In the early stages of my medical training I wanted to be an academic. I saw little value in endeavours that extended beyond the tertiary-care hospital. This all changed when I was mandated to complete a community-based oncology research project as part of my second year of medical school. During that project, I had the good fortune to work with a motivated community agency and a strong focus group of individuals who were touched by cancer. This dynamic combination of mentors forced me to reevaluate my earlier assumptions about community-based research, and I ultimately left the project with a stronger sense of how my efforts as a clinician could make an impact in the community, supporting those who in turn support the patient outside of the hospital. Learning that the course of many illnesses is determined at least as much by caregiver support as it is by active intervention by the physician, I finally came to appreciate that community and hospital work support each other in modern medical care. By addressing the social determinants of health, physicians can improve the care of their patients, regardless of their prognosis, and increase the impact that they have on the health of entire families.
