The BC Cancer Agency for the North is still a year away from opening its doors to patients in Prince George, but Andrea Wolowski has already taken ownership.
Having grown up in Tumbler Ridge, where her parents still reside, she's anxious to return to the region to begin her new job as the director of clinical operations for radiation therapy.
"If we can offer our patents what I think we'll be able to offer them, which is quality treatments close to home, we're filling a gap that hasn't been an option before," said Wolowski.
"As soon as you start bringing treatments closer to home it brings in that connection with their care providers. You don't feel like you're going down to the Lower Mainland and then people just forget about you. People know each other in small communities and you get that more personal support."
For the past 13 years she's worked as a radiation therapist in Kelowna at the B.C. Cancer Agency Centre for the Southern Interior. She's been involved in the planning stage of the Prince George clinic since 2009.
"I've been able to identify things I like and don't like and you see that piece of you already in real life," said Wolowski.
"It's a beautiful facility and it's quaint at the same time. It's cozy, it's warm, it's exactly what we need."
The new clinic will take advantage of the latest technology and will come equipped with top-of-the-line linear accelerators and patient-positioning beds.
Radiation oncologist Matthew Follwell has spent the past week at the UHNBC clinic, where he's been visiting patients who have received radiation treatments at the Vancouver cancer clinic, where he's currently based.
Follwell, a 34-year-old native of Bellevue, Ont., will be moving to Prince George next summer to work at the cancer clinic when it opens late in 2012. He'll join a staff that includes radiation oncologists Dilip Panjwani and Rob Olson; medical physics leader Narinder Sidhu; and radiation therapy service technician Nathan Smela. By the time the cancer clinic is in full operation it will have a staff of about 100.
"There's nowhere else in Canada would I have the opportunity to be able to build a centre that's brand new, that has a young staff," said Follwell.
"It gives us a chance to have an impact on the new centre in terms of the nursing model and how we want the clinic to actually run, involving medical and radiation oncology teams at the same time."
Olson, 31, was recruited from Vancouver to the Prince George clinic 14 months ago and has been coming to city twice a month for follow-up visits with his patients. The research opportunities he will have as part of the Northern Medical Program at UNBC cinched his decision to move to Prince George.
"There are a lot of different things that Prince George is starting to offer, and if there wasn't this academic hospital that's now emerging it wouldn't be near as interesting as a place to go," Olson said.
"We've decided this is going to be an academic centre where we do a lot of research and we also treat everything as a full-service cancer centre we can be proud of. That really attracts good oncologists because they don't feel they are doing something that's inferior than someone in a big city."
Olson especially likes the centralized team approach the Prince George clinic will take, with medical oncologists who handle chemotherapy working side-by-side with radiation oncologists who oversee radiation treatments. That, he said, lends itself to easily-arranged consultations with doctors, surgeons, nurses and support staff.
"Where we work right now in Vancouver it's very segregated, it's very difficult for me to go find a medical oncologist and I never talk to their nurses, and I don't think that's the healthiest way to do things," Olson said. "I think having a very integrated approach is very innovative, something you can uniquely do in a smaller centre."
The BC Cancer Agency for the North is still a year away from opening its doors to patients in Prince George, but Andrea Wolowski has already taken ownership.
Having grown up in Tumbler Ridge, where her parents still reside, she's anxious to return to the region to begin her new job as the director of clinical operations for radiation therapy.
"If we can offer our patents what I think we'll be able to offer them, which is quality treatments close to home, we're filling a gap that hasn't been an option before," said Wolowski.
"As soon as you start bringing treatments closer to home it brings in that connection with their care providers. You don't feel like you're going down to the Lower Mainland and then people just forget about you. People know each other in small communities and you get that more personal support."
For the past 13 years she's worked as a radiation therapist in Kelowna at the B.C. Cancer Agency Centre for the Southern Interior. She's been involved in the planning stage of the Prince George clinic since 2009.
"I've been able to identify things I like and don't like and you see that piece of you already in real life," said Wolowski.
"It's a beautiful facility and it's quaint at the same time. It's cozy, it's warm, it's exactly what we need."
The new clinic will take advantage of the latest technology and will come equipped with top-of-the-line linear accelerators and patient-positioning beds.
Radiation oncologist Matthew Follwell has spent the past week at the UHNBC clinic, where he's been visiting patients who have received radiation treatments at the Vancouver cancer clinic, where he's currently based.
Follwell, a 34-year-old native of Bellevue, Ont., will be moving to Prince George next summer to work at the cancer clinic when it opens late in 2012. He'll join a staff that includes radiation oncologists Dilip Panjwani and Rob Olson; medical physics leader Narinder Sidhu; and radiation therapy service technician Nathan Smela. By the time the cancer clinic is in full operation it will have a staff of about 100.
"There's nowhere else in Canada would I have the opportunity to be able to build a centre that's brand new, that has a young staff," said Follwell.
"It gives us a chance to have an impact on the new centre in terms of the nursing model and how we want the clinic to actually run, involving medical and radiation oncology teams at the same time."
Olson, 31, was recruited from Vancouver to the Prince George clinic 14 months ago and has been coming to city twice a month for follow-up visits with his patients. The research opportunities he will have as part of the Northern Medical Program at UNBC cinched his decision to move to Prince George.
"There are a lot of different things that Prince George is starting to offer, and if there wasn't this academic hospital that's now emerging it wouldn't be near as interesting as a place to go," Olson said.
"We've decided this is going to be an academic centre where we do a lot of research and we also treat everything as a full-service cancer centre we can be proud of. That really attracts good oncologists because they don't feel they are doing something that's inferior than someone in a big city."
Olson especially likes the centralized team approach the Prince George clinic will take, with medical oncologists who handle chemotherapy working side-by-side with radiation oncologists who oversee radiation treatments. That, he said, lends itself to easily-arranged consultations with doctors, surgeons, nurses and support staff.
"Where we work right now in Vancouver it's very segregated, it's very difficult for me to go find a medical oncologist and I never talk to their nurses, and I don't think that's the healthiest way to do things," Olson said. "I think having a very integrated approach is very innovative, something you can uniquely do in a smaller centre."
