Meet Dr. Aisha Lofters

Medical Director, the Peter Gilgan Centre for Women’s Cancers

“One of the big things with WCH is that it doesn’t matter to me or to the hospital where the people are that we are serving.”

“I’m a family physician but spend most of my time researching cancer screening and prevention, always through an equity lens. I focus on who the people in our system are, where they are, and who might be slipping through the cracks. We know that when you focus on the margins, you are creating a healthcare system that works for everyone.”

One of the big things with WCH is that it doesn’t matter to us where the people are that we are serving; in fact one of our core tenets is that we are here for everyone—not just for the people who walk into our doors. We recognize the importance of leaving our clinics and going into the community so that we can better engage with populations who are not getting screened to an appropriate level. 

As a research and teaching hospital, we want our innovations to inform institutions in other provinces and countries—our goal is to test our findings and share them with other healthcare providers. Currently, cancer care isn’t equitable. People who weren’t born here, aren’t wealthy and who live outside urban centres have much lower screening and prevention rates than those who are. We need to change that, and we won’t rest until we see equity for everyone.”