Medical grad realizing lifelong dream
Grady excited for opportunity to ply his trade so close to home
Elliot Grady’s roots are in Niagara.
It’s where he grew up and it’s where he will become a medical doctor.
As Grady prepares to mark his graduation from McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine Niagara Regional Campus, he said it feels like a dream come true.
“I can’t really remember a time when I didn’t want to be a doctor. Early on, it came from the fact I loved science but also, my dad was an emergency medical technician, so he was a big source of inspiration. I would hear stories about his heroic feats, and I got excited about that when I was a kid.”
Raised in Niagara Falls, Grady spent a good part of his youth as a competitive swimmer, then a coach and swim instructor. Having the opportunity to work with children and their parents, as well as summers spent volunteering at Niagara Health, planted the seeds for a future in family medicine.
The Niagara campus will continue to be his home base as he prepares to embark on his residency in rural family medicine based in the Grimsby area.
Grady said he anticipates he will be placed at clinics in the West Lincoln area and Hamilton Health Sciences’ West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby, as well as at Niagara Health’s St. Catharines hospital.
“One of the amazing aspects of family medicine is the opportunity for developing connections with patients and people in the community,” he said.
The A.N. Myer high school grad said he had a “fantastic time” at the Niagara campus for the past three years.
“I loved the small community feel of the Niagara regional campus. I got to know my classmates, and most of the staff and preceptors. My clinical experience was also fantastic, and I had a lot of opportunities to work one-on-one with some fantastic preceptors.”
Grady said he is especially grateful for the mentorship of Kaleem Ashraf, an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics with McMaster and a pediatrician with Niagara Health.
He is excited for what he considers to be endless opportunities in his future in rural family medicine.
“The experience I had throughout medical school in smaller communities and rural environments showed me that the broader scope of practice is what I want to do,” he said.
“Rural family medicine grants me the opportunity to do other things within medicine that I like, such as emergency medicine and minor procedures.”
Grady is one of 27 school of medicine students graduating from the Niagara campus.
McMaster’s spring convocations will be held on the same days as scheduled but, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, graduands will be receiving a personalized video and entrance into a website with video greetings from university officials. In-person celebrations will be scheduled later.
The school of nursing celebrates its convocation of 547 students Wednesday.
The next day, the 199 graduands of the school of medicine, with 143 from the Hamilton campus, 29 from the Waterloo campus and 27 from the Niagara campus, join 419 students of other programs of the faculty of health sciences for their convocation.
Grady said he wouldn’t be where he is today without all those who supported him, in particular, his parents, Allyson and Paul Grady, and younger sister, Sabrina.
“My parents and my sister have been incredibly supportive, and I know they always will be. My dad is now retired, but he loves that I’m going to be a doctor and he’s very proud of me. Now, I get to tell him about my work, and it makes for some great conversations around the dinner table.”