Interview with Dr Minado Paul, Physician, Port Vila

What are some of the key health concerns for people in Vanuatu?

Equitable access to health care
Tacking NCDs
Lack of proper government policies on the import and sale of processed food
Access to potable  drinking water

What do you like most about your job?

The satisfaction of seeing a smile on the face of patients and families one has helped. It is like detective work where one uses clinical clues and labs to reach a diagnoses. 

What do you like the least about your job?

The stress of losing patients, blaming oneself for the loss of life and the unfriendly hours involved and the toll this takes on family. 

You are preparing for the board certification exams with the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine in Suva later this year. What attracted you to pursue further studies in lifestyle medicine

Lifestyle has now become the reason for the NCD pandemic. In order to address the issue, we will need to address the cause. Doctors are not taught lifestyle medicine in traditional medical school and there is too much reliance on pharmacological management.

What do you like to do when you are not practicing medicine?

I like to write songs
I like to run
Be on social media

Hippocrates is quoted as saying “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. If this is the case what would be your favourite non-pharmaceutical “medicine” to prescribe be in Vanuatu?

Water, Fruits and vegetables