South Island Physicians have been hard at work on their engagement and quality improvement projects, making changes that impact on the quality of patient care. They have also been getting their hard work into print. Two South Island Physician groups have just had their work featured in peer reviewed publications. Dr. Paul Winston was part of a team working to improve treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). Their publication in Pain Research and Management indicates the utility of using prednisone, a type of corticosteroid, for treatment of CRPS. This finding suggests that routine community clinic settings could be appropriate places for treatment of CRPS, rather than requiring specialty services or tests.
Dr. Konia Trouton, Dr. Chloe Lemire-Elmore, Rosanne Beuthin from Island Health, and their colleagues explored bereavement support among providers offering Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) within Island Health. The physician offering MAID is often not the primary care provider for the patient, as thus, may not have an ongoing relationship with the patient’s family. The study sought to understand the extent to which MAID providers felt able to offer bereavement support to families experiencing MAID. They found that MAID providers saw bereavement following a medically assisted death to be unique and that consequently, bereavement support tailored to these realities is essential. As a result of the findings of this study, a guide to support healthy grieving for patients and their families experiencing MAID is now available.
In addition to these publications, a group of South Island physicians have had their work on streamlining care for early pregnancy loss featured at a recent conference. Dr. John Cooper and colleagues initiated the Victoria Loss Working Group to identify current patterns of referral for management of early pregnancy loss, and create a pathway for a centralized referral pathway to make treatment easier to acquire in a timely manner. He and his colleagues worked with an Island Medical Student, Anita Weng, throughout this project. Anita presented the results of this project at the recent Family Medicine Summit of the Alberta College of Family Physicians.
We congratulate these physicians for their hard work on these projects!