Dr Arlene Rosenbloom MD CCFP FCFP

William M. Glenn

For 31 years, Dr Arlene Rosenbloom has managed a “wonderful” family practice—from newborns to geriatrics and everything in between—in west Ottawa. “I have the honour and pleasure of working with amazing colleagues and staff. We complement each other, cooperate, and problem solve together,” she says. “I love what I do and I’ve no plans to retire, but about 10 years ago my partners and I decided to cut back a little.

“A lot of doctors burn out in their 50s, and we decided we didn’t need to work 5 days a week,” she says. A permanent locum now sees the Friday patients, while another handles the inevitable overflow and last-minute emergencies, and a third comes in every summer, allowing Dr Rosenbloom and her colleagues to finally take some time for themselves.

Dr Rosenbloom always thought that when her 2 boys were grown—26-year-old Graham is now a software developer for Microsoft in Vancouver, BC, while 25-year-old Brent is pursuing a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Toronto in Ontario—she would “like to do more with medicine.”

Instead she signed up for guitar lessons. “I took 1 year of piano when I was 7 and I hated it,” Dr Rosenbloom laughs. “But I’ve had a lifelong dream of playing guitar. I’m not very talented but … classical, jazz, big band, blues … I love them all. There’s even time to practise.”

There’s also time for coffee with friends, breakfast with husband Mark (that’s Dr Mark Fraser, lead physician of the West Carleton family health team) on the dock at the family cottage, long weekends visiting one son or the other, and even a monthly book club. “I’ve always had a passion for books. The only problem is finding places to shelve all the new editions in my home,” she says.

And then there’s the Draggin Docs, North America’s only dragon boat team composed entirely of women physicians. At 60, Dr Rosenbloom thinks she might be the oldest paddler on the team. “I’m also the smallest,” she says. “That’s why they put me right up front to set the pace.”

Competing each year at the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, the largest in North America, the Draggin Docs have also raced along the Rhine in northern Switzerland and across the Sea of Galilee in Israel. This year, they are planning for another meet outside Amsterdam. “We can race anywhere there’s flat water,” says Dr Rosenbloom. “We do our best and sometimes we even win a race. But it’s more about being part of a team and raising money for charity.” And after devoting a huge chunk of her life to medicine, there’s also time for some fun too.

“It’s more about being part of a team”

PHOTOS (LEFT): Dr Rosenbloom in the office and with some of her medical colleagues and staff (left to right): Dr Faye Goldman; Tarrel Armstrong, RN; receptionists Jackie Lam and Julie Woodend; Dr Rosenbloom; and Dr Jacquie Poitras holding her newborn, Audrey.

PHOTOS (RIGHT, FROM TOP): Dr Rosenbloom pausing on the landing of the stairway at home, surrounded by a collection of multigenerational family photos; with husband Dr Mark Fraser, co-lead physician of the West Carleton family health team; indulging her passion for books; and cuddling with the family cat, Sally. Dr Rosenbloom on the way to dragon boat practice to join team mates, the Draggin Docs (above).

Footnotes

Dr Rosenbloom is a family physician in the west end of Ottawa, Ont.
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.