🩺 2025 Award Winners! // St. B Fax Glitch // CMPA Rebate Notice

February 21, 2025

This week’s Vitals 1,214 words / 4.5 min read

Find out about the doctors honoured with the 2025 Doctors Manitoba Awards, get Early Bird tickets for the Gala and read the latest membership and health systems updates in this week’s news.

📋 Last Chance: Survey Reminder

There’s still time to complete your annual Member Survey! Your feedback is crucial in helping us advocate on behalf of the profession. And when you complete the survey by Friday February 28, you can enter to win some great prizes, including one of two free Doctors Manitoba annual memberships, or two $500 Visa gift cards!

Click here to complete your survey
Survey access code:

TOP STORIES

Doctors Manitoba Unveils 2025 Award Winners!

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We are so excited to reveal our 2025 award winners, an extraordinary group of nine physicians who are compassionate and committed to making a difference for their patients and the province.

🥁 Drum roll…

Distinguished Service: Dr. Jill Keddy-Grant, Manitoba’s reliable go-to authority for pediatric dermatology with over 35 years of service.

Physicians of the Year: Dr. Michel Bruneau and Dr. Selena Papetti, two physicians deeply committed to rural medicine and inspiring the next generation of physicians.

Humanitarian: Dr. Leif Sigurdson, a plastic surgeon who has joined over 30 voluntary surgical missions abroad with various charities, including most recently with Team Broken Earth.

Resident of the Year: Dr. Alexander Sharp, a fourth year resident in general internal medicine, recognized for his clinical ability, patient advocacy and innovative research contributions.

Medals of Excellence:

Dr. Tamara Buchel, an outstanding family physician and medical educator who has overseen record growth in post graduate training and was instrumental in introducing physician-led team-based care.
Dr. Versha Banerji and Dr. Shantanu Baneri, who have demonstrated what it means to be stronger together, balancing their demanding work as clinician-scientists with their commitment to each other, their family, and their philanthropic work.
Dr. Wendy Smith, who has dedicated her career to providing comprehensive medical care to remote and northern communities in Manitoba and Nunavut through her work with Ongomiizwin Health Services.

🏆 Read more about the winners here.

Gala Ticket Sales Open!

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Come join us at the signature annual event for the medical community, the Doctors Manitoba Awards Gala. We will celebrate the extraordinary 2025 award-winning physicians, and hear from Doctors Manitoba’s incoming President Dr. Nichelle Desilets!

🎫 Early bird tickets are now available online.

Proceeds from this year’s Gala will support the cause of our Humanitarian of the Year Dr. Leif Sigurdson: Team Broken Earth, a charity joining together specialized healthcare professionals from around the world for week-long voluntary medical missions offering critical health services to the people who need them the most.

St. Boniface Fax Breakdown Affects Consult Process

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The St. Boniface Hospital Internal Medicine program has become aware of a breakdown in its process for booking of consults received through fax number 204-233-7154. Consults for General Internal Medicine, General Endocrinology, and General GI were affected. This intermittent issue affected some of the consults that were sent between November 12, 2024, and February 13th, 2025.

Read more about what to do.

What the fax?

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The news of the fax glitch and lost referrals at St. Boniface is frustrating, but even more frustrating is how fax machines continue to lead to uncertainty and delays across the health system. Thousands of faxes are sent every day between clinics, hospitals, and labs. A lack of inter-operable electronic systems means faxes and snail mail continue to reign as the primary modes of communication for referrals and requisitions.

It’s 2025.

Read more about how problematic faxes are, and why there’s reasons to be hopeful.

CMPA Rebate Update

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Physicians’ fees for their Canadian Medical Protection Association (CMPA) coverage are once again much lower for 2024 than in previous years.

WHY IT MATTERS: For most physicians, this means your fees will be well below $1,000. Any physician who faces fees over the $1,000 threshold will continue to qualify for our CMPA rebate. This program was designed to help physicians offset some of the costs of the liability insurance required to practice in Manitoba.

T4As Available in Member Portal

If you received Retention Benefits, a Credit-Based Learning Rebate, or Isolation Benefits from Doctors Manitoba in 2024, you will be receiving a T4A in the coming days. The T4A will be made available for download on our secure member portal and you will receive an email early next week with instructions on how to access the tax document. If you have not yet signed up for the member portal, your T4A will be mailed to you next week.

Winnipeg Medical Districts Nominations Open

Members will have received an email about nominations for the new Winnipeg Medical Districts. Earlier this year, we let members know about changes to Doctors Manitoba Medical Districts, following by-law changes approved by Members in 2023. The new Winnipeg Medical Districts will include three specialist and three family physician representatives.

Members have the opportunity to nominate a colleague to represent them on the Doctors Manitoba Board of Directors. Nominations will be accepted until 3:00 pm on Friday, March 21, 2025

If you did not receive the email, please contact us at membership@doctorsmanitoba.ca.

Resident Appreciation Week Winners

Thanks to everyone who participated in Resident Appreciation Week! Congratulations to the winners of the Doctors Manitoba daily prize draws!

Dr. Sandeep Devgan, Dr. Stefon Irvine: $25 gift cards to Tall Grass Prairie Bakery
Dr. Abhilasha Vermani, Dr. Joana Grace Beltrano: $50 gift cards to McNally Robinson
Dr. Azzi Jason, Dr. Jessica Chaiton: $100 gift cards to Best Buy
Dr. Celine Vereecken Smith:$100 gift card to Activate Winnipeg
Dr. Kaylin O'Hara: Thermea Thermal Experience and Restaurant Voucher, plus a Getting Healthy merch prize pack

Student Opportunity this Summer!

Do you know a pre-clerkship medical student looking for a unique summer internship? We’ve created two positions offering an exciting and fun opportunity to learn about public health, health promotion, and public communications by supporting our Getting Healthy initiative. We’re looking for two enthusiastic and motivated pre-clerkship medical students for our full-time summer internship. You will contribute to public health awareness while building skills in health promotion, content creation, and community engagement.

Get the full details and apply before March 17!

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See the latest updates from the health system, including:

Change to Long Term Care Medical Assessments
More Child care spaces for health care facilities
HSC weapon scanner installation
CPSM Career Opportunity
CEO change at CancerCare

Go to Health System Updates.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Here are the most read and important recent stories, in case you missed them:

We're making progress on eliminating sick notes. Read more including our efforts to tackle other third-party requests that slow you down.
Doctor recruitment is picking up, and this could be a record-breaking year for physician growth. Read our analysis and what’s next for recruitment and retention.
We’re taking a multi-pronged approach to assessing the impact of a trade war and potential supports for members. Read more and our response plans here.
Health Canada released a sobering report on doctor shortages. Read more, including our advocacy to date and our continued push for solutions.

EVENTS & CPD

We feature events planned by Doctors Manitoba, as well as other events submitted by the medical community to share and connect with their peers.

EVENT: Black History Month Celebration

DATE: Wednesday, February 26, from 6 to 9 p.m.

OVERVIEW: Black physicians and learners are invited to a dinner at Bisi Kitchen, 720 Corydon Avenue in Winnipeg

DETAILS: Register here by Monday, February 24, 2025

Questions about the event? Email gebrun@myumanitoba.ca

EVENT: DRMB Book Club

DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 2025 from 7 to 8 p.m.

OVERVIEW: We will be reading"Sunshine Nails" by Mai Nguyen. The author will be joining us for our meeting.

DETAILS: Register here.

HOSTED BY: Doctors Manitoba

EVENT: Webinar: Changes in HPV Testing at Colposcopy

DATE: March 26, 2025, 8 to 9 a.m.

OVERVIEW: Join Dr. Sarah Kean, Medical Lead, CervixCheck CancerCare Manitoba, in this interactive presentation on the assessment and treatment of abnormal cytology.

DETAILS: Registration is required.

To view/download the event poster, click here (pdf).

HOSTED BY: CancerCare Manitoba

EVENT: CMA Health Summit, Ottawa and Virtual

DATE: March 27-28, 2025

OVERVIEW: Sessions will cover where political parties stand on the future of healthcare,

Indigenous self-determination, and Navigating the AI revolution in healthcare

DETAILS: Access more program details and register now.