Angela Brijmohan, MSc, MD
Kingston, ON
Clinical Trainee, Queen's School of Medicine
Kingston, ON
CWHHA member since 2021
Biography
Angela Brijmohan is a fourth-year medical student at Queen’s School of Medicine, with a career interest in Cardiology, medical education and scientific research. Prior to pursuing medicine, she completed her MSc in cardiorenal disease and diabetes complications through the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. Inspired by the 2018 Heart & Stroke publication: Ms. Understood, Angela, and her colleague, Natasha Tang, asked whether their medical school curriculum sufficiently covered unique presentations and management of cardiovascular disease in women.
Supported by the Queen’s Cardiology team and teaching faculty at Queen’s School of Medicine, Angela and Natasha reviewed all learning events in their curriculum and mapped the findings to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology guidelines for women’s health competencies. This process identified five out of nine areas where their medical school curriculum could be updated with gender specific education on the care for women’s hearts. In order to adequately care for women’s hearts, Angela and Natasha identified a need for greater sex/gender specific training for medical students. Their project has led to advocacy work that aims to increase inclusion of sex and gender specific guidelines, as they become available, across courses in Family Medicine, Cardiology and throughout clerkship. Beyond their work at Queen’s, Angela and Natasha have approached the Ontario Medical Student Association, with the goal of advocating for the inclusion of gender specific training on the care for women’s hearts across Ontario’s medical schools. Their goal is to create an ever-evolving curriculum in Canadian undergraduate medical schools that is dedicated to women’s heart health.
Outside of medicine, Angela is an active member of her community, engaging in mentorship of students who are the first in their family to attend University, with a specific focus on mentorship in science and medicine. In addition, she has advocated with groups such as S.E.E.D.S (Supporting Education, Empowerment, and Development, through Science) to increase diversity and inclusion of underrepresented groups in undergraduate science and medical education.
In her spare time, she enjoys visual arts, volunteering as an illustrator for children’s books on childhood diseases, painting landscapes, soaking in the Kingston sunsets and attending virtual Zumba classes with her twin sister.
