From Orchids to Calcedonies, alumnus, physician and playwright Dr. Jeff Nisker puts the focus of health policy back on the people it serves

From Calcedonies to Orchids - Plays Promoting Humanity in Health Policy is Dr. Jeff Nisker's latest literary piece. It is a compilation of plays that explore ethical issues in health care, and science.

In the Introduction to the book, Dr. Nisker wrote that through his plays he has "tried to help the audience members identify with the central characters, rather than just the health policy." He added "theatre can help humanity re-emerge as the primary imperative of health policy deliberation, by encouraging audience members to approximate empathy for the persons too often invisible to the health policy makers."

Unquestionably compassion and empathy are the foundation of all his plays.

A professor with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who received his residency training at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Dr. Nisker has been writing serious plays for 15 years.

His first foray into playwriting, however began as a medical student working at summer camp. It was then that he began to realize the power of the theatre and how it could be used to "get people to feel".

His writing wouldn't resurface again until the early 1990s when he wrote the play Orchids. The inspiration to write again arose from his experiences as a clinician and researcher.

Following completion of his residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology he received a Medical Research Council of Canada Fellowship to study the effect of hormones on cancer. Upon his return to Canada he continued his work as a clinician and cancer researcher, and also began working on the possibility of genetic testing of in vitro fertilized embryos in women who had hereditary predisposition for severe genetic conditions, also known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

Two years of animal research and approval by the Western University Health Sciences Research Ethics Board, led to the offering of PGD in a clinical research setting.

It wasn't long before the information about the availability of PGD landed in the hands of the media shining a spotlight on this work. As a result, requests began streaming in from across Canada and nearly half were of requests to determine if the embryo had an xx chromosome make-up (a girl).

Disillusioned, Dr. Nisker discontinued this research, wrote a paper for a clinical journal and wrote Orchids. The play explored whether or not science was outpacing the medical ethics. It took off, and continues to be staged in theatres across North America.

Growing up in the 1960s and witnessing the injustices in the world around him, Dr. Nisker was inspired by the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and imagined becoming a civil rights lawyer. His father, however, convinced him to apply to medical school.

Today, Dr. Nisker "couldn't imagine doing anything else. The magic in being a physician…when you shake your first patient's hand and you begin to appreciate the trust they have in you, is beauty beyond definition."

As a teacher, a physician, a health ethicist and a playwright focused on ethics, it would appear that he has not only advanced medicine, but improved some of the injustices that exist in the world of health care.

From Calcedonies to Orchids - Plays Promoting Humanity in Health Policy is available at books stores and for order online at www.amazon.ca