The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association hosted its first physician-health retreat,
Safe Harbour, this past weekend. One of the attendees pulled me aside and shared their concern about their memory, concentration, and processing speed. I suggested they talk with their family physician and see if a formal assessment by a neuropsychologist was in order.
Which led me to wondering about the aging population of physicians in Canada and how the profession will address this question on a systematic basis. Drs. Lee and Weston looked at this issue in detail in the
Canadian Family Physician in 2012. Their observations were sobering: by 2026, 20% of Canadian doctors will be over 65 years old and it is expected that 13% will develop dementia and another 20% will have mild cognitive impairment. About 1/3 of physicians with competency concerns are likely to have moderate to severe cognitive impairment and physicians tend to have minimal insight into their own cognitive decline.
Lee and Weston took a thoughtful approach in giving advice to physicians like the one I met in Newfoundland - consider slowing down the pace of practice, take concerns raised by others about cognitive ability or competency seriously, take one's own concerns about cognition very seriously, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and plan for one's own retirement.
This is going to be an increasingly common issue in Canada - is it for you?
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