By Cecelia McGuire
The latest addition to the AGH’s Obstetrics/Gynaecology team can draw on a diverse range of expertise in his goal of building on the high-quality care already provided to families in the community.
“AGH has reason to be proud of its Ob/Gyn Department,” says Dr. Dave Caloia, who has worked as a locum at AGH since last fall. “It is an example of the excellent care that can be provided by a small community hospital.” In September, Dr. Caloia joins two other Ob/Gyn specialists with a full-time practice at 95 Spring Street (the former Fairview Manor building), as well as providing services to AGH.
A native of Ottawa, Dr. Caloia completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Ottawa before heading to the University of Toronto for his medical degree in 1997 and a post-graduate degree in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2002. The focus on evidence-based medicine during his training led him to inquire what was available in other parts of the world. “Evidence-based medicine involves assessing practices and procedures to decide if they are helpful or harmful, and how they make a difference. I wanted to find out what was being taught elsewhere. And that led to an interest in how we can provide healthcare from a global point of view.”
Dr. Caloia worked in Zimbabwe and Ukraine, and then for five years at a teaching hospital in Kenya, in a global health partnership with the University of Toronto. During his overseas work, he maintained his Ob/Gyn practice in Toronto.
He also is a certified teacher of ALARM (Advances in Labour and Risk Management), a continuing education program sponsored by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. This evidence-based program works to evaluate, update and maintain the competence of specialists, family physicians, midwives and nurses according to Canadian practice guidelines. Its goal is to improve the outcomes and process of birth and immediate postpartum care for mothers and infants.
Dr. Caloia’s motivation as an obstetrician/ gynecologist is “seeing the tangible results of working with this patient population and making a real difference in people’s lives.”
He also is happy to return closer to home with his wife, Rachelle, and two sons, aged 12 and 14. “We have family in eastern Ontario and western Quebec. We like the Almonte area because it straddles the border between rural and urban. And it takes pride in maintaining a healthy level of liveability.”
