Do you follow the recommendations you give to your patients?

• No and yes. I am an allergist and clinical immunologist. A lot of the guidance I give my patients is to avoid foods and have an adrenaline auto-injector. I'm pretty greedy and I'm lucky not to have any allergies so I eat everything. On the other hand, I am learning and am interested in several food alternatives that I enjoy testing and integrating into my diet. 

• Having no health problem, hard to say.  But I tend to follow the recommendations of my dentist...

What do you think is the most difficult medical practice? The easiest ? 

• I rather think that if it doesn't match our interests and our personality, even something "easy" can be very difficult. I don't think there is really an "easy" specialty in medicine because the requirements are always greater. A practice may be facilitated by teamwork or the adoption of a lighter work schedule, but otherwise it is expected to work hard. On the other hand, my experience is that it is very stimulating and rewarding. 

• Obstetrics is surely the most difficult, the long hours, the stress, the anxieties of the parents.  Office specialties that do not hospitalize patients, allergo, dermato, surely have the best quality of life

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Would you be friends with your colleagues if you had met them outside of work? 

• Yes, every convention makes me aware that allergists in Qc and elsewhere are truly a friendly and interesting group of people with varied interests. 

• Not all, but several.  A specialty attracts like-minded people

What do you think is the most important factor for a successful residency in your specialty?  A career in your specialty? 

• You have to have a sharp intellectual curiosity and not be afraid to search the files and the literature. 

• Perseverance and enjoy spending time with patients.  Our best allergo tool is the questionnaire, which is difficult to do clinics with a large volume of patients.

What is the best advice you have received?

• To find explanations, diagnoses or treatments that other MDs before you have not found or retained, you will have to search longer or harder. 

• Always study, always read

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What does your practice look like?

• Mostly an outpatient practice (outpatient clinic). I do 75% allergy including a large part of food allergies and oral immunotherapy and 25% clinical immunology (primary, secondary immune deficiency and dysregulation). I see 85% pediatric patients and 15% adult patients. I also do clinical research and teaching. 

• Adult and pediatric, academic and community

What are you dealing with?

• Above + food, respiratory, drug allergies, urticaria, asthma and atopic dermatitis, immune deficiency, dysregulation

• All forms of allergies, many immune system problems and many undo allergy misdiagnoses, patients and sometimes doctors who assumed symptoms were allergies when they weren't.

Is it hospitalization, outpatient consultation?

• 90% outpatient/outpatient clinic

• No allergo-immuno hospital bed.  When immuno patients are hospitalized, it is always in collaboration with other specialties

How many hours of work per week on average for the average doctor?

• Oh my, I think it varies greatly from one allergist-immunologist to another and depends a lot on the type of practice (academic vs. community, full-time vs. part-time). The MDs I have worked with in academia all do more than 60-65 hours a week. On the other hand, it can be less if someone chooses to work exclusively in the community and decides not to work full time, which is relatively easy because our specialty does not require a large technical platform. 

• 45 hours?

What do you dislike most about your practice?

• The basic advice is quite repetitive and the specialty is delimited more by pathophysiology and therefore often straddles other specialties. I prefer to see it as a challenge or an opportunity to collaborate, but it can be a bit annoying. (e.g. asthma and pneumology, drug reactions with rash and dermatology)

• Patients who consult to confirm a self-diagnosis of alternative medicine: "according to my readings in naturopathy,  my fatigue is due to a milk allergy"

Do you collaborate a lot with other professionals in your practice?

• Yes a lot, nutritionists, nurse, pulmonologist, ENT, rheumatologist, dermatologist, infectiologist, hematologist, gastroenterologist, pediatrician, internist, general practitioner

• Yes, especially ENT, pulmonologist, dermatologist

What is the most common criticism you receive?

• People are often a little discouraged by the lack of therapeutic alternatives in food allergy. I am working very hard to bring oral immunotherapy to a small number of people. 

• Waiting time to be seen by an allergist  

How would your colleagues describe you?

• You would have to ask them... I hope they would say enthusiastic, collaborative and hardworking.

• Always ready to help

If you had to specialize in something else, what would it be and why?

• Nephrology because it has the physiopathology side that I love very developed and it is relatively well defined as a specialty. 

• Infectious disease, I liked the laboratory side

Does your specialty deal well with jokes at work?

• Yes, on the other hand, especially between a colleague or team and well-known patients. A good proportion of our patients are people you meet only once and therefore there is not a great therapeutic relationship. 

• Being few in a specialty not known to other doctors, we have developed a great bond between colleagues and humor is part of our daily life.

Do students/residents sometimes make you feel overwhelmed?

• I'm not sure I understand the question, but I'm new to the practice and luckily I don't feel too overwhelmed yet 😉. 

• Always!

If your specialty had to have a romantic relationship with another which one would it choose?

• My specialty would be polyamorous I think 😉, see all the speakers we collaborate with.

• Dermatology...