EP #116: Aurthi Muthukumaran - Physician Assistant & High Level Tennis Player

Aurthi Muthukumaran (@aurthi.pa) is an emergency medicine and orthopaedic surgery physician assistant and high-level tennis player.She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss why she is a big advocate of the physician assistant role as something that young people with an interest in medicine should pursue, how a shoulder injury playing tennis when she was 13 years old had increased her academic focus, having an innate desire to give back to the Tamil community through her work at SHN (@shnfoundation), how physician assistants positively impact the patient experience while helping to remove barriers to healthcare, how she balanced a demanding academic load with her athletic pursuit of being a high-level tennis player and so much more.Follow Aurthi:- LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurthi-muthu/) - Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/aurthi.pa/) Timestamps00:19 - Ara introduces this week’s guest, Aurthi Muthukumaran00:46 - What led her to a career in healthcare; a tennis injury05:02 - Being further inspired by an opponent in her varsity career06:21 - What is physician assistant; a relatively new role09:35 - Difference between a physician and a physician assistant12:23 - The importance of the pandemic for physician assistants13:57 - Canadian universities increasingly offering PA programs14:41 - Being one of less than 1,000 PAs in Canada today15:29 - Resonating with Scarborough Health Network; the Tamil community16:36 - What Aurthi’s day-to-day looks like19:57 - Retracting a patient’s abdomen; becoming desensitized over time21:02 - Winning an ‘Excellence in Leadership’ award; her advocacy efforts22:21 - Balancing academics and athletics from a young age24:34 - Being used to 10-hour days; being grateful for a busy upbringing29:48 - The importance of maintaining physical and mental health as you age31:49 - Extrinsic motivation versus intrinsic motivation; winning habits37:52 - Where she sees herself in the next 3-5 years; personally and professionally40:28 - Her biggest learning lesson; a steep learning curve when switching specialties43:29 - Advice she would give her 16-year-old self; no such thing as perfection44:34 - The personal legacy she wants to be remembered for by friends and family45:36 - Her dad being an avid chess player; training players who are famous today46:15 - Creator Confessions50:02 - The Wrap UpIntro MusicProduced And Mixed By:- The Tamil Creator- YanchanWritten By:- Aravinthan Ehamparam- Yanchan Rajmohan  Support the show