A desire to learn more about the body and how it heals led Dr. Catherine Cavanaugh to medical school after an undergraduate degree in biomedical science with an emphasis in sports medicine, but it was a desire to live in a rural community that brought her to Damariscotta.

Cavanaugh joins Dr. Catharine Cadigan and Family Nurse Practitioner Linda Brouwer at Lincoln Medical Partners Internal Medicine. Cavanaugh, who completed a dual residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Maine Medical Center in Portland, will also practice pediatric medicine with Dr. Andrew Russ, Dr. Joann Kaplan, and Dr. Steven Feder at Lincoln Medical Partners Pediatrics.

Because she completed a two-year fellowship in infectious diseases at Maine Medical Center, she will also be available to consult or treat patients with infectious diseases like recurring MRSA, HIV, or tick-borne illnesses, and to consult with patients who are planning to travel to parts of the world where infectious diseases are a threat.

Cavanaugh discovered Damariscotta while camping with her husband, Dr. Eric Worthing, when they were both in residency. They each had aspirations to work and live in a more rural setting. On rare free weekends off together they would often go camping and drive by the local area hospital. Damariscotta and the Miles Campus of LincolnHealth was always a favorite.

During a chance conversation with Dr. Michael Roy, chairman of the department of medicine at the Tufts School of Medicine-Maine Medical Center program, she learned of an opening at Lincoln Medical Partners Internal Medicine in Damariscotta.

Cavanaugh said that she went to medical school expecting to be a family practitioner, but while doing rotations in different specialties, discovered that she enjoyed both internal medicine, which involves mostly older patients, and pediatrics.

One aspect of pediatrics that she enjoys is the opportunity to help young people overcome a problem that is holding them back.

“When you can really make a difference in a child’s ability to learn or to do well in school, that is rewarding. You see that growth and you see that confidence.”

Internal medicine can be more detail oriented, sometimes requiring a more methodical approach, said Cavanaugh, but as with pediatric patients, she enjoys getting to know her patients and hearing their stories.

Growing up in a large Irish Catholic family (her mother had 11 siblings and her father had four) she enjoyed hearing the stories than her grandparents and great aunts would tell.

Hearing her patients’ stories is a great way to get to know them as people, said Cavanaugh. That’s good medicine, and it is also the relationship she wants to have with her patients.

For more information about Cavanaugh, or Lincoln Medical Partners Internal Medicine, call 207-563-4250.