US Healthcare vs. Canada: Dr. Alona Sukhina's Lessons from the Frontlines Part I

🇺🇸➡️🇨🇦 What happens when the healthcare system you work in no longer aligns with the reason you became a doctor? In Part 1 of this three-part interview on The Interesting MD Podcast, host Dr. Rob Beck sits down with Dr. Alona Sukhina, a board-trained pediatrician who recently moved from Tucson, Arizona, to Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr. Sukhina shares her experience caring for refugee, immigrant, and underserved communities through a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), where integrated services helped provide care to patients facing significant financial and systemic barriers. But as policies, funding, and administrative priorities changed, she watched essential services become increasingly difficult for vulnerable patients to access. The conversation explores: • Dr. Sukhina’s work with refugee and underserved families • How FQHCs provide integrated healthcare to vulnerable communities • The impact of policy and funding changes on frontline patient care • The ethical challenges of practicing within a profit-driven healthcare system • Why Dr. Sukhina ultimately decided to leave the United States • The emotional difficulty and guilt that can accompany leaving patients and communities behind • Her decision to relocate to Vancouver, British Columbia • The differences she sees between healthcare as a right versus healthcare as a privilege Dr. Sukhina and Dr. Beck also discuss a difficult question facing many healthcare professionals: What do you do when the system prevents you from practicing medicine according to your values? For physicians and other healthcare professionals questioning their future in the U.S., this episode offers a candid conversation about ethics, identity, systemic change, and the possibility of choosing a different path. Chapters: 00:00 INTRO: Disillusionment with modern medicine 04:24 Moving to Vancouver for values 06:29 Understanding Federally Qualified Health Centers 10:08 Importance of FQHCs in healthcare 13:31 Impact of ICE on clinic visits 17:25 Losing support for refugee community 20:29 Family's Journey from Soviet Collapse 23:20 Leaving medicine due to burnout 28:28 Healthcare and inequality in America 29:46 Discussing high costs of insurance Podcast Link https://theinterestingmd.podbean.com YouTube Link    / @interestingmd   Website Link https://www.interestingmd.com/ Have a content suggestion? Email us at Ideas@interestingmd.com Email me at Rob@interestingmd.com