Summer 2021
A partnership of Doctors of BC and Ministry of Health
What's New
The Wrap: SSC meeting summaries – April & June 2021
SSC's 2020/21 Year-in-Review
Spotlight on a specialist – Dr Nazira Chatur
Dr Nazira Chatur is a general gastroenterologist as well as an luminal gastroenterologist who’s leading a project at Vancouver General Hospital that ensures patients have access to the first available and appropriate specialist by pooling and triaging referrals with a central intake.
News and Stories
Enhance collaboration and partnerships: Doctors of BC appoints new specialist representative to Shared Care Committee
Dr Reena Khurana is a specialist representative appointed by the Doctors of BC Board to the Shared Care Committee. Dr Khurana is an Endocrinologist who has practiced at Surrey Memorial Hospital and Jim Pattison Outpatient Clinic & Surgical Center since 2008. She is also the division lead. In addition to private practice, Dr Khurana is the Facility Engagement Chair of the Outreach & Engagement and COVID Committee.
Register Now: Webinar – BC Surgical Rehabilitation Outcomes Session
Specialists are invited to learn how SSC’s Surgical Patient Optimization Collaborative (SPOC) is improving patients’ surgical outcomes on September 23, 2021 at 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. Register here.
Physicians are eligible for and may claim two hours of sessional time for participating in this webinar.
SPOC is a physician-led, multi-disciplinary prehabilitation program designed that supports patients through optimizing their mental and physical health before surgery.
Sponsorship Available: Finding and Creating Joy in Work course
Specialists are eligible to receive sponsorship to participate in the next cohort of the Finding and Creating Joy in Work course offered online by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
The next cohort starts September 14, 2021 and runs for 12 weeks.
Sponsorship for tuition costs is available through the Physician Leadership Program, which is offered by the Specialist Services Committee and Shared Care Committee.
For more information, including how to register for the course, click here.
Save the Date: SSC Symposium 2022
The Specialist Services Committee and Specialists of BC invite specialists to collaborate on how to improve specialty care in a post-pandemic world at a full-day symposium.
A New Day: Emerging Priorities in Specialty Care
Friday, January 21, 2022
The Westin Bayshore Hotel, Vancouver
This event is planned to be in-person and will adapt to ensure alignment with the Provincial Health Office’s orders and guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Passion project saves lives of those in respiratory crisis
When Dr Hussein Kanji decided to develop expertise in the Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine (ECMO) as his passion project, he had no way of knowing that it could be a lifeline during a pandemic throughout BC.
As a result of these efforts, Vancouver General Hospital is the only hospital in Canada to have achieved gold level status with the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization, and, Dr Kanji received an 2020 BC Health Care Award. Read more.
A new care space for reproductive infectious diseases
BC Children’s Hospital and BC Women’s Hospital & Health Center have many available experts and resources to address reproductive infectious diseases, affecting mothers and their infants. However, up until now these services were siloed in their respective hospitals. Dr Chelsea Elwood led the merger of the two units to improve access to coordinated, comprehensive care for mothers and their infants. Read more.
Patients are lost and so are we: doctors team up to tackle chronic pain
Chronic pain is a disease that causes havoc in people’s lives and has a direct relationship to the opioid crisis. In BC, 45% of people that died of illicit drug overdoses in 2018/19 were seen in the preceding year for chronic pain issues. Yet patients and doctors alike often feel helpless to manage chronic pain because there is no coordinated system of care in place for accessing resources, services and knowledgeable pain practitioners.
In the East Fraser Valley, Drs Petrus Retief and Ralph Jones have initiated a region-wide engagement effort to change that. Read more.
Simulations 'undoubtedly saved lives' during the heat dome
When the ‘heat dome’ descended recently onto British Columbia, many emergency departments were flooded with patients suffering from a dangerous condition known as hyperthermia. This rare but potentially life-threatening condition is not frequently seen in the emergency room, yet requires specialized, time-sensitive treatment. Fortunately, Victoria-based Emergency Department (ED) physicians had run a hyperthermia scenario a year prior through its ED Simulation initiative, and were prepared. Read more.
News for community-based specialists
Spoken interpretation services available to community specialists
When working in their community offices, specialists can now access free spoken language interpreting services as part of a one-year pilot project funded by the Specialist Services Committee.
The SSC is providing $50,000 for this pilot project in response to physicians feedback about supporting the delivery of safe and equitable patient care to diverse populations. Previously, this service was available to specialists who chose to pay privately or who work within the boundaries of health authority sites.
Specialists who see patients in their community offices can now access the interpreting services at no cost to themselves. Learn more including how to connect with an interpreter.
Exploring supports for community-based specialists
The SSC has allocated $500,000 to explore practice support opportunities in its continued support to community-based specialists. Efforts will focus on engagement, business/practice workflows, quality improvement, leadership, and will support partners and existing programs. Contact SSC to learn more.
As well, to better understand the unique needs of community-based specialists without hospital privileges, SSC heard from about 30 community-based specialists representing 12 specialties from across the province. As part of five focus groups, these community-based specialists reflected on potential gaps and opportunities within SSC’s mandate and scope of work and identified concrete and actionable priorities for SSC. Read more in the focus group report.
News from our Partners
New podcast episode: Adverse childhood experiences
Family doctor Dr Linda Uyeda discusses the physiological and psychological impact of trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on minds and bodies in the latest episode of DocTalks, the Doctors of BC podcast. She shares how understanding the science can shift perceptions and make a difference in the way doctors practice and provide support to patients.
CareConnect provides easy access to patient information
CareConnect is a province-wide electronic health record (EHR) offering health care providers one-stop to access key patient information.
Offered and supported by the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), CareConnect (Provincial eHealth Viewer) provides secure, view-only access to information including visits, labs, imaging reports, immunizations, and medications. It can also identify other clinicians involved in a patient’s care and provide information to facilitate patient triage and develop care plans.
Top five things to know about CareConnect:
- No cost to physicians or clinics.
- Eliminates need to track down reports or order duplicate tests and procedures.
- Accessible through a regular internet connection or the Private Physician Network
- Rapid Access feature, available from some EMRs, enables providers to view a patient’s information in CareConnect within 20 seconds.
- Doctors can enrol via the CareConnect Worksite Intake Form. The enrolment process is supported by PHSA.
Learn more about CareConnect or contact the CareConnect team.
News from other Joint Collaborative Committees
GPSC – GP Update
Provincial Divisions newsletter - Divisions Dispatch
Shared Care – The Link
JSC – RCCbc's BC Rural Update
About Us
SSC is one of four joint collaborative committees that represent a partnership of Doctors of BC and the Ministry of Health. Formed in 2006 under the Physician Master Agreement to help the Doctors of BC, BC government and health authorities collaborate on the delivery of specialist services and support improvement of the specialist care system in BC.
Physician engagement is the cornerstone of SSC’s work. Sharing your knowledge is important - if you have stories to tell, information to share or feedback to give, please send us an email: sscbc@doctorsofbc.ca