned to spend only a year or so mastering the particulars of the Canadian health care system before relocating to the big city. “But almost right away we had a baby daughter and shortly after that a son,” he says. “We kept putting off our plans to relocate.”

Almost 30 years later, Dr Tsoi is still in Estevan. In joint practice with 2 other doctors and a nurse practitioner at the Estevan Medical Centre, he is now 1 of the 2 longest-serving physicians in town. “I’ve had such a gratifying career here and grown to love both the Prairies and the people,” he says.

Dr Tsoi is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. His clinic and St Joseph’s Hospital of Estevan are currently being evaluated by the university as geographically based family medicine training sites. If approved, they will eventually accommodate 4 doctors for a 2-year postgraduate residency. Final word is expected sometime in the next year.

“This is a very exciting time for us,” says Dr Tsoi. “Interest in family medicine appears higher than ever amongst newly qualified Canadian physicians.” With the increased number of seats in Canadian medical schools and with so many Canadians studying abroad, he is hoping to entice a couple back to small-town Saskatchewan. “If we train some of our Canadian and international medical graduates here, I think we’ll have a much better chance of retaining them when they’ve finished their residency,” says Dr Tsoi.

Whether or not he’s able to groom the next generation of home-grown physicians for Estevan, Dr Tsoi loves teaching. He was surprised and incredibly proud to be named the 2011 Clinical Teacher of the Year, as voted by the final-year medical students at the University of Saskatchewan. “I continue to learn from them every day. They certainly keep me on my toes,” Dr Tsoi says. “In return, I hope to inspire these young people to pursue a career in family medicine.”

“[I’ve] grown to love both the Prairies and the people”

PHOTOS (LEFT): (Above) Dr Tsoi supervising medical student Alexis Brassard during an outpatient procedure. Dr Tsoi with his staff (left to right) Sarah Tsoi, Shao Tsoi, Sheila Schuler, Angela Danyluik, Olivia Ferrar, Dawn Seibel, and Lois Coffey, NP.

PHOTOS (RIGHT): (From top down) Dr Tsoi sharing a light-hearted moment with a patient during a knee injection. Dr Tsoi and electrocardiogram technician Ivy Pryznyk supervising cardiac stress testing. Dr Tsoi servicing the tractor and getting ready for spring planting. (Above) Dr Tsoi with his wife, Shao, and children, Sarah and Jonathan.

Footnotes

Dr Tsoi is a family physician in Estevan, Sask, and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
THE COVER PROJECT Canadian Family Physician has embarked on a project to assemble the portrait of family medicine in Canada. Each cover of the journal features a family physician chosen at random from our membership list, along with a short essay—a brief glimpse of the person and the practice. Over time, the randomness will become representative and the differences, taken together, will define what it is that all family physicians have in common.