On the rare weekends that Dr. Eric Worthing and Dr. Catherine Cavanaugh had off together during their residencies at Maine Medical Center, they went camping around Maine, often near rural hospitals.

When they drove through downtown Damariscotta on a beautiful, sunny day during a camping trip, Dr. Cavanaugh thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to live and work here one day?”

A few years later, they are both working at LincolnHealth — seeing patients of all ages from all over Lincoln County, championing special projects and initiatives, and living in Newcastle with their young son, Henrik, and Bullmastiff puppy.

For the doctor duo, Lincoln County is a peaceful place to live with lots of places to explore and trails to hike. They are starting a homestead and currently have raised garden beds and have planted a few types of berries. Eventually, they hope to have chickens and bees. Much of their free time is spent outside, and in the winter, they enjoy cross-country skiing. They are both members of the Damariscotta River and Pemaquid Watershed Associations as well as the Midcoast Conservancy.

Dr. Cavanaugh has been practicing in Damariscotta since July of 2015 and Dr. Worthing has been practicing in both Boothbay Harbor and Damariscotta since September of 2016. In addition to working with patients, they are both leading special projects to help continuously improve the health of our communities and the care that LincolnHealth gives.

Currently, Dr. Worthing is the physician champion for hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, for LincolnHealth. He is working to develop a new, standardized approach to optimally managing high blood pressure and making the diagnosis sooner.

“High blood pressure is a chronic disease and increases your risk for heart disease and stroke. By trying to control it in the safest and best way possible, we are hoping to decrease the rates of those undesired, harmful effects.” explained Dr. Worthing.

Dr. Cavanaugh is presently involved in two major projects: streamlining the process of diagnosing and treating urinary tract infections for long term care residents, as well as helping manage opioid addiction and abuse in Lincoln County.

Although they both had the desire to practice in a rural community, different reasons led them to enter careers in medicine. For Dr. Worthing, it was his passion for preventative healthcare and his desire to help others and be involved in the community. And for Dr. Cavanaugh, it was her desire to better understand the body, its functions and its frailties after pursuing her athletic training certification during her undergraduate studies. She then decided to pursue osteopathic medicine as its core beliefs are in line with her own, and it fit well with her sports medicine background.

A division of LincolnHealth, Lincoln Medical Partners has primary care practices in Boothbay Harbor, Damariscotta, Waldoboro, and Wiscasset, as well as specialty medical practices in Damariscotta and Newcastle. For more information about Dr. Worthing or Dr. Cavanaugh, please visit www.lchcare.org or call (207) 563-4250.