Message from the Department Head

Prof. Dr. Jack Taunton, professor in the department of family practice at UBC, has been named the 2011 BC Athletics Hall of Fame inductee for his outstanding contributions as an athlete, community builder and sports medicine physician.

Jack once ran a 2:25 marathon which in anyone’s book is an achievement worthy of major note. His many services to athletics are justly recognized by this award. More description of the award and Jack’s achievements can be found at http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2011/12/02/ubc-prof-jack-taunton-named-2011-bc-athletics-hall-of-fame-inductee/

Many Congratulations Jack

Following the most recent visit by the North American accreditation bodies earlier this year and a subsequent status report, we have received good news.  We have formal confirmation that the MD Undergraduate Program is in compliance with all accreditation standards (there are close to 130 standards) with no further previously identified areas of partial or substantial non-compliance, and two areas that require monitoring and follow-up. Canadian medical schools are dually accredited by CACMS (Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools) and LCME (Liaison Committee on Medical Education – USA).  There is a comprehensive system in place to ensure medical programs provide the best possible educational experience for their learners.  CACMS/LCME accreditation outcomes can be variable, including some schools being placed on probation and, rarely, withdrawal of accreditation.

The dean writes “The UBC Faculty of Medicine offers one of the biggest, most complex and innovative MD programs in North America.  Achieving a report card from CACMS/LCME of this nature would not be possible without province-wide involvement. This exemplary outcome is a clear indication that we are all working together, and I don’t take for granted the dedication, effort and enthusiasm that are needed to achieve this result.”

Our program in family medicine is the only program that teaches in all four years of the course. Thanks to everyone for helping teach and creating this success.

Wendy Norman’s group are highlighted in the National Post today. http://news.nationalpost.com/tag/wendy-norman/

Having had several presentations at the North American Primary Care Research Group her work has been picked up and now hitting the national news. Congratulations.

This weekend in Banff  784 primary care researchers gathered to present there research in posters, short oral papers and distinguished extended papers. This year Scott Garrison,  is one of a handful of people submitting their research who has been selected for a distinguished paper. Just in the midst of finishing his PhD, Scott is a full family physician in Burnaby, active in his division and yet somehow finds time to be a successful researcher. He will be leading the development of the primary care masters at the department of family medicine that will focus on evidence based health care. For more unbiased comments on this meeting the BMJ blog has described Scott’s work. http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2011/11/15/domhnall-macauley-napcrg-and-the-relevance-of-evidence-based-medicine/

Ian Scott given Ian McWhinney Award

Last night at the Section of Teachers dinner, attendees from British Columbia were delighted seeing Ian Scott being given the Ian McWhinney Family Medicine Education Award. This award is given to a teacher of family medicine deemed by his peers to have made a unique and innovative contribution which has had a significant national impact on the development of family medicine education in Canada. In front of family and colleagues Ian was presented with the award and made a wonderful acceptance speech acknowledging all the help he had received, but the tribute is really to Ian’s own hard work and academic success. Congratulations.

From the UBC resident leadership award to all the posters and presentations and our booth recruiting even more residents, UBC has been very visible at FMF. I have seen many faculty, from all across the province, at the meeting and it was good to catch up with so many of you.

Project Managers for the Expansion Proposal for the Postgraduate Program, Family Practice.

The Family Medicine Postgraduate Program has been expanding their number of sites since 2006 and has fourteen sites at present. Under the Expansion and Distribution Proposal currently funded by the Federal Government there is an expectation to increase the numbers of IMG’s in the Family Medicine Postgraduate Program by 40 (Health Care Contribution Program 2011- 2016). In addition, with the creation of the Interior Medical Program at UBC there will be a requirement for 16 or more new residency positions for Canadian graduates. Faced with this expansion the department needs to look at options for how to move forward and meet the increasing demands placed on the Postgraduate program.

John Morse and Jean Jamieson  take on the the 6 month job to examine the impact of this expansion on current Family Medicine Residency Program sites, the Undergraduate Programs of all campuses of the UBC Undergraduate Medical Program and the distributed Royal College Residency Programs. Their aim is to provide a report within 6 months that will outline strategic options for ensuring a smooth expansion and to describe the management structures needed for the expanded program itself. This report will address the distributed nature of the program and provide examples of administrative approaches that could meet the pedagogical requirements and CFPC accreditation standards.

We welcome John and Jean, whose combined wealth of experience includes faculty and family practice postgraduate programs, rural practice, and Faculties of Medicine.

I am delighted to have them on our team and wish them success in the undertaking of this important task for the Department.

Professor Saras Vedam chairs historic Home Birth Consensus Summit in the US

On October 20-22, 2011, a group of sixty-eight national and international experts were brought together in Warrenton, Virginia to participate in a historic Home Birth Consensus Summit. The result of this three day meeting was the creation of nine statements of common ground regarding home birth and other controversies in maternity care. The full text of each statement, along with recommended action steps can be found at www.homebirthsummit.org. Congratulations to Professor Saras Vedam for chairing this important event and to Laura Schummers for grant facilitation and Angela Moore for project management. We look forward to following the outcome of this important Summit.

This blog is a reflection of items brought to my attention that seem worth sharing. Please feel free to add, change, or comment.

Things are incredibly busy in the department as we approach family medicine forum in Montreal next week and NAPCRG in Banff the week after. In addition there are CIHR grant deadlines and other grants being prepared. The whole department is buzzing; for example we have a visit from Pudong university tomorrow to discuss family practice training. Our own residency program is continuing to rapidly expand – we have a new director –  Dr. Pierre Dil as Site Director of the new IMG Rural Program on Vancouver Island – welcome. CARMS is only a few months away and people are being asked to volunteer to review applications or to interview.
Julia Zhu, a resident in Vancouver, presented at research rounds today to get feedback on the protocol design for a study describing people’s ability to identify bed bugs. An itchy discussion.
The research network announced a competition for three, possibly four, groups to help develop a research submission. This will allow people to use (test) a new web platform to share ideas and documents as well as getting expert support on their protocol.

Martin Dawes

Hello from Vancouver! The sun has finally emerged and we’re enjoying a spell of dry weather and fall colours.

I was recently chatting with family physicians in Kamloops who are thinking of establishing a residency site. Despite their heavy workloads, many of the doctors are interested in training postgraduates from our program.

We hosted our bi-monthly research rounds on Wednesday, Oct. 12^th. Dr. Margaret McGregor conducted her presentation from a remote location using AdobeConnect, a web conferencing and online meeting tool. If you would like to join the research rounds, please contact Debra Hanberg at debra.hanberg@familymed.ubc.ca

By the way, Margaret is currently profiled on the front page of Canadian Family Physician as part of the journal’s “The Faces of Family Medicine” project. Congratulations, Margaret!

Just a reminder that the Department is hosting a bag luncheon on November 18^th, 12:00 noon at the St Paul’s CME event. We very much look forward to meeting you – our hard-working clinical faculty – face-to-face. The luncheon is fully booked with 250 doctors already registered – thank you! We hope to make this “meet-and-greet” an annual event for St. Paul’s CME registrants.

The department is also preparing for the visit of a delegation of 20 individuals from Pudong University near Shanghai, China. Our visitors are interested in learning more about our distributed model of family medical education and will be attending presentations and speaking in small groups to educators and administrators.