By Adshayah Sathiaseelan
Based in London鈥檚 Children鈥檚 Hospital and operating virtually, the clinic investigates a question most doctors aren鈥檛 trained to answer: Could your child鈥檚 symptoms be tied to the environment?
Before launching the clinic in 2022, Gunz worked in pediatric intensive care.
鈥淚 would often ask families, 鈥榃hy do you think your child is sick?鈥欌 she said. 鈥淎nd a number of them would say things that were seemingly, from a medical sense, unrelated to a known diagnosis.鈥
After training remotely with Canada鈥檚 only other environmental clinic in Edmonton and connecting with experts in the U.S., she pitched the idea of a similar clinic for Ontario to the Children鈥檚 Hospital president and got the green light.
Today, patients are referred by physicians or find the clinic themselves online. Each case starts with a detailed questionnaire and then Gunz and her team dig deeper.