You may remember Len or Lenny as he was know years ago, as the eldest son of veterinarians Carolyn and Rick Conrad who operated Millbrook Equine Clinic on County Rd 10 on the outskirts of Millbrook for many years. Len and his brother Mitch spent their free time playing hockey in Millbrook, skiing and riding ATV’s around their farm. Len spent considerable time in the horse clinic, watching and learning. Medicine fascinated him.
During his grade 12 year at Crestwood, Len had extra academic credits so he decided to do something different and took a co-op semester at PeterboroughCivicHospital spending time in the radiology department, among others. This reinforced his desire to pursue a career in medicine, so upon graduation he headed to the University of Western Ontario in London where he completed a Bachelor of Medical Sciences with the intention of becoming a physician. He spent his summers working at the Peterborough County Health Unit. Hoping to go to McGill or McMaster, he applied to both schools and got to the interview stage but sadly did not get any further.
Just to give a sense of the intensity of the competition students like Len face, for the Fall 2013 class of University of Toronto Medical School, there were 3000 applicants for 259 positions, of which 570 received an interview. The grade point average minimum this year was 3.92, meaning successful candidates had at least a 95% average in their university marks, and that’s just the academic requirements. According to U of T, academic success is only part of the picture, and their selection process has a 40% of the weight for non-academic criteria. Their philosophy is that, “academic excellence is necessary, but not sufficient, to ensure success as a physician” ( www.md.utoronto.ca) so they look deeper. Applicants must supply a brief autobiography, 3 letters of reference and 4 brief academic essays to demonstrate their comprehension and communication skills. These screening elements are also reflected in the national medical entrance exam, or the MCAT, which includes sections in verbal reasoning and writing in addition to science components. Unlike many candidates who make several applications until they are successful and spend the intervening time pursuing masters degrees in sciences, Len wanted to get going. And don’t think of Len as a “sell-out” from our great health care system: Australia came looking for him, not vice versa. The University of Sydney sent a recruiter to Western and found Len who was extremely interested in an opportunity to study abroad, which had not been available in his undergraduate program. So what did he find when he arrived at the University of Sydney besides sun and surf? Of their 250 med students, 35 were Canadian!
That was 2006. Len has now completed his medical training in Sydney and a two year internship/residency, spending one year in Wollongong, a city of 300,000 located 90 miles south of Sydney on the coast and another year in Orange, a centre of 50,000 in New South Wales. Students in this residency period have completed their studies and passed all of the academic requirements and this is where they deepen the practical, applied stage of their training. Each intern runs through five 10 week rotations in different fields of medicine. Some rotations, like general surgery, emergency medicine and general practice, are mandatory, while others such as psychiatry are “elective”. Len is now licensed physician, but he is not finished studying yet. During the surgery rotation, Len decided to become an Anesthetist. This post doctoral qualification requires another 5 years of training and 2 extremely challenging tests, but this does not faze Len. As an Anesthetist, Len will always work in a hospital or a large clinic and will have a wide variety of medical experience. No runny noses or mundane rashes- Len chose lifestyle, variety and excitement for his future! He is very happy that he did not get discouraged by people who suggested he give up and choose a less difficult path when he was younger. Sometimes selective hearing is a good thing. He believes you have to pursue your goals with passion and perseverance – try, try, try! He has and he is.
Len is very positive about medicine in Australia. They have a 2 tier system, which seems to work quite well in his view. The private system deals primarily with elective surgery to expedite procedures such as knee replacements for those willing and able to pay. Emergency room visits remain primarily in the public domain, with 95% of those visits funded through the public purse. While Len has come to love the culture and the climate of Australia, we may still see Len one day practicing in Canada. His qualifications are recognized in Canada and most of the western world, he would just have to write a medical board test to obtain a license to practice here. He speaks with nostalgia about Canada, saying that he misses his friends, the greenness of our countryside, and the lakes and recreational opportunities of cottage country. He may just join his brother Mitch and come back to the area one day, but may have to convince a certain someone to join him in this adventure. In the meantime, he is excited by the challenges ahead.
