When an opportunity knocks, a door opens

As a child growing up in Hamilton and playing in hockey tournaments all throughout Southwestern Ontario, Dr. Ian Mazzetti didn’t envision that one day he would be practising medicine and teaching in Windsor.

It was during his third year at Schulich Medicine that Dr. Mazzetti encountered his first opportunity to study in Windsor. At that time, the program in Windsor was not a fully established campus, and annually students were asked to consider completing their clerkship in that community. While Dr. Mazzetti didn’t initially volunteer, he was chosen through a lottery system to spend his clerkship year there.

Dr. Mazzetti embraced the opportunity and the experience. “I thought to myself, there are one of two ways to handle this - you can get upset because you are outside of your comfort zone or you can embrace this opportunity. Turns out it was the best thing I could have done,” he said.

Dr. Mazzetti is an intensivist and a member of the critical care team at Windsor Regional Hospital.

With a full clinical schedule, he also teaches Schulich Medicine students and residents. 

“I view teaching as a way to give back to the profession,” said Dr. Mazzetti. “The term 'physician' actually means teacher, so I believe part of our job is to teach.”

Dr. Mazzetti is involved with internal and family medicine residents, oversees clerks, supports selectives when possible, and he presents lectures to pre-clerkship students.

Teaching brings him great satisfaction, especially when he sees students grasping concepts and growing professionally. 

“There is that moment when you are explaining, for example a difficult physiologic concept and you can see the light turn on. Nothing can compare to that moment of satisfaction,” said Dr. Mazzetti.

He also finds it gratifying to see the change in students from early on in their clerkship to when they come back as senior clers or residents.

Meanwhile, he’s grateful to students for the lessons they teach him.

“As a teacher one learns from their students,” said Dr. Mazzetti. “Teaching inspires me to go back to the medical journals and review new studies, trials, and guidelines.” Now he is enjoying his career in the community of Windsor, where he can escape for a night in the big city of Detroit or enjoy a day at the park with his son and his wife. The couple is expecting their second baby this month. He hopes to convince at least one of his four siblings to come to Windsor and experience all the great things the city has to offer.  

“If I hadn’t gone through clerkship here and had the knowledge that Windsor is such a great place to be, I probably wouldn’t have been successfully recruited to the position I now have. Medical school opened the door for me and I’m really glad that it did.”