Health Matters - Apple Magazine Health Matters Winter 2019 | Page 2
CALGARY AND AREA
Your
HealthMatters
Health Matters is published by Calgary and area Primary
Care Networks (PCNs) to give you information about the
programs, services and health teams available to you
through your family doctor.
Founded more than 10 years ago, PCNs work with teams
of other healthcare professionals, as well as offer programs
such as Prescription to Get Active and Find-a-Doctor.
Health Matters, Winter 2019 Issue publication team:
Shelley Boettcher, Keith Bradford, Terry Bullick,
Jessica Hone, Dr. Christine Luelo, Nicole Ouellet,
Colleen Seto, Serena Shane, Brett Tiesmaki,
Chrissie Worth, Shelly Wright
Contributors:
Dan James, Jimi Scherer, Colleen Seto, George Webber
Cover photo of Stephen Nichol by George Webber
We appreciate your feedback and article suggestions.
Contact our editorial team at [email protected].
To find your PCN, visit mypcn.ca
› Bow Valley Primary Care Network
› Calgary West Central Primary Care Network
› Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network
› Highland Primary Care Network
› Mosaic Primary Care Network
› Calgary Rural Primary Care Network
› South Calgary Primary Care Network
two
HEALTH MATTERS
winter 2019
Continuity of care means your family
doctor is with you every step of your
care journey, working to do what’s
best for your health. It prevents
tests from being duplicated and
allows results to be reviewed
promptly with your health history in
mind. It also means that you commit
to seeing your doctor regularly.
For 69-year-old Stephen Nichol,
continuity of care probably saved
his life. In early 2018, he went for
his annual checkup with his family
doctor, Dr. Chris Bockmuehl at
Crowfoot Village Family Practice in
Calgary. Nichol has had high blood
pressure for a few years, but he’s
an active person who takes good
care of himself—walking and biking
frequently. He appeared to have a
clean bill of health. Still, Bockmuehl
sent him for an ultrasound as
proactive screening.
The ultrasound revealed Nichol had
an abdominal aortic aneurysm—a
swelling in the aorta, the largest
artery in the body.
“The risk of an undetected aneurysm
is that it can grow slowly and then
suddenly burst, which would be a
catastrophic life-threatening event,”
Bockmuehl says. “We want to find
it early and repair it before it gets
too big.”