Dr. Kashif Parvez received a Bachelors of Science (Honours) degree in Biochemistry from the University of Calgary in 2002. He went on to complete a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Calgary in 2006. He produced 9 scientific publications examining learning and memory formation in the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. His scientific research was on processes that can be used to boost memory formation. In addition to learning and memory, he studied forgetting and extinction of behaviours induced by operant conditioning. He has also performed research on brain tumors and degenerative spine conditions and have 16+ abstracts/publications.
After his Ph.D, he went on to complete a M.D. at the University of Toronto in 2010. He was able to successfully match to the University of Toronto Neurosurgical training program and completed his training in 2016. He then completed a combined General Neurosurgery and Complex Spine Fellowship at the Vancouver Island Neurosurgery Foundation in Victoria, British Columbia.
Making the transition to family medicine from neurosurgery was a challenge but a necessary progression of his journey. He spent a portion of my early childhood living in small communities where tightly knit families would socialize and help each other out in times of need. During his neurosurgery clinical fellowship in Victoria, British Columbia and his recent family medicine residency training in northern Manitoba, he had been seeing patients from urban, rural and indigenous communities.
He would see patients and saw firsthand some of the difficulties they had to experience. Patients from all walks of life suffer from several obstacles such as poor access to healthcare resources, poor socioeconomic environments (i.e. inability to afford medications), and a whole range of mental health issues (i.e. substance abuse). While he was treating patients, he developed such a wide breadth of clinical encounters and experiences, each shaping how he wants to practice as a physician.
He is currently practicing Family Medicine in downtown Toronto at the Primacy Queens Quay Family Health Organization. In his spare time, he performs scientific research with neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons and teach clinical skills to other physicians/trainees.