05 Sep 2024 TI Blog Update: September 2024
While much of the world faces inordinately difficult struggles with wars, famine, floods, and epidemic disease, for British Columbians and Canadians life is still comparatively easy and secure. But we do face major challenges to sustain our universal and high quality health system.
As a reader of TI content, you already know that pharmaceuticals are critically important in modern health care, but also sometimes a major cause of health problems. Deprescribing harmful, inappropriate, or unnecessary medications can improve health and reduce wasteful expenditures. Our Deprescribing Webinar series contributes to this effort by presenting anonymized real-life cases from doctors, pharmacists, and nurse practitioners.
Because our TI Best Evidence course on October 18 and 19th returns for the first time since COVID19 to in-person education (plus online, by Zoom), we will postpone the next BC Deprescribing Webinar until November 2024. Clinicians (or patients/families) who wish to present a case in the series may contact at any time: tom.perry@ubc.ca
Meanwhile, I encourage you to consider attending our October 18th intensive 3.5 hour in-person workshop: Feeling Good About Deprescribing workshop. In very small groups, every participant gets to think through a number of cases of real patients for whom deprescribing should be considered (or is in process). A bargain at the registration fee of $99 for the afternoon, I can also guarantee that you will learn practical skills from your colleagues and from facilitating faculty.
And DON’T FORGET our main course in downtown Vancouver on Saturday, October 19th, also offered online (by Zoom). See details below and at this link:
After a brief summer break the TI Methods Speaker Series resumes on September 25th at 12:00 noon PDT [Pacific Time: convert to your local time] with a presentation by Mohsen Alayche, a brilliant first-year resident physician at McMaster University, who will talk about Evaluating prospective study registration and result reporting of trials conducted in Canada from 2009 to 2019. Mohsen will talk about Canadian unpublished clinical trials from the past decade and will discuss the findings of a published paper presented in Chicago at the Peer Review Congress and featured on CTV news
Read more about this free webinar or REGISTER.
REGISTRATION for our popular annual course is open. Evaluations by past attendees often say they appreciate “the other side of the story” about prescription drugs – presented and discussed by an unconflicted faculty. Please consider joining us for Best Evidence 2024, and let your colleagues or students know about this opportunity:
2024 Annual Course: Bringing Best Evidence to Clinicians
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Therapeutics Initiative, we’re excited to introduce a unique format for this year’s event, with an in-person gathering on Friday, October 18, followed by hybrid (virtual and in-person) sessions on Saturday, October 19. Those who attended in the past know that the audience is as lively and fun to interact with as the speakers. And the conference hotel rate of $169/night (plus taxes, parking) is now a very attractive rate for a visit to Vancouver. But you can also attend online by Zoom.
This year’s course features two internationally renowned guest faculty with rave reviews from past audiences in Vancouver and online:
- Dr. Derelie (Dee) Mangin is a leading research professor in Family Practice, originally from New Zealand and now at McMaster University. She is one of the rare physicians who has run trials of deprescribing. Dee can be as funny as she is friendly, and this is a great opportunity for anyone to meet her during our Friday evening pre-course reception or on Saturday, October 19th.
- Dr. John Mandrola is an experienced cardiac electrophysiologist who has won international appreciation for his communication skills in dissecting and logically analyzing what we know and do not know from clinical trials. He’s as friendly and approachable as Dr. Mangin.
Of course our own TI faculty are not easily outdone. We guarantee that this course will make you think – and hopefully re-think some of what you do. But whether you’re a NP, pharmacist, physician, or student/resident, we’ll also provide you with practical trips to improve patient care. The course will culminate in a panel discussion on Saturday afternoon: “What are your picks for essential drugs in Canada”. The panel discussion will feature the two guest speakers (Dr. Dee Mangin and Dr. John Mandrola), Dr. Mina Tadrous, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Canada Research Chair in Real World Evidence and Pharmaceutical Policy, and Dr. Wade Thompson and Dr. Tom Perry from the Therapeutics Initiative
On Friday afternoon, October 18th, we also offer a specialized small-group Practical Deprescribing Workshop. If you face challenges in dealing with polypharmacy, or wonder if you could gain professional satisfaction by sometimes going “where others fear to tread,” this workshop is for you. It’s designed to interest and assist any health professional involved with medications – from student or resident to even a very experienced practitioner.
By working with UBC CPD, we keep fees to the minimum possible – to promote affordable access. In person registration fees cover lunch and refreshments on Saturday, and a refreshment break on Friday. If you can’t afford the fee, let us know: we will consider offering a subsidy.
This year’s course is hosted at UBC Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, a central location that offers convenient access to nearby popular attractions, making it an ideal location for attendees and family members to explore the city’s offerings outside of conference hours. Furthermore, this year’s event offers a variety of social activities, including a Friday evening reception at the Glowbal at Telus Garden (a chance to meet faculty and colleagues in a congenial environment with good food) and a guided gallery tour for family members at the Vancouver Art Gallery, both conveniently located just minutes away from the conference venue.
Read more about this year’s course or REGISTER.
If you are a BC family physician or nurse practitioner, we invite you to join over 1,000 of your BC colleagues who have signed up for the TI Portrait program at our secure online portal: https://secure.ti.ubc.ca/ Log in to view your Portraits and/or related materials, or sign up if you haven’t already.
Questions? Email the TI Portrait team at portrait@ti.ubc.ca We welcome your feedback.
We hope you will join us at one of these events, and register soon at the “early bird” rate! If you attend, we hope you will introduce yourself to all of us faculty.
Thomas L. Perry MD, FRCPC
Editor, Therapeutics Letter
Therapeutics Initiative
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
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