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Dr. Rithesh Ram

Home
Canada
Drumheller, AB
Dr. Rithesh Ram

Physician, President, Founder of Riverside Medical & Family Man. Specialty: Family Medicine, Epidemio

11/07/2025

Here’s something I say often - and I mean it:

If you don’t advocate for yourself in the healthcare system, you risk getting lost in it.

I don’t say that to scare people.
I say it because I’ve seen it happen. Every week.

Before becoming a physician, I witnessed loved ones falling through the cracks, being ignored, and dying as a consequence.

If you’re not asking questions, following up, keeping records, or seeking second opinions when something doesn’t sit right… the system may not do it for you.

That’s not a reflection of individual caregivers. It’s a reflection of how the system is built:

Fragmented communication
Staff stretched thin
Patients handed off between specialties and settings
Decisions made in silos

So no - you don’t need to have a medical degree.

But you do need to speak up, stay informed, and ask for clarity.

And if someone you love is in hospital?

Be there. Take notes. Ask questions. It matters more than you think.

The system does a good job at saving lives at obvious critical traumatic moments.
But it struggles with what comes before and after - prevention, recovery, coordination, quality of life.

That’s where personal advocacy helps fill the gaps the system leaves behind.

___

Born and raised in Alberta, I’m a rural generalist, educator, and advocate working on the frontlines and behind the scenes to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

11/05/2025

Never waste a good crisis.

One of the best parts of my work is having learners with us - in the clinic, in the hospital, and everywhere in between.

Most days, my wife and I are outnumbered by the number of medical learners we have. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Between us, we care for over 4,000 patients, accept walk-ins daily (whether they’re our patients or not).

It’s busy.

It’s demanding.

And it’s exactly why having learners matters.

Because every learner adds capacity - not just for today, but for the future.

They help us serve more patients.

They bring energy, curiosity, and new ideas that remind us why we chose this work in the first place.

Most importantly, they become the next generation of care providers our system desperately needs.

Teaching isn’t just about education - it’s about sustainability. It’s how we recruit, retain, and re-energize the profession for the long term.

A close friend of mine always says: “Never waste a good crisis.”

If we’re facing a crisis due to a shortage of healthcare professionals, then let’s use it as an opportunity to build stronger systems - by becoming educational hubs where learners at every stage can grow, contribute, and experience what real medicine looks like.

Because the future of healthcare depends on what - and who - we’re teaching today.

👉 What’s one way your organization or community could create more opportunities for learning, mentorship, or training in healthcare?

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Pragmatic about Alberta’s healthcare challenges.

Relentless about fixing what’s broken - to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

Rural Generalist Doctor | Educator | Advocate

10/31/2025

Sometimes the scenic route is the right one.

Google Maps said this was the “fastest way” from Crowsnest Pass to Claresholm.

Turns out, it was 30 km of winding gravel, random cows, and not another soul in sight.

At first, we almost turned around.

Then I realized - this is Alberta.

The unexpected roads.

The fields that seem to stretch forever.

The quiet that reminds you what space feels like.

We stopped the car, got out, and took a photo.

It wasn’t planned - just one of those moments that reminds you how much of this province you don’t see when you’re speeding down the main highway.

That’s what my work across rural Alberta has taught me:

There’s so much beauty, wisdom, and strength happening off the map.

Outside the cities.

Beyond the “main routes.”

In the small towns and communities that keep our province running - often unseen, but never unimportant.

👉 Maybe the best parts of Alberta - and of life - aren’t on the direct route at all.
What are your thoughts about that?

–––

Pragmatic about Alberta’s healthcare challenges.

Relentless about fixing what’s broken - to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

Rural Generalist Doctor | Educator | Advocate

10/29/2025

I didn’t plan to open my own clinic. But I also didn’t plan to compromise how I believe medicine should be practiced.

Sometimes, the only option is to build the thing that doesn’t yet exist.

In 9 weeks, I found a space, renovated it, opened the doors - and had 1,000 patients sign up within the first month.

Why?

Because patients are looking for something different.

And so are many physicians.

I didn’t leave my previous group practice because I wanted to go solo.
I left because the model didn’t align with how I think, teach, and deliver care.

So I built something new.

A practice focused on honesty, continuity, autonomy, and real human connection - not just billing codes and referral medicine where you hand off the majority of patient problems to someone else.

It’s not easy. But it’s worth it.

And I believe more physicians are ready to do things differently - if we give them the freedom and support to try.

___

Born and raised in Alberta, I’m a rural generalist, educator, and advocate working on the frontlines and behind the scenes to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

10/25/2025

Thank you, Drumheller.

This year’s Diwali celebration was our biggest yet - nearly 200 people came together to share food, laughter, light, and community.

We’re so grateful for everyone who joined us and for the generous donations made to the Drumheller Food Bank. Your kindness and energy made the event truly special.

Wishing you all joy, prosperity, and connection in the year ahead.
Happy Diwali - and namaste.

—
Celebrating community, connection, and care.
Rural Generalist Doctor | Educator | Advocate

10/24/2025

Everyone’s talking about team-based care like it’s new. Out here in rural Alberta it’s just called Tuesday.

It’s National Rural Health Week - the perfect time to spotlight what rural and remote healthcare has been doing right for decades.

For too long, healthcare decisions have followed the same pattern:

✅ Test it in the cities.
✅ Declare it a success.
✅ Then “roll it out” to the rest of the province.

The problem? What works in the cities doesn’t always translate to rural life.

Take team-based care.

It’s the new buzzword - the “wave of the future” - everyone’s talking about.

But rural medicine has been doing this since the beginning of time.

We had to.

When you’re working hundreds of kilometers from the nearest tertiary centre, you rely on every healthcare professional around you - nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, therapists, administrators - to deliver care as a true team.

We’ve built systems that function without extra funding, without layers of bureaucracy, and without waiting for permission.

So yes, it’s great that the cities are finally catching up.

We’ll happily let them copy our playbook once we’ve shown them how to make it work.

Here’s to the rural and remote teams who’ve been leading by example long before it was a headline.

–––

Pragmatic about Alberta’s healthcare challenges.
Relentless about fixing what’s broken - to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

Rural Generalist Doctor | Educator | Advocate

10/22/2025

Right now, healthcare in Alberta runs on one revenue stream: taxes.

But here’s the problem:
➡️ Albertans don’t want higher taxes.
➡️ Our clinics - the backbone of primary care - are small businesses that still need to survive.
➡️ Private funding models elsewhere don’t fit our culture.

So if we won’t raise taxes… and we won’t accept other models… what happens when the money runs out?

That’s the future we’re facing. Unless we have the courage to confront it, the system will keep breaking under its own weight.

–––
Born and raised in Alberta, I’m a rural generalist, educator, and advocate working on the frontlines and behind the scenes to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

👉 What’s your take - are we ready for an honest conversation about what’s next?

10/17/2025

Prevention isn’t just something I talk about - it’s something I practice.

As a physician - but more importantly, as a patient - I know how critical prevention really is.

For me, prevention means staying proactive:

✔️ Keeping my annual optometrist appointment.
✔️ Staying on top of comprehensive screening labs.
✔️ Running additional tests when needed - even outside the province - to stay one step ahead of potential health issues.

We spend so much time reacting to illness when real healthcare begins long before that.

The best way to protect our health system - and ourselves - is to catch problems before they become crises.

👉 When was the last time you scheduled one of these maintenance appointments for your own health, not because something was wrong, but because you want to keep it that way?

–––

Pragmatic about Alberta’s healthcare challenges.

Relentless about fixing what’s broken - to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

Rural Generalist Doctor | Educator | Advocate

10/15/2025

Where healthcare meets homework!

Like many families across Alberta, our kids are home right now while teachers are on strike.

We’re staying out of the politics - this post isn’t about taking sides. It’s about adaptation.

One of the advantages of being both rural generalists and clinic owners is flexibility. When something unexpected happens, we pivot - quickly.

So this week, our clinic is also a classroom.

If you walk in, you might notice a few extra “students” hard at work between appointments. 📚

They’re working through the Alberta education toolkit (with a few “Dad-approved” additions that might not be in the official curriculum 😉).

Not everyone has that option.

In cities, it’s harder - homes aren’t next door, clinics can’t always flex space, and not everyone can modify the patient process to make accommodations.

It’s another reminder of what rural medicine - and rural living - teaches me every day:

Adaptability isn’t just a skill. It’s a way of life.

👉 To every parent out there juggling work, kids, and learning this week - you’ve got this.

–––

Pragmatic about Alberta’s healthcare challenges.

Relentless about fixing what’s broken - to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

Rural Generalist Doctor | Educator | Advocate

10/10/2025

If I could change three things in Alberta’s healthcare system tomorrow, here’s where I’d start:

Build systems that don’t rely on endless people power.

No matter how many nurses we train or physicians we recruit, there will never be “enough.” We need AI and innovation that reduce demand on human resources and free people up for the work only people can do.

Stop pretending one model fits everywhere.

Urban hospitals, regional centers, rural clinics, and remote communities all face different realities. Funding should reflect that. A patient in Calgary shouldn’t be allocated the same resources as a rural patient - because the needs aren’t the same.

Make communication seamless.

Patients can see their results instantly in MyHealth. Physicians can’t. We (or our staff) have to go hunting across fragmented systems - hospital records, specialist notes, walk-in clinics, even previous providers. Until we fix this, care will remain slower, riskier, and more frustrating than it needs to be.

These aren’t abstract ideals. They’re practical changes that could improve care, efficiency, and sustainability today.

Alberta doesn’t need more patchwork fixes. It needs bold, thoughtful steps that prepare us for the realities ahead.

–––
Born and raised in Alberta, I’m a rural generalist, educator, and advocate working on the frontlines and behind the scenes to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

👉 If you could change one thing in Alberta’s healthcare system tomorrow, what would it be?

10/08/2025

There’s a quiet form of discrimination in our healthcare system that we don’t talk about enough: ageism.

Too often, care is rationed - not based on need, but on numbers.
➡️ “You’re too old, so screening isn’t necessary anymore.”
➡️ “You’re too young, so this test won’t tell us much.”

On paper, these guidelines look efficient. They save dollars. They reduce “incidental” findings.

But in practice, they create something dangerous: a system that decides who deserves care - long before the patient ever gets a say.

I’ve seen it play out in real life: cancers that could have been caught earlier, families blindsided by preventable conditions, older adults dismissed as “low priority” even though they had decades of life left to live.

Medicine should be built around patients, not stereotypes.

Yes, resources are limited. But arbitrary age cutoffs send the wrong message: that some lives are worth less than others.

Healthcare should ask: “What does this patient need in front of me today?” Not: “How old are they? Do they still qualify?”

–––
Born and raised in Alberta, I’m a rural generalist doctor, educator, and advocate working on the frontlines and behind the scenes to make medicine more honest, human, and sustainable.

👉 Do you think age-based cutoffs are justified - or should care always be driven by individual need?

Address

PO Box 1990 180 Riverside Drive East
Drumheller, AB
T0J0Y0

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 5pm
	6pm - 8pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 5pm
Thursday	8:30am - 5pm
Friday	8:30am - 5pm

Website

https://www.riversidemedical.ca/contact-us

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DR. RITHESH RAM

PHYSICIAN, PRESIDENT, FOUNDER & FAMILY MAN

Specialty: Family Medicine, Epidemiology, Teaching, Medical Leadership

Special interests: Emergency Care, Mental Health, Chronic Pain,

biographical background:

Dr. Rithesh Ram is a family physician in Drumheller, Alberta. He is an AHS staff physician in the Central Zone. He was born and raised in Camrose, Alberta.

Dr Ram is passionate about teaching, and is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine where he is the residency training lead for Drumheller. He also recently became the Director of the UCLIC Program (University of Calgary Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship) which is a research-based, educational experience that allows medical students to learn in the continuum of patient care throughout southern Alberta.

In rural medicine, Dr. Ram works in multiple locations including: his primary care network (including chronic pain clinic), acute care in the hospital, in the emergency department, in the operating room, and in long term care. He is currently the Clinical Lead for Acute Care and Emergency at the Drumheller Health Centre.

Dr. Ram, aside from his MD, has a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Calgary. He is currently Vice Chair of his PCN, a recent addition to the executive of the CZMSA (Central Zone Medical Staff Association), on the board of the Alberta Medical Association’s Health Issues Council, and a primary care representative on Toward Optimized Practice (TOP) clinical practice guidelines. Dr Ram is also involved with the $400 million dollar AHS Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS) as the Provincial Knowledge Lead for Primary Care.

Dr. Ram resides in Drumheller with his family. Dr. Ram enjoys reading endless stories to his children, walking his dog amongst the hoodoos, curling during the season, and remaining active on a daily basis (even just doing push-ups while on call when there is even the shortest break).

Favorite quotes by Sir William Osler: Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability. We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life. The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.