Hi everyone!

I hope this note finds all of you well and enjoying the summer weather. Some of you may actually be traveling.

While we continue to advocate for vaccination and ongoing practices that keep us safe and hopefully keep us out of a fourth wave, one of the positive things I want to reflect on is how COVID has brought us together as individuals, as divisions, as a Department and with other Departments and stakeholders. It has allowed us to break down many silos and support our Zone and our province. Our great strength shines through when we come together to solve problems. As we move toward our new normal and away from the pressures of COVID let’s not forget this. As we move through our strategic planning let us harness the collective to make our goals and initiatives a reality.

One of these goals is Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The worldwide pandemic has brought systemic issues that create inequality to the forefront. The inaugural Emancipation Day in Canada was August 1^st, the Halifax Pride Festival is August 12-22 and the Canadian Government has recently announced a new federal holiday for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30^th. Our Department, with the leadership of our EDI Committee, is committed to play our part. The Annual Royal College Lecture (see link below) addresses health equity in 2021 and our newsletter features a few articles from Dalhousie and the CBC that highlight some of the amazing initiatives happening to address EDI. For our new national holiday in September, let’s not just plan our patient care schedules, but also use this time reflect on what we can do to help create a more inclusive culture and health system for our members, our patients and our communities. The Department will look at opportunities to help us all reflect on our past as a way to inform our actions of the future.

We continue to have much to celebrate in the Department and several recognitions are below. Please let us know what you and your teams are celebrating so we can pass those stories on in our newsletter.

Keep well,

Christine

Christine Short, MD, FRCP(C), FACP

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Amanda Vinson, recipient of a Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program (CDTRP) Kidney Foundation of Canada (KFOC) Research Innovation Grant for her project focused on “Identifying Sex-Based Disparities in Referral for Transplant, Activation on the Waitlist and Kidney Transplantation”.

This award will allow her to embark on a really interesting and critically important area of research that is the first step in creating fairness in access to transplantation. Amazing job and well-deserved Amanda!

~ Dr. Karthik Tennankore, Division of Nephrology

Dr. Ratika Parkash was selected as a 2021 Dalhousie University Research Professor!

The tenure of this recognition is five years (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2026).

Congratulations Dr. Parkash!

Dr. Leah Cahill leads the nourish research team, a medical research group that examines how risk factors influence cardio-metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Under her leadership, this research team is identifying optimal lifestyle practices as well as the biological pathways that are key for prevention and treatment of these diseases. Dr. Cahill is already being recognized as an expert in her field, receiving several awards including the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine Research Excellence Award (2019), and Faculty of Medicine Grand Rounds Award of Merit.