Campus Update: The Niagara Regional Campus remains closed at Brock University to all students and residents. The NRC staff and leadership team are working virtually and are accessible to answer all questions and concerns via email. For a full list of contacts, please click here.

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Ron Chan on February 21, 2021, at the age of 44. Ron was an incredibly gifted yet humble medical professional. He completed his medical degree at the University of Toronto in 2003. He subsequently trained in Internal Medicine at McMaster University and Gastroenterology at Queen's University. Ron was in active practice at the St. Catharines Site of Niagara Health where he was well respected by his colleagues for his hard work and devotion to his patients.

To honour Ron's passion for academics and medicine, a scholarship has been established. The Dr. Ron Chan Memorial Award will be awarded annually to a student at the Niagara Regional Campus of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, who shows an interest in pursuing a career in psychiatry or mental health.

There have been over 100 donations thus far. A special thank you to everyone who has donated or has plans to donate to the Memorial Fund including Dr. Terry Chan and the Niagara Health Medical Staff Association. We look forward to honoring Dr. Chan's memory for years to come with this award.

As a collective, we will continue to address the barriers and stigma surrounding mental health among physicians. We have included a few important resources below for physicians, learners and staff. We encourage anyone who is struggling or has struggled in the past to reach out for assistance. Being intelligent, compassionate, high functioning and productive does not mean we are not also struggling, challenged or needing support in the work we do.

For more information on the Dr. Ron Chan Memorial Award or to make a donation, please click here

CMA Wellness Support Line: 1-800-851-6606

The CMA Wellness Support Line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to support physicians, residents, medical students and their immediate family. The Wellness Support Line provides immediate, urgent crisis support as well as help with everyday wellness issues. They can also connect you with longer term wellness support.

OMA-MD Chat Sessions - free facilitated sessions to support each other during COVID-19

Feel free to drop in virtually for noon sessions offered for one-hour daily Monday-Friday. All are welcome and you can stay for as long as you want to.

For information on the meeting and to access the link, click here.

The CMA Physician Wellness Hub was created to drive change in the culture of medicine and promote health and wellness in the medical profession for the benefit of practitioners, the health care system and all Canadians. To learn more about the resources available in the Physician Wellness Hub, click here.

At TFSL they want to help ensure that all Physician Families are connected and supported. TFSL offers FREE confidential virtual Connect Calls every Thursday from 9:00-10:00 PM EST and bi-weekly Wednesdays 8:00-9:00 PM PST. For more information, click here.

Homewood Health offers a complete suite of services including organizational wellness, employee and family assistance programs, assessments, outpatient and inpatient treatment, recovery management, return to work and family support services customized to meet the needs of individuals and organizations. For more information, click here.

Homeweb is part of your EFAP. You can access Homeweb on your phone, tablet or desktop. Homeweb offers you the ability to create an individual profile, receive personalized content recommendations and access lots of helpful resources. Click here to create your profile.

Wellness Together Canada was funded by the Government of Canada in response to the unprecedented rise in mental distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wellness Together Canada allows you to choose from a variety of resources to motivate and support your wellness journey. Click here to take the next steps in your journey.

We all know that NRC is Awesome! We also have noticed, particularly in the last year, how extraordinarily our staff, faculty and learners have responded in difficult circumstances and when we have made extra requests. We are going to celebrate this kind of awesome in a new way!

We've put together the following form to invite you to share your positive experiences where you have had an experience with an NRC learner, staff member, or a faculty member who has gone above and beyond to help you out, to support you, or to solve a problem with you. All of your stories will be read and celebrated through a hand-written message of thanks to your nominee, a token gift or recognition in our newsletter. We know that these past months have been and continue to be, challenging for everyone. It is important, now more than ever, to take time to celebrate the people that make ourselves a little brighter, who are positive role models, and who contribute to our wellness in a meaningful way. Through this recent adversity, one important aspect of NRC culture has shone through; you are all NRC Awesome!

Please use this form to nominate someone who is NRC Awesome: http://bit.ly/NRCAwesome2021

The Mac-CARE Program would like to announce Dr. Jamie Harshman (C2014) as the Simulation Lead for the Halton Clinical Education Campus (CEC) effective February 15, 2021. Dr. Harshman is a Family Medicine Emergency Medicine Physician who practices at Milton District Hospital. She completed her medical school at the Niagara Regional Campus of McMaster University, her residency at the University of Toronto and her Masters in Higher Education with a focus on Health Professional Education. Dr. Harshman is an Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) who is very involved with teaching. She has been the Milton District Hospital Emergency Department Simulation Lead since July 2019.

Recently, Dr. Harshman was the lead physician in the mock hospital for the multidisciplinary disaster simulations at Durham College/Ontario Tech University. We are very excited to have Dr. Harshman take on this new role.

By Devon Ainslie | Photo Credits: Niagara Health

To continue reading, click here.

Dr. Ronald Bayne has had a long career as a long-term care physician and is now reaching the end of his life. Dr. Bayne was one of Canada's first Geriatricians and is highly respected for his work on the health of older adults provincially and nationally. Dr. Bayne passed away on February 26 with the help of a medically assisted death at the age of 98.

In his video, Dr. Bayne reflects on death and dying in hopes that this will bring comfort and ease to seniors who may be nearing the end of their lives, their family members. friends and caregivers.

Recently, NRC in partnership with Niagara Health Medical Affairs received approval for research professional development and teaching credits from the Canadian Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Canadian College of Family Medicine. Faculty members who participate or present at the Quality Improvement Journal Clubs, Research-in-progress Rounds, and Evidence-based Medicine Primer Rounds will receive a certificate of participation.

Furthermore, MacFACTS credits/weighted hours are submitted not only for research teaching and presentations but also for student supervision while working on quality improvement and/or applied health science research project(s).

For more information, please contact Seddiq Weera.

NRC Research documents and updates projects that are led by NRC faculty members and community partners. Information is updated when a new project comes up or students join or drop existing projects, Research productivity (publications, presentations, reports) are documented and periodically updated. This information has been updated and verified through informal follow-ups with students and faculty.

Recently a survey was sent to 21 research supervisors. As soon as results from the survey are available, we will make these results accessible to all faculty, students and pertinent community partners. For questions or suggestions, please contact Seddiq Weera.

We would like to extend our gratitude to three NRC residents who are currently working with NRC students on research and QI projects:

Intervention studies with vulnerable groups in the emergency department (ED) suffer from lower quality and an absence of administrative health data. We used administrative health data to identify and describe people experiencing homelessness who access EDs, characterize patterns of ED use relative to the general population and apply findings to inform the design of a peer support program. We included 1,486,699 ED visits from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2018 through a serial cross-sectional study using administrative health data. To continue reading the article, click here.

Jane Su (C2021 MD Candidate), Laurence Bernard, Sophia Colantonio, Alexander Norgaard, Hal W. Hirte, Lua Eiriksson

Docetaxel is an anti-neoplastic agent commonly used to treat major solid tumors. Common toxicities of docetaxel include neutropenia, alopecia, nausea and vomiting. While docetaxel is typically considered an irritant, we present the case report of a 54-year-old female with high-grade undifferentiated uterine sarcoma who experienced a standard infusion reason during a docetaxel infusion, followed by an atypical, delayed vesicant-type reaction, without a clear extravasation history. To read more about the case, click here.

A complete sexual history is important in the investigation of several emergency department presentations. This is often challenging for students, as it can feel intimidating and uncomfortable to breach this topic with patients. Also, the setting of the ED is not inherently conducive to conversations like these, given the lack of established patient-staff rapport and perceived lack of privacy and time. As such, an organized approach with attention to the environment and patient's comfort can help students feel more confident and patients more at ease. Click here to read the full post and view the infographic.

Dr. Jennifer Tsang (Critical Care) was recently featured in the St. Catharines Standard regarding her research looking at the emotional health of front-line health-care workers across Canada who have been treating patients in intensive care units. "Over 60 per cent of our ICU health-care providers in Canada have some type of psychological or psycho-social distress..." To read the full article, click here.

Dr. Karl Stobbe (Family Medicine) and the REACH Niagara team are underway with vaccination clinics for the homeless in Niagara. REACH Niagara (Regional Essential Access to Connected Healthcare) in partnership with Niagara Region Public Health, Niagara North Family Health Team and the Region's homelessness services department. To continue reading the full story, click here.

Dr. Nathasha Dias (C2019) recently wrote an article for HealthyDebate about the multifaceted obstacles women are facing acquiring leadership positions in medicine. "We need to be more intentional with mentorship, with transparency and with pipeline development and understand the specific barriers that women face.." To continue reading, click here.

The Brock University, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences recently wrote an article about the new and exciting initiatives happening in the faculty. Recently established was the Brock-McMaster Collaborative Medical School Mentorship Program, through which aspiring medical students receive mentorship from those enrolled at the Niagara Regional Campus. To learn more about this and other initiatives, click here

Dr. Larry Chambers (HEI) recently published an article in the NOTL Local about the stark reality we are seeing play out in care home facilities across the board. "We should value equipping older people with the opportunity to remain in their homes, rather than relegating them to being passive recipients of 'care." To continue reading, click here.

Niagara Health recently published an article about their tiniest patients now receiving enhanced care thanks to new technology in their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). When NICU members at the St. Catharines Site need to consult specialists on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at McMaster Children's Hospital (MCH) in Hamilton, now they can through video. Click here to continue reading.

Paul O'Byrne has been reappointed to a second five-year term as vice-president and dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences. Read more about his reappointment here.

Niagara Region Public Health is busy preparing for the launch of COVID-19 mass immunization clinics in the coming weeks. The Region announced last week Brock University would host one of 11 clinics across Niagara once the vaccine supply is available. To read the full article, click here.

Dr. Larry Chambers (HEI) and Madeleine Smith (C2023) wrote an opinion piece via HealthyDebate about the urgency to create a plan for brain health and general well-being. To read the full article, click here.

Dr. William Brown (Neurology) wrote an opinion piece for NiagaraNow regarding a timeline for tools that studied the human brain. To read the full article, click here.

McMaster Continuing Education has developed and launched a free, self-paced course to teach families and caregivers ways to prevent and control infections. This course is recognized by health-care professionals and associations across Canada, will teach participants best-practice techniques in infection control to use at home and in health-care settings such as hospitals and long-term care homes. For more information, click here

Indigenous scholar and education advocate, Tracy Bear, has been appointed director of the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute (MIRI). Bear, a Nehiyawiskwew (Cree woman) and member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan, will hold joint academic appointments in the Faculties of Social Sciences and Health Sciences. To read more about Tracy Bear and her new appointment, click here.

A partnership between McMaster University and the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) is improving eye care for Indigenous children in northern Ontario. The Indigenous Children Eye Examination (ICEE) project aims to provide vision screening and eye examinations for all children and youth aged six months to 18 years served by WAHA. and develop a self-sustaining model of ensuring ongoing eye care for the pediatric population there. Learn more about this partnership here.