Family Medicine Residency Site: Abbotsford-Mission

World Heart Day: Don’t Miss a Beat

Today, September 29, is World Heart Day—an opportunity to reflect on cardiovascular disease (CVD), which remains the leading cause of death worldwide.

The World Health Organization estimates that 19.8 million people died from cardiovascular disease in 2022, representing approximately one-third of all global deaths. Heart attacks and strokes account for the vast majority of these deaths, yet much of the burden of cardiovascular disease is preventable.

This year’s World Heart Day theme, “Don’t Miss a Beat,” draws attention to something particularly relevant in primary care: cardiovascular disease does not always announce itself clearly. Hypertension may remain asymptomatic for years, risk factors accumulate quietly, and symptoms may be overlooked or attributed to something else.

For family physicians, prevention often happens in ordinary encounters: checking blood pressure, discussing smoking, physical activity and nutrition, identifying diabetes and dyslipidaemia, understanding family history, and recognizing when a seemingly minor symptom deserves another look.

World Heart Day is a useful reminder that some of our most important cardiovascular interventions are not dramatic. They happen through early recognition, prevention, conversations and continuity of care.

Sources: WHO, Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), updated July 31, 2025; World Heart Federation, World Heart Day 2026: Don’t Miss a Beat.

What Makes a Good Clinical Note?

A useful AMA STEPS Forward resource for anyone thinking about clinical documentation and note bloat.

Physicians from the University of Wisconsin discuss how they redesigned clinical notes by asking a simple question: what actually needs to be here? Their work focused on reducing copied and unnecessary content, making clinical reasoning easier to find, and reconsidering whether the traditional SOAP format is always the most useful approach.

As AI scribes make it increasingly easy to generate more documentation, this is a good reminder that more text does not necessarily mean a better note.

Worth a listen. Write Shorter Notes: Implementing a Standardized Progress Note Template via AMA.

Hi All! Grab a coffee and join us for an early-morning conversation about how to approach video review in family medicine:

Faculty Development Dawn Patrol: Video Review in Family Medicine
Friday, October 2, 2026
0700-0800
Zoom link provided by email.

A few months ago, I came across this article and shared it with our faculty development committee: Video review of family medicine resident clinical encounters: a tool for building emotional intelligence by Koehler et al. (2023).

I know video reviews can be uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. I think some of this fear stems from how we’ve positioned the exercise. What I appreciate most about this article is that it addresses these concerns and offers a different way of thinking about video review. Rather than focusing primarily on whether a resident demonstrated the “right” observable behaviours, they position video review as a reflective exercise that helps residents build on their emotional intelligence, including noticing how they are showing up in the encounter (self-awareness), how they are responding internally (self-management), what they are noticing in the patient (social awareness), and how they adjust in response (relational management).

We’ll also explore how this approach can support more meaningful coaching conversations.

Session learning objectives:

1. Describe how video review can move beyond observation of clinical behaviours to support emotional intelligence and reflective practice.
2. Apply strengths-based questioning strategies that help residents develop self-awareness, social awareness, and relational skills during video review.
3. Identify practical approaches for creating a psychologically safe video review experience that strengthens patient-centred communication and connection.

I encourage you to read the article as it may broaden your ideas and approaches to the exercise and look forward to connecting with you in October!

~ Jacqueline

Dr. Jacqueline P. Ashby, M.Ed., M.Sc., Ed.D. 
Program Coach, UBC Family Medicine Abbotsford-Mission Residency Site
Co-Lead, Assessment, UBC Family Medicine Residency Program
jacqueline.ashby@ubc.ca

A Day in the Life of a Preceptor
A Course for Family Physicians to Advance Teaching Skills

A novel program developed by family physicians, for family physicians
Structured around teaching in a community-based office
Collaborates with Divisions of Family Practice

5 Topics

Topic 1 – September
Preparing for Teaching

• Virtual Meeting or Video
• Self-Paced E-Learning
• Small Group Case-Based Learning

Topic 2 – November
Learning Relationships

• Video
• Self-Paced E-Learning
• Small Group Case-Based Learning

Topic 3 – January
Teaching Skills (In Office)

• Virtual Meeting or Video
• Self-Paced E-Learning
• Small Group Case-Based Learning

Topic 4 – March
Teaching Skills (Virtual)

• Video
• Self-Paced E-Learning
• Small Group Case-Based Learning

Topic 5 – May
Feedback, Assessment, Observation

• Virtual Meeting or Video
• Self-Paced E-Learning
• Small Group Case-Based Learning

Small Group Case-Based Learning meetings can be combined, e.g., Topics 1 & 2 and 3 & 4.

Earn up to 17.5 Mainpro+ credits!

What participants are saying

“I would say the coolest/most relevant piece of family medicine orientation I have seen.”

“Thanks so much. I feel inspired to pass the torch.”

“We were able to discuss previous experiences we’ve had trying to build the educational alliance.”

For more information, visit dayinthepreceptorlife.med.ubc.ca or email fac.dev@ubc.ca

Another round of the Lancet picture quiz! 

“What is…?” Click here if you think you know the answer.

Bright and early yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to facilitate an Academic Half Day (AHD) session with our UBC Family Practice Abbotsford-Mission residents on an increasingly important patient-safety issue: how to respond when ransomware or a major technology outage disrupts clinical care.

We began with a roundtable exercise exploring how residents would approach a ransomware attack: Who would they immediately contact? Which tasks would be essential? What tasks needed to transfer to paper, whiteboards, and face-to-face communication? And what were the greatest risks to patient care?

Then we dove into real-world examples, including the “WannaCry” ransomware attack and the CrowdStrike outage, and examined the impact that these two events had on healthcare systems, hospitals, clinicians, and patients. I also emphasized the important role our governments and healthcare systems play in tracking and reporting these incidents, conducting thorough debriefs, and disseminating findings and recommendations following these threat-to-life crimes.

To quote Black Widow in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, “This is big, big potatoes.”

If you just look at the Change Healthcare (UnitedHealth Group) ransomware attack in 2024:
* Records affected: 192,700,000
* Data exposed: names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, government ID numbers, health insurance and policy numbers, etc.
* Aftermath: UnitedHealth reported roughly USD 3.1 billion in cyberattack-related impacts for full-year 2024, the most expensive healthcare cyber incident ever recorded. (https://www.upguard.com/blog/biggest-data-breaches-in-healthcare)

A key message from the session that I wanted to drive home was that we all have a role in cyber preparedness. Clinicians should be alert to any phishing attempts and clear on local downtime procedures, including knowing where approved paper resources are located, protecting patient information, and working closely with clinical, privacy, and technical teams during a disruption. These events also quickly highlight the importance in understanding how to work together as a team.

This is the first time “ransomware” has been addressed with our residents in the history of our site and I want to thank our Co-Site Director, Dr. Holden Chow, for allowing me the opportunity to facilitate this exercise.

To the residents reading this post, I encourage you to consider focusing a quality improvement project on educating and preparing your clinic for a ransomware attack or major technology outage. The time invested in strengthening your clinic’s preparedness could ultimately help save someone’s life.

#MedicalEducation#Cybersecurity#Ransomware#PatientSafety#HealthCare#ClinicalEducation#EmergencyPreparedness

Are you a physician or medical student who creates art?

Dr. Michiko Maruyama is curating a Heart-Inspired Art Gallery at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2026, taking place in Ottawa from October 15–17, 2026.

Physician and medical student artists are invited to submit original artwork inspired by the heart—whether through anatomy, emotion, illness, healing, connection, or the lived experience of cardiovascular care.

Artists do not need to attend the conference to participate. There are also no costs associated with producing a giclée print, framing the artwork, or transporting it to the gallery.

The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2026.

Details and the submission form are available here:
https://forms.gle/CyotP4D6TrW71Gjy8

Please share this opportunity with physicians, residents, medical students, and colleagues who may be interested in bringing together medicine, creativity, and the human experience of the heart.

Questions about the gallery or submission process may be directed to Dr. Michiko Maruyama.

Dr. Caroline Cook, family doctor, medical director at Abbotsford Medical Centre, and Department of Family Practice Clinical Instructor, is helping pave the way for internationally trained medical doctors to find a home for their practice in Abbotsford as the physician lead for Abbotsford Division’s IMG recruitment program. Click here to read the full story from the Abbotsford Division of Family Practice.

The CFPC has just released a new resource for those preparing for the SAMP exam. Please feel free to share with your residents. 

Also, in January 2026, Dr. Flora Wong created two documents to assist residents in SAMP preparation:

Blueprint for CFPC Assessment Objectives for Certification in Family Medicine by UBC Assessment Co-Leads Dr. Flora Wong & Dr. Jacqueline Ashby, Ed.D., & ChatGPT

Blueprint for How to Write CFPC-Style SAMP Study Questions by UBC Assessment Co-Leads Dr. Flora Wong & Dr. Jacqueline Ashby, Ed.D., & ChatGPT

Best,
Jacqueline

Hello Residents! A new version of the Cardiology Primer is now available. Written by Dr. Nader Elmayergi and colleagues, the primer provides a practical overview of common cardiology topics.

Residents are encouraged to review the updated version and use it as a reference during their cardiology rotation.

Best,
Jacqueline