After more than half a decade jumping through the hoops of the Canadian health-care system, Dr. Ali Ziaee and Dr. Helia Ghanean have been able to open their family medical practice.
They’ve chosen to do so in the Ottawa Valley.
“When we came here as international doctors, we had a dream to continue our practice and serve the community,” Ziaee told CTV News.
“But we found that we [had to] start from scratch and we need to do the all the exams, and we faced so many obstacles.”
The husband-and-wife duo came to Canada about 10 years ago, settling down in Toronto. The couple met in Tehran where they both graduated from medical school.
After that, the couple spent years travelling the world and honing their medical craft.
“We have been in Middle East and Dubai, we were practicing as a family doctors,” says Ziaee. “I have been in the UK for a short period of time, I was practicing as a family physician.”
Ziaee says he was also previously the lead physician at a trauma centre and also completed disaster management training in Italy.
“(Also) Italy, Helia did it in Sweden, and then we decided to come to Canada.”
And that’s where, he says, the couple’s momentum came to a halt.
“In Canada, to be eligible and to practice as a family doctor, you [have to] overcome some obstacles, and to be eligible, it’s a long journey,” says Ziaee.
Since 2017, Ziaee and Ghanean say they have filled out countless forms and completed numerous exams in order to become eligible Canadian physicians.
“It was a long journey,” says Ghanean. “It was frustrating, to be honest.”
It wasn’t until 2023 when the couple were given their opportunity through Practice Ready Ontario (PRO), an assessment program run by the Government of Ontario and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, that recognizes the competence of internationally trained physicians.
“The doors opened right after Covid,” explains Ghanean.
“Then we applied, and we were lucky to be the first batch. Apparently nearly 300 physicians applied, and out of 300, they got 28 physicians.”
Ziaee says PRO offered the couple the option of setting up their practice in a rural location within the province. They moved to Pembroke in August 2024 and had their family practice up and running by October.
They each now have a roster of roughly 1,000 patients and are still accepting new ones.
Ziaee has also taken on the role as medical director at Marianhill Long-Term Care Home in Pembroke.
“The last three and half months, we recorded a thousand patients,” says Ghanean.
“We met and greeted all of them, and they were all thankful. And we also have one hundred beds at Marianhill long-term care.”
Between the two of them, the couple now cares for more than a tenth of all of Pembroke, which they say speaks to overwhelming amount of people in the region without a primary care physician.
“We found so many patients are desperate without doctors and the shortage is really more than this,” says Ziaee.
“We were ready for this. We are so happy to support the community and to be part of this health-care system.”
Linda Tracey, CEO of Marianhill LTC, said, “We are just so fortunate to have them. They’re very dedicated professionals. They come with the new energy.”
Having now gone through the lengthy process of becoming certified in Canada and seeing how starved the region is for primary care, Ziaee offers a message to those seeking to take the same pathway.
“My message to all the doctors who are behind the door is to be focused, more strategic. Don’t give up. We should be optimistic that the situation will be better than this current situation.”
Tracey says the wealth of experience international doctors can bring to Ontario is undervalued and that Canada should get out of its own way when it comes to physician recruitment.
“Certainly, this is an example that shows international experience and the depth of knowledge that can be brought to your community is so beneficial. So, it certainly is something that I think we should be pursuing.”
Despite the hurdles her family had to go through, Ghanean is buoyed by their outcome through PRO, and is actively encouraging more physicians relocate to Canada.
“By opening this door with PRO and bringing more physicians, we also had the privilege to invite one of our colleagues and we had a coffee together. They are planning to move to Pembroke in July. So, we are helping others to also relocate.”
“I believe that after we went through that pathway, nothing can stop us now.”
