Warren Brock

Communications Manager

Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, Southern Medical Program
Office: Reichwald Health Sciences Centre
Phone: 250.807.8601
Email: warren.brock@ubc.ca


 

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.”

What: Walk n’Talk for Your Life
When: Thursday, September 18, 2014 at 1:30 p.m.
Where: Global Fitness, 1547 Harvey Avenue, Kelowna

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, the Schools of Nursing, Human Kinetics, Social Work and the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences’ psychology unit.

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.

Interested seniors are invited to attend an information session at Global Fitness, 1547 Harvey Avenue, Kelowna, on Thursday, September 18, 2014 at 1:30 p.m. 

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

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The post Walk n’ Talk for Your Life program aims to improve seniors’ fitness appeared first on UBC's Okanagan News.

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.

 

Trail Integrated Community Clerkship program expands

The Southern Medical Program’s Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC) program in Trail continues to grow with UBC increasing the number of places available for third-year medical students where they can complete a full-year of clinical training at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital and the Trail community.

The ICC program, started in 2011 as part of UBC’s distributed medical education model, is designed to increase the number of medical students completing their clinical training in smaller, rural communities across the province. This year, instead of two students, which has been the case for the past three years, four third-year medical students will be at Trail for the academic year.

“We are thrilled to offer more opportunities for students to learn medicine with our program and encourage them to immerse themselves in what Trail and the Kootenays has to offer,” says Dr. Cheryl Hume, ICC Site Director for Trail.

Nicole Gill, a Rossland native, is one of four new students entering the Trail ICC program. Gill who completed her undergraduate degree at UBC Okanagan and is currently enrolled with the SMP is excited for the opportunity to return to her hometown to begin her clinical training.

“I hope to one day practice as a family physician in rural BC,” says Gill. “Although I have a relatively thorough understanding of the rural lifestyle, I am interested in gaining insight into what it is like to practice medicine in a small community.”

The Trail ICC program continues to receive strong support from the medical community, Interior Health, as well as the citizens of Trail, Rossland, Fruitvale, and surrounding areas who allow the students to take part in their health care.

Next summer, the UBC Department of Family Practice is expected to launch a new, two-year family medicine residency program.

New director, space, and students for Vernon ICC program

Meanwhile, SMP’s ICC program in Vernon is set to welcome its fourth cohort of third-year medical students this September. And there are new faces and new spaces.

Dr. Carmen Larsen, Family Physician and Clinical Instructor with the UBC Department of Family Practice, recently joined the SMP as the new Site Director for the Vernon ICC. Part of her role will be to lead the program’s operations and future development in Vernon.

“I am looking forward to building on the program’s successes at Vernon Jubilee Hospital and in our community clinics,” says Larsen. “The medical community, Interior Health, and the citizens of Vernon continue to be key partners in our ability to offer this program to our students now and in the future.”

Each year, two third-year medical students, who have a keen interest in practicing medicine in small, rural communities complete their academic year at the Vernon ICC program. And later this fall, students will have a new space to call home in the Polson Tower at Vernon Jubilee Hospital. Construction is underway in the previously shelled-in fifth floor to create a new administrative and student space for the ICC program. The space 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.

Summer Student Research: The Efficacy of Methadone in Managing Cancer Pain

Researchers at the BC Cancer Agency’s Centre for the Southern Interior are providing clinical research experience for SMP students during the summer break.

Second-year medical student Matt Mittelstadt has teamed up with Dr. Gillian Fyles, medical leader of the Pain and Symptom Management/Palliative Care Program at the BC Cancer Agency’s Sindi Ahluwalia Hawkins Centre in Kelowna. Fyles is also research leader at the Oncology Palliative Care for the BC Cancer Agency. Together, Mittelstadt and Fyles are examining the efficacy and safety of methadone treatment in managing pain for ambulatory cancer patients.

“Methadone is most commonly known in the public sphere as a medication used in harm reduction to treat patients with drug addiction,” says Mittelstadt. “However, as an opioid, it has also shown to be an effective tool in managing cancer pain.”

Mittelstadt is currently compiling data, dating back to 1999, on more than 700 cancer patients who were prescribed methadone by the BC Cancer Agency. His research focuses on each patient’s treatment plan leading up to and during the use of methadone; the cancer treatments received such as chemotherapy; and the associated side effects. The research will also address if any drug combinations were utilized in conjunction with methadone.

“Matt’s research is helping us collect data specifically on the responses to methadone in reducing the pain and the side effects experienced,” says Fyles. “This information will assist us in caring for our patients better.”

Mittelstadt’s research project is made available in part by a donation from The Colin & Lois Pritchard Foundation. A total of nine SMP students are involved in summer research projects ranging from local clinical-based research within the Okanagan to global health research abroad. Funding is also provided by the UBC Faculty of Medicine, SMP, and Interior Health.

New faculty

Carmen Larsen, Site Director, Integrated Community Clerkship, Vernon

Dr. Carmen Larsen is a family physician in Vernon and Clinical Instructor with the UBC Department of Family Practice. Dr. Larsen completed her medical degree at Dalhousie University and Family Medicine residency at the University of Alberta. She also holds a Master of Education in Educational Psychology and Special Education from UBC. For the past five years, Larsen has worked in urgent care, corrections, and completed 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.

 

Social Media Channels

Twitter – https://twitter.com/UBCSMP
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/UBCSouthernMedical
YouTube – www.youtube.com/UBCSouthernMedical
Instagram – http://instagram.com/UBCSouthernMedical

 

BC Health Minster Terry Lake and Dr. Craig Montalbetti (centre) are joined by the six family medicine residents who have begun their training with the new UBC Family Medicine residency training site in Kamloops.

A high-resolution version of photo can be downloaded at:

http://universityrelations.ok.ubc.ca/News2014/Whats_new/Terry_Lake.jpg

 

Dr. Cheryl Holmes is the recent recipient of the prestigious University of Illinois at Chicago, Masters of Health Professions Education 2014 “Best Thesis” Award. Her thesis entitled Harnessing the Hidden Curriculum in Clinical Clerkship:  A Four-Step Reflective Competency Approach was informed and inspired by her role as Site Director for Kelowna with the Southern Medical Program (SMP).

Dr. Holmes was one of the first faculty appointments to help lead the charge in developing the SMP’s third-year clerkship program at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH). Since joining the program in 2008, she has overseen the evolution of the clerkship program for its early rotation pilots to a now steady state of 24 students.

Dr. Holmes is a Clinical Associate Professor with the UBC Department of Medicine and has practiced in the Intensive Care Unit at KGH for the past 13 years. She is highly regarded for her teaching skills both at the beside and for leading a critical care outreach session utilizing patient simulation held during the SMP third year clerkship retreat.


Summer Student Research Project

Researchers at the BC Cancer Agency’s Centre for the Southern Interior are providing clinical research experience for Southern Medical Program (SMP) students during the summer break.

Second year medical student Matt Mittelstadt has teamed up with Dr. Gillian Fyles, Medical Leader of the Pain and Symptom Management/Palliative Care Program (PSMPC) at the BC Cancer Agency Sindi Ahluwalia Hawkins Centre for the Southern Interior in Kelowna and Research Leader, Oncology Palliative Care for the BC Cancer Agency for a two-month research project. Together, they are examining the efficacy and safety of methadone treatment in managing pain for ambulatory cancer patients.

“Methadone is most commonly known in the public sphere as a medication used in harm reduction to treat patients with drug addiction,” says Mittelstadt. “However, as an opioid, it has also shown to be an effective tool in managing cancer pain.”

The prescribing of methadone is closely monitored by medical colleges across Canada. BC physicians must apply to the BC Methadone Program, managed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC, to obtain a special license to have the ability to prescribe methadone to their patients.

In managing pain for cancer patients, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Patients can experience pain from both their cancer as well as the medical interventions utilized in efforts to eradicate the disease. Drugs such as morphine, fentanyl, hydromorphone, codeine, oxycodone, and other non-opioids are commonly used, each with their own side effects. Considerable variability with each patient in regard to the type of cancer and treatments utilized will dictate the types of medication administered to minimize cancer pain while lessening the associated side effects including nausea, dizziness, and constipation among others.

Mittelstadt is currently compiling data, dating back to 1999, on over 700 cancer patients prescribed methadone by the BC Cancer Agency. His research focuses on each patient’s treatment plan leading up to and during the use of methadone, the cancer treatments received such as chemotherapy, and the associated side effects. The research will also address if any drug combinations were utilized in conjunction with methadone.

“Matt’s research is helping us collect data specifically on the responses to methadone in reducing the pain and the side effects experienced,” says Dr. Fyles. “This information will assist us in caring for our patients better.”

The research project is providing Mittelstadt with great insight into the types of medications applied in treating cancer pain and the rationale for their uses. He is also provided time to work with Dr. Fyles and her colleagues in the Pain and Symptom Management Palliative Care Clinic gaining a glimpse into possible future career paths.

“Before entering third year later this summer, I wanted to get my feet wet in research and explore all of the different avenues that I can learn and grow,” adds Mittelstadt. “This research project has been incredibly valuable and a wonderful experience.”

Mittelstadt’s research project at the BC Cancer Agency’s Centre for the Southern Interior is made available in part by a donation from The Colin & Lois Pritchard Foundation. A total of nine SMP students are involved in summer research projects ranging from local clinical-based research within the Okanagan to global health research abroad. Funding is also provided by the UBC Faculty of Medicine, SMP, and Interior Health.

Join the SMP Students for the 3rd annual Southern Medical Program Student Golf Tournament at Sunset Ranch – Sunday, September 21, 2014.

Message from Alistair Hart and Drew Phillips, Class of SMP 2017:

We would like to formally invite you to the 3rd annual Southern Medical Program Student Golf Tournament. After another great tournament last year, we hope to grow the numbers of golfers to 80 for this year’s event.

This year’s tournament will be once again held at the Sunset Ranch Golf and Country Club (http://sunsetranchbc.com/). It will be a fun event for all skill levels with a golf scramble format. It’s an amazing opportunity for everyone to connect and have fun including students, faculty, staff, the medical community and their families.

Golf includes warm-up balls at the range, a shared golf cart and 18 holes of golf. Golf will start at 12:30 pm sharp.

Golf will be followed by a premium buffet and awards dinner. There will also be a silent auction with the proceeds helping to create a bursary award for SMP students. A special thanks to our tournament sponsors Scotiabank and Meyers Norris Penny.

New this year, we have included some early bird pricing:

Register by August 8th (Golf & Dinner) : Students – $50; Faculty/Staff – $130

After August 8th (Golf & Dinner) : Students – $70; Faculty/Staff – $150

No Early Bird (Dinner only): Students/Faculty/Staff – $30.

Click here to register. Once you have registered through Eventbrite, one of our SMP Student Organizers will contact you at the phone number(s) provided to obtain your credit card information to process your registration fee. More details on Eventbrite registration page.

For more information, contact Drew Phillips at drew.phillips@alumni.ubc.ca.

We hope you can join us for a great day of golf, laughs, and conversation. See you on the links!

Minster Terry Lake and Dr. Craig Montalbetti (centre) are joined by the six family medicine residents who have begun their training with the new UBC Family Medicine residency training site in Kamloops.

This summer, it’s all about new beginnings for Drs. Paul Dickinson and Harpreet Ghuman.

As recent graduates of UBC’s Northern Medical Program, Dickinson and Ghuman are now embarking on the next stage of their medical careers, both moving to B.C.’s Interior to join four other residents in becoming the first cohort of UBC’s newly launched family medicine residency training site in Kamloops.

“I am really excited to be part of this new site,” says Dickinson, who is busy settling into the community of Kamloops with his wife and nine-and-a-half month old son.

“As a new father, you’re pretty much on call every night,” he jokes.

But long hours have never been a deterrent for Dickinson, who first became attracted to a career in medicine while working as a summer reporter for a local newspaper — an experience that left him moved by the people he met and the stories they told, but somewhat unsettled by his inability to help community members in need.

“The thing that really attracted me to medicine is that you not only get to hear these stories about people, but you actually get to help them,” reflects Dickinson on his decision to pursue medical school.

As a native of Lillooet, B.C., and with an interest in rural medicine, Dickinson is particularly excited about the smaller learning environment and family residency training opportunities that a city, like Kamloops, affords.

“Smaller-town doctors are often asked to have a broader scope of practice, and that’s a challenge that I find very exciting and that I’d like to take on,” says Dickinson.

UBC family practice resident, Dr. Harpreet Ghuman measures the blood pressure of a patient in Kamloops.

Fellow resident, Ghuman, who grew up in Surrey, is also keen to train in a smaller community, where, she says, she’ll have an opportunity to learn from physicians who are still heavily involved in full-service family medicine.

Over the course of the two-year residency program, Dickinson and Ghuman, together with the other family practice residents — Drs. Quinn Hamilton, Robert McKeough, Elizabeth Montgomery, and Brittany Weaver — will take on a range of traditional rotations, such as psychiatry, surgery and pediatrics, in addition to a number of unique family practice rotations in residential, palliative and hospital care.

“We’ve really engaged our whole community,” says Dr. Selena Lawrie, the site director responsible for overseeing the education experience of the new family residents in Kamloops. With nineteen family practice preceptors and multiple specialist preceptors, there’s no doubt these new residents will be exposed to diverse clinical settings and unique patient experiences.

Residency program expansion

The new family medicine residency site in Kamloops is not the only community-based site to open its doors this summer. In July, a new five-year emergency medicine residency site in Kelowna accepted its first two residents.

Meanwhile, on the North Shore, a new family medicine residency site accepted eight more residents, all of who will be embarking on clinical placements in communities stretching from Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton through to the Sunshine Coast and Powell River as part of their two-year training.

The expansion and distribution of postgraduate training sites, such as these, is aligned with the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s overall vision to help transform the landscape of medical education in B.C. by not only increasing the number of doctors in training, but placing them in communities where they are needed most.

2014 marks the tenth anniversary of the UBC MD distributed program. Expansion of UBC’s medical school to the B.C. Interior has helped increase the annual enrolment of new medical undergraduates provincially to 288 — more than double from 10 years ago. In conjunction, UBC’s postgraduate training programs have steadily grown, with over 1,400 medical residents presently engaged in 67 different postgraduate programs offered at more than 100 clinical training sites in every area of the province. This year, nearly half the residencies — a record number — are designated for family medicine, where the need is greatest.

Meeting healthcare needs in the Interior

Dr. Roger Wong, associate dean of postgraduate medical education, sees the launch of these new residency sites in the Interior as a step in the right direction.

“We know that community needs in these areas are yet to be met,” says Wong, “We are here to step up to the plate to meet their needs.”

Kelowna emergency medicine residents, Drs. Jared Baylis and Daniel Ting will embark on a range of rotations in emergency medicine during their five-year residency.

But it’s not just the administration stepping up to the plate, site directors, preceptors and residents, including Kelowna’s emergency medicine resident, Dr. Daniel Ting, are too.

“I have very high expectations for my residency here in Kelowna,” says Calgary-born and raised emergency medicine resident Dr. Daniel Ting. “I think it’s really exciting to be a pioneer in a program and I think that affords the opportunity to mold the program over the next few years.”

“Kelowna has the opportunity to become one of the premier emergency medicine training sites in the country — all the ground work is there: we have amazing facilities, great teachers, who are really excited about the program, and, being a part of the UBC umbrella, we have access to cutting-edge research,” he adds.

As the site director for the new emergency medicine residency program in Kelowna, Dr. Kevin Clark has witnessed, first-hand, the need for new emergency physicians in the Interior. It’s his hope that these local residency opportunities will encourage more physicians to stay and practice in the Okanagan in the years to come – a sentiment strongly echoed by Lawrie, the Kamloops’ family residency program site director.

“It’s important to be training doctors throughout the province of B.C.,” says Lawrie, pointing to fact that such programs not only help meet the needs of under-resourced communities, but provide an ideal training ground for young doctors.

For Ghuman, the prospect of completing her family medicine residency in Kamloops holds very real benefits.

“In smaller communities there’s such a good relationship between specialists and family physicians. Everyone plays to their strengths to provide better patient care and that’s why I went into medicine in the first place,” she says.

Having purchased a duplex in Kamloops with her partner only weeks before her residency training began, it is clear Ghuman sees the city as an attractive option for laying down roots.

“I just jumped in,” she says. “I really love the feel of Kamloops and I can definitely see myself being here long-term.”

And, though it may only be the beginning for Ghuman and Dickinson, as well as the other residents starting training this summer, there’s no doubt that the launch of these new sites will be felt by physician and patient communities of Kamloops and Kelowna.