Continuing Professional Development would like to congratulate our colleagues for their strong presence at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education (SACME), held in Charleston, South Carolina recently. CPD was well represented in both the peer-reviewed academic workshops, oral and poster presentations as well as the awards ceremony at the end of the conference.

SACME is an organization whose mission is to promote the highest value in patient care and health of the public through the scholarship of continuing medical and interprofessional education. The organization offers many learning opportunities related to CPD practice and scholarship and we encourage our community members to consider becoming involved. The next SACME Annual Meeting will be held February 18-21, 2020 in Miami, FL.

The complete list of award and grant winners, presentations, posters, and workshops can be viewed here.

Since multiple myeloma is a manageable but not curable disease, there is always the possibility of relapse occurring. As a result, it is critical for healthcare providers to remain up-to-date on the best practices for multiple myeloma management.

The main goals of the 2019 Multiple Myeloma Day conference are to:

• Enhance the management of relapsed myeloma through multiple lines of therapy
• Introduce the concept of immunotherapies in the treatment of myeloma
• Improve the understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of MGRS

Each presentation will be followed by a question and answer session, allowing for an interactive experience. Attendees will also be able to participate in small group case-based sessions on various topics, including relapsed/refractory myeloma, myeloma drug toxicity, and transplant management for the community.

Multiple Myeloma Day will take place on May 24, 2019 at the Vaughan Estate, The Estates of Sunnybrook. Community health practitioners, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, trainees, and other health care providers who are involved in the care of patients with plasma cell disorders are encouraged to attend.

For more information and to register, please visit https://www.cpd.utoronto.ca/myeloma/.

It’s a sad truth, but in 2017 approximately 3,987 Canadians lost their lives in suspected opioid overdoses. It may seem like a daunting task, but Ontario health professionals can play an important role in keeping their patients safe, they just need to know how. The Opioids Clinical Primer Program was developed to address this need. The program is a partnership of Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) and the University of Toronto. It was developed in collaboration with experts from primary care, addictions and mental health from medical schools across Ontario including the University of Toronto, the Northern School of Medicine, Western University, the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, and McMaster University.

University of Toronto’s Dr. Lynn Wilson, Vice Dean, Partnerships and Dr. Meldon Kahan, Associate Professor, DFCM, spearheaded this initiative and worked to establish funding and support through the Ministry. Once the program was approved for development, they pinpointed faculty members working on addressing the opioid crisis throughout the Faculty of Medicine and invited them to participate in this important initiative.

Dr. Jennifer Wyman, Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), Family Physician and Addictions Specialist at Women’s College Hospital, was appointed as the project’s academic lead and led the development and launch of the Primer courses. Dr. Wyman engaged subject matter experts and CPD experts as well as primary care clinicians from each of Ontario’s six medical schools to ensure that the courses reflect the full range of perspectives and needs across the province. U of T Faculty including Drs. Abhimanyu Sud, Arun Radhakrishnan (DFCM), Dr. Ahmed N. Hassan (Psychiatry), and Dr. Kate Hodgson (CPD) contributed to the program as coauthors and expert reviewers.

The six-course program is a free, certified online program hosted by MacHealth that provides clinicians with an overview of key concepts and skills for facing common challenges in the management of patients with chronic pain and opioid use disorder.  The first three courses, Opioid Use Disorder in Primary Care: Principles of Assessment and Management, Managing Patients with Opioid Use Disorder in Primary Care with Buprenorphine and Safer Opioid Prescribing Strategies were launched earlier this year and the last three, Mental Health, Chronic Pain, and Substance Use: Addressing the Connections, Strategies for Managing Chronic Pain: Moving Beyond Opioids and Treating Opioid Use Disorder: Initiating Buprenorphine in Primary Care, ED and Inpatient Settings are slated to launch in 2019.

The project falls under the Ministry’s opioid strategy of providing educational tools to help physicians navigate the complexity of opioid prescribing, managing chronic pain and management of opioid use disorder. You can learn more about this program and the issues and complications that populations are dealing with as part of the opioid crisis by visiting opioids.machealth.ca or reaching out to Dr. Wyman at Jennifer.wyman@wchospital.ca or Twitter @JenniferWyman4.

In December 2018, new breast cancer screening guidelines were introduced by the Canadian Task Force on Preventative Health Care. These guidelines were the first since 2011 and included recommendations such as:

• Recommending women aged 50-74 (who are not at increased risk of breast cancer) to get mammograms every 2 years
• Recommending against woman below 50 (who are not at increased risk of breast cancer) to get routine screenings

The guidelines advocate for a shared decision-making process in which patients are able to discuss the risks with their doctor and make an informed decision about undergoing screening. The updated guidelines have proven to be quite controversial, gaining both support and criticism.

Considering these new guidelines, the theme of the 2019 Toronto Breast Imaging Conference – Breast Cancer Screening – is very timely. This conference will examine the technologies that are changing the approach to the diagnosis and management of breast diseases. Topics that will be covered include screening with imaging innovation, risk stratification, increasing cancer detection rates, reducing false positives, and more.

The Toronto Breast Imaging Conference will take place on Saturday, April 27, 2019, at the Women’s College Hospital Conference Centre in Toronto. Radiologists, technologists, radiology trainees, surgeons, pathologists, advanced nurse practitioners, and oncology trainees are encouraged to attend.

For more information and to register, please visit https://www.cpd.utoronto.ca/breastimaging/.

48 years ago, the first Toronto Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Symposium meeting was held in the basement of Toronto’s Wellesley Hospital. Over the years, this symposium has grown to become the largest plastic surgery meeting in Canada, with over 200 registrants attending the 2018 meeting. The Aesthetic Meeting provides participants with exposure to top aesthetic plastic surgeons and explores new developments within the field of both aesthetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures. An emphasis will be placed on patient selection, techniques, outcomes, and safety.

Hot topics for the 2019 conference include:

• Face & neck lift surgery
• Periorbital surgery
• Injectable and energy based facial rejuvenation treatments
• Body contouring surgery after massive weight loss
• Current controversies in breast implant surgery

The 49^th Annual Toronto Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Symposium will take place from April 5-6, 2019 at the Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.torontoaestheticmeeting.ca/toronto-aesthetic-meeting/.

Attending the Toronto Breast Surgery Symposium provides an excellent complement to the Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Symposium. In this meeting, current topics and new developments in the field of reconstructive and aesthetic breast surgery will be explored by local and international faculty.

The 19^th Annual Toronto Breast Surgery Symposium will take place on April 4, 2019 at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. For more information and to register please visit http://www.torontoaestheticmeeting.ca/toronto-breast-symposium/.

The interactive and educational nature of both symposiums will provide participants with an excellent learning experience and the chance to further upgrade their skillset. Additional information regarding both symposiums can be found on http://www.torontoaestheticmeeting.ca/.

According to a study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, St. Michael’s Hospital, and the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, one-third of opioid-related deaths in Ontario between 2013 and 2016 occurred among people who were being treated with prescription opioids. Over the course of the study, this number decreased slightly, but it still presents a major concern. After the United States, Canada experiences the 2^nd highest per capita consumption of prescription opioid use. Clearly, it is critical for healthcare providers to be properly trained and educated in opioid prescribing; this is especially important when considering that 20% of Canadian adults suffer from chronic pain.

The Safer Opioid Prescribing series will provide physicians and health care providers with increased knowledge regarding the management of chronic pain and the proper prescription of opioids. The knowledge shared in this program is based on the most up-to-date information from the 2017 Canadian Guideline for Opioids for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain.

Safer Opioid Prescribing consists of three webinars and a subsequent in-person skills development workshop. Part one of the webinar is “Assessing Chronic Complex Pain”; this will review recognizing chronic pain, assessing patients, and approaches for chronic pain management. Part two is “Prescribing Opioids in Chronic Pain”; this will cover topics such as assessing patients’ risk of overdose and use disorder. Part three is “Addressing Opioid Challenges”; this section will address challenges such as opioid prescriptions for special populations. The “Challenging Cases in Opioid Use and Misuse” Workshop is the final component of the series; this is an in-person skills development workshop.

The Spring 2019 Webinar will take place on March 26, April 30, and May 29. The in-person workshop will be held in Calgary on April 9, as well as in Toronto on May 8 and June 5. For more information and to register, please visit https://www.cpd.utoronto.ca/opioidprescribing/.

Over 2.5 million Canadians currently live with cataracts; in 2031, this number is projected to reach 5 million. Each year in Canada, over 350,000 cataract surgeries are performed, making it a highly common and important procedure for ophthalmologists.

The 2019 Toronto Cataract Conference will feature internationally renowned guest speaker Dr. David F. Chang, who is a cataract surgeon and clinical professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2018, Dr. Chang was named the 5^th most influential ophthalmologist in the world. Dr. Chang will share his invaluable wealth of experience in an innovative case-based session.

This year’s conference will review innovations in cataract surgery and provide participants with a deeper understanding of the medico-legal consequences of cataract surgery in Canada and the management of cataract comorbidities. In addition, practical and topical issues will be covered, including discussions around new technology, challenges, and debates within the field.  Participants will benefit from the interactive case-based format of the conference, as it will provide an opportunity to work through a number of challenging and controversial cases.

The Toronto Cataract Conference will take place on March 2, 2019 at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto. Office and allied medical personnel and other interested parties are encouraged to attend. 

For more information and to register, please visit https://www.cpd.utoronto.ca/cataract/.

The Centre for Faculty Development (CFD), The Program In Health Arts and Humanities and the University of Toronto Postgraduate Medical Education and Continuous Professional Development are excited to announce the launch of a new, advanced program: Deepening Narrative Competence – Part Two with Damian Tarnopolsky!

Registration closes on December 7, 2018. For more information and to register, please visit: https://cfd.utoronto.ca/fostering/details/3

This program aims to meet the needs of healthcare practitioners already working with narrative medicine approaches in their clinical or pedagogic practice, and/or writing for themselves and looking for further mentorship and support.

“Deepening Narrative Competence – Part Two” seeks to enhance students’ theoretical knowledge of and practical engagement with the tools of narrative medicine. The course will begin by introducing the basic elements of literary and reflective practice and the essentials of close reading. These will be applied with greater depth as the workshop goes on, introducing more specialized writing and reading techniques, as well as editing, rewriting, and modes of publication.

Participants will read a selection of published works relating to health and the body, and share their own written work in-between classes, all with the aim of honing and focusing our skills of observation, creation, and reception. Throughout, participants will be guided in discussion on the aims and practice of narrative medicine, and encouraged to find ways to apply its lessons in their own daily work, while understanding and respecting the ethical questions the work raises.

Guest speakers will visit the workshop to offer theoretical/practical/creative perspectives. This program will require in-between-session homework/readings.

Registration is now open until Dec 7th. Visit the program page for more details.

This November, Pathologists of various specialties will descend on Toronto to explore practical and emerging issues in Gastro-Intestinal and Pancreato-Hepato-Biliary Pathology. While the annual Pathology Update conference is set to feature a selection of talented researchers and speakers from U of T’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, this year’s installment will kick off with Phoenix Mayo Clinic Director of Gastrointestinal Pathology Dr. Rish K. Pai delivering an intriguing talk on Barrett’s esophagus.

The condition, which is a serious complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), occurs when normal tissue lining the esophagus changes to tissue that resembles the lining of the intestine. In rare cases, the condition has been linked to esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is a serious, potentially fatal cancer of the esophagus. Current treatments include radiofrequency ablation, photodynamic therapy and endoscopic mucosal resection.

Dr. Pai joins Pathology Update having lectured internationally on many aspects of gastrointestinal and hepatic pathology. He is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Surgical Pathology and has published over 70 articles and written multiple book chapters in the field.

Pathology Update takes place at the Doubletree by Hilton Toronto Hotel from November 2-3rd. Registration is now open. Visit the conference website for more details.