Profile

Born and raised in Cameroon, Dr. Hortense Nsoh Tabien was guided towards a career in medicine from a young age by her mother: “My mom told me that a nurse saved her life when she was a child,” she says. “Since then, she had wanted to be a doctor even though she ultimately ended up in law enforcement.”

Medicine was viewed as a humble profession in Dr. Tabien’s family — and as an opportunity to give back. “My parents sent me to study in Italy, but sadly I experienced a lot of racism there,” she says. After earning an MD at the University of Milan and starting her residency in surgery, she decided to leave and practise elsewhere.

Encouraged by a cousin in Canada, Dr. Tabien emigrated to Saskatoon, where she felt welcomed. She earned a PhD in Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Saskatchewan, finding a mentor in the Dean of Medicine. “He told me that public health and preventive medicine would be a good fit and encouraged me to apply to the residency program. I realized that I could be part of a bigger change and work with the community.” During her residency training she also earned a master’s degree in public health at the University of Saskatchewan.

Today, she is a medical health officer for the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Her areas of interest include family, immigrant, refugee and women’s health.

“As a public health physician, it’s really about effecting change on a large scale,” explains Dr. Tabien. In her work with harm reduction efforts for drug users, she says the first step is recognizing the challenges of minimizing drug use. “We worked with different partners to get harm reduction programs in place, taking into consideration the people who really need those services.”

Dr. Tabien’s program planning and recommendations have also led her to important work in maternal and child health. “To support breastfeeding, I worked on a program that provided access to human donor milk,” she says. “It was incredibly rewarding to collaborate with different partners towards a collective, meaningful effort.”

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the challenges public health physicians face in delivering necessary services and recommendations to the public: “It was gratifying to help manage outbreaks at the beginning of COVID-19 through our public health recommendations to prevent spread,” says Dr. Tabien. “However, it became incredibly stressful as the pandemic wore on and misinformation spread, causing some to question our recommendations.”

She is grateful for friends, neighbours and others who recognize the value of public health physicians' work and have supported her through this challenging time.

The pandemic shone a spotlight on another overlooked area that Dr. Tabien is passionate about: physician health and the danger of prioritizing work over personal care.

“A big challenge is being able to recognize burnout and ask for help, because we feel that we should be taking care of others,” explains Dr. Tabien. “Burnout is very real, and awareness of it needs to start in medical school. Being a doctor is very rewarding, but also stressful — and it’s important to know how to manage that.”

Interest in supporting other physicians inspired Dr. Tabien to join the MD Physician Council. “One key area for early career doctors is knowing how to build wealth,” she says, explaining how an MD Management Limited Advisor* spent many years encouraging her to sit down and think about investing and estate planning.

Dr. Tabien sees the connection between personal wellness and financial planning and larger issues around physician health and longevity. “There are always other priorities, but I’ve come to recognize that it’s important to plan for retirement sooner rather than later,” she says. “We don’t always take the time to think about what we need for our future — but it’s so important to do so.”