Winter 2022 (Volume 32, Number 4)
Update from the Northwest
Territories and Nunavut
By Steven Katz, MD, FRCPC
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From left to right:
Tammy Connors, Adelina Voevoda, Andrea
Johnson, Jenny Hong,
and Gregory Koller
Over the last few decades, rheumatology care
for those in the Northwest Territories and
Nunavut has been provided by rheumatologists
based out of Edmonton. Dr. Dale Sholter
provided amazing care to these remote communities
for 20 years until 2019, regularly
traveling to Yellowknife. It has been a struggle
to find someone to assume this large traveling
practice since then, with the COVID-19 pandemic
and a lack of resources being major barriers.
Dr Steven Katz, along with new Edmonton-trained rheumatologists Drs. Jenny Hong,
Greg Koller and Andrea Johnson have held a
few travelling clinics to Yellowknife to bridge
the gap, but a more sustainable model is needed
to ensure continuity and quality of care.
With the NWT Health Authority, there is a plan
to establish a new multidisciplinary Arthritis
Program which will enhance the resources
available for patient care. We continue to work
on identifying one or more rheumatologists to
lead this program. Should there be any interest,
please follow up with Dr. Katz.
Steven Katz, MD, FRCPC
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
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