Bridging the gap

Nigerian-born Catherine Allen-Ayodabo, M.D., is one step closer to her goal of researching the relationship between HIV and cancer, thanks to the Internationally Trained Medical Doctors (ITMD) Bridging Program. Offered through Ryerson University’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, the program helps prepare internationally trained medical professionals for employment in health research and health management in Canada.

“The program gave me experience in going for interviews, and how to communicate during the interview process,” Allen-Ayodabo says. “I already had a background in medical research, but coming from Nigeria, it was really important to learn about how the workplace operates in a different culture, so when I start working, there won’t be a culture shock.”

Allen-Ayodabo, who immigrated to Canada in December 2016, credits ITMD with helping her secure a position as a research assistant at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and as a fellow at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. She currently compiles data on stomach cancer, and her goal is to one day undertake her own HIV/cancer research project. She would also like to earn a Ph.D. in epidemiology.

She thoroughly researched similar programs online before choosing ITMD. “There were so many,” she says with a laugh. “Ryerson’s program stood out – it was just what I was looking for. And through partnerships with community health programs, it offered work placement after three-fourths of the course was done.”

ITMD program co-founder and manager Shafi Bhuiyan, who teaches professional development, “gave some great insights about coming to Canada,” says Allen-Ayodabo. “The class taught me about going for job interviews, and how to communicate with peers and supervisors. We did role playing. It was like a mentorship class.”

Since launching at The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education in January 2015, the program has had 85 graduates, with participants coming from 32 countries, including Afghanistan, Bolivia, China, India, Jamaica, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Twenty-one participants from 17 countries began the program on September, 11 2017, and are expected to complete in December. More than 80 per cent of graduates have found employment in the medical field or are pursuing higher education.

After graduating with a medical degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 2008, Allen-Ayodabo worked at several medical centres in Lagos. She earned an MPH in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health in 2012, then returned to Lagos to work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health as a field supervisor on the PMA2020 project collecting data on family planning, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

“The project made data available online in real time, so it could be disseminated to government groups,” she says. “The data is important to marginalized people, because it gives them the opportunity to be proactive and allows them to take control of their health.”

Though she’s acclimating quite well to Canada, she admits it’s not easy to get into the national sport. “It’s tough to follow that little black thing around the ice,” she says. “I prefer watching soccer, which is very popular in Nigeria.”