UBC Associate Professor Charlotte Jones talks with a group of Walk n’ Talk participants at the Heritage Retirement Residence.

Dr. Charlotte Jones, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of Student Research with the UBC Faculty of Medicine Southern Medical Program (SMP) has received Hypertension Canada’s 2014 Certificate of Excellence. The annual award recognizes outstanding efforts and contributions in Canada to increase public awareness, prevention, and control of hypertension.

Dr. Jones was acknowledged for her work in developing and implementing the CHAMP (Cardiovascular Health, Awareness and Management Program) community based programs aimed at identifying and managing uncontrolled cardiovascular risk factors in the community. Additionally, her efforts in creating and implementing interprofessional programs with nursing, pharmacy, and medical students from the Universities of Alberta and Calgary to bring CHAMP programs to rural, urban, multicultural and worksite communities across Alberta.

Hypertension Canada is a volunteer, non-profit organization representing over 50 years of expertise in the field of hypertension. Dr. Jones has been an active member of Canadian Hypertension Education Program (CHEP) for over 13 years and played a role in caregiver and public education guideline development, and as a leader in the CHEP “train the trainer” Knowledge Translation program. In the release issued by Hypertension Canada, it states “Dr. Jones is a true leader in the field of hypertension, and is most deserving of recognition for her efforts and contributions.”

Dr. Jones is currently leading an interdisciplinary health research study based at UBC Okanagan. The study focuses on increasing socialization and health lifestyles among seniors residing within the Central Okanagan. Dr. Jones also heads up the SMP Student Research portfolio and lectures as part of the Endocrine & Metabolism block in the MD Undergraduate Program’s Foundations of Medicine course.

UBC Southern Medical Program student Celine Akyurekli (centre) leads a walk around the block with Walk n’ Talk for Your Life participants in West Kelowna.

Companionship and exercise two main ingredients of Walk n’ Talk for your Life
By Patty Wellborn

It has long been established that a healthy lifestyle can help a person enjoy their retirement years. While it’s basic knowledge, it’s not always the easiest to adopt.

In fact, 80 year-old Marguerite Burke led a rather sedentary life until she heard about UBC Okanagan’s Walk n’ Talk for Your Life program. Admitting that she initially joined to get out and meet people, she soon realized twice weekly walks increased her activity level and her sense of well-being.

Walk n’ Talk is the brainchild of UBC’s Dr. Charlotte Jones. Her team, consisting mostly of UBC students from several faculties including the Southern Medical Program, nursing, human kinetics, social work, and psychology, hosts regular discussions about health concerns and also leads twice-weekly community walks.

Jones, Associate Professor of Medicine with UBC’s Southern Medical Program, is the principal investigator of the research study that accompanies Walk n’ Talk. Central Okanagan residents, 55 years and older are encouraged to participate in the program, which involves some physical activity based on New Zealand’s Otago Exercise program, designed specifically to prevent falls by introducing leg muscle strengthening, balance exercises, and a regular walking program.

“It’s a valid program for seniors and we find if they include the walk, for about 30 minutes at least three times a week at their own pace and ability, it’s a great step in leading them to a healthy lifestyle,” says Jones. “There are lot of seniors in this area who live isolated lives and getting them involved in a program like this goes a long way to improve their quality of life.”

Burke lives independently with her husband but wanted to meet more like-minded people. She was hesitant at first, concerned about adopting a new exercise routine at her age, but now says Walk n’ Talk has certainly changed the quality of her life for the better.

“I love my husband, but I don’t want to be with him every moment of every day,” she jokes. “This has helped me get back on my feet. At my age, I want to be able to continue to enjoy walks and being able to find new people to walk with has been a wonderful experience.”

Walk n’ Talk is an interdisciplinary research project based at UBC Okanagan. Students interact with participants, assist in exercise programs, teach education modules, and collect data. Second-year medical student Celine Akyurekli enjoys her Thursday morning walks with seniors at the Heritage Retirement Residence in West Kelowna. Akyurekli also leads activities with the group and is assisting with the research.

“The social aspect of this is very important,” says Akyurekli. “We are able to get people connected to each other and they are making the commitment to come out each week so they can visit while they enjoy their walk. I have watched the friendships develop and it’s wonderful to see.”

The next Walk n’ Talk for Your Life takes place at Global Fitness starting January 7. Registration is free, and participants will begin with an interview and basic health testing (blood pressure, hearing, mobility function, grip strength test, walking pace) before and after the program. They will also be given a handbook to keep with them, and after 10 weeks in the program, Jones says generally some good healthy habits have been established.

This will be the fourth edition of Walk n’ Talk in the community, and while it’s early to analyse the data, Jones says preliminary numbers are encouraging. Previous Walk n’ Talk participants have reported their overall perceptions about personal health and well-being have improved, while measures of loneliness and isolation have shown a trend towards improvement along with measures of mobility function. Overall, participants report an increasing confidence level in performing various activities without fear of losing balance.

“We have had a few participants who were quite sedentary and withdrawn. They have come back to us and told us that their whole life has been turned around by the program,” says Jones. “The basic principle is empowerment and motivation for the seniors.”

For more information about the next session, or to register, contact project coordinator Chella Percy at 250-807-8042 or chella.percy@ubc.ca. Or visit www.smp.med.ubc.ca/research/walkntalk.

Sandy Wright discusses a concussion testing procedure with a research patient.

Sandy Wright’s concussion research results in prestigious recognition

Southern Medical Program student Alexander (Sandy) Wright has received the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS).

“The recognition is both humbling and motivating at the same time,” says Wright. “It challenges you to ensure the quality of your work is better than your best, and to truly strive towards becoming a global leader in your research field.”

The Vanier CGS program is designed to help establish Canada as a global centre of excellence in research and higher learning by supporting exceptional doctoral students. The scholarship provides $150,000 in funding over three years.

Wright is working with Professors Paul van Donkelaar and Philip Ainslie at UBC Okanagan’s School of Health and Exercise Sciences, Dr. Alexander Rauscher at the UBC MRI Research Centre in Vancouver, and Dr. Bradley Monteleone, a Kelowna-based sport medicine physician. The student physician takes a multi-disciplinary approach to improving the understanding of and ability to diagnose and treat athletes with concussions.

Wright joins a growing number of researchers attempting to zero in on the many unknowns surrounding concussions, including diagnosis, short- and long-term health impacts, and best approaches to clinical management. His primary research focuses on evaluating the links between head impact biomechanics in correlation to blood flow changes within the brain – a relatively new field in the world of concussion research.

“A concussion is a clinical diagnosis, and is very reliant on athlete-reported symptoms,” says Wright. “We currently don’t have an objective tool or measure to clearly identify when an athlete has experienced a concussion. In many cases, traditional imaging tools such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computerized tomography (CT) scans will come back completely normal.”

Wright and his research collaborators have recruited athletes from a variety of local athletic teams to assist with the study. Athletes are brought in at the beginning of the season for a series of baseline tests. First, a cognitive test measures and evaluates their current brain function. They are then assessed on numerous characteristics of blood flow control to the brain with the help of specialized equipment such as a transcranial Doppler radar device.

Acknowledging the research is still in its early stages, Wright and his team are encouraged with their preliminary findings.

“Beyond gaining a better understanding into what is really happening in the brain with concussions, the end goal in this field of research is ultimately to develop an objective tool that will assist health professionals to identify, assess and treat athletes who have experienced a concussion,” says Wright. “We also hope to better inform rules and return-to-play policies for sports and provide more education to athletes, patients, and their families.”

Rural Family Practice Clerkship in Qualicum, BC
By Rob Trasolini, third year Southern Medical Program student

Imagining life as a small town family doctor has always been a fun pastime for me but, this summer I was lucky enough to spend a month in Qualicum Beach learning what the real thing is like.

I knew I would enjoy my time right off the bat as the weather was great, the ocean was beautiful and, thanks to small town hospitality, I was able to stay in a beachside apartment on the cheap. Within a week I even took a boat trip down the straight of Georgia and delivered my first 13-pound salmon from the water and onto a dinner table. After work, bike rides and strolls down the beach became part of my routine.

The doctors were incredibly welcoming and the patients were all very excited to have learners in their community. More than a few locals even eagerly asked when I would start taking new patients!

I spent most days in the office, which was a full service family practice. I saw patients ranging from pregnant women and children to complex care geriatrics and really had a chance to practice all of the procedures and clinical skills I’d spent the last two years honing. With such a broad range of patients I never got bored and learned something new every day. As time went on, my preceptor gave me more responsibilities and one of the highlights of the trip was getting to a point where I was making diagnoses and management plans with only minimal supervision. It was a really great way to start third year.

Another great part of the trip was that I got some insight into life as a family doctor and saw some of huge range of options for practice. My primary preceptor spent weekends in the urgent care centre and did a lot of in-office procedures, another doctor did addictions medicine and was doing some incredible work with under-serviced populations. All of the doctors played an active role in designing their local healthcare system and invited me to one of their meetings to see how decisions are made.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the interesting challenges and opportunities of family medicine in a small town and so grateful to the town of Qualicum Beach and all the doctors I worked with.

Dr. Carmen Larsen, Family Physician and Clinical Instructor with the UBC Department of Family Practice is the new Site Director for the Vernon Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC) program. For the past five years, Dr. Larsen has been in practice working in urgent care, corrections, and completing numerous locums in family practice clinics in and around Edmonton. She relocated to Vernon in 2013 to continue her practice which includes locums and on-call surgical assists at Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH).

Vernon ICC students will have a new space to call home later this year. The new space in the Polson Tower at VJH will include centralized education areas, a clinical skills room, two videoconferences rooms, as well as an on-call sleep area, lounge, and lockers for medical students.  It will also provide a venue for professional development programs for family physicians and specialists in Vernon and surrounding communities.

Dr. Bill Nelems, UBC Professor Emeritus has co-authored a new book titled Evolution of Thoracic Surgery in Canada. The book provides an in-depth look at Canada’s contribution to innovation, knowledge gains, and new standards for today’s field of thoracic surgery. Dr. Nelems is a world-renowned thoracic surgeon based in Kelowna and actively involved in teaching medical students and residents at Kelowna General Hospital. His co-authors include Dr. F. Griffith Pearson, a pioneer in thoracic surgery and Dr. Jean Deslauriers, a world leader in the surgery of lung cancer.

500 limited edition copies signed by the co-authors and 500 standard editions are available. All proceeds from the book sales go towards the Pearson/Nelems/Deslaurier Canadian Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education. To purchase a copy, visit http://www.canadianthoracicsurgeons.ca/evolution-of-thoracic-surgery-in-canada. A copy has been purchased for the Henderson Library at the Clinical Academic Campus.

Since the official launch of the SMP in September 2011, our program has experienced exponential growth.

• More than 900 health professionals across the Interior involved with teaching UBC medical students and residents.
• 128 students now enrolled with the SMP with our inaugural class graduating next spring.
• Over 50 education leads and admin staff helping deliver our program across our distributed sites.

With so many people and lots of kilometres in between, it’s tough to share all of the remarkable opportunities to live, work, train, and study in one of the most desirable regions in the world. So we asked our faculty, staff, and students to help showcase what we are all about in the MedEd in the BC Interior photo contest.

Congrats to the top entries in our four photo categories: Student Life, Best Commute, Faculty & Staff Life, and Scenic who each won a $25 iTunes gift card.

Student Life Winner Entry – Bethany Woodrow (Photo Above); Caption: 75% of the Trail ICC cohort on our first group ride in Rossland.

Student Life Honourable Mention – Adriel Lam ; Caption: Rock Climbing at Mount Boucherie.

Scenic Winning Entry – Kurt Hoskin; Caption: Enjoying the beauty and serenity of Lake Okanagan.

Scenic Honourable Mention – Adriel Lam; Caption: Scenic Nature Shot.

Scenic Honourable Mention – Jim Huang; Caption: A scenic send off after a year of clerkship on Kalamalka Lake in Vernon.

Best Commute Winning Entry – Christabelle Bitgood; Caption: A hike in Peterson Creek Park in Kamloops.

Best Commute Honourable Mention – Donna Russo; Caption: Daily lakeside trek to UBCO from Oyama.

Faculty & Staff Life Winning Entry – Carri Folk; Caption: Finn atop Pin Cushion Mountain in Peachland.

Faculty & Staff Life Honourable Mention – Allison Gilbert; Caption: MD 2019 Candidate studying for the MCAT.

The UBC Faculty of Medicine is celebrating ten years of distributed medical education across the province of BC. In recognition of this milestone, we take a look back at some of the key people and stories involved in the development of the Southern Medical Program (SMP) leading up to the graduation of our inaugural class.

Dr. Connie Hull completed her medical degree and family medicine residency training at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Upon completion of her residency, she continued her involvement with the University for the next 17 years, eventually serving as a tenured Associate Professor. She left Memorial in 2002 relocating to Vernon with her family, leaving behind her esteemed post as Assistant Dean of Student Affairs.

Fast forward to April 2005, Premier Gordon Campbell first announced to the province that UBC’s medical school would be expanding to include a fourth site in the Interior. At the time, Dr. Hull was working in a family practice clinic in the small community of Lumby when her aspirations to return to academia serendipitously coincided with the government’s planned expansion. A few short months later, Dr. Hull was recruited as Clinical Education Leader to help lead the charge for UBC.

“My job in the beginning was really to promote the idea of a medical program coming to the Interior and recruit interested physicians as a core group of educators,” says Dr. Hull. “Starting small by creating new fourth year electives was seen as the best approach to introducing the notion of a new regional medical program and establishing a culture of teaching”.

So for the next four years, Dr. Hull travelled extensively to recruit preceptors, set up new electives, and build new relationships with key players at UBC, Interior Health, and the local physician community.  Her travels crisscrossed the region multiple times per year to hospitals and clinics in Kelowna, Vernon, Salmon Arm, Kamloops, Penticton, Trail, Nelson, Cranbrook, and many towns in between.

The devil in the details, when developing each new elective she created learning objectives for the clinical experience and provided faculty development for every new preceptor.   “Developing so many new electives from scratch was a huge challenge, but also part of the fun,” says Dr. Hull. The end result was the creation of over 70 new electives for UBC and the initial groundwork for the creation of the SMP.

With the hiring of Dr. Allan Jones, Regional Associate Dean in April 2009, together they set off on a new path leading the initial development of two new Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC) programs in Vernon and Trail. Both ICC programs were officially launched in September 2011 and have since become actively sought after by third year medical students across the province.

In June 2011, Dr. Hull transitioned to her next challenge and current role as Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, a position she once held and cherished at Memorial. Now into her second term, she has played a key role in developing new programs for SMP students to provide them with a high level of support.

This past summer, Dr. Hull was acknowledged for her dedication and work in medical education with her promotion to Clinical Professor with the UBC Department of Family Practice.

“It’s a rare opportunity to take part in the creation of a new medical program,” says Dr. Hull. “Looking back from where we started to our inaugural class graduating next spring, the SMP has been a huge success story and I am proud to have played an integral role in its development.”

Dr. Scot Mountain has been recognized with the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s Award for Excellence in Community Practice Teaching. The award acknowledges faculty members who have demonstrated exceptional teaching skills while making an educational impact in their community.

Dr. Mountain is an Internist and Intensivist, Medical Director of the Intensive Care Unit at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, and Clinical Assistant Professor with the UBC Department of Medicine, Division of Critical Care. Originally trained in Family Medicine, he returned to UBC for an Internal Medicine residency followed by a fellowship in Critical Care.  Dr. Mountain is one of the key faculty leads involved in the development and continued operation of the Southern Medical Program’s (SMP) Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC) in Trail. The ICC program which launched in September 2011 has been a real positive for the hospital and the Greater Trail community.

“We have been lucky to have some extremely talented and motivated students come and train with us,” says Dr. Mountain. “It has forced the teaching clinicians to remain on top of their game and up-to-date with their clinical and academic knowledge. I believe the students have benefited from learning in a community setting, where they get to see and interact with patients on a one-to-one basis from their first day in the program.”

Dr. Mountain has been an active teacher over the past 10 years both as a resident and while in practice. “I believe this award is a recognition of everything our community of physicians has put into the ICC program in the last few years, and of the quality of education we have been able to provide for the students,” says Dr. Mountain.  “We are hoping to continue to reap the benefits of training students in Trail down the line, when they finish their post-graduate training, and hopefully consider coming back to our community to work.”

Walk n’ Talk for Your Life is a collaborative, community health research study designed to increase socialization and healthy lifestyles among seniors. The program is led by UBC Okanagan faculty, staff and students from the Southern Medical Program, Nursing, Human Kinetics, Social Work and Psychology.

Dr. Charlotte Jones, Associate Professor of Medicine with the UBC Southern Medical Program is the principle investigator of the research study. Walk n’ Talk for Your Life has partnered with Global Fitness to host a free 10-week program facilitated by professional fitness trainers and assisted by UBC Okanagan students.  The role of the students will focus on interacting with participants, assisting in exercise programs, teaching education modules, and collecting and evaluating data.

For more information, contact Chella Percy, UBC Okanagan Project Coordinator @ 250-807-8042 or chella.percy@ubc.ca.