When Dr. Susan Reid graduated from the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine in  1987, more than half of her class of 100 were women, but she was the only one to go  into general surgery.

When she finished her residency in surgery and fellowship in critical care in 1993, less  than five per cent of all Ontario surgeons were women. That number has risen steadily  and is currently more than 20 per cent.

Reid will become the first woman to chair a department of surgery at a Canadian  medical school when she takes the position at McMaster on July 1.

She will head an academic department of almost 90 full-time and 190 part-time  physician faculty members, and 143 medical residents and fellows.

“The time was right for me then, and it’s right for me now,” says the associate professor.

As a student she was attracted to McMaster’s medical school because of its promise of  the small group, problem-based learning style. She found she loved the independence.  She stayed at McMaster for her residency because, she says, the school had the best  general surgery training program in the country.

“I’m originally from Toronto, but after being here for medical school, I wanted to stay in  Hamilton. McMaster is small enough to be very collegial, less formal and there’s a lot of  direct contact with senior faculty members. But we’re also very busy clinically. You get a  lot of experience and we work closely with patients.”

Reid has continued teaching since she was a resident and she has held many leadership  roles in the department’s educational program and won several teaching awards. She  has also taken national leadership positions and is currently the past president of the  Canadian Association of General Surgeons.  Her research interests are centred on surgical education. She has looked at how  students make the decision to go into a surgical career; the importance of surgical  clerkship during medical training and currently is focused on researching the  development of teaching skills in faculty.

“Our department is ready to move forward with our research mandate in a variety of  areas, particularly evidence-based surgery. We have some of the best programs in  Canada, with emerging leaders in clinical surgical care, education and research.”

Since she graduated in 1993, Reid has worked for Hamilton Health Sciences as a general  surgeon and in an intensive care unit. Her primary clinical interests are breast cancer  and critical care.

A surgical practice can be very rewarding as it can have a good work to life balance for  both women and men, she says. “There are so many opportunities, if you want to work  in the community, or in academia; if you want to work in education or research.”

Reid, 50, says the fact that she’s the first woman to chair a department of surgery for a  Canadian medical school, is “sociologically interesting. It speaks to the demographics of  the surgeon population in my age group. As time goes on we’ll have more women in  surgery and more women in leadership positions.”