Drs. Chiasson & Dalziel

Welcome to our doctor couple Dr. Emma Chiasson and Dr. Andrew Dalziel.

Dr. Chiasson grew up in Antigonish, went to StFX for her undergrad and did chemistry there.  She went on to Dalhousie Medical School in 2012 and graduated in 2016.  She then did her residency in family medicine in Moncton for 2 years and then worked at locums in Halifax and Bridgewater and Antigonish. She always had in the back of her mind planned to come home to Antigonish to live and practice medicine here.  She says “I had a great upbringing here and I am close with my family”.

Emma went on to say “I really enjoy working here. I think everyone is very kind and respectful and appreciative. Especially the patients are really happy to see physicians coming back to the community. Knowing that there's going to be new physicians to take over from the eventual, retiring physicians. The specialist support has been great. People are very supportive. They're there when you need them.  I've had a good experience so far.”

Andrew Dalziel continues  “I'm going to be working in the department of family medicine and the department of emergency medicine. I grew up in New Minas in the Annapolis Valley and I also attended Dalhousie Medical School in Halifax graduating in 2015. I went on to do my family medicine residency in Moncton, New Brunswick, while Emma was there as well. I ended up also working a year in Moncton doing family medicine and emergency medicine. I went back to residency in Halifax and did an extra year of emergency medicine training. It was that very beneficial to get that extra experience. In the past year I've been working mostly at the Dartmouth general hospital doing emergency medicine, but over the past year, I've been traveling to Antigonish to do some hospitalists and some emergency medicine as well.”

Andrew says “I found St. Martha’s just to be like a great community hospital. I find it small enough that you get to know everyone there, so it's very easy to ask for help. Colleagues are very supportive and appreciative of you being there found everyone's been very like friendly and collegial. it's been really nice to work here.”

Regarding private practice in Antigonish they will be taking over Dr. Lesley Ruggles and Dr. Mike MacKenzie's practice. “They kind of have one practice that they split. So we will be doing the same thing, kind of splitting that practice up.”

On the personal front the couple enjoys the outdoors, pre-COVID they liked to travel.  They like back packing, mountain bikes which they have been doing at The Keppoch.   Andres has started road biking and is in with the local bike club.

They are building a house here just outside of town so yes they are planning to stay!

Dr. Chiasson noted “I think right now we're also really interested in recruiting other physicians. So we're excited at any opportunity - whether it's someone coming to do a locum or if it's someone that we know is still looking to settle down. We've been trying to reach out to people. We're definitely excited to see new physicians come to the area and, and start working here hopefully. We're having a new generation of physicians. That's wonderful. And the community is very appreciative.”