When she was eighteen years old, Dr. Judy began her medical journey at the University of the
Witwatersrand, South Africa. In 1996, nine years after qualifying as a doctor, she completed a
three-year Masters in Family Medicine program at the University of Pretoria.
She worked in many fields of medicine, including family practice, emergency medicine,
maternity, anesthetics, and occupational health. She managed fifty primary care clinics across
South Africa and was lead emergency physician for ISOS on Sakhalin Island, Russia before
emigrating to Canada in 2002.
Working in rural Quesnel, BC, she recognized the need for improved management of chronic
pain and developed her website, leading to her being recognized as a doctor making a
difference by Doctors of BC. Dr. Judy feels she has learned the most about pain and about
herself from her patients and mentors.
Judy is the family physician for Pain BC ECHO for pain and mentor for Pain BC and Doctors of
BC. Her published medical and creative writing can be found on her writing website,
judydercksen.ca.
Feel free to contact me via the Contact form if you have a different point of view that you wish to share. No question is irrelevant and no critique is unimportant.