1. Warm welcomes are extended to Gus Castaneda and Brenda Comte! Gus is joining the program as the Program Team Manager of the Intensive Care Cardiac Surgery unit at SBH on May 9. Brenda, who started May 2, is the new Business Improvement & Finance Officer for Cardiac Sciences at SBH. We’re very happy to have both of you with us!
2. The Manitoba Association of Cardiology Technologists held its AGM and Education sessions on April 30th. Presentations by Dr. W. Lesli, Dr. K. Kumar, Dr. C. Seifer & Dr. W. McIntyre were enjoyed by WRHA Technologists as well as a group from out of town.
3. Dr. Pallav Shah, one of our cardiac surgeons, has received financial assistance in the amount of $50,000 from the provincial Commercialization Support for Business (CSB) Program, to support his development of aortic annular support technology. Additional support will be provided by the National Research Council of Canada, through its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP). Congratulations, Dr. Shah, and good luck in this endeavour!
4. For your information: Effective Wednesday, May 25th, Cardiopulmonary Stress Testing (CPX) at SBH will be relocated to the 3C Stress Lab. CPX testing will occur on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.
5. Karan Kraft received a Humanitarian Award for Resuscitation at the Heart and Stroke Foundation Annual Celebration held last week for an act that helped to save her neighbor’s life. Karan acted swiftly and calmly in November 2014 when a panicked neighbor whose husband had stopped breathing showed up at her door. Karan instructed the wife to call 911 and immediately started CPR. When the paramedics arrived, he was defibrillated and transported to hospital, where he recovered and was able to return home. Congratulations, Karan, on this well-deserved recognition!
6. The St. Boniface Heart Failure Clinic hosted their 10th annual seminar about Heart Failure on May 5, 2016. This seminar is for CHF patients and the general public to help educate and allow them to recognize the risk factors, signs and symptoms of heart failure, and available treatment. Presenters included: Dr. Mawash Saed, Dr. Allan Schaffer, Dr. Jason Ediger, Dr. Francisco Cordova and Dr. Martina Reslerova.
Bruce Anderson, a representative from Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba talked about their current strategies to reduce the epidemic of heart failure. The Heart Failure Support Group of Manitoba gave a presentation on upcoming meetings and activities for 2016 to encourage people to join the support group.
Approximately 200 people were present for this seminar and the initial evaluations show that attendees felt that the speakers were very informative and they enjoyed the learning experience. The Heart Failure Team would like to thank all of the speakers and the organizers for another successful seminar for patient education.
7. There have been a few retirements in recent weeks that we haven’t yet acknowledged. We extend wishes for good luck and good times to the following people who have made wonderful contributions to the program: Kym Wiebe, Brenda Ingimundson, and Marie-Ann Roy-Wsiaki. Have a wonderful retirement!
8. For the second year, the Cardiac Sciences Program participated in the Rotary Career Symposium. We highlighted careers in Cardiac Sciences that high school students may not have been aware of: perfusionist, cardiac sonographer, cardiology technologist and advanced practice nurse. The crowds were sizable and seemed very interested in particular in the modified cardiopulmonary bypass circuit that the perfusionists demonstrated. A big thank you goes out to the organizers within the program and all those who volunteered to staff the booth from May 2 – 4!
9. Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a cardiac surgeon? Click on this link to get a flavour of the job: http://10mg.nl/
