Peter Lennox, MD’91

Dr. Peter Lennox has a lot of grateful patients. As a top breast reconstruction surgeon in Vancouver, he gives back what was taken during a mastectomy – for the women, his work provides something positive in a dark time. His brave patients keep him galvanized. Respected widely, Lennox remains an innovator, motivator, educator, and someone to watch.

Lennox now serves as Interim Head of UBC’s Division of Plastic Surgery. As a UBC medical student he was torn choosing between specialties, however, it seems the young Lennox made a good choice. Now having been in practice for 15 years, Lennox still exhibits an obvious intellectual interest in plastic surgery and a rich satisfaction in the many ways he can help patients, while inspiring the next generation of surgeons.

In addition to breast reconstruction, Lennox is active in all aspects of plastic surgery including skin grafting for burn victims, hand reconstructions, facial and body trauma, and soft tissue reconstructions, to name a few. With no two bodies or medical problems identical, he must always tailor each operation for each patient – it’s this marriage of problem solving, innovation, and anatomy that keeps him so keen and interested. (We know Dr. Bill Ovalle will be pleased that his anatomy lectures continue to have such an impact!)

“If you show five plastic surgeons a plastic surgical problem, you’ll probably get five different answers. And they’re all interesting, not wrong – they’re just different approaches using plastic surgery principals,” explains Lennox.

In 2012, Lennox was one of the first Canadian plastic surgeons to adopt a procedure to save a woman’s nipples during breast reconstruction. This is just one innovation among many in the specialty – changing technology dictates that plastic surgeons continuously learn and refine new procedures, to the great benefit of patients.

Although he performs many types of surgeries, Lennox credits his interest in breast reconstruction to his mentors, including the late Patricia Clugston, MD ‘86 who gave him inspiration, training, and friendship, before succumbing to scleroderma at the age of 46. There is now a research-focused breast reconstruction Chair at UBC in her honour and Lennox will be choosy in helping to decide who will fill her shoes.

As a clinical associate professor and division head, Lennox himself has now become the mentor for many emerging surgeons and hopes his continued enthusiasm about the ever-changing specialty will rub off on them. Lennox is also a champion of “community building” between academic and private practice plastic surgeons, and works to sustain the longstanding tradition of camaraderie among plastic surgeons in Vancouver.

“The UBC plastic surgery program has a fantastic reputation that has been built on the backs of the residents. So all of us who graduated from it are very proud and protective of it,” explains Lennox.

Lennox shares his life with his wife of 21 years, two children and a dog. He also employs a “cruel” personal trainer to keep himself fit.

Photo © Sandra Vander Schaaf. Used with permission.

The similarities between the Argentine Tango and medicine may not be immediately obvious, however Karen Shklanka, MD’88, MFA’12, points out that they two very complementary areas.   Shklanka explains that as a physician, many look to you to take a leadership role in your profession.  As a dancer, she must follow the lead of her partner, something she found challenging at first.  However, as she matured as a dancer and learned to trust the lead of her partner, she began to understand the similarities between dance and medicine.  A physician can sometimes be more successful if they take a follower approach, rather than leading.  When communicating effectively they can pick up valuable cues from their patient and work together to create better outcomes.

Having a balance between her life as a physician, counselor and teacher and her interest in the arts has always been important to Shklanka.  As a student, she was told she had too many interests and would have to give something up to be able to focus on medicine.   Conversely, personal interests outside of medicine have provided her with much needed stress relief and are essential to balance in her life.  Tango is one of the few things that enable Shklanka to completely clear her mind; a shift that is rare and very valuable.

Shklanka recalls that she almost didn’t make it into medical school at UBC.  She was called in for a second set of interviews because one of the interview panelists in the first set thought she was ‘too sensitive’ to be a doctor.  Luckily the panelists on the second round of interviews thought differently.  That second group of interviewers saw potential in Shklanka; she later went on to get the top mark in Canada in the 1990 Family Medicine CCFP examination. She feels that her empathy and perceived “sensitivity” has actually made her more effective for her patients, in family medicine but also when she worked in trauma and as a “jack of all trades” in rural medicine.

The medical school interviews impacted Shklanka as she noticed the different communication skills of the doctors on the panel and saw a stark difference between them.  She has since gone on to focus on communication through teaching, as a counselor and as an addiction medicine consultant.  Communication has been a common focus for her throughout her life, whether she is working with clients in a therapy session or teaching new residents the value in hearing their patients’ stories.  The art of communication is something that resonates strongly with Shklanka and a passion of hers that she is happy to share.

One project Shklanka is particularly proud of is her work on the ORCA video review project . She has developed a method with the use of reviewing videos, to help guide family medicine residents’ interactions with patients.  From these videos, she has been able to modify her teaching and is now seeing positive changes in the residents.  She credits the ORCA project among the highlights of her career thus far.  Seeing an improvement in residents’ self-awareness and ability to be patient-centered in their approach has been incredibly rewarding for Shklanka and has only fueled her to continue to advocate for stronger communication skills in all physicians.

Shklanka is part of a group of international physicians who are committed to improving communication skills among residents, physicians and others in the healthcare industry. Shklanka has presented on her work at the International Conference for Communication in Healthcare.  Her and her international colleagues are working hard to change traditional views and encourage physicians to look forward to new ways of thinking.

Shklanka’s other passion is writing.  She recently completed a Master’s degree in Creative Writing at UBC and has published a book of poems titled ‘Sumac’s Red Arms’.  The book takes a reflective look on her time as a rural physician as well as her extensive travel.  In it she captures the triumphs and tragedies of life as a doctor in poetic form.  She has received many glowing reviews and intends to continue following this passion;  A second manuscript of poetry is already in the works, entitled “Witness”.

Looking forward, Shklanka hopes to continue to work on finding ways to inspire physicians to take a fresh look at their own communication skills.  She believes a strong focus on communication will make a more compassionate, more thorough, and more effective care strategy and outcome for patients, through collaboration with them and other health care providers.