Special Events / Notable Opportunities / Happenings

• A very successful 2nd Annual Medical Education Research in Primary Care retreat & workshop was held on June 13th
  A special thank you to Tina Karwalajtys, Liz Shaw, and Allyn Walsh who worked hard to organize the event.  
• Congratulations to all department members who presented at Trillium 2008. This includes Michelle Howard, Gina Agarwal, David Chan, Stephanie Laryea, Tina Karwalajtys, Lisa McCarthy, Ainsely Moore, Kim Sheehan, Joy White, and Graham Swanson.
• Congratulations to Janusz Kaczorowski a recipient of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research 2008 Career Investigator Award (Senior Scholar). 
• The first ever Ontario FHT pharmacist networking day was held on June 23rd 2008.  Congratulations to Lisa Dolovich and Lisa McCarthy for being part of the planning group for this event. The event represents a tangible example of the sustainability of the recently completed PHCTF funded IMPACT research project.  
• Congratulations to all who received funding and/or published articles in the past month.  For a detailed list of publications and funding, please view the June 2008 Research Report

Chair’s Report—D.Price

The Department has recently signed the next phase of the Alternate Funding Plan which allows us to have a stable funding platform for the next three years. Many thanks to Dr. Cheryl Levitt for getting us through the first phase and for getting us into a position where we can be competitive with our community colleagues.

The FHT budget for next year has recently been submitted to the Ministry of Health

Distance Sites

A Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed with the City of St. Catharines. The city has agreed to provide a clinic to be the base of residency education in the Niagara region. Drs. Liz Shaw and Karl Stobbe have been instrumental in developing an education council in the Niagara region. This council is made up of the leads from Grimsby, Niagara Falls, Niagara‐on‐the Lake, St. Catharines and Welland. Conversations are taking place with the Ministry of Health regarding the possibility of creating an FHT which would have “tentacles” into St. Catharines and Burlington.

Downtown Campus

Negotiations are ongoing with the Hamilton‐Wentworth District School Board.

IMG Presentation—I.Schabort

Dr. Inge Schabort, along with her IMG colleagues discussed the IMG Observership Project.

An observership is a period of time spent observing clinical practice with no patient contact

• Normally lasts between one week to a month
• No service commitment or salary
• Non‐accredited
• Linked with a supervising doctor
• No patient contact
• No responsibility for the patient
• Learn by observing

Detailed information is available on Dr. Schabort’s presentation which can be found at this link.