“I get a little emotional when I talk about DGH.”
Dr. Chadwick “Chad” Williams has had a lifelong connection with Dartmouth General Hospital. Growing up in East Preston, he describes Dartmouth as his “home hospital.” And that pull of home was what brought him back.
“My first practice was in St. John, New Brunswick and we thought we were going to end up staying there,” says Dr. Williams. “The only place I ever thought about leaving for was Dartmouth. And that’s because it’s a special place, and it’s even more special now than it was back then. There’s a big community feel as soon as you walk through the doors. Everybody’s very welcoming, everybody’s on a first-name basis. We’re all here to try and help people feel better.”
That’s been Dr. Williams’ goal since he was one of the first African Nova Scotians to graduate from Dalhousie Medical School. He completed his Bachelor of Science and Medical degrees at Dalhousie University, then Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology residencies at the University of Calgary. His next stop was Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California where he completed an Inflammatory Bowel Disease Fellowship.
Dr. Williams is currently the Endoscopy Site Lead at Dartmouth General Hospital. While he’s a familiar face inside the hospital, he’s also become a familiar face in the community. Dr. Williams is featured in a TV public service announcement encouraging people to do the Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT). The commercial was supported by the Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation through funds raised from the Get Up There (GUT) event. This year’s GUT climb of Wentworth is coming up on March 6th.
“My Mom was diagnosed with colon cancer while I was in residency in Calgary,” says Dr. Williams. “There are several people in her family who also suffered from colon cancer. Most of them didn’t survive it. My Mom did.”
The FIT test is a screening tool to detect microparticles of blood in stool samples, which can be an early sign of colorectal cancer or precancerous polyps. The test is mailed to Nova Scotians between the ages of 50-74 every two years to complete at home. While the numbers have increased, it is still fewer than half of the people who receive the test who send it back.
Dr. Williams’ message is that early detection saves lives.
“I think there are some people who are embarrassed about doing the test and they think if they’re feeling well why should I do it,” says Dr. Williams. “And then there are the folks who are more concerned about what if there is something. I think it’s important that people understand that if a test comes back positive that’s a good thing. It means we can probably do some really good medicine for them to stop things before it gets too far along. The whole point of doing the test is to prevent colon cancer, and that’s what we do.”
In the television commercial, Dr. Williams says “People may not like the idea of collecting their own stool. Please don’t die of embarrassment. Get the test done.”
And that message is resonating.
“I was doing a colon cancer screening today and was talking with one of the patients,” says Dr. Williams. “I asked her if she’d done the stool test before. She said this was her first time because she saw a commercial on TV that said don’t die of embarrassment. And I said, ‘oh yeah, that’s a pretty handsome looking fella on that commercial, isn’t it?’ She said ‘I thought it was maybe you,’ and we had a good laugh.”
Dr. Williams says it feels great when he hears stories like this from patients.
“I’m always happy to do anything that I think is going to potentially help,” he says. “But it is special to see it in real time. To have a patient say I did this because of you, that’s a big deal.”
Dr. Williams holds faculty appointments at Dalhousie University and Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the current Chair of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology EDIRA committee.
“My Mom and Dad live in the same house I was raised in, in East Preston,” says Dr. Williams. “I come from a huge family and Dartmouth General is their home hospital. I’m happy to do this work anywhere but to do it at home is special.”
