Dr. Daniel Grushka
Position: Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine
Postgraduate Program Director, Department of Family Medicine
Office: Victoria Family Medical Centre
Phone: 519.433.8424
Email: dgrushk@uwo.ca
When Dr. Daniel Grushka was completing a surgical rotation as a clinical clerk, he remembers seeing a quote of Mark Twain’s posted outside one of the operating rooms that stayed with him, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than to open it and remove all doubt.” While this may seem like common sense to many inexperienced and unsure medical students, he disagreed with the novelist’s advice, “I always opened my mouth and have encouraged all my students to do the same. We learn from talking through our clinical dilemmas and through our mistakes.”
Born and raised in Montreal, Dr. Grushka attended McGill University and obtained both a BSc. and MSc. in Microbiology and Immunology before moving to London and earning his MD from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. When it came time to choose a specialty, he decided upon Family and Emergency Medicine because “it was intellectually stimulating, fairly all-encompassing and [allowed him] to experience a wide variety of medical problems and procedures while still developing strong relationships with patients both in the clinic and the ER department.”
Dr. Grushka completed his residency in the Department of Family Medicine and opted for an additional year of training in emergency medicine through the Department’s Enhanced Skills Program. He then became the Enhanced Skills Program Director at Western for 13 years and led the development of Enhanced Skills nationally for the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) as the national chair for 7 years. He is now the Postgraduate Director in the Department of Family Medicine at Western. Currently, he practices family medicine at the Victoria Family Medical Centre and Emergency Medicine at the Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital in Ingersoll. In addition to his clinical responsibilities, he is a Deputy Registrar for the Medical College of Canada for their London site and is heavily engaged in teaching both by supervising residents and medical students for the Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Grushka is also very involved in numerous committees at Schulich and the CFPC.
Clinical interests: Emergency Medicine, Office based procedures, Palliative Care, Medical-legal work
Research interests: Medical education, Emergency Medicine, Point of care ultrasound
Awards:
- 2024 Department of Family Medicine Dr. Ian McWhinney Award
- 2024 Department of Family Medicine Best Core Family Medicine Teacher Award (London)
- 2021 CAEP Terry Sosnowski Memorial Teacher of the Year Award.
- 2020 Canadian Point of Care Ultrasound Society Educator of the Year Award
- 2020 CAME Certificate of Merit Award
- 2019 PARO Clinical Teaching Award
- 2017 Department of Family Medicine Dr. Ian McWhinney Award
- 2017 Department of Family Medicine Best Core Family Medicine Teacher Award (London)
- 2015 Schulich Award of Excellence for Graduate/Postgraduate Education - Educator Award
- 2014 Society of Rural Physicians of Canada Best Original Research Award (Poster)
- 2013 Department of Family Medicine Clerkship Full-time Faculty Teaching Award
- 2013 Department of Family Medicine Dr. Ian McWhinney Award
- 2013 Department of Family Medicine Best Core Family Medicine Teacher Award (London)
Selected publications:
- Chawla K, Ahmed F, Wakabayashi A, Bhimani M, Grushka D. Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents’ training experiences. Canadian Family Physician, 2020 Nov 1; 66 (11): 860
- Seeley J, Wickens C, Vingilis-Jaremko L, Fleiter J, Yildirim-Yenier Z, Grushka D, Vingilis E. Street racing, stunt driving and ghost riding YouTube videos: A descriptive content analysis. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2019 Apr 9; 2019 (63): 283-294
- Evelyn Vingilis, Zümrüt Yıldırım-Yenier, Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko, Christine Wickens, Jane Seeley, udy Fleiter, Daniel H. Grushka. Young Male Drivers’ Perceptions of and Experiences with YouTube Videos of Risky Driving Behaviours. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2018 Jul 18
- Evelyn Vingilis, Zümrüt Yıldırım-Yenier, Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko, Christine Wickens, Jane Seeley, Judy Fleiter, Daniel H. Grushka. Literature Review on Risky Driving Videos on YouTube: Unknown Effects and Areas for Concern? Traffic Injury Prevention, 2017 Jan 24,
- Fowler N, Wyman R, Grushka D. Residency Training Profile for Family Medicine and Enhanced Skills Programs Leading to Certificates of Added Competence. CFPC Outcomes of Training Project. 2021 May, 1. (1) The College of Family Physicians of Canada
- An Approach to the Diagnosis and Management of Patients with Polyneuropathy, Western University, Research Project, An Approach to the Diagnosis and Management of Patients with Polyneuropathy, Collaborators: Mirian A, Aljohani Z, Grushka D, Florendo-Cumbermack A. CMAJ 2023 Feb 13; 195(6): E227–E233.
