Because I know them so well: Graduating resident Ryan McAnuff talks about where family medicine is taking him and why he’s excited to get there.

What drew you to family medicine?

That’s a good question. A big question really.

When I was in medical school, I was very open to trying everything. I wanted to give it all my best shot and to be honest, I liked a little bit of everything. Family medicine was the one specialty where I could do that comprehensive care.

The opportunity to be able to work in clinic in the morning and then do emergency medicine in the afternoon, or obstetrics, or sports medicine, or surgical assist, or palliative care. You can do almost anything, and that’s what I think excites me the most. Thinking of the hot topic of physician burnout these days, being in a position to balance my interests across my career, that is a big one.

The other piece that really stands out is longitudinal care — seeing patients week after week, year after year, and now that I look towards starting my own practice, seeing people over decades. I love how in family medicine, a patient walks in and I barely have to pre-read their chart because I know all about them. I know what we chatted about last time. I know where we’re going with today’s appointment.

You hear stories of family doctors delivering a baby, looking after them as they grew up and then they have children of their own. That multi-generational care of families and being there for them through good times and bad, being able to help them through because I know them so well, that was such a big part in my choice.

You’re moving to Huntsville in a few weeks, how did that come to be?

When you talk about things like longitudinal care and caring for multiple generations of the same family, you don’t want to be guessing, you want to make sure you put that in the place where you want to stay.

My residency at McMaster really helped set me up for this next step. I scheduled two electives at the beginning of my second year in Huntsville because it was a place that I was interested in working and wanted to test it out. My wife’s family is from here and my parents now live up here in Huntsville too.

I did an elective in emergency medicine in Huntsville and another in family medicine and hospitalist medicine. This was super helpful because I got in contact with pretty much every family doc up there who were all super excited and supportive of me coming. After I came up here and people started saying ‘Ohhhhh, Ryan’s interested,’ my phone was ringing and ringing.

So, starting in July, I’ll be taking a locum position in Huntsville for a doctor at the Algonquin Family Health Team who’s going on maternity leave. I’ll be doing family medicine two days a week and working the emergency department at the Huntsville District Memorial Hospital Site two days.

Now that you’re at the end of your residency, what surprised you most from the time you started?

I was surprised by the amount of trust between family docs and patients that is possible because it is such a long-term relationship. I know some patients to the point where they will go see a specialist, get a recommendation from them and then book an appointment to ask what I think about that recommendation. Like, it’s your specialist, an electrophysiologist cardiologist who did their residency and has worked for 10 years suggesting a plan. It is such a privilege to make a joint decision with my patients, supporting them through the risks and benefits for the treatment the specialist suggested.

What would you tell someone in med school about your experience as a family medicine resident?

As a family medicine resident at McMaster, I have been extremely well supported. Truly, it has been a very awesome experience. I am at McMaster Family Practice and all the staff there have been so incredible. My preceptor Justin has been so great and kind in guiding me from day one coming in. Everyone has been very supportive.

DFM has been very good with feedback. Now that I’m one of the lead residents, I’m in a lot of the background meetings and things come up that residents don’t love sometimes, but DFM has been very responsive to our feedback and change.

Obviously, residency is tough regardless, but I think I’ve had just such a great time the past two years. There are tough rotations and some not as tough rotations, but family medicine for me has been just super enjoyable. I don’t want to stay a resident forever, but I have loved my time here.