Doctor Renée Arnold Elected President of the Ontario College of Family Physicians

A dedicated local area family physician has been chosen to represent 7900 Ontario family doctors, all members of the Ontario College of Family Physicians.

Dr. Renée Arnold is a resident of the Village of L’Orignal and a well-known family physician with an established medical practice in the Town of Hawkesbury. Her track record is outstanding. Dr. Arnold is the physician lead of the Hawkesbury Family Health Group made up of 23 family physicians which group is now participating as one of the 6 shared-care pilot sites for interdisciplinary teams working in a collaborative care environment. Dr. Arnold was instrumental in ensuring that the following programs or clinics be brought to Hawkesbury: Community and In-Hospital Geriatric Assessment Program, Memory Disorder Clinic, the Diabetic Clinic, the Secondary Prevention Stroke Clinic, a Lung Health program, a Congestive Heart Failure program, a Chronic Pain Clinic, Arthritis Self-Management, healthy lifestyle programs as well as starting a collaborative mental health network.

Dr Arnold’s personal goal for the coming year revolves around ENGAGEMENT as she leads the Ontario College of Family Physicians through an ambitious strategic plan for the next 3 years, a plan involving communication strategies, education strategies, including collaborative care and quality improvement programs.

Dr Arnold believes that the family physicians will become key advocates in relation to their work on determinants of health which encompasses much more that health delivery. She professes that the knowledge and skills of the family physicians, together with their commitment to deal with the whole person and the whole family within the community, will keep the doctors as the primary healthcare givers in the Canadian context.

Introduced by Dr. Sandy Buchman, the past president of the College, he acclaimed her as a vibrant and charismatic young woman who can lead the College to new heights with her passion and energy. “With her passion for everything that is Family Medicine, she took to her responsibilities as a member of the executive with the same enthusiasm and devotion that not only characterized her years on the Board, but was clearly a reflection of her ongoing commitment to her community of Hawkesbury, Ontario in the Eastern corner of the province.”

Her Hawkesbury colleagues and the whole Hawkesbury & District General Hospital family are proud that one of their own has achieved such a prestigious honor at the Ontario College of Family Physician.