2014 Primary Care Research Day

Last week, I had the good fortune to be able to attend Primary Care Research Day which was presented by the Centre for Studies in Primary Care and the Department of Family Medicine at Queen's University at the Holiday Inn Kingston Waterfront on February 27, 2014.

This is the first year that we have had residents from QBOL presenting their research projects at Research Day.  As in previous years, I was extremely impressed by the various projects that all of the residents are able to produce during their time at Queen's - there is always a few new things I take away from the projects.  But it really added something for me seeing QBOL residents up with their posters and presentations.  I think I was having something similar to a "proud parent" moment all day...

Speaking of proud parent feelings, Dr. Trisha Rys, was prepared to present her poster on: Aboriginal advocacy but instead had to attend to her own, more pressing parenting issue.  Congratulations on your new addition!

Dr. Chemanthi Kalen presented a poster (and web module) entitled: Approach to acne scar management for the family physician.

Dr. Corey Boimer presented: Digital nerve block techniques - a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Dr. Kate Newton presented: Factors influencing choice of residency site: does curriculum organization matter?

Dr. Kevin Lam presented: Exploring the complexity conundrum for Ontario family physicians in care of the elderly: a cross sectional study.

Dr. Stephanie Marshall presented her poster: Management of infertility in primary care: current practice trends in Durham region.

I found all of their projects very informative (but I may be biased).  It is great to see some family practice research starting locally.  I think this will be the catalyst for even more scholarly activity in family medicine here in Durham Region.

Then, to top the day off, two of our residents won Research Day awards!  Dr. Kalen for best poster and Dr. Boimer for best review.  Again, what a phenomenal inaugural research day showing by QBOL.  We are blessed to have such a fantastic group of residents here!

Finally, I want to close by thanking Dr. Michael Ward who is our QBOL Research lead.  The quality of his guidance and his infectious enthusiasm for research certainly shone through in all of the projects that came from our site.  Congratulations, Mike!

CaRMS Results 2014

Well, it was a banner day for QBOL and the general Queen's DFM in terms of our CaRMS results this year.  All of our Family Medicine sites / programs matched fully in the first round!

For QBOL, I know this is a reflection of the amount and quality of work that our preceptors and residents put in, not just on the CaRMS interview days, but every day as we all work to make our site the best it can be.  So thanks to everyone who has helped us to come so far over the past two years, especially everyone on our Site Committee.

I look forward to getting in touch with our incoming class and getting to know you all better and figuring out how we can best help you on your paths to independent practice. 

What better way than to celebrate with QBOL cake?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the QBOL site!

Holidays were quite unique this year in southern Ontario due to the ice storm and subsequent "polar vortex".  I hope everybody reading this from the affected area has come through relatively unscathed.

Things have been progressing steadily here; we are very excited to have our first wave of residents readying for (exams and) graduation.

Here is a little blurb about one of our PGY-1 residents, Dr. Kevin Graham, who was presented with the Takeda Family Medicine Scholarship recently at the Ontario College of Family Physicians’ 51st Annual Scientific Assembly.  (I love the pun in the headline.)  Congratulations, Kevin!

As for the blog, I'd actually be interested in hearing ideas about directions we could go with the blog.  Initially, it was meant to be a way to show what we were planning and our start up years.  But we are now nearing our second year up and running; I don't know that posting about scavenger hunts, Nightmares FM courses, and Camp Oconto / Temagami weekends will be enough to carry things on an ongoing basis.

Please feel free to comment below with any suggestions.

QBOL Grand Opening / 1 Year in Partnership with Lakeridge Health

As we prepare to welcome the 8 new PGY-1 residents to QBOL in July and have our original 8 transition into the second year of residency, the Department of Family Medicine, Queen's University and Lakeridge Health celebrated their 1st year in partnership on May 29, 2013 in the LHEARN Centre at Lakeridge Health Oshawa. 

The partnership has been a huge success with bringing family doctors to Oshawa and Bowmanville to train and get hand-on experience as well as exposure to state-of-the-art simulation equipment in the LHEARN Centre.

Remarks: Dr. Glenn Brown - Head, Department of Family Medicine, Queen's University

Remarks: Dr. Richard Reznick - Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen's University

Remarks: Dr. Wei-Hsi Pang - Site Director, Queen's Bowmanville Oshawa Lakeridge

Remarks: Dr. Kate Newton - Former Chief Resident, QBOL

Remarks: Recognition of Dr. Gene Dagnone, Queen's University

 

(L-R) (Site Director): Dr. Wei-Hsi Pang, (Residents):Dr. Kate Newton, Dr. Vicki Mount, Dr. Chemanthi Kalen, Dr. Corey Boimer, Dr. Kevin Lam (Absent: Dr. Trish Rys, Dr. Joel Pariag, Dr. Stephanie Marshall)

NNT

Hi.  Spring is finally in the air so that I guess that means we're coming out of hibernation on the blog.  Remind me to stop taking heed of the groundhog forecasts next year.

It is hard to believe that the end of our inaugural year is approaching - it has been quite a blur. 

At QBOL, under the tutelage of Dr. Ward, we have started our monthly Journal Club so the concept of NNT (Number Needed to Treat) has been coming up.  It's fascinating to see where we have good evidence for tests and interventions and very telling when we don't.

During the discussion surrounding one of the papers at Journal Club, the idea of "Number Needed to Teach" came up (because Journal Club is always serious...).  But wouldn't it be interesting to see how many residents had to be taught / unit time to effect a desired learned outcome and then to see how different teaching interventions impacted this type of NNT?

But seriously, this informal use of NNT is also a reminder to me to welcome our incoming cohort of PGY-1 residents to QBOL.  We were ecstatic to find we had matched fully in the first round this year and are looking forward to getting to know our next wave of residents while we expand and refine our learning experiences at our site.

As a parting shot, I'll leave you with the link to a website called TheNNT which Dr. Ward shared with our resident group.  On this site, you can learn about some of the NNT's for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.  Or, if you are ready to be put in your place, on the site, you can also be quizzed about some of the concepts and specifics around NNT (usual definition).

We would be delighted to discuss teaching tools, online resources, and such so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to comment below or contact us!

Amazing CaRMS Results for 2013

Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to send out a huge congrats to all the soon to be new PGY1s who matched to our site in the first round. We're thrilled that we are fully matched in the first round with 8 excellent candidates and cannot wait to meet everyone! We are definitely brainstorming fun social events for the summer :).
As for the PGY1s, we have all been keeping pretty busy - many of us took part in the CaRMS interview process which was an enlightening and enjoyable experience. Also, we all recently travelled to Kingston for the site wide research day. It was great to be able to see all the interesting projects out there and I think it really inspired all of us for our projects as well.  I find these little trips are also like a mini vacation (unless there's a huge snowstorm lol) and its nice to spend so much time with our colleagues, we usually get the chance to hang out and have dinner as a group which is great.

We recently started our emergency medicine shifts as well as some surgery clinics which have both been highly beneficial.  I know everyone says this but I honestly can't believe how fast time is going - it's been a great year so far!

Congrats again to all the new residents!
-Stephanie

Images from CaRMS 2013 slideshow. Part 3.

And last, but not least, here are some pictures of our simulation facilities in use at the LHEARN Centre this past summer.

The briefing room.

A Nightmares FM scene.

NRP.

To all of this year's applicants, I hope everybody has safe travels over the CaRMS period and best of luck in finding the right matches for yourselves!