Trail ICC Program Expanding

The Southern Medical Program’s integrated community clerkship (ICC) program in Trail is expanding from two to four students for the 2014/15 academic year. Since the launch of the program in September 2011, the ICC program has served as a remarkable training ground for third-year medical students passionate about rural medicine. A community of over 60 physicians and allied health professionals are involved in teaching with the program. The Trail ICC welcomes its four new students in late August.

Top Poster at Medical Undergraduate Research Forum

First-year student, Kirsten Mossington recently competed in the Faculty of Medicine’s Medical Undergraduate Research Forum. Presenting via videoconference from the Reichwald Health Sciences Centre, she won top prize in the Basic Science judging category for her poster/presentation titled Targeted Knock out of the Putative Non-Ribosomal Peptide Synthetase-Independent Siderophore (NIS) gene in Rhizopus oryzae. The research forum is hosted annually by the UBC Medical Undergraduate Society, UBC Medical Journal, MD/PhD Program, and the Office of the Executive Associate Dean, Research.

Masters in Health Professions Education

Dr. Cheryl Holmes has earned her Masters in Health Professions Education from the University of Illinois, Chicago.  Her thesis entitled Harnessing the Hidden Curriculum in Clinical Clerkship:  A Four-Step Reflective Competency Approach, was informed and inspired by her role at the SMP. Dr. Holmes is an ICU physician, Year 3 Education Site Leader for Kelowna, and Clinical Associate Professor with the UBC Department of Medicine. Dr. Holmes is highly regarded for her teaching skills both at the bedside and for leading a critical care outreach session utilizing patient simulation held during the third-year clerkship retreat.

New SMP Librarian

Welcome to Erin Menzies, our new SMP Learning Services Librarian. Erin is a graduate of University of Toronto (BA) and Robert Gordon University, Scotland (MSc Information & Library Studies). Previously, Erin held roles with the University Health Network in Toronto, Clinical Trials Ontario, the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries, University of Manitoba’s health sciences library and Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Erin’s excited to begin collaborating with students, staff, faculty and colleagues across the province.

Wesbrook Scholarship Award

Third-year student Robyn Buna has been recognized as one of UBC’s prestigious Wesbrook Scholars. The esteemed designation is given to senior students with outstanding academic performance, leadership, and involvement in student and community activities. Robyn has represented her class as Vice President, Social for the past two years, helped pair student mentors, and assisted the SMP Office of Student Affairs with various orientation activities. Robyn has also been active in the community speaking with local high school students and represented the SMP during the MD Admissions Office interview weekends.

UBCO Health Challenge Winners           

SMP staff Michelle Bandalo, Janet Halbasch, Christine Hamilton, Diane Oorebeek, Jacqui Oshaski, and Doreen Welsh took top honours in the team category for UBC Okanagan’s Fall into Motion Challenge. The six-week challenge is designed to bring colleagues together to promote physical activity and a supportive workplace environment. The group won top spot among 11 teams by participating in a weekly yoga class as well as daily group plank and lunge exercises in the office. Individually, they earned points for skiing, running, and walking. The team was awarded a plaque and $150 gift certificate.

Our newest class of SMP students was formally welcomed by the program and the medical community at the second annual SMP Welcome Reception on February 28, 2014. For the second year in a row, the reception was held at the picturesque Volcanic Hills Estate Winery in West Kelowna.

Over 140 students, faculty, staff, alumni, and program partners helped celebrate our new cohort of students including Dr. Gavin Stuart, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Vice Provost Health, UBC.

Thanks to our event partners Scotiabank, Kelowna Medical Society, Doctors of BC, BC Medical Association, Canadian Medical Association, MD Management, Faculty of Medicine Alumni Association, and Drs. Allan and Charlotte Jones. Net proceeds from this year’s event helped created a bursary award for the SMP Class of 2017.

In celebration of National Volunteer Week, the Southern Medical Program would like to express our sincere appreciation for our dedicated group of Volunteer Patients. Our students are incredibly grateful for you giving up your time to assist in their medical education.

Over the past academic year, our students have had over 300 encounters with Volunteer Patients. We are fortunate to have more than 100 Volunteer Patients from Peachland, Kelowna, West Kelowna, Vernon, Lumby, Salmon Arm, and Kamloops participating in clinical skills training.

Thank you for taking the time to share your stories and experiences, and for generously allowing our students to practice and enhance their clinical skills.  Each of you plays a vital role in helping to educate and train our future physicians.

If you would like to find out more or to get involved, please contact Diane Oorebeek, Volunteer Patient Recruiter and Trainer at smp.volunteer@ubc.ca.

Info Session at UBC Okanagan: April 1, 2014

The UBC Faculty of Medicine Southern Medical Program (SMP) is hosting an evening info session for local high school students. Learn about the admission requirements, application process, and how the program is training the next generation of physicians for our province.

The event will be held on Tuesday, April 1st from 6:30 to 8:00 pm in the Reichwald Health Sciences Centre at UBC Okanagan.

Presenters to include Dr. Bruce Fleming, Associate Dean, MD Admissions, current Southern Medical Program students, and the UBC Okanagan Recruitment and Advising Office.

To register for the event, click on the following link and create an account – https://account.you.ubc.ca/ubc/myEvents.do.

For more information, contact Warren Brock, SMP Admissions Coordinator at warren.brock@ubc.ca or 250.807.8601.

Dr. John Falconer demonstrates the Littman electronic stethoscope to second-year medical students Kurt Hoskin and Matt Mittelstadt. Using Bluetooth technology, students at UBC’s Okanagan campus can ‘hear’ the heartbeat of a patient in places like Trail.

Technology aids Southern Medical Program students to learn and study
By Patty Wellborn

John Falconer still confesses a certain excitement when he holds a brand new, electronic tele-stethoscope in his hand.

Falconer, a neurologist for more than 20 years, is the Foundations of Medicine director at UBC’s Southern Medical Program (SMP). As the leading force behind the school’s e-Health Research Office, he says new technology has changed the telehealth game considerably.

“Just about every one of our students has an electronic device in their hands all the time,” he says. “We’re now learning how to use those devices to connect with patients and doctors who simply can’t get to large communities for diagnostic care.”

Technology advances in e-health directly benefit patients in remote communities, extending the reach of physician specialists and health-care practitioners in timely fashion. Savings are measured in less time spent waiting for diagnosis, driving to large urban centres and fewer overnight stays for patients who travel long distances.

UBC admits 288 medical students each year for study in Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, and Prince George. While some of their learning is done via videoconferencing, Falconer says today’s medical students — tomorrow’s doctors — will eventually see and treat patients by videoconferencing. And the e-Health Research Office provides an opportunity for UBC’s students to participate in advanced technology research.

“Our mandate is to develop and deploy leading-edge electronic innovations in health care to improve service delivery in BC and to extend this benefit world-wide,” Falconer explains. “At the same time, we’re going to involve and train students from different faculties such as Medicine, Science, and Engineering.”

Partnered with UBC Vancouver’s e-Health Strategy Office and the Interior Health Authority, the e-Health office focuses on three key research themes: education, telehealth, and electronic medical records interfaces.

Falconer runs a teleneurology clinic with physicians in Trail, Creston, and Grand Forks from his UBC Okanagan office, and has students shadowing him to learn how it is done.

The Southern Medical Program’s e-Health Research Office is also conducting an e-Health research project with telehealth patients — 50 people in a remote community will be seen in person by a doctor, while 50 others will participate in telehealth conferences, where they will contact the doctor via technology.

Using Bluetooth technology, Falconer demonstrates how the Littman electronic Tele-Stethoscope connects wirelessly to a computer and shows how a medical practitioner in Kelowna, can ‘hear’ the heart and lungs of a patient in Trail. This one device will save countless hours and dollars, while eliminating the stress of travel for patients.

“We know how it works,” says Falconer, explaining the cloud-based technology, “but it still feels a bit like magic.”

UBC medical student Robyn Buna, nursing student Bobbi Bennett and medical student Alison Leighton work to solve a patient emergency while Karen Whaley, Pritchard Simulation Centre clinical educator watches the situation unfold.

Simulation lab provides health-care collaboration in a safe setting

By Paul Marck

UBC Okanagan nursing and med students are training side by side for the first time.

Medical students start work in the clinical setting in their third year, and this is the first, third-year class from UBC’s Southern Medical Program to have an opportunity to work in hospitals and clinics in BC’s Interior.

Recently, students from both UBC’s Faculty of Medicine and the Okanagan School of Nursing collaborated for clinical training at the Pritchard Simulation Centre at the Clinical Academic Campus at Kelowna General Hospital. Using patient simulators for emergency treatment case scenarios, Code Blue teams were assembled to assess high-tech artificial patients suffering health crises.

The computer-programmed, life-like teaching simulator breathes, opens his eyes, speaks, groans, coughs and displays symptoms mimicking the unpredictable events that can routinely occur in a hospital emergency ward. Beeping monitors display faltering or improving life signs, depending on the patient’s medical condition.

“It is critical that team members understand their roles and how to work together,” says Dr. Cheryl Holmes, clinical associate professor and Year 3 education lead for the Southern Medical Program at Kelowna General Hospital. “Often in an emergency setting, doctors and nurses are called in to deal with life-threatening situations and they may not even have met one another, let alone worked together before.”

There are instant decisions to be made about treatments and medications, with team members relying on each other’s expertise and quick assessments of the patient’s condition.

“There are simple and important routines for members of the team so everybody is aware of what’s going on,” says Holmes, a physician for 30 years. “For instance, they need to look each other in the eye while explaining what they are doing, not just assume that everybody in the room has heard and understands.”

Students have high praise for the joint exercise, recognizing that doctors and nurses  have  a wealth of vital expertise to share.

“This is a safe way to do this kind of work, so that we’re not coming together for the first time in a live situation,” says medical student Donovan Duncan. “The collaborative nature shows doctors and nurses, each profession with their own host of skills, allowing us to rethink how we approach problems so we can provide the best patient assessment and care.”

Medical student Julie Schneidermann says the exercise is practical. “We get a lot more experience working this way. You get a good sense of each other’s role.”

School of Nursing instructor and laboratory and simulation coordinator Jasmine Clark says the exercise has immediate gains for students.

“To have the nursing and medical students work together makes perfect sense in a simulated environment before they’re out doing the real thing,” says Clark.

Fourth-year nursing students say the value of teamwork cannot be underestimated.

Bobbi Bennett says working with student physicians provides reassurance. “When you are dealing with people for the first time in new situations it can provoke anxiety and awkward moments. If we can deal with those situations now, in school, we can better define our roles when we graduate.”

“This collaboration is really exciting,” says Christine Gregory. “It’s a great opportunity to further our health proficiencies in having experience working together.”

The two faculties expect to collaborate in other areas of joint clinical training as well.

UBC Okanagan Interdisciplinary Health Conference

The UBC Faculty of Medicine Southern Medical Program would like to invite health professional faculty, staff, and students to attend the first ever UBC Okanagan Interdisciplinary Health Conference. The conference is a chance for students from medicine, science, and health and social development to share their research and public health experiences will the local medical community. Join us for an evening of poster presentations, great conversation, and a reception sponsored by Save-On-Foods and Choices Markets.

The conference will be held on March 5, 2014 at 7:00 pm in the Henderson Library at the Clinical Academic Campus (2312 Pandosy Street) next to Kelowna General Hospital. There is no charge to attend.

Overview of Presentations:

Presenter: Damien Leitner,  University of British Columbia Okanagan , Department of Clinical Psychology
Title: A comparison of the Buschke selective reminding test and California verbal learning test- second edition in a traumatic brain injury population

Presenter: Jacky Lo, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2015
Title: Successful self-medication of skin cancer using paw paw extract

Presenter: Michal Martinka, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: Clinical Recognition of Melanoma By Dermatologist and Non-Dermatologists

Presenter:  Jason Randhawa, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: SMP Branch of the “Med students for Stem Cell Network Club” Hosting OneMatch swab drives at UBCO

Presenter: Hannah Staniszkis, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: Maternal-Infant Wellness Project: Phase II and New mothers of harm: prevalence and relation to OCD and child harm

Presenter: Adam Siemens, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: Implementation of a life skills curriculum in a transition housing population

Presenter: Roberto Trasolini, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016   
Title: Point of Care Videoconferencing for Rural stroke care

Presenter: Stephanie Schindler, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Department of Biology               Mitochondrial transcription factor A: novel intercellular signaling molecule and its role in microgial cell activation and neuroinflammation

Presenter: Dianne Valenzuela, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2015
Title: The reliability of clinical tonsil size and grading in children

Presenter: Simon Macdonald, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: A comparison of pain and medication use in double-bundle verse single-bundle anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction patients: pain and medication comparison in ACL reconstruction

Presenter: David Van de Vosse, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: Wait time for lung cancer patient in BC Southern Interior for obtaining oncologic care: exploration the interval leading from  first abnormal imaging to oncologic treatment

Presenter: Jamie Powell, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: NMP’s Healthcare Travelling Road show

Presenter: Emily Robinson, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Faculty of Health and Exercise Science
Title: Short-term high intensity interval training versus continuous moderate intensity aerobic training for improving cardiometabolic risk factors

Presenter:Colten Wendel, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2015
Title: Investigation Of Vitreous Level of Atorvastatin in Patients Requiring Vitrectomy

Presenter: Kristin Morch, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: Review of the Clinical Management of Patients with Fracture at the hip at Kelowna General Hospital

Presenter: Greg Costello, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: Teaching Neuroscience to Men Struggling with Addiction

Presenter: Daniel Esau, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2016
Title: Photovoice: engaging youth in rural Uganda in articulating health priorities through participatory action research

Presenter: Lisa Olhauser, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Faculty of Health and Exercise Science
Title: The Biological and Psychological Factors that Influence Post-Stoke Emotional Function

Presenter: Charlotte Broadbent, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Faculty of Health and Exercise Science
Title: How Does Type 2 Diabetes Impact Cognitive Function

Presenter: Celine Akyurekli, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, SMP 2017
Title: Walk ‘n Talk for your Life: a student facilitated program to reduce loneliness and isolation and improve lifestyle behaviours in low-income seniors.

Dear Clinical Faculty Members:

In January 2014 the Southern Medical Program’s (SMP) third intake of MD undergraduate students will arrive at UBC Okanagan. Many of our MD students are interested in and in need of research, public health & community service learning opportunities. The SMP has an evolving database of supervisors, and opportunities and experiences that it can provide to students. We are working hard to expand this database to support you and the students. There is a great need for more supervisors and experiences. Are you interested and able to help out?

There are several types of supervisory options available to you: UBC’s Faculty of Medicine (FOM) has a funded, Student Summer Research Program (SSRP) that you may be interested in. Attached you will find 2 SSRP documents for supervisors. Within the next year, a new course will require the students to undertake several 2-3 week blocks and longitudinal (one afternoon a week) research and or community service learning opportunities. Chart reviews, case reports, any questions you have that together with a student’s help you can address.

If you are interested in any of the above three options, please contact us before January 3, 2014. We will offer you personal support (including webinars etc.) to help with what you need to know about being a supervisor, helping students with research questions and methods and with community service learning experiences.

To date, over 30 students have participated in successful projects with the help of clinical faculty supervisors. We would also like to invite anyone else you feel might be interested in becoming a new supervisor to email us via linda.misura@ubc.ca. Your support of the Southern Medical Program is very much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Dr. Charlotte Jones, PhD, MD, FRCPC. Director of Student Research. UBC FoM, SMP
Carolyn Roque, Research Coordinator. UBC FoM, SMP
Linda Misura, Admin Assistant. UBC FoM, SMP linda.misura@ubc.ca

For more info, see the following attachments:

2014 SSRP Factsheet – for Faculty

Form_Project Registration and Description_2013-14

Our inaugural class of students has excitedly begun the clerkship years of their medical education.  Bringing with them a strong foundation of medical knowledge and early clinical exposure, they will gain substantial hands-on experience learning alongside our clinical faculty in BC Interior hospitals and clinics. The race is now on to select their residency path and many are focused on maximizing their learning opportunities to assist in their future career decisions.

It is quite remarkable when reflecting back on the amount of time and hard work invested by our faculty, staff, and program stakeholders in expanding the distributed MD Undergraduate Program to the Interior. Our collaborative partnership with the Interior Health Authority and ongoing support from the communities in which we operate continue to be key contributors to our success. We also recognize and value the role our students have played in helping us to refine and build a top notch medical program. The collective feedback from students across our distributed sites has been incredibly positive and a strong reinforcement for all of our efforts.

With the recent admission of our third cohort of students, 96 medical undergraduates are now enrolled with the Southern Medical Program (SMP). The sheer demand for teaching capacity across our sites remains an ever-present priority – especially with the growing need to create new residency spots and programs. It is vitally important that the need to grow always be balanced with the current demands placed upon our clinical faculty. We are incredibly fortunate to have an engaged medical community that is truly invested in training the next generation of physicians for our province.

We are now set to embark on an exciting new chapter for our program with the creation of the research arm of the SMP. With a focus on chronic disease prevention, we look forward to future collaborations with researchers from across UBC Okanagan and Interior Health. Ultimately, our goal is to deliver front-line research that advances the health of individuals and communities from a local to international level.

Allan R. Jones, MD, FRCPC
Regional Associate Dean, Interior, UBC Faculty of Medicine
and Associate Vice-Provost, Medical Sciences, UBC Okanagan’s campus

Dr. Steve Pinney kicks of the Master Teacher Certificate Program at the Clinical Academic Campus

The SMP’s new Master Teacher Certificate Program (MTCP) was officially launched this past September. The focus of the program is to provide clinical faculty and other health professionals with tools and resources to help them excel in their roles as medical educators. The MTCP offers a monthly lecture series covering current and emerging topics in medical education – broadcast from the Clinical Academic Campus at Kelowna General Hospital to education sites in Trail, Vernon, and Kamloops. A second component provides small-group sessions for the first cohort of 15 program participants represented by SMP faculty from each of our distributed sites.

Dr. Steve Pinney, a San Francisco-based orthopedic surgeon kicked off the series on September 19th. Next up, Dr. Kevin Eva, Associate Professor and Director of Educational Research and Scholarship with the Department of Medicine presents The Student’s World: Learning and Evaluation from the Learner’s Perspective on October 24th. To learn more, visit www.smp.med.ubc.ca/faculty.