Dr. Rithesh Ram

Dr. Rithesh Ram Physician, President, Founder of Riverside Medical & Family Man. Specialty: Family Medicine, Epidemio

My mom hates it when we call her a feminist.But she is one.In 1969, at 26 years old, my mother, Rajammal Ram, left India...
09/03/2026

My mom hates it when we call her a feminist.
But she is one.

In 1969, at 26 years old, my mother, Rajammal Ram, left India and came to Canada by herself.

She arrived with a nursing degree, her Bharatanatyam ankle bells, very little money, and a job waiting for her in Lethbridge.

Everything that came after that, she built.

She built a career in nursing. She married my dad and raised a family. She spent decades teaching classical Indian dance and sharing a culture and tradition that had very little presence in Alberta when she arrived.

For more than 30 years, my dad drove her from Camrose to Edmonton every Saturday so she could teach. Her students went on to perform at community celebrations, cultural events and even the 1978 Commonwealth Games.

She became a founding board member of the Alberta Malayalee Association. She served with the Council of India Societies of Edmonton. She performed, taught, raised money for charities, built community and helped generations of young people stay connected to their culture.

Along the way, she has been recognized many times for that work, including receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2022.

But the awards aren't really what impress me most.

It's what it took to build that life in the first place.

She came from very little, at a time when the path for a young woman like her could very easily have been decided for her.

She decided anyway.
She left home.
She left her country.
She built a career.
She built a family.
She became a leader.
She never stopped sharing what she knew with the people around her.

This year, the Council of India Societies of Edmonton recognized her story as part of its Golden Jubilee, celebrating 50 years from 1976–2026.

At 83, she's still teaching.
She's still dancing.

She's still probably going to tell me she isn't a feminist.
Sorry, Mom.
I'm incredibly proud of you.

Rithesh

Having more doctors doesn't necessarily mean having more access to doctors.That distinction matters.Alberta can have mor...
09/01/2026

Having more doctors doesn't necessarily mean having more access to doctors.
That distinction matters.

Alberta can have more physicians registered in the province than ever before and patients can still struggle to get an appointment.

Those aren't contradictory statements.

A physician headcount doesn't tell you how much care is actually available.
It doesn't tell you where those physicians are working, what kind of medicine they're practising, how much they're working, or how many patients they're actually able to see.

You could add thousands of physicians tomorrow. If they're practising in areas that are already well served, working limited hours, or aren't providing the services where the shortages actually exist, the number went up.

Access may not have.

That's why I think we need to get better at distinguishing between how many physicians we have and how much healthcare capacity we actually have.

Physician recruitment matters. I've said before that having more doctors in Alberta is good news.

But the number alone can't tell us whether Albertans are getting better access to care.

More doctors is a good start.

The next question is whether that translates into more care where Albertans actually need it.
—
Dr. Rithesh Ram
Rural Generalist | Drumheller, Alberta

08/27/2026

I've heard a lot of concern that allowing Albertans to pay for certain diagnostic imaging without a physician referral will make public wait times longer.

I understand why people would assume that.
But that's not quite how the system works.

Let's use an MRI as an example.
Publicly funded imaging operates within a finite budget. There is a limit to the number of publicly funded scans the system can pay for over a given period.
Patients are prioritized based on medical need, and that funding has to be managed across everyone who needs imaging now and in the future.
Here's the part I think is getting lost in this conversation:

Machine capacity and publicly funded capacity are not always the same thing.
A machine having an available appointment doesn't necessarily mean the public system has funding available to fill that appointment with another publicly funded scan.

Now let's look at the waitlist itself.
Imagine 100 people are waiting for publicly funded MRIs.
Public waitlist: 100 people.
Four decide they don't want to wait and choose to pay for their scans themselves.
Those four people come off the publicly funded waitlist.
Public waitlist: 96 people.

They haven't moved ahead of the other 96 people in the public queue.
They've left the queue.

Their privately paid scans can use available machine capacity without those scans being paid for from the finite public funding available for publicly funded imaging.
That's an important distinction.

Privately paid imaging has already existed in Alberta for years.

What this change does is remove one step. Patients who choose to pay for certain imaging themselves no longer need a physician to sign the requisition simply to access that privately paid scan.

That doesn't mean physicians no longer have a role.

There is still enormous value in talking to your doctor about whether a scan is appropriate, which type of imaging makes sense, what the results could mean, and what happens next.

That's medical guidance.
It's different from requiring a physician's approval before a patient can choose to pay for the scan themselves.

So before we assume this change will automatically make publicly funded wait times longer, we need to understand how the funding and the waitlist actually work.

A privately paid scan doesn't automatically mean someone else waits longer.
Sometimes, it means one less person is waiting.

If you’d like to read Fraser Institute’s detailed report about health care funding, please click here:
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2026-07/price-of-public-health-care-insurance-2026.pdf
—
Dr. Rithesh Ram
Rural Generalist | Drumheller, Alberta

Physician burnout is real.I'm not interested in debating that.But I do wonder if we're spending so much time talking abo...
08/25/2026

Physician burnout is real.
I'm not interested in debating that.

But I do wonder if we're spending so much time talking about why physicians burn out that we're missing another question:

Are we doing enough to prepare medical students for what a career in medicine will actually ask of them?

When you're deciding on a specialty, there's a lot to consider.
What interests you? What are you good at? Where are the opportunities?

But you're not just choosing what kind of medicine you'll practise.

You're also choosing, to some extent, what your life is going to look like.
How often will you be on call? How much control will you have over your schedule? What administrative responsibilities come with the job? What will that career ask of your family? How much of your life are you willing to give to medicine?

I don't think we talk honestly enough about any of this during medical training.

Some students get lucky. They find a preceptor who lets them see the whole picture, including the parts of the career that don't show up in a textbook.

But I don't think that's something we should leave to luck.

If we're serious about physician burnout, preparing future doctors for the reality of the careers they're choosing should be part of the conversation.

That doesn't mean the system gets a pass. There are absolutely things in healthcare that need to change.

But we can work on those problems and do a better job of preparing physicians for what they're walking into.

Choosing a specialty isn't just a career decision.
It's a life decision.
—
Dr. Rithesh Ram
Rural Generalist | Drumheller, Alberta

08/20/2026

Medicine has a complicated relationship with information we don't know what to do with yet.

Take incidental findings.

Something shows up on a scan. It isn't causing a problem. We don't have an intervention for it. So the advice is often: don't worry about it.
Sometimes that's exactly the right advice.

But I don't think that automatically makes the information useless.
Medicine changes.

Things we didn't routinely look for years ago, we look for today. And as evidence changes and treatments improve, information that once had little clinical value can become more useful.

So why wouldn't some people want to collect and keep more information about their own health?

One of the arguments against broader screening is that we'll find things that don't matter and create unnecessary anxiety.

For some patients, that's a legitimate concern.
But not everybody responds to information with anxiety.

Some people would rather know, document it, understand what it means today, and have that information available if it becomes relevant tomorrow.

We're also getting much better at interpreting health data. AI will almost certainly change what we're able to identify, connect and understand over time.

That doesn't mean every incidental finding needs treatment.
It doesn't mean every person needs every test.
It certainly doesn't mean more data is always better.

But I do think patients should get a say in how much information they want about their own health.

Because something medicine can't act on today may not be something medicine can't act on forever.
—
Dr. Rithesh Ram
Rural Generalist | Drumheller, Alberta

08/18/2026

Leadership comes with responsibility.
Not just the parts we enjoy.
The difficult parts too.

There's been a lot of discussion lately about reducing the administrative burden on physicians.

Let's be honest…nobody goes into medicine because they love administration.
It takes time away from patients, and yes, it contributes to burnout.

But here's what I keep wondering.
If physicians continue handing planning, governance, funding, and decision-making to others...
Can we still expect physicians to lead healthcare?

You don't get to keep the leadership and give someone else all the responsibility.

That's not how leadership works.
Some of it is frustrating.
Some of it isn't paid.
Some of it is just plain hard.

But if we want physicians leading healthcare, we have to be willing to lead all of it.
Not just the parts we enjoy.
—
Dr. Rithesh Ram
Rural Generalist | Drumheller, Alberta

Alberta adding more physicians is good news.It really is.Does that mean every healthcare problem is solved?Of course not...
08/13/2026

Alberta adding more physicians is good news.
It really is.

Does that mean every healthcare problem is solved?
Of course not.

We still need more physicians practicing in the communities and specialties where Albertans need them most.

But I think we've gotten into a habit of dismissing good news because it isn't the entire solution.

It's okay to say adding more physicians is a positive step.
It is.

Now comes the harder part.
How do we make sure those physicians are practicing in the communities and specialties where Albertans need them most?

That's a much bigger conversation.

It's one that governments, medical unions/associations, healthcare leaders, and physicians all need to be part of.

Progress shouldn't end the conversation.
It should start the next one.

I’m ready whenever they are!
—
Dr. Rithesh Ram
Rural Generalist | Drumheller, Alberta

One of the most rewarding parts of advocating for rural healthcare is having opportunities to bring that perspective int...
08/11/2026

One of the most rewarding parts of advocating for rural healthcare is having opportunities to bring that perspective into the rooms where important decisions are being discussed.

This photo was taken during a meeting at Government House last month.

I always appreciate opportunities to share my perspective with ministers and decision-makers on the realities, challenges, and opportunities facing rural healthcare in Alberta.

Rural communities deserve to have their voices represented when decisions about healthcare are being considered.

I'll continue bringing a rural perspective to every conversation I have, and advocating for practical solutions that strengthen healthcare for the communities we serve.
—
Dr. Rithesh Ram
Rural Generalist | Drumheller, Alberta

08/06/2026

Most people assume all of their healthcare providers can see the same medical record.

One of the biggest myths in healthcare is that they can.

In reality, many healthcare providers are working from different systems that don't automatically share information.

Hospitals, Rural Generalists, family docs / GPs, specialists, and other healthcare providers don't all work from one shared electronic medical record.

Unless information is shared directly between providers, important details may not automatically follow you from one appointment to the next.

It's an understandable assumption.
In almost every other part of our lives, information moves seamlessly between devices, apps, and services.

Healthcare hasn't caught up.

Until our healthcare systems become more connected, patients need to understand that information doesn't always move as seamlessly as they expect.

The more you understand how information is shared - and where those gaps still exist - the better prepared you'll be to ask questions, follow up, and help ensure important information reaches the right healthcare provider at the right time.

Better connected medical records won't solve every challenge in medicine.

But they would improve communication, reduce duplication, and allow physicians to spend less time tracking down information - and more time caring for patients.

The best medical decisions are made when the right information is available at the right time.
—
Dr. Rithesh Ram
Rural Generalist | Drumheller, Alberta

The internet solved the "access to medical information" problem.The unintended consequence?A clinical judgment problem.I...
08/05/2026

The internet solved the "access to medical information" problem.
The unintended consequence?

A clinical judgment problem.
Information is everywhere.

Knowing which information is accurate, relevant, and trustworthy has become the harder skill.
—
Dr. Ram
Rural Generalist | Drumheller, Alberta

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T0J0Y0

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