Tuesday 23 May 2017

Cardiac Staff Matters 22/05/17


1. Dr. Sandra Lauck was a guest of the Cardiac Sciences Program on May 8 to share the experiences of St. Paul Hospital’s (Vancouver) TAVI (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation) program with us. The TAVI program at SBH started in 2012 and the processes continue to be refined. While she was here, Dr. Lauck lectured at Grand Rounds and had meetings with various groups of staff to share her insight and experiences. Her visit invigorated the team with energy and new ideas!

2. The Manitoba division of the Canadian Council of Cardiovascular Nurses is holding a day-long conference on June 5 at Inn at the Forks. “Keeping Current with Cardiovascular Care 2017” will feature a number of interesting speakers on topics from prevention through rehabilitation. Follow the link for more information.

3. COMINGS AND GOINGS:

- Welcome to Melissa Wiebe, who starts her permanent full-time position in the CSP Access Office at SBH this week!

- Good luck to Jennifer Stebner, who has been a cardiac echosonographer at HSC since March 2003. Her last day there is June 14th. Join us in wishing her all the best!

-  Marina Novelli is also retiring from the Echo Department at HSC (for a second time—she just couldn’t stay away!). Her last day is June 21. Hope you get the rest and free time you so richly deserve, Marina!

-  Once again we welcome Belinda Landry to the role of Clinical Education Instructor, supporting the Intensive Care Cardiac Surgery unit at SBH. Thanks Belinda, for stepping in while Ashleigh Shearer is away!

- In September, we will welcome two new interventional cardiologists to St. Boniface Hospital: Dr. Michael Love and Dr. Ashish Shah.

4. Four Cardiology trainees will be completing their Cardiology training on June 30th 2017. Congratulations to Drs. Bilal Ayach, Karen Chu, Shuangbo Liu and Rajat Sharma. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors. Know that you will be missed!

5. IN THE NEWS…
-  Dr. Amir Ravandi presented Interventional Cardiology on the Health Report on April 2nd. The link to his talk is https://omny.fm/shows/the-health-report/health-report-april-2nd.

6. Congratulations to Dr. Davinder Jassal on being awarded an operating grant in the amount of $118,773.10 from CancerCare Manitoba (2017-2019). Dr. Jassal, along with his co-applicant, Dr. S. Niraula, will be conducting a study titled: “Flaxseed in the mitigation of anthracycline and trastuzumab mediated cardiotoxicity study (FANTAM)”.

7. Our cardiologists have been quite prolific lately in being published:

-  Liu S, Ducas RA, Hiebert B, Koley L, Philipp RK, Tam JW. It's not just the snow; it's also the cold. CMAJ. 2017 Apr 10;189(14):E546. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.732931. PubMed PMID: 28396335; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5386852.

-  Liu S, Toleva O, Ravandi A, Pozeg Z, Menkis A, Kass M. Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation in an Extremely Tortuous S-Shaped Aorta. Case Rep Cardiol. 2017;2017:2936513. doi: 10.1155/2017/2936513. Epub 2017 Mar 2. PubMed PMID: 28352480; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5352869.

- Capoulade R, Chan KL, Mathieu P, Bossé Y, Dumesnil JG, Tam JW, Teo KK, Yang X, Witztum JL, Arsenault BJ, Després JP, Pibarot P, Tsimikas S. Autoantibodies and immune complexes to oxidation-specific epitopes and progression of aortic stenosis: Results from the ASTRONOMER trial. Atherosclerosis. 2017 May;260:1-7. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2017.03.013. Epub 2017 Mar 9. PubMed PMID: 28319871.

- Clarke B, Ducharme A, Giannetti N, Kim D, McDonald M, Pflugfelder P, Rajda M, Sénéchal M, Stadnick E, Toma M, Zieroth S, Isaac D. Multicenter evaluation of a national organ sharing policy for highly sensitized patients listed for heart transplantation in Canada. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2017 May;36(5):491-498. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2017.01.003. Epub 2017 Jan 6. PubMed PMID: 28162932.

- Pituskin E, Mackey JR, Koshman S, Jassal D, Pitz M, Haykowsky MJ, Pagano JJ, Chow K, Thompson RB, Vos LJ, Ghosh S, Oudit GY, Ezekowitz JA, Paterson DI. Multidisciplinary Approach to Novel Therapies in Cardio-Oncology Research (MANTICORE 101-Breast): A Randomized Trial for the Prevention of Trastuzumab-Associated Cardiotoxicity. J Clin Oncol. 2017 Mar 10;35(8):870-877. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2016.68.7830. Epub 2016 Nov 28. PubMed PMID: 27893331.
Friday 12 May 2017

Cardiac Staff Matters 08/05/17





1. Kudos to Dr. Davinder Jassal for being awarded a grant from Diagnostic Services Manitoba for his research on Scleraxis as a biomarker for cardiac fibrosis in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

2. COMINGS AND GOINGS:

-  Help us extend a belated yet warm welcome to Cliff Cruzat, who accepted an indefinite term position as CRN for Y2PP & Y2 Special Procedures at SBH. He’s been with us since April 21st. We’re glad to have you aboard, Cliff!

-  Four new casual Cardiology Technicians joined the Non-Invasive Cardiac Diagnostics area at SBH. Trypheana Geddes, Amy Grewal, Chelsea Neilson and Jazlyn Wark, all recent graduates from Stenberg College, have begun their orientations here. Welcome to all of you!

-  Three new nurses have been hired within the program at SBH. Welcome to Bethany Campbell who will be working on CR4 at SBH, and to Lindsay Skelly and Amanda Wray, who will both be with the Cardiac Sciences Relief Team. All completed their senior practicum here—we’re so glad you decided to stay on with us!

-  Liza Alupay is a nurse at SBH who recently transferred from ACCU to the Cardiac Clinics, starting on May 1st. She has experience in a number of aspects of our program, and we’re happy she’s staying with us!

3. Congratulations to Dr. Shuangbo Liu, Chief Cardiology Resident, is the recipient of the Sanofi 2017 Canada/Heart & Stroke Foundation Award in Cardiology for excellence in research and scholarly activity in the discipline of Adult Cardiology at the University of Manitoba. Well done!

4. Internal Medicine held its Resident Research Day on April 25th, and cardiology was well represented:

-  Dr. Justin Cloutier presented the day’s best published paper, which was derived from his 2015 Resident Research Day presentation. Way to go!

-  Dr. Malek Kass supervised research by both Dr. Anas Merdad and Dr. Chris Parr who placed 2nd and 3rd (respectively) in the category of “Clinical Investigation by a Core Resident.

5. Dr. Lorraine Avery, one of our Clinical Nurse Specialists, was featured in the Canadian Nurses Association’s National Nursing Week 2017 publication, which was an insert in the May 4th edition of the Winnipeg Free Press. In the article, Lorraine described the wide range of opportunities and career paths available to nurses, and emphasized the importance of being always focused on the patient. Lorraine—you’re a great role model!

6. On May 4th, the SBH Heart Failure Clinic held a free educational afternoon for patients and families at the Canad Inns Transcona. This Heart Failure Awareness Day, which was attended by 165 people, gave attendees information to allow them to recognize the risk factors for heart failure as well as the signs and symptoms. Experts in the treatment of heart failure also presented on treatment options. Congratulations to the Heart Failure Clinic staff on this very successful public education event!