When Dr. Jennie Johnstone started medical school at Dalhousie University, specializing in infectious diseases wasn’t on her radar. After completing her medical degree she went on to study internal medicine and infectious disease at the University of Alberta. “I fell in love with infectious disease and infection prevention,” she says. “I had tremendous mentors and learned about using data and doing research to better understand infectious diseases.”

Jennie is now the Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) at Sinai Health. She leads the IPAC team monitoring and preventing infection across Mount Sinai and Bridgepoint, tracking cases of influenza and pneumonia, gastrointestinal infections, skin and wound infections.

Jennie also provides patient care. “As an infectious disease specialist, other physicians request consults when they have a patient with a suspected infection that’s not responding to the typical treatments,” she says. “Seeing patients is what keeps me grounded. It’s a reminder of why we do what we do, and the impact of infection prevention and control work.”

Jennie says there’s no ‘typical day’ at work for her. “I can have a plan for the day, but that can change completely if there’s an outbreak or when I’m called to consult on cases.”

One predictable part of Jennie’s job is the annual arrival of cold and flu season. “The IPAC team works with admitting to prepare for a surge in the number of admissions, works with occupational health to support the employee vaccination campaign and we help to ensure long-stay patients are offered the flu shot. We also ensure patient care units are prepared to quickly test patients who develop flu symptoms so that when a patient has a respiratory virus we can prevent it from spreading.”

Jennie says influenza can be humbling for infectious disease experts. “It’s a disease that causes significant illness and mortality and it’s also difficult to predict, in terms of how bad a flu season we’ll experience. It doesn’t necessarily do what you think it’s going to do.”

To Jennie, preparation and prevention is key. “The vaccine is the best protection we have for everyone over the age of six months. It’s also a good practice to clean your hands often and keep them away from your eyes and mouth. And if you do get sick, stay home to avoid infecting others.”