Doctor to the North: Thirty Years Treating Heart Disease Among the Inuit

Dr John Burgess was awarded the Order of Canada for his services to the Inuit and his teaching and research at McGill University. InDoctor to the Northhe chronicles his remarkable career, from the early influence of his physician father, to his medical training at McGill, in the US, and abroad, to eventual roles as a professor of medicine and director of Cardiology at Montreal General Hospital.For several weeks a year, over three decades, he worked as a consulting cardiologist in the Canadian North, a first-hand witness to rapidly changing disease patterns among the Inuit as a Western lifestyle became more prevalent. Through the stories of some of his Inuit patients, Burgess presents a broad spectrum of heart diseases and discusses how they can be prevented.Doctor to the Northprovides a unique insight into the making of a heart specialist, researcher, and teacher. It also serves as a history of health care and heart disease in the Canadian Inuit and a cardiology treatise for present and future health care workers.

John H. Burgess is an emeritus cardiologist at the McGill Health Centre, and professor of medicine, McGill University.

Acknowledgments1 The Long Road to an md; 2 Expanding Horizons during Postgraduate Training; 3 Return to North America; 4 Cardiologist at the Montreal General Hospital and McGill University; 5 My Road to the Presidency of the Royal College; 6 Doctor to the North; 7 History of the Eastern Canadian Inuit; 8 History of the Eastern Canadian Inuit Health Care; 9 Congenital Heart Disease; 10 Valvular Heart Disease; 11 Infective Endocarditis; 12 Pulmonary Heart Disease; 13 Cardiomyopathy; 14 Coronary Artery Disease; 15 Auyuittuq Park: An Arctic Holiday; 16 The Future; 17 TransitionsNotes