The Department of Family Practice is pleased to announce that Dr. Meera Anand has been appointed to the role of Interim Undergraduate Program Director. Having previously held the role of year 1 and 2 lead for the program, Dr. Anand is stepping in to take on oversight.
Dr. Anand graduated from the University of Toronto. Experiencing the breadth of medicine and the chance to forge meaningful relationships with patients led her to longitudinal family medicine.
During her family medicine residency in Victoria, Dr. Anand was introduced to teaching, but she became much more involved with UBC as her career developed. She now works part-time clinically to fulfill her “educational addiction” as she calls it, where she supports educational roles in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programs.
Along with Dr. Heather Buckley, Dr. Anand spearheaded the Day in the Life of a Preceptor program, a longitudinal course for family medicine preceptors that is integrated with the regional Divisions of Family Practice. As family medicine preceptors comprise a significant portion of the faculty, she wanted to make sure they receive the support they need since they can be quite geographically dispersed.
Professionally speaking, this course is what makes Dr. Anand the proudest. She is grateful for the amazing team she works with and credits having the funding to do it with the program’s success. “From the beginning of the program, to piloting and expanding, seeing the growth has been the greatest success!” she notes, emphasizing the effectiveness of the program.
As for her hopes for the Undergraduate Program, Dr. Anand says:
We have such an amazing group of people who work hard and lead the program, but also who teach for the program. I come from years 1 and 2 where we hear about a lot of positive experiences that students have in those first two years, and it’s really important that we continue cultivating these experiences through all four years.
Her vision is to have collaboration across the years and look at things as a family medicine continuum, rather than silos.
In addition to her clinical practice and her dedication to supporting the program, Dr. Anand has a busy family life as well with her energetic two- and seven-year-olds.
In the words of her predecessor, Dr. Maria Hubinette:
Dr. Anand has a vision to work across silos and to build relationships. This vision, including her leadership in various parts of the program including faculty development as well as the family medicine undergraduate program, is an incredible asset, particularly in a large, complex, distributed organization such as UBC. In addition, Dr. Anand is an innovator and strategic thinker at the same time as being practical and pragmatic; thus, her ideas are relevant and achievable.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Meera Anand.