Age: 39
Occupation: Physician; clinical associate professor, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary; chief medical officer, PurposeMed
Caley Shukalek has long given back to the community — specifically, underserved populations within the health-care system.
As a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, he took special interest in ensuring 2SLGBTQIA+ people receive equitable care. At 18 years old, he volunteered at an HIV service agency. This work involved sharing sexual health education, HIV awareness and health-system navigation to students, people at health fairs and unhoused individuals.
“By listening to people, you hear about how they experience the world and how different it is than your own,” says Shukalek. “All of that has informed how I think about people’s health, about the system that supplies health and how we could do better. It continues to drive me.”
Shukalek knows that certain populations face increased stigmatization in the health-care system. He is determined to increase safe access to patient-centred care.
He has helped secure more than $10 million in research funding — money that supports several of his research projects, including a soon-to-be-operationalized, at-home sexual health diagnostic tool that tests for sexually transmitted infections.
Beyond his clinical role as a specialist in general internal medicine at the Foothills Medical Centre and HIV/STI medicine at Sheldon Chumir, Shukalek is also a co-founding executive and chief medical officer at PurposeMed, a virtual care platform. PurposeMed works across three brands — Freddie (HIV prevention and treatment), Frida (ADHD platform for adults), and Foria (gender-affirming care) — and has delivered care to more than 50,000 patients.
“The number of patients whose lives have changed just by getting access to affirming, non-judgmental care and the other services we provide around HIV prevention, mental health, transgender-affirming care — there’s so much that’s come of it,” says Shukalek.
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