The Haines medical clinic is losing a long-time doctor and gaining a new one.

Dr. Julia Heinz, half-time employee who has worked at the clinic since 1997, leaves the clinic Aug. 8 to serve one year at a U.S. Department of Defense hospital on the South Pacific island of Kwajalein.

Heinz said in an interview she’ll keep her home in Haines and is hoping to continue to practice here when she returns. She said she was attracted to recreation opportunities on Kwajalein that boasts the world’s clearest water, bicycling as the main form of transportation, and surfing. The island’s high school also promises new cultural opportunities for her teen-age daughter, she said.

“Definitely Haines is home for me, there’s no doubt in my mind, but this is an experience I don’t want to pass up,” Heinz said.

Heinz served a month on Kwajalein in June and said her work there will focus mainly on occupational accidents and emergency care, including for injuries like scrapes on coral. She also intends to volunteer on an impoverished, nearby island.

Heinz said she was confident her patients would continue to get quality care, including from Dr. Adam McMahan, who started as a permanent, full-time family medicine doctor at the clinic this week.

McMahan recently finished his residency with the Alaska Family Medicine program at Providence Hospital in Anchorage. During the past three years, he has worked in Bethel, Anvik and Anaktuvuk Pass. While in medical school, he served at Sitka Community Hospital. McMahan’s wife is a nurse and the couple has a 3-year-old son.

“We were looking for a community where we could stay for a long time. From a sustainability standpoint, Haines seems like a wonderful community to land in and raise a child,” he said in an interview this week.

McMahan, whose grandfather worked as a pediatrician in rural Kentucky, said he was interested in serving in the Alaska Native health care system in a rural setting. McMahan received his undergraduate degree from University of Alaska-Fairbanks and graduated from University of Kentucky medical school.

“Being remote allows you to practice in a way that’s different from an urban setting. Often times you’re asked to do what a dermatologist or an ER doctor or a general surgeon would be doing in a larger city. People expect more of you,” he said. He recounted deliberating on his choice of antibiotics for treating a patient in Bethel whose hand was injured by a seal harpoon. “Where else are you going to see that?”

McMahan said his experience in Anchorage gave him Alaska contacts he can confer with on medical questions that arise here. He said his wife hopes to start a nursing mothers’ breast-feeding support group in Haines.

Dr. Dave McCandless became medical director at the clinic in mid-December, replacing Dr. Noble Anderson. Anderson now works at the SEARHC clinic in Juneau.