PEMBROKE – The surgical team at Pembroke Regional Hospital is excited to announce the recent arrival of orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Malcolm Chang.
Dr. Chang, who began seeing patients earlier this month, joins Dr. Christopher de Jesus, Dr. Natasha Holder and Dr. George Mathew as the department’s fourth orthopaedic surgeon.
“We are very excited to welcome Dr. Chang,” said Chief of Surgery Dr. Colleen Haney. “Our surgical program is a dynamic place and has experienced a lot of change and growth in the last few years. We’re happy to learn from Dr. Chang’s experience from his previous work in Alberta and think he’s a great fit for the kind of compassionate and collegial team we are building on.”
Born in Lachine, Quebec, Dr. Chang developed an interest in science, and in particular, biology, at an early age. With parents from Trinidad, Dr. Chang and his family returned to the Caribbean for his elementary and high school years during which he completed a science-based stream of academics.
Returning to Canada for university, Dr. Chang earned an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Life Sciences from Queen’s University in 1996 and a Master’s degree in Pharmacology from the University of Toronto in 1998. That fall, he moved to Montreal to begin four years of medical school at McGill.
“It wasn’t until my first year of medical school that I even considered orthopaedics,” Dr. Chang said. “When I was originally considering a career in medicine, I thought about family practice and surgery, but in that first year we had an orthopaedic surgeon as a guest lecturer – he was funny, and an articulate speaker, and he made musculoskeletal anatomy sound fun!”
After that, Dr. Chang said he took a lot of electives in orthopaedics and sports medicine, as he was particularly interested in the field of joint reconstruction.
“Joint reconstruction is considered one of the most rewarding specialties in orthopaedics – it can be a life-changing procedure that dramatically improves the quality of life of the patient,” Dr. Chang said.
Dr. Chang completed his residency training in orthopaedic surgery at Newfoundland’s Memorial University in 2007. He then went west to the University of Alberta where he completed his fellowship training in Adult Hip and Knee Reconstruction, and Sports Medicine in 2008.
Dr. Chang comes to Pembroke after practicing as a full time orthopaedic surgeon in Lethbridge, Alberta for the past 10 years where his community practice involved both hip and knee replacements, as well as sports medicine (knee and shoulder).
Married, with three daughters, Dr. Chang said a major part of the appeal of the position in Pembroke was the location as he has family in both Ontario and Quebec.
He was also excited by the fact that Pembroke’s program is still relatively new which gives him the opportunity to grow with it and bring his expertise in joint replacements to the team. Dr. Chang’s local practice will focus on hip and knee replacements, along with sports medicine; knees and shoulders.
Dr. Chang said he and his family are settling well into the local community, which has been welcoming and friendly. He looks forward to enjoying some of the area’s cross-country skiing opportunities as well as the local summertime activities.
