jjablkowski's blog

What does Dr Jim McEwen, a Winnipeg-born, UBC-schooled biomedical engineer have in common with Alfred Nobel, Hedy Lamarr, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Frank Zamboni, Frederick Banting, and Charles Best? They all are inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, an American not-for-profit organization that honors “people responsible for the great technical advances that make human, social, and economic progress possible.”

When British and American forces entered the German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in April 1945, Dr Jack McCreary was a 35-year-old wing commander in the Canadian Air Force. He was assigned to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) as a member of the first group of Allied forces to enter the camp. Years later (between 1959 and 1972) Dr McCreary was dean of the UBC Medical School. For several years I worked under his direction in the development of interprofessional education in the health sciences. I saw him almost daily and traveled with him often.

On 14 February we celebrate romance, often by exchanging Valentine’s cards decorated with heart symbols. Legend has it that in the 3rd century AD a Roman priest, Valentine, (now Saint Valentine) was executed for helping Christians escape punishment. It is believed that just before his death he sent an affectionate note to the daughter of the jail keeper—the very first Valentine’s card. 

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, on 12 May 1820, the second child of affluent British parents. She was raised on the family estate in Derbyshire, where she was provided with a classical education—languages, history, mathematics. The Nightingales belonged to elite social circles but Florence was reportedly awkward in social situations. She was a strong-willed adolescent and while she tried to please her mother, they did not always get along. Florence looked after sick animals in the household, and visited poor people in the village close to the family estate.

Dr Elliott’s blog post about correcting BC physicians’ income inequality brought back memories from 1951. In my first year of medicine we had a brief course that focused on vital statistics and for some reason, in one exercise, we had to estimate what our income might be in our future practice. As a naïve 22-year-old I had no specific figure in mind. I just knew that I would be well compensated.