Month: November 2012

Yesterday the sunshine was here and yet our department boardroom was full of people who had still found the enthusiasm and keenness to attend a workshop. This was designed to give people hands on experience of designing a randomised controlled trial for family practice. It started with Raina Elley (Peter Wall Institute Visiting fellow) giving us the methods of design, methods to avoid bias, and the steps to actually do this for real in an excellent presentation answering plenty of questions as she went along. Then we were split into three groups and over the next hour or so developed a trial. We all competed for the best acronym, produce a rationale for a trial, developed the aims and wrote a study question. We develooped the design, described the particiapnts, the intervention and the control. We had plenty of discussion over outcome measures, agreed the duration of the study, and looked at the the methods of randomisation, allocation, concealment and blinding. Finally we addressed the strengths and weaknesses of our design. In the workshops were those who had undertaken RCT’s, people thinking of doing them, and people starting with a question. By 12.30  the three groups had each given a five minute presentation. It was a remarkable workshop revealing Raina’s strengths as a teacher, facilitator and trialist. She is heading off to the North American Primary Care Research Workshop where she will give the workshop again, helped this time by our previous research director, now chair of research at University of Montreal, Janusz Kaczorowski. If you are in New Orleans on Saturday for NAPCRG then I recommend  making time for this workshop if you can.

Raina is returning to New Zealand after three months in the department. During that time she has applied for and gained ethics for a study to test a New Zealand tool called CHAT, identified the two practices, recruited the patients and delivered the tool.  The Case-finding Health Assessment Tool (CHAT), a short self-administered tool for life-style and mental health assessment of adult (19 years and over) patients in Family Practice, has been developed by a multi-disciplinary team (including the fields of Family Practice, nursing and psychology) from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, led by Prof Goodyear-Smith. The tool assesses for risky behaviours (smoking, drinking, other drug use, gambling, abuse, physical inactivity) and mental health issues (depression, anxiety, anger control) in Family Practice. For each item patients are asked whether this is something with which they would like help, either during this consultation or at a later date. From the two practice 171 patients completed the tool and the responses are now being evaluated. This demonstrates what can be done but especially reflects Raina’s enthusiasm for answering primary care questions that are highly relevant to the health professionals and patients.

During her stay she has helped many faculty with research protocol design, worked on collaborative projects, and given several teaching sessions including this workshop. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Peter Wall Institute for supporting her fellowship and to Raina for everything she has helped with over the last three months.

Martin

Five thousand family doctors is a pretty amazing number. This is a real tribute to the CEO of the college Cal Gutkin who will be stepping down this year. He has been acknowledged in many events but it is worth repeating how important he has been to the practice of academic family medicine. He has been tireless in his enthusiasm for family medicine as a cornerstone of health care in Canada and has been one of the key factors in the success family medicine has today in the expanded education in postgrad and undergrad as well as the total number of Canadians who now have access to a family physician.

Last week marked the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the midwifery program. Two events were held in Victoria and Vancouver recognizing the contributions of the leaders, faculty and all the preceptors and alumni in both establishing and securing the midwifery program at UBC. The program has expanded and has secure core funding making its future very bright. The events celebrated all the individuals and groups who helped establish midwifery in BC. In Vancouver we were honored to be joined by the Minister for Health Margaret MacDiarmid, herself a family physician, who has recently spoken out supporting the right of women to be able to chose home birth.

Last week also saw the first Family Medicine Peter Wall Institute International Visiting Research Scholar Presentation. Dr Raina Elley gave a very comprehensive talk on the Pandemic of Physical Inactivity One Patient at a Time. Raina has been in the department for three months and will be returning to New Zealand at the end of November. During her stay in BC she has held seminars, and set up and run a study:  “Screening for Lifestyle Risk Factors and Mental Health Conditions in Family Practice” in two practices in BC. She will be running a workshop next Saturday 24^th November on How to Design a Randomized Controlled Trial for Family Practice or the Community.

Martin

It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of a friend and colleague, Peter Granger. Many tributes have been coming to me from all parts of the province and from further afield, about his mentorship, and about how he set a wonderful example. Many will miss him and we extend our sincere condolences to his family.

Peter, who practiced in both Ontario and British Columbia, died on the evening of November 12.  In addition to being a wonderful person and clinician, he also exemplified the CanMEDS-FM health advocate role for many of Canada’s under-served and under-recognized. Peter had an exemplary career.  He was the past president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and past Vice-President of Medical Affairs for North York General Hospital.  In Vancouver, he was a physician at Three Bridges Community Health Centre, the director of the Division of Inner City Medicine at UBC and he played a critical role in supporting the establishment of the Community Health Initiative by University Students (also known as CHIUS).   Many of you will know of his work as an advocate for inner city health populations, aboriginal youth and the LGTB communities. In 2010 he was the deserved recipient of the Geeta Gupta Equity and Diversity Award. Peter was an advocate for many, a friend to all.  He touched the lives of many of our colleagues as a loved mentor.  We will remember him for his gracious, giving nature, his ability to lead from behind and his undying modesty.  Please join us in recognizing the passing of this wonderful person.