How donor support is helping Temerty Medicine students turn personal experience into purpose

A lifelong experience with eczema sparked Eunice Aluko’s interest in dermatology and showed her how the understanding and treatment of skin conditions can vary for patients with more richly pigmented skin.

Now a third-year medical student at the University of Toronto’s Mississauga Academy of Medicine (MAM), she is exploring how research and medicine can help address barriers to care and advance health equity. Along the way, she has found inspiration in mentors, patients and classmates — and a sense of belonging in a close-knit medical school community.

We sat down with Eunice to chat about her experience at MAM and how the U of T community’s support for student awards is helping her contribute to a future where patients can see themselves — and their lived experiences — reflected in those caring for them.

What sparked your interest in dermatology?

I’ve always been interested in skin care. I grew up with eczema, as did everyone in my family. Living with that and seeing the differences in understanding of how to support treatment for eczema in darker skin tones compared with lighter skin tones — it’s actually very drastic. Dermatology doesn’t have much diversity in the field itself, which sparked my interest in working toward improving that.

I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Marissa Joseph, who is now the AbbVie Chair in Ethnodermatology at the University of Toronto, when I was a teenager. I remember thinking I wanted to be someone like her. Seeing all the work she’s doing now in dermatology for people from all walks of life has made me even more motivated.

(Editor’s note: Marissa Joseph (PGME Dermatology, PGME Paediatrics) is also the medical director of Women’s College Hospital's RKS Dermatology Centre.)

What obstacles have you encountered as you’ve pursued your goals?

I would say the biggest one is probably imposter syndrome. With every new obstacle in medical school, if something doesn’t go exactly the way you want it to, it’s easy to immediately think, ‘Oh, this isn’t for me, then.’

But at U of T there are a lot of opportunities for you to feel like you belong. Although I’ll encounter situations that leave me questioning whether I’m suited for this career, interacting with patients, shadowing doctors and talking to different specialists shows there are ways and spaces where I can be of service to my community as a physician — places where I can belong and really serve my purpose.

You’re a student at the Mississauga Academy of Medicine (MAM). What’s that been like?

MAM is such a close-knit community. I feel like we’re really building lifelong friendships and connections. It makes you feel like you’re not alone because you have all these people you can rely on who are going through the same thing as you, who can give you study strategies or different ways to tackle the next exam and learn the material. I’ve been grateful for the community here.

What does leadership mean to you?

The things that come to mind first for me are mentorship and advocacy. Leadership means being a voice in the community and someone people can look up to when they are having difficulty speaking up for themselves.

It’s a privilege to work with my classmates. They all have that quality of advocacy. That’s what makes us able to lead communities, initiatives or programs: the ability to speak up, take initiative, be confident and be bold.

How do you see your work leading the way to a brighter future?

I see my work focusing on equity. We’re in such an interesting time in medicine. A lot of us want to see ourselves represented in the initiatives, programs and services being provided.

Right now, I’m working on a project that looks at the quality-of-life impacts on people living with hidradenitis suppurativa, or HS, which is a chronic, painful disease. It disproportionately affects Black women, but there aren’t a lot of studies on the impact of this condition on Black women in Canada. My work focuses on understanding the barriers to care for this condition for different patient populations and asking how we can improve access.

I hope this research leads to a better understanding of the significant differences in dermatology patients’ experiences depending on their skin tone. Perhaps we need public health policies and programs directed toward that to improve equity and let people know that they’re heard and not being dismissed or ignored.

Where do you hope your studies or research will lead you next?

I’m hoping to become a dermatologist. But more than that, I want to make a long-lasting impact in my local community, as well as nationally and hopefully globally. I would love to go to places where people have challenges accessing care or where there are health-care crises and offer whatever services and resources I can provide — and have that be a way to inspire other people to do the same.

Health care isn’t just a Canadian thing or a Mississauga thing. It’s global, and everyone needs access to health care regardless of where they live.

How will donor support help you get there, or how is it currently helping you?

One of our biggest stresses as medical students is financial. Having donors who recognize the struggles we’re going through and not only recognize them but take action and provide solutions that we probably couldn’t access anywhere else is very important.

Right now, student awards are relieving that stress and allowing me to focus on other important projects, like my research work, while also pursuing entry into dermatology. Donor support has allowed me to direct my energy toward the other important things in my life and not feel so bogged down by working multiple part-time jobs or being stressed about finances.

It also makes us realize that when we leave medical school, there are many ways for us to support other medical students or learners in diverse fields and specialties. It inspires us to do the same — like a chain reaction.

Where do you believe U of T and its community are leading the way?

I think we are leading the way toward not only a brighter future for medicine, but also a more diverse one. You can tell that U of T wants us to learn but also to be inspired and driven toward our greatest potential.

The different classes and sessions we have make it feel as though they really want us to leave medical school with the goal of being the best physicians we can be for our communities. The different professors, leaders, preceptors and doctors who come to speak at U of T are also very inspiring. Many of them are leaders in the fields we want to go into, so it’s inspiring to see what they’ve accomplished and know that we could do it, too.

U of T has that wonderful aspect of its curriculum where we really are inspired. I can say most of my classmates come to class thinking, ‘Okay, we can definitely do more, and we can do a lot for our community.’