For the February version of the 2T1 features, this month will be a special feature. Instead of one student, two students have been selected to be interviewed for this month. The second student to be interviewed is Gigi Lai, the current Vice-President of the Undergraduate Pharmacy Society (UPS).
Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from and what were you doing before pharmacy school?
I was born in Hong Kong and then I moved to Vancouver when I was young, where I largely grew up there. I did my schooling in Vancouver up until the end of high school and then felt that Vancouver was a little bit too small, so I moved here to Toronto to do my undergrad at U of T. Luckily, I got into U of T pharmacy, so I have been here since then.
Outside of studying, what do you like to do for fun?
Hobby-wise, typically like other people, I like to watch movies or TV shows on my laptop. I also really like building jigsaw puzzles but because I don’t really have the space to hang them in Toronto, nor do I like disassembling them after, I usually build them when I’m back in Vancouver. I also like building model figures. I like working with my hands a lot. One of my New Year’s Resolutions for this year was to learn a new language, so I have been trying to do that lately.
I feel as you should take advantage of all the technology and resource available and learn new things like another language. Learning languages is a great way to learn more about the world around you. I am hoping to learn Japanese by the end of this year, but I also brush up on the French and Spanish I learned back in high school. I don’t really have the languages retained and I should really brush up on my Chinese as well. It’s an ambitious goal.
What kind of music do you like?
I listen to all types of music, but not so much country. I listen to a lot of R&B and hip-hop and particularly Korean hip-hop right now. I don’t really like pop as much because I think sometimes, it’s meaningless lyrics with a catchy tune in the background. Right now, I’ve just been getting more into Asian music, but some Mozart and Chopin is always nice.
What are you most proud of or your biggest achievement?
I feel like I should say pharmacy school but honestly, my biggest achievement was probably getting my ARCT diploma in piano performance. I asked my mom to get me piano lessons when I was young after watching my brother play, but my motivation to practice fluctuated a lot until I was in grade 6 when I started taking lessons from a very passionate teacher who really inspired me. However, when I was preparing for my ARCT exam, I was doing a lot of extracurriculars at the time and with schoolwork on top of things. I didn’t have the time to practice so preparing for my ARCT was a big struggle. I almost ended up quitting at one point but after a lot of self-reflection and encouragement from my teacher, I went through with it and got my diploma. I think that’s probably my biggest achievement
I think everyone has heard this on the news. With the advent of the novel coronavirus, (2019-nCoV)[a] it has instilled fear in the general public. The media has portrayed images of people rushing to buy facial masks and there appears to be a bias when showing pharmacies as depicting them as simply dispensing the face mask. Being the most accessible healthcare workers, my question is what role do you pharmacists should role in dealing with any infectious disease outbreaks?
I guess from a community pharmacy perspective, because we are the most accessible healthcare workers, you have a lot of people coming in and asking for masks. Most of the time, your answer is going to be “we’re sold out. Sorry.” and they’re going to ask, “well what else can I do?”,’ what else should I be doing?”, “what precautions should I be taking”? I think with community pharmacy, a big role during situations like these is really to provide education. There’s quite a lot of fear and a lot of hysteria instilled by media coverage of the coronavirus. Right now, it’s crucial that we educate the public about proper hand hygiene and other protective measures that you can take, and just really giving them the facts about the current situation rather than furthering the panic. As one of the first people the public will go to, we need to provide a sense of calm.
We are in the second decade of the millennia (2020) in which two decades went by quickly. In your opinion, what decade do you think were the best for you and why?
Wow! I can’t believe 2010s is considered a decade now. I miss the 2000s and I think it’s because back then, technology wasn’t as rampant as it is now and things were not as developed. I appreciate our current technology since we have all sorts of means to contact each other, but I think back in the 2000s, maybe because I was younger as well, there used to be a lot more in-person contact and seeing each other in person. I prefer that since I’m more of a face-to-face type of person. With the ability to talk to each other through online messaging or texts, I think everyone spends less quality time with each other but it’s not all bad.
Now we have platforms like FaceTime or Skype that really helps you keep in touch with friends who may be living far away or family members and still retain some of that face-to-face interaction. A lot of my friends are still in Vancouver and my family is all in Asia so I really appreciate this technology. Even though it’s online, it’s a really great way to stay connected in this decade.
What are your goals and aspirations once you graduate?
I want to be a pharmacist who can really offer my patients a personalized consultation and experience. One of the big things that I took away from when I worked in retail was how to create a personalized experience for everyone. My manager would tell me, “you’re not here to make transactions, you’re here to create experiences for people” and this business strategy helped me gain a lot of regular customers. Now, I want try to incorporate that in pharmacy because it really helps to build a rapport with your patients so that they feel comfortable when asking you questions and disclosing personal information.
I think career-wise, I don’t see myself working full-time in a community setting but I would love to continue working part-time if I end up doing something NDPC. I would really like to work in a hospital if I could, particularly in administrative settings because I really enjoy planning, organizing, and leading things, as you can see through my involvement in student council. I’m also really interested in industry and government. Right now, I am very undecided in terms of what I want to do but I’m hoping that APPEs can really guide me towards narrowing it down.
I think something else that I want to do further in the future, not right after I graduate, is to work internationally. I think it would be a really interesting project to work with other pharmacists around the world to improve the way we practice and improve accessibility of healthcare as well. Plus, I love to travel so that would be a bonus.
In your opinion, what do you think the future of pharmacy should be?
I think in the future, there will be a lot more collaboration and involvement of patients with their care and more integration with other healthcare professionals as well especially with ongoing developments in EHRs and PHRs. Patients will be able to access their own medical records, and better information access leads to more fluidity in the patient care process. In some places, they’re trying to create healthcare hubs. They’re trying to make a space where there’s almost one practitioner of every profession in there and so if a patient were to come, they could easily access any of them. They would be able to do everything in one place and I really like that idea because of the convenience and greater ease for various HCPs to communicate and share information. I think that’s something I would really like to see in the future. I’m not super updated on the biotechnology scene but I think there will definitely be a lot of improvements in the future with AI and health technology, things that we can’t even imagine. Maybe one day, we’ll reach the level of technology in movies and have hologram pharmacists popping out of someone’s smartwatch!
Notes:
[a] At the time of interview on 31st January 2020, COVID-19 was formerly called the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by the World Health Organization.
Photo Credits: Belle Li
Interviewer: William Nguyen 2T1 Monograph Rep