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A Toronto Doctor is striking a chord with his music videos in his spare time. In his day job, this U of T professor of Global Health has been recognized for his work helping foreign governments strengthen their health care.

A cover of Corey Hart’s  Never Surrender was Dr. Ben Chan’s first music video, dedicated to his fellow COVID-19 health care workers

“Music has been part of my life ever since I was a child, I started with classical piano, I took violin in high school and at university, I taught myself how to play guitar.”

His next video  I’m Still Standing was a shout to the struggling local businesses.

“Many of my colleagues that I work with professionally have never known me as a musician but it was wonderful to share that part of my life with others, but most importantly, it was the message behind the music.”

Dr. Chan is also part of a team developing an emergency low cost ventilator that’s easy to mass produce and is awaiting Health Canada approval.

“The scariest for me was when I received a memo from the Ministry of Health saying worst case scenario, here is the script that you have to read to patients in case we run out of ventilators.”

For Dr. Chan, music is medicine.

“It’s a joy and when you’re in a good groove you can be up all night, playing around with it, with ideas.”

Follow Dr. Chan on  Twitter