Hi everyone!

I hope this newsletter finds many of you on vacation, just returning from vacation or looking forward to vacation.

It has been a tremendous year and it is so important for all of us to find some time away from work to recharge our batteries.

We have much to celebrate in this newsletter. We just graduated our 2021 residents and fellows. This year’s graduation class includes two residents completing their GIM residency training in our first distributed program based in Yarmouth, NS. Congratulations go out to all of our residents. We are also welcoming our new residents. We hope you all will find Dalhousie and the Clinical Department of Medicine a welcoming place with all you need to thrive in your training.

Many of our department members were recognized by the faculty and Doctors Nova Scotia this last month; and on June 29^th we had our second virtual spring party with our own Departmental awards and recognitions. Congratulations go out to all of our award recipients (see below for names and details). These awards and recognitions are further examples of the excellent work our Department Members and Residents do on a daily basis.

Dr. Robert Strang joined us for our awards ceremony and thanked the department for all of our past and ongoing efforts to support patients through the COVID pandemic. He praised the great clinical and academic leadership we have shown as a department through this challenging time.

As physicians, we are all leaders, whether formally or informally. Our effectiveness as leaders is critical for the success of our patient care. We congratulate Dr. Stephanie Snow (Division of Medical Oncology) for her new national leadership role as the President of Lung Cancer Canada. A great way to engage and lead is by getting involved in a DoM Committee. We have several committees that are really critical to the functioning of our Department and I want to thank all of those who stepped up this year to fill vacancies on our committees and those who continue to serve.

As we continue our work to advance patient care and improve access to care, we heard exciting news from the Department of Health and Wellness with the announcement of funding for the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T-cell therapy (CAR-T program) for cancer care. A big shout out to our Division of Hematology who played a key role with the Cancer Care team who brought this proposal together to provide better care for the people of Nova Scotia and the Maritimes. This is a great example of the great things that can happen when people, programs, divisions and departments collaborate. We will be featuring a more in-depth story about the program in an upcoming newsletter.

Hope you enjoy the content of this newsletter and remember we welcome ideas and stories for our future editions. 

Take Care and Stay Well,

Christine

Christine Short,

MD, FRCP(C), FACP