Author: UBC Abbotsford-Mission Family Practice Residency Program

The University of the Fraser Valley Department of Kinesiology presents Get Kinnected. Join us on Wednesday, September 18, 2019 for presentations and Q&A  with Dr. Michael Gaetz and Dr. Iris Lesser as they explore topics in health and wellness.

Dr. Michael Gaetz is an associate professor in kinesiology with research interests in concussion and the difficulties some athletes experience once they retire from sport. His talk, The wretched summer, will focus on understanding post-career adjustment in ex-professional hockey enforcers.

Dr. Iris Lesser is an assistant professor in kinesiology and certified exercise physiologist who is interested in community programming to increase physical activity uptake and improve psychosocial health in special populations. Her talk will focus on the effectiveness of a health-based education and behavioral change retreat on quality of life and physical activity in adult cancer survivors: an exploratory analysis.

Wed, Sept 18 | 7:00 pm
UFV Chilliwack | 45190 Caen Ave | Gathering Place (A 1457)
RSVP here by Wednesday, September 11, 2019

The statistics on the infographic are from ‘A Roadmap to Men’s Health: Current Status, Research, Policy & Practice 2010’ via the Men’s Health Initiative of British Columbia.

#MakeHealthyChoices

“This fellowship increases the number and quality of professionally trained medical educators in Canada by providing training in the science of medical education to selected promising candidates. The program helps specialists acquire knowledge and skills in the field of medical education in order to develop educational programs, evaluation methods and medical education research that apply to any phase of the continuum of medical education.

Residents and Fellows are eligible to receive $40,000 per year of study up to 2 years. An amount equivalent to 75 per cent of the grant will be disbursed upon project commencement, and the remaining 25 per cent upon project completion and receipt of a final report.

Eligible programs of study begin after July 1, 2019, but no later than June 30, 2020. Note: disbursement of money awarded for the 2020 fellowship occurs March 2020.”

Interested in applying? Learn more here Robert Maudsley Fellowship for Studies in Medical Education via Royal college of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Health Talks 101: A Day of Medical Enlightenment is once again taking place this year on September 28th. This is a community focused event that brings high level medical information into an easy to understand format. It is an informative day with doctors, surgeons, nurses and other healthcare staff presenting on interesting topics.
It is a free event for the public to attend. This event fills up quickly, so register today.

Event Details
Saturday, September 28th
Quality Hotel & Conference Centre Abbotsford
Registration opens at 8:30am | Presentations start at 9:00am

The day also includes a morning coffee and lunch buffet. Register here!

“The abundance of health information, powered by innovations in digital technology, should motivate many patients to become more engaged in their health, yet health information initiatives also face an array of obstacles. First, offering tools that facilitate the access and sharing of health information does not always translate into patient adoption, suggesting that the adage “if you build it, they will come” rarely applies. Second, poor-quality information and designs that are not user-centered may limit patients’ ability to act upon the information they receive. Third, health apps that are too complicated and inattentive to users’ needs and capabilities may leave vulnerable patients behind, perpetuating inequalities in health. Research on wearable deviceshas shown that less healthy and poorer individuals are the least likely to use such tools. Finally, low health literacy also may limit the impact of data-sharing platforms. Even as more health information becomes available, many patients may not be able to use it to guide their health care decisions.

To understand how these obstacles might be overcome, we examined some of the more innovative initiatives in health information engagement. Clarifying how these initiatives mobilize patients to play a more active role in their health, which features are most helpful for patients, and which features remain problematic may deepen the understanding of these tools and inform the design of future platforms.”

More on A Taxonomy to Engage Patients: Objectives, Design, and Patient Activation: How Health Information And Digital Technology Are Reshaping Patient Engagement by Fagotto, Burgués, & Fung via NEJM Catalyst.

“Family physicians are concerned that terminology associated with their profession — such as ‘family medicine’ — could be misused by people who are not medical doctors, according to the results of an informal internal poll by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. The CFPC, which represents about 38,000 physicians who practise family medicine, solicited feedback from its members in April and received approximately 4,400 responses. The poll found 92 per cent of respondents support legally protecting such terms, and 89 per cent want the college to put its time and resources into doing so.”

More on Family doctors want term ‘family medicine’ protected legally via CBC News.

“When you think about shady drug dealers, it’s usually in the context of the Downtown Eastside or the Surrey Strip. But in the last three months alone, the B.C. College of Pharmacists has rooted out some white-collar guys who were running illegal pharmacies, faking prescriptions, doling out methadone improperly, and plumping up their dispensing numbers with made-up prescriptions for over-the-counter drugs and vitamins.”

More on College roots out the bad, white-collar dealers, one pharmacist at a time via Vancouver Sun.

The International Conference on Residency Education (ICRE) has launched a video contest for their upcoming conference to celebrate diversity in residency education. Participants are encouraged to submit a short 15 seconds or less video. Feel free to record the video with a colleague.

What to say in the video:

• State your name, your profession and the name of the country you are from in English or French;
• End your video with the contest’s hashtag: “#WeAreResidencyEducation” in the language of your choice.

Submission: To submit your video, include the contest’s hashtags: #WeAreResidencyEducation and #ICRE2019 in your post and share it on Twitter. If you don’t have a Twitter account, please upload your video through this link.  If you have any questions, contact Angelita Aboukassam, ICRE Conference Administrator at T 613 260 4176 or  T 1 800 668 3740 / 176.

“Doctors are constantly being told that they overdiagnose and overtreat their patients. They are told that they overdiagnose and overtreat a range of conditions—but one simple example is the overdiagnosis of bacterial upper respiratory tract infections. We urge doctors not to overmedicalise and not to overprescribe antibiotics. But then when a diagnosis is missed or a patient develops complications from an untreated infection, doctors are the first to be blamed. Is it any wonder that they feel they are in a no-win situation?

Until now most of our efforts to help doctors have focused on education to help them get their diagnosis and management strategies just right—without under or overdoing it. Clinical decision support aims largely to do the same thing. But Islam et al have suggested an interesting new direction in their study that seeks to understand complex clinical reasoning in infectious diseases—with the aim of improving clinical decision support design.”

More on Too much medicine—practical tools that could help by Kieran Walsh via TheBMJ.

“As part of the Patient Engagement Learning Series, the second webinar in the series will provide an overview of the work being done in primary care, specifically with the launch of Primary Care Networks in communities throughout the province.

Laura Heinze, director of stakeholder engagement with the Ministry of Health, and Layton Engwer, a patient representative on the Primary and Community Care Advisory Forum, will provide a recap of the work done to date, highlight what the Ministry’s Primary and Community Care Strategy is all about, and talk about the benefits to patients accessing care as well as providers who are struggling to find the right work-life balance. They’ll also provide some information about the vital role patients have in this work to ensure patient-centred care is top of mind as BC’s health care transformation is underway.”

Topic: Keeping You Informed: Primary Care in British Columbia
Host: BCPSQC – 1
Date: Wednesday, September 4
Time: 12:00 p.m.

To learn more or join, visit here.