Dr. Howard Burke, who was born and raised in Toronto, knew that he wanted to be a family doctor from his childhood. Original plans were to join up in practice with his cousin and mentor, Dr. Eli Haniford, who had a long-standing general practice in the heart of Toronto; however, his residency teaching practices, particularly with Dr. Harry Hall in Orillia, introduced him to the advantages of practising medicine in a small town. Along with his wife, Michelle Albert-Burke, who is also a family doctor, Dr. Burke set up practice in Bowmanville, Ontario after he completed his family residency program in July, 1990. By locating in Bowmanville, he was able to fulfill his dreams of having a full family practice with office work, inpatient care, emergency medicine, OR assisting and obstetrics.
In his first few years of practice, Dr. Burke became particularly interested in palliative care. He acquired extra expertise in this area, and assisted in the establishment of Bowmanville’s PACT team. This multi-disciplined team, which provides both in-home and in-hospital care for palliative patients, has become a very well-run and invaluable institution in the community. He also became a coroner, and extended his investigative and communication skills in caring for that side of end-of-life situations. In the past few years, he has been devoting increasing amounts of time working on the “big-scale” issues of end-of-life care, through such groups as the OMA’s Section on Palliative Medicine and the region’s End-of-Life Network which includes working on a computerized searchable database for treatment issues in Palliative Care. He is also the Chief of Family Medicine for Lakeridge Health Corporation, the regional hospital in Oshawa.
Dr. Burke began teaching, when a friend from Toronto called and asked for advice in getting into medical school, then advice getting through medical school and finally for an opportunity to do an elective with him. From this beginning, Dr. Burke delved into teaching, both as a teaching practice preceptor and as a full two-year preceptor with the Scarborough Hospital for Family Practice Residents from the University of Toronto. Residents who have been taught by Dr. Burke praise the wide range of his practise and his teaching style, especially his emphasis on reviewing every patient personally with the resident so that learning happens with each and every patient. He also makes a habit of trying to incorporate the humour of life and situations into much of his daily encounters, believing that “humour is often the best medicine”.
Outside of his practice, Dr. Burke enjoys time spent with his wife, and his three children, Melody, Louis and Samuel. His other interests involve time spent with his computer (he is described as a tech-fan, who convinced his group to go “paper-less” in 2000), and as much time as he can get playing hockey and soccer and going on kayak and canoe trips with his family and friends.
Dr. Burke is honoured to accept the Community Teacher of the Year Award for 2005.