E87 Chip Doig on the Ethics of Donation after Cardiac Death, Conflicts in the ICU, and Staying Fresh

Dr. Christopher "Chip" Doig is an intensivist at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We focused on a number of ethical issues in the ICU, from donation after cardiac death to the idea of “futility”, and how to discuss that with patients and their families. Finally, we try to understand how Dr. Doig remains so fresh after all these years as an intensivist.

Links:

1. Resumption of Cardiac Activity after Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Measures. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2022713

2. Ethics roundtable debate: Patients and surrogates want 'everything done' – what does 'everything' mean? https://ccforum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/cc5016

3. The name of the dog. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmp1806388

Biography (from U of C website)
Dr Christopher Doig (better known as Chip) graduated from the University of Saskatchewan (MD with distinction), trained in Vancouver and Calgary with specialization in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. He has additional training in clinical epidemiology and health care ethics. Dr. Doig is a tenured Professor in the Departments of Critical Care Medicine, Medicine and Community Health Sciences in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. He is a past Department Head for Community Health Sciences, and immediate past head for the Department of Critical Care Medicine, He has held other leadership roles including as a President and on the Board of the Alberta Medical Association (AMA), the board of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), and STARS (Shock, Trauma and Rescue Society).

Dr. Doig has been recognized with a number of local, provincial, national, and international awards. These include: the McLeod Distinguished Achievement Award for Faculty from the University of Calgary, AHS President’s Excellence Award in Quality Improvement for the provincial ICU delirium initiative (co-lead), AMA Medal for Distinguished Service (contributions to developing critical care in Alberta), CMA Dr. William Marsden Award in Medical Ethics, the E. Garner King Award from the Canadian Critical Care Society, The Royal Life Saving Society Bronze Benefactor Medal (for work with STARS), and the Global Sepsis Award (Alberta Sepsis Network) from the Global Sepsis Alliance.

Dr. Doig’s publications include in leading medical journals including Nature Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Academic Medicine and leading critical care journals including the American Journal of Critical Care Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Intensive Care Medicine, and the Journal of Critical Care. Dr. Doig’s publications cover a breadth of translational medicine, clinical trials, outcomes-based research involving large cohorts and complex datasets, medical ethics, and medical education.

Dr. Doig’s experience provides a unique perspective on acute care delivery involving critically ill patients, quality improvement and patient safety, public engagement, and engagement with government on health policy issues. Dr. Doig is currently developing methods to evaluate physician performance Dr. Doig’s ongoing education includes enrolment in a Master’s in Health Economics (London School of Economics) and a Master’s of Public Policy (Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago).

Chip is most proud to be a father to 4 fantastic kids, and 30 years married to Suzanne. He enjoys time off in the mountains (biking, hiking and skiing), swimming, and playing soccer (currently ranked second in his family in goal scoring but hoping to improve). He is the Vogel Team Captain of Canadian National Medical Soccer playing at the World Medical Football Championships.