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Chair's Message
As we finally enter spring, the department is busy with many activities, including interviewing applicants for a second CaRMS iteration, preparing for the new academic year and kicking off the planning for the three-year program. There are also multiple events being organized and I hope that you will be able to join us as these are great opportunities to come together, to learn and to share in our vision for our work.
We are recruiting participants to join our team for the 2023 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival from June 22nd to June 25th. There will be 4-5 practices leading up to the event. Please Register here!
Registration is open for the June 2nd Find your Path in the DFM: New Faculty Orientation and Faculty Development Day. It includes the following sessions: ETS1 Feedback Fundamentals, Change Management, Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS), and a Mentorship lunch. Register here. Contact Rebecca Celestin if you have any questions: rcelestin@uottawa.ca
The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) is currently seeking a Head of Department, Family Practice. Please note that the deadline to apply has been extended to April 26th. Please view the job description for more details. We are also actively recruiting to fill positions at Bruyère and Montfort, which are tremendous opportunities to work in dynamic health teams. Please share these job postings with your networks. These jobs will be posted until the positions are filled.
In support of an important initiative from the Wellness Office, I encourage you to take a minute to read about how you can help to revitalize the Code 99 program. Information about this program is provided in this newsletter.
We hope you will enjoy the following updates from our faculty and residents, who have been engaging in impactful work with our global health partners in advancing the discipline of family medicine around the world.
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Dr. David Ponka, a Full Professor with our department, a family physician at the Bruyère teaching site, and the Director of the Besrour Centre at the College of Family Physicians of Canada, provided an update on some of the recent activities since the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in September 2022. The Besrour Centre, a hub for international collaboration to advance family medicine globally, is central to facilitating and furthering community building, research initiatives and education partnerships, with both a local and broader reach. Dr. Ponka’s involvement at the Besrour Centre helps to bring the many voices together that contribute to advancing primary care through community engagement, research and medical training. He emphasizes how collaborations are fundamental both to, and within, the discipline of family medicine:
“We don’t have all the solutions. It’s about respect and reciprocity. It’s about partnerships in view of finding solutions together.” – Dr. Ponka.
Capacity Building
Dr. Ponka refers to the discipline of family medicine as highly variable around the world and thus, difficult to study. But this variability could be a sign of adaptability and a sign of strength. Innovations in low-middle income countries can demonstrate a lot of integrative thinking and efficiency – the Covid-19 pandemic raised many challenges globally, but the response to how different countries met those challenges is significant. For example, research findings from FM Vax, a study led by the Besrour Centre, show that middle-income countries tend to integrate primary care much better than higher-income countries because their medical institutions work hand-in-hand with their public health departments. Populations at risk were better captured in this structure. Clinics in certain partner countries are housed under public health structures with a specific geographic catchment, which increases population outreach, something Dr. Ponka says Canada can learn from:
“We have to do a better job of collaborating with public health. Primary care + Public health = A good Primary health care system.” – Dr. Ponka
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In 2020, a Besrour-CFPC partnership with the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine (FAFM) established the Global Co-RIG program to support family medicine globally, with the aim to build capacity and leverage interdisciplinary teams and networks to improve patient care through “community-oriented” primary care, also referred to as the “Patient Medical Neighbourhood” model. The Besrour Center shared the funds they were awarded with their international collaborators, with funding going to Indonesia and South Africa in the first phase. According to Dr. Ponka, the lesson learned through this experience was the importance of community-oriented primary care outreach during the pandemic to ensure that people living with chronic diseases still had access to care, which was a challenge faced in Canada.
Global CORIG phase 2 will look more specifically at mental health integration innovations, and support these in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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L: Dr. Clayton Dyck, Family Physician in Vancouver, and Education lead of the Besrour Centre for Global Family Medicine; Centre: Dr. Rosaria Indah, family physician faculty at Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia; R: Dr. David Ponka, Director of the Besrour Centre. | |
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Global Health Resources
Dr. Ponka provided several resources to learn more about global health initiatives and their impact:
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PGY3 Resident Shares Highlights from the Global Health Fellowship | |
Dr. Lissa Bair sitting by Kaieteur Falls in Guyana | |
Dr. Lissa Bair
This year, as part of my Global Health fellowship, I spent a month in Guyana. The trip was organized through a pre-established exchange program between uOttawa and the Guyanese Family Medicine residency program. Unfortunately, the program was put on hold, as with many similar initiatives, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I believe I was the first uOttawa resident to visit since 2019.
My experience in Guyana was eye-opening and extremely valuable for my learning. I had the opportunity to work with every family medicine resident in the various health centers around the capital of Georgetown. Each resident taught me something new about themselves, their patients, the struggles and frustrations they face (sometimes similar to mine) in their healthcare system, and their outlook on family medicine as a specialty in a quickly developing country. I was also able to do some teaching, both in clinic and at their academic days. The residents took me around the city on weekends, and on my last weekend, I visited the world-famous Kaieteur Falls.
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I am very grateful to have had this experience, especially as a woman of Afro-Caribbean descent. Guyana is a beautiful country with beautiful people and a rich history. My four weeks there felt very short, and I am already looking forward to my next visit. I encourage uOttawa residents to do this elective if they have the chance. I also sincerely hope that Guyana residents will be able to visit Ottawa soon so that I can show them around my city as they did for me!
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International Elective Program - Benin | |
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Dr. Marie Hélène Chomienne is an Associate Professor with our Department, a Research Chair in International Francophonie with a focus on the health of immigrants and refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa, a founding member of the Institut du Savoir Montfort and a clinician at l’Hôpital Montfort. She is an accomplished interdisciplinary researcher with interests in primary mental health care, determinants of health, global health, and the health status of Francophone minority populations.
Dr. Chomienne recently travelled to Benin after a nearly 3-year absence, along with some preceptors and residents, for a 4-week Global Health elective (March 11 to April 8, 2023). For this elective, participants choose their areas of interest and are supervised in a clinical setting by Beninese and Canadian physicians. This year, the team included three family medicine residents in their third, second and first year of residency and five preceptors.
Preceptors and residents were welcomed with open arms by all departments: Obstetrics (Pr Angéline Tonato), Pediatrics (Pr Gratien Sagbo), Hematology (Pr Alban Zohoun), Psychiatry (Pr Elvyre Klikpo and Grégoire) and Cardiology (Pr Léopold Codjo) where Dr. Cuellar-Castro (resident) gave a presentation on atrial fibrillation.
This rewarding experience gave residents a very different perspective on diagnostic required when the economy limits access to cutting-edge medical technologies and facilities. Residents were challenged to base their diagnostics and recommend treatments on patients' history and physical symptoms. This experience was emotional at times but allowed them to use their creativity to make the most of limited resources.
The same learning experiences applied to the preceptors, who also had daily group discussions about various challenges faced in their respective departments.
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Faculty of Health Sciences. L-R: Dr. N Chagnon, Dr.E Samuel, Dr. L Bair and Dr. D Cuellar-Castro; Far right, R-L: Dr. Chomienne and Dr. Tempier. | |
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Our next elective, open to all Faculty of Medicine residents and fourth-year students, will be in March 2024. Please note that Benin is a French-speaking country. For more information, please contact Mh.chomienne@uottawa.ca.
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Code 99 is a program for physicians by physicians. We currently have about 15 physicians, all family doctors who between them, have been taking an average of 5-7 new physicians, residents and occasionally medical students per month. Every physician we help, in turn helps the multitude of patients whose good care depend on their health. If you wish to partner with the Faculty of Medicine to support our healthcare system from the inside, please contact the Wellness office wellness@uottawa.ca or Dr. Lau directly at AssistantDeanWellness@uottawa.ca.
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Dr. Jonathan Fitzsimon, Assistant Professor, submitted a paper, Investigating Patient Experience, Satisfaction and Trust in an Integrated Virtual Care (IVC) Model: A Cross-Sectional Survey, which was published by the Annals of Family Medicine in March 2023. It reviews the patient experience of “Integrated Virtual Care” (IVC), which can improve access to primary care for underserved communities. Congratulations to fourth-year medical student, Samantha Buchanan, lead author, along with co-authors who contributed to the work. Please follow this link to read the complete research article.
A new research study, Self-reported sleep disturbances among people who have had a stroke: a cross-sectional analysis, was published in March in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). Dr. Alison Pittman, a Lecturer with our Department, who studies sleep disturbances, was involved with this study, which was also recently featured by a research writer for uOttawa.
DFM Award Winner: Congratulations to Chandra Landry, Bruyère Coordinator, who was awarded the Best Poster at the 2023 Meredith Marks Day for Research and Innovation in Medical Education.
The Bruyère Academic Family Health Team’s chronic Pain Management program was showcased on the CBC News on March 29th. Please access the link for the interview with Dr. Hillel Finestone, who is the Project Lead, Isabelle Leclerc, RN, and the featured patient, discussing the program and effective pain management.
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Family Medicine Grand Rounds (FMGR)
Join us live for upcoming virtual FMGR on Zoom from 8:00-9:00 a.m. April 27th, 2023.
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A Hybrid Approach: Combining in-person and virtual care options to increase access to primary care.
Jonathan Fitzsimon, MD, Assistant Professor, Clinician Investigator - Institut du Savoir Montfort | Renfrew County Virtual Triage and Assessment Centre
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Finding capacity to meet the needs of our learners: “Home-made” Opportunities.
Madeleine Montpetit, MSC, MD, CCFP, FCFP, Associate Professor
Riverside Family Health Team
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Perinatal Mental Health for Prescribers
On Friday May 5th, the University of Ottawa’s Office of Continuing Professional Development is hosting a virtual course on Perinatal Mental Health for Prescribers. Register here!
2023 Update in Dermatology
On Thursday May 11th, the University of Ottawa’s Office of Continuing Professional Development is hosting an Update in Dermatology in-person course for primary care providers. Register here!
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