The following information is a consensus from the physician group working at the Calgary Refugee Health Program, and is based on years of experience treating most of the refugees and refugee claimants in our city. It is meant to be used as a resource to guide family physicians through the initial screening and management of newly arrived refugees and refugee claimants. 

During the patients’ first medical visit at the Calgary Refugee Health Program, physicians will take their full medical history, perform a complete head-to-toe physical exam and order refugee-specific screening tests. The results of these tests are then reviewed with the patients at a subsequent visit where other issues such as vaccination are also addressed. The current guidelines aim at guiding family physicians through these initial visits with their new refugee patients. 

This resource was specifically designed for family physicians in Calgary, but most of this information can also be used by other Canadian physicians welcoming refugee patients in their practice (depending on the local resources available). Additionally, while these recommendations are mainly aimed at refugees and refugee claimants, they could also be useful for physicians seeing newly arrived immigrants.

These recommendations should not be considered as official clinical guidelines. They simply represent our current practice at the Calgary Refugee Health Program. The clinical judgement of family physicians should always prevail over these recommendations, and specialist consultation is advised where appropriate.  

This clinical resource was authored by: 

Guillaume Mongeau-Martin, MDCM CCFP DTM&H 

For questions about this resource, please email: guillaume.mm@gmail.com 

Special contributions: 

Andrea Hull, MD CCFP DTM&H (Extensive review of the guidelines) 

Jazmin Marlinga, MD CCFP DTM&H (Extensive review of the guidelines) 

Stephen D Vaughan, MD FRCPC DTM&H (Infectious diseases sections) 

Rita Watterson, MD FRCPC MPH (Post-traumatic stress disorder section) 

This document was reviewed and approved by the entire physician group at the Calgary Refugee Health Program.