WAVES FAMILY MEDICINE
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Husband and wife, Dr. Sean Robinson and Dr. Jamileh Shaffaf, have teamed up with Dr. Amanda Murdoch, Dr. Julie Caron, and Dr. Adrian Stacy, albeit in a different location.
While the original Waves clinic is located at the Georgian Village complex in Penetanguishene, Drs. Shaffaf and Robinson will be operating out of the Huronia Medical Centre in Midland, in the former space of retired physician Dr. Peter Cameron.
Dr. Robinson is originally from Amherstburg, Ontario, and Dr Shaffaf is from Bowmanville, Ontario. They both attended medical school at the Niagara Regional Campus of McMaster University, which is where they met.
Upon graduation, they completed their family medicine residency in Sault Ste. Marie via the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. For the past three years, they have been practising rural medicine in Wawa, Ontario before relocating to Penetanguishene in May.
Their recruitment to the southern Georgian Bay area was a challenge as two community visits had to be cancelled due to a COVID-19 outbreak at Georgian Bay General Hospital in December, and a provincial stay-at-home order in early spring.
However, thanks to numerous Zoom calls with Physician Recruiter David Gravelle, and the physicians from Waves Family Medicine, the couple found a comfort level in making the big decision to blindly relocate to a community.
“From our very first Zoom encounter with them, we got this vibe that these were people who shared similar values in terms of family medicine, and what an ideal practice would look like,” explained Dr. Robinson when discussing partnering with Drs. Murdoch, Caron and Stacy.
“They just felt like ‘our people’ when we met them. It was really amazing to find these other people who had the same goals, the same values, and that we could work together to create something valuable for the community,” added Dr. Shaffaf.
Both Dr. Shaffaf and Dr. Robinson are bilingual and excited to serve the area with comprehensive care in both French and English. They also enjoy teaching as faculty members with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), and they plan to provide inpatient care at Georgian Bay General Hospital.
As part of their practice style, the young physicians say they are committed to an inclusive and affirming approach to care for all populations.
“As physicians, we’re in a role where we can make change in a community,” said Dr. Shaffaf, “We feel we have a responsibility to educate ourselves as to what the community needs. We are now here to humbly hear what needs to happen and be a force for change.”
Since moving to the community in May, the couple has been busy exploring the region, shopping locally to outfit their practice, and sourcing local restaurants and food providers. Once there are more safe ways to do so, they look forward to immersing themselves into the local arts community.
“We’re both interested in the arts and theatre. Dr. Shaffaf is a talented musician,” said Dr. Robinson proudly. “Both of us have been involved in musical theatre. So we’re always looking for opportunities to get involved once it can be safely done again.”
“We’ve found a new niche in making educational videos on YouTube,” continued Dr. Shaffaf. “We enjoyed doing that during the pandemic. We hope it helped people get a little bit of reassurance when there was a lot of difficult to understand and constantly changing information out there.”
One of their most popular videos was Don’t Go Out (A Pandemic Parody) which features a re-write of the lyrics to a Dua Lipa song, their own voices, and some corny dance moves. Watch it below.
“The recruitment of physicians is a challenge at the best of times,” explained family physician recruiter David Gravelle when discussing the process of recruiting Drs. Robinson and Shaffaf. “Trying to showcase your community without a site visit or a real estate tour requires the use of various mediums to put your best foot forward. Our physicians have been very engaged in the recruitment process during the pandemic. I need to thank them for making this happen.”
“And, we’re not done yet.” continued Gravelle. “We have two more family physicians starting practices later this year. We will make formal announcements regarding their recruitment and relocation once they have arrived in our community.”
To become a patient of Dr. Robinson or Dr. Shaffaf, please register with Health Care Connect via phone at 1-800-445-1822 or visit their website.
To learn more about the expanding team at Waves Family Medicine, click here.
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