Dr. Barrie Phillips: Medicine gives me both science and human contact. by Betty Barton Dr. Phillips is a regional special- ist in internal medicine, a fisher- man, a gardener, tennis buff and an advocate of skiing on Shames Mouniain. He first came to Terrace in 1968. as a general practitioner and then became the area’s intemist in 1972, with five years of formalist training. Dr. Barrie Phillips is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and a graduate of Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. Prince Rupert and Smithers have had internists serving their com- munities, only occasionally, over: the years. For the past year, Barrie has been the only internist in the whole of Northwestern B.C., from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Burns Lake. He has afternoon office hours in Kitimat and Terrace two days each week, is in Mills Memorial Hospi- tal seven mornings per week, and serves Hazelton every two months, Some of Dr. Phillips’s consulting and diagnosis is done with the aid of fax reports and telephone. As this interview was being con- ducted, an out-of-town patient called complaining of heart attack Terrace Review — Wednesday, December £9, 1990 B13 Who is... Dr. Barrie Phillips? symptoms. Dr. Phillips gave him quick instructions over the phone, then called an ambulance for the patient and rushed off to the hospi- tal to receive the results from the elecirocardiogram he’d ordered _from his home. "Internal medicine is the study and treatment of.-internal organ disease. A lot of my work involves cardiology (heart) and respiratory (lung) problems." explains Dr. Phillips. Since 1973, permanent pacemakers have been available to patients in Terrace. Drs. Lee, Strangway and Dunfield have performed the operations and Dr. Phillips does the ‘electronics’ to regulate the pacemakers, A patient from Fanny Bay near Nenaimo had a pacemaker replaced at Mills Memorial Hospital last year. Na- naimo doesn’t have that capability even now, since they use the Vic- toria facilities. A woman from Grand Prairie, Alberta comes back to Terrace for a check up on her pacemaker every year. Barrie also does allergy testing and treatment and _ infectious disease diagnosis and treatment. Ten years ago, he and Dr. Bill Redpath discovered the second case of Legionnaire’s disease in B.C. (The first case was dis- BS \ ne? ow T @ FORT sh JOHN @ DAWSON CHEEK §f @ PRINCE GEORGE - Be PRINCE RUPERT @ TERRACE Alta. @ QUESNEL @ WILLIAMS LAKE B.C. @ KAMLOGPs GOLDEN @ \ VANCOUVER, @ SALMONARM OND, @ VERNON @ KELOWNA @ PENTICTON of @CHILLIWACK —@ABBOTSFORD — GRANBROOK “CASTLEGAR @ * a Furniture « Mattresses for less... A LOT LESS! NO COMMISSION SALES STAFF! NO CosTiy FRILLS OR GIMMICKS! NO MEMBERSHIP FEE! DIRECT FACToRy PURCHASES; HUGE MANUFACTURERS? VOLUME DEALER . Low PROFITS! LARGE SELECTION OF BRAND NAMES! DISCOUNTS) Terrace: 4730 Keith Ave. . 635-4111 OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: MONDAY - FRIDAY: 10 am-9 pm. SATURDAY: 10 am -G pm. Closed Sunday. covered in Salmon Arm.) Dr. Phillips is the Director of Intensive Care (ICU) at Mills Memorial Hospital. In this position, he prior- izes patients for the Intensive Care Unit, works together with the nurses and other doctors and meets every two months with réports to the general staff. =... ---- Dr. Phillips, bor in Calgary, grew up in the Ottawa Valley. He studied engineering for two. years and then transferred to sciences - physics, chemistry and biology for his B.A. “I once wanted to be a world class scientist. 1 was and still am, fascinated by the space program," says Dr. Phillips. CT Scanners and miniaturization of other medical devices have been helped along by the space pro- gram, he adds. "Medicine was always an equal option and I wanted to be the best at whatever I did. I’ve never looked back. I like medicine. [ enjoy people and science. Medicine gives me both science and human contact." Dr. Phillips would sometimes like to be doing more medical research. When he took specialist training at St. Paul’s in Vancouver, he did research, was also the first internal medicine resident in their Intensive Care Unit and head resi- dent of cardiology. St. Paul’s had the first ICU west of Winnipeg. During that time, Barrie wrote a scientific paper on blood gases with Dr. Dwight Peretz, the direc- tor of ICU. They also went to San Francisco together to hear Dr. Christian Barnard discuss the first heart transplant that he’d per- formed in South Africa. Dr. Phillips commends the Ter- race area medical staff and admini- stration, "Patients in the northwest get treatment equal to any in the world. We use drugs immediately upon approval and try to give our people *world best’ drugs and treatment. Moreover, our local physician-Vancouver physician relationship is such that our North- west residents receive treatment at least as promptly as Vancouver residents. This also applies to heart surgery. The new nuclear medicine facility and the CT Scanner will enhance our local capability. I’m pleased our politicians are granting our requests after many years of lobbying for these technologies." Dr. Phillips works long hours, but he likes to take some time off to go fishing and scuba diving off his boat in the Douglas Channel or out of Prince Rupert. He likes hiking with his boys Matthew, Patrick, Timmy, and Simon and his wife, Nora. The family: enjoys tennis in’ their back yard. The concept of a ski area in the North- west has also been a major interest for Dr. Phillips since he became the president of the Shames Moun- tain Ski Corporation in 1987. He is -one of the many dedicated people who have assured skiing at Shames in 1990. Dr. Phillips closes, "We have wonderful people in the Northwest and a great cultural diversity here. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else!" .