Susan Chang, MD'85

Harvey Lui, MD’86

Dr. Lui has been the Medical Director of The Skin Care Centre, the Lions Laser Skin Centre, and the Psoriasis & Phototherapy Clinic since 1994. He is also the Head of the Department of Dermatology and Skin Science at the University of British Columbia. In 2001, Dr. Lui received the UBC Killam Prize for excellence in teaching. His teaching extends globally as a visiting Professor and speaker on five continents.

Along with his duties at The Skin Care Centre and UBC, he is also on staff at the BC Cancer Agency and the BC Children’s Hospital. Dr. Lui is also the current Director of the CIHR Skin Research Training Centre and the VGH Photomedicine Institute.

Dr. Lui has been the principal investigator in over 45 research projects, has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers, 11 book chapters, and is the co-inventor of 6 patents for dermatology. Dr. Lui is the co-inventor of Verisante Aura, a device that will enhance our ability to detect skin cancer lesions. His clinical and research interests include lasers, photomedicine, psoriasis, vitiligo, and dermatologic education.

Widely respected as an expert on skin cancer prevention, detection, and treatment, Dr. Lui brings a wealth of knowledge to the discussion about Cancer Screening.

Hal Gunn, BSc’77, MD’81 always had an interest in health and well-being, but hadn’t considered a career in medicine until the third year of his Honours Zoology degree. He started thinking about his future career and his interest in health and, a week before the deadline, applied to medical school at UBC. He was one of the lucky 80 students admitted that year!

Gunn had imagined, perhaps naively, that an important component of medical school would be about learning to be happy, healthy and well. He learned a lot of fascinating things about the treatment of illness, but very little about health, happiness and wellbeing. During his second year, Gunn decided to take a year off of medical school and travel, and reconnect with his sense of health and well-being. That pivotal year helped him refocus on what was important to him – health and happiness. He returned to UBC to complete his MD education, followed by residency in South Africa. After residency he found himself back in BC, working as a family physician for Tumbler Ridge for the next 5 years.

Gunn chose medicine as his career path due to his interest in health and healing, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t accomplishing what had inspired him to become a physician. After a few locums in northern BC, Gunn became the first physician in Tumbler Ridge, a coal mining town created in the middle of the wilderness, where he practiced family medicine for 5 years, enjoying the challenge of small town medicine. He then moved back to Vancouver to work at UBC Student Health Services part time while fulfilling his interest in learning about the humanities. He took courses at UBC in philosophy, linguistics, women’s studies, sociology, religious studies, psychology and anthropology.

Through the combination of his formal training, practical experience and personal interest in the humanities, well-being and happiness, Gunn decided to shift his practice of medicine to focus on health and healing and the transformative potential of illness in enabling people to find balance and well-being in their lives.

Fulfilling his desire to be involved in the leading edge of what medicine might look like, Gunn co-founded InspireHealth in 1997. InspireHealth are Canada’s leading supportive cancer care centres, with locations in Vancouver, Victoria & Kelowna. The goal of InspireHealth’s programs is to incorporate the support of health (nutrition, exercise and emotional and spiritual support) in the care of people living with cancer and their family members. A team of physicians, nutritionists, clinical counsellors and exercise therapists provide guidance on healthy diet changes, stress reduction and emotional counseling, decision making, exercise, immune system support and personal coaching.

InspireHealth is currently involved in educating and mentoring medical students and residents and Gunn is a Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC. Through this work, he pleased to see that UBC’s medical school is increasingly recognizing the human side of medicine and the role of patient empowerment, an excellent complement, in his opinion, to the important technical skills one learns in medical school.

In addition to InspireHealth, Gunn is also founder and CEO of Qu Biologics, a Vancouver based biotech company which is developing immunotherapies with the goal of re-establish health by restoring the body’s normal immune function and innate capacity to heal. Qu Biologics’ Site Specific Immunomodulators (SSIs) are designed to recruit activated innate immune cells to the targeted organ or tissue to restore immune function, to treat a wide range of chronic diseases, including cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

Thinking back to his time at UBC, Gunn remembers many classmates and faculty members fondly for their support and mentorship he received throughout the years. He is particularly grateful to Dean Webber who approved his request for taking a year off to reconnect to this health and well-being. That year was instrumental in shaping the direction Gunn would take his career.

Looking forward, Gunn envisions InspireHealth as a training centre for medicine based on patient empowerment and engagement, and in so doing, to contribute to shaping the future of medicine. He is hopeful that Qu Biologics’ Site Specific Immunodulators may contribute to the well-being of people with cancer and other immune related diseases. And he is hopeful that, one day, learning to be healthy, happy and well will become an important component of medical school experience.

For more information about Qu Biologics or InspireHealth please visit:

http://www.qubiologics.com/

http://www.inspirehealth.ca/

It’s hard to find a family with more UBC degrees then the Iwama’s.  Brothers George, Tom and Michael have seven UBC degrees between them, and when you add in their children and spouses, the total increases to 12!  They all started their post-secondary education at UBC and have all circled back to the University at some point over their careers.

The Iwama brothers – Michael BScRehab’87, MSc’98 (L), Tom BSc’78, MD’82 (R), George, BSc’75, MSc’77, PhD’86 (bottom)

The Iwama family immigrated to Vancouver from Japan when the boys were teenagers.  They always felt an unspoken expectation from their parents that they were to do great things.  Each brother is quite accomplished on his own terms.  George (BSc’75, MSc’77, PhD’86 ) stepped down as the President of UNBC  in late 2013 and has now taken on a new role as Executive Vice President at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan.  Tom (BSc’78, MD’82) has a successful medical practice in Surrey, specializing in Palliative Care, and Michael (BScRehab’87, MSc’98) has carved his niche in Occupational Therapy, currently Department Chair and Professor at Georgia Regents University.

George’s career has been split between being a University Professor for 15 years and a Post-Secondary Administrator for 14 years.  He sees the benefits both positions have offered him.  Through his posts as a Professor he was able to pursue his interests and travel the world, essentially choosing which questions he wished to research and answer.  He feels incredibly privileged to have been able to do that for so many years.  The second half of his career has been focused on Administration, an equally rewarding area, where he can enable faculty and students to pursue their interests and achieve their goals.  As he states, “The institution’s success is always grounded in the success of the students and faculty”.

But don’t ask George for advice on how to achieve such levels of success in the post-secondary education arena.  “[He has] no idea how to become a Dean or President”.  His advice is to “do what you love and train yourself to have the courage to take the next step”.  He encourages others to trust themselves to know what feels right for them.  “Everything in life is preparing you for the next step.”

Tom initially followed his older brother’s footsteps, going to UBC to earn a Bachelor Degree in Science in Zoology.  He later went on to get his Medical Degree at UBC and has been a Family Physician in Surrey for 30 plus years.  The last 15 years he has also worked as a Palliative Care Consultant.   Tom describes his work as “very humbling when dying patients invite him into their journey before death.  It is incredibly rewarding when I am able to ease their pain and suffering”.   He also enjoys teaching the next generation of physicians as a clinical instructor for UBC.  “It is a privilege to impart wisdom that comes with experience onto students. A lot of what you learn in medicine comes after medical school.”

Michael has worked and travelled around the world as an Occupational Therapist and is a highly regarded scholar & teacher in his field.  He developed the Kawa Model, which has been incorporated into occupational therapy curricula and clinical settings worldwide.  His path to this profession wasn’t a direct route though.  Initially enrolled in the Faculty of Education, Michael failed his midterms and decided he needed to re-evaluate what he wanted to do.  His brother, who has working in Victoria at the time, invited him out to spend some time with him and from here his path started to become clearer.  After receiving his degree in Kinesiology at the University of Victoria, he applied to the Bachelors of Science in Rehabilitation Medicine at UBC, which at the time was a joint program with Physiotherapy (PT) and Occupational Therapy (OT).  He first pursued PT but opted for a seat in the OT program. It wasn’t until he was in the program that he realized, from the very beginning, that’s where he should have been.  Michael found that he wasn’t interested in working with athletes and people who were generally healthy and helping to bring them to a high functioning level in their chosen sport or interest area.  He wanted to work with ordinary people who were facing challenges in their lives, to bring them up to a base level so that they may enjoy a basic or average level of health & enjoyment of life.   His passion lies in enabling ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

All three credit the caliber of leadership, teaching and learning at UBC as critical steps to helping them establish themselves professionally in each of their fields.  When asked, they each easily list off several mentors at UBC who were key to their success, specifically, Peter Larkin, David Randall, Chuck Slonecker, Susan Stanton & Lyn Jongbloed

Throughout their careers they have all circled back to UBC at some point.  George has returned several times for further education and was a professor at UBC for 15 years.  He has recently circled back to UBC as an Affiliate Professor in Zology. Tom has served as a clinical instructor for UBC for several years, and Michael returned to complete his graduate degree and has held academic appointments as lecturer and clinical instructor at UBC as well.

Tom recalls going to Ottawa for an internship after graduating from medical school.  He initially wondered how he would compare to the other new residents and if the education he received at UBC would serve him well enough.  After several weeks he came to realize that he did in fact receive excellent training and felt very well prepared and well positioned for his internship and his career that lay ahead.

When asked what they are looking to achieve in the future, all three brothers answered humbly that they have already achieved success within their careers but more importantly with their families.  Doing what they love, surrounded by those they love, is the biggest success one could ask for in life.

They all echo their brother Michael’s sentiments when he states that their parents “always implied they were meant to do great things.  They helped us develop skills and talents and bring them to fruition.  It is rewarding for us to now be able to do that for others; it is a wonderful state of being”.