Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, Southern Medical Program
Office: Reichwald Health Sciences Centre Phone: 250.807.8601 Email:warren.brock@ubc.ca
UBC Okanagan is recruiting local seniors for a second intake of the Walk, Talk, ‘n’ Listen randomized control trial research study.
If you have a hearing problem, are 65 years or older and in reasonably good health, we invite you to learn about an exciting research study aimed at helping older adults with hearing loss.
Led by Associate Professor Dr. Charlotte Jones, Walk Talk ‘n’ Listen is being held in partnership with the YMCA of Okanagan.
Round 2 of Walk, Talk, ‘n’ Listen begins in September. Participants will meet at the Rutland YMCA once or twice a week in the mornings. UBC Okanagan is looking for reasonably healthy residents, 65-years or older, who are not walker or wheelchair dependent to participate in the 12-week study.
Join others in a hearing – loss friendly environment, have fun & become more physically active, learn about health and wellness, and benefit from group auditory rehabilitation sessions, aimed at introducing skills in how to better cope with hearing loss and how to become more comfortable socializing.
To find out more, people are encouraged to contact Carolyn Roque at 250-807-9827 or carolyn.roque@ubc.ca.
The UBC Okanagan Library is excited to be launching a new workshop focused on Systematic Review Basics for the health sciences, which is ideal for faculty, graduate students, and research assistants. This three-hour, hands-on workshop will help guide you through the start-up process, provide an introduction to locating relevant studies and recording the methodology. Topics include: stages of the systematic review process; framing the search question with tools like PICO; searching Medline, other databases and grey literature sources; and tips for using citation management software for systematic reviews.
This session will be co-presented by Erin Menzies, Southern Medical Program Librarian, and Robert Janke, Associate Chief Librarian and liaison librarian for the School of Nursing. There is no cost to attend the workshop.
Our first workshop will be taking place on Friday, August 26 from 10:00 am- 1:00 pm in LIB111. Please note space is limited. To register, please contact Robert Janke at Robert.Janke@ubc.caprior to August 22nd, 2016.
South Okanagan family medicine residents (left to right): Jacqueline Bourdeaux, JoyAnne Krupa, Rebecca Psutka, and Travis Thompson.
From a young age,Travis Thompson took an acute interest in medicine — but it wasn’t just an affinity for anatomy and physiology that drew him to the field, rather the prospect of helping others, particularly those living in underserviced areas of the province.
Dr. Travis Thompson
“When you come from a small town, you have a unique understanding of the needs felt by a community,” says Dr. Thompson, who grew up in Oliver, B.C., nestled near the south end of the Okanagan Valley.
“I remember when my grandmother was sick many years ago, the entire medical community rallied around her — it was in that moment I decided I wanted to be part of a tight-knit medical community and provide quality healthcare to others down the road,” he recalls.
This summer, Dr. Thompson — a recent graduate of UBC’s Southern Medical Program in Kelowna — will continue his path to becoming a licensed family physician in the place he calls home: B.C.’s South Okanagan, the newest training ground for family medicine residents.
Dr. Thompson joins three other residents — Jacqueline Bourdeaux, JoyAnne Krupa, and Rebecca Psutka — in becoming the first cohort to join UBC’s South Okanagan Family Medicine residency site, which will see up to eight residents in training by July 2017.
According to the site directors, Margie Krabbe and Cathy Rooke, the arrival of these new trainees will bring about many benefits for the communities of Penticton and Summerland, as well as surrounding towns, like Oliver and Osoyoos.
“We’re very excited to welcome these resident physicians to the South Okanagan, a region that offers an exceptional training ground for new doctors,” says Dr. Krabbe, who has worked as a family physician in Summerland for the past eight years.
Over the course of the two-year residency program, Drs. Thompson, Bourdeaux, Krupa, and Psutka will work alongside local family physicians and other healthcare practitioners in Penticton and Summerland, gaining exposure to family medicine, as well as a wide range of specialities, like pediatrics, internal medicine, emergency medicine, surgery, and psychiatry. They will train in local clinics and regional hospitals, including Penticton Regional Hospital, which is set to become home to a new patient tower, with an expanded space for UBC medical students and residents.
Margie Krabbe and Cathy Rooke, co-directors of UBC’s South Okanagan Family Medicine residency site.
Drs. Krabbe and Rooke hope that the wide breadth of clinical experiences will help shape the residents’ understanding of what practicing in smaller communities is all about.
“Family physicians, particularly those in smaller centres, like Penticton and Summerland, engage in a broad scope of practice and are heavily involved in inpatient and outpatient care,” says Dr. Krabbe. “Our residents will benefit from small, group learning experiences with family physicians and specialists.”
Drs. Krabbe and Rooke also expect the arrival of the new trainees to have a positive impact on the medical community at large, helping to bolster the teaching environment.
“The new learners are very enthusiastic and are eager to experience as much as they can, and this drive really helps to reinvigorate everyone’s passion for medicine,” says Dr. Krabbe, who is excited by the opportunity to dedicate more time in her career to training the next generation of physicians.
Distributing training opportunities across B.C.
The opening of the new training site is part of a combined effort by UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, the provincial government, and health authorities, to support the recruitment and retention of physicians to serve the health-care needs of families throughout B.C.
“Residents play a very critical role in our healthcare system, helping to enhance service capacity across the province. The launch of this new training site in the South Okanagan will bring about increased access to physician services and help meet the needs of communities in B.C.’s Interior,” says Roger Wong, Executive Associate Dean of Education, UBC Faculty of Medicine.
Willa Henry, director of UBC’s Family Practice Residency Program — now the largest in Canada, with 19 unique training sites across the province — agrees. “Training residents throughout B.C. is important, as it not only helps increase service capacity to meet the primary care needs of British Columbians, but exposes doctors to the wide range of practice possibilities in more rural and remote regions,” says Dr. Willa Henry.
The launch of the South Okanagan family medicine residency site represents a continued expansion of medical education opportunities in the Interior, which is already home to UBC family practice residencies in Kamloops and Kelowna, an emergency medicine residency in Kelowna, and UBC’s Southern Medical Program, one of four unique MD training sites.
Allan Jones, the Regional Associate Dean, Interior, says the continued growth of medical education and training opportunities in the Interior will bring benefits to the region over the long-term.
“With the addition of this new site, we’ve opened up more opportunities for doctors to complete their medical journey in the Interior, and it’s our hope that this distributed approach to medical education will encourage more physicians to stay in the region to practice after their training wraps up,” says Dr. Jones.
Rural roots
For Dr. Thompson, having grown up less than an hour’s drive south from his new training ground, being able to join a newly-launched residency site so close to home is particularly exciting.
“The South Okanagan is home for me,” says Dr. Thompson.
After completing his family medicine training, he has plans to stay true to his small-town roots.
“I really enjoy the broad spectrum of practice available to family physicians working in smaller communities,” he says, reflecting on his positive exposure to rural medicine during medical school, during which he travelled across BC — from Mackenzie and Williams Lake to Grand Forks — for his medical electives.
“I’m really passionate about doing my part to help underserviced communities, and I think being a smaller centre, the training site in the South Okanagan will help me to become a very competent rural doctor.”
Over the past decade, UBC’s residency programs have witnessed steady growth. Today, nearly 1,400 medical residents are engaged in 72 different residency programs offered at clinical training sites across the province. This year, UBC welcomed 345 entry-level residents — the largest number of entry-level postgraduate trainees in the history of B.C.
Dr. Graeme McCauley has been recognized with the Faculty of Medicine’s 2016 Clinical Faculty Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching. The annual award recognizes clinical faculty who have demonstrated excellence in clinical teaching at a Clinical Academic Campus.
Dr. McCauley is a Clinical Assistant Professor with the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Medicine, Division of Respiratory Medicine. He is highly-regarded as an exceptional educator and mentor by students with the Southern Medical Program, residents rotating through Kelowna General Hospital, and amongst his peers. Dr. McCauley has amassed considerable teaching experience for learners from across the medical education continuum in both clinical and academic settings. He is consistently acknowledged for his professionalism, enthusiasm, creating a safe learning environment, and tailoring his teaching approach to best serve the needs of both learners and patients.
2016 Southern Medical Program Charity Golf Tournament – Sunday, October 16th
Come meet, golf, and mingle with your Southern Medical Program students! The SMP class of 2019 is excited to meet the Okanagan community and raise funds for a worthy cause. This year they have chosen to donate funds raised to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).
The day will include a round of golf at the beautiful Harvest Golf Club, a buffet dinner, and a silent auction. Dinner tickets can be purchased separately and reduced prices are available for children.
Dr. Mike Purdon, Southern Medical Program Faculty Development congratulates Dr. Christopher Ng on successful completion of the Master Teacher Certificate Program.
Congratulations to the graduates of the 2015-16 Master Teacher Certificate Program. A reception was recently held at the Manteo Resort to acknowledge each participant’s successful completion of the program. Below is the full list of our newest Master Teachers:
Dr. Ahmad Alsrbini
Dr. Siavash Atrchian
Dr. Kurt Deschner
Dr. Marjorie Docherty
Dr. Mike Figurski
Dr. David Geen
Dr. Jim Huang
Dr. Kyle McIver
Dr. Kyle Merritt
Dr. Scott Mountain
Ms. Sarah Murray
Dr. Bibi Naghibi Torbati
Dr. Christopher Ng
The Southern Medical Program (SMP) is recruiting participants for the 2016-17 Master Teacher Certificate Program (MTCP). The MTCP is designed to assist clinical faculty with enhancing their teaching and mentoring skills and building a community of teacher leaders across the distributed sites. The program offers a monthly lecture series, small group discussions, assignments, longitudinal project, and peer teaching assessment. The next program runs September 2016 to June 2017.
SMP clinical faculty from across the region are welcome to participate. Lectures and small group sessions are held in the Clinical Academic Campus at Kelowna General Hospital and videoconferenced to Vernon Jubilee Hospital, Penticton Regional Hospital, Royal Inland Hospital, Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, Kootenay Lake Hospital, Boundary Hospital, and Castlegar and District Community Health Centre. Maintenance of Proficiency (MainPro) and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credits are awarded for participation.
Congratulations to the Southern Medical Program Class of 2016 on earning their UBC medical degrees. This is the second cohort of doctors to ever graduate from the BC Interior. A few key highlights for this year’s grad class:
A total of 30 new doctors graduated this year from the SMP.
38% matched to Family Medicine residency programs including two in Kelowna (Rural) site and one in the new South Okanagan site based in Penticton.
One graduate matched to the Kelowna Royal College Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
27% matched with primary care specialties (Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry).
62% match with UBC residency programs.
Our graduates will be heading across BC and Canada to begin their residency training in early July. They will spend the next two to five years completing their residency before entering practice.
Join us as students from the UBC Southern Medical Program and BC Cancer Agency present their research projects as part of the Faculty of Medicine’s Summer Student Research Program and BC Cancer Agency Internship.
Attend the presentations in-person at the Clinical Academic Campus (CAC 106) at Kelowna General Hospital or via videoconference in the Reichwald Health Sciences Centre (RHS 129) at UBC Okanagan.
Time: Every two weeks throughout the summer, 12:00 – 1:00 PM.
Dates:
Thursday, June 2
Tuesday, June 14
Tuesday, June 28
Thursday, July 14
Thursday, July 28
Thursday, August 11
Thursday, August 25
Presentations are free to attend and open to the public. For more info, contact carolyn.roque@ubc.ca.
The Healthcare Travelling Roadshow rolled into Merritt, Princeton, and Keremeos last month to showcase the diverse range of healthcare career options available for rural high school students.
At each roadshow stop, a series of presentations were delivered by healthcare students representing medicine, nursing, midwifery, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, registered massage therapy, and medical laboratory technology. Rural students were given an opportunity to learn about different healthcare professions while participating in many hands-on experiences.
The roadshow aims to help address rural healthcare challenges by showcasing career options for rural students, exposing students to rural communities, and providing an interdisciplinary learning experience.
Started in 2010, this was the first time the annual roadshow has come to the Southern Interior. The roadshow was led by the University of Northern British Columbia in partnership with the UBC Faculty of Medicine, Northern Medical Programs Trust, and Rural Education Action Plan.
