Avia Collinder, Outlook Writer
'The family doctor is always in the life of the patient. Family medicine gives the best opportunity to practise a relationship-centred philosophy.'
IT IS said that the secret of success is doing what you like and allowing fame to follow. This seems to be the case with Dr. Tomlin Paul, winner of the University of the West Indies' Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, for the academic year 2006 to 2007.
In May 2006, Dr. Paul was also winner of the Wonca Global Family Doctor of the Month Award. Wonca is the World Organisation of Family Doctors. That year, he also received the Guardian Life Premium Teaching Award and last year became a fellow of the Foundation for the Advancement of International Medicine and Research.
The Trinidadian doctor,who turned 47 on July 29, is a 1983 graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and has been involved in teaching, research and outreach for the last 21 years.
The current administrator of the medical faculty at the UWI (coordinating the undergraduate programme), Dr. Paul is a senior lecturer in community health. For the last 20 years, he has also ran a family practice on a part-time basis.
Being himself
Dr. Paul relaxes at home with wife, Maureen; and children (from left), Joshua, Andrew, and twins, Jared and Tabeal. Below: Dr. Paul with some of his students (from left), Loren Warmington, Dionne Williams and David Walcott. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
Family medicine, Dr. Paul says, is the kind of medical practice which fits in with his personal philosophy: "Family medicine allows me to be myself.
"Family medicine is the discipline that covers the health care needs of the family - children, adults and older persons - with no discrimination as to age or problem. No disease can be excluded. Family medicine provides continuity of care as the doctor manages the care of each family member for the long term and as they go through each stage of life.
"The family doctor is always in the life of the patient. Family medicine gives the best opportunity to practise a relationship-centred philosophy."
Dr. Paul has been teaching in the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry (formerly, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine), Faculty of Medical Sciences at Mona, since 1988.
Excellent student evaluations
The Wonca report, which accompanies his award, states: "Dr. Paul is not only an excellent teacher, but remarkable in his command of a diverse range of subjects, including primary health care, epidemiology, health services management, health promotion, ageing and family medicine."
Most recently, he has been engaged in curriculum development, quality assurance and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
The Wonca report says, "Dr. Paul's prowess as a teacher is acknowledged and validated by his students as he has consistently achieved excellent student evaluations; on one occasion in 2006, receiving the maximum possible rating."
Dr. Tomlin Paul was born in 1960 in the small village of Morne Diablo, in Trinidad and Tobago, in the southern Caribbean.
His parents Magdalene and Jerome Paul, he told Outlook, were simple people who managed to pass to him and his eight siblings the values on which they have been able to construct successful lives.
Good teaching from parents
Dr. Tomlin Paul at the University of the West Indies' Community Health Department.
"My mother was a full-time mom who never worked. She must have the world record for making meals," Dr. Paul recalls.
Apart from his mother's meals, he also appreciates his parents' concepts of loyalty and God-centred relationships.
"My father did not teach me about religion. He taught me about God. I feel if you have God in your life and listen to his Word, we will have a happier and better society."
His mother, he says was "a gentle spirit - the Florence Nightingale of her village, always visiting, helping and being the social worker."
In his own work, this 'gentle spirit' has been manifested.
After completing his medical degree at the University of the West Indies, he went on to further his studies in community health, and in 1986 graduated with a Master of Public Health degree. He has been working in Jamaica since, as a family physician, teacher, researcher and volunteer.
In 2002, Dr. Paul developed a course for family medicine residents, on health promotion, and wrote an accompanying monograph. He is also the co-developer of a web-based module in health management for medical students.
In 1993, together with one of his classmates, he founded Health Plus Associates, a medical centre which delivers family medicine and specialist services to community members in Kingston, Jamaica. He has directed this centre and worked on a part-time basis as a family physician over the years, where he has developed a reputation as a caring and compassionate family physician.
He has a strong interest in geriatric family medicine, and has also provided care at a senior citizen nursing home over the last four years. He participated in the World Health Organisation discussions on the development of age friendly guidelines for primary health care centres. He has also published and presented numerous papers on areas of family medicine and community health in the Caribbean.
The medical doctor is also founding director of the Whole Person Resource Centre, a non-governmental agency involved in capacity building and whole person development. He has served on a number of national and regional bodies and is currently a member of the National Family Planning Board of Jamaica, and an executive member of Hope Estate Educational Partners, an organisation which he co-founded to develop safer and healthier environments for children.
Dr. Paul has worked closely with the Pan American Health Organisation in developing health promotion training in the Caribbean. He also makes contributions to his local church through participation as a family physician in the church clinic and in delivering talks at educational seminars.
Referencing an article of his which was published in the Yale Journal of Medicine, Dr. Tomlin Paul told Outlook, "what has struck me over the years is the importance of building relationships with patients. The doctor patient relationship is based on trust, confidentiality. If you have a good relationship, you can negotiate change in behaviour which will reduce stress, (and) failure to exercise."
One of the problems he faces is the amount of time spent with patients. "There is no fixed time and others who are waiting might complain that it is too long. Some doctors have mastered the art of moving fast." But his own personal style has resulted in strong bonds with patients and long relationships, with patients refusing to see other doctors even when he is away.
"When you see a patient between five to 15 years, you build a rapport, and it is difficult for them to see another doctor. It is too much of a change."
His part-time practice has grown exponentially in spite of its restricted nature.
Dr. Paul says his journey to medicine was simply the path of least resistance on which all bright students of his time were obliged to take. But today, he does not regret his choices.
He admits, however, that he deeply misses his rural roots and has purchased a piece of land in Guys Hill, St. Catherine, where he plants peas, yam and other staples. He intends, he said, to equip his children with the simple joys of the life he knew as a kid.
"Food comes from the soil. This kind of exposure is important for the inner development of persons."
