Author: UBC Abbotsford-Mission Family Practice Residency Program

A big welcome to all of you who are checking us out for Carms! 

Take a look around, feel free to use our resources. Hopefully it gives you a glimpse into what our Site is like. To understand how life will be like for you next year, you should really chat with us at our upcoming Q&A sessions. There will be Residents there who remember what you wanted to know to make your decision and who want to help you decide on your future. So please register and see you there. 

Warmly,
Drs. Holden Chow and Thanh Luu

The first CaRMS Q&A will be on Monday, December 11, 2023 from 17:00-18:00 PST (open to ALL interested potential applicants).

The second CaRMS Q&A will be on Saturday, January 13, 2024 from 1300-1400 PST (open ONLY applicants who have been offered interviews).

In addition, here’s the link to our training site info.

More on the UBC Program CaRMS Schedule below:

“According to Palestinian health officials, of the more than 10,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza in the past month, about 4,000 were children. Gaza is becoming a ‘graveyard for children,‘ U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday.

And even as the World Health Organization warns about the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza, some researchers are concerned that those children who do survive might be scarred for the rest of their lives.

Researchers say the cumulative trauma of chronic ethnic-political violence has a profound and lasting impact on children’s mental health and development, affecting their functioning and outlook on the world as young adults. Studies show that even youth who seem to become desensitized to the violence around them remain deeply scarred — unless, that is, they are given a chance to recover.

This is especially a concern for children in Gaza, who were already struggling with significant mental health issues well before this conflict. For years, numerous studies have documented unusually high rates of mental and behavioral health issues among Gaza’s youth, who make up nearly half of the population in the territory. Most of them have never known a life without the threat of violence and conflict.”

Learn more on “How a history of trauma is affecting the children of Gaza” via NPR.

“The bankruptcy deal in question would have the Sackler family personally pay out between $5.5 billion to $6 billion over 18 years to help fight the ongoing opioid epidemic. Most of the money would go to states, local governments and Native American tribes.

The deal also sets aside $700 million to $750 million to pay individual victims and families of victims. The fund would pay out between $3,500 to $48,000, with payments to some victims spread out over 10 years. Purdue has said its bankruptcy deal is the only major opioid settlement to provide ‘meaningful recoveries’ to victims.

If the deal were to be approved by the Supreme Court, Purdue Pharma would cease to exist and a new company, Knoa Pharma, would be created in its place. Knoa Pharma would develop and distribute opioid addiction treatments and overdose reversal medicines, while continuing to produce Purdue Pharma products, including OxyContin. The company would be governed by a new independent board, and would have a ‘public-minded mission,’ according to Purdue Pharma.

In exchange for the deal, members of the Sackler family would be granted immunity from all other civil (though, not criminal) lawsuits.”

Read more on “US Supreme Court scrutinizes controversial opioid crisis settlement that would give Sackler family immunity” via CNN.

“When I saw that I had been named as a Forbes 30 Under 30, I was shocked,” he says. I’m just a kid from Vancouver trying to do some good in the world, so this will take a while to fully sink in. All I can say is that it is truly an honor to represent Vancouver and UBC on the international stage. Hopefully I can help pave the way and inspire the Forbes 30 under 30 recipients of the future.”

Mohit Sodhi, a UBC medical student, has been named one of Forbes’ top “30 Under 30” in Healthcare. Launched in 2011, the Forbes “30 Under 30” recognizes people under the age of 30 from a wide range of industries who are making a notable impact in their field. For the Healthcare category, the recipients include entrepreneurs and researchers who are taking on some of healthcare’s biggest challenges.

As a graduate from UBC’s Experimental Medicine Program, and under the supervision of Dr. Mahyar Etminan, Sodhi collaborates on research that examines rare adverse events of some of the most commonly prescribed medications. In one such study, he and his colleagues identified cardiac issues from fluoroquinolone that led to regulatory agencies revising their recommendations for its use. Other studies uncovered eye damage from erectile dysfunction drugs and serious gastrointestinal side effects from GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic.

Learn more about UBC medical student Mohit Sodhi named one of Forbes “30 Under 30” in Healthcare via UBC Faculty of Medicine.

“A heated debate is brewing in Alberta that has implications for the future of primary care in the province.

This week, the provincial government announced nurse practitioners will be allowed to set up their own publicly funded independent practices as early as January.

During Wednesday’s news conference, Premier Danielle Smith touted the plan as a ‘key part’ of the solution to a shortage of family physicians that has left an estimated 600,000 — or more — Albertans without care.

‘Help is on the way,’ she said.

‘We will stop at nothing to ensure that Albertans have access to the care they need, when and where they need it.'”

More on Nurse practitioner announcement leaves family physicians feeling devalued, disrespected: Alberta doctors are pushing back against a plan to give nurse practitioners more autonomy via CBC News.

Abstract

“The recruitment and retention of teachers in health professions education is challenging and creates a significant amount of stress and pressure on programs to mitigate. Implementing incentives and strategies that ought to support those who teach can backfire if not delivered carefully, often unintentionally worsening the problem. For example, teaching awards, financial stipends, and feedback from learners can create perceptions of undervalue when they are impersonal, inequitable, inefficient, or poorly framed. In this presentation, I will highlight the perspectives of teachers themselves, the learners they teach, and those in educational leadership roles who supervise teachers in order to offer a holistic view of the complexities, unintended consequences, and nuanced perspectives in an attempt to elucidate helpful insight into how teachers may be better supported. The goal of this presentation is to further our understanding around how HPE teachers’ motivations can be optimized to recruit, support and retain teachers while reinforcing their engagement with, and dedication to, teaching.”

Katherine Wisener, PhD Candidate, Health Professions Education, Maastricht University, Associate Director, Faculty Development,
Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia

Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Time: 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Hybrid: Life Sciences Centre 1312 CMR & Zoom*
Zoom Details: For connection details, please email ches.communications@ubc.ca.

Question  Does use of remote self-monitoring and physician-guided titration of antihypertensive medications using a Bluetooth-enabled app provide better long-term blood pressure control than usual outpatient care during the first 9 months postpartum?

Findings  In this randomized clinical trial involving 220 participants, physician-guided self-management of outpatient postnatal blood pressure, following hypertensive pregnancy, was associated with a 6/5-mm Hg lower ambulatory blood pressure at 9 months postpartum.

Meaning  A physician-guided remote telemonitoring program was used to guide self-management of blood pressure and was associated with improved blood pressure control during the postnatal period after a hypertensive pregnancy compared with usual antihypertensive management.

Learn more on Long-Term Blood Pressure Control After Hypertensive Pregnancy Following Physician-Optimized Self-ManagementThe POP-HT Randomized Clinical Trial via JAMA.

“Appearing Nov. 6 in the journal Nature Communications, the new technology might one day help people unable to talk due to neurological disorders regain the ability to communicate through a brain-computer interface.

‘There are many patients who suffer from debilitating motor disorders, like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or locked-in syndrome, that can impair their ability to speak,’ said Gregory Cogan, Ph.D., a professor of neurology at Duke University’s School of Medicine and one of the lead researchers involved in the project. ‘But the current tools available to allow them to communicate are generally very slow and cumbersome. There are many patients who suffer from debilitating motor disorders, like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or locked-in syndrome, that can impair their ability to speak,’ said Gregory Cogan, Ph.D., a professor of neurology at Duke University’s School of Medicine and one of the lead researchers involved in the project. ‘But the current tools available to allow them to communicate are generally very slow and cumbersome.'”

Learn more about Duke Scientists Create Brain Implant That May Enable Communication From Thoughts Alone via Duke Today.

“In a Finnish study, significant differences in the gene activity of the fetal intestine, brain and placenta were identified, depending on the microbes in the mother’s body and the compounds produced by them. The findings indicate that maternal microbes are important to her offspring’s development and health.

The microbiota of the mother or dam is thought to be important for the development and health of her offspring. However, so far little is known about how interactions with the microbiota begin and what the mechanisms of action are.

A collaborative study carried out at the Universities of Helsinki, Eastern Finland and Turku investigated how the maternal microbiota affects fetal development by comparing the foetuses of normal and germ-free mouse dams living in a sterile environment. The researchers measured gene expression and the concentrations of small-molecular compounds, or metabolites, in the fetal intestine, brain and placenta.

‘The effects of the dam microbiota and the metabolites it produces on fetal development have not been previously investigated in such a comprehensive manner. Our study sheds light on the significance of the microbiota and the mechanisms by which the microbiota affects individual development and pregnancy. We identified previously unknown compounds in the fetus, which are likely to be microbial and which can be important for individual development,’ says Mikael Niku, the principal investigator of the study from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki.”

Learn more on Maternal Microbiota Can Affect Fetal Development via Science Daily.

Aleksi Husso, Tiina Pessa-Morikawa, Ville Mikael Koistinen, Olli Kärkkäinen, Hyuk Nam Kwon, Leo Lahti, Antti Iivanainen, Kati Hanhineva, Mikael Niku. Impacts of maternal microbiota and microbial metabolites on fetal intestine, brain, and placenta. BMC Biology, 2023; 21 (1) DOI: 10.1186/s12915-023-01709-9

“Sal Khan, the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, thinks artificial intelligence could spark the greatest positive transformation education has ever seen. He shares the opportunities he sees for students and educators to collaborate with AI tools — including the potential of a personal AI tutor for every student and an AI teaching assistant for every teacher — and demos some exciting new features for their educational chatbot, Khanmigo.”

These are the kind of tools and the type of out-of-the-box thinking that will help us in how we train, educate, and assess our future family physicians.

Learn more here on How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education via TED.