SUNDRE — A local physician who has been acclaimed as the Alberta Medical Association’s next president-elect is driven by a desire to help ensure the province’s health-care system is improved over when she first started to practise.
“I want to leave this profession in a better way than when I entered it,” said Dr. Michelle Warren, who runs Moose & Squirrel Medical Clinic with husband Dr. Rob Warren.
“I love being a physician, I love the work that I do.”
Her three-year term begins this September. The first year provides an opportunity to prepare for the position of president the following year, before assuming the role of past-president the year after.
“When I received the call asking if I’d let my name stand for the position, I was shocked,” candidly confessed Warren, who for several years has been the association's central zone’s representative.
“It was an honour to be nominated,” she said. “I am thrilled to be able to represent physicians in Alberta.”
As the association’s spokesperson, the president is responsible for attending many meetings with the government, Alberta Health as well as Alberta Health Services, she said.
“You’re the person that’s representing the Alberta Medical Association for not only good things like awards, but also when there’s times of trouble, like Dr. (Alison) Clarke’s had to do for us this year,” she said, referring to the tattered relationship between physicians and the provincial government.
Recognizing the substantial obligations involved in accepting the position, Warren said she first consulted with her family at home as well as her extended family at the clinic before eventually accepting such a big commitment.
“They were all very excited — they all were very pumped that I was asked to do that, and very supportive. Because it will be a team effort for the three-year term,” she said. “There’s a lot of responsibility, and you want to do a really good job for your colleagues across the province.”
The association in essence is a democracy among the province’s doctors, she said.
“It’s not run by the government. It’s not run by a company. It is Alberta physicians and we elect representatives from our areas of specialty, whether it’s dermatology, or radiology or family practice.”
The organization meets throughout the year to discuss a wide range of matters that are not limited only to negotiations with the government, changes to provincial health-care delivery and physician compensation, she said.
“We talk about issues like global warming, drug abuse and homelessness, and how we, as physicians, can help improve the health of our population, and global health.”
Physicians appointed to the board must remove themselves from their personal considerations and strive to serve not only as advocates for all of Alberta’s doctors, but also the province’s population, she said.
“‘Patients first’ has been their motto for a long time, because we want sustainable health care, we want the best public health-care system we possibly can have. We all have the same desire, which is better care for patients and evidence-based medicine.”
Doctors also seek to strike a balance with sustainability, recognizing no one is exempt from deficits and accumulated debt, she said.
While Warren expressed a passion for giving back and being involved, she said serving as president was not a thought that had crossed her mind.
“It wasn’t on my radar at all.”
The selection process involves a nomination committee within the association that meets behind closed doors to conjure up a list of qualified candidates, she said.
“I’m not privy to any of the conversations that went on in that room,” she said, hence why the nomination came as such a surprise.
Had she declined, the next person named on the list would have been approached. Warren said she understood that she was the top pick.
“I was told I had the qualities that they were looking for.”
Dr. Christine Molnar is currently president, while D. Alison Clarke is the past president and Dr. Paul Boucher is the president-elect.
Warren said she relishes the chance to give back to physicians in Alberta.
“We’ve made great progress in terms of preventative care, and treating the whole person, rather than just the disease per se. And I want to see that continue,” she said.
During these uncertain times of change, she said substantial improvements have been made, but that sustainability remains elusive.
“We need to be a part of that solution,” said Warren, who also expressed a desire to stand up and offer a voice for physicians, regardless of where they practise or what their specialty is.
However, she said the president does not singlehandedly make decisions, but rather works alongside colleagues to discuss issues and arrive at a general consensus.
Negotiated terms in a proposed agreement with the province, for example, must receive majority support of the membership at large, she said.
“It has to go through the process. I really like that — it really speaks to my sense of honour and integrity.”
Asked what aspirations she brings with her, Warren said, “I would like to see stability in Alberta health care. I would like to see a resolution of the uncertainty that we’re currently facing, that the legal challenge be settled. I’d like to have a signed contract — we’re the only province in Canada without a contract with our government.”
Once those issues have been addressed, physicians will finally be able to focus exclusively on the business of being doctors, she said.
Warren also hopes the government learns from its mistakes.
“I don’t feel that having change imposed is ever successful. That if you want to truly make impactful change, you have to involve the people on the front lines. They have to buy into it, they can’t be forced into it,” she said, adding all stakeholders — the communities, the patients, the physicians, the nurses — also have a role to play.
“And it has to be flexible, to realize that it may not work for one community, and it may work well for another, and that’s OK.”
