Scholarship Recipients 2017
Attending international conferences:
Kan Cheung - Attending the 28th Annual IHI National Forum, Florida
Robert Yao - Attending the 28th Annual IHI National Forum, Florida
Kan Cheung - Attending the 28th Annual IHI National Forum, Florida
Robert Yao - Attending the 28th Annual IHI National Forum, Florida
Attending the Vancouver Quality Forum:
Armaan Malhotra
Matthew McAdam
David Mak
Keely Hammond
Jacques Martiquet
Matthew Wong
Armaan Malhotra
Matthew McAdam
David Mak
Keely Hammond
Jacques Martiquet
Matthew Wong
Blog posts from 2017 scholarship recipients
Kan Cheung - Attended the 28th Annual IHI National Forum, Florida USA
The 27th Annual National Forum in Orlando, Florida was inspiring, memorable, and an event I never thought I would be able to attend. Starting out as a lost undergraduate in second year, I knew nothing about quality improvement and what it embodied. But as I progressed through IHI UBC’s events, shadowing program, and eventually co-creating the quality improvement (QI) projects program, I realized that QI, slowly but surely, became deeply rooted in how I see and approach situations and life in general. However, throughout the process, I struggled with several questions that I think I now have a solid answer to thanks in part to the National Forum: How do we improve healthcare? What can I do as a student to improve the quality of care of patients? What does QI mean to me? What can I do, as a seemingly insignificant student, in something with such a large scope?
The National Forum was an eye-opening experience for me. Never have I seen such a large congregation of people coming together to improve patient safety through collaboration and sharing of ideas. I was astonished to see just how interdisciplinary some of the projects could be and how incredibly widespread quality improvement is throughout the world, as participants came as far as Southeast Asia! It was an indescribable feeling to be able to engage in a discussion with a stranger you met only 5 minutes ago some of the struggles, challenges, and solutions to an initiative that you hold so close to your heart.
Opening keynote Captain Scott Kelly’s thoughts on quality improvement truly resonated with me. Five major takeaways from his presentation included: 1) Doing the hard things, 2) Focusing on what you can control, 3) Take risks and make mistakes, 4) Test the status quo, and 5) making small changes that eventually become a big step, all of which speak to how I felt in the past four years or so. His presence is further supported my own belief that quality improvement transcends healthcare and is a mindset that is able to be applied in any situation, as he applied it to being an astronaut and space. I really enjoyed his third point about taking risks and making mistakes. As a student entering a new situation, I believe that one of the most beneficial things we can bring is our fresh perspective on a situation and our ability to ask questions.
I saw more examples of taking risks and making mistakes in a later presentation titled: A Systems Approach to the Opioid Crisis. The presentation reminded us that what works in one location may not work in another, as there are different factors at play in a different location. It also challenged us to explore the crisis from all angles with a need to bring all of our resources together and tackle the problem cohesively instead of in silos. This presentation particularly surprised me as it discussed co-prescribing naloxone to law enforcement, which is something that we are already doing in the Lower Mainland.
One of the most memorable presentations to me was one on advanced illness conversations. It’s an area that we are often not exposed to until the time comes, so I decided to challenge myself and attend this session as I was reading the book Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. They began by asking the question “Are you conversation ready?” Do you know what the ones closest to you want when they’re extremely sick? The presentation also highlighted how these conversations may be happening, but may not be recorded as there isn’t a space in our current medical record systems to do so. They mentioned how many of these conversations happen reactively, when a patient is already sick, when we should be having these conversations when patients are healthy. I think one of the most profound points mentioned was how we often overestimate the amount we know about the people close to us. The story they mentioned was one of Mr. P, in which he received frequent hospitalizations but never got better. One day, his daughter asked him “What’s important to you? What gets you up every morning?” and in a response no one could have imagined, it was “A Häagen-Dazs every day, being able to go to the Men’s club twice per week, and to be able to spend time with his wife.” It was shocking to think that, while we may be doing what we think is best for the patient through radiation and chemotherapy treatment, we may be taking away what the patient values most.
So I urge you to discover what quality improvement means to you in your every day life. We can all make a difference individually, but as a team, the difference we can make is enormous. As John Maxwell aptly says, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” The National Forum not only inspired me to challenge my current beliefs and the status quo, but also how I have to engage in this discussion with people around me and health care professionals to improve the quality of life for patients.
Robert Yao - Attended the 28th Annual IHI National Forum, Florida USA
In the past two years of medical school, I have at times felt overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge and the immense number of opportunities and possibilities that are available. Being in such a privileged position, I want to make the most out of my education, but at times, it can easy for us to get lost in this busy schedule and lose sight of what may be the most important for us. For me, the fundamental question that I’ve been trying to answer is what can I do as a student to improve the health care system so that we can provide the best care for our patients.
One of the approaches I have taken to tackle this question is to be involved in quality improvement through both conducting clinical projects and by providing quality improvement (QI) opportunities to other medical school students to empower them to be involved. I was introduced to QI two years ago through the IHI UBC practicum project. Through this experience, I began to realize the importance and value of student involvement in these projects along with experienced clinicians, scientists and other healthcare professionals. In the past year and an half, I’ve had the opportunity to work with IHI UBC team and the UBC medicine faculty advisors to integrate aspects of QI into the medical school curriculum and offer these opportunities to other medical students. When I applied for this scholarship, my initial goal was to share the success we have seen at UBC and to learn from individuals involved in QI from all over the world, but what I had learned from it far exceeded my expectations.
The IHI National Forum in Orlando was truly an eye opening and inspiring experience for me. It became so much more than what I had expected originally and I have learned so much from the speakers that I hope to share as much as I can with you through this post. The national forum brought together healthcare related individuals who are passionate about QI and making a difference from all over the world, and this environment really encouraged collaboration and sharing of ideas. It was an indescribable feeling to see 6000+ passionate health-care professionals come together with a common goal and to share their visions and goals with everyone.
The most memorable moment for me was the closing keynote speech by Dr. Don Berwick, who believes that quality improvement has the potential to not just improve our healthcare system but also bring together our society as a whole. He reminded us of the power imbalance we have as healthcare professionals and the impact we could have on our patients, and he showed us examples of how shifting the power and responsibility back to our patients can lead to better patient-centred care and transform our healthcare system. One such example was when a nurse in Sweden talked to her patient about his comfort with hemodialysis and what he wanted. It was a powerful moment when Christian Farman, a former dialysis patient, walked onto the stage to share his story. He was 25 years old when he had renal failure and needed to go onto dialysis, and he was the first patient ever to request the chance to self-dialyze and control his own treatments. This experience empowered him to be more involved in his own care, and resulted in fewer side effects and much improved personal satisfaction. Christian said he didn’t feel he was sick anymore and felt alive, and he shared this with many of the other patients.
This story inspired the hospital to offer this opportunity to other patients and today, over 60% of patients at Christian’s hospital manage their own dialysis. Previous dialysis patients have come back to help with the new patients on self-dialysis, and this community of individuals really shows the difference we can make by empowering our patients. I would like to finish my blog post by sharing a letter that Dr. Berwick shared with us written by Peter Demarco, and addressed to the healthcare professionals who cared for his wife. I hope this helps everyone of us reading this to reflect on our own position in the healthcare system and to inspire us to continue working together and improving the care that we provide for all of our patients.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/well/live/a-letter-to-the-doctors-and-nurses-who-cared-for-my-wife.html?_r=0
The 27th Annual National Forum in Orlando, Florida was inspiring, memorable, and an event I never thought I would be able to attend. Starting out as a lost undergraduate in second year, I knew nothing about quality improvement and what it embodied. But as I progressed through IHI UBC’s events, shadowing program, and eventually co-creating the quality improvement (QI) projects program, I realized that QI, slowly but surely, became deeply rooted in how I see and approach situations and life in general. However, throughout the process, I struggled with several questions that I think I now have a solid answer to thanks in part to the National Forum: How do we improve healthcare? What can I do as a student to improve the quality of care of patients? What does QI mean to me? What can I do, as a seemingly insignificant student, in something with such a large scope?
The National Forum was an eye-opening experience for me. Never have I seen such a large congregation of people coming together to improve patient safety through collaboration and sharing of ideas. I was astonished to see just how interdisciplinary some of the projects could be and how incredibly widespread quality improvement is throughout the world, as participants came as far as Southeast Asia! It was an indescribable feeling to be able to engage in a discussion with a stranger you met only 5 minutes ago some of the struggles, challenges, and solutions to an initiative that you hold so close to your heart.
Opening keynote Captain Scott Kelly’s thoughts on quality improvement truly resonated with me. Five major takeaways from his presentation included: 1) Doing the hard things, 2) Focusing on what you can control, 3) Take risks and make mistakes, 4) Test the status quo, and 5) making small changes that eventually become a big step, all of which speak to how I felt in the past four years or so. His presence is further supported my own belief that quality improvement transcends healthcare and is a mindset that is able to be applied in any situation, as he applied it to being an astronaut and space. I really enjoyed his third point about taking risks and making mistakes. As a student entering a new situation, I believe that one of the most beneficial things we can bring is our fresh perspective on a situation and our ability to ask questions.
I saw more examples of taking risks and making mistakes in a later presentation titled: A Systems Approach to the Opioid Crisis. The presentation reminded us that what works in one location may not work in another, as there are different factors at play in a different location. It also challenged us to explore the crisis from all angles with a need to bring all of our resources together and tackle the problem cohesively instead of in silos. This presentation particularly surprised me as it discussed co-prescribing naloxone to law enforcement, which is something that we are already doing in the Lower Mainland.
One of the most memorable presentations to me was one on advanced illness conversations. It’s an area that we are often not exposed to until the time comes, so I decided to challenge myself and attend this session as I was reading the book Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. They began by asking the question “Are you conversation ready?” Do you know what the ones closest to you want when they’re extremely sick? The presentation also highlighted how these conversations may be happening, but may not be recorded as there isn’t a space in our current medical record systems to do so. They mentioned how many of these conversations happen reactively, when a patient is already sick, when we should be having these conversations when patients are healthy. I think one of the most profound points mentioned was how we often overestimate the amount we know about the people close to us. The story they mentioned was one of Mr. P, in which he received frequent hospitalizations but never got better. One day, his daughter asked him “What’s important to you? What gets you up every morning?” and in a response no one could have imagined, it was “A Häagen-Dazs every day, being able to go to the Men’s club twice per week, and to be able to spend time with his wife.” It was shocking to think that, while we may be doing what we think is best for the patient through radiation and chemotherapy treatment, we may be taking away what the patient values most.
So I urge you to discover what quality improvement means to you in your every day life. We can all make a difference individually, but as a team, the difference we can make is enormous. As John Maxwell aptly says, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” The National Forum not only inspired me to challenge my current beliefs and the status quo, but also how I have to engage in this discussion with people around me and health care professionals to improve the quality of life for patients.
Robert Yao - Attended the 28th Annual IHI National Forum, Florida USA
In the past two years of medical school, I have at times felt overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge and the immense number of opportunities and possibilities that are available. Being in such a privileged position, I want to make the most out of my education, but at times, it can easy for us to get lost in this busy schedule and lose sight of what may be the most important for us. For me, the fundamental question that I’ve been trying to answer is what can I do as a student to improve the health care system so that we can provide the best care for our patients.
One of the approaches I have taken to tackle this question is to be involved in quality improvement through both conducting clinical projects and by providing quality improvement (QI) opportunities to other medical school students to empower them to be involved. I was introduced to QI two years ago through the IHI UBC practicum project. Through this experience, I began to realize the importance and value of student involvement in these projects along with experienced clinicians, scientists and other healthcare professionals. In the past year and an half, I’ve had the opportunity to work with IHI UBC team and the UBC medicine faculty advisors to integrate aspects of QI into the medical school curriculum and offer these opportunities to other medical students. When I applied for this scholarship, my initial goal was to share the success we have seen at UBC and to learn from individuals involved in QI from all over the world, but what I had learned from it far exceeded my expectations.
The IHI National Forum in Orlando was truly an eye opening and inspiring experience for me. It became so much more than what I had expected originally and I have learned so much from the speakers that I hope to share as much as I can with you through this post. The national forum brought together healthcare related individuals who are passionate about QI and making a difference from all over the world, and this environment really encouraged collaboration and sharing of ideas. It was an indescribable feeling to see 6000+ passionate health-care professionals come together with a common goal and to share their visions and goals with everyone.
The most memorable moment for me was the closing keynote speech by Dr. Don Berwick, who believes that quality improvement has the potential to not just improve our healthcare system but also bring together our society as a whole. He reminded us of the power imbalance we have as healthcare professionals and the impact we could have on our patients, and he showed us examples of how shifting the power and responsibility back to our patients can lead to better patient-centred care and transform our healthcare system. One such example was when a nurse in Sweden talked to her patient about his comfort with hemodialysis and what he wanted. It was a powerful moment when Christian Farman, a former dialysis patient, walked onto the stage to share his story. He was 25 years old when he had renal failure and needed to go onto dialysis, and he was the first patient ever to request the chance to self-dialyze and control his own treatments. This experience empowered him to be more involved in his own care, and resulted in fewer side effects and much improved personal satisfaction. Christian said he didn’t feel he was sick anymore and felt alive, and he shared this with many of the other patients.
This story inspired the hospital to offer this opportunity to other patients and today, over 60% of patients at Christian’s hospital manage their own dialysis. Previous dialysis patients have come back to help with the new patients on self-dialysis, and this community of individuals really shows the difference we can make by empowering our patients. I would like to finish my blog post by sharing a letter that Dr. Berwick shared with us written by Peter Demarco, and addressed to the healthcare professionals who cared for his wife. I hope this helps everyone of us reading this to reflect on our own position in the healthcare system and to inspire us to continue working together and improving the care that we provide for all of our patients.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/well/live/a-letter-to-the-doctors-and-nurses-who-cared-for-my-wife.html?_r=0
Armaan Malhotra - Attended the Vancouver Quality Forum
The 2017 British Columbia Quality Improvement Conference was a privilege to attend and served as a tremendous learning opportunity. Every aspect of the conference was executed to a high standard. Whether it was the stunning venue, heartfelt patient speakers, or inspiring breakout sessions, each hour added a unique dimension to my understanding of quality improvement. As training medical students, this opportunity supplemented a relatively sparse curricular exposure to health system evaluation and improvement with real-life experience. Despite the multitude of enlightening sessions, this blog post will focus on the TELUS Innovation Lab tour, as it was arguably most impactful to my point-of-view in medicine.
To preface this post, I have no disclosures in terms of alliance with TELUS Health. Everything described below is an objective representation of my experience touring their offices. Walking into the Innovation Lab was incredible. If there was an artistic style known as “ultra-contemporary”, it might do justice to the décor of their workspace. In the midst of an open-forum concept office stood a series of brand new desktop computers, perched in a line atop modern desk tables. The walls of the space were covered with touch-sensitive LCD screens, each displaying a unique TELUS Health application. We were addressed by two leaders of the TELUS Health initiative. It was explained to us that the TELUS Innovation Lab was a space dedicated to the combination of medicine and technology to tackle our relatively fragmented health system. Specifically, they had embarked on a journey to unite electronic medical records and to improve the data collection process for personal health records.
They spoke about the concept of the pre-symptomatic patient. Traditionally, the medical profession has become experts of reactive medicine. Our research is skewed towards disease management, not prevention. During this session, it was posited that concerted efforts towards data acquisition in the pre-symptomatic phase of illness will allow practitioners to better understand a patients’ healthy normal baseline prior as well as potentially predict deteriorations in health. Unique technologies such as light bulbs that utilize infrared light to monitor heart rate during sleep and home health monitoring pulse oximeters for patients with chronic disease are only two of the many examples that were shown to us.
The inspiration was infectious. Despite the many years of testing involved in utilizing these systems in clinical situations, it is conceivable to think that these technological solutions will continue to integrate into our lives. As we become better stewards of our own health information, we will be able to synergistically integrate with traditional health approaches. In the spirit of the 2017 BC Patient Safety and Quality Conference, important questions must be addressed. How will patient safety be ensured if these devices are not distributed through health authorities? Are these technologies going to be equitably distributed through BC or will they impose a socioeconomic health disparity on a traditionally Universal health system? Can these solutions improve patient quality-of-life, morbidity and mortality?
Thank you very much to the Institute of Healthcare Improvement at UBC for the opportunity to attend this conference. I would highly recommend it to others in the future!
The 2017 British Columbia Quality Improvement Conference was a privilege to attend and served as a tremendous learning opportunity. Every aspect of the conference was executed to a high standard. Whether it was the stunning venue, heartfelt patient speakers, or inspiring breakout sessions, each hour added a unique dimension to my understanding of quality improvement. As training medical students, this opportunity supplemented a relatively sparse curricular exposure to health system evaluation and improvement with real-life experience. Despite the multitude of enlightening sessions, this blog post will focus on the TELUS Innovation Lab tour, as it was arguably most impactful to my point-of-view in medicine.
To preface this post, I have no disclosures in terms of alliance with TELUS Health. Everything described below is an objective representation of my experience touring their offices. Walking into the Innovation Lab was incredible. If there was an artistic style known as “ultra-contemporary”, it might do justice to the décor of their workspace. In the midst of an open-forum concept office stood a series of brand new desktop computers, perched in a line atop modern desk tables. The walls of the space were covered with touch-sensitive LCD screens, each displaying a unique TELUS Health application. We were addressed by two leaders of the TELUS Health initiative. It was explained to us that the TELUS Innovation Lab was a space dedicated to the combination of medicine and technology to tackle our relatively fragmented health system. Specifically, they had embarked on a journey to unite electronic medical records and to improve the data collection process for personal health records.
They spoke about the concept of the pre-symptomatic patient. Traditionally, the medical profession has become experts of reactive medicine. Our research is skewed towards disease management, not prevention. During this session, it was posited that concerted efforts towards data acquisition in the pre-symptomatic phase of illness will allow practitioners to better understand a patients’ healthy normal baseline prior as well as potentially predict deteriorations in health. Unique technologies such as light bulbs that utilize infrared light to monitor heart rate during sleep and home health monitoring pulse oximeters for patients with chronic disease are only two of the many examples that were shown to us.
The inspiration was infectious. Despite the many years of testing involved in utilizing these systems in clinical situations, it is conceivable to think that these technological solutions will continue to integrate into our lives. As we become better stewards of our own health information, we will be able to synergistically integrate with traditional health approaches. In the spirit of the 2017 BC Patient Safety and Quality Conference, important questions must be addressed. How will patient safety be ensured if these devices are not distributed through health authorities? Are these technologies going to be equitably distributed through BC or will they impose a socioeconomic health disparity on a traditionally Universal health system? Can these solutions improve patient quality-of-life, morbidity and mortality?
Thank you very much to the Institute of Healthcare Improvement at UBC for the opportunity to attend this conference. I would highly recommend it to others in the future!
Matthew McAdam - Attended the Vancouver Quality Forum
Attending Quality Forum this week has certainly been an enriching experience, and I would like to thank IHI once again for granting me the scholarship to attend the event.
One extremely valuable experience that arose as a result of attending the conference was the opportunity to give a talk about a project I have been working on called “Making Mindfulness Accessible for Healthcare Providers and Medical Students”. Giving the presentation was an excellent way to practice public speaking, as well as spread awareness of the project and some of the benefits of mindfulness training. There was quite a positive response to the talk, and I was also able to connect with some colleagues who are working on similar initiatives. We may even be able to collaborate in the future, and this is quite encouraging.
It was inspiring to meet such a range of people who are passionate about health care and quality improvement, and wonderful to see how warmly they engaged one another. There was no shortage of high-caliber talks, and I was exposed to lots of innovative new ideas and initiatives. I was also happy to see a large patient population in attendance at the conference voicing their opinions, and reminding us of their role in organizing care.
I hope to be back, and if anyone has the opportunity to participate in Quality Forum in future years I would definitely recommend it.
Attending Quality Forum this week has certainly been an enriching experience, and I would like to thank IHI once again for granting me the scholarship to attend the event.
One extremely valuable experience that arose as a result of attending the conference was the opportunity to give a talk about a project I have been working on called “Making Mindfulness Accessible for Healthcare Providers and Medical Students”. Giving the presentation was an excellent way to practice public speaking, as well as spread awareness of the project and some of the benefits of mindfulness training. There was quite a positive response to the talk, and I was also able to connect with some colleagues who are working on similar initiatives. We may even be able to collaborate in the future, and this is quite encouraging.
It was inspiring to meet such a range of people who are passionate about health care and quality improvement, and wonderful to see how warmly they engaged one another. There was no shortage of high-caliber talks, and I was exposed to lots of innovative new ideas and initiatives. I was also happy to see a large patient population in attendance at the conference voicing their opinions, and reminding us of their role in organizing care.
I hope to be back, and if anyone has the opportunity to participate in Quality Forum in future years I would definitely recommend it.
David Mak - Attended the Vancouver Quality Forum
Internal. Emerg. Pediatrics. Family Medicine. Gen Surg - These are common terms you will hear medical students discuss when asked about their future careers as physicians. However, a less common but equally important term is quality assurance and improvement. Like many of my peers, I have not had much interaction with quality improvement (QI) initiatives, nor was I even familiar with what the term really meant. However, thanks to the generous support of the UBC chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, I was given the amazing opportunity to attend the 2017 BC Quality Forum to discover what QI really meant first-hand. and to learn about what I can do as a medical student and in the future as a practicing physician.
Many people attribute quality improvement to an independent project or research initiative, with a specific question, goal and/or target in mind. However, the most inspiring message that I took away from attending the quality forum was that no act is too small to ensure improvements in the healthcare system. QI starts with people and can be initiated by anyone in the healthcare team. Everyone brings a unique set of skills and experiences and it is the collective amalgamation of those skills, specifically tailored to an individual’s needs, that allows us to deliver the best possible care for our patients. One of the sessions I attended really spoke about the fact that it is natural to have personal bias and preconceived notions and that we shouldn’t be shamed for being human. What’s important is not trying to be perfect or refute that fact, and actually acknowledged it so we can work together as a team to mitigate those factors that can be so inherently linked to what we do on a day-to-day basis.
At the forum, I also had the opportunity to meet many professionals who worked in fields and groups that I did not even know existed. This tied in with an exciting field trip to the Port of Vancouver, that demonstrated the amount of coordination and teamwork required between the vast amounts of stakeholders and parties, even if you are unaware of their job parameters. This translated very nicely to health care professionals who have to work within their own units, but also with other specialities amongst different health authorities and geographical locations. Like port operations, one “kink” in the chain could stop the entire process, and it really spoke to how important a team-based interprofessional approach with effective coordination and communication is in patient care – something that I feel we often take for granted.
In medical school, we learn that 80% of a diagnosis is based on history, 10% on physical exam and 10% in labs/investigations. Interesting, I found this was very similar when approaching quality assurance - 80% of everything you need to know to improve patient care is from listening to the patients, listening to their families, and listening to your colleagues. It was amazing to see the projects of many students who implemented high-impact quality improvement practices using very simple and inexpensive methods, simply by listening and sharing their thoughts with the people around them. The BC quality forum is just that – surrounding yourself with hundreds of brilliant, like-minded individuals, sharing your thoughts, and discussing ways to keep on improvement the quality of care we provide to our communities. I believe that quality improvement is not a specialty, but rather, it is a requirement and responsibility of everyone who works in healthcare. I found the BC quality forum to be very inspirational and motivating and was one of the best conferences I have been to. I would highly recommend it anyone who is planning to enter the healthcare sector.
Internal. Emerg. Pediatrics. Family Medicine. Gen Surg - These are common terms you will hear medical students discuss when asked about their future careers as physicians. However, a less common but equally important term is quality assurance and improvement. Like many of my peers, I have not had much interaction with quality improvement (QI) initiatives, nor was I even familiar with what the term really meant. However, thanks to the generous support of the UBC chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, I was given the amazing opportunity to attend the 2017 BC Quality Forum to discover what QI really meant first-hand. and to learn about what I can do as a medical student and in the future as a practicing physician.
Many people attribute quality improvement to an independent project or research initiative, with a specific question, goal and/or target in mind. However, the most inspiring message that I took away from attending the quality forum was that no act is too small to ensure improvements in the healthcare system. QI starts with people and can be initiated by anyone in the healthcare team. Everyone brings a unique set of skills and experiences and it is the collective amalgamation of those skills, specifically tailored to an individual’s needs, that allows us to deliver the best possible care for our patients. One of the sessions I attended really spoke about the fact that it is natural to have personal bias and preconceived notions and that we shouldn’t be shamed for being human. What’s important is not trying to be perfect or refute that fact, and actually acknowledged it so we can work together as a team to mitigate those factors that can be so inherently linked to what we do on a day-to-day basis.
At the forum, I also had the opportunity to meet many professionals who worked in fields and groups that I did not even know existed. This tied in with an exciting field trip to the Port of Vancouver, that demonstrated the amount of coordination and teamwork required between the vast amounts of stakeholders and parties, even if you are unaware of their job parameters. This translated very nicely to health care professionals who have to work within their own units, but also with other specialities amongst different health authorities and geographical locations. Like port operations, one “kink” in the chain could stop the entire process, and it really spoke to how important a team-based interprofessional approach with effective coordination and communication is in patient care – something that I feel we often take for granted.
In medical school, we learn that 80% of a diagnosis is based on history, 10% on physical exam and 10% in labs/investigations. Interesting, I found this was very similar when approaching quality assurance - 80% of everything you need to know to improve patient care is from listening to the patients, listening to their families, and listening to your colleagues. It was amazing to see the projects of many students who implemented high-impact quality improvement practices using very simple and inexpensive methods, simply by listening and sharing their thoughts with the people around them. The BC quality forum is just that – surrounding yourself with hundreds of brilliant, like-minded individuals, sharing your thoughts, and discussing ways to keep on improvement the quality of care we provide to our communities. I believe that quality improvement is not a specialty, but rather, it is a requirement and responsibility of everyone who works in healthcare. I found the BC quality forum to be very inspirational and motivating and was one of the best conferences I have been to. I would highly recommend it anyone who is planning to enter the healthcare sector.
Keely Hammond - Attended the Vancouver Quality Forum
My experience at Quality Forum 2017 got off to a surprisingly active start on Thursday morning. First Nations representatives welcomed us to the conference with a song, audience participation required. I was part of the Wolf team, dancing and singing my part with much enthusiasm. And as the two days unfolded, highlights of QF17 appeared to me through the ways awe-inspiring people dance with complexity and change. As a student in the midst of a long process of familiarization with our whole health care system, as well as the provision of top-quality care to individual patients, I was inspired by individuals working for change at many levels of the system.
From a granular, patient-focused perspective, plenary speaker Tiffany Christensen discussed her journey through CF treatment and subsequent metamorphosis into patient advocate. She began the conference with her story, where she described packing her “emotional parka and bikini” in preparation for her arrival at the various metaphorical outcomes of her treatment. Her words, her story, and her compelling voice as a presenter inspired me in my care of patients (she urged us to consider both the internal and external lives of patients at every interaction, and to give them tools to “trust their own wings” throughout their journey) and gave a beautiful example of an engaging presentation style.
Zooming out to a system view, I heard from Isobel Mackenzie, BC’s Seniors Advocate, on the health, financial, and wellness status of BC seniors and their caregivers. Her team has been capturing the aggregate story of seniors living in residential care across BC through personal interviews and hopes to release it later this year. For now, she urged us to shift our attitude from “doing the best we can do with what we have” to making our care of seniors “the best it can be,” ambition driven by identification of problems in care through her systematic analysis of provincial data.
Crisis management featured in three of the sessions I attended. The Port of Vancouver generously allowed us to visit their Operations Centre, where employees direct day-to-day port activities and teams (involving dozens of stakeholders, from RCMP to businesses using the port) converge during an emergency on the water or docks. There I learned the importance of having a common map and language for all stakeholders— otherwise you might find that the land ambulance doesn’t arrive at the same dock as the marine patrol vessel for a patient transfer! The closing plenary speaker, Dr. David Matear, discussed the response of Fort McMurray’s hospital to the 2016 wildfire. He also emphasized communication, from gaps between hospital and community plans during the initial day of evacuation to the exceptional work of hospital staff as they continued to operate in a series of aircraft hangars, tents, and sports complexes.
The most powerful crisis response story I heard was from two physicians and a patient advocate on BC’s response to the opioid crisis. Laura Shaver, president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, as well as Dr. Bonnie Henry (Deputy Provincial Health Officer) and Dr. Christie Sutherland (Addictions Medicine physician and Medical Director of PHS Community Services Society) each discussed their efforts to stop the crisis and ideas for the future. Hearing about the response from the ground level all the way up to the federal government made both current issues and their potential solutions very clear.
Heading home to Victoria after such an inspiring two days, I feel ready to pounce on any future quality improvement opportunities that may appear, especially as I begin my clerkship year this June. I’m also excited to continue advocacy work through the student political advocacy committee and now have new tools and examples to draw from. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to attend QF17 provided by IHI UBC and look forward to strengthening many of the connections I made over the years to come.
My experience at Quality Forum 2017 got off to a surprisingly active start on Thursday morning. First Nations representatives welcomed us to the conference with a song, audience participation required. I was part of the Wolf team, dancing and singing my part with much enthusiasm. And as the two days unfolded, highlights of QF17 appeared to me through the ways awe-inspiring people dance with complexity and change. As a student in the midst of a long process of familiarization with our whole health care system, as well as the provision of top-quality care to individual patients, I was inspired by individuals working for change at many levels of the system.
From a granular, patient-focused perspective, plenary speaker Tiffany Christensen discussed her journey through CF treatment and subsequent metamorphosis into patient advocate. She began the conference with her story, where she described packing her “emotional parka and bikini” in preparation for her arrival at the various metaphorical outcomes of her treatment. Her words, her story, and her compelling voice as a presenter inspired me in my care of patients (she urged us to consider both the internal and external lives of patients at every interaction, and to give them tools to “trust their own wings” throughout their journey) and gave a beautiful example of an engaging presentation style.
Zooming out to a system view, I heard from Isobel Mackenzie, BC’s Seniors Advocate, on the health, financial, and wellness status of BC seniors and their caregivers. Her team has been capturing the aggregate story of seniors living in residential care across BC through personal interviews and hopes to release it later this year. For now, she urged us to shift our attitude from “doing the best we can do with what we have” to making our care of seniors “the best it can be,” ambition driven by identification of problems in care through her systematic analysis of provincial data.
Crisis management featured in three of the sessions I attended. The Port of Vancouver generously allowed us to visit their Operations Centre, where employees direct day-to-day port activities and teams (involving dozens of stakeholders, from RCMP to businesses using the port) converge during an emergency on the water or docks. There I learned the importance of having a common map and language for all stakeholders— otherwise you might find that the land ambulance doesn’t arrive at the same dock as the marine patrol vessel for a patient transfer! The closing plenary speaker, Dr. David Matear, discussed the response of Fort McMurray’s hospital to the 2016 wildfire. He also emphasized communication, from gaps between hospital and community plans during the initial day of evacuation to the exceptional work of hospital staff as they continued to operate in a series of aircraft hangars, tents, and sports complexes.
The most powerful crisis response story I heard was from two physicians and a patient advocate on BC’s response to the opioid crisis. Laura Shaver, president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, as well as Dr. Bonnie Henry (Deputy Provincial Health Officer) and Dr. Christie Sutherland (Addictions Medicine physician and Medical Director of PHS Community Services Society) each discussed their efforts to stop the crisis and ideas for the future. Hearing about the response from the ground level all the way up to the federal government made both current issues and their potential solutions very clear.
Heading home to Victoria after such an inspiring two days, I feel ready to pounce on any future quality improvement opportunities that may appear, especially as I begin my clerkship year this June. I’m also excited to continue advocacy work through the student political advocacy committee and now have new tools and examples to draw from. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to attend QF17 provided by IHI UBC and look forward to strengthening many of the connections I made over the years to come.
Jacques Martiquet - Attended the Vancouver Quality Forum
I have a confession: I did not go to a single “lecture” at Quality Forum. My schedule was filled with field trips, workshops, and unconferences. This enabled me to have many conversations about healthcare issues, such as the rising prevalence of “medical” marijuana described by a psychiatric nurse; such as the centralization of the system around hospitals; and such as the redesigning wait rooms to reduce wait times in the ED. I am going to share with you five people with whom I shared a story at QF.
Erdem
Erdem and I were paired for the randomized coffee trial. Erdem is a strategic planner in Island Health. He and I had the chance to discuss one of his projects in cultural change in Island Health. Erdem described the question with excitement: how does Island Health create a more constructive and less military and cutthroat workplace culture? It is a complicated question. Erdem explained how he volunteered for this project because it was the highlight of his work. It warmed my heart.
Heather
Heather grew up in interior BC in the same town as my mother! She and I, along with Penny, had the chance to brainstorm the problems and possibilities of wait rooms, during the design thinking workshop. We came up with an online check in system for the hospital, so as to eliminate waiting entirely. Heather suggested that I contact her for grant-funding for one of my projects! It was an awesome connection.
Tiffany
During the unconference, I suggested one discussion station be the following: How can we better incorporate non-healthcare providers, such as friends, family, and educators, into the healthcare system to better support discharge patients? Tiffany, the keynote speaker, offered valuable input on how culture can impact the effect of friends and family on health; sometimes it can be negative. She also pointed out that it is never the patient’s goal to be unhealthy. Their goals may just appear that way to you, the provider.
Steve
I accosted Steve at the reception of Health Talks. What took off was an intriguing discussion of the use of digital marketing in health education. Is the creation of stigma bad in all cases? How can we eliminate stigma and make health cool? Steve was the chief communications officer at Northern health. He and I shared a common vision for healthcare: behavioural interventions are the best long-term strategy for reducing healthcare costs for our acutely acute modern model.
Janice
I am so glad I met Janice! She was such a pleasure to be around. She and I are both emergency paramedics. She practices paramedicine on Bowen Island. What made our connection so great? A handful of jokes, some photos of the two of us in power poses, and some personal story-telling. Janice explained how she was lucky enough to witness a heart attack patient from admittance into the hospital to the point at which the clot was dissolved, in the operating room. She also introduced me to community paramedicine: a broadening of the role of the paramedic to include regular home visits for home-bound patients.
It was the people I met that made my experience at QF so worthwhile. I want to thank Jenna and her team at IHI for making it possible!
I have a confession: I did not go to a single “lecture” at Quality Forum. My schedule was filled with field trips, workshops, and unconferences. This enabled me to have many conversations about healthcare issues, such as the rising prevalence of “medical” marijuana described by a psychiatric nurse; such as the centralization of the system around hospitals; and such as the redesigning wait rooms to reduce wait times in the ED. I am going to share with you five people with whom I shared a story at QF.
Erdem
Erdem and I were paired for the randomized coffee trial. Erdem is a strategic planner in Island Health. He and I had the chance to discuss one of his projects in cultural change in Island Health. Erdem described the question with excitement: how does Island Health create a more constructive and less military and cutthroat workplace culture? It is a complicated question. Erdem explained how he volunteered for this project because it was the highlight of his work. It warmed my heart.
Heather
Heather grew up in interior BC in the same town as my mother! She and I, along with Penny, had the chance to brainstorm the problems and possibilities of wait rooms, during the design thinking workshop. We came up with an online check in system for the hospital, so as to eliminate waiting entirely. Heather suggested that I contact her for grant-funding for one of my projects! It was an awesome connection.
Tiffany
During the unconference, I suggested one discussion station be the following: How can we better incorporate non-healthcare providers, such as friends, family, and educators, into the healthcare system to better support discharge patients? Tiffany, the keynote speaker, offered valuable input on how culture can impact the effect of friends and family on health; sometimes it can be negative. She also pointed out that it is never the patient’s goal to be unhealthy. Their goals may just appear that way to you, the provider.
Steve
I accosted Steve at the reception of Health Talks. What took off was an intriguing discussion of the use of digital marketing in health education. Is the creation of stigma bad in all cases? How can we eliminate stigma and make health cool? Steve was the chief communications officer at Northern health. He and I shared a common vision for healthcare: behavioural interventions are the best long-term strategy for reducing healthcare costs for our acutely acute modern model.
Janice
I am so glad I met Janice! She was such a pleasure to be around. She and I are both emergency paramedics. She practices paramedicine on Bowen Island. What made our connection so great? A handful of jokes, some photos of the two of us in power poses, and some personal story-telling. Janice explained how she was lucky enough to witness a heart attack patient from admittance into the hospital to the point at which the clot was dissolved, in the operating room. She also introduced me to community paramedicine: a broadening of the role of the paramedic to include regular home visits for home-bound patients.
It was the people I met that made my experience at QF so worthwhile. I want to thank Jenna and her team at IHI for making it possible!
Matthew Wong - Attended the Vancouver Quality Forum
This year, I had the privilege of attending the BCPSQC Quality Forum 2017. Hosted at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown Vancouver, the venue provided an exciting atmosphere for which healthcare stakeholders ranging from doctors, patients, students, and administrators can discuss how to improve our healthcare system. The opportunity to listen to experts through various presentation modalities such as lightning talks, forums, debate, and panel discussions created a fruitful learning environment for all attendees. One particular theme I took out of this conference is the importance of patient activation.
In the first plenary session by keynote speaker, Tiffany Christensen, she spoke about living with Cystic Fibrosis and her journey through two double lung transplants. Her message about patient activation, empowering patients to take control of their own health, was critical in her road to recovery and her mental health. She emphasized the importance of changing the culture in medicine, where the balance of power needs to shift from solely being on the healthcare professional back to the patient. By giving patients agency with regards to their own health, we give them a sense of empowerment, which leads to better outcomes. She illustrated this concept with a quote, “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of a branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch, but on her wings.” I hope that I can instill this type of confidence in my patients in my future practice!
This theme was one of many innovative approaches to quality improvement that were presented at the Quality Forum. The plethora of options available for the breakout sessions allowed me to investigate healthcare issues that I am interested in. Being able to see the perspectives of the various stakeholders to each unique healthcare issue illustrated how important patient collaboration and interdisciplinary care is for improving outcomes. It was also extremely encouraging and humbling to see the number of incredible of ideas and projects presented in the breakout sessions and the storyboard presentations. I would highly recommend this conference to anyone who is interested in learning about the numerous ways to improve our healthcare system or is looking for opportunities to actively engage in a quality improvement project.
This year, I had the privilege of attending the BCPSQC Quality Forum 2017. Hosted at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown Vancouver, the venue provided an exciting atmosphere for which healthcare stakeholders ranging from doctors, patients, students, and administrators can discuss how to improve our healthcare system. The opportunity to listen to experts through various presentation modalities such as lightning talks, forums, debate, and panel discussions created a fruitful learning environment for all attendees. One particular theme I took out of this conference is the importance of patient activation.
In the first plenary session by keynote speaker, Tiffany Christensen, she spoke about living with Cystic Fibrosis and her journey through two double lung transplants. Her message about patient activation, empowering patients to take control of their own health, was critical in her road to recovery and her mental health. She emphasized the importance of changing the culture in medicine, where the balance of power needs to shift from solely being on the healthcare professional back to the patient. By giving patients agency with regards to their own health, we give them a sense of empowerment, which leads to better outcomes. She illustrated this concept with a quote, “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of a branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch, but on her wings.” I hope that I can instill this type of confidence in my patients in my future practice!
This theme was one of many innovative approaches to quality improvement that were presented at the Quality Forum. The plethora of options available for the breakout sessions allowed me to investigate healthcare issues that I am interested in. Being able to see the perspectives of the various stakeholders to each unique healthcare issue illustrated how important patient collaboration and interdisciplinary care is for improving outcomes. It was also extremely encouraging and humbling to see the number of incredible of ideas and projects presented in the breakout sessions and the storyboard presentations. I would highly recommend this conference to anyone who is interested in learning about the numerous ways to improve our healthcare system or is looking for opportunities to actively engage in a quality improvement project.
