The Faculty is saddened to share the news of the passing of one of our medical students.
Ryan Séguin (MD 2021) died late last week, leaving a hole in the hearts of all those who knew him. Ryan will be remembered as a caring, positive individual, always smiling and ready to help his fellow students learn.
Ryan excelled at everything he undertook, leading him to successes in sports, science and medicine. He was an advocate for concussion and mental health awareness, founding the Timmins Concussion Awareness Committee and the Side by Side Peer Support Program for medical students. Through Side by Side, Ryan actively supported his colleagues through difficult times. He was also a mentor at the student mentorship centre, as he was passionate about teaching medical students as well as helping them academically.
Dr. Alireza Jalali, Ryan’s professor through several MD courses over the last few years, praised Ryan’s hard work and dedication. “He was one of my best anatomy students,” said Dr. Jalali, former head of the Division of Anatomy at the Faculty.
Ryan championed the training of bedside ultrasound, an innovative point-of-care technology that is gaining ground at the Faculty of Medicine. As one of the leaders of the Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) POCUS (point-of-care ultrasound) interest group, Ryan played a key role in organizing and teaching ultrasound workshops to the Faculty’s UGME learners. In a Twitter post earlier this year, Ryan exclaimed that “the interest in #PoCUS @uOttawaMed is incredible!”
“I often saw him teaching POCUS to other students on his own time,” said Dr. Jalali. “He was always eager to share his knowledge to help others learn.”
In September, Ryan competed in the Ultrasound World Cup at the University of California in Irvine, as part of the uOttawa team eFast eFurious. The team won the championship, walking away with not only the glory, but also a Butterfly iQ each, a single-probe imaging device proclaiming itself a new era of medical imaging. Dr. Jalali said Ryan had plans to use it in clinical rotations, as well as for teaching other medical students.
Ryan will be dearly missed by his colleagues, friends, teachers and the wider medical community.
Please visit the link to his obituary, which includes details of the wake and celebration of life.
