The Healthcare Travelling Roadshow is seeking healthcare students and recent graduates to help recruit the next generation of rural healthcare professionals.

Travel with a multidisciplinary group of healthcare students and recent graduates to showcase career options to rural high school students. Explore rural BC and engage with local community stakeholders and healthcare professionals.

Join us for one of four exciting roadshow trips in 2019:

• Kootenay Roadshow (Cranbrook, Invermere, Golden) – May 5 to 11, 2019
• Island Roadshow (Port Hardy, Port McNeill) – May 5 to 11, 2019
• Northern Roadshow (Chetwynd, Mackenzie, Vanderhoof, Fort St. James) – May 12 to 18, 2019
• Yukon Roadshow (Whitehorse, Dawson City, Atlin) – May 26 to June 1, 2019

Click here to apply. Application deadline is February 26, 2019.

All travel, accommodation, and meal expenses are covered Interprofessional Education Passport credits also available.

The Healthcare Travelling Roadshow was conceived as a grass roots initiative to address rural healthcare workforce shortages. The provincial initiative has grown to include four regional trips. Since its inception in 2010, the roadshow has connected with more than 8,500 high school students in 43 communities throughout BC.

The Healthcare Travelling Roadshow is delivered in partnership with the University of Northern BC, UBC Faculty of Medicine, Northern Medical Programs Trust, Rural Education Action Plan, Interior Health Authority, and Vancouver Island Health Authority.

For more info, visit https://www.unbc.ca/northern-medical-program/healthcare-travelling-roadshow or contact Warren Brock at warren.brock@ubc.ca or 250-807-8601.

The Southern Medical Program is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Robyn Hutchings as Director, Faculty Development for the Southern Medical Program (SMP). For the past year, Dr. Hutchings has served on an interim basis and helped champion numerous faculty development initiatives and conducted an in-depth needs assessment. Additionally, Dr. Hutchings has co-chaired the Regional Associate Dean’s Task Force on Student Mistreatment to support the learning environment for SMP students across the Interior Health region.

While based in Kelowna, Dr. Hutchings splits her time commuting monthly to Edmonton for her work at Stollery Children’s Hospital. Dr. Hutchings is an Assistant Clinical Professor for the University of Alberta’s Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Clinical Instructor with the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. For the SMP, Dr. Hutchings actively serves as a preceptor for clinical skills in addition to her roles as Portfolio Coach and Portfolio Lead.

As Director, Faculty Development, Dr. Hutchings will continue to be responsible for the planning and implementation of faculty development programs at the SMP’s primary education sites in addition to supporting clinical faculty across the region.

Do you have an interesting activity, research project, or learning opportunity that medical students can support? The Southern Medical Program (SMP) is seeking project supervisors for the Faculty of Medicine’s FLEX (Flexible Enhanced Learning) course. FLEX is designed to foster innovation, creativity, critical thought, and community engagement to help prepare students for their future medical careers. Students typically have a half-day per week in addition to other dedicated block time to participate in a wide range of projects.

The Southern Medical Program is hosting a FLEX Activity Day on Monday, January 28, 2019 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm in the Reichwald Health Sciences Centre. Potential supervisors are encouraged to submit an activity proposal and present their project at our event.

For more information, visit the FLEX course website or contact Sara Theriault at sara.theriault@ubc.ca or 250-807-9601.

Third-year Southern Medical Program student Maegan Stuart.

A UBC medical student has helped tackle the problem of food security in a rural BC town.

Access to healthy foods is a common challenge for vulnerable populations in small communities like Kimberley, explains Dr. Ilona Hale, clinical assistant professor with the Southern Medical Program (SMP).

Hale, who is also chair of the Healthy Kimberley Society, says people often rely on food banks and other community programs to subsidize their household needs. But food options at those places can be limited. Food banks in smaller communities typically need to balance limited financial resources with a lack of commercial-scale refrigerated space to house fresh produce, she explains.

“Most food bank items are non-perishable, canned and dry foods,” says Hale. “Certain groups don’t have the financial means to regularly access healthy, fresh foods.”

This past spring, SMP student Maegan Stuart reached out to Hale to see how she could help address this problem as part of her training to become a doctor.

“A substantial amount of food thrown out at grocery stores is fresh fruit and vegetables that don’t look nice,” says Stuart. “The idea of a food rescue project is to divert perfectly-edible food from the landfill to programs that feed the community.”

At the time, Stuart was in Kimberley consulting with potential user groups including the food bank, school lunch programs, churches and seniors’ organizations. Following a similar model of food recovery projects in other small communities in BC and the United Kingdom, Stuart helped kick-start the process of securing suitable storage space, coordinating refrigeration equipment and recruiting volunteers. The final stop was the local Save-On-Foods grocery store where the local manager eagerly offered to donate all of their excess produce, dairy and other perishables.

“Liability is the most commonly cited reason for grocery stores declining to participate,” says Stuart. “Fortunately, the Food Donor Encouragement Act in BC protects companies from product liability when donating food. Once we explained how they are protected and could potentially save thousands of dollars in disposal costs, they were fully on board.”

At the end of August, the Healthy Kimberley Society secured a $95,000 grant from the Columbia Basin Trust to hire a part-time coordinator and launch the project in the fall.

“Maegan worked really hard to pull all the necessary stakeholders together and build a successful business case,” adds Hale. “Although we have been thinking about this kind of project for some time, Maegan’s work really helped us get it going.”

Now into her third year of medical school, Stuart is currently training at Kelowna General Hospital.

“I have a strong interest in preventative medicine and supporting long-lasting change,” says Stuart. “This project will help improve lives on a long-term basis and that means everything to me.”

Colin and Lois Pritchard with SuperTory, the new neonatal patient simulator in the Pritchard Simulation Centre.

One of the world’s most advanced neonatal patient simulators has found a home at the Pritchard Simulation Centre at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH). SuperTory is a high-fidelity mannequin that fully simulates the breathing, movement, skin colouration, and vital signs of a newborn baby.

SuperTory is the first simulator to replicate all stages of respiratory management including diagnosis, treatment, weaning, and rehabilitation of a newborn patient. It can be easily programmed to reproduce low to high-risk scenarios providing a realistic, risk-free training environment for healthcare professionals and learners.

“With its ability to breath, blink, and respond to medical interventions, the simulator is incredibly lifelike,” says JoAnne Slinn, Regional Knowledge Coordinator for Interior Health at KGH. “We can connect SuperTory to real monitors and a ventilator to enhance the realism of the training experience.”

Interior Health staff, Southern Medical Program students, and UBC residents training at KGH will benefit from interdisciplinary sessions at the Clinical Academic Campus and in situ simulation where the training takes place within the clinical environment in the hospital. Additionally, Interior Health can easily transport SuperTory to support urgent care simulation training throughout the region.

“The simulator gives us the ability to train and improve the care of our most vulnerable patient population,” Slinn adds. “It will help advance pediatric patient care and training in BC Interior hospitals.”

The donation of SuperTory to UBC and Interior Health was made possible through a gift from The Colin & Lois Pritchard Foundation. The Pritchards have been tremendous supporters of medical education and training in the region.

“We were amazed by the realism of SuperTory”, says Colin Pritchard following a demonstration of the infant simulator. “Lois and I are very pleased to be able to help UBC give its students and health care professionals the very best training environment possible so they can deliver the best health care possible to patients.”

The Southern Medical Program (SMP) Class of 2021 cordially invites the local medical community, family, and friends to join them for the seventh annual SMP Student Golf Classic on Sunday, October 21, 2018 at the Harvest Golf Club in Kelowna.

For 2018, SMP students have partnered with Hope Air to help provide free flights to people with financial need living in rural and remote areas to attend their necessary medical appointments. In its first year of operation in 1986, Hope Air organized 56 flights for patients nationally. In 2018, they have arranged over 800 flights to and from Kelowna alone.

The 2018 Golf Classic will include 18 holes of best ball golf, a delicious buffet dinner, silent auction, and tons of prizes. Players of all skill levels are welcome.

Sunday, October 21, 2018
Registration: 10:00 am
Shotgun start: 11:30 am
Dinner and silent auction: 5:00 pm

Price includes golf, power cart, and dinner:
Students: $85
Individual players: $165
Team of four players: $594

Click here to register. For more information, contact smptournamentgolf@gmail.com.

Dr. Christopher West

The Southern Medical Program is pleased to announce the appointments of Dr. Christopher West and Dr. Brodie Sakakibara to the Chronic Disease Prevention Program (CDPP). Dr. West is a translational research scientist and Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences and ICORD (International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries). Dr. Sakakibara is a research scientist and Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy.

Dr. West earned a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science at Essex University followed by a MSc and PhD in Exercise Physiology at Brunel University. He then completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) at UBC. Dr. West is a Michael Smith Foundation Health Research Scholar and a Heart and Stroke National New Investigator who served as an Assistant Professor with the UBC School of Kinesiology for the past four years. His research primarily focuses on the investigation of autonomic and cardiorespiratory consequences of SCI. His research bridges both discovery science and clinical spectrums. Most recently, Dr. West’s research explores the relationship between exercise, physical activity, and cardiac function following spinal cord injury.

Dr. Brodie Sakakibara

Dr. Sakakibara completed his BSc and PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at UBC. Most recently, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Simon Fraser University and UBC investigating the impact of a telehealth intervention to improve health for individuals who have experienced a stroke. Dr. Sakakibara is the recent recipient of the 2018 Michael Smith Foundation Health Research Scholar Award. His primary research focuses on telehealth and self-management of behavioural risk factors to minimize morbidity and mortality associated with stroke and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Sakakibara’s approach emphasizes the direct involvement of health-sector decision makers, clinicians, community partners and patients to foster patient-centered research and knowledge translation.

Drs. West and Sakakibara will work closely with Dr. Kathleen Martin Ginis to support the development of the CDPP.  They will foster new research and knowledge translation focused on chronic disease and work collaboratively with stakeholders from UBC Okanagan, Interior Health, and private sector to translate scientific innovations into practice.

The Southern Medical Program (SMP) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. LeeAnne Luft as Clinical Skills Co-Director based at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH). Dr. Luft is an infectious diseases specialist and Clinical Instructor with the UBC Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Dr. Luft completed her medical degree and internal medicine residency training at the University of Calgary. In addition, she has completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at UBC and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. For the past four years, she has worked as an infectious diseases consultant at KGH. Dr. Luft serves on the Association of Medical Microbiologists and Infectious Diseases Canada (AMMI) Board of Directors and AMMI Indigenous Health Education Committee.

Dr. Luft has a longstanding interest in supporting medical education opportunities for students and residents. Since 2015, she has served as a preceptor and examiner for SMP students across all four years of the MD Undergraduate Program. Additionally, she supervises and teaches UBC internal medicine, family practice, and emergency medicine residents as part of the in-patient infectious diseases consulting service and out-patient clinics.

The SMP would also like to thank Dr. Brandy Bursey for her work as the outgoing Clinical Skills Co-Director. For the past two years, Dr. Bursey has done an excellent job supporting clinical skills sessions for our students and faculty. She will continue to serve as a preceptor for SMP students training at KGH.

Each year, Southern Medical Program (SMP) students recognize a select number of faculty, staff, tutors, and mentors who have made an outstanding impact on their education and training. Over 1,200 SMP faculty and staff support medical education throughout the BC Interior in 30 different communities.

Congratulations to the 2018 recipients and thank you for providing an excellent learning environment across the four years of the MD program and our distributed education sites.

	Year 1 Southern Medical Program Excellence Award Dr. Delilah Topic, Clinical Assistant Professor Kelowna General Hospital, Medical Oncology
	Year 2 Southern Medical Program Excellence Award Dr. Olusegun Oyedele, Course Director and Senior Instructor Southern Medical Program, UBC Okanagan
	Year 3 Southern Medical Program Excellence Award – Kamloops Dr. Anise Barton, Clinical Assistant Professor Royal Inland Hospital, Surgery
	Year 3 Southern Medical Program Excellence Award – Kelowna Dr. Josh Williams, Clinical Assistant Professor Kelowna General Hospital, Emergency Medicine
	Year 3 Southern Medical Program Excellence Award – Trail Dr. Carolyn Stark, Clinical Instructor Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, Psychiatry
Photo unavailable	Year 3 Southern Medical Program Excellence Award – Vernon Dr. Hamish Hwang, Clinical Assistant Professor Vernon Jubilee Hospital, Surgery
	2018 Southern Medical Program Graduating Class Award Dr. Graeme McCauley, Clinical Assistant Professor Kelowna General Hospital, Internal Medicine
	2018 Southern Medical Program Graduating Class Award Dr. Sean Gorman, Clinical Instructor Royal Inland Hospital, Surgery