Specialist opening clinic in Carberry

A Manitoba urologist is returning to Carberry to open a medical clinic in mid-January to perform prostate cancer screenings and biopsies using advanced technology.

Dr. Dave Maharajh said he looks forward to providing care to the Westman community by operating his new practice out of the Super Thrifty Pharmacy on Main Street after previously working at the town’s emergency department when it reopened in May last year.

“After doing a lot of urology general practice, I figured that the next thing that I’m interested in and keen in is bringing the ability to do safe and precision medicine to Canada, and that being the robotic technology for the transperineal prostate biopsy,” he told the Sun.

Maharajh has practised as a urologist in the province since 2004. He worked as the vice-president of medical services for the Assiniboine and Parkland regional health authorities and as a medical director at Mount Carmel Clinic in Winnipeg and the Wheat City Medical Clinic.

He stopped working at the Selkirk Regional Health Centre in June in preparation for his latest career venture.

Maharajh will be the first doctor in Canada to use innovative robotic technology and artificial intelligence diagnostics for the transperineal prostate biopsy, which takes tissue samples from the perineal area.

The cancer detection procedure is a new way of getting to the prostate and avoids having to place a thin needle through the rectum using the transrectal ultrasound prostate biopsy method, he said.

Dr. Maharajh said the procedure has an infection rate of less than 0.1 per cent and is safer in terms of eliminating a risk of infection compared to the transrectal ultrasound method, which has an infection rate ranging between five and seven per cent across North America.

“There’s nothing still wrong with doing the transrectal ultrasound, the old route, but it comes with the implications of the worry about infection … as well as being replaced by the transperineal route, which is safer and maybe becomes a new standard of care down the road,” he said.

The Canadian Cancer Society estimates about one in nine men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime and one and 34 will die from it.

Doctors in provinces like British Columbia and Ontario, as well as a urologist in Winnipeg, have been doing the transperineal prostate biopsy, but without robotic equipment, Maharajh said.

His equipment is being delivered from a manufacturer in Singapore and was approved by Health Canada in September.

“It’s a daunting task, I won’t lie about that, but you know, it’s something that I feel that needs to get done,” he said.

“I am in the driving seat available to do that in Canada, and you know, it’s a long process, but I think something that eventually will change across the board in Canada.”

During the procedure, he will use the iSR’obot Mona Lisa, which is designed to perform complex surgeries with minimal incisions to reduce patient recovery time, according to the medical technology distributor’s website.

The biopsies can be performed under local or light sedation, said the website for Precision Pro BioTech, for which Maharajh is the CEO and chief medical officer.

Maharajh said he hopes to train other urologists and radiologists who are interested in learning how to do the robotic procedure to screen and diagnose prostate cancer.

Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead said the urologist was instrumental in helping to get the emergency department reopened at the Carberry Health Centre in 2024 and he is happy to have him return to work in the community.

“Every small community out there wants their health care good, and if you can get an added specialty practice, I mean that’s nothing but good news for us,” Muirhead said.

Maharajh first contacted the mayor last year after hearing his desperate plea about a lack of staff in the emergency department and asked how he could help. He contacted the mayor again this year to discuss the idea of starting a new practice, which was welcomed with open arms.

Muirhead said lots of Westman communities are scrambling to secure doctors, nurses and emergency medical services. He hopes Carberry can be an example of a community that works hard to attract health-care professionals to the area by providing accommodations.

He expects the specialized clinic will bring more people to the area to access the “groundbreaking” health-care service.

» tadamski@brandonsun.com