Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) said three new family medicine residents are in training locally.
Doctors Elyse Epp, Benjamin Lau and Matthew VanTil, residents from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University began their post-graduate training at CKHA in early July.
These residents will live in Chatham-Kent and gain experience with local physicians who provide support and direction to complete the hands-on portion of their medical training.
“Our medical residency program offers the opportunity to learn and practice medicine in a rural environment with a variety of learning opportunities in both inpatient and outpatient medicine,” said Dr. Pervez Faruqi, Chief of Staff, CKHA, in a media release. “During their time here many of our residents also discover that Chatham-Kent is a welcoming community and an ideal place to raise a young family.”
Epp completed her Doctor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She grew up in Leamington and is looking forward to practicing medicine within a community setting.
“Entering into medical school I always had the intention of returning to Southwestern Ontario to practice Family Medicine. Attending medical school in Toronto provided me a great education but I truly missed being part of a small community and am so fortunate to be near my close-knit friends and family again. I chose Chatham-Kent because of how supportive the entire CKHA team is of my learning,” she said.
Lau grew up in Toronto completed his Doctor of Medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and earned a graduate diploma from McMaster University in Clinical Epidemiology.
“Having enjoyed several rural experiences in medical school, I am excited to do my residency here in Chatham-Kent and look forward to being a part of the community,” he said.
Originally from Blenheim, VanTil completed his Doctor of Medicine from Western University. He is looking forward to the variety of opportunities offered in Chatham-Kent’s residency program.
“After training in centres throughout Canada, I found that CKHA had exactly what I was looking for in a residency program. There is not only the breadth of practice that I was looking for but most importantly the physicians here are excellent teachers and ideal role models,” VanTil said.
Epp, Lau and VanTil join second-year Family Medicine Residents, Drs. Shannon Milkovic, J. Andrew Lanz-O’Brien, Brent Rowden and Robert Wismer.
This looks like a great team of residents. We need the help with family medicine health providers for sure.