Tamina Eapen MD FRCP(C) Psychiatrist

Biography

Dr. Tamina Eapen is an acute care psychiatrist, interested in caring for people with profound mental illness, from all backgrounds. Tamina is particularly interested in being a precise diagnostician, minimizing the burden of medications, and understanding the relationship between the brain/mind, body, and spirit of a person. She has been practicing in the Toronto area for approximately seven years, and prior to that, for three years, in Ottawa. Tamina completed her medical education and psychiatric residency in Ottawa, and is now happy to call Toronto her home. In addition to being passionate about clinical excellence, Tamina is an ardent supporter of education for all types of learners, inside and outside of the medical profession. She has appeared twice on TVO's The Agenda, as a panelist speaking on topics related to mental health diagnoses and their treatment so that important information often reserved for patients in hospital programs could also be disseminated to the general public. She has been nominated for several awards and has been fortunate enough to be named CAMH Physician of the Year in 2018, recipient of the 2018-2019 Marie Mara Department of Psychiatry Education Award, and nominated twice for the Robin Hunter Department of Psychiatry Education Award. When Tamina is not busy being a physician, she can be found dreaming about travel, art, history, the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s, and a more meaningful future for all of us.

Quote from the Winner

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” – Maimonides

While I would much prefer steak over fish, there is no doubt that teaching future physicians and specialists how to fish for steak has been the privilege of my career. My students have taught me that clinical excellence is only possible when we dedicate ourselves to helping others learn and passing on wisdom and theory to each subsequent generation of care providers. I often discuss the architecture of the brain with students and patients, but frequently, I think about the architecture of medical education, and how it is constantly evolving with important structural changes and adaptations, often inspired by patients and by students. I trust and know that my students will only continue to improve the course and architecture of medical education, and thus, of clinical care. A surf and turf par excellence, if you will.

About the Award

These awards are named after William Thomas Aikins, the first Dean of the Faculty of Medicine after its reorganization in1887. They are the Faculty’s most prestigious awards in the MD Program. They were established to recognize and formally reward outstanding teachers in the areas of Individual Teaching Performance (Foundations and Clerkship), Development and Use of Educational Innovations, and Course / Program Development and Coordination. Recipients of these awards have significantly contributed to high-quality undergraduate teaching by establishing and integrating new and effective methods of instruction into the curriculum.