A journey that wasn’t planned
When Markus Besemann arrived at the University of Ottawa, he thought he would become an engineer.
Then he met Bruce, a first-year medical student who was also on the university nordic ski team.
Bruce was active, fit and seemed to still enjoy life while studying medicine. For Besemann, it was a turning point.
“I'd never conceived of going to medicine before then,” he recalls. “Because I thought that was for the sons and daughters of doctors and rich people and my parents were of simple means and I'd never even considered medicine as an option.”
Seeing Bruce “epitomise health” while studying medicine changed his plans.
“That was a defining moment. I knew right then that's who I wanted to be,” Besemann says.
Besemann graduated from uOttawa’s Faculty of Medicine in 1988. He then spent four years as a general duty medical officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, serving in various military locations from 1989 to 1993 including a UN peacekeeping tour in Cyprus.
He returned to residency in 1993 to specialize in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and went on to work at the Hull Regional Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre, where he treated people living with chronic pain, stroke, traumatic brain injury, amputations and other complex conditions.
Looking beyond the injury
Over the years, Besemann came to see that rehabilitation was about much more than physical recovery. An injury can change how people see themselves, shatter illusions about their true identity, and what they believe is still possible.
One patient who influenced his thinking was Tina Corriveau Blackwell, a young Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, whose career ended after a serious car accident. When Besemann met her in 1997, she was living with severe neck pain and taking high doses of opioids. He encouraged her to try meditation. Over time, she came to see her experience differently, eventually transforming a devastating injury into an opportunity for personal growth. She has since written a book about her experienced called Signposts, an appropriate metaphor for the multiple and often unexpected directions life takes sometimes.
“That was for me a pivotal moment,” Besemann says. “If you can take that level of trauma and transform it into growth, then I think almost anything is possible.”
The experience reinforced the importance of understanding what lies behind a patient’s symptoms.
“It’s not always ‘what’s wrong with you?’ it’s ‘what happened to you?’” he says.
“The fact that you even care about what happened to them over their entire life course is what leads you to understand why they developed an addiction, why they developed chronic pain, why they have these often refractory “disorders.”
His approach comes down to listening.
“Nothing in medicine is black and white,” he says. “Keep an open mind and take the time to listen, really listen to your patients. They will give you the diagnosis.” Regrettably the pace of modern medicine rarely affords this time. Besemann recognizes that at this stage of his career he is allowing himself this indulgence. There is always a price to pay however. He considers himself very fortunate to be able to make that choice.
Alongside those who served
In 2008, Besemann returned to the Canadian Armed Forces as soldiers came home from Afghanistan with amputations, severe head injuries and other complex trauma.
He was given the resources and a team to build a high-level rehabilitation program.
Among those he treated was then-Lieutenant Simon Mailloux, a young infantry officer who was severely injured by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in November 2007 and lost his left leg.
Two years later, Mailloux returned to Afghanistan, becoming the first Canadian amputee to deploy to a war zone as a combatant.
“Experiences like that convinced me that nothing is impossible,” Besemann says.
Besemann continued to follow Mailloux’s career, and in 2025 was invited to attend Mailloux’s change-of-command ceremony at CFB Valcartier in Québec, where he took command of the 1st Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment.
“The people that have inspired me the most have been the ones that have humbled me in what they were able to achieve despite some of the worst injuries imaginable,” Besemann says.
Seeing Mailloux reach that milestone after everything he had been through still affects him.
“That kind of journey, it still gives me shivers because I saw how hard he had to work to get there,” Besemann says.
What comes next
Besemann retired as Head of Rehabilitation Medicine for the Canadian Armed Forces in 2023, but his work continues.
Today, he is co-owner and Medical Lead at Beechwood Physical Medicine in Ottawa, a veteran-focused, inter-disciplinary clinic, where he continues to practice and learn about the connections between physical recovery, psychological trauma, stress, resilience and human performance.
The clinic’s motto is “inspire and empower.”
“It says nothing about guaranteed healing or pain relief,” he explains, promises that are often easy to make but much harder to keep. “It's just that we hope to inspire and empower people to find their own healing journey within, and provide them with the necessary tools to do so.”
Looking back, Besemann describes his career as something that unfolded organically over time, but not without a clear sense of where he wanted to go.
As a young medical student, he dreamed of working in sports and expedition medicine, travelling to places such as the North Pole, Antarctica and the Himalayas. Those opportunities eventually came, but only after decades of hard work, patience and showing up every day.
“It took 30 years of hard work and showing up every single day, rain or shine,” he says. “It was an exercise in patience but eventually those dreams all materialized.”
For Besemann, that experience reinforced a simple lesson: “The first part is knowing what you want, which is not always easy to figure out”. It seemed at times that permission needed to be granted to practice in a way that was congruent with his deepest held convictions. The privilege of practicing medicine over time allows for a continuous re-appraisal of one’s practice and priorities he feels. A true gift that only time holds. But you have to give time “time” he concludes.
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