UBC Reports | Vol. 51 | No. 5 | May 5, 2005

Global Experiences Shape New Doc’s Vision

By Hilary Thomson

Even as a high school student in a small B.C. town, Faculty of Medicine graduate Carly Peterson was looking for international opportunities.

She left Merritt to spend a year in Japan as an exchange student, living with Japanese families while going to school. She became fluent after a few lonely months learning the language. And, at 6 ft. 2 in. tall, she was a welcome addition to the school’s basketball team.

After completing undergrad studies at UBC, Peterson entered med school, partly influenced by her mother’s career as a nurse. Putting her personal life on hold and confronting the suffering of patients and their families have been tough parts of the last four years, she says. Meeting some “amazing” friends and mentors, and running, have helped to keep her focused.

She was surprised by her interest in anaesthesiology.

“I always thought I’d be heading toward surgery,” says the 28-year-old. “But it was anaesthesia that fired my enthusiasm. There’s a deep satisfaction in manipulating the complex interactions of physiology and pharmacology. Anaesthesiology is really the application of medicine in its purest form.”

The diversity of care and patients influenced her choice to work as a perioperative physician, a doctor who provides care before, during, and after surgery.

Her international outlook was reinforced earlier this year when she accompanied a UBC group to Uganda to help promote the study and practice of anaesthesiology.

Working at a teaching hospital in Kampala, the country’s capital, Peterson saw antiquated equipment and health problems rarely seen in North America, such as untreated birth defects, but also patients who were “so stoic.”

The experience strengthened her view that doctors have a social responsibility to share their skills where they are most needed.

“You can give so much as a doctor.”

Balancing her life with sewing, pottery and running with her dogs, Jack and Diane, Peterson is eager to get started on her five-year anaesthesiology residency at UBC and a career that is sure to include international service.