Spotlight On CCG Members - Dr. Van Der Waag

Jan, 11 2018

~~47 years ago a young man from the Netherlands started on a journey that would transform his entire life and the many lives he touched.  In 1971 Albert Van Der Waag began studying medical studies after the Liberation War. It was here where he drew on beneficial experiences that would shape his future career path. Consisting of, the Mother and Child Health Care Programs, Public Health and emergency medicine.

Let us discover more from this month’s ‘Spotlight on CCG Members’.

Following his graduation at Erasmus University in Rotterdam School in the Netherlands, Albert was now qualified to practice family medicine in his community. He became chief medical officer in 1975 for the UK charity ‘Save the Children’.

A couple of years later Dr. van der Waag was appointed Government’s Physician on the island of Saba. Also in 1977, he was made sole medical practitioner for St. Eustatius, Netherlands Antilles (with a population of 2000) for approximately two years.

His career progressed rapidly, and, following his sole medical practitioner placement, he was appointed Public Health Inspector for two years on the three islands of the Windward Islands of the Netherlands Antilles (Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten).

For almost 40 years Dr. Van Der Waag has dedicated his life’s work to the island of St. Maarten in the Mullet Bay Medical Center, an outpatient clinic with its own pharmacy, laboratory, aviation medicine and industrial medicine office.

As well as his charity work with Save the Children he has also devoted his time with the Red Cross as Commander. In addition, he has undertaken roles such as head of the Blood Bank, Chief Medical Officer for the airport and the president of the Windward Island Medical Association and the Family Planning Association.

In 1996, he joined the AUC faculty to assist in providing the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course and with practical patient experience, as a part time teacher.

By January 2005 Dr. Van Der Waag was ready to join the AUC full time and was fully qualified to teach as a professor as staff  with the Introduction to Clinical Medicine Department.

For the last 13 years Albert has been in charge of the CPR BLS courses for Health Care professionals, the coordinator for the professional patients and coordinator for health related  seminars at AUC.

Now in 2018 he can pass on his well learnt knowledge and experience to young ones and is always ready to assist the students in preparing them to become better medical doctors at the AUC.

We welcome Dr Albert Van Der Waag to the CCG.