Canadian-trained medical practitioner is first Jamaican to perform irregular heart rhythm procedure in her home country
October 5, 2020
Birthdays are special occasions.
For Dr. Nordia Clare-Pascoe, this year’s celebration on September 14 was memorable as she performed an atrial flutter ablation at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).
It’s the first time the procedure that’s used to treat an irregular heart rhythm was done by a Jamaican in Jamaica.
After a year training at the University Health Network in Toronto, she returned home last June as the country’s first interventional cardiac electrophysiologist.
Cardiac electrophysiology is the science of elucidating, diagnosing and treating the heart’s electrical system activities.
“It’s such an absolute privilege to be able to serve Jamaica in an area that’s well underserved,” Clare-Pascoe said. “I am about service and I believe in helping our people.”
The Canadian training and experience, she pointed out, was invaluable.
“I am deeply grateful for the time I spent under the mentorship of this group,” Clare-Pascoe said. “I have grown as a physician in general and now a young electrophysiologist. My development was certainly enabled through very stimulating discussions, very approachable and knowledgeable staff as well as a relaxing learning environment.”
For Jamaicans requiring electrophysiology, Miami is the closest destination for them to travel for the procedure.
That will change in the future.
“Once we can build up our program to the extent that we have all the equipment that’s needed, the hope is patients wouldn’t have to leave the country,” she said. “I have procured a portable electrophysiology recording system and a radio frequency generator. But more things are needed like a mapping system that’s quite expensive and I will have to train a support team. It’s not going to be an easy task, but I have some basic equipment to start off with.”
Dr. Kumaraswamy Nanthakumar, the Director of Heart Rhythm Disorders at UHN, said Clare-Pascoe was a model trainee.
“Though the learning curve was steep, Nordia is very tenacious and the EP (electrophysiology) group was simply blown away by how she matured and became comfortable in conducting simple ablations,” he added.
Cardiac ablation is a procedure to scar or destroy heart tissue that’s allowing incorrect electrical signals to cause an abnormal heart rhythm.
“You can have around a 95 per cent cure doing ablation procedures on individuals with fast heart rates,” said Clare-Pascoe who completed her internal medicine training at the UHWI where she was the Chief Resident before coming to coming to Canada five years ago to pursue cardiology training at Toronto General Hospital. “I am very excited to bring this to Jamaica. You also have people dying suddenly and sometimes that can be from an abnormal fatal heart rhythm. With patients who are at a higher risk, I can do an electrophysiology test to stimulate the heart in a controlled setting to see if the individual is at a higher risk than the general population to die suddenly. Once that test is completed to risk stratify the patient, we can then put in an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator to help save their life.”
Entering the UHN electrophysiology lab towards the end of her two-year general cardiology training in 2017 was an eye-opener for the health care practitioner.
“When I saw them doing ablations, I absolutely fell in love with it,” she said. “Before that experience, I enjoyed reading and interpreting ECG’s (electrocardiograms). I always thought that was one of my strong points until I saw how advanced things were in the electrophysiology lab. Knowing this wasn’t in Jamaica got me thinking this was something I could bring to my country.”
Back in Jamaica, she consulted with UHWI administrators.
“There’s such a great need in terms of people with heart rhythm problems and they are not able to get the advance care they need,” Clare-Pascoe said.
With the blessings of the UHWI, she returned to Toronto last year to pursue interventional cardiac electrophysiology training.
More than 90 per cent of the cardiologists in Jamaica have been trained by Jamaican-born Dr. Herbert Ho Ping Kong who was instrumental in championing opportunities for Caribbean doctors to train at UHN for specific jobs in their homelands.
The retired internist contribution has had a positive multiplier effect on Jamaica’s health care system.
“Dr. Ho Ping Kong has provided so many opportunities for Jamaicans to train in Canada,” Clare-Pascoe said. “He has been really great for our country when it comes to training our people and helping them bring advanced cardiac care to Jamaica.”
Dr. Nordia Clare-Pascoe
Raised in Portmore in southern Jamaica, she gravitated to sciences while at Wolmer’s.
“Liking science subjects combined with my passion for serving and helping people made me think medicine would be a good fit for me,” said Clare-Pascoe who completed medical school in 2008. “In high school, there was always something about the heart that intrigued me like drawing and learning about it.”
During her internal medicine training, the Emancipation scholarship winner did a two-month elective in Canada.
“The more you are exposed to cardiology, I find that the more I was developing an incredible passion for it,” she said.
Clare-Pascoe is working in Jamaica’s first Interventional Suite at UHWI opened in May 2019. It features state-of-the-art equipment that enables specialist clinicians to perform minimally invasive tests and procedures to diagnose and treat some of the most complex cardiac cases and interventional patients.
She and her husband of nine years -- Gregory Pascoe is a Quality Assurance Manager at J. Wray & Nephew Ltd. – have a five-year-old daughter.
“He’s a great father and very supportive husband,” added Clare-Pascoe who was assigned to May Pen Hospital after finishing her cardiology training in Canada in 2017. “For the year that I was here doing electrophysiology training at UHN, he and my mom cared for our daughter.”
