What’s New

Our ability to hear, to speak, to smell or to swallow are senses that many can take for granted. But imagine losing the ability to hear a child’s laughter or to smell your favourite foods. While perhaps not life threatening, such things can significantly affect our ability to enjoy even life’s simplest pleasures.
 

Probably no other speciality relies more on its multidisciplinary teams than Infectious Diseases (ID), from health care workers to housekeepers.  “We need cohesive care teams to address complex global infectious disease challenges,” says Dr Dwight Ferris, President of the BC Infectious Diseases Society, “not act simply as a local resource but as a global community.” According to Dr Ferris, the biggest challenge facing the speciality today is globalization.  “Worldwide pandemics develop quickly, and what happens on the other side of the world can easily affect us here in BC.”

With SSC’s goal for perioperative improvements, the implementation of a provincial Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Collaborative is underway.  The Collaborative aims to build ERAS capacity throughout BC’s surgical programs with a focus on elective colorectal surgery.
ERAS protocols are multi-modal perioperative care pathways designed to achieve early recovery after surgical procedures by maintaining pre-operative organ function and reducing the profound stress response following surgery.

Published in the Vancouver Sun October 23, 2014

Talking to your doctor isn’t always easy. Difficult or personal topics can be challenging to discuss, yet are crucial to identify health and lifestyle concerns that might need immediate attention.

This is especially true for youth and adolescents, who are often uncomfortable sharing personal details with adults.

Dr. Sandy Whitehouse, former medical director of the emergency department at B.C. Children’s Hospital and a clinical associate professor at the University of B.C., has experienced and researched the communication challenges between youth and health care providers.

Dr Jack Taunton was inducted this year into the BC Sports Hall of Fame. In the 1970’s, Sports Medicine was a rare specialty and one of its leading lights was Dr Jack Taunton.  In 1977, Dr Taunton and fellow practitioner, Dr Doug Clement established Vancouver’s first sports medicine clinic, which eventually became the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre.

Every year almost 4000 older adults find themselves in emergency rooms with a fractured hip. These hip fractures are increasing by about 2% every year because of a large cohort of aging baby boomers. The Hip Fracture Redesign Project, one of the Quality and Innovation Initiatives sponsored by SSC, is implementing processes to provide optimal hip fracture care.

In April, SSC dedicated $15 million to fund specialist-led ideas in quality and innovation. The call for ideas went out through an Expression of Interest (EOI). And BC specialists didn’t disappoint. SSC received over 300 ideas – a total value of $177 million. The EOI submissions came from specialists within all health regions.