A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health can Revive Canadian Democracy

About Ryan Meili

Ryan Meili is a family doctor at the West Side Community Clinic in Saskatoon. He also works for the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan as head of the Division of Social Accountability where hes responsible for helping ensure that Saskatchewans future doctors are equipped to meet the health needs of the diverse communities they will serve. Ryan is vice-chair of the national advocacy organization Canadian Doctors for Medicare. From its inception Ryan has been involved in SWITCH the Student Wellness Initiative Toward Community Health a student-run interdisciplinary inner-city clinic whose mandate is to bring students from nursing medicine social work physiotherapy pharmacy nutrition and numerous other disciplines together to serve the residents of Saskatoons core communities. Ryan also runs the College of Medicines Making the Links program which gives medical students the opportunity to work in Northern Saskatchewan (Île à-la-Crosse Pinehouse and Buffalo River Dene Nation) at SWITCH and in the rural communities of Mozambique in southeast Africa. One of the programs goals is for students to gain firsthand knowledge of the social factors influencing health by living among and working with diverse peoples. Ryan lives in Saskatoon with his wife Mahli who is training to be a pediatrician and their son Abraham.