Family Physician

Dr. Mark Sanders is a Family Physician living and working on the traditional and unceded territories of the Cowichan Nations in The Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island, BC. Mark did his medical school and family medicine residency training at the University of Saskatchewan and has practiced as a longitudinal Family Physician in Manitoba, Nunavut and British Columbia for the last 28 years. He continues to have a full-service family practice in Duncan, BC. Mark has worked with numerous collaborative health care teams involving patient advocates, nurse practitioners in the remote north, registered nurses, pharmacists, social workers, administrative staff and other physicians. He appreciates the value of working to top of scope in a team to achieve the best possible patient outcomes and provider satisfaction. He has a passion for primary care and sees great opportunity for growth and innovative solutions in the middle of what is being called a health care crisis across the country. Mark wants to offer to the next generation of providers the option of a new community-driven model of care which provides an expanded Patient Medical Home alongside a strong focus on self-care and workforce sustainability with joy in work. He has past experience as a division and hospice board member. He sat on a community task force that was instrumental in bringing a state of the art hospice house to the Cowichan Valley. He has recently finished a Physician Quality Improvement where he and Dr. Pullan looked at ways to improve Joy in Work for Family Physicians working at Cowichan District Hospital. Finally, Mark has recently accepted the Behaviour Medicine faculty position in the Cowichan Valley for a new UBC Family Practice residency program that will launch in July 2024. Outside of medicine he enjoys cycling, boating, hiking, adventuring, connecting with others and just being.

Family Physician

Dr. Erin Carruthers is a family physician and a member of the CVPCS Board of Directors. She completed her family medicine training in 2021 at UBC's Indigenous Family Medicine residency program, where she had the privilege to work with community members from Penelakut and Cowichan Tribes. Since graduating she has worked primarily as a locum physician in community family practices across the Cowichan Valley and providing inpatient care for unattached patients at the local hospital. She did some additional training in substance use medicine and has provided care to marginalized populations both in hospital as part of an addiction medicine consult service, as well as community outreach work. She also does rural and remote medicine, travelling to communities across BC to provide support for primary care and emergency medicine. As part of the newest generation of family physicians, Erin brings fresh eyes to the traditional model of primary care in our province; and as a mom, she is passionate about reducing administrative burden that takes her away not only from her ability to provide quality patient care, but also from her children. She believes there may be better ways to improve the health of our community, and that starts with thinking outside the box to create solutions that allow patients, support staff, allied health, and primary care providers to work together in the best way possible.

Family Physician

Dr. Kibby Milsom was born and raised on the traditional and unceded territory of the Quw’utsun people. She graduated from UBC Southern Medical program in 2018. She completed the Indigenous Family Medicine program based in Cowichan where she was privileged to learn from local Indigenous patients, Elders and mentors. Dr. Milsom is the newest member of the Cowichan Valley Primary Care Society. As a new to practice physician, she is optimistic that a community-led model of care in Cowichan will improve access to quality, patient-focused primary care and recruit new physicians to work in team environments with a less administrative burden and a focus on joy in the workplace. Since graduating residency in 2021, Dr. Milsom has worked as a locum family physician for multiple clinics around the Valley, provided inpatient care and addictions services at CDH as well as provided locum family medicine and ER support to rural and remote communities across BC. Dr. Milsom enjoys hiking, cycling and exploring nature around Cowichan with her husband and two young children.

Family Physician

Dr. Zoë Pullan graduated from medical school at the University of Manitoba and then completed her Family Medicine Residency at Dalhousie University. She has been a full-service Family Physician with a longitudinal practice in Cowichan since 1995. Prior to that Dr Pullan enjoyed locums in more remote locations such as Baffin Island, Haida Gwaii, Whitehorse, Dawson City, and Old Crow. When Dr. Pullan started her full-service practice in Cowichan in 1995 it included maternity, ER, inpatient care, OR assists, Youth Clinic and volunteer work with the Sexual Assault response team in addition to the community clinic work. For several years Dr Pullan was a volunteer member of the Cowichan District Hospital Foundation. Dr Pullan has experienced the changes in family practice over the years and is passionate about supporting the profession during these changes. She continues looking after her office panel while providing inpatient care at Cowichan District Hospital (CDH) for both her own patients and unattached patients. She completed the Island Health Physician Quality Improvement program, completing a project exploring the crisis of the dwindling numbers of primary care providers at CDH. More recently she completed the 2024 FPSC Leadership and Management Development Program. Additionally, Dr Pullan is a founding member of the Cowichan Valley Primary Care Society, a non-profit dedicated to creating a sustainable model for Primary Care in the Cowichan Valley. She has recently taken on the role of Medical Lead for the Division of Family Practice at CDH. Dr Pullan has two grown children who now live in Victoria, BC on their own. She enjoys running and hiking, especially on one of the many mountains in the Cowichan Valley, mountain biking, and traveling overseas by gravel bike with her partner.

Family Physician

Dr. Patricia Seymour is a family doctor who works in a large group practice in the Cowichan Valley. She earned her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1989 and went on to do her family practice residency at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, after which she worked part time as an emergency room physician and also in the McMaster Family Practice teaching unit in Hamilton. She spent a year in Northern India with grant-funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, evaluating women’s access to primary health care in rural India. After moving to Vancouver Island with her husband and two children in 2008, she joined a group of seven family doctors and started building her practice. For a number of years, she served as a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Family Medicine, University of British Columbia, teaching third year medical students professional competency skills. She sat on the Board of the Cowichan Valley Division of Family Practice and is now the Division Lead for Mental Health. She has a special interest and training in Gender Affirming Care.

Strategic Advisor

John and his wife Nancy moved to the Cowichan Valley in 2020 for family reasons. Professionally, he understands the importance of longitudinal primary care. Both he and Nancy are currently “unattached” patients, having had three assigned family physicians in the past three years and then losing them. John’s first doctor decided to retire, the second decided that he didn’t like family medicine and wanted to do emergency medicine. Nancy’s switched from family medicine to addictions and mental health. When we learned of the CVPCS we volunteered our time to help with their critical initiatives. John is a highly respected healthcare strategist and facilitator with a particular interest in improving care integration to benefit patients. He was a founding partner of Courtyard Group, helping to grow it to become Canada’s leading healthcare consultancy, with five offices in three countries. After Courtyard was acquired by TELUS in 2011 John led the strategy, policy and evaluation practice for the company and until 2020 served as National 22 Director of Health Strategy and Government Relations. Trained as a lawyer, he rose to partner in one of Canada’s leading law firms, where he specialized in large, complex, multiparty deals including acting for the government of Ontario in the creation of Teranet, which automated Ontario’s land registration system. On leave from his firm, he served as Chief of Staff to Ontario’s Minister of Health where he developed a life-long passion for healthcare improvement. John is a frequent writer, speaker and facilitator on integrated care and published a series of articles in Longwoods on integrated care models. An expert facilitator, he has particular expertise in working with governors, physicians and community members and agencies. Giving back to his community, John is past Chair of the Board of the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough and has also served on the boards of the Canadian Cancer Society, Holland Bloorview, Waterfront Toronto, Teranet and a number of other agencies and corporations. He also served as a volunteer member of the Expert Panel appointed by the Minister of Health to report on the future of acute care services for Scarborough and Durham.

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