Department of Medicine Weekly Roundup - June 21

Re:         Higgins Day 2024

Dear Colleagues,

At this week’s Higgins Day event, the thirty-sixth annual H. Patrick Higgins Memorial Scholarship Award of Merit was presented. This award, which is given to the resident with the best research project at the event, consists of a $2,000 prize and a plaque. The section judges this year were Jill Alston, Evelyn Cheung, Adam MacLellan, Lauren King, Ann Young,

James Marriott, Katina Tzanetos, Rachel Shupak as well Dr. Brian Higgins and Dr. Kevin Higgins.  The committee chose the winners from the 15 resident projects presented. 

I am very pleased to announce that Youstina Soliman’s presentation “Associations between socioeconomic status, insulin pump use, and diabetes outcomes among adults with type 1 diabetes in Ontario” was selected.  Her supervisor was Dr. Alanna Weisman from Mount Sinai  Congratulations, Youstina!

The award for research in urban health and substance use support called the William P. Jones III Memorial Scholarship Award was also awarded to Youstina Soliman’s for her presentation “Associations between socioeconomic status, insulin pump use, and diabetes outcomes among adults with type 1 diabetes in Ontario”.

The best presentation prize in the Quality Improvement/Education category was awarded to Mitali Chaudhary titled “Towards a Health Advocacy Curriculum for Hematology Resident Physicians”.

Research category winner is Jami Kronick for her presentation “Ultrasound-Derived Average Kidney Length for Risk Prediction in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease”.

Clinical Vignettes category winner was Petra Famiyeh for her presentation titled “Miliary Tuberculosis Presenting with Meningitis, Tuberculomas, Osteomyelitis, Psoas Abscesses and Pulmonary Involvement”

I also would like to congratulate the winners of the Murray Muirhead Awards: Yuchen Dai PGY1; Michael Youssef PGY2; and at the PGY3 level, Flora Jung. Orly Bogler, Connon Award;  Abdul Al-Hesayen the winner of the Gerald Wong Award for undergraduate teaching excellence award; and the winners of the Dr. Robert Sargeant Postgraduate education award are Seema Marwaha, Kamran Khan, Jeffrey Wang, Ophir Vinik and Laura Walker.

We have also introduced the new Divisional Subspecialty Resident Awards this year.  Congratulations to the winners:

Thank you to everyone who joined our Higgins Day event.  The presentations were of excellent caliber and I hope you enjoyed the afternoon as much as I did.

Congratulations to all!

Please see below for the following updates:

• Reminders and instructions for Epic Systems Training registration opening June 24
• Key actions to conserve blood culture bottles
• Awards and Honours
• Ontario Health Provincial Physician Lead Opportunities: Cardiac, Stroke and Vascular
• Call for Nominations- Jeffrey Lozon Physician Leadership Award

Please be reminded that all Unity Health staff and physicians who will use the new Epic EPR system once it launches on Nov. 30 are required to complete Epic Systems training ahead of go-live. Physicians are responsible for registering themselves once the training registration window opens at 7 a.m. on June 24. Please see below for important reminders and step-by-step instructions on how to register. 

Registration instructions 

Training has been preassigned in Elevate, Unity Health’s Learning Management System (LMS). To enrol in a classroom training session, please see this tip sheet, this how-to video or follow the steps below. You can also find an introduction to Elevate in this short overview video.

1. Sign into Elevate (https://elevate.unityhealth.to) using your Unity Health credentials. This is the same network username and password that you use to log into other Unity Health systems. 
   • Note: You can access Elevate through any browser and on any device. You do not need to be logged into Citrix or FortiPortal, or on a Unity Health device. 
2. Once logged in, you’ll see a My Learning Progress widget on the right-hand side of the home page, below the Elevate banner. In that widget, find the course you want to enrol in. 
   • Note: You won’t be able to see your Epic Systems training courses until 7 a.m. on June 24. If you still don’t see your courses after that time, click on “View All” at the bottom right-hand side of the widget. 
3. Click on the course title you want to enrol in. 
4. In the Enrolment Options box, click on the “Choose Session” button. 
5. From the available list of sessions, select the one you want to enrol in. 
6. Click the “Confirm” button to enrol in the chosen session. 

If you encounter any issues trying to register once the training registration window opens, please log a ticket with the HelpDesk using the ServiceNow portal (NOT via phone or email). A member of the EPR Education team will review your ticket and get back to you as soon as possible. 

Reminders 

• Training courses have been pre-assigned in Elevate. Physicians are only responsible for selecting the date, time and location that they want to attend training.  
• ALL Unity Health physicians are required to register for training. A training exemption will be made available for physicians who have recent and related Epic experience but until the exemption process opens in August, all physicians should still secure a spot for training. 
• Physicians will have to dedicate one day for Epic training, to be done in-person. 
• Physicians do not need to register immediately on June 24 but please note that classroom training sessions will be available on a first come, first served basis.  
  • Each track has a collection of date/time options that are fixed and cross the three sites.  
  • Based on information provided by clinical groups, some tracks include Saturday options. 
  • There are enough classes for everyone, and everyone will have to choose one. 
  • Epic requires that all physicians at Unity Health be registered by Aug. 30. 
• Registration is NOT restricted to your home site. It's recommended that you choose the date/time that works for you, and do not restrict yourself by only looking at one site. 

Thank you in advance for your attention to this. If you have any questions, please see the resources available on the EPR System Training page on UnityNet or email [email protected]. 

We were recently informed of a global supply chain disruption to BD blood culture bottles. This shortage is impacting all Canadian hospitals and blood collection centres that use BD supplies. We anticipate the shortage to last for the next three months, at minimum, and we are collaborating with other organizations and the vendor for alternatives.

To conserve our supply of blood culture bottles at Unity Health Toronto, we need your help to share these best practice recommendations for blood culture draws with your teams:

• Collect two sets of blood cultures (one aerobic and one anaerobic bottle) for each febrile episode within 24 hours. Take up to three sets if there is a high suspicion of endocarditis in adults. Please review previous orders to avoid duplicate collections.
• Pay close attention to the fill volume to meet 8-10 mL per bottle for adults. For pediatric patients, follow the volume collection guidelines.
• Closely adhere to aseptic technique (disinfecting the bottle stopper) and skin preparation.
• Favour collections from peripheral venipuncture sites.
• Repeat blood cultures are only warranted to test for clearance of select patients (i.e. staphylococcus aureus, candida species blood stream infections, patients with endocarditis). Test for clearance is not required for patients with gram negative bacteremias with clinical improvement.
• Do not inoculate blood culture bottles at the bedside with other sterile bodily fluids. Instead, aseptically collect and send the fluid in sterile containers.

As we currently have limited control over blood culture bottle supply, the main way we can help is to minimize unnecessary blood culture draws.

Please share the above reminders at upcoming team huddles and meetings with direct reports. Please also remind your teams that these conservation efforts must continue over the coming months to help prevent a negative impact on patient care.

We will provide updates regularly and anticipate there may be additional restrictive guidance in the coming days. We appreciate your assistance in helping to stretch our supply as we work through this global supply chain shortage.

Congratulations to all!

University of Toronto Department of Medicine Awards

• Fahad Razak has received the 2024 University of Toronto Department of Medicine Robert Hyland Award for Excellence in Mentorship (Mid-Career)
• Stephen Hwang has received the 2024 University of Toronto Department of Medicine Michael Gordon Award for Humanism in Medicine
• Sharmistha Mishra has received the 2024 University of Toronto Department of Medicine William Goldie Prize and Travel Award for Clinical Research
• Katina Tzanetos has received the 2024 University of Toronto Department of Medicine Teacher of the Year Award
• Fahad Razak has received the 2024 city-wide Dr. Rob Sargeant Mentorship award.
• Reena Pattani has received the 2024 city-wide GIM Mid-Career Teaching award.
• Emily Swinkin received the city-wide Division of Neurology Faculty Teaching award and Starkman Prize.
• Alex Muccilli received the city-wide Neurology John Edmeads Mentorship award.
• Jeff Perl received the city-wide Nephrology Mentorship award.
• Ziv Harel received the city-wide Nephrology Clinician award.

University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine Awards

• Jillian Alston is the recipient of the 2024 Robert Sheppard Award for Health Equity and Social Justice.
• Laura Walker is the recipient of the 2024 Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Medical Education in the category of Teaching Performance, Mentorship and Advocacy

Unity Health Toronto

• Jeff Mosko received the Complete Physician Award
• Kamran Khan received the Fitzgerald Academy Health Science Research Teacher Award          
• Yuna Lee received the Fitzgerald Academy Clerkship Teacher Award 
• Gyl Midroni received the SMH Neurology Teaching award.

Dear Cardiac, Stroke, and Vascular Partners: 

Ontario Health values the strong partnerships and engagement with you, our partners, and clinical leaders, who continue to dedicate countless hours and contribute immensely to advancing cardiac, stroke, and vascular care in Ontario. As such, and in alignment with strengthening Ontario Health’s clinical leadership model, we are excited to let you know that we are renewing the provincial physician roles - one for cardiac, stroke, and vascular care (respectively).  

We recognize the immense contributions of our current provincial physician leads to cardiac, stroke and vascular care in Ontario. These roles will continue to be vital in advancing Ontario Health’s cardiac, stroke and vascular priorities.

The successful physician leads will provide visionary leadership for the planning, delivery, and evaluation of services across the continuum; will have clearly defined accountabilities; and, will actively represent each clinical area, as part of the broader Ontario health landscape.

We invite you to consider this unique opportunity to continue to provide strategic leadership to the evolution of cardiac, stroke and vascular care in Ontario. For more details about the roles and information on how to apply, please visit:

Provincial Clinical Lead, Cardiac 

Provincial Clinical Lead, Stroke 

Provincial Clinical Lead, Vascular  

The closing date to apply for these opportunities is July 18, 2024 at 11:59 P.M.

If you have any questions, please email Alexandra Keludjian, Senior Specialist, Clinical Strategy at [email protected]. 

Please feel welcome to forward this communication to other partners who may be interested in this opportunity.

Thank you for your continued commitment to advancing cardiac, stroke, and vascular care in Ontario.

Sincerely,

The Jeffrey C. Lozon Physician Leadership Award is given annually to a physician member of St. Michael’s Hospital who has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills in promoting the mission and vision of the hospital. Nominations will be accepted from any member of St. Michael’s, including both medical and non-medical staff. Self-nominations are also accepted. The nominator must provide their own letter of nomination and two supporting letters.

Please submit nominations to the Medical Staff Office, [email protected] The submission deadline is October 11th. Terms of Reference attached.

Thank you!

Narisha