Niharika Shahi, a graduate of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), has been named the 2020 winner of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) Award for Young Leaders. It is one of several awards presented by the CMA each year to outstanding physicians.
The CMA said Shahi first learned about social determinants of health and their impact on health outcomes as a summer student working at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute.
"I realized there are so many factors that affect population health," she said. "And that Northern communities face different factors than other communities do. It inspired me to go into medicine — with a focus on targeting those determinants to improve health in the North."
The Thunder Bay woman, now taking postgraduate studies in Hamilton, joined the Compass North outreach program in her first year at NOSM. Compass North is student-led health outreach that provides health services to underserved populations in Thunder Bay, including vaccination clinics and health promotion workshops.
Shahi also took an interest in the opioid crisis in Thunder Bay and other parts of Northern Ontario. The CMA said Shahi felt that the NOSM curriculum did not include enough training in handling opioid overdoses. To remedy that, Shahi worked with Compass North to collaborate with a local needle exchange program and to provide workshops on how to administer naloxone.
Although this was originally intended for NOSM students, the workshops are now offered to the public, said the CMA.
Not stopping there, the CMA said Shahi also partnered with the Lakehead Public School Board and local psychiatrists to develop staff workshops for working with Indigenous youth facing mental health challenges. She has also worked to educate local health care professionals about how to recognize potential victims of human trafficking.
"I grew up in this community, and it's important for me to do everything I can to ensure people have access to the health care they need," said Shahi. "That includes making sure physician training covers all the key issues."
Shahi also stood up for other medical students in Northern Ontario who felt they might be missing out on important meetings held in Southern Ontario.
"There are lots of important initiatives and conferences, but they almost all happen in Southern Ontario," said Shahi. "Attending these events means Northern students have to take time off school and work, lose some of our clinical hours, and spend significant time and money on travel."
In 2018, Shahi co-authored a position paper for the Ontario Medical Students Association and submitted it to the Canadian Federation of Medical Students. She advocated for better access to distant events and professional development opportunities. One of the results is that most big conferences and important talks are now live-streamed.
The CMA said Shahi plans to complete a Radiology residency in Hamilton and then return to Northern Ontario. In the meantime, she plans to keep advocating for Northern interests.
"I'm going to keep working with the school and community members to make sure Northern medical students get the training they need,” she said.
