Alyssa Boyd graduated from McMaster medical school in 2003 and traveled north to Thunder Bay to complete a two year residency program in rural family medicine with a special focus in palliative care.  She returned to Southern Ontario in 2006 for a brief 3-month locum in Collingwood in the hopes of traveling to other small towns before deciding where to settle. Thirteen years, two homes and two children later, it is safe to say, Collingwood is where she belongs.  

After her first son was born in 2008 she decided to hang up her ER hat and pursue her lifelong dream of practicing palliative care.  Since that time she has procured a part time salaried position to provide palliative care consultation to patients in the South Georgian Bay community, the local hospital and Campbell House hospice.   She has practiced as a GP Oncologist at RVH and has seen the opening of Campbell House hospice.  She helped start the OTN consultation service for oncology patients at CGMH and the Georgian Bay Family Health Team as well as the Palliative Care Outpatient Clinic for Chronic Disease.  She is the lead physician for the North Simcoe Muskoka Palliative Care Network and just this past year helped establish the region’s first ever Shared Care Team – an integrative care approach to providing holistic palliative care to all residents of our region.

 

Alyssa’s true passion is certainly in the domain of palliative care, and most specifically in the stories that patients share.  Her greatest moments in her career have been in the exploring and realizing with patients the things that truly matter in their final days and months.  It is a dream come true for her to be able to explore these meaningful wishes with patients through the work of this foundation. She is honoured and excited to be both a co-founder and board member and looks forward to helping ensure that her patients’ wishes come true.