New family doctors working in Calgary

By Marta Cyperling

Thirty-six doctors have graduated from the University of Calgary family medicine residency program. Twenty-five of the graduates are now in Calgary communities working as locums, meaning they are temporarily working in place of a regular doctor who is absent. Eleven of the graduates are taking a third-year residency in a specialty such as emergency medicine.

“This is great news for Calgarians. Studies show that 76 percent of our grads stay in Alberta. The more residents we graduate, the more potential family doctors we have in the city,” says Dr. Cathy MacLean, head of family medicine at the University of Calgary.

Sean Caine says the reputation of the U of C's family medicine program brought him here. He completed his medical education in Toronto, but moved here for his family medicine residency.

“There are lots of growing opportunities in medicine that attracted me here. There are numerous unique training experiences, both rural and urban, readily accessible in and around Calgary. I definitely intend to stay here for the next few years and possibly longer,” he says.

Caine is working as a locum doctor and next year he plans to do a third-year residency in emergency medicine. Caine says that medical graduates are often attracted to locum work in the first few years because they are not yet ready to take on the financial burden of opening their own practice.

The 2008 family medicine residents who graduated from the University of Calgary are all certified with the College of Family Physicians of Canada.