Dr. Laura Drudi, a second-year vascular surgery resident at McGill was recently featured as one of 31 role models for women in aerospace by the Pratt and Whitney Chair for Women in Science and Engineering who were spotlighted at the CASI Aero 2015 Women in Canadian Aerospace reception on May 19.

Dr. Drudi completed post-secondary studies in honours health science at Dawson College, obtained a Diploma in Space Studies with the International Space University, and her Medical Degree from McGill’s Faculty of Medicine in 2013. Her goals are to combine her passions for space and cardiovascular medicine in her pursuit to become a flight surgeon and further apply new knowledge acquired to health care on Earth. ·

Read the profile here.

Photo: European Union 2011 PE-EP/Pietro Naj-Oleari/Flickr

Every year, Canadian Blood Services (CBS) collects approximately 900 000 units of blood from across Canada. In order to promote the safety of the blood recipients, CBS has instituted exclusion criteria for certain donors. Currently, men who have sex with men (MSM) can only donate after a deferral period of five years after their last sexual contact with a man. We believe that, in light of advances in medical technology and shifting social values, this deferral period needs to be re-assessed. We believe that a change to a 1-year deferral is necessary.

The deferral policy for MSM was put in place in 1983 as a lifetime ban, and then changed to a 5-year deferral in 2013. This policy was justified by the increased prevalence and incidence of HIV among MSM, and a several tragic contaminations of the national blood supply in the 1970s. Banning high-risk groups from donating was arguably the best method of protecting the blood supply at this time.

However, the situation today is radically different than it was at the implementation of this policy. The demographics of HIV have changed dramatically (in 2011, for example, heterosexual contact accounted for 37% of new infections). Furthermore, screening tools for blood donations have improved tremendously, and now have a sensitivity and specificity between 99 and 100%. Nucleic acid testing has reduced the window period from 3-6 months to 2-3 weeks, further improving testing. Risks of contaminated blood entering the blood supply are now so low that they cannot be measured directly, but must be calculated with mathematical models. With a change to a 1-year deferral, the additional risk would still be well below the currently accepted threshold for risk in the blood supply.

Internationally, several similar policies have been put in place. The UK and Australia, among others, have recently implemented 1-year deferral policies, while Italy, Mexico, and Spain use individual risk stratification with no specific deferral for MSM. Since these new policies were adopted, the data collected in these countries show that there is no increased risk of HIV contamination of the blood supply compared to a 5-year or lifetime deferral, and hence no increased risk to blood recipients. Furthermore, research conducted in Australia has demonstrated an almost perfect compliance (99.7%) with the new policy by MSM. Though we believe that individual risk assessment and the end of any form of discrimination against the MSM population by blood bank should eventually be considered, there is currently not enough data to support the safety of this policy.

Jeremy Cygler, Maxime Billick, Bellal Jubran, and  Gabriel Devlin are second-year medical students at McGill University.

Entry three: Centre Jeunesse and Rapid Lake

I spent a day with a few social workers of Centre Jeunesse de l’Outaouais (Maniwaki office), which is considered as the Child Protection Services (CPS) of the Outaouais region. Their main mandate is to apply the Youth Protection Act of the Quebec civil code. Therefore, they have to deal with children who are, for example, neglected, physically or sexually abused.

Unlike CPS agencies of big cities like Montreal, the Maniwaki office covers a huge territory. Also, a particularity of their office is First Nations expertise. The director of the center told me that many outcomes improved when their office developed an expertise towards natives: their social workers were taught to become more culturally aware (for example, aware of residential school, cultural differences etc…)

Part of the job of these social workers is to monitor the progress of parents, whose children are taken away. Therefore, they have to meet the clients regularly. In fact, some of their clients are located in Rapid Lake. And so, I tagged along with three social workers from the Centre Jeunesse to Rapid Lake, an Algonquin reserve.

As a rule of the thumb, the more northern a First Nations community is, the more it is isolated and the worse are the living conditions. Rapid Lake, however, is not that isolated. It is located close to the 117 highway, between Val d’Or and Mont-Laurier. Once we were there, we had to drive another six km of dirt road before arriving in the heart of Rapid Lake, a very small community that comprises of 660 band members, and according to what I’ve been told, 300 people live there. They have one general store where fresh produce is way more expensive than junk food, a police station that looks like a shack (apparently, some people tried to burn it down), an elementary school (there is no high school there) and a nursing station.

It was quite a shock for me. Several things were just eye-popping:

- There are no paved roads. Roads in the community are all dirt roads.

- Houses are not well maintained. There are planks missing from the walls and roofs are often old. I’ve been told that many houses are infested with mold from the inside, and overcrowding is a problem.

- The few people we saw there were poorly dressed: dirty and very old clothing.

- The church is not exactly in a good shape. In fact, I have never seen a community in Quebec where the church is not beautiful from the outside.

- There is garbage everywhere.

- There are dogs everywhere, hungry and begging for food.

In short, the whole place looks like a big mess. But unfortunately, such is the reality of many native communities across Canada.

Without losing any time, two social workers went to meet their clients are their homes, while I stayed with M, the third social worker, in the nursing station, where I got the opportunity to have a look around and to meet the nurses. Currently, there are four nurses who work there and they are not from the community. When I told them I was a medical student, their eyes gleamed, hoping I would stay and help them. I think they could really use a hand, since they are obviously understaffed.

A bit later, a couple came to the clinic to meet M. They were M’s clients. In their case, they have a child that was taken away for a year, placed in KZ in the meantime.

Briefly, when children have to be taken away by the CPS, the children will be placed in a foster home for a certain duration of time which can vary from six months to two years, depending on the age of the child. In the meantime, the parents have to participate in certain programs such as detox and parenting skills courses. The social worker’s job is therefore to monitor the progress of the parents.

In the case of this couple, their child was taken by the CPS for a certain period of time. Their encounter with M was very touching. The mother cried, because she is in pain and misses her child. The father misses his child badly too, and said that he was improving on the issues he had (I’m being vague on purpose to protect the client’s confidentiality), and he’s ready to have their child back.

People from KZ told me there are many problems in Rapid Lake: drug and alcohol abuse, family violence, high prevalence of obesity and diabetes, poor parenting skills, poor literacy skills, rampant poverty, extreme level of unemployment etc… One can only wonder what led to such a disaster. Looking back at a dark page of Canadian history, the vast majority of natives were taken away to residential schools at a young age where they were taught Western ways, to forget and despise their former cultures and identities. All this led to people who were traumatized at a young age, who became adults with poor life skills. Unfortunately, this vicious cycle repeats itself and undermines the well-being of many native communities up to this day (1).

How to fix all this? I don’t know for sure. It is a complicated problem beyond my understanding. Part of the answer would be to implement systemic level interventions related to the social determinants of health, including cultural traditions, economic security, food security, and housing status. Only then, sustainable progress can be made (2).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25534432

I do hope that native communities like Rapid Lake will know a better day. As for me, it reminded me that third world living conditions do exist in Canada.

References

1- Bombay A, Matheson K, Anisman H. The intergenerational effects of Indian Residential Schools: implications for the concept of historical trauma. Transcult Psychiatry. 2014 Jun;51(3):320-38.

2- Naidu A, Macdonald ME, Carnevale FA, Nottaway W, Thivierge C, Vignola S. Exploring oral health and hygiene practices in the Algonquin community of Rapid Lake, Quebec. Rural Remote Health. 2014;14(4):2975.

House in Rapid Lake. The roads are not paved. Photo: Bill Huang

Nursing station. Photo: Bill Huang

Hungry dog. Photo: Bill Huang

A picture of Rapid Lake. There is garbage on the ground everywhere. Photo: Bill Huang

A poster in the nursing station promoting good maternal care. Photo: Bill Huang

Entry two: First day and overview of KZ

Frankly, I had no idea what I got myself into. Being a huge fan of Google Street View, I searched for Kitigan Zibi, but to my disappointment, Google failed me. All I knew about this place was that it is located just beside Maniwaki, and that Algonquins live there. And so, about 4 hours later, after a pit stop at Mont-Laurier and a speeding ticket from the SQ, I made it safe and sound at Kitigan Zibi (I’ll refern to it as KZ from now on).

While looking for the KZ Health Centre, I quickly noticed how beautiful and spacious this reserve is. I have previously worked at Waswanipi, a Cree aboriginal reserve, as a substitute teacher for 6 months. Compared to Waswanipi, many differences struck my eyes right away:

- There’s a Maxi’s in Maniwaki. Unlike Waswanipi, no need to drive 2 hours to Chibougamau for groceries!

- Houses are all well maintained

- Lawns are green, mown and weeded

- Houses are very far apart from each other (more than 30 m between houses)

- Roads are paved across the whole town

- There are no unchained dogs wandering everywhere

A while after, I finally found my way to the health centre, and Shirley, a nurse there and coordinator of my internship greeted me there.

She quickly made me realize a few more things:

- KZ is an Algonquin reserve, where around 1500 people live. Algonquins here primarily speak English, and sadly few people still speak Algonquin

- Maniwaki is a separate entity and it is mainly “white” and French. Around 4000 people live there and KZ Algonquins refer it as “the town”

- My brain simply cannot retain 20 new names in 5 minutes

“Street view in front of the house, looking West.” Photo: Bill Huang

“House in which I will live for the whole month.” Photo: Bill Huang

Entry 1: Overview

Hello! I’m Bill Huang, a current McGill medical student who just completed my first year of medical school.

This blog will be about my experience in Kitigan Zibi, an Algonquin reserve, during the month of July. I will be here as part of an internship organized by Dr Kent Saylor and Yves Sioui, called the Preclinical Internship in First Nations/Inuit Communities. Therefore, rather than just purely a medical internship that would somewhat look like a clinical rotation, I will get the chance to discover the Algonquin people’s culture, a bit of their history, and about the struggles they face.

Photo: Mary Koziol, Facebook

Mary Koziol
McGill University
Class of 2018

I am not ready to die. But I am not afraid of death.

I’m waiting for my preceptor in the lobby of a palliative care residence, surrounded by several classmates. We are overheating in our winter gear, making small talk, passing around breath mints. A feeling of anticipation about the impending visit swirls amidst a number of other emotions – anxiety for the upcoming renal exam, annoyance at the erratic nature of Montreal’s winters. I find myself making conversation, but in that disengaged way reflective of a head and heart that are elsewhere. It is the first time I have been in a hospice since she died. My heart patters a nervous thrum, diffusing a light shakiness throughout my body. Dr. P arrives and guides us upstairs, settling us into a comfortable but overly warm room. I like her immediately, as I do with most palliative care doctors. There tends to be a certain kind of presence and wisdom that emanates from any person who has elected to accompany fellow humans on the final leg of their journey. She briefly introduces herself and the aim of the day’s session, and then inquires: have any of you had experiences with hospice or palliative care?

Click here to read the full blog post on the CMAJ Website

McGill medical student Annie Lalande teaching the brachial plexus to Rwandan medical students with a home-made model. Photo: Ryan Adessky

By Ryan Adessky and Annie Lalande

Over a 6 week period in the summer of 2015, three McGill medical students participated in a bilateral exchange program with the University of Rwanda.  The exchange involved a rotation in acute care surgery, Simulation centre training, a dissection program in the McGill anatomy lab and a research project, split between three weeks in Montreal, and three weeks in Kigali.

The hills of the “Pays des Milles Collines” have a mischievous kind of beauty.  With each peak, a view over the magnificent landscape of this tiny landlocked country.  With each bend in the road, a flashback to the bus I saw earlier, sprawled on its side after entering the curve too fast.

It’s the last evening bus out of Butare, in the south of Rwanda.  The women on my left are giggling as they realize that the bus has left without my friends, who were waiting to use the washroom before the 2 hour ride.

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Ryan Adessky, Annie Lalande and Esther Vaugon at their house in Kigali. / Photo courtesy of Ryan Adessky.

The project started when a group of Rwandan medical students at the University of Rwanda approached their dean with the hope of growing their surgical student society by partnering with another school.

With the Dean’s help, the students were put in touch with Dr. Dan Deckelbaum and Dr. Tarek Razek, McGill trauma surgeons and co-directors of the Centre for Global Surgery at the McGill University Hospital Centre (MUHC).   For five years, the Centre for Global Surgery has been collaborating with the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Kigali (CHUK) on projects aiming to train Rwandan surgeons. Working for months on end, a group of McGill medical students paired with the Rwandan students to create a global surgery exchange project for students interested in surgical careers.

Before long, we were welcoming Phillippe, Hubert and Kelly to the Montreal General Hospital.

——

They arrive in Montreal on a cold and rainy evening, and we head to the Jazz Festival.  Montreal is interesting, they tell us, but the weather is awful.  Is there any more succinct way of expressing what most Montrealers think of their city?

We are hosting the three students in our homes, giving everyone an opportunity to exchange and learn about each other’s culture and interests. During the week, we rotate between the Arnold and Blema Steinberg Medical Simulation Centre at McGill, learning core surgical skills, surgical anatomy workshops in the lab, and time with the trauma team at the Montreal General Hospital. At night, we begin planning a research project to be undertaken in Kigali.

Weekends. To one of the students’ cottage for a weekend, to Ottawa for Canada Day, to La Ronde; it is special to share our home life with the visiting students. They tell us that they are trying to adapt to the new setting as best as they can. We’ll soon understand this challenge ourselves.

—–

Adjustment.  There is something special about learning the quirks and customs of a new place.

We like to complain about the STM not following its schedule.  In Kigali, the bus follows a pretty simple rule: the bus leaves when the driver is satisfied with the number of passengers on board (usually, three more than maximum capacity). And if the bus driver feels that the bus does not have enough customers, he’ll get everyone to leave the bus, U-turn, and restart his route in the other direction. That’s alright, there’s a breeze and a nice view on the walk home.

—-

Annie Lalande, Dr. Antoine and Ryan Adessky at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Kigali. / Photo courtesy Ryan Adessky

Kira! Dr. Antoine exclaims.  It’s a stand-in for “bless you,” as I sneezed, but translates more literally into “get better – and that’s an order.”  It’s pretty impressive to see a surgeon repair the severely damaged intestines of a patient with advanced typhoid infection while simultaneously instructing the students and residents, and making musical requests to the circulating nurse in the OR.

Yet, it’s par for the course for a man who left a successful career in Europe to work back home in Bujumbura.  Born in Burundi, he moved to France to complete his residency in general surgery and embark on a surgical career.  After five years of working as an attending surgeon in France, he returned home to practice.  Now, with the increasing outbreaks of violence surrounding the electoral campaign in Burundi, he finds himself temporarily operating and teaching in neighboring Rwanda. He’ll remain here until the political situation stabilizes and working conditions became safer in the Burundian capital.

—-

Living in a city where we don’t understand the language is challenging, and draining. A few useful sentences in broken Kinyarwanda, and a mixture of French and English and most of the time, we manage to get by. Medical training is in English or French, so we have no issues communicating in the hospital.

—-

Staring.  In Montreal, making eye contact with someone who’s staring at you inevitably triggers a reflex to pretend they were scanning the room.  Here, not so much.  Phillipe is laughing at our confusion.  “It’s normal.  Here, if people are curious, they will look for as long as they like.  It’s not rude!” As the days go by, we’re getting more accustomed to this.

We still get a pretty good laugh when a group of school children break away from their group and chase after Ryan, while yelling excitedly “Mustacha, mustacha!!” and requesting pictures one at a time.  Five minutes of fame: over and gone.

—–

It’s a quarter to six, and another day starts. Our kitchen table faces the front windows of the house, and each morning we watch the sky turn red with the sunrise.

Morning conference begins.  The residents who covered the surgical service the previous night are grilled by the attending surgeons on their approach to the emergency operations performed overnight.

It is an exercise in humility.

Yet, with each morning conference comes a demonstration of the resourcefulness and dedication of the hospital’s residents and surgeons.

—–

The day is moving along well.  All six operating rooms are running smoothly.  One of us is scrubbed in with Dr. Antoine for a thyroidectomy, another is scrubbed in with the senior resident, who is performing a large skin graft on a child involved in a motor vehicle collision.

As the end of the day approaches, everything slowly comes to a halt. The next patient, due to be transported from the intensive care unit, has not yet arrived.  We’re told the transport ventilator equipment isn’t working.  When the patient arrives, the operation must wait again, as there are not enough anesthesia staff to cover the operating room. Finally, we wait just a few minutes more, as the hospital does not have running water today, and the water tanks used to scrub in for surgery are empty.

It’s times like these when we appreciate that in order to have a meaningful impact on the provision of health care, the training of a qualified workforce must be matched by development of infrastructure.

—–

Before we know it, it’s time to head home.

We’ll be back.

The sun sets over Lake Kivu in Gisenyi. / Photo: Ryan Adessky

The Faculty of Medicine’s White Coat Ceremony, also known as the “Donning the Healer’s Habit Ceremony” was held on September 27, 2015 at McGill’s New Residence Hall, thanks to a generous donation from Frederic H. Braun, MDCM’72. The ceremony was inaugurated in 2001 and for the first decade was named in honor of the late Joseph Wener, MDCM’41. Dr. Wener was a role model of a compassionate physician for a generation of medical students. Each year an invited speaker addresses the class on their transition from laymanship to physicianship, with this year’s keynote talk given by Dr. Danielle Ofri from Bellevue Hospital in New York City. During the ceremony second-year medical students receive their white coats as a symbol of the professional responsibilities they will assume in their clinical life.

This year’s event was covered by CTV News and the Montreal Gazette.

Additionally, McGill’s Media Relations Office produced a video after the event.

Student-led online community leads to increase in samosa sales

Photo: Mark Hengge

Daina Crafa, an award-winning PhD candidate in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN) at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine appeared as a guest on the most recent edition of the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) podcast series, called “Health research in action,” to discuss immigration and mental health.

Ms. Crafa is studying the relationship between brain, genes, culture and mental health. Supervised by Drs. Mathieu Brodeur and Eric Jarvis, the majority of her current research is being conducted at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute through the IPN and the FPR-UCLA-McGill Program in Cultural Psychiatry. Her complete publications and other works can be found at www.dainacrafa.com.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

January 20, 2016

Photo: Mary Koziol, Facebook

Mary Koziol
McGill University
Class of 2018

I notice him several times as I hurry past, wondering to myself what his story could be. He’s quite an old man, at least in his 80s. From a distance, I see two bulging black eyes, his face a mess of dripping blood. He’s observing the hustle of the ER with the expression of an accidental spectator at a cricket match: curious, but evidently a bit lost. I read the chart as I stride towards him: tripped and fell forward onto his face. Lives alone in a retirement home. On blood thinners.

I introduce myself as I approach. Hi Jan, I’m a first year medical student. I’m here to ask you a few questions about what brings you in today. As I get a closer look at him, I take in the dismal condition of his face: bright red blood is leaking from multiple scrapes on his nose and forehead, caking the crevices of his deep wrinkles and spilling onto his neck. He’s having trouble opening his eyes due to the prominent puffy purple bruises that surround them. The blood thinners he’s on are responsible for the rather dramatic result of a not-so traumatic fall; his face is almost caricature-like from the injuries. He’s very pleasant, with a thick Polish accent that instantly warms my heart, bringing to mind my own beloved grandfather. He recounts tripping over a curb and falling onto his face, in the kind of voice that suggests he finds this whole affair quite comical.

Click here to read the full blog post on the CMAJ Website

January 29, 2016

On March 19 and 20, students from the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University will bring S(t)imulation,a creative foray into the world of sex, people and ideas, to Theatre Sainte Catherine (264 Rue Sainte-Catherine Est). S(t)imulation is a collective theatre piece created and performed by McGill medical students that offers a deeply human perspective on sex, sexuality and the power of ideas to mobilize or divide us.

“Medical school can be overwhelming. There is a vast quantity of material to cover and there’s a whirlwind of charged human interaction to navigate,” says Mary Koziol a second-year medical student at McGill and the Producer of S(t)imulation.  “As students, we need to be able to process and unpack these experiences. We need to be able to take stock of our own perceptions, recognize our own reactions, and acknowledge underlying emotions. Writing this play as a collective, we have committed to an intentional self-discovery; an exploration of our own values and norms in the often sensitive realm of sexuality. The result, I think, is an increased level of confidence in helping patients navigate their own experiences.”

S(t)imulation features McGill medical students Kendra Bradshaw, David D’Arienzo, Koray Demir, Alexandra Di Lazzaro, Mame Daro Faye, Jennifer He, Bahar Madani and Zhuyin Xu. The play also features performances by selected McGill Medical School choir members Emilie Daoud, Nadine Demko, Valerie Henderson, Brittney Elliot and Woojin Kim. The play is sponsored by the McGill Faculty of Medicine, the McGill Strategic Planning and Community Involvement Committee of the McGill Medical Students’ Society and the Students’ Society of McGill University. All proceeds from S(t)imulation will be donated to Project 10, an organization that works to promote the personal, social, sexual and mental well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, intersected and questioning youth and adults between the ages of 14-25. 

“This has been an incredible experience. I wholeheartedly believe that theatre can encourage healthy, open and productive discourse over important social issues such as sex, sexuality and sexual health,” says Erin Lindsay, a theatre professional from Montreal who is serving as Director and Facilitator for S(t)imulation.  “It has been such a privilege to work with people who are so creative, so genuine and so completely invested in the future of Canadian health and well-being. It is my hope that this play will generate some form of conversation. I think stories are important and I am so fortunate to have been able to work on collecting and presenting them for this project.”

S(t)imulation is a series of stylized vignettes on the theme of sex and sexuality produced by second-year McGill medical student Valerie Henderson, produced and facilitated by Mary Koziol and directed and facilitated by Erin Lindsay. The piece sprung out of a series of collective workshops facilitated by Mary Koziol and Erin Lindsay. Poems, prose anecdotes, songs and monologues were submitted by McGill medical students. These pieces were then stitched into a final script that encourages an open dialogue around often stigmatized or taboo subjects relating to sex and sexuality.

S(t)imulation will play at Theatre Sainte Catherine located at 264 Sainte-Catherine Est from 3-4:30 p.m. on March 19 and 20. There will be a talk back after each show.

Tickets are $11 and can be purchased at www.s-t-imulation.eventbrite.com.

For more information visit the S(t)imulation Facebook Event Page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1137218689668716/

All proceeds from the event will go to Project 10.

February 23, 2016

McGill medical students Alexandra Fletcher and Bing Yu Chen (right) with members of the Transplant Quebec team (Photo courtesy of Alexandra Fletcher).

For the last two years, over fifty medical students from both Quebec and Canada, under the leadership of two McGill medical students and members of the International Federation of Medical Student Associations-Quebec (IFMSA-Quebec), have been working towards the integration of a course on organ donation into the undergraduate medical curriculum across Quebec and Canada.

An exceptional year for organ donation in Quebec

It’s been an exceptional year for organ donation in Quebec. Transplant Quebec published their 2015 statistics in March 2016, and the numbers represent a record high in the province, with 856 individuals having received an organ, compared to 549 last year. These results are very encouraging.

And yet, organ donation promotion remains a challenge which necessitates both public awareness and physician education. Physicians require this training in order to identify and refer potential donors, approach grieving families about donation and inform patients about how to consent. Despite this, adequate organ and tissue donation teaching is notably absent from most Canadian medical schools curricula.

An unprecedented initiative by medical students

Two McGill medical students, Bing Yu Chen and Alexandra Fletcher, decided upon entering medical school in fall of 2014 to confront the current lack of organs for donation at the source by coming up with a both simple and durable solution. Having noticed the absence of organ donation education within their own medical curriculum, these two IFMSA-Quebec officers for public health decided to create a comprehensive and innovative course on the subject for the four medical faculties in Quebec, with the goal of trans-Canadian adoption always in their line of sight.

Important intensivists and leaders in organ donation, including Dr. Sam Shemie, Dr. Pierre Marsolais, Dr. Stephan Langevin and Dr. Frédérick D’Aragon, collaborated on the development of the course. It has so far been endorsed by the Quebec Medical Association, the Canadian Medical Association, the Quebec Society of Intensivists, Transplant Quebec and Hema-Quebec. Furthermore, the project is officially a goal of IFMSA-Quebec and Canadian Blood Services.

A rapidly expanding project

McGill welcomed the student-lead idea with open arms by integrating a one hour course on organ donation into the curriculum’s neurology portion. Student feedback regarding the course has been overwhelmingly positive and their knowledge was measurably improved. For instance, following the lecture, a survey revealed that a full 85% of students strongly agreed that donation should be in the curriculum, compared to 61% prior to the lecture. This initiative has spread to University of Montreal, where the faculty has agreed to adapt its already existing organ donation class based on the student-developed material.

Currently, this initiative has brought together over fifty student leaders from 13 of the 17 medical schools in Canada, and these collaboration efforts are leading towards full curricular integration in the coming years. A position statement on medical education in donation, produced through a joint effort by these student leaders, will be presented in April 2016 during the Canadian Federation of Medical Student general assembly.

A project with international reach

This initiative was a finalist for the IFMSA Rex Crossley Award, meaning that it was considered as one of the best student projects within IFMSA at an international level. During the IFMSA General Assembly in March of 2016, the course material was shared with several interested countries, and the initiative will be published in the August 2016 education of Medical Student International. Finally, this class made a significant contribution to the development and adoption of an international IFMSA organ donation program.

About IFMSA Quebec

IFMSA-Quebec mobilizes all Quebec medical students since 2002. The organization works on the social, cultural and global aspects of health, on the national and international scenes. Active on the six campuses of the province, through its advocacy initiatives, exchange programs, peer education projects and policy statements, IFMSA-Quebec is devoted to health improvement in Quebec and beyond. For more information, visit www.ifmsa.qc.ca.

March 23, 2016

Back row: Jenna Hotton (left) and Sara Lakhdar.
Front row: Tara Casorso (left) and Curtis Fischer

For the second year in a row, McGill will be organizing activities around World Voice Day. The organization of the free voice screenings and seminar was led this year by Jenna Hotton, Tara Casorso, Curtis Fischer and Sara Lakhdar, four second-year master’s students in speech-language pathology at the Faculty of Medicine’s School of Communication Science Disorders (SCSD), under the tutelage of Dr. Nicole Li-Jessen, Assistant Professor in the SCSD, and in collaboration with Dr. Isabelle Cossette from the Schulich School of Music and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music, Media and Technology.

The voice is often taken for granted

Voice is an important component to people’s overall quality of life and ability to function in the work place, in school or in social settings. Yet, until we lose it we often take it for granted.

“In my practicum experience I’ve seen a lot of people who had trouble producing voice and they had to use an artificial way of talking which has a big impact on their life, so I thought to bring awareness to this and to show people the consequences of losing their voice is really important,” says Lakhdar on the importance of offering the screenings, which will be held from 2 – 5:30 p.m. in the Strathcona Music Building on Friday, April 8.

The screenings consist of several elements, including taking a basic case history to see if there are certain activities or habits that may make you prone to a voice disorder. A 10 item questionnaire looks at your perception of how you use your voice in your daily life. “Then we take a couple of measurements to see how long you can sustain a sound and to measure the total range in the pitch of your voice – how high and low can you go,” says Hotton. “We also look at the quality of your voice to see if you have any distortions that make it sound less clear.”

The screenings are of particular importance to those who work in professions that require their voice like teachers or singers, but are open to the public. Hotton says that it’s a good first step for any individuals who have experienced some change in their voice to get it screened so that appropriate referrals can be made if needed. An extra room has been secured this year to stem lines and wait times.

Your aging voice

Aging is the theme for this year’s World Voice Day seminar, which will be held on Saturday, April 16 from 3 – 5 p.m. in room A-832 of the Elizabeth Wirth Music Building. As many as 47% of people over the age of 65 are affected by voice disorders, which has a great impact on their social lives and could result in them becoming withdrawn and anxious, according to Fischer.

“Age-related voice disorder is known as presbyphonia,” he explains.  “Some of the changes that can occur include weakening of the muscles around the vocal folds, a reduction in the elasticity of the tissue and poorer transmission of motor signals from their laryngeal nerves.”

The seminar will include presentations related to voice and aging research from a variety of perspectives. It will also feature a special presentation from Les Voix de Parkinson en movement, a group of people afflicted with Parkinson’s Disease – one of the groups that can experience vocal loss – who come together to sing, led by a vocal coach. Fischer and Casorso have been participating in the group since January. “Showing that you can still use your voice recreationally and that you can entertain and be proactive by taking care of your voice is so important,” notes Casorso. “We are really privileged to have them join us.”

Real world experience

Among the students’ reasons for getting involved in the World Voice Day events is the learning opportunity it presents.

“In our program we have to take one class on voice but this is sort of an additional independent study,” says Casorso. “And we get to work with Dr. Nicole Li-Jessen who is one of my favourite professors, so it was also a chance to work more with her and at the same time to learn more about the voice.”

Hotton concurs, noting that it was eye-opening to see how a voice disorder could seriously impact your quality of life.  “Actually going out in the field to try to screen people and make people aware of voice disorders is a great experience for our studies as well,” says Lakhdar.

Fischer and Casorso also share a more personal interest in voice disorders. “Because teachers are one of the professions that are often affected by voice disorders,” says Fischer, “my mother was actually a teacher and a principal and just hearing some of her stories and seeing her miss days from a lost voice interested me in this project.”

“I was actually a teacher before coming into this program,” says Casorso. “I would often have voice difficulties and by the end of the day of teaching my throat would feel so sore but I had no awareness and thought it was just a normal thing. To study more about how to take care of your voice and to learn, as a teacher, how you could actually use a ton of different strategies to preserve your voice and take care of your voice – it’s something that people take for granted everyday yet it’s so important to learn about this amazing instrument that is your voice and how to take care of it.”

April 1, 2016

In response to the Governement and Health and Social Services Minister’s refusal to consult Quebecers on the reform of Quebec’s Health system, health professional students created the Quebec Health Professional Students’ Round table (FRESQue in French). This interprofessional student initiative was created to participate in the ongoing reform of our healthcare system.

Uniting future professionals in occupational and physical therapy, kinesiology, medicine, speech-language pathology, pharmacy, psychology, nursing and social work, the Round table will adopt and advocate recommendations aimed at improving the healthcare system and influencing the work of the Health and Social Services Minister. “We believe that consultation is extremely precious, an essential step in the creation of rational and positive healthcare reform,” affirmed Jessica Ruel-Laliberté, cofounder of the Round table. “Given the absence of public consultation, we are proud to be able to create a space where Quebecers can come together to inform Minister Barrette of their vision of the future of our healthcare system.”

First Public Annual Summit to be held in April 2016 Improving Access to Primary Care

The Round table will hold its first annual summit on the 23rd and 24th of April 2016 in Montreal. The goal of this summit is to gather future professionals, patients, and experts to
reflect on how to improve access to primary care services . By the end of the summit, recommendations will be adopted based on up-to-date literature and on thorough discussions by diverse and experienced members of the Round Table. Ahead of the summit, we invite patient groups, experts, professional associations, and the general public to submit recommendations and to apply to attend as observers with speaking rights (please email politique@fmeq.ca ).

Uniting for the future of healthcare in Quebec

This initiative marks the first time that future health professionals from all disciplines come together to discuss the future of the healthcare system. David Benrimoh, cofounder of the
Round table, feels that the enthusiastic response of student associations thus far is evidence that Quebecers need to be consulted on these issues. “This is the first real public
consultation on accessibility of primary care services, and we are excited to start working with other members of society to bring forward a new vision for the future of healthcare in
Quebec,” he explained.

A note on the Round table

The Round table was founded in January 2016 and gathers future health professionals from across the province in a nonhierarchical, interprofessional and democratic setting. Currently
composed of 23 university-level student associations, the Round table represents its member associations to the government and to Quebecers. The Round table advocates for the student vision of a more effective, just, and accessible healthcare system.

For Information:
Jessica Ruel-Laliberté
(French)
Cofounder of FRESQue
Political Affairs OfficerFédération
Médicale Étudiante du Québec
politique@fmeq.ca
4188911163

David Benrimoh (English)
Cofounder of FRESQUE
gaac.mss@gmail.com
5144637813
President of the Government Affairs and Advocacy Committee of the McGill Medical Student’s Society (MSS)

Related coverage:

Montreal Gazette

April 7, 2016

Bottom row (left to right): Charlotte Guillet, Rebecca Dorner; top row (left to right): Yan Jun Chen, Tracy Schaan.

Our ability to swallow is something that many take for granted. From the moment we are born, any individual swallows approximately 600 times per day without giving it a second thought. You could imagine that if something were to repeatedly go wrong during those 600 swallows, trouble can add up quickly.

“Swallowing disorders are found in 55% of stroke patients and 45% of people suffering from dementia,” says Charlotte Guillet, a second-year master’s student in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) at McGill University’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders (SCSD). “It’s estimated that one-third  of people over the age of  80 have some sort of dysphagia, so we’re talking about a large scale problem that people often don’t think about and often dismiss as simply being a consequence of aging.”

Swallowing disorders, however, are no laughing matter. Certainly not when they can result in things like aspiration pneumonia, a potentially fatal disease. Swallowing disorders can also be the cause of malnutrition and even psychological issues that could lead to depression and social anxiety. As a result of the public’s general lack of awareness on this subject, Guillet, along with classmates Rebecca Dorner, Yan Jun Chen and Tracy Schaan have collaborated with the Speech-Language Pathology department at the Jewish General Hospital to develop their first-ever Swallowing Awareness Event, which will be held from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on April 14 at the Jewish General Hospital (JGH).

“You can get some really devastating effects from something that seems so basic and that people just don’t know about,” says Guillet. “People don’t realize, ‘oh I’m choking on water and that’s why I’m not drinking as much. And now I’m dehydrating and I’m in the hospital for all sorts of medical complications that if I had just approached someone and said hey I’m having trouble – I cough when I drink water they could have given me help and I wouldn’t be in this situation.’ So when I think of dysphagia I think about how it can have such a global and menacing impact on an individual and it’s something that can be quite simple to address.”

Living with a swallowing disorder

Managing a swallowing disorder is often not about trying to fix the problem, but rather more about managing it, notes Dorner.  “There are certain things you can do to help your swallow,” she says. “For example, if you’re having trouble swallowing thin liquids you can increase the consistency of them, to make a thicker liquid, or puree food if its thickness is causing problems . There are also certain techniques you can try that someone like an SLP can teach you such as swallowing with more effort or swallowing twice. There are a variety of techniques so it depends on what kind of issues you are having.”  Schaan explains that to provide the best care for patients, swallowing problems are typically assessed and managed by an interprofessional team that includes not only SLPs, but also occupational therapists, dietitians, nurses and physicians.

Developing a first-time awareness event

The students have been working on developing the event throughout their semester, hoping to draw the public’s attention to this oft-ignored issue. “The day will really be about education,” says Schaan. “We will have screenings, an information booth and even some interactive games.”

The students hope to reach patients, particularly those are more prone to swallowing disorders, such as those who have suffered strokes or who are afflicted with dementia or Parkinson’s disease, as well as people who have had structural changes, for example, as the result of surgery or radiotherapy to deal with head or neck cancer. They also hope to educate those that may not have any of the aforementioned characteristics, since you can be in relatively good health and still suffer from swallowing problems. “We are also hoping to reach caregivers,” says Schaan, “so that they are aware of certain signs of swallowing problems that they should be looking for.”

Working with Dr. Nicole Li-Jessen at the SCSD and Gina Mills, Interim Chief of Audiology and Speech Pathology Services at the JGH, the students, who expressed a variety of reasons for getting involved in this initiative have felt very well supported and are especially thankful for the JGH’s hospitality and for the generous budget provided by the SCSD.

“I have a special interest in brain injury rehabilitation, whether it’s neurological or because of trauma,” explains Chen. “Dysphagia is one of the most common signs and symptoms you see after a traumatic brain injury. I also I feel like it’s a great way to give back to the community and share our knowledge and share what we’ve learned.”

Dorner says that prior to completing a practicum in dysphagia she was unware of the impact it could have on people. “Once I started learning more about it, I even realized problems among my own family members. For example, my grandmother would always cough after drinking, and had I been able to recognize that symptom I could have helped her. So spreading awareness of these problems can help make a difference in people’s lives, because you want to make sure that your parents and grandparents are getting the nutrition they need to live a healthy life.”

“Since we’ve been doing a lot of learning in the area of dysphagia, I have a lot more empathy for people who have to deal with this on a daily basis,” says Schaan. “We often take it for granted that we can eat and drink what we want and not have any problems and not have to worry about things going down into our airways. So I think it’s important that people are educated and I feel privileged to be able to be among those to do that.”

April 8, 2016

Photo: Jennifer He

Student engagement and community involvement are key aspects of the medical school experience at McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine. McGill medical students are actively planning and leading initiatives, programs, and projects in both McGill and broader Montreal communities. Additionally, several McGill students have set up their own community projects and organizations in response to local needs and concerns. Some of these projects have grown beyond the corners of campus and have spread across Canada.

In order to celebrate these student initiatives and inspire other students to be engaged in similar endeavours, the Strategic Planning and Community Involvement Committee (SPCI) of the McGill Medical Students’ Society (MSS) hosted its annual SHOUT Gala on May 9, 2016 in the Atrium of the Bellini Life Sciences Building. SHOUT 2016 was a gathering of medical students, faculty, and community members who presented existing student-led initiatives in their local and global communities and functions as a forum to inspire further action and constructive ambassadorship by the student population.

The event was organized around brief talks given by students who are currently involved in various initiatives at McGill and beyond. The guest speaker this year was Dr. Christine Hwang, McGill graduate from the Class of 1992. After working with the Red Cross, Médecins sans Frontières and Health Force Ontario, she made a stop in Montreal to present her personal anecdotes and share her thoughts on how physicians can have a positive impact on society.

This year, the MSS Leadership Award, established in 2015, was also presented to four students who demonstrated leadership and initiative in their education as well as in the community: Carl White Ulysse, David Alessandro Benrimoh, Bing Yu Chen and Yang Guo.

Photo: Jennifer He

Photo: Jennifer He

Photo: Jennifer He

Photo: Jennifer He

Photo: Jennifer He

Photo: Jennifer He

Photo: Jennifer He

May 26, 2016

By Mary Koziol

Photo: Natasha Carminsky

With a carload full of snacks, our lectures downloaded for weekend catch-up and having triple-checked that we have our Canadian passports, the six of us are on the road for Boston. This was part 2 of the Harvard-McGill student exchange, facilitated by McGill alumnus and current Harvard professor Dr. Jeffrey Semaan, which took place from April 29 to May 1.

We arrive in Cambridge just past midnight, where our Airbnb host David is waiting for us. He leads us up two creaky flights of steps to our apartment, where we gratefully unload our belongings. “Ah McGill!” says David, “I’ve done a lecture or two there.” Turns out that David is a gifted researcher in the area of immunotherapy, and he proceeds to give us a brief talk on the role of caffeine and its potential in cancer treatment. We remark that our surprise crash course is a pretty cool experience to have with our Airbnb host. “It’s Cambridge,” he shrugs. Meaning? Good luck finding anyone who isn’t an academic.

The next morning we’re off to an early start. Dr. Semaan greets us with hugs and a smile, promptly guiding us to our first session at the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), a network of primary care and hospital sites throughout Cambridge that focuses on primary care, specialty care, and mental health/substance use resources. We make our way up to the second floor of one of the community sites, a cozy and welcoming room with plush sofas and exposed brick walls. We settle around the boardroom table and meet our first lecturer, Dr. David Bor for a talk entitled “CHA: A Public, Academic Community-Responsive Health Care System.” Dr. Bor served as chief of medicine of the CHA for 21 years and had overseen much of its expansion and development. His talk explores the history of the CHA, both an interesting survey of modern medicine as well as a helpful backgrounder on the state of public health care in Massachusetts. Turns out Massachusetts has a much stronger public health care system than many of us had previously known, somewhat ironically known as Romneycare (Mitt Romney was the governor at the time of the health care reform that led to provision of health insurance for most of Massachusetts’ residents).

Sooner than we would have liked (a busy day lies ahead) we have to thank Dr. Bor, and we’re on the road to the Albany Street Shelter where we meet with Mark McGovern, a social worker and program director of Healthcare for the Homeless, who tells us the “Tale of Addiction and Homelessness.” This shelter, also part of the CHA, is dedicated to active substance abusers and has a policy to ‘meet people where they are.’ After taking a few moments to orient us to their work, Mark brings in Tom*, a client of the shelter who has agreed to be interviewed by the McGill students so we can learn firsthand the daily realities of homelessness and substance abuse within the context of the American medical system.

Tom is a physically intimidating man with a deep, powerful voice. He talks to us about the beginnings of addictions (what he calls the “poor man’s speedball”, nicotine and caffeine), about his past as a successful athlete, about the resultant injuries that have made finding work very difficult, about how his addiction spiralled out of control when he found himself out of work, about the day to day challenges of heroin addiction and homelessness, and of his past successful rehabilitation and subsequent relapses. He treats us to a song at the very end, his soulful voice filling the room. On the last line “we fall down, but we get up” he stands, we thank him, and he exits the room. All of us struggle to find the words to convey the impact his story has had. Mark talks to us a bit more about the typical trajectory of addiction, and how relapses are, in most cases, inevitable. However, he notes, the sooner you can get someone to treatment, the longer the recovery period. Mark reads us a piece of prose he had recently shared publicly, entitled “The Life of a Homeless Man,” where he details the daily indignities, injustices, and hardships that are customary in the life of homeless persons, all of the examples drawn from his daily work in the shelter. We receive a quick tour of the shelter and then it’s time to go. We emerge, blinking a bit dazedly in the bright sun, trying to absorb the immensity of the experience we’ve just had.

We head back to the CHA community site where Dr. Shonkoff is waiting for us to discuss “Leveraging Science to Strengthen the Early Childhood Foundations of Lifelong Learning, Behaviour and Health,” He begins by saying, “Call me Jack”—and then, “after I give you this talk, I need you to go and cause trouble and change things, so that I’m not wasting my time.” A provocative start to a stimulating and energizing talk; his team’s research is looking at how childhood adversity, what they have coined ‘toxic shock,’ is biologically embedded. Essentially, the constant activation of the stress system during childhood, and even pre-natally, leads to long-term disruptions in brain architecture, immune status, metabolic system, cardiovascular function, and gene expression. Specifically, there are particularly important development windows where toxic stress has an especially devastating effect. The takeaways? Early childhood adversity affects lifelong health, not just lifelong learning; healthy development requires protection, not just enrichment in the school setting; and achieving better outcomes for children requires support for the adults who care for them. The most important thing we can do to prevent toxic stress and its lifelong repercussions is to build capacity within the family; he emphasizes the need to get away from ‘parental training’ as a model and to move toward intensive coaching to help parents build skills and have control over their own lives. And to his point about causing trouble and changing things? He says we need to stop going out and doing the same things that people have been doing for over 100 years that simply don’t work. This requires an environment that has never existed before: we are afraid to take risks, we do not learn from our mistakes, we fail to do honest evaluations of the outcomes. The solution is going to require a portfolio of interventions based on what works best and for whom. On that thought-provoking note we end, thank him, and pile back into Dr. Semaan’s van to our second to last lecture of the day.

This trip brings us to the Zinberg Clinic, a dedicated care center that uses a multidisciplinary approach to care for patients living with HIV, viral hepatitis, and other sexually transmitted infections. Dr. Coste shows us around the clinic and leads us to a conference room downstairs to talk about “Responding to the HIV Epidemic in our Community.” He begins with a timeline of the HIV epidemic, explaining the role of the Zinberg Clinic in trying to address the crisis, and the many difficulties of providing care for such a deeply stigmatized illness. A key strategy the clinic uses, even now, is to draw people in by meeting their needs: the Clinic’s food pantry is often the most important point of entry for many of their patients. Dr. Coste also speaks about the challenges of screening for HIV in the community, zeroing in on the communication barriers that we, as health care professionals, often propagate with our own discomfort. “Ironically,” he says, “it may require greater intimacy to discuss sex than to engage in it.”

Our final lecture of the day takes place at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the historic Ether Dome, a surgical operating amphitheatre that had served as the hospital’s OR between 1821-1867. It’s surreal to enter the Ether Dome, a strong contrast with the modern day OR. The high dome ceiling has windows that bathe the room in natural sunlight, and the room is mostly occupied by steep rows of seating for ticket-bearing surgical spectators of the time; I immediately recognize the ceiling high painting that adorns the front wall from my anesthesia textbook, a depiction of the first public demonstration of anesthesia (ether) for surgery. We are fortunate to receive a lecture from current anesthesiologist Dr. Vassallo on “Bulfinch’s Ether Dome: Its Place in Anesthesia History.” Dr Vassallo details the experiments and discoveries leading up to the use of ether, as well as the cast of characters involved, making for quite an interesting story behind this celebrated landmark.

At last, it’s time to bid farewell to Dr. Semaan. He brings us to Harvard Medical School to be greeted by our student hosts. It’s a happy reunion for all. We spend the weekend dining at their favourite haunts and hanging out in their medical student dormitory, where the vast majority of students live. We receive a tour of the Harvard campus and the Harvard art museum as part of the University’s ‘ARTS FIRST’ festival weekend, and end the day on Saturday by sailing along the Charles River, chatting in French with our Canadian-born sailboat operator. On Sunday, we have enough time to traverse the Freedom Trail, winding our way through downtown Boston to take in notable monuments from US history, before we hug our hosts goodbye, reminding them they always have a place to stay whenever they come back to Montreal.

On the ride home, we are a lot quieter than on the drive down. We are all absorbing the weekend, trying to process the many layers of the experience, running through our favourite memories, considering all of the new questions elicited, trying to make sense of the complexity of US health care. Only 6 hours away by car, there is not a lot of physical distance separating Harvard from McGill, yet on close examination the rich historical, cultural, political, and geographical roots of the institutions and surrounding communities account for two very distinct education experiences with so much to learn from one another. It only took one person in the form of a McGill alumnus to help us build that connection, to plant the seed for an ongoing exchange of knowledge and ideas that deeply benefits us all.

*identifying features have been changed to protect privacy.

June 10, 2016

Approximately 37 students from area high schools were welcomed to the downtown campus of McGill University for the 2016 edition of the “Explore! Careers in Health” camp, held this year from June 27-29. The annual event, which began in 2009 as a one-day event, is organized by students and residents representing McGill University’s Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry, and is aimed at motivated and academically strong students with a goal to encourage students to pursue post-secondary education and to inspire and cultivate their interest in health professions.

“The camp is becoming more relevant each year as we target students from schools where statistics show many kids don’t pursue post-secondary education at all,” explains camp lead organizer Dr. Jessica Tremblay, a first-year resident in Family Medicine at McGill for whom the 2016 camp represents her sixth year of participation, dating back to her time as an undergraduate nursing student.

Participating campers are exposed to a multitude of diverse health care professions over the course of the three-day bilingually run event, in addition to a number of team-building and sports-related activities. “The name of the camp says it all,” says Yanni Papadopoulos who will be heading into grade 11 in the fall at Laval Senior Academy. “I wanted to see what is available to me when I grow up. Attending the camp I get to gain these new experiences that I would never otherwise get.”

While many campers like Yanni are not sure what their post-secondary plans are, others like Janaiya Harris, who will be entering grade 10 at John Rennie High School already has a clear idea of what she wants to do. “I really want to be a heart surgeon,” she says. Harris was invited to attend the camp as a result of her work in a woman’s co-operation that helps women in need called “Women on the Rise.” “When I heard about this camp and that it was about medicine I really wanted to participate,” she says. “The three days have been very exciting.”

The allure of the camp does not rest solely on the campers themselves. Amanda Try, who will be entering her first year of Medicine at McGill in the fall, participated in 2015 by helping to organize workshops but wanted to participate as a camp counsellor this year. “Planning workshops is great but you get your one or two hours with the campers and that’s it,” explains Try. “As a counsellor you really get to know the campers over the course of the three days, and by participating in all of the workshops, even as university students you get the chance to learn a lot of new things.”

Ala Bdira, a third-year medical student at McGill who has been on the organizing committee for the camp since her first year of medical school shares the positive experience that she gains from it and the impact the camp can have on participants. “I like the educational aspect of the camp and the idea of high school students being able to learn about health careers that they may never have heard of,” she says. “When I was in high school there were some careers that I never heard of that I wish I would have, and I feel this is a great opportunity to not only learn about the different careers but also to experience them firsthand and figure out what fits best with your interests and personality.”

While the organizers are always looking for new students to join them, the model they use and the positive experience they create ensures that people keep coming back, including Max Williams a John Abbott College student who attended as a camper two summers ago and returned to work at the camp last year and this year. “I would recommend this camp to anyone who is interested in science,” says Williams. “Every year they try to make the camp better. You’re exposed to so many different programs that you didn’t know existed or know that much about. For me, I learned about physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, pharmacology. You get exposed to a lot of different stuff and it’s really interesting and really helpful!”

Tremblay says that while they feel the camp has been successful to date the true measure of its success will only come down the line. “When you talk to the campers at the end of the three days each year they all leave highly motivated,” she explains. “As we maintain contact with an increasing number of campers, we will see in a few years how many end up pursuing post-secondary education and in what fields.”

To learn more about the camp or to find out how you can be involved next year, contact: Mcgill.explore@gmail.com

Photo courtesy of Laurianne Rita Garabed

By Laurianne Rita Garabed

Every summer leaves us wanting more. More of the wonderful things that we had the chance to read about, to reflect and to work on; more of the exceptional people that we had the opportunity to meet and to talk to; more of the unique experiences that we had the courage to live. To me, the summer of 2016, which I spent almost completely in Harvard University’s Longwood Medical Area, in Boston, has been one of the most enjoyable experiences that I have lived so far.

Last year, I learned about a unique scholarship that has been offered since 2007 by the Graham Foundation of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). Every year, a few Canadian and US medical students have the honor of being selected as recipients of this coveted scholarship, a truly exceptional opportunity, which offers a mix of both clinical and research exposure, in a thoracic or cardiac surgery specialty. The scholarship rapidly sparked my interest, as I realized that it represented “the” chance for me to work under the mentorship of a pediatric cardiac surgeon, whose work I had admired for many years, Dr. Pedro del Nido, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at the Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH).

A few months after I submitted my application, I received an email, stating that I had been awarded the scholarship, from which moment time flew by – it was already June before I even had the time to realize it.

On the Saturday following my last first-year exam, I set off for Harvard University’s International Office and, a few days later, I was finally in the hospital, with my Boston Children’s Hospital

Dr. Pedro del Nido (l) and Laurianne Rita Garabed (Photo courtesy of Laurianne Rita Garabed)

badge, walking amazed in this amazing institution, with all of the cardiac surgery articles that I had been reading during the previous three months overloading my backpack.

What first struck me in Longwood Medical Area was the large number of health professionals and families of patients constantly strolling or rushing along Longwood and Huntington Avenues. People from all over the world. Different languages everywhere, a bit like Montreal.  A place where all gathered with a similar goal: providing the best care to a patient, to a family member, or to themselves. And I was also there, impatiently waiting to embark on this exciting journey, looking forward to giving my all and to proving my McGill pride to the international medical staff who always keep the BCH so wonderfully busy.

In my first weeks, I had the chance to meet several times with my mentor, Dr. Pedro del Nido, whose character turned out to be even more stellar than his well-deserved reputation. I also had the chance to meet with Sophie Hofferberth, the surgical resident who guided me throughout my internship in Boston. I soon came to realize that I had been given the chance to work in a wonderful department, surrounded by hard-working and driven physicians, students, biomedical engineers and scientists, among others. A team in which specialists do not hesitate to share their expertise by contributing, whenever they can, with a bit of knowledge or with some ideas. In the cardiology/cardiac surgery department at the Boston Children’s Hospital, conversations take you onto intellectual avenues that keep branching towards a more comprehensive understanding of the human heart, its physiological and pathological characteristics, and the preventative and therapeutic approaches that should – or should not – be used in certain patients.

Photo courtesy of Laurianne Rita Garabed

During my internship, I had the opportunity to do many exciting things. Twice a week, I attended clinical conferences, where surgical cases were presented and discussed. In addition, during a weekly meeting of Dr. del Nido’s lab, I was able to get updates on the-cream-of-the-crop research results of the many cardiac projects that are concurrently being carried out at the hospital and around the world.

Those meetings were all very thought-stimulating and helpful in guiding me through the two congenital cardiac surgery research projects that I worked on simultaneously, one on tetralogy of Fallot and the other, on heterotaxy. In parallel, I was given the unique chance to study some of the specimens belonging to the famous “Van Praagh collection” of the Boston Children’s Hospital, which includes more than three thousand specimens of the Cardiac Pathology Registry at the BCH, the only collection of its kind and size in the world.

Finally, I was given the opportunity to shadow a few cardiac surgeries. All of them were uniquely surreal and have left an unforgettable impression on me. There is something almost “miraculous” about every step of a cardiac surgery, about how a tiny child has his or her chest open, about how cardiopulmonary bypass is set up and works, about how a piece of your body – the pericardium, for example – can be ingeniously used to repair some other part of your heart. All of those seemingly mechanical steps that one reads about in textbooks suddenly make sense as they are happening right in front of you, and one cannot keep himself or herself from staring in awe at the surreal yet meticulously studied delicacy of the surgical task.

Today, when I reminisce about my time in Boston, all of these positive feelings come back. I have witnessed the kind of self-nourishing motivation that a medical student comes across when shadowing passionate physicians who, like Dr. Pedro del Nido, have been able to maintain their frank interest in improving patient care and an insatiable curiosity for continuously perfecting surgical approaches for young patients. My internship, sponsored by the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and Harvard International Office, it was all I had hoped it would be: busy, thought-stimulating, and purposeful. I am very grateful to my sponsors and to my mentor for having made this internship so exceptional. With this great experience in tow, I returned to Montreal, eager and ready to continue my journey on the road to becoming a physician.

Laurianne Rita Garabed is a second-year medical student in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University

September 9, 2016

Photo: Owen Egan

Second-year McGill medical student, Alexandre Elhalwi has been elected as the President of the Comité des étudiants en médecine de l’Association Médicale du Québec, a new committee borne of a recent Quebec Medical Association (QMA) restructuring.

The QMA is an organization that promotes medical professionalism through advocacy and political action, providing physicians, residents and medical students with a forum for discussion as well as a voice on important issues affecting the delivery of healthcare services and the health of the population. The QMA focuses on political medical issues, including clinical governance, overdiagnosis and health care reform, among others.

This will be Elhalwi’s second year on the QMA’s student committee, having had the opportunity last year to participate as voting member of the QMA’s delegation at the Canadian Medical Association’s General Council, akin to the “National Parliament of Medicine” where many important issues in health care are discussed, debated, and then voted on, with these positions ultimately helping to shape health care policy in Canada.

“Attending last year made me feel like change in the health care system is achievable and that medical students have an important role to play in that change,” says Elhalwi.  “My classmates and other medical students across Quebec are my teammates in this endeavour and I believe that it’s important for us to all be well-versed in advocacy and political action. My focus this year as President of the committee will be to facilitate the development of those advocacy and leadership skills, and to encourage and support the advocacy projects that medical students are already working on.”

Congratulations Alexandre!

October 13, 2016