University of Ottawa alumn Dr. Andrew Kirkpatrick (MD 1988, Magna Cum Laude) has built a career that has taken him from military service and surgical training in Ottawa and Toronto to trauma and critical care practice in Calgary, international medical missions across Africa, pioneering work in aerospace medicine, and internationally recognized research aimed at improving care in remote and resource-limited settings.
“Space medicine, military medicine, austere medicine, pre-hospital medicine: it’s all the same work.”
Today he is a professor of surgery and critical care medicine and researcher at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, but long before that it all started with a deeply personal decision. After graduating from the University of Ottawa with the support of the Canadian Armed Forces, he requested a posting to the 4th Canadian Division Support Base Petawawa — a posting few military physicians actively sought, and specifically service with the Canadian Airborne Regiment of the Special Services Force, which included full paratrooper training and airborne service.
“I chose Petawawa because it was close to home, and my mother was sick at the time. She was basically dying of breast cancer,” he recalls. “It was also the most challenging opportunity I felt I could undertake in my military service and that was part of the attraction.”
After completing his service commitment, he returned to surgical training, completing a residency and fellowships in surgery and critical care medicine.
His training and early career opened doors far beyond Canada, taking him to medical centres in New Orleans, Washington, Detroit, and even the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. At the same time, his commitment to service led him to work in Sierra Leone, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Madagascar, and Malawi, experiences that reinforced his interest in delivering care where resources are limited and the needs are great.
Dr. Kirkpatrick remained active in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves for nearly four decades—including service during the Gulf War and in Afghanistan—while building a career in trauma surgery, critical care, and research that would ultimately bring him to Calgary.
Space medicine and the future of care
That early exposure to global health thinking, combined with his military experience, gradually led him toward aerospace and space medicine.
In the early 2000s, while based in British Columbia and collaborating with colleagues from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, he led research demonstrating that ultrasounds could be performed in microgravity. The work helped support the development of remote ultrasound systems later used aboard the International Space Station.
The experience fundamentally changed how he thought about access to care.
“What if we guide them to do ultrasound?” he recalls his collaborators asking as they explored how non-experts in space could be coached remotely through diagnostic exams.
Two decades later, he sees applications reaching far beyond astronauts.
“Almost anybody in the world can be guided to perform an ultrasound examination on others or even themselves,” he says.
The idea is not to replace healthcare professionals, but to extend their reach. Using telemedicine, experts can remotely guide patients, nurses, or other frontline providers through diagnostic imaging in communities where specialized care is unavailable.
“I think that’s the future,” he adds.
For Dr. Kirkpatrick, technology has always been a difference maker: a way to bring expertise to people regardless of geography or circumstance.
His interest in medicine under extreme and unconventional conditions even led him to Hollywood. During the filming of The Revenant, he served as a medical advisor, working directly with actor Leonardo DiCaprio to educate him and his team about the nuances of trauma and critical illness, something Dr. Kirkpatrick says is a tribute to the cast’s dedication to realism, reflected by their success at the Academy Awards.
The moments that stay
Behind the research, missions, and extreme environments, it is human encounters that remain most vivid in his memory.
One patient in particular stands out. Following a prolonged stay in intensive care and a complex recovery including many major surgeries, the patient returned a year later to speak at an international conference attended by several hundred surgeons.
“It was one of the most rewarding parts of my career,” he says.
The presentation gave surgeons an opportunity rarely available in medicine: hearing directly from a patient about what it felt like to live through weeks of critical illness, repeated surgeries, and recovery.
“To have a patient come back and speak to that many surgeons about her experience was incredibly powerful,” says Dr. Kirkpatrick.
Despite the awards, international missions, and research accomplishments that followed, Dr. Kirkpatrick remains remarkably humble about his career.
“What I got from Canada is a thousand times more than what I’ve done for Canada,” he says. “I've had a charmed life. I've had a blessed life, including a tremendously supportive family.”
But when he reflects on his years at the University of Ottawa, his thoughts turn immediately to the people he shared them with.
“I miss my friends,” he says, but the sentiment is not nostalgic so much as highlighting an enduring bond. Nearly four decades after graduation, the relationships forged within the MD 1988 class remain central to his life.
“It was such a small program. I do think we were all friends,” he says. “I so look forward to the reunions.”
Giving back to the next generation
Those enduring friendships also helped inspire the creation of the Meds ’88 Memorial Bursary, which supports medical students while honouring members of the class who are no longer with us.
For Dr. Kirkpatrick, the bursary reflects a profound sense of gratitude.
It is also an expression of his belief in the importance of investing in the next generation.
“Give energetic young people opportunities, and they will pay back society many times over.”
By supporting the Meds ’88 Memorial Bursary, alumni and friends of the Faculty can help create those opportunities for future physicians, continuing the spirit of service, generosity, and mentorship that has shaped Dr. Kirkpatrick’s own journey.