Meet Dr. Dominik Nowak: Building the Future of Family Medicine

This month, we heard from Dr. Dominik Nowak, Head of Family and Community Medicine at Women’s College Hospital. Dr. Nowak is leading WCH’s efforts to strengthen primary care and ensure that more patients are connected to a provider. He is a practicing clinician and the former President of the Ontario Medical Association, giving him a unique perspective on the primary care landscape.

As a family physician at Women’s College Hospital, what aspects of your work feel most meaningful to you right now?

The relationships with my patients are most meaningful, especially when we can work towards health over time and see the difference that makes in their lives.

A few years ago, we published a paper bringing together the aspects of why having a consistent family doctor lowers emergency or hospital use and increases health. Patients and doctors both shared that the relationship improves trust and shared decision-making, quality of care, and confidence in medical decisions. For us doctors, these relationships over time are a source of joy in work.

Primary care continues to face significant pressures across Ontario. From your perspective, what role can institutions like WCH play in strengthening access and continuity of care?

There are major puzzles that stand in the way of our system connecting everyone to a family practice. Being connected to a family practice should be as foundational to our society as every child being able to go to school. Research shows that people with a family doctor get better preventive care, save emergency rooms and hospitals for the people who need them, and even live longer. Locally, institutions can be the builders of teams of health professionals working together toward this vision.

On a systems level, our institutional role is to envision, create, and role model what the future of a strong Canadian health system could look like, one where everyone has high quality care and no one is left behind.

What lessons from your broader health-system leadership experience continue to inform your approach as a clinician and leader?

A key lesson is how important building shared purpose is as a way of creating change. Across Women’s, Ontario, and Canada, people I meet have such a resolve to strengthening Canada’s health system. Especially at this time of challenge in Canada and the world, our health system needs to be our foundation for healthy communities, as well as for a healthy workforce, growing economy, and optimistic future for Canada.

This shared purpose, now more than ever, is a powerful force for creating change in our health system.

In a demanding profession, how do you stay grounded and maintain balance, both at work and outside the hospital?

A key to performing well at work is having sources of joy unrelated to work. For me, a tennis court is that place where I find “flow,” which is that feeling when you are completely immersed in an activity. Tennis practice kept me grounded through the more challenging chapters in work and life.

As we look toward the future, what are you most excited about for Women’s College Hospital and the patients it serves?

Our health system is at a time of challenge, and a time of hope. At Women’s, we are leading Canada in many of the innovations that are bringing hope to strengthening our health system.

These innovations include new ways of teamwork in primary care, with how doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, all health disciplines work together in creative ways to better serve a community. We are also leading in incorporating artificial intelligence to streamline the enormous administrative inefficiencies in healthcare and creating programs that can help reach people who would otherwise have barriers to health.

By innovating in this way, we envision, create, and role model for the future of our health system.