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CREDIT: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen Dr. Akef Obeidat tries to make lab work as relevant as possible to the medical students he instructs by relating their lessons to actual clinical situations.

It might be going too far to say teacher Akef Obeidat really brings his material to life. After all, he's the man who teaches gross anatomy, the medical school lab where students work with cadavers, and Frankenstein he is not.

Metaphorically, though, that's the way his students feel. Not many of them would have been surprised to learn their teacher has been named one of the city's top educators. Although he has only been teaching for two years, he has already won a handful of awards.

Teaching, however, is not what Akef Obeidat, who holds a medical degree, thought he'd be doing. For foreign-trained doctors, getting Canadian credentials is not always an easy process. While he has discovered he loves teaching, it's a job he took to pay the bills.

Born in Amman, Jordan, in 1963, he did his medical degree at Al-Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad. After working as a general practitioner in Jordan for five years, he came to Canada in 1993. He knew, though, that he wasn't going to become a doctor in Canada right away.

Despite the shortage of doctors here, Dr. Obeidat knew a number of foreign-trained doctors who had not been able to find residency spots, even after passing their Canadian licensing exams.

"I have a number of friends who did pass all the examinations, and still they are doing nothing. There are no guarantees," he says.

Not wanting to risk a similar fate, he decided to first further his education in Kingston, where he did a PhD in neuroscience at Queen's University. He came to Ottawa to do post-doctoral work at the University of Ottawa's Neuroscience Research Institute.

From there, with a wife and four kids to support, Dr. Obeidat looked at his options and decided he'd become enthusiastic about teaching. He has thrown himself into it.

One of the things he set out to do was to make the lab work as relevant as possible to the U of O medical students who, he says, are passionately interested in learning quickly about the real-life situations they will face. So at every opportunity, he will relate the lessons to actual clinical situations.

For example, you'll need to know exactly where the liver is, he tells his students, to know what to do with an emergency room patient with a stab wound.

"If you don't know that the liver goes all the way up to the nipple, then you're not even going to suspect injury to the liver," Dr. Obeidat says.

He has also put a lot of effort into helping develop the medical school's electronic curriculum, using Power Point presentations and putting lecture notes and other course materials on the web.

He says the biggest thing, though, is just being ready to help the students any way he can.

"Students are not only here to learn medicine," he says. "They are humans."

Those humans, who often can be seen crowding his little office, have noticed his attitude.

"He goes beyond the call of duty to hold group and private tutorial sessions for those in need of some extra help," medical student James Wong wrote in a letter nominating Dr. Obeidat for a Young Professor Award last year. "It is not simply his willingness to lend a hand that's impressive, but his enthusiasm to offer it to you, even when you are too timorous to ask."

The teacher himself says that enthusiasm is the key to his success.

"I'm not the most expert or the biggest anatomist," he says. "I'm just trying to do my job and I'm trying to present it in a nice way to students."

He still hopes, though, that he will be able to realize his personal dream of becoming a cardiologist in Canada.

"My mom died of a heart disease," he says.

It's an emotionally charged issue for him.

"She became pregnant with me while she knew she had this condition and that might affect her ... I felt that she made so many sacrifices to bring me to life."

After several major surgeries, his mother died when he was 17. She was 36.

"That attracted me to the field of medicine. I wanted to do that. I want to know more about this and most importantly, I want to help people. I want to be able to help people, cure people, do things."

He says that for now, he's waiting to see what comes of recent promises by politicians to make it easier for foreign-trained doctors to be recognized here. In the meantime, he's enjoying helping the young medical students realize their dreams, one question, or piece of advice or conversation, at a time.

"I always have my door open."

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Excellent Educators

Sixteen special Ottawa teachers were recently honoured by their peers for outstanding contributions to all levels of their profession.

The Capital Educators' Awards recognize people 'who have made a significant impact on the lives of their students by acting as role models, instilling confidence and nurturing leadership.'

Students, parents and teachers nominated 253 educators for the third annual event, organized by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation.

The awards recognize teachers working for publicly funded elementary or secondary schools, colleges or universities in the City of Ottawa.

The 16 winners, who were honoured during the EduGala ceremony at Algonquin College, were chosen from 64 finalists.

This is the last of 16 daily profiles.

Profile of Akef Obeidat.

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