By Cecilia Nasmith
Northumberland Hills Hospital is pleased to announce the recruitment of theumatologist Dr. Jason An to its growing team of specialists.
Chief of Staff Dr. Mukesh Bhargava offered a formal welcome in the announcement.
“Our recruitment focus in recent years has been aimed at ensuring local patients have access to more of the specialty clinical services they need closer to home,” Dr. Bhargava said.
“A key enabler of this is Ontario's excellent Telemedicine Network OTN, one of the largest telemedicine networks in the world, which uses two-way videoconferencing to provide access to care for patients in hospitals and other health-care locations in a manner that is efficient and accessible for both the patient and the provider.”
Dr. Bhargava added that NHH recently welcomed two neurologists to Northumberland, Dr. Philippe Rizek in 2020 and Dr. Emily Crookshank in 2021 through the creation of a unique “hosted” OTN model.
“Building on that successful model, which has significantly reduced local wait times for neurology consultations from six to 24 months to four to six weeks, we are now welcoming Dr. Jason An,” he said.
“Concurrent with this has been the introduction of new virtual elements to the delivery of neonatal and pediatric critical-care support, through a partnership with the Hospital for Sick Children and community mental-health and addiction supports, through our Rapid Access Addiction Medicine clinic.
“There are many opportunities to explore with the support of OTN, and we aim to continue to explore them for the benefit of local residents in the months and years to come.”
Dr. An attended medical school at the University of Calgary, followed by an Internal Medicine residency at the University of Alberta. He completed his Rheumatology Fellowship training at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., followed by a Fellowship in Rare Diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto – where he focused on the genetic analysis of rare autoinflammatory and immune dysregulation disorders. He is also currently a Clinical Associate in the Division of Rheumatology at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, and holds Courtesy Clinical Staff privileges at the Hospital for Sick Children's Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine.
“It is my great pleasure and privilege to join the Northumberland Hills Hospital network as a new rheumatologist,” Dr. An said in the press release.
“I very much look forward to working with the Northumberland Hills Hospital community.”
Beginning this month, Dr. An – with the support of NHH's Telemedicine Co-ordinator, Registered Nurse Rebecca Rutherford – will support local primary-care providers and specialists by providing virtual rheumatology consultations for a range of inflammatory disorders such as arthritis, connective tissue diseases and autoinflammatory conditions.
Referring providers are invited to fax OTN referrals directly to NHH, care of the OTN Co-ordinator, at 905-373-6972, with attention to the specialty required (neurology or rheumatology, for example).
