IMP Students Celebrate Match Day Milestone

Today, the IMP Class of 2019 celebrated the first-round results of the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS). CaRMS pairs medical students with postgraduate training programs across Canada.

To mark this milestone, the IMP students gathered at Royal Jubilee Hospital to enjoy a catered lunch, take photos, and connect with their peers.

We spoke with six of those students to find out more about their residency programs, the communities where they’ll be training, and their thoughts on the future. You can read their stories below.

Hundreds of other UBC medical students in the class of 2019 also celebrated CaRMS Match Day in Vancouver, Kelowna, and Prince George today. You can read more about their experiences here.

	Jordan Friedmann Matched to: Internal Medicine, Vancouver “I’m absolutely stoked. It’s my dream. [Internal medicine] is the one thing I fell in love with in clerkship, so it’s the place I know I’ll be the happiest. In Vancouver, I’ll be close to family. I want to work in this province, so it’s the perfect location all around.”
	Riley Chen-Mack Matched to: Pediatrics, Vancouver “I’m extremely excited. I love working with kids and working with families together as a team, so I’m really happy. I wanted to stay out west, and [my residency program] is a really great program; I did some of my electives out there. Plus, my family’s close by; my friends are close by.”
	Erin Coates Matched to: Pediatrics, Vancouver “I am so, so, so excited. I chose pediatrics because I love the detail of the medicine, I love the patient population, I love working with families; I love everything about pediatrics! I’m from Vancouver originally. Also, [the location of my residence] has a fantastic global health and social pediatrics program, and I’m excited to make that a big part of my career.”
	Neil Webb Matched to: Family Medicine, Vancouver Island “I chose my program because I wanted to work with underserved populations, and I like the spirit that the residency program brings to the table. I chose family medicine because I want to build relationships over time—be a part of their lives and get to know them well, and to be able to advocate for them.”
	Josh MacIver and Kate McWilliams Matched to: Family Medicine, Victoria Kate: “There are a lot of reasons we got into family medicine. A big part of it for us has to do with the longitudinal aspect of family medicine. You can be a part of so many people’s lives from the beginning all the way to the end. You can be there for the good parts and you can be there for the not-so-good parts. For me, especially, it’s a really big honour to be somebody people can trust and who can show that little bit of kindness to somebody at the worst moments in their life. I don’t think there’s really anything else I’d want to do. I want to be that person people can go to when they need to.” Josh: “It’s a different angle to come at the CaRMS program as a couple. I think a lot of your expectations can be extremely varied in terms of where you think you’ll end up and what you think your life will look like for the next few years. Kate and I were really lucky to have each other supporting each other throughout the process. Today came with great news: we’re going into a program we’re extremely fortunate and happy to be a part of. We’ve had a great education in the years that we’ve been here, and we’re just really looking forward to carrying that on and continuing with each other.”

IMP Team to Participate in Coldest Night of the Year

Saturday, February 23, 2019, is the Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY), a national walk-a-thon to support the homeless. This year, a team of students, faculty, staff, and supporters from the Island Medical Program (IMP) will participate in Victoria’s CNOY fundraiser—and they need your support.

Team organizer Emily Lerhe (IMP Class of 2022) sat down for a quick Q&A to give some background on the event and to let you know how you can get involved.

Emily Lehre (Class of 2022) is organizing an IMP team to participate in Victoria’s Coldest Night of the Year—and she needs your support.

What is the Coldest Night of the Year?

CNOY is an annual fundraising walking event that happens across Canada to help raise money for local charities supporting homeless populations. The goal of the walk-a-thon is to foster awareness and empathy for our community members experiencing homelessness. In our lovely city of Victoria, the CNOY event will raise funds for Our Place Society (OPS), a local community centre that offers transitional housing, meals, clothing, outreach services, counselling, and a tight-knit family to Victoria’s most vulnerable populations.

Why did you decide to participate?

I volunteered with OPS between 2016 and 2018 during the winter months, serving donated food and hot drinks to the family members. Since I started medical school last semester, I haven’t been able to volunteer with OPS—I miss it! I had heard of the CNOY event last year through OPS’s Facebook group. This year, I wanted to participate, and I thought it would be a wonderful idea to bring IMP staff, faculty, and students together for such a meaningful and local cause. I have seen the positive impact that OPS has on our community, homeless and not homeless. I also know for IMP students, as future medical professionals, community involvement is paramount for building trust and compassionate relationships, which leads to better health care. I believe there is no better way to build these foundations than participating in the CNOY walk with the IMP family. Hopefully we continue this tradition in years to come!

What are you and the IMP team doing for the event?

For CNOY, the IMP team is raising funds for OPS through online donations (see the link below). We will also be walking this Saturday representing IMP, the University of British Columbia, and the future medical professionals of BC.

How can others—those at IMP and the community in general—get involved?

If you or a loved one is affiliated with IMP, or if you would just like to walk with fun, caring, and passionate individuals, please come join us this Saturday! If you have prior commitments, we would greatly appreciate any donation you are able to contribute. You will receive an official tax receipt if your donation is over $25.

The walk will start and end at Victoria Pandora (919 Pandora Avenue). Registration for the event will open at 4 p.m., and the walk will begin at 5:15 p.m. Aside from the walk, this family-friendly evening will include music, food, entertainment, prizes, and an opportunity to connect with Victoria’s homeless community.

To donate to CNOY through the IMP team, please click the following secure link: https://bit.ly/2SNPErh.

To join the IMP team on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, please email Emily at emily.lerhe@alumni.ubc.ca as soon as possible.

**UPDATE**

With your help, the IMP team raised $1,000 for the homeless community in Victoria. Thank you so much for your support!

IMP Student Explores How Hollywood Depicts Illness

Becca Lumley (IMP Class of 2021)

Next week, Becca Lumley (IMP Class of 2021) will present the third and final talk in her three-part lecture series exploring how Hollywood depicts illness in film.

The main focus of the lecture, titled “(Mis)representing Mental Illness,” will be how mental illness—in particular, mood disorders—is portrayed in cinema. As with the previous two lectures, Becca will also question what’s helpful and what’s potentially harmful about the way movies frame illness in general.

Becca presented the first two parts of her series over the past few weeks. The first discussed cancer with a focus on pediatrics, while the second explored disability with a focus on degenerative disease and loss of autonomy.

In advance of her final talk, we sat down with Becca to discuss why she turned her attention to Hollywood and why this topic is so important.

Why is it important to talk about how Hollywood depicts illness?

I think popular films can have a huge impact on the way people think. Often, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface of a film that audiences can internalize without necessarily recognizing it. A film is a product of the social and political values, beliefs, and anxieties of the time in which it’s made, and therefore films also offer us a mirror with which to view the world. Discussing how Hollywood depicts illness helps us to explore the way society conceptualizes illness and the experience of being ill.

Why did you decide to focus on cancer, disability, and mental illness?

Honestly, the topics arose fairly naturally when I started to look for films about illness in general. While there are plenty of films about illness, there is not a lot of diversity in terms of the types of illness they depict. Hollywood is all about the spectacle, and stories of terminal illness, disability, and mental illness have the potential to be transformed into dramatic and emotionally captivating spectacles for audiences. I was interested in looking at the conventions, or audience expectations, shared by films within each of these categories.

Where there any other subtopics that you considered but didn’t make the cut?

Absolutely. This topic could have been divided many different ways. I thought about looking at the way the experience of illness is constructed based on the age of the ill character(s) (e.g., children and young adults, middle-aged adults, and the elderly), as well as looking beyond illness at the way pregnancy is depicted on screen and delving deeper into the ways in which health care workers are represented. It’s also worth mentioning that much can be learned by looking at what types of stories aren’t told. For example, while there are plenty of films about terminal illness and visible disabilities, there are far less about chronic illnesses and invisible disabilities. Ill characters are often Caucasian, heterosexual, and upper middle-class, and illness films typically fail to explore challenges related to intersectionality or to address issues related to social determinants of health.

Can you give an example of how depictions of illness in movies cause harm? How can these depictions be helpful?

One example I talked about in the context of degenerative disease was the ways in which caregivers are depicted. In some films that I analysed—e.g., You’re Not You and Love and Other Drugs—it was made to seem inevitable and common sense that someone with a degenerative disease would be cared for by a sole individual who would dedicate all of their time and energy to that person in relative isolation with little outside help. This has the potential to cause harm if patients, their caregivers, or their health care providers were to internalize these ideas and have unrealistic expectations of caregivers, who need to be given the time and space to express and meet their own needs in addition to caring for their loved ones. On the flip side, films such as The Theory of Everything and Still Alice depict difficult conversations between families about the needs of caregivers, and those caregivers are not vilified for asking for and accepting help. This, then, is helpful in promoting ideas and discussion around how to support caregivers.
In a broader context, representation is also huge. A film that accurately depicts someone’s experience can be empowering, while a film that misrepresents that experience can send a message that a person’s experience is not valuable or valid.

How can people educate themselves more on this topic?

I think a great first step is just reflecting on and challenging ideas you might have about illness based on films you have seen in the past. When watching new films, try to think about the values and beliefs that they endorse. Ask questions like the following: Who is ill? Does their illness define them as a character? What stereotypes are reproduced or subverted? One goal I am setting for myself is to watch and read film reviews created by individuals who have experience with a film’s subject matter.

Becca will present her third talk, “(Mis)representing Mental Illness,” on Feb. 26 in UVic’s Medical Sciences Building room 150 at 6–8 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided.

All of Becca’s lectures are part of the Let’s Talk Science UVic MedTalk series.

Faculty member receives teaching awards, research grant

A faculty member with the Island Medical Program (IMP) and the Division of Medical Sciences (DMS) has recently been recognized for her teaching skills and research acumen.

Dr. Joana Gil-Mohapel, Assistant Teaching Professor, was chosen for the Bruce Crawford Award of Excellence on September 10. On September 19, she was selected for the Oscar G. Casiro Teaching Award in Medical Science.

The Bruce Crawford Award is voted on and presented by third-year IMP students to the teacher, preceptor, or tutor who’s made the biggest impact on their first two years of medical training. The Oscar G. Casiro Award, adjudicated by a committee, recognizes teaching excellence of a faculty member who’s completed two consecutive years of teaching at the IMP or DMS.

“I feel honoured and humbled to be chosen for these awards,” said Gil-Mohapel. “It’s a privilege to teach these students during their pre-clinical years, and very rewarding to know I’ve made a positive impact on their medical training.”

Gil-Mohapel also received a research grant from the University of Victoria. The award, worth $20,000, will fund her travel to the Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Santa Casa de São Paulo, a higher education institution in São Paulo, Brazil, where she’ll work part-time with colleagues on a new research project. Her Brazilian peers, in return, were awarded a matching grant from the São Paulo Research Foundation to fund their trips to UVic.

“This grant will be the foundation of a new collaboration between the DMS and our research colleagues in Sao Paulo, Brazil,” said Gil-Mohapel. “It will allow for the mobility of researchers and the interchange of knowledge and expertise between the two institutions and hopefully promote a long-lasting working relationship.”

Dr. Gil-Mohapel and her colleagues are studying mechanisms of neuronal dysfunction in schizophrenia. Their goal is to better understand these mechanisms, which could lead to improved treatments for those suffering from the neuropsychiatric disorder, estimated to affect 1% of Canadians.

Back to School Q&A – Sarah Douglas

Sarah Douglas
London, ON | Victoria, BC
Island Medical Program, Year 1

What inspired you to pursue your program?
Engineering ignited a lifelong love for critical thinking and innovation. Varsity soccer sparked a deep desire to lead my teams in achieving their full potential. Working with professionals in clinical hospitals kindled a burning passion to help improve the lives of others. It was only until these catalysts fused together, an innate fire erupted within me and emblazoned a path towards medicine. The Island Medical Program will allow me to work with an exceptional team of people who strive to thrive, concurrently enabling my love for critical thinking and innovation while helping people.

What are you looking forward to most this upcoming year?
Building relationships with my classmates, faculty, mentors, and preceptors. I am so excited to learn from everyone and to contribute as part of a team.

Best piece of advice?
“When something is important enough, you do it, even when the odds are not in your favor.” – Elon Musk

First job?
I love keeping busy, so I had two first jobs: (1) Soccer and Kickboxing Camp Instructor; (2) Computer Hardware Technician.

What’s next on your BC bucket list?
Hike the Juan De Fuca trail (47 km) or Tough Mudder at Whistler (10miles + 30 obstacles)

Back to School Q&A – Brynn Walker

Brynn Walker
Island Medical Program – Year 1

What inspired you to pursue your program?
For me, one of the big draws to medicine was the personal relationships you build, and the opportunities you have to empower patients when it comes to decisions about their medical care. For that reason I chose the IMP, as the smaller class and city size make it the best place for me to gain the skills and knowledge I’ll need.

What are you looking forward to most this upcoming year?
After several years not living in BC, I’m most excited for all the hiking, climbing, and cycling. I can do without any snow in the way!

Best piece of advice?
A wise summer-camper once told me that it’s always better to pack more snacks than you think you’ll need.

First job?
Swim instructor and lifeguard

What’s next on your BC bucket list?
Probably the West Coast Trail – I’m a bit ashamed I haven’t done it yet!

Back to School Q&A – Emma Loy

Emma Loy
Canberra, Australia (now Victoria, BC)
Island Medical Program – Year 1

What inspired you to pursue your program?
In 2011, I spent three months volunteering on a boat that delivered medical services to remote parts of Papua New Guinea. At the time, I wanted to study linguistics, and thought I’d use the trip to experience a country rich in languages, but instead found myself wanting to take people’s blood pressure and carry out surgeries. However, rather than take a straightforward route to medicine, I went into journalism and also spent my summers working as a pyrotechnician. Now, I’m dusting off my old dream of becoming a doctor, and it feels like it’s finally time. But I’ll keep up a little journalism and pyrotechnic work throughout my training and beyond – they’re great outlets. The linguistics thing never worked out.

What are you looking forward to most this upcoming year?
I look forward to meeting my new classmates, moving back to Victoria, and re-learning how to memorize bucket-loads of information.

Best piece of advice?
In the words of J.R.R. Tolkein, “Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.” Oh, and my own sage advice: Sleep.

First job?
My first job was busking with my brother and cousin in a fiddle-and-accordion trio. We were super cute and made tons of money – my hourly wage then surpassed that of most jobs I’ve had since. Unfortunately, the cash dwindled as we got less cute, until eventually it was no longer a viable source of income, and I had to move on to real jobs.

What’s next on your BC bucket list?
My BC bucket list is pretty big, but the first item on it is to travel deep into the woods of Vancouver Island’s west coast to make a short documentary about some inspiring young trail-builders trying to save BC’s threatened ancient trees in a really creative way. However, the challenge won’t be getting out to these remote forests or shooting in the pouring winter rain; it’ll be finding the time!

Back to School Q&A – Emily Lehre

Emily Lerhe
Victoria, BC
Island Medical Program – Year 1

What inspired you to pursue your program?
Throughout my undergraduate degree in Human Physiology, the one career (I thought) I didn’t want to pursue was medicine. However, that completely changed when I started to volunteer for various organizations — namely a community cardiac rehabilitation program in my hometown of Victoria, BC. To observe, be a part of, and to help the human experience was both powerful and humbling. With my love of learning, chronic disease prevention, community, and charity, I realized practicing medicine is the perfect career for me to pursue my passions, expand my horizons, and give back wholeheartedly.

What are you looking forward to most this upcoming year?
Besides Camp Make Friends, I cannot wait to meet, and be inspired by, the wonderful people embarking on this journey with me, as well as the professors, staff, and health professionals who will support us along the way.

Best piece of advice?
The best piece of advice I’ve ever received was to enroll in a free online Yale University course called The Science of Well-Being. Through mindfulness, I have found greater appreciation, gratitude, and presence in my daily life, and I hope to translate these practices into my medical career. The best piece of advice I can give: everything in moderation – except for ice cream.

First job?
My first job was working at a local raw vegan restaurant for one summer. I learned how to prepare a variety of meals without heat or animal products, and it was my first opportunity working in a service-oriented role. More importantly, I learned that cashews could be made into nacho cheese and cheesecake!

What’s next on your BC bucket list?
During a road trip to Calgary this summer, I had the chance to cross off many of my BC bucket list items, including Moraine Lake, Yoho National Park, and Kelowna. Nevertheless, my BC bucket list is still quite lengthy. I’d love to make a trip to Joffre Lakes and Garibaldi Lake. On Vancouver Island, I want to hike on the West Coast Trail, Mount Albert Edward, Cape Scott, and Saturna Island. I’m always eager for a BC adventure!

Back to School Q&A – Jake Johnston

Jake Johnston
Abbotsford, BC
Island Medical Program, Year 1

What inspired you to pursue your program?
My inspiration to pursue medicine came not from some revolutionary moment, but from many smaller experiences that, like puzzle pieces, came together to reveal medicine as the perfect fit. One of my biggest inspirations came from a research pair I worked with in Montreal; their scientific curiosity was inspiring and infectious. They were down-to-earth and put in countless hours of research, with the goal of improving the lives of women suffering from a nasty type of ovarian cancer. That experience made it clear that medicine was exactly what I wanted to do.

What are you looking forward to most this upcoming year?
I’m very excited to learn clinical skills from family doctors and interact with patients. I’m also stoked to meet all of my fellow classmates and, together, go on Vancouver Island adventures!

Best piece of advice?
Don’t be so focused on your goals that you forget to enjoy the process of achieving them. Life is short; make the most out of all its stages. And hang on to your hobbies!

First job?
Umpiring baseball games when I was 12.

What’s next on your BC bucket list?
To hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island and (hopefully) catch a fish during the trek!

IMP recognizes volunteer patients

On June 13, nearly fifty people gathered at Royal Jubilee Hospital, where they were recognized for their significant contributions as volunteer patients with the Island Medical Program (IMP).

Following food and refreshments, several members of the IMP – including staff, faculty, and a third-year student – expressed their gratitude and emphasized how important volunteer patients are to medical education.

“It’s hard to overstate their impact,” said Karen Basi, the IMP’s patient program coordinator and organizer of the annual appreciation event. “They’re helping our students build the knowledge they’ll need for the rest of their careers.”

Volunteer patients are members of the community who participate in clinical skills sessions. With the support of a clinical faculty member, they help first- and second-year students learn bedside manners and how to conduct physical examinations.

Whether they’re health or living with an illness or disability, volunteer patients also offer their medical history, allowing students to better understand what a healthy body looks and feels like, and how it reacts to different conditions.

Judy Nobel has been volunteering with the IMP for eleven years. She first learned about the opportunity in the newspaper, then attended a meeting to learn more. She’s been coming back ever since, and the students are the biggest reason why.

“They’re fantastic – eager to learn, respectful, and genuinely grateful. They’ve always made me feel very comfortable.”

“My only disappointment is that I’m not called back more often,” she added.

Patrick McKernan, who’s entering his fourth and final year of medical school, says his time with volunteer patients has taught him skills he couldn’t have received anywhere else – skills that will not only benefit him, but healthcare in general.

“I hope they know just how important their contribution is,” he said. “When we hit the wards, we’ll be using what we learned with them during clinical skills. In that way, volunteer patients aren’t just helping us become better doctors – their making a very real impact on the future of healthcare as a whole. And that’s remarkable.”

If you’re interested in learning about the IMP’s Patient Program, click here. Or email Karen Basi, the IMP’s Volunteer Patient Coordinator, at karenpri@uvic.ca