I grew up thinking I wanted to be a doctor. My father (Dr. Phil Gold) has a love of McGill and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, so going to McGill was set in my mind.
I came to McGill with the belief that I was going to become a neurologist but when I completed my psychiatry rotation at the Douglas, one of my professors, Dr. René Tirol, saw me interview patients and told me I had a facility for psychiatry. It turned out that psychiatry was the right fit for me. I went to New York and spent 14 years at Bellevue in New York, in residency, then on a fellowship and nine years on the faculty of the New York University School of Medicine.
In addition to my other work, I am currently working as a consulting psychiatrist for the NHL/NHLPA's Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health program. Helping to support our members’ well-being and offering assistance when any mental health issues arise has been very gratifying for me (I’m also a huge Habs fan).
Besides the confidence one gets from studying at McGill (one of the best medical schools in the world), my classmates blew me away. They are some of the best people I have ever known. Aside from being wildly impressive clinicians and researchers, they are just cool humans. Who knew med school could be so much fun?