Author: UBC Abbotsford-Mission Family Practice Residency Program

In honour of International Women’s Day and the 2023 theme #EmbraceEquity, meet some of the outstanding women in the UBC Faculty of Medicine who are transforming health for everyone.

“Decades ago as a UBC PhD student, Dr. Neeru Gupta trained with internationally-renowned scientist Dr. Stephen Drance, who became a mentor for her as she pursued a career in ophthalmology. Following years of training across Canada and the United States, and after building an accomplished career in glaucoma research, Dr. Gupta has returned to UBC to take on the same leadership role her mentor previously held.

As the new Head of UBC’s Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Dr. Gupta brings a wealth of experience to the role. Most recently, she served as a professor of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences and Chief of the Glaucoma Service at the University of Toronto, as well as the Dorothy Pitts Chair in Ophthalmology at St. Michael’s Hospital. She is currently President of the International Council of Ophthalmology, and President of the World Glaucoma Association.

Now, as Dr. Gupta settles back in at UBC, she is looking forward to building on the department’s strengths to ensure B.C. has the highest quality eye care and advances translational research that will prevent vision loss across the province and beyond.”

Read One-on-One with Neeru Gupta via UBC’s Faculty of Medicine.

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“A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia and BC Cancer have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that predicts cancer patient survival more accurately and with more readily available data than previous tools.

The model uses natural language processing (NLP) – a branch of AI that understands complex human language – to analyze oncologist notes following a patient’s initial consultation visit, which is the first step in the cancer journey after diagnosis. By identifying characteristics unique to each patient, the model was shown to predict six-month, 36-month and 60-month survival with greater than 80 per cent accuracy. The findings were published today in JAMA Network Open.

‘Predicting cancer survival is an important factor that can be used to improve cancer care,’ said lead author Dr. John-Jose Nunez, a psychiatrist and clinical research fellow with the UBC Mood Disorders Centre and BC Cancer. ‘It might suggest health providers make an earlier referral to support services or offer a more aggressive treatment option upfront. Our hope is that a tool like this could be used to personalize and optimize the care a patient receives right away, giving them the best outcome possible.'”

Learn more on AI predicts cancer patient survival by reading doctor’s notes via UBC Faculty of Medicine.

“A ‘biocomputer’ powered by human brain cells could be developed within our lifetime, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers who expect such technology to exponentially expand the capabilities of modern computing and create novel fields of study.

The team outlines their plan for ‘organoid intelligence’ today in the journal Frontiers in Science.

‘Computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the technology revolution, but they are reaching a ceiling,’ said Thomas Hartung, a professor of environmental health sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Whiting School of Engineering who is spearheading the work. ‘Biocomputing is an enormous effort of compacting computational power and increasing its efficiency to push past our current technological limits.'”

More on Could future computers run on human brain cells? via Johns Hopkins University.

Upcoming: Organoid Intelligence (O.I.) Webinar
Thursday, March 9, 2023 
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
via Johns Hopkins University
Register for free here: https://jh.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rBdBd66uQzKJjcJ6hMQTfw

We’re excited to announce that Okanagan Orchards is back, live, and in-person on Saturday, May 27th at the Marriott Grand Okanagan Resort! This is the annual Family Practice Postgraduate faculty development and appreciation event.

We will have a morning of workshops, followed by some options for outdoor activities in the afternoon (wine touring, cycling, paddle boarding, hiking), and will wrap up with an appreciation dinner in the evening. It’s a great opportunity for some networking and support, and we have a lot of fun too!

A $300 travel reimbursement will be available to eligible out-of-town preceptors needing to travel a distance of more than one hour.

There are a limited number of guest rooms held at Marriott Grand Okanagan Resort in Kelowna, so booking early is recommended.

This event is open to all preceptors and clinical faculty from across our beautiful province. Feel free to share this event with colleagues at your site. Stay tuned for further details, including an agenda and registration link.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing you in May!

Larissa McLean, BA, MHA 
Manager, Rural Education & Initiatives
Faculty of Medicine | Department of Family Practice, Postgraduate Program 
The University of British Columbia 
larissa.mclean@ubc.ca
http://postgrad.familymed.ubc.ca 

“A 21-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with a 2-week history of lesions on her left hand. As a student in an agriculture program, she had had ungloved contact with goats and the mouth of a baby calf during a farm practicum 1 week before presentation. The animals had no evidence of disease. The patient reported no history of symptomatic herpes infections, recent travel or chronic illnesses. She had 2 discreet, nonpainful, well-circumscribed lesions on the dorsum of her left second and third fingers, each measuring less than 1 cm in diameter (Figure 1). She had a small, tender, left epitrochlear lymph node, and mild swelling and tenderness of the left wrist.”

Learn more on Pseudocowpox Lesions in an Agricultural Student via CMAJ.

“I didn’t even try to come home. I just knew how hard it would be,” Brennan told CBC News.

“We had someone from the B.C. residency program come to Australia and they basically said, ‘Don’t come back.’ The statistically low match rate means even some of the top students don’t get through. So I said, ‘Why bother?’

“It’s really sad because I went to medical school thinking I’d just come back to Canada. I think that’s what all of us thought. Going to school in Australia — it’s a way to be a doctor, but it’s not actually a way to be a doctor in Canada.”

While he was reluctant to leave Canada, his mum and sister in Vancouver and his dad in Calgary, Brennan turned to the U.S., where international medical graduates are more than twice as likely to land a residency.

“They have enough spots to accommodate every single American student and a ton of internationals,” he said. “They’ve got it figured out.”

Read more on Meet the Canadian-born doctors who can’t work in Canada via CBC.

“Compared with brain injury research being done on athletes, the research involving people who have suffered similar injuries from intimate partner violence is in its infancy, said van Donkelaar.

The silence and stigma shrouding domestic violence mean those who suffer brain injuries are falling through the cracks of what van Donkelaar calls ‘an unrecognized public-health crisis in Canada.’

Of nearly 96,000 victims of intimate partner violence reported to police in Canada in 2017, 79 per cent were women, according to Statistics Canada.

But spousal and domestic violence is often not reported to police and it’s hard to determine how many survivors might have experienced traumatic brain injury as a result, said van Donkelaar.

Based on research from the U.S., including a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said the prevalence of brain injuries could be anywhere from 30 to more than 90 per cent of all survivors.”

Learn more on Brain injury from domestic abuse a ‘public health crisis’ via CBC.
Freezer forming part of Banksy’s new work removed hours after artist confirms mural via CNN.

“As the provision of virtual care extends beyond the pandemic, family physicians are continuing to manage patients virtually. Enhancing family physicians’ skills in performing examinations and issuing diagnoses virtually will support family physicians to confidently provide high quality virtual care to their patients.

The purpose of these four clinical vignettes is to support family physicians to perform thorough and comprehensive patient examinations by demonstrating the successful examination of common medical conditions seen in practice, musculoskeletal and neurological virtual assessments, when not physically present with the patient. The videos take a practical, patient-centred approach that supports the provision of comprehensive, longitudinal care. Resources are provided to support learning and integration of skills into practice.”

Learn more and register here at Virtual Examinations – Tools for Clinical Practice via UBC CPD.

Half of doctors working beyond capacity

Nearly half (49%) of family doctors recently surveyed by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) reported working beyond their desired capacity, the organization told CMAJ. “High or severe work-related burnout is experienced around four times more by family physicians working beyond their desired capacity (32.1%) than those working at the desired capacity (8.7%).”

Family physicians who reported working beyond their desired capacity were also three times more likely to say they were considering or taking a break from work. And more than 15% of those working beyond their desired capacity said they “generally feel pretty good, but there are trying days,” compared to nearly half (44%) of those working at desired capacity.

In Ontario, doctors do not get paid overtime, “but we do know they work long hours,” according to the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). Almost three-quarters (73%) of 2,649 physicians surveyed by the OMA in 2021 reported some level of burnout, up from two-thirds (66%) the previous year.

“Physicians retiring prematurely, reducing their workloads, changing their scope of practice or leaving medicine entirely in response to burnout will exacerbate the situation for remaining physicians, resulting in a potential domino effect,” the OMA told CMAJ.

Read more on Overworked health workers are “past the point of exhaustion” via CMAJ.

CGSHE Speaker Series presents, Dr. Martha Paynter, Abortion to Abolition: The Path to Reproductive Health & Justice in Canada

This Sexual & Reproductive Health Week, Dr. Martha Paynter joins us for the CGSHE Speaker Series. She will discuss the unique and progressive legal standing of abortion in Canada, and outline our greatest threats to reproductive justice. She will explore how the abortion movement can adopt the philosophies of abolition to make the next leap in improving reproductive health and justice.

Dr. Martha Paynter (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick and a registered nurse working in abortion and reproductive health care. Dr. Paynter is founder and director of Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice, and is the author of Abortion to Abolition: Reproductive Health and Justice in Canada, published by Fernwood Publishing.

When: FEB. 15^th, 2023 at 12:00 PT

Register: Abortion to Abolition: The Path to Reproductive Health & Justice in Canada Registration, Wed, 15 Feb 2023 at 12:00 PM | Eventbrite