Family Medicine Residency Site: Abbotsford-Mission

Figure 2: Cumulative incidence function curve for adverse outcomes within 30 days after hospital discharge, stratified by sedative prescription filled within 7 days after hospital discharge. Gray test: p < 0.001 for each outcome. Note that the scales of the y-axes differ. Note: CI = confidence interval, ED = emergency department.

The Medication That Follows You Home

Hospital discharge can feel like a finish line. The acute crisis has passed, the papers are signed, and the patient is finally going home.

But what follows them home matters.

A large Ontario cohort study of more than 1.8 million older adults found that 13.2% filled a sedative prescription within seven days of hospital discharge. Among those patients, nearly one-third had not been using sedatives before admission. For sedative-naive older adults, a new sedative prescription after discharge was associated with increased risk of falls, emergency department visits, hospital readmission, and death within 30 days. The strongest and most consistent signal was seen with benzodiazepines.

Many sedatives are started in hospital for understandable reasons: sleep disruption, anxiety, agitation, delirium, distress, procedures, or the general chaos of being acutely unwell. The problem is not always the medication itself. The problem is when a short-term hospital solution quietly becomes a post-discharge risk.

For older adults, discharge is already a vulnerable transition. They may be weaker, more confused, less mobile, and managing new instructions, new appointments, and new medications. Adding a sedative, especially for someone who was not previously taking one, may increase risk at exactly the wrong moment.

The bigger lesson is about transitions of care. Medication reconciliation should not simply confirm what is on the list. It should ask whether each medication still makes sense for the patient who is leaving hospital, not just the patient who was admitted.

Sometimes safer care begins with one small question:

Does this medication need to follow the patient home?

Read more on Association between sedative prescriptions after hospital discharge and falls and other adverse events in older adults: a population-based cohort study via CMAJ.

Quick Reflection Quiz

An older adult was not taking sedatives before admission but is discharged with a new benzodiazepine. What should this trigger?

A. Routine discharge with no further action
B. A structured medication review and fall-risk reassessment
C. Automatic long-term continuation
D. Reassurance that short-term use is always safe

Which group appeared to have the highest concern in this study?

A. Older adults newly started on sedatives after discharge
B. Younger adults discharged from hospital
C. Patients continuing all pre-existing medications
D. Patients discharged without medication changes

What is the key discharge-planning question raised by this study?

A. Can we prescribe something to help sleep?
B. Can the patient afford the medication?
C. Does this medication still need to follow the patient home?
D. Did the patient receive printed instructions?

What might be a practical safety step?

A. Add sedatives to all discharge bundles
B. Avoid discussing fall risk unless the patient has fallen before
C. Arrange early follow-up to reassess need, side effects, and mobility risk
D. Assume medication reconciliation is enough

Answers: 1. B, 2. A, 3. C, 4. C

Hi everyone,

Please join me in warmly congratulating our site’s award recipients for the 2025–2026 academic year!

These awards recognize the meaningful contributions our faculty and residents make to teaching, mentorship, and medical education at our site. We are very fortunate to have such dedicated educators and role models in our community.

Faculty Awards

Residency Site Teaching Awards
Dr. Leanne Chew
Dr. Hossein Sotoudeh Ravan

Residency Site Medical Education Awards
Dr. Hamid Izadi
Dr. Akash Sinha

Resident Award

Peter Grantham Resident Teaching Award
Dr. Jonathan Dresselhuis

Congratulations to all of our recipients, and thank you for the care, commitment, and excellence you bring to our learning environment!

Dr. Ilona Hale’s article offers a timely reminder that planetary health is not separate from primary care. It is part of the work of caring for patients. Climate change, pollution, extreme weather, infectious disease risks, and health-system strain are already shaping clinical practice. At the same time, health care itself contributes to environmental harm through the tests, treatments, medications, supplies, and disposable products used every day. Hale’s article challenges clinicians to recognize their unique role in reducing unnecessary care, supporting prevention, empowering patients, and choosing lower-impact alternatives. In doing so, she reframes sustainability as an essential dimension of high-quality, patient-centred care. Learn more here.

This is not just a collection of poems. This is a life, spoken out loud.

Congratulations to Elder Jean Wasegijig, our Co-Director of the Indigenous Portfolio, Resident Elder, and Counsellor for the UBC Faculty of Medicine, who recently published her book of poetry.

“In My Voice, Elder Jean Wassegijig brings forward a deeply personal journey through memory, loss, love, and healing. From the quiet moments of childhood on the land… to the weight of grief, addiction, and disconnection… to the slow return to spirit, ceremony, and self… each piece carries truth without apology.

Rooted in Indigenous worldview, guided by Creator, and shaped by decades of lived experience supporting others on their own healing paths, My Voice is both witness and offering. It is for anyone who has carried pain.

For anyone still searching for balance. For anyone ready to listen… not just with their ears, but with their spirit. Because sometimes, finding your voice is the beginning of everything.”

Learn more here.

Vitamin D is often associated with bone health, but its role in the body extends much further. It supports immune function, calcium absorption, cellular health, and may play a role in reducing the risk or progression of several non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer, and thyroid-related conditions.

Despite its importance, vitamin D deficiency remains a widespread global health issue. Many people do not get enough vitamin D through sunlight, diet, or fortified foods. Risk factors include limited sun exposure, darker skin tone, aging, obesity, malabsorption, kidney or liver disease, and low intake of vitamin D-rich foods. Natural sources include fatty fish, cod liver oil, egg yolks, fortified dairy products, fortified plant-based milks, cereals, and UV-exposed mushrooms.

One of the challenges with vitamin D is that recommendations vary across countries and age groups. There is also ongoing debate about the ideal blood level and the appropriate dose for supplementation. Vitamin D status is typically assessed through serum 25(OH)D levels, which help determine whether someone is deficient, insufficient, or sufficient.

Research also shows that absorption is complex. Bioavailability can be influenced by age, digestive health, dietary fat, fibre intake, food processing, disease, and the form of vitamin D consumed. Emerging food technologies, including fortification, microencapsulation, nanoencapsulation, and UV treatment of foods, may help improve vitamin D stability and availability.

The bigger takeaway is that vitamin D deficiency is not just an individual nutrition issue. It is a public health concern linked to broader patterns of chronic disease, diet, environment, access to fortified foods, and health equity. More research is needed to clarify optimal dosing, improve food-based strategies, and understand how vitamin D interacts with genetics, age, sex, geography, and disease risk.

Learn more on Vitamin D: recent advances, associated factors, and its role in combating non-communicable diseases via Nature.

“Health officials in British Columbia say invasive mosquitoes and a virus that can cause brain swelling in humans have been detected in the Sea-to-Sky region north of Vancouver, after an investigation triggered by a cluster of childhood encephalitis cases.

Scientists began looking for the invasive mosquitoes between Squamish and Pemberton after three pediatric encephalitis infections in the region in August 2024.

Anya F. Smith, a senior scientist with the BC Centre for Disease Control, says in a news release that researchers found two mosquito species that tested positive for California serogroup virus, a group of mosquito-borne viruses that can cause encephalitis and meningitis in humans.”

Invasive mosquitoes and brain-swelling virus detected in B.C.’s Sea-to-Sky region via Chek News.

Join us in person or virtually on Monday, September 21 from 9 am–4 pm for an Indigenous Speakers Series event featuring Dr. Evan Tlesla Adams and Joe Gallagher, members of the Tla’amin Nation. Dr. Adams is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Public Health at the First Nations Health Authority and host of the docuseries The Conversation. Mr. Gallagher is the Vice President, Indigenous Health and Cultural Safety at the Provincial Health Services Authority.

Learn about their journeys in storytelling, medicine, and health-system transformation, and how these experiences have shaped their vision for thriving Indigenous futures.

Register here.

Hi Team,

A friendly reminder that our upcoming faculty development discussion will take place on Friday, May 22, 2026, from 7:00 to 7:45 am PT.

This short session will focus on updates to two important practice supports:

Faculty Feedback and Support Form
Transition to One45 for Coaching Notes

We will provide a practical overview of both tools, clarify their purpose, and create space for questions and discussion.

The goal is to support preceptors and residents in documenting feedback clearly, using program processes more confidently, and strengthening the quality of coaching information that supports resident learning.

Hope you can make it.

~ Jacqueline

Eastern Fraser Valley Residents Share Research at UBC Scholars’ Day

Second-year family medicine residents from Abbotsford-Mission and Chilliwack recently came together to present their research at UBC Scholars’ Day, held on May 6 at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Centre in Abbotsford. The event was a collaboration between the Abbotsford and Chilliwack Divisions of Family Practice. Residents presented a wide range of projects, with topics ranging from medical misinformation on social media to family medicine bootcamp models, liver disease screening, deprescribing, informed consent, and dietary interventions in primary care.

The award for best presentation from the Abbotsford-Mission cohort went to Drs. Raheesa Jina and Ajeet Klaer for their project, “Polypharmacy and Deprescribing in Older Adults: An Educational Initiative.”

The award for best presentation from the Chilliwack cohort went to Drs. Rui Yang Xu, Mandeep Grewal, and Habibur Rahman for their project, “Screening for Liver Disease in Primary Care.”

“It was inspiring to see the residents from across our neighbouring communities come together to share such high-quality research,” said Sheri Josephson, Executive Director of the Abbotsford Division of Family Practice. “We look forward to the positive impact these doctors will have on patient care as they begin the next chapter of their family medicine journey.”

Other resident presentations included:

Abbotsford-Mission Site:

Drs. Roshan Gosal, Pratik Gajiwala, and Tanmay Sharma: “What Do Influencers Say? Logical Fallacies in Medical Discourse on Social Media”

Drs. Nikita Menon and Karn Puri: “Dietary Intervention in Primary Care for Adults with Obesity”

Chilliwack Site:

Drs. Kelsey Summerhill, Adam Mesa, and Rui Yang Xu
“The Use of a Brief Family Medicine Bootcamp on Beginning-of-Residency Confidence and Competence”

Drs. Swati Shetty, Emmet Suttill, and Alyssa Zhao: “Enhancing Informed Consent Practices for Blood Transfusions and Thoracenteses”

Each year, second-year family medicine residents complete a research project and present their findings at UBC Scholars’ Day. This is one of the final academic requirements before they complete their two-year family medicine residency program.

A big thank you to the Abbotsford and Chilliwack Divisions of Family Practice for supporting our residents as they move into independent practice.

NeuroFuture: Conversations on Women Advancing Neuroscience Worldwide

Brain, Technology, and Ethics

EVENT DETAILS:
Monday, June 1, 2026
12:00pm – 1:30pm PDT
Online event

Join us for the second session of NeuroFuture: Conversations on Women Advancing Neuroscience Worldwide, as we advance the dialogue on the intersections of neuroscience, emerging technologies, and ethical considerations on current developments and future implications.

Everyone is welcome! Register here for free to receive the webinar details: https://www.internationalbraininitiative.org/events/neurofutureconversations2026

FEATURED SPEAKERS

• Jennifer A. Chandler LLM, FCAHS, University of Ottawa, Canada
• Laura Y. Cabrera PhD, Pennsylvania State University, USA
• Olivia Matshabane, PhD, MA, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
• Julie M. Robillard, PhD, University of British Columbia, Canada

MODERATOR: Judy Illes, OC, PhD, Neuroethics Canada, University of British Columbia, Canada

EVENT OVERVIEW

In a series of panel discussions, a collaborative effort between the IBI, the World Women in Neuroscience, and UBC Neuroethics Canada brings together a wide range of voices in dialogue on the impact of women in neuroscience innovation, and will feature distinguished women neuroscientists to explore the intersections of AI, brain, technology, and ethics, and neuroscience, diversity, and society. Through brief presentations and dynamic audience engagement, this series will create a space where ideas are strengthened through conversation across disciplines and borders.

These free virtual events are open to the full neuroscience network of faculty members, students, research trainees, patient and public stakeholders, and other professionals from organizations located on all continents of the world. Beyond knowledge exchange, this initiative will foster global collaboration and mentorship.

For more details and to register for this online event, please visit: https://www.internationalbraininitiative.org/events/neurofutureconversations2026