Community and connection: Pamela Mark on giving back and 40 years in family medicine

Feb 18, 2025

Pamela Mark (MD 1984) is a family physician who practices in Toronto’s east end. Her connection to U of T and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine stretches back a generation to her father, a graduate of the MD Class of 1947. We spoke with Mark about her life and work, the many changes she has witnessed in family medicine over her career, and why she prioritizes supporting new generations of medical learners at U of T.

You are a monthly donor to the Dean’s Priority Fund and you have also supported the MD Class of 1984 Award – what inspires your philanthropy?

I was lucky that my father was able to pay for my tuition, so I never had to apply for loans. I remember going in on the first week of class to buy our textbooks, and I was horrified. I couldn’t believe the cost of the books. I called my dad and I said I don’t have enough money – just one book chewed up three quarters of my budget, and I was in the used textbook store. My dad helped me out there too, and I am still really grateful for his support.

I think now, what do the students do? I mean, their rent is incredible. Food is more expensive than ever, and I don’t even know what the tuition is anymore. And so, any way I can help – maybe with a month or two of rent – I want to contribute.

What is your personal philosophy for giving and philanthropy?

You can’t take it with you. It’s better to use it to help your community.

I also have some patients who’ve gone into medicine. I’m always so thrilled that I was hopefully part of that decision or just supported them emotionally to get through that process. I feel that philanthropy can either be giving financially or emotionally. We do it because this is our community and we need to support each other.

What inspired you to specialize in family medicine?

My father was a family doctor who also trained at U of T, so my introduction to medicine came early on. After taking an accounting class in grade 10, I helped with his OHIP billings and bookkeeping. There were no computers in those days; billing was handwritten cards that you had to fill out and mail in. It was very labour intensive.

I was in his office every Saturday and his patients would stop by and say hello. I got to see how the family office works. Later on, when I was doing my residency in family medicine, I would fill in for him for a week or two if he wanted to take time off or go away on vacation. Eventually, his patients became my patients, and I took over the practice.

Did you find many generational differences between your and your father’s approaches to medicine?

We agreed to disagree on some things, which is how I could work with him. But even from a young age, I was allowed to have my own mind. And having different perspectives is important in medicine. By the time I joined him, so many things had changed, and he was open to that change – things like new classes of medicine and new computer programs to track patient information.

How do you stay connected to the medical community as a solo practitioner?

It’s easy to be isolated in family medicine, so it’s important to be part of a community and go to meetings and go to lectures and try and keep up with what’s happening.

You can’t take it with you. It’s better to use it to help your community.

I worked in the area of Toronto East General Hospital, now known as Michael Garron Hospital. I was involved in its continuing medical education programs, helping to organize talks and things like that. That kept me involved in talking to other doctors and learning what worried them or what they had heard about.

You can’t take it with you. It’s better to use it to help your community.

You must have seen so much change over the past 40-plus years of your practice.

Oh gosh. There is no comparison between then and now. I mean, Dad was interested in computers, but I don’t think he could ever imagine that we would one day be able to do things like talk with patients over video chat.

When I joined my dad, his charts were these three-by-five index cards that you would write on in tiny little letters. And the files would take up so much space. I eventually transitioned to computerized charting. That was a major shift, because I had been handwriting all those decades and now, all of a sudden, I had to learn how to type while looking at the patient so I could have an actual conversation with them. My patients would tease me about how I would be trying to pay attention to them and fix typos at the same time. I got a lot better after a year!

Now with artificial intelligence, the next shift will be to sit back and fully commit all your attention to the patient and not have to worry about recording. I’m so jealous of the next generation of doctors who will get to work with these scribe programs.

As a student, I know that a highlight was your involvement with Daffydil, the annual student-run musical production. Why has it meant so much?

I tell people that Daffydil is how I got through medical school. It was school-related, but didn’t involve trying to cram more knowledge into my brain.

Daffydil had students from all different years. I could talk to people from the year ahead of me about what was stressing me, and they always had a good word or a good tip or something. They were always very encouraging.

I was really proud of our shows. They were always special because people wouldn’t expect this level of performance from medical students. Everyone involved was so smart, but also so talented. You just wanted to be around those people.

What are your hopes for family medicine in the future?

What we really have to work on is getting more doctors to go into family medicine because that’s really fallen behind. It’s not totally puzzling – especially with our salaries in Ontario. It’s better than it was, but still, it’s not enough for students to choose family medicine. But I also think something else is missing. I haven’t figured that out.

I think people will lose out by not going into family medicine. It’s the beauty of the continuity of the practice. Knowing somebody for 35, maybe 40 years, you help them through their life stages, help them make major decisions with their health, sometimes beyond that, too, because they want to talk about family issues or other things. That’s so rewarding and it’s a privilege to be part of that.

Do you have any advice for students who are considering family medicine?

I think that they need to look at the longevity of the relationships they’ll have in their careers and if that’s something that they want. Family practice goes beyond just medicine; it goes into building relationships with your patients. I don’t know many other specialties that have that same experience. You are so much more involved in different people’s lives. You’re in a position to really connect with them and influence their health decisions and that is so rewarding – especially if they listen to you. They don’t always, but you get that ability to see them again and nudge them in a good way.

By Emma Jones