Medical Team

Medical Director - Dr. Stephen Wheeler

Providence Air Ambulance is committed to excellence in its provision of medical care. To this end we have some of the most experienced air medical transport physicians in the world assisting us and overseeing our medical services. Every flight has a physician overseeing all medical aspects of the patient’s needs. Our physicians have decades of experience in providing support in the air and ground transport environment. Organizations that have received their services and support are the Canadian Royal Navy Pacific Fleet (at home and around the world), the Canadian Coast Guard Arctic Fleet, and the British Columbia Air Ambulance. In addition, they have provided medical services to remote industrial sites in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and to expeditions in remote regions of the world.

Dr. Stephen Wheeler is our Chief Medical Officer. He is a certified emergency physician, on staff with Island Health, working in the Royal Jubilee and Victoria General Hospitals. He has been involved with air medical transfers for 25 years and developed the innovative Autolaunch Helicopter Trauma Program for the BC Ambulance Service. He has served as Trauma Director for Island Health and was the Medical Director of the BC Air Ambulance for 16 years. Dr. Wheeler has years of experience of managing on-line air medical transport advice as well as having trained and supervised many other physicians to provide this service.  In 2013 he became the first certified physician in Canada to achieve sub-specialty certification in the newly recognized field of Emergency Medical Transport Services.

Dr. Wheeler is an Associate Clinical Professor with the University of British Columbia. He teaches medical students and residents, providing lectures and clinical teaching in emergency departments. Dr. Wheeler enjoys spending time in the mountains and has an interest in Wilderness Medicine.

Chief Flight Nurse - Cathy Cavinaw

Cathy Cavinaw came to Providence Air Ambulance (PAA) with a wealth of experience in critical care nursing that includes many years as a flight nurse. Cathy’s work took her into Northern Manitoba and Nunavut. Based in Rankin Inlet (NU) at one time and Thompson (MB), her role included transporting patients by air  from remote communities to larger centres in Canada able to provide the higher level of care required for the patient. Cathy has also worked in the international air medical realm transporting patients by air ambulance and commercial aircraft travelling around the world.

Cathy joined PAA in 2016 as a medical crewmember flight nurse and quickly brought her knowledge and experience to the forefront as she engaged with our staff and operations team with enthusiasm and an obvious passion for the work of aero medicine.

Cathy accepted our offer to fill the new role of Chief Flight Nurse in March of 2019 while at the same time continuing with her work as a critical care nurse in the emergency department of Vancouver General Hospital.

Cathy’s nursing education and experience over the past 30 years have included adult and paediatric emergency departments, ICU, NSICU, CSICU, Labour and Delivery, PACU, Anaesthesia, Orthopaedics, and Neurology. Cathy also has extensive international nursing experience having worked in England, Germany, Ireland, and the United States.

Dr. Andrew Macnab - Medical Advisor Paediatrics

Dr. Macnab trained in the United Kingdom as a pediatric and neonatal critical care physician. He received his doctorate for research developing innovative biomedical technology. In 1977 he was recruited to Canada where he made improving the care of sick and injured infants and children in need of inter-facility transport a priority. 

Dr. Macnab was Medical Director of the Children’s and Women’s Health Centre of British Columbia Provincial Air Medical Transport Program, and Pediatric Advisor to the Provincial Government, British Columbia Ambulance Service; he is responsible for key improvements in air medical transport. Logistics of service delivery, escort training, and patient care, together with his research have established British Columbia’s air ambulance program’s excellent international reputation. Many current standards for transport care, evaluation, and escort training are based on his contributions.

As a result of Dr. Macnab’s innovations, particularly with technological and logistic solutions to improve training and operational scope of air medical transport, he is sought out to collaborate with groups running medical transport programs across Canada, and worldwide. Groups in Scotland and North East England based key elements of their training and delivery system on the British Columbia model. His expertise has also been applied in Europe, the Far East, and by the AMREF Flying Doctor service in Kenya.