 |
|
> Family Practice Home > Department > Department News & Events > Faculty news
Research conducted by Dr. Wendy Norman, of the UBC Department of Family Practice, made the front page news of the National Post.
|  Janusz Kaczorowski, | Director, Research Office, DFP OTTAWA, ON - February 7, 2011 - The world renowned British Medical Journal (BMJ) released results of a study evaluating a community-based program developed and implemented by both Élisabeth Bruyère Research Institute and McMaster University that shows a nine per cent reduction in hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease for those over the age of 65 in the 20 communities where the program was held compared to 19 control communities.
|
History
MERG reading listNovember 17, 2011 - Drs. Shafik Dharamsi and Robert Woollard recently participated in and helped organize an international colloquium on establishing and evaluating health promoting schools with reference to WHO Guidelines. It was held at The Wallenberg Research Centre, Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, November 9 - 11, 2011. The following news story was featured on the Stellenbosch University Website.
Professor Saras Vedam chairs historic Home Birth Consensus Summit in the US
November 3, 2011 - 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.
Dr. Morgan Price promoted to Assistant Professor, Department of Family Practice
 |
July 20, 2011 - The Department of Family Practice (DFP) is pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Morgan Price to the rank of Assistant Professor.
Dr. Price earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Victoria and an MD from the University of Calgary. After completing his training with the DFP’s Postgraduate Residency Program, Dr. Price began his practice as an addictions and inner city medicine primary care provider, working with Three Bridges Clinic in downtown Vancouver and serving as the Medical Director of the Family and Community Medicine Inpatient Services at St. Paul’s Hospital. He became a preceptor for the DFP, consistently earning excellent ratings for his teaching work. In 2004, he was named one of the DFP Postgraduate Residency Program’s top preceptors.
Dr. Price continued to conduct research in health informatics while engaging in clinical practice, eventually publishing several refereed articles, conference proceedings and a book chapter in Human, Social, and Organizational Aspects of Health Information Systems. He recently completed a PhD at the University of Victoria examining the feasible changes that could be made to care processes and clinical information systems to improve continuity of care for end-of-life patients.
In addition to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching roles he will continue to develop capacity in primary care informatics in BC and Canada. His work will include evaluation of information systems and evaluation of overall care delivery systems as they change over time. He will be collaborating with others to develop information systems that support practice-based research that helps generate new evidence; additionally, he will develop an ongoing research stream that explores, describes, and collects best practice, repeatable “Health Information System Patterns.”
Drs. Patricia Boston, Trevor Corneil honoured at Faculty of Medicine's 2011 Academic Gowns Ceremony
 |
 | |
| Dr. Pat Boston |
Dr. Trevor Corneil |
Dr. Patricia Boston, Director of the Palliative Care Special Interest Focus Program was promoted to the rank of Clinical Professor. Associate Department member, Dr. Trevor Corneil of the School of Population and Public Health, also received a promotion to the rank of Clinical Professor.
Drs. Boston and Corneil were each presented with an academic gown in recognition of their new rank. Congratulations to both members on their achievement.
 |
August 26, 2010 - Dr. Abraham (“Braam”) De Klerk, Clinical Assistant Professor and Medical Director of the Inuvik training site in the Northwest Territories, was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in July 2010.
A media release issued by the Office of the Governor General stated that Dr. de Klerk’s appointment to the Order recognized his “contributions to health care as a physician, teacher and administrator, as well as his “continued advocacy for the needs of rural and remote populations in Canada's North.
From South Africa to the Northwest Territories
Dr. de Klerk has definitely lived ‘a life less ordinary.’ He began his career working for four years at a teaching hospital in South Africa before opening his own full-time general office practice. Ten years later, when he turned 40, he decided it was time for a life change – both he and his wife wanted to live more adventurously. After some deliberation, Dr. de Klerk and his wife chose to start the new chapter of their life abroad and settled on Canada as their destination. They landed in Saskatchewan and agreed to spend a trial year in the Prairies.
At the conclusion of the year, both Dr. de Klerk and his wife decided that while they enjoyed being in Canada, life in Saskatchewan was “not challenging enough.” Jumping in their old Suburban with four kids, aged 3 to 10 , they travelled the country to see if there was another place that would appeal to their sense of adventure. After driving north for five days, they arrived in Whitehorse, Yukon on a sunny June evening. “We stopped over at a campground just off the Alaska Highway with the midnight sun high in the sky,” he recounts with some amusement, “That very ‘night’, my wife and I talked it over and decided that we wanted to work in the north. The big question for us was whether to stay in Whitehorse or continue on.”
The de Klerks opted to leave Whitehorse behind and travelled further north through the Yukon, crossing the Arctic Circle into the Northwest Territories and driving on the Dempster Highway literally to the end of the road. There, they settled in the small community of Inuvik, NWT, where they have remained for the past 20 years. Dr. de Klerk immediately found the challenge he craved, serving a rural northern community with a large Aboriginal population. He practices full-service family medicine through a combination of office-based general practice, hospital-based anaesthesia, obstetrics and surgery, and multi-day road and/or fly-in trips to provide medical services in the smaller rural communities surrounding Inuvik.
Northern rural medicine is significantly different from most southern Canadian office practices. “There are more acute care cases in the north,” observes Dr. de Klerk, “Northerners have a reputation for being tough, so often they wait longer before they come in to see a doctor.” There are also a broader range of diseases and a wider scope of activity for a general practitioner living ‘north of 60.’ Rural northern GPs are expected to know how to perform procedures (e.g., administer anaesthesia) that would normally be assigned to other physicians in Southern Canada. “There are no specialists to take the case off your hand. You’re expected to handle the patient as best as you can before sending them [to Yellowknife or Edmonton] for advanced hospital care.”
For Dr. de Klerk, “handling the patient” refers to more than just providing adequate treatment. In the past, he lobbied the Northwest Territorial government to fund additional doctors as well as specialist visits for the Inuvik region. He has also strongly advocated for the continuation of community-based medicine in Inuvik, speaking out against the shutdown of the operating room at Inuvik Hospital and against a proposal to remove obstetrics care to Yellowknife. “A labouring woman shouldn’t have to fly two hours to Yellowknife to give birth,” says Dr. de Klerk, “When a woman gives birth here at Inuvik Hospital, she has her family, friends and her community to support her. It’s a much better experience for everyone.”
When asked how he and his colleagues cope with chronic health conditions in the north, Dr. de Klerk is proud to note that Inuvik physicians have made significant advances over the last 10 years. “We’ve become very good at managing acute care cases so that frees up time for us to organize public health education projects that address chronic conditions.” In 2009, Dr. de Klerk and his colleagues arranged to have a colon health display – which included a larger-than-life inflatable model of a colon – shipped to Inuvik. “It provided us with an opportunity to educate our patients about the importance of regular screening.”
Dr. de Klerk’s passion for rural northern medicine extends to teaching as well as practice. His Inuvik health care team has trained approximately 360 student physicians over the past 20 years – some from as far away as Argentina and New Zealand. Students and residents are shown every aspect of rural northern medicine and living – from the long, dark winter drives over the frozen Mackenzie River for the monthly community visits to participating in traditional Inuit blanket toss games and eating muktuk (whale blubber). “Most residents love working here” says Dr. de Klerk, “and quite often, many of them return as locums. We’ve had some doctors return to Inuvik 20 or 30 times.”
Dr. de Klerk’s impact as a preceptor is substantial. He has created an environment at the Inuvik training site that has made it one of the favourite learning experiences for Rural Postgraduate residents. In 2009, second year Rural residents recognized his work, energy and contributions with a Postgraduate Teaching Award. Dr. de Klerk’s greatest impact as a teacher however, may be in the successful recruitment of medical graduates into rural medicine. Tracking statistics show that nearly 70 per cent of residents who completed the Rural Postgraduate program went on to provide rural service. Given the significant shortage of rural family physicians in Canada (only seven to 10 per cent of Canada’s doctors serve the rural population – approximately 25 per cent of the country’s population), Dr. de Klerk’s success in training the next generation of rural general practitioners is perhaps his most valuable accomplishment as a preceptor.
Now heading into semi-retirement, Dr. de Klerk is currently dividing his time between Victoria, BC and Inuvik. He will continue to practice medicine and teach in Inuvik for six-week blocks, traveling between his two homes throughout the year, even during the long, cold and dark northern winters. “I’m used to those by now,” he laughs, adding “it will be good to slow down and enjoy life in both locations.”
 |
| Left to right: Dean Gavin Stuart with interim co-Leader Dr. Louise Nasmith, Clinical Professor Dr.Alister Browne and interim co-Leader Dr. Ian Scott. |
Dr. Alister Browne honoured at Faculty of Medicine's 2010 Gowning Ceremony
August 26, 2010 - Dean Gavin Stuart hosted a dinner reception on April 20, 2010 to recognize individuals receiving promotions to the academic rank of Clinical Professor or Professor.
Dr. Alister Browne, a Vancouver-based preceptor for the Department, was promoted to the rank of Clinical Professor at the ceremony.
Each individual honoured was presented with an Academic Gown for his/her achievements.
Congratulations to Dr. Browne on his promotion.
August 26, 2010 - In April 2010, the Faculty of Medicine hosted a celebration to recognize faculty and staff members who have provided 25 or more years of service to the university. The following Department of Family Practice members were honoured at the ceremony: July 8, 2009 - Dr. Joanna Bates - Director, UBC Centre for Health Education Scholarship, and Professor, Department of Family Practice – was named President-elect to the Executive Committee of the Canadian Association of Medical Education (CAME) in May 2009. She will serve in this position for the 2009 – 2010 term. Dr. Bates is very enthusiastic to be working with the Executive Committee of CAME. Each president, she notes, brings a strong vision to the group for the duration of his or her term. She enjoys the “real engagement and strength of the excellent educational leaders” on the committee and is looking forward to developing initiatives that will help build capacity for medical education scholarship in Canadian faculties of medicine. Dr. Bate has spent much of her career focusing on the development and innovation of medical education in Canada. She served with the Medical Council of Canada and chaired the Board of Examiners for the College of Family Practitioners of Canada (CFPC). She notes that Canada is a world leader in medical education – especially in the areas of innovation and scholarship - and that her new role with CAME will partner well with her current role as Director of the Faculty of Medicine’s Centre for Health Education Scholarship. CAME is a grassroots organization that promotes excellence and scholarship in all aspects of medical education. It advocates for medical education and medical educators, by supporting faculty and educational development, and by encouraging research in medical education through networking and scientific activities.
June 18, 2009 - Several members of the Department of Family Practice attended the Faculty of Medicine's Academic Gown Reception to celebrate their promotions to the positions of Professor and Clinical Professor. Present at the ceremony were: Drs. Julian Marsden, Garey Mazowita and Harvey Thommasen also received promotions in 2009. Congratulations to all recipients!
Department of Family Practice members honoured for 25, 40 years of service
Dr. Joanna Bates named President-elect of CAME Executive Committee
Family Practice faculty honoured at 2009 Gowning Ceremony
Dr. Joanna Bates
Dr. H. Sharon Dougan
Dr. Karim Miran-Khan
Dr. Dara Behroozi
Dr. Darlene Hammell
Dr. Dietmar Raudzus
Dr. Marjorie Docherty
Dr. Colleen Kirkham