Delphi Monthly
December 2021
Welcome!
Dear Members,
As 2021 draws to a close, we wanted to take a moment to thank our outgoing CEO, Dr. Jennifer Blake for nine wonderful years of service at the SOGC.
Dr. Blake, we feel fortunate to have worked alongside you to improve the quality and access to women’s heath care across Canada. You have been instrumental in the success of all of our recent accomplishment at the SOGC. Below are some heartfelt messages from your friends and staff. We wish you the very best in all of your future endeavours!
Our podcast hosts, Dr. Smith and Dr. Guilbert, had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Blake last month as she reflected on her time at the SOGC. You can listen to the podcast HERE.
As we prepare for the holidays, we remind everyone to stay safe and practice some much needed self-care as you enjoy time with loved ones. Please note that the SOGC office will be closed from Friday, December 24th through Monday, January 3rd. The office will reopen on Tuesday, January 4th.
On behalf of everyone at the SOGC, we wish you all a restful holiday and a Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Dr. Morris
Welcome Dr. Francoeur!
The SOGC welcomes Diane Francoeur as new CEO
It is with great pleasure that the SOGC announces the appointment of the incoming CEO, Dr. Diane Francoeur!
Diane is a highly accomplished obstetrician-gynaecologist who has always shown a passion for her profession: caring for girls and women to help them make the best choices in relation to their sexual and reproductive health. After becoming the first woman president of the Federation of medical specialists of Quebec (FMSQ) and having completed all her mandates, she returned to her team and patients, having kept her medical expertise up-to-date. She continues to work as an associate professor at the CHU Ste-Justine, affiliated with the University of Montreal. She is well-acquainted with the SOGC having previously served as President from 2014 to 2015.
“It will be an honour to lead the SOGC into the era of post-COVID transformation. I look forward to working with all levels of governments, partners and stakeholders to provide access to relevant, high-quality health care for all Canadian women from coast to coast.
Another important focus will be the well-being of our members and all health care professionals supporting women’s health while ensuring they have the necessary resources to provide optimal care and support to their patients. Women have suffered tremendously during COVID-19. It is time to ensure that they will have access to essential care for themselves or their unborn children within an acceptable and safe time frame.”
She will begin as CEO as of January 1, 2022 and is eager to tackle the important issue of accessibility of care, which is terribly endangered with the shortage of human resources in health care and the worrisome rates of burnout. Diane brings with her vast experience in collaborative management, government relations, peer mentoring, and governance modernization, along with a deep passion for women’s rights advocacy, healthcare organization and politics.
Read the SOGC announcement HERE.
UPCOMING EVENTS
WEST CENTRAL 2022 CME
Make sure to save the date for our upcoming West/ Central 2022 CME. This year our West Central CME will be an in-person event with a virtual option.
TOP 5 WAYS TO EARN EXTRA CME CREDITS BEFORE THE END OF YEAR
- Register to the all-virtual Ontario CME!
The live event may be over, but you can still earn up to 32 hrs. of MOC 1 credits by watching all the sessions on demand! Register now and get access to all the content until the end of January. - Earn MOC 3 credits with these online courses: –
Medical Abortion Training Program (6 hrs.)
Not Your 2002 Menopause (4 hrs.)
Medical Management of Uterine Fibroids (3 hrs.)
Are you open to MIS? (2 hrs.)
Iron Deficiency Anemia: Bridging the Gap (1 hr)
And much more! - Complete the online modules of one of our 2 preceptorship programs (IUC insertion preceptorship and Subdermal implant preceptorship) and get ready to do some hands-on training in the new year!
- Register for ALARM virtual! Earn up to 39 hours MOC 1 credit with updated interactive online modules.
- Check out our Guideline resource kits to test your knowledge on some important topics! This free perk (only available to SOGC members) will earn you 1 hour of MOC 1 credits for each one you complete!
PARTNER NEWS
CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION SURVEY
The CMA wants to hear from physicians at all stages of their careers: New survey
The CMA is on a journey to strengthen engagement with the medical profession. This vital exploration was prompted by feedback from physicians and medical learners about their desired relationship with the association. With that in mind, the CMA launched the Profession Engagement Survey on Tuesday, Nov. 23 to ask physicians and medical learners what engagement means to them. All Canadian medical students, residents, and practising and retired physicians are welcome to participate and are invited to share the survey link with peers and colleagues.
The 7-minute survey will close on Sunday, Dec. 12, at 11:59 pm ET.
The CMA is committed to making transformational changes in health care and appreciates your input.
RCOG 2022 WORLD CONGRESS ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN
Abstract submission for the RCOG 2022 World Congress is now open. Next year’s event will take place from 13-15 June 2022. The deadline to submit abstracts is Thursday 3 February 2022 and more information can be found at rcog.org.uk/congress2022
SOGC NEWS
THE JOGC GOES GREEN STARTING 2022
We are excited to announce that starting January 2022, the JOGC will transition into an online-only publication in an effort to reduce its environmental footprint while remaining a valuable benefit to SOGC members. Through these efforts, we can save over 22 tons of paper each year!
For any questions about this transition, please view our FAQ.
Did you know? Your SOGC membership includes a digital subscription to the JOGC! You can currently access digital guidelines and all JOGC content by logging into your SOGC member portal. Use either the quick access button on the homepage or the links in “My Guidelines” to access the JOGC from your personal device or desktop. View the SOGC Digital Guideline Access FAQ for more info.
CFWH FELLOWSHIP AND GRANT APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN
The Canadian Foundation for Women’s Health (CFWH) and its partners are pleased to promote and support research initiatives in the field of women’s health.
We are now accepting applications and welcome project applications until January 3, 2022. We hope you will consider submitting a proposal for the following:
• CFWH General Research Grant
• The Kitty Carr Research Grant
• The Dawn Walker Grant
• The André Lalonde Bursary for the Work of Canadian Physicians within Canada in Areas of Special Needs
CFWH-supported research translates directly into improvements in the sexual and reproductive health of Canadian women.
For more information on these programs, including application and process guidelines, please visit the CFWH website.
Good luck!
SUPPORT THE CANADIAN BLACK MIDWIFERY STUDENT FUND
In 2020, four BIPOC midwifery students created the Ontario Black Midwives Student Fund. They recently partnered with the Canadian Association of Midwives (CAM) and are seeking donations for their fund. Help the Canadian Black Midwifery Student Fund in their on-going effort to ensure that support for creating a diverse midwifery workforce meets the needs of Black birthers and combats anti-Black Racism.
NEW INITIATIVES TO PREVENT MATERNAL MORTALITY IN CANADA
Last month, the SOGC, alongside the Canadian Foundation for Women’s Health (CFWH), announced the launch of a number of initiatives to eliminate preventable maternal death in Canada.
The Canadian Foundation for Women’s Health(CFWH) is also excited to launch the Kitty Carr Fund (click here to read Kitty’s story) to support this important initiative. The fund, made possible through a generous donation from Mr. Paul Carr whose wife, Kitty, died in childbirth 27 years ago, will be used to fund annual post-graduate scholarship(s) focused on prevention of maternal mortality as well as initiatives towards the implementation of a Confidential Enquiry System in Canada. The funding programs of the CFWH; the new Kitty Carr Fund, The Dawn Walker Grant and The Lalonde Bursary, support research, education and initiatives to improve access to the highest quality of obstetric care to improve outcomes for mothers, their babies and their families. To donate to, and read about the important work of CFWH, please click here.
PASSREL – A NEW PROJECT IN HAITI
Launched in April 2021, the Supporting Equal Sexual and Reproductive Health (SESRH) project ultimately aims to improve the exercise of the right to health, particularly the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of residents of the Croix-des-Bouquets commune, a municipality near Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. The project aims to improve the quality of care provided to women and adolescents and, in addition, to increase the effectiveness of community organizations and professional associations (such as AISFH and SHOG) in promoting SRHR. The project will take place over a 5-year period and is funded by Global Affairs Canada.
PASSREL harnesses the efforts of three Canadian organizations, i.e. the Paul Gérin-Lajoie Foundation (Foundation), the Canadian Association of Midwives (CAM) and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC). The project is being implemented in partnership with three Haitian organizations, i.e. the Fondation pour la Santé Reproductive et l’Éducation Familiale (FOSREF), the Association des Infirmières Sages-Femmes d’Haïti (AISFH) and the Société Haïtienne d’Obstétrique et de Gynécologie (SHOG).
For more information, please contact Project Manager Liette Perron at lperron@sogc.com.
IN MEMORIAM
We recently had to say goodbye to a few of our esteemed SOGC members. We extend our heartfelt condolences to their families.
Boi Ngoc Thi Hoang
Madeline H. Chung
Narh Omaboe
We invite you to share your memories at dgutierrez@sogc.com and we will publish all comments received in the next issue of Delphi.
WOMEN’S HEALTH PODCAST
| MENOPAUSE AND BREAST CANCER |
| In this episode, our host Dr. Graeme Smith speaks with Dr. Michelle Jacobson about menopause and breast cancer. Dr. Jacobson is one of the authors of the clinical practice guideline on this subject that will be published in the December 2021 edition of the JOGC. Excerpt: SOGC: Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in Canadian women after only non-melanoma skin cancer. 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime. Previously, many women were prescribed hormone therapy during menopause but because of initial analysis of studies like the Women’s Health Initiative, many of those women went off their HRT or were never offered it to start. I recognize that the association between menopausal hormone therapy and the development of breast cancer is complex and new studies have emerged in the past few years. What have we learned? Dr. Jacobson: Menopausal hormonal therapy has a bit of a bad reputation in Canada and globally based on the results of large randomized global studies like the Women’s Health Initiative. When looking closely at the numbers from the WHI, the absolute risk of breast cancer was not a huge increased in numbers. The total increased risk of breast cancer was about 8 out of 10000 women. In the short and long term, women who were taking conjugated estrogens alone because they had had a hysterectomy had lower breast cancer rates even than women who took placebo or nothing at all. To be clear that we are talking specifically about the risk of developing breast cancer from starting hormone therapy, not the risk of having a recurrence in breast cancer for women who had already had breast cancer and take hormone replacement therapy. Listen to the full podcast episode HERE |
FEATURED ONLINE COURSE
Choosing Wisely Canada is a campaign to help clinicians and patients engage in conversations about unnecessary tests and treatment, to make smart and effective choices in order to achieve high quality care. Following this online course, participants will be able to describe the SOGC-CWC recommendations and rationale and apply the recommendations to clinical scenarios.
There is one course for gynaecologists and one for obstetricians. Each are accredited for 1 hour of Section 3 (SAP) CME credits and is free to members.
GUIDELINES AND COMMITTEE OPINIONS
NOVEMBER CLINICAL GUIDELINES
Make sure to check out our latest set of menopause clinical guidelines:
Guideline No. 422b: Menopause and Genitourinary Health
Shawna Johnston, MD, Céline Bouchard, MD, Michel Fortier, MD and Wendy Wolfman, MD
Guideline No. 422c: Menopause: Mood, Sleep, and Cognition
Alison K. Shea, MD, Wendy Wolfman, MD, Michel Fortier, MD and Claudio N. Soares, MD
Guideline No. 422d: Menopause and Sexuality
Wendy Wolfman, MD, Yonah Krakowsky, MD and Michel Fortier, MD
SUPPLY SHORTAGE UPDATE
AN UPDATE FROM PFIZER
Premarin Vaginal Cream is available again in Canada. Pfizer is hoping to replenish wholesalers and pharmacies with product as soon as possible.
COMMITTEE NEWS
A MESSAGE FROM THE SOGC RESIDENT ADVOCACY AND WELLNESS COMMITTEE
Hello OBGYN residents of Canada!
In December, we hear Christmas music and see decorations all over the hospital. It is a time to celebrate the holidays, with friends and family. For this December’s wellness initiative, we would like you to have a Secret Santa with your residency cohort. Spend some time together and exchange gifts; you can make it what you will: baked goods, poems, handmade crafts, small gifts, anything! If you like, go to www.elfster.com for an easy Secret Santa generator.
Once again, if you would like to, please send us a picture of your Secret Santa exchange to sogcwellness@gmail.com for your chance to win wellness prizes. Please list the name of the residents included for their chance to win as well. If you indicate consent in the email, we’ll include that photo in the end-of-year scrapbook for the annual SOGC conference. As a BONUS – send us a picture of your Christmas trees for extra entries!
Enjoy the month of December, your time off the holidays, and your secret Santas. We wish you love, laughter and wellness this Christmas.
Sincerely,
Your SOGC Advocacy and Wellness Committee
BORN ONTARIO MNOC DASHBOARD SUBCOMMITTEE – EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
The Better Outcomes Registry and Network (BORN) is Ontario’s prescribed perinatal, newborn and child registry with the role of facilitating quality care for families across the province. BORN collects, interprets, shares and rigorously protects high quality data essential to making Ontario the safest place in the world to give birth. To learn more about BORN, click here.
BORN’s Dashboards provide audit and feedback reports designed to measure key performance indicators that hospitals can use to measure performance and compare their performance against peer sites and provincial rates. Prior to the onset of COVID-19, the Maternal Newborn Outcomes Committee (MNOC) at BORN had solicited interest for membership on the Dashboard Subcommittee. As the COVID crisis progressed and consumed everyone’s time and resources, we paused the application submission and any further development of the subcommittee at that time.
We would now like to resume the application process. Please visit the BORN website to learn more about the subcommittee and the application process.
We are looking for a diverse and multidisciplinary membership of this subcommittee to move this important work forward. Some of our initial work will involve the finalization of a “Dashboard Operational Cycle” to ensure the dashboard KPI’s are current, relevant and meaningful. Also, we are currently working on a new dashboard KPI involving the Robson 1 category for cesarean birth!
Please email Janet Brownlee at jbrownlee@bornontario.ca by Friday, November 19, 2021. Please include your name, organization, position title, contact info, and a short paragraph about why you’d like to join this committee. Applicants must be in Ontario
Thank you from the Dashboard Subcommittee Core Team
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
PRESCRIBING THE ABORTION PILL WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS IS SAFE AND EFFECTIVE: UBC-LED STUDY
A UBC study on the medical abortion pill mifepristone, led by SOGC members: Wendy Norman,M.D, M.H.Sc, Sheila Dunn, M.D, and Laura Schummers,Sc.D., was published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week.
The study used comprehensive government health data to examine 315,000 abortions in Ontario between 2012 and 2020. An analysis showed no increase in abortion-related health complications following the removal of restrictions on mifepristone, which is considered the “gold standard” drug for medical abortion globally.
Read the publication HERE.
THE SOGC JOB BANK
Did you know you can search for jobs as well as post new ones in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology on our website? Make sure to check out the latest job postings or post one of your own on our careers page.
SOGC HOLIDAY HOURS
Please note that the SOGC office will be closed from Friday, December 24th through Monday, January 3rd. The office will reopen on Tuesday, January 4th. We wish you all a restful holiday and a Happy New Year!