IN EVERYTHING HE DOES,

Dr. Joseph Lee is inspired by the need to transform the way health care is delivered. And in an era of long wait times and short tempers, few could argue against the need to streamline services.

Lee’s Centre for Family Medicine, with clinics in Kitchener and Wellesley, is one of the first family health teams in the province and the centrepiece of a regional team effort to be more efficient and economical.

Born and raised in Windsor, Ont., Lee graduated from Western University’s medical school in 1986, completed his family medicine residency at Queen’s University and then began practising in Waterloo Region in 1988.

His passion and natural leadership ability have made him instrumental in the success of the University of Waterloo Health Sciences Campus in downtown Kitchener, which includes the Centre for Family Medicine, a family health team, the University of Waterloo’s Optometry Clinic and School of Pharmacy, and the McMaster University Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.

Lee cites the development of the KW4 Health Link as one of his proudest achievements. It’s designed to better integrate the work of hospitals, home care, community workers, doctors and other health-care providers to provide better care for less money for highly vulnerable people.

“I often say I’m the pretty face of a team … and then people groan! It’s not about me. The great joy is there have been a lot of people who have done some great stuff, and I view all these things as being part of a tapestry.

“The bottom line is that we as a society should be caring for others in a better way. The concepts behind all of these things are just helping people to help people and making it easier for them to do that. At the end of the day, it’s about enabling people to do what is really a simple concept.”

— NANCY HARPER