Revolutionizing Healthcare: Dr Tasleem Nimjee’s Approach to Bridging Clinical Knowledge and Human Connections in the ER
A hospital, as we all know it, is a place where lives are saved. It’s common to feel scared or intimidated by the idea of going to a hospital, but it’s important to remember that frontline workers like nurses, doctors, and hospital staff are constantly working and alert to help ensure that each and every one of us is safe and is getting the necessary treatment/care. More recently, during the pandemic, the contributions of these unrecognized heroes came to light in our lives. One of them is Dr. Tasleem Nimjee, an ER physician, named one of the top 50 influential Torontonians in 2020. Using her expertise, empathy, and creativity, she wears a lot of different hats at Humber River Health and has helped set new benchmarks in healthcare transformation.
Her Journey 🪜
As a high school student, Dr. Nimjee knew her interests and was eager to learn. She set out to take all of the math and science courses that were available to her. Eventually, once school ended, she went to university and pursued a Bachelor of Science. While she wanted a science major, also wanted to stay broad. She studied topics ranging from health economics, religious studies, and philosophy, among others. She then did her Master’s in Endocrinology, while simultaneously applying to Med school. She got into the University of Toronto, and went there for Med school, and then completed her residency in emergency medicine. Today, Dr. Nimjee works clinically in the emergency department, handling a variety of cases ranging from trauma and cardiac arrest to small things like ankle fractures. She’s also getting her MBA while she’s at work, because as she likes to say, the learning never stops.
Her Current Position 👩⚕️
ER physicians are unique and have different responsibilities. The most obvious one is that Dr. Nimjee manages the emergency cases at the hospital.
“As an ER physician, you are a generalist. You need to know a lot of different things, and have a wide breadth of clinical knowledge. Your job is to stabilize, and diagnose. For complex cases, you are likely the starting point, you work with a specialist who will then drive the ball into the end zone.”
So, a typical day for Dr. Nimjee is dealing with cases from a large spectrum of interesting, mysterious cases to just small injuries. She’s often in the emergency department doing ER shifts. Her cases may involve surgical patients as well. She would diagnose the problem and then contact the surgeon to take it from there.
One of the most important things she would have to do is connect with people. When people come to the emergency department, they’re often in pain. They’re sick, feeling vulnerable, and are there to seek help. She doesn’t just help them using her clinical knowledge, but also uses her compassion and kindness to establish a connection with the person, understanding that it could be their worst day.
Dr. Nimjee’s responsibilities extend far beyond the emergency room. She does all kinds of leadership work to impact modern-day healthcare. She works with digital health, something she’s very passionate about. She leveraged those skills abroad by supporting low and middle income countries to implement hospital information systems in their digital transformation. She does remote work regularly and also travels to those countries to offer additional help with their implementation projects.
“I felt that if I was to go for short periods of time to some of the low/middle income countries and practice as an ER physician, my impact would be short lived. My passion is very much in strategic leadership in the field of health care. So, I started to build skills in digital health implementation.”
Business and Tech Insights 🔎
1. AI should be a tool, not a replacement. However, it’s important to not get too reliant on AI tools.
“For kids in high school for example, you can use these tools for some basic information, or ask questions to spark your thinking or get a framework for your thinking. But you need to do the independent work of creation to some extent so you can train your brain. So even for you guys, it’s a tool that gives you insight into the unknown and kind of leads you to the right direction … it may help you to solve cases and make your job much easier and faster.”
2. AI is very useful in the field of healthcare.
“I as a physician have one brain that I can leverage. But when I have an AI tool that can comb through the last 30 years of a patient’s chart and suggest diagnoses for me, that’s a whole different ball game and that’s going to happen very rapidly. It’s not just the size or amount of data, but th ability to summarize it and find patterns and draw meaning”
3. All industries are constantly evolving — accept that and evolve with them.
“And I think quite strongly that you’re not going to have as many physicians as you do now, I think you’ll absolutely have physicians don’t get me wrong, but I think the role will change a little bit and I think that the way the team works together will change a little bit… what you will have is all kinds of assistants — tools — so that the physician can now do their job better and more effectively. (…) Emergency medicine ’s not gonna look anything like it does right now in 10 years.”
Lessons & Takeaways💡
1. Use resources available to you and leverage them, not just for your own, but for the benefit of the community and the world.
“I could see a path to do that through medicine. I think there’s a path to do that through a million different jobs. Just for me, it was clear that medicine would be how I would do it.”
2. Have a North Star.
“This will keep you motivated and help you pursue what you really want to do in life. It will also enable you to ask questions like, “Where do I want to go?” and “How do I want to make an impact or contribute to the world?” You have one life to live and the choices of how you live it belong with you. You have to make those choices intentionally.
It took a lot of soul searching, but I made the hard decision to switch to emergency medicine. Because I believe that it was going to give me the life that I wanted.”
3. Making life decisions can be difficult and can take a ton of courage, but don’t shy away from them, because ultimately, this is your life.
You need to ensure that you get to reach whatever goals you have. Go and find someone who’s doing what you want to be doing in 10 or 20 years. Go, talk to them and ask them how they got there.
“I did a lot of that and I found that really helpful. I definitely recommend this to young people who come to me.”
4. Be a leader — A strong leader keeps everyone happy and working well.
“I mean, you’re typically leading an organization, not just a group of people. So you are trying to help an organization reach a certain goal, right? But ultimately, as a leader, you are never doing that yourself. You are there to support all of those other people that are part of that organization, to help them to achieve that goal. You’re also there to help them achieve their own goals, you’re there to help them grow, you’re there to empower them. That’s a big part of leadership. And so, you know, for me, leadership, simply put, is working with people and helping them to learn and grow.”
5. Always continue to learn as much as you can
“Right now I’m back in school while I’m at work. So I’m doing my Masters of Business Administration, my MBA, through the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern and through York here in Toronto. And so, it’s an ongoing journey. Learning never stops, and if it does, things get boring.
6. Come together with colleagues to provide emotional support, especially in heavy jobs like being an ER Nurse.
This helps normalize your feelings and make you less stressed or even guilty after a difficult time.
“And I would say that we’re very fortunate at the hospital that I work at and I’m sure all hospitals where the clinicians really come together. If we have a really emotionally difficult case, we all come together as a team. So, nurses, physicians, social workers, etc. come together to debrief on the case and talk about it. Some people like to share in those spaces. Some people just like to listen and that’s okay. You don’t have to share but just hearing other people and what they feel sometimes normalizes for you what you’re feeling. And that’s also important.”
Rapid Fire 🎯
- Who’s your biggest role model? Her parents
- What’s your dream job if not an ER Physician? Oncology surgeon
- If you could have one superpower, what would it be and how would you use it in your profession? Invisibility
- Do you prefer coffee or tea? Coffee
- What’s your go-to comfort food? Chocolate
- If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go? India
- What book or movie has had the biggest impact on your life? Cutting For Stone
- What’s one skill or hobby you’ve always wanted to learn but haven’t had the time for? Learn to play a musical instrument
- What’s one thing on your bucket list that you haven’t accomplished yet? Visiting the Grand Canyon
- What’s the proudest moment in your life? Raising her sons
TL;DR ✨
- Dr. Tasleem Nimjee is an ER physician and healthcare leader working at Humber River Health.
- She completed her MD in University of Toronto as well as her her residency in family and emergency medicine.
- She handles all sorts of fascinating cases ranging from trauma and cardiac arrest to small things like ankle fractures.
- She connects with so many people including patients on a daily basis. She uses her emotional intelligence to establish a connection and make others feel better.
- Dr. Nimjee is very passionate about digital health. She’s helping low and middle income countries to upgrade and embed hospital information systems.
- AI is very useful in healthcare. It should be used as a tool, not a replacement.
- Remember to have a north star, be motivated and keep learning!
