Passion for Education, Innovation and A Global Perspective
For over 20 years Dr. Nick van der Kamp has been a family doctor here in Peterborough, seeing patients in his practice in East City, along with his wife. Dr. Lisa Hicks. Family medicine has certainly evolved in the 25 years since Dr. van der Kamp started to practise in Thunder Bay. He was an early advocate for collaborative care, a model that would eventually see mental health clinicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants and registered dietitians collaborating with primary care providers to create greater access and better care for patients. He helped establish the Peterborough Family Health Team, serving as a board member for seven years and board chair from 2009-2011. In addition to his involvement in the implementation of the Family Health Team model which now provides primary care to more than 115,000 patients across Peterborough City and County, Dr. van der Kamp has also been involved with educating resident physicians in Peterborough. “Over the last 6 years we have been involved with the highly regarded Queens University Family Medicine residency program in Peterborough,” said Dr. van der Kamp. “One of the biggest satisfactions recently has been to see residents that we have worked with finish their training and start up successful practices in Peterborough.” With a background in biomedical engineering, it’s understandable why continuing medical education is also a passion for Dr. van der Kamp. He plays an active role in the Self Learning education program provided by the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and locally he is involved with the organization of Grand Rounds, a weekly educational session for physicians and healthcare providers, and Brain FHT, an annual educational conference for the 250 healthcare providers of the Peterborough Family Health Team. “Continuing medical education is so important for physicians,” says Dr. van der Kamp. “We are very grateful for the financial support of GPHSF, Your Family Health Team Foundation, in funding Grand Rounds and Brain FHT, as well as numerous educational opportunities for our team of health care providers. Many of my patients benefit from Family Health Team programs including the Mindfulness program. This program would not have been possible without education funding provided by the Foundation. This funding helped provide our mental health clinicians with the training necessary to deliver this program. With the rapid advances in care it’s critical that as physicians we are aware of the newly emerging best practices and are able to offer our patients the most advanced care possible.” For many years Dr. van der Kamp has been an active supporter and organizer with the Give a Day campaign, which encourages people to give a day’s wages on World AIDS Day to agencies providing support and care to people living with HIV/AIDS in subsaharan Africa. “Establishing relationships with patients which last for years and decades is what I love the most about working in family medicine,” says Dr. van der Kamp. “I’ve been unbelievably lucky to have a terrific partner, both in life and in medicine, who is also a family physician in Peterborough, Dr. Lisa Hicks. We live in Lakefield and practise in Peterborough: both great places to live and raise a family. I think we are most proud of the two fantastic young women who are our daughters. Kyrie is 23 and finishing her masters in physiotherapy at Queens this year and Mae is 21 and in her third year of molecular biology and genetics at McMaster University. Peterborough has also been a great place to practise medicine. The medical community has always been very collegial and supportive and I think the level of care provided in the community and at PRHC is exceptional.”