Age: 35
Occupation: Neurologist; clinical assistant professor, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
As a medical student, Gabriela Gilmour wasn’t taught about functional neurological disorders — conditions where a person has seizures, paralysis or other physical disabilities, without any physical explanation.
For decades, these patients, mostly women, were overlooked, dismissed or told they were faking symptoms.
But Gilmour believed there was something more to these disorders — which can have devastating consequences like losing the ability to live independently or hold down a job — and to caring for these patients.
“The brain is an organ that, when it goes wrong, it can fundamentally change you as a person, which I am humbled by every day,” she says.
After her neurology residency in Calgary, Gilmour moved to Toronto for a fellowship in movement disorders, then returned to Calgary to build the Functional Movement Disorder Clinic. It’s the first of its kind in Western Canada and so successful that it is held up as a model worldwide.
“It’s very cool to have people coming to ask me about the program we have in Calgary,” Gilmour says. “I feel so much gratitude for the people I work with who have supported this.”
Since the program launched in November 2023, its multidisciplinary team has cared for more than 320 patients, offering them a combination of physical therapy, psychological therapy and more. A whopping 93 per cent of patients who’ve completed the program say they’ve achieved their treatment goals or that their quality of life has improved.
“Celebrating our wins with our patients — whether that’s an improvement in symptoms or going back to work or back to school, or whatever it is — and with our team is the best part,” Gilmour says.
Gilmour loves working with people and was drawn to the personal side of medicine. She unexpectedly fell in love with research along the way and likes the challenge of trying to find answers for a broader population. She’s currently leading 11 studies, including four international collaborations, and has published papers and given presentations in prestigious international settings.
She is inspired by her patients and wishes everyone could recognize that they deserve extra care. “One thing that really drives me is the resilience I see from people,” she says.
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