February 23, 2021: An Evening with Drs. Vinita Dubey, Justin Presseau and Kim Corace

 “Public health moves at the speed of trust” -Rishi Manchanda

 

If there is one word that will characterize 2021, trust might be it.

2020 was a year where trust in government, scientific expertise and public health advice have all to one degree or another faced challenges.

Physicians in the trenches have had to, and continue to, struggle with the role of clinician, juggling known knowns with unknown knowns and unknown unknowns.

You might feel that you need some additional guidance yourself as you try to balance the art with the science of medicine, while navigating the uncharted territories of COVID-19.

How to proceed, as the challenges of clinical care and opportunities provided by the miracles of immunization converge?

 You are invited to the first Doctors’ Lounge event of 2021 to explore those challenges, and discuss possible strategies and solutions.

Our guides will be:

Dr. Vinita Dubey, Associate Medical Officer for the City of Toronto and an expert in vaccine hesitancy.

Dr. Justin Presseau, Scientist (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute), Associate Professor (School of Epidemiology and Public Health, and School of Psychology, uOttawa), Chair, Health Psychology & Behavioural Medicine Section, Canadian Psychological Association.

Dr. Kim Corace, Vice President of Innovation and Transformation at The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group and President, Canadian Psychological Association

 Please join us in the virtual Doctors’ Lounge as we explore the recipe for ending the toll of the pandemic.

Further resources:   https://cep.health/

                                https://www.nejm.org/covid-vaccine/faq

                                    https://www.vaccineconfidence.org/

Related item: Medicine & the Holocaust ( in follow-up to last year's Remembrance Day program)

Recording of event here: http://daradocs.org/webinar/ 

http://daradocs.org/webinar/

GOOD VIBRATIONS

 

SING! SING! SING!!

Looking for a healthy addition to your life?

Consider  the experience of virtually joining the Toronto Physicians Choir .

Led by choral director Paul Genyk-Berezowsky

No experience necessary

No auditions  

 

December 10: An evening with Dr. Rex Kay & Friends

Stories can heal.

Stories can harm.

Stories matter.

During these tumultuous times, you have become a part of stories.

Your stories, the stories of others.

Stories about life and death, fear and courage, Us and Them.

You are invited to a special edition of the Doctors’ Lounge annual Festival of Medical Storytelling, an evening dedicated to sharing stories, poems, songs and artwork about the experience of being part of the health-care system,shared from any perspective.

Presenters are asked to keep their contributions to 5 minutes or less (we welcome creative efforts in pieces of one minute or less. In the past, some of these shorter presentations have been quite moving. It is amazing what can be conveyed in a few words! ).

Even if you are not prepared to be a presenter, feedback from audience members will hopefully make this a fully interactive experience. Dr. Rex Kay of Ars Medica: A Journal of Medicine, The Arts and Humanities (www.ars-medica.ca ) will be on hand to give insightful feedback on the creative efforts presented. Ars Medica is an award-winning Toronto-based literary journal which explores illness, healing, perceptions of the body, and encounters with health-care.

Let’s usher out 2020 with a reminder that stories matter.

Discussion piece: poetry and the pandemic: here

November 11: An Evening with Dr. Meb Rashid

Death. Destruction. Disease. Disability. Displacement.

As we reflect on the aforementioned consequences of war this Remembrance Day, you are invited to join us in The Doctors’ Lounge to reflect on the ongoing worldwide plight of refugees, through the lens of caring for them in our practices in Toronto.

Our guide for the evening will be Dr. Meb Rashid, Medical Director of the Crossroads Clinic at Women’s College Hospital.

Dr. Rashid is a recent recipient of the OMA Presidential Award which is given annually to a member of the OMA in recognition of their exceptional and long-lasting humanitarian service to the greater community, within Ontario or elsewhere.

Please join us for an examination of a tragic aspect of our chaotic world that has been displaced by other news of the day, and give yourself the opportunity to gather clinical pearls on managing this vulnerable population.

October 14: An Evening with Dr. Patricia Lakin-Thomas

November’s darkness looms, and with it, an annual ritual: the changing of the clock.

Some rituals die a natural death.

Others need the assistance of the enlightened.

The position of the Canadian Society for Chronobiology is that, based on current knowledge of chronobiology, permanent Standard Time is a wiser and healthier choice than our present situation.

This position was also recently endorsed by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Should the OMA support this position?

You are cordially invited to consider that question

Presenting the arguments in favour of this premise on behalf of the CSC will be Dr. Patricia Lakin- Thomas , Principal Investigator at York University’s Clocklab .

The rhythms of  life demand respect, especially in the COVID-19 era.

The cost of disregarding basic biology can be measured in our health.

Please join us for a lively discussion.

September 16: An Evening With Nikola Danaylov

 The future.

Two words with new meaning since COVID-19 overturned  our world.

What is the future, but a story we tell ourselves?

How do we as physicians tell patients that story, after they tell us theirs?

What have we learned from physicians telling stories for thousands of years, stories that today seem preposterous? What stories were we telling ourselves and our patients only six months ago that today seem ridiculous?

The present is just the future’s past, and we are living it daily.

The present is a gift, one that we can share with each other.

You and a guest are invited to share the gifts of our distinguished guest as we explore the future with futurist Nikola Danaylov, bestselling author of Conversations with the Future .

Please join us as we take the Doctors’ Lounge into the future, virtually, plunging into the unknown with expert guidance.