Local couple share career as family practitioners

It could be said that life here is just what the doctors ordered as Dr. Daryl Brain and Dr. Andrea Coholic settle into their second month as associates with the Fort Frances Clinic.
Although they’ve had their share of life in larger urban centres like Kingston, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, and Thunder Bay, it was the small-town routine they were looking for both personally and professionally.
Top that off with the fact they thrive on being family practitioners and the recipe spells success.
“I chose family practice because there wasn’t anything else I enjoyed as much,” Dr. Coholic said yesterday. A graduate of medical school at the University of Ottawa, she also is an anesthetist, making her the fourth doctor here qualified in that field.
“The first person I ever worked with during my training was in family practice and he could do anesthesia, geriatrics . . . so many different things,” she enthused.
Although Dr. Brain agreed the field of family medicine was very appealing, he conceded it came with its own set of challenges in a small-town environment.
“It provides challenges, yes, especially when working here where there’s no specialist back-up,” he noted yesterday.
“In small-town centres like this one, the family practitioners run the show. That can be stressful and challenging,” interjected Dr. Coholic.
On a personal level, both doctors also face the balancing act of knowing when to leave their jobs at the office and when not to.
“I think, with any couple, there is the stress of bringing work home and talking about it but we do have an understanding of what each other goes through,” said Dr. Brain.
“Sometimes it’s helpful to bounce [ideas] off him, especially when you’re working on call and it’s busy,” added Dr. Coholic.
Meanwhile, both physicians offered up their views on one of the most important aspects of the doctor/patient relationship–the promotion of healthy lifestyles as a preventive measure against illness, disease, and the increased resistance of germs to antibiotics.
“We’ve gotten very dependent upon the medical society to fix problems,” Dr. Brain said. “And while medical advances have been great, we must continue to promote preventive medicine to encourage people to take more responsibility for their health.”
“The two major changes in medicine have been antibiotics and immunization, and they certainly have improved the lifespan and health of people,” agreed Dr. Coholic.
“But as doctors, we must be educators to help prevent antibiotic resistance from getting worse,” she stressed.
“Dr. Pierre Mikhail always says, ‘We are the gatekeepers. We are supposed to continue to educate ourselves and bring that knowledge to our patients so they can take better care of themselves,’” she added.
The addition of Dr. Brain and Dr. Coholic brings the complement of physicians at the Fort Frances Clinic to 13, which also includes the addition of Dr. Robert Nugent as an associate after a one-year locum here.
Dr. Barry Anderson will join the clinic as a second general surgeon on Jan. 1.
The clinic is still looking for one family practitioner to replace Dr. Ted Jablonski, who relocated to Calgary this summer.