Faculty of Medicine alumnus Dr. Kayem appeared on The Doctors television show

When uOttawa alumnus Dr. Marc Kayem appeared on a recent episode of The Doctors to explain how he enlarged the sinuses of a patient whose cocaine habit had severely damaged his nasal passages and removed a chronic infection and the septal button, it represented another milestone in his impressive career and possibly a step towards an even more promising future.

"I really respect the show because [it] humanizes medicine by making it more accessible to the audience, but at the same time it presents real medical diagnoses in a professional way," says Dr. Kayem, otolaryngologist and plastic surgeon, who recently joined the Beverly Hills practice of one of the show’s co-hosts, Dr. Andrew Ordon, after 14 years of running his own practice in California.

"I’d really like to become a medical correspondent, to share my medical expertise with the public through the media. With less office management responsibilities now, that’s definitely something I can focus more on."

As with any recognized expert in a high-demand field, Dr. Kayem has a considerable workload. With offices in the Los Angeles and Mammoth areas of California, as well as the Cayman Islands, he stays on top of his schedule the only way he can—by planning it almost a year in advance.

"Around the third quarter of every year, I usually sit down and schedule the year to come, making sure I’m not missing any birthdays or anniversaries," says Dr. Kayem, who grew up in Montreal and chose the University of Ottawa for both his undergraduate degree in biology and his MD. "Sometimes my wife will laugh at me when I ask her, ‘Is this date next year a problem? Do you have anything planned?’ but we always find a way to make it work—it’s really the only way I could do what I do!"

That work includes staying true to his Canadian roots by sharing responsibilities as the Los Angeles Kings hockey team’s physician,  taking care of everything from stitching up a player’s cut between periods to full facial trauma. Dr. Kayem was also one of the first to use a breakthrough treatment for snoring and mild to moderate sleep apnea known as the Pillar Procedure, and subsequently founded the Beverly Hills Snoring Center. (External sites.)

"When you consider that the lack of focus, concentration and productivity due to snoring and sleep apnea costs the U.S. economy $46 billion a year and that one third of all couples are disturbed by snoring, it’s a serious issue I think more and more people are paying attention to," he says.

While California has just about everything Dr. Kayem enjoys most (he moved to the state after falling in love with the skiing, ocean, mountains and climate during a vacation), a trip to Ottawa in the not too distant future is in the works for him and his family, including his two daughters.

"I think the Rideau Canal in the winter is one of the most magical places you can experience and I’d really like them to see it," he says.

Dave Weatherall
Posted: June 2011