A local physician was recently named regional family physician of the year for Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand, Brant and Waterloo Wellington from the Ontario Family College of Family Physicians (OCFP).
Dr. Margo Mountjoy has been practicing medicine since 1988 and sport medicine since 1997.
OCFP president Dr. Sarah Newbery explained that Mountjoy was nominated by other physicians from her region to receive the regional physician of the year award. She explained that the selection committee looks for physicians who are community leaders and exemplify the four principles of family medicine:
– they are a skilled clinician;
– they are a resource to a defined population;
– they have a community based practice; and
– the patient-physician relationship is central to their practice.
Since the beginning of her family medicine career Mountjoy shared a practice with her husband Dr. Kevin Samson in south Guelph before they moved to Rockwood in 2011.
“The move … was motivated by the invitation to join the East Wellington Family Health Team to offer our patients the benefits of belonging to a family health team,” Mountjoy said in an email interview.
“I live in the Rockwood region … so this career move was a logical decision to work closer to home.”
However, in 2013 Mountjoy chose to retire from her family practice.
“I expanded my career in sport medicine and academic undergraduate medicine and completed my PhD,” she said.
“I am still a family physician with a specialty focus in sport medicine.”
She said that having retired from active family practice she now has more time “to devote to my international projects which include research, educational programs for practitioners, athletes and coaches, policy setting and governance roles.”
Mountjoy currently works for the University of Guelph at the Health and Performance Centre as a consultant Sports physician and clinical and academic lead.
She works part time for Athletics Canada as the team physician for eastern Canada and at McMaster University as an associate clinical professor.
She also volunteers as a sport physician for the World Anti-doping agency, FINA, and for the International Olympic Committee.
“I think it was really the breadth of that work both at a community-based level but also at a national and international level that lead to her recognition,” Newbery said.
Mountjoy said she is honoured to receive the regional family physician of the year award for her region.
“This award is a wonderful opportunity for the community to learn about the hard work that all family physicians do on a daily basis,” she said.
“It is also unique that I am receiving this award, as I have an unusual career as a family physician specializing in sport medicine.
“Family medicine encompasses more than primary care family practice in the traditional sense – there are family physicians who have specialized and focused their practices in a particular area of medicine as I have.”
Newbery said focused practice physicians like Mountjoy are an invaluable resource to other family physicians in their regions.
“There are many domains of focused practice and often … they have the same background training as family physicians who are in comprehensive community-based practice but they have this added training and skillset that allows them to serve their community in a really specific way,” Newbery said.
“We’re really proud as (the) Ontario College of Family Physicians to recognize her for her work and her expertise in this area.”
OCFP also named six other regional family physicians of the year and gave Dr. Merrilee Brown of Port Perry the 2016 Reg L. Perkin family physician of the year award.
