Physician and neonatologist Paige Church joins us to discuss how her personal challenges, including experiences of failure, shaped her education and career, lessons learned from growing up in the health care system, her experience of “coming out” as having Spina Bifida, not letting other people’s narratives define you, and so much more! 

Paige Church, MD is based in Toronto, Ontario. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Her pediatrics training was completed at the University of Chicago, focusing on inner-city medicine and complex care. She then undertook a combined fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Developmental Behavioural Paediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. She is the first pediatrician in North America to have completed this combined sub-specialty training. Dr. Church came to Toronto in 2008 and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. She is currently on staff at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre as a staff neonatologist and is a consulting developmental behavioural pediatrician at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. She is the director of the Neonatal Follow Up Clinic at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. 

Find Dr. Paige Church’s JAMA Pediatrics editorial about what it’s like to be both a doctor and a person with a disability online, as well as other publicly available articles here, here, and here.  Follow her on Twitter or hear her on other podcasts, including Episode 2 of Dear MD to Be. 

This episode of Accidental Intellectual is produced by Bronwyn Lamond, Rachael Lyon, Harrison McNaughtan, Stephanie Morris, Lee Propp, and Ariana Simone. Our theme music is by Alexandra Willet and our branding by Maxwell McNaughtan.

 To learn more about the Accidental Intellectual podcast and get full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit our website at www.accidentalintellectual.com.