Dr. Christiane Kuntz

Dr. Christiane Kuntz, an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of FM in Ottawa since 1994, has been in solo family practice since 1984.  She began teaching FM residents shortly thereafter.  In Jan. 2000, she undertook part-time clinical consulting work in mature women’s health (particularly focussing on (peri)menopause) at The Ottawa Hospital Shirley E. Greenberg Women’s Health Centre and established a mood disorders clinic there in 2005. She has since moved this consulting clinic to her community family practice.  She acts as the Director for the Gynecology part of the Ottawa FM resident curriculum. She had been involved in the development and implementation of the skills transfer portion of the Ontario Benign Uterine Conditions project from 2005-15 which focused on teaching primary care providers how to manage problems such as abnormal uterine bleeding and pelvic prolapse and how to perform office-based women’s health procedures.

1. I am proud of the work I did with the BUC project to teach hundreds of primary care providers how to manage AUB, pelvic prolapse and how to do women’s health procedures in the office.
2. I am delighted to have taught hundreds of Family Medicine residents various topics in women’s health over a period of 3 decades  and to have shaped their training in WH as part of their regular curriculum.
3. To have started a solo practice from scratch with no training and no money and to now have the house I work in be my retirement fund was the best business decision I ever made.  

One fun fact about me is that I have been going away on vacation by myself for 2 weeks every year to an undisclosed location for more than 35 years.  My mother and my boyfriend and my friends do not know where I go.  Nobody does.  They can reach me on my cell if there is a true emergency but are not allowed to call if there is not.  I check in with them when I feel like it.  I live for those 2 weeks every year.  It is the best thing I could possibly do for myself.

In some ways the COVID has made my life somewhat like it is when I go on vacation by myself.  I am leaving work earlier and have more time at home.  I am isolating myself from my boyfriend and my mother much of the time to lower their risk and going to work every day but for less hours.  I am having far more “me” time and it has been quite soul-restoring.  Pre-COVID there was always someone needing something from me and I find the demands on my time and help have been decreased.
 
One drink I love is a Pimm’s – a gin based liqueur that you can get at LCBO.  You put ice and cut-up fruit into a tall glass (and include mint leaves and cucumber slices as well), throw in a couple of ozs. of the Pimm’s and fill the remaining glass with lemonade or lime cordial or some other fruit juice.  I got hooked on these in England years ago and this is my favorite summer drink.
 
One of my favorite songs is “The Prayer” sung by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.