Northern Constellations 2019

On May 3 and 4 in Sudbury, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine hosted Northern Constellations 2019, our eighth annual faculty development conference. Northern Constellations as the largest physician and faculty meeting in Northern Ontario, provides a forum to share new ideas in medical education and health care along with opportunities for faculty, staff and learners to network and engage with colleagues.

Northern Constellation 2019 was attended by 275 participants including 180 NOSM faculty members. The conference featured enlightening keynotes, workshops, and educational innovations to assist faculty, healthcare professionals, staff, and learners to address current educational innovations and challenges.  Sessions provided opportunities for participants to further develop their expertise in the areas of Precepting and Teaching, Scholarship and Research, Leadership Development, and Wellness and Resiliency.

Northern Constellations 2019 featured three exceptional keynote speakers.  Firstly, Dr. Cheryl Barnabe, a Metis rheumatologist, clinical epidemiologist, and health care researcher from the University of Calgary whose work is dedicated to supporting the provision of culturally safe arthritis care environments. Secondly, Regina Holliday, a Maryland patient advocate, artist, medical educator and public speaker with a unique approach to medicine and healing. Thirdly, Dr. Adina Kalet, an internist, medical educator, and researcher who has written extensively on learner evaluation, remediation, and professional identity formation.

Please view the Northern Constellations 2019 program

Dr. Cheryl Barnabe

Dr. Cheryl Barnabe is a Métis rheumatologist with a graduate degree in clinical epidemiology, originally from the southern Manitoba community of St. Jean Baptise.  She is an Associate Professor and a Vice-Chair in the Department of Medicine (Indigenous Health) at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Dr. Barnabe is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Indigenous Health Advisory Committee.

Dr. Barnabe’s research program, ‘Arthritis Care for Indigenous Populations’, has contributed knowledge on the epidemiology of arthritis and contemporary outcomes of inflammatory arthritis conditions for Indigenous people. In response to the identified accentuated disease burden, she co-develops promising health services interventions to bridge the care gaps that exist, and leads the delivery of curricular initiatives for rheumatology residents and practitioners to support the provision of culturally safe arthritis care environments. She is the principal investigator of the Alberta Indigenous Mentorship in Health Innovation (AIM-HI) Network, a CIHR-funded Indigenous Mentorship Network Program, to recruit and retain Indigenous scholars in health research.

Dr. Barnabe has received several national awards, including a CIHR Canada Research Chair in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Autoimmune Diseases, Killam Emerging Research Leader Award (2018) and is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada (2018).

Title: Changing the system: Health service solutions to achieve equity in arthritis care with Indigenous populations

View Cheryl Barnabe’s presentation Now!

Regina Holliday

Regina Holliday is a health care activist from Maryland who is determined to create awareness to a range of patient narratives. Regina’s advocacy mission was inspired by her husband, Frederick Allen Holliday II who died of kidney cancer. His illness was complicated by poor care coordination between multiple health care organizations, limited access to patient records, and a series of medical errors.

Regina has been showcasing her unique perspective on medicine and healing by starting an advocacy movement called “The Walking Gallery.” She uses the patient’s perspective through art to recreate their story on the backside of a blazer. Also known as participatory medicine, Regina believes that blending patient narratives into art pieces can create a conversation. Those who support the cause wear her pieces as a marker of patient tribulations to spread recognition and compassion towards all patients. “Walking Gallery” members provide a voice at conferences where there might not be a patient representative. Regina is a well-renowned public speaker who uses her artistic passion as a platform for medical education and her advocacy work.

Title: The power of the patient story

View Regina Holliday’s presentation Now!

Dr. Adina Kalet

Dr. Adina Kalet is an internist, master of public health graduate, and co-director of the Program on Medical Education Innovation and Research at the New York University School of Medicine. Through her scholarly work, Dr. Kalet and her colleagues seek to link how education interventions and health services research lead to long-term outcomes in learners and patients.

Dr. Kalet has written extensively on issues of learner evaluation and remediation, faculty development and mentoring, professional identity formation and psychosocial aspects of medicine.  She is the author of A Midcourse Correction: A Framework for Remediation of Physician Trainees. Through her written work, presentations, and consultations; Adina brings relevant theory and practice across multiple scholarly domains to the challenges of remediating health professional trainees. Both medical educators and trainees require respectful means to address performance shortcomings which fail to meet professional and societal expectations.

Title: How would we act differently if we believed that assessment should drive learning?

View Adina Kalet’s presentation Now!

Northern Constellations 2019 and NOSM’s 10 Year Celebration

Happy anniversary NOSM!  During Northern Constellations 2019, attendees celebrated the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s 10 years of graduating health care professional students, interns and residents by recognizing the commitment, hard work, and achievements of our 1,650 faculty members.

Thank you to our many sponsors for their generous support of Northern Constellations 2019! Northern Constellations 2019 Sponsorship