He began his career in 1994 working part-time at The Scarborough Hospital’s Department of Medicine while completing his Fellowship, and Medical Oncologist Dr. Richard Colwill hasn’t looked back. 

An integral part of TSH’s Oncology Clinic, Dr. Colwill views the clinic as an evolutionary process.

“Obviously, physical space is at a premium, and there is commitment for a much larger space in the future,” he explains. “But the most important thing is we have a very good group of people – physicians, nurses, pharmacists, support staff – that have enabled us to do a good job.” 

Born in Vancouver, Dr. Colwill’s father was in the military, which meant the family moved every two years. They settled in Ottawa, where the young Colwill followed in his mother’s footsteps into medicine (she was a nurse). He started his studies in Ottawa before moving to Toronto to do his graduate work.

“My grand idea was to do translational research – work in a wet lab while doing the clinical side – but grand plans change for a variety of reasons, and I soon discovered that wet lab work wasn’t my consuming interest. So I went back to medicine,” Dr. Colwill recalls. “I started training in bone marrow transplants. At the time, I thought that might carry on as my primary interest, but again, grand plans change.”

Dr. Colwill’s philosophy about TSH’s Oncology Clinic is that its focus is to provide exceptional care to patients with the most common cancers: breast, colon, prostate and lung.

“There’s no reason why we can’t provide care that’s on par with other institutions, and with the distinct advantage of patients receiving that care closer to home,” he adds. “Some people outside the (oncology) business have a jaundiced idea of what the business is. Yes, we have a lot of patients we can’t cure, but that doesn’t mean we can’t provide treatments that will benefit them.

“There are many patients in every arm of medicine you can’t cure: diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis, chronic heart failure, lupus, kidney failure. But you treat those patients nonetheless and for some of those diagnoses, the average survival rate is worse than some who have cancer.”

Dr. Colwill has two grown sons – one at university and the other in high school.

“Both kids are athletic, so I spent a lot of time in hockey arenas, school gyms, baseball diamonds and soccer fields,” he adds.