April 17, 2020

Good day everyone,

Yesterday marked one month since Dalhousie suspended classes and life began to rapidly change for us. Although there have been inconveniences for many, on behalf of the Faculty of Medicine I would like to thank our public health officials and health care providers, including our faculty and residents, who are working on the front lines dealing with COVID-19. We thank you for all that you are doing to keep us safe.

I want to share the very positive news that all students of the medical school Class of 2020 have matched to residency programs in Canada. This is an outstanding accomplishment for this distinguished class. I would also like to thank the Student Affairs Office for the guidance they provided our graduating students during their time in medical school and particularly throughout the residency matching process.

I am also pleased to announce that all of our postgraduate residency positions have been filled following the matching process. Congratulations to the over 50 Royal College and College of Family Physician program directors on this achievement. We look forward to welcoming a new class of residents July 1, 2020 to our campuses and affiliated health authorities.

Best of luck to our Med II class, who will be writing their exams online today and tomorrow utilizing virtual proctoring software. We are pleased that Med I and Med II classes have been able to proceed with their education using virtual lectures and tutorials, coordinated by our Med IT team. Their preliminary experiences are being highlighted in an upcoming Dal Med News article.

Our Med III clinical clerkships continue to be postponed while our clinical preceptors deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Although many students have stepped up to offer their services by volunteering, their educational experience has been disrupted, which is understandably frustrating and concerning. Both locally and nationally, planning for the resumption of clerkship is taking place and we are working to ensure our Med III students enter residency on time in July 2021. Going forward, our UGME team will provide weekly updates to all classes about how timelines are proceeding. While we work through these details, please continue to reach out to UGME and/or our Student Affairs Office if you have any questions or concerns.

COVID-19 research continues at Dalhousie and we look forward to seeing the work of our scientists and others as they address the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges posed by COVID-19. I am very pleased to see today’s announcement of a COVID-19 Health Research Coalition of eight partner organizations (Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, Dalhousie University, NSHA Research and Innovation, QEII Foundation, IWK Health Centre, IWK Foundation, Dartmouth General Foundation, and Research Nova Scotia) who have come together to support COVID-19 research. Researchers are urged to check this link today to get further information about this exciting and very time-sensitive research funding program.

COVID-19 has been very disruptive for most of our scientists and graduate students based in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, who have seen their laboratories temporarily close and teaching and research move to virtual platforms. I have been pleased with the efforts of scientists to keep in contact with their students and with departments for continuing academic activities including rounds and journal clubs. We look forward to seeing all research programs in the Faculty of Medicine resume when it is safe to do so.

Over the past month I have been continually impressed by the commitment and dedication of our students, faculty, and staff to address current and future challenges posed by the consequences of COVID-19. Please stay well, take care of yourselves and your families, and reach out if you have questions or concerns.

Have a safe weekend,

Dr. David Anderson
Dean, Faculty of Medicine

Update
This communication is to provide updates of events over the over the past week. For details on more Faculty of Medicine-specific information related to COVID-19, please visit: https://medicine.dal.ca/news/covid.html.

CIHR Early Career Award in Infection and Immunity
Congratulations to Dr. Zhenyu Cheng, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology for receiving the CIHR Bhagirath Singh Early Career Award in Infection and Immunity.

Dr. Cheng received this $25,000 prize for obtaining the highest ranked research proposal in the 2019 CIHR Fall and Spring Project Grant competitions.

Medical Research Development Office
As we welcome Dr. Roger McLeod back from his recovery from injury, I would like to thank Dr. Craig McCormick and Dr. Jim Fawcett for filling in admirably to cover the responsibilities of the Associate Dean, Research portfolio while Dr. McLeod was away. It was especially helpful to be able to lean on their expertise during the initial stages of the pandemic.

Postgraduate Medical Education
The College of Family Physicians (CFPC) announced earlier this week that both the Simulated Office Oral (SOO) component of the Certification Examination in Family Medicine and the oral component of the September 2020 Examination of Added Competence in Emergency Medicine (FM-EM exam) have been cancelled. The CFPC is actively exploring alternative options for delivering the Short Answer Management Problem (SAMP) portions of these exams in fall 2020; no decisions about any changes to the delivery format have been made.

A reminder to all residents that the Nova Scotia Health Authority is introducing an expanded FIT testing model for N95 respirators to ensure that those who need to perform or be involved with aerosol-generating medical procedures (AGMP’s) are FIT tested to a variety of N95 respirators. Please read NSHA’s FIT Testing FAQ for more information.

Simulation Activities
As a result of the COVID pandemic, there has been a greater need for hospitals and their interprofessional staff in Nova Scotia to be able to utilize simulation to practice with ED, ICU and other acute care teams using appropriate PPE precautions and safety techniques.

I would like to acknowledge the tremendous effort put forth by our Department of Emergency Medicine simulation team. With leadership by Drs. Connie LeBlanc and Stephen Miller, cutting edge COVID related materials that had been developed in-house were quickly put together to deliver a training program for interprofessional front line health care providers across the province.

This effort was informed through excellent work by local, national and international experts within the department to provide a core suite of materials for teams at sites across the province. This gives them the tools to facilitate and deliver simulations in their departments to help teams safely prepare for COVID patients.

Faculty of Medicine Awards of Excellence in Leadership
As a reminder, I encourage you to take some time to consider who you could nominate for our various faculty awards as well as our Faculty of Medicine Awards of Excellence in Leadership, which celebrate the incredible contributions of our staff in administrative, technical and clerical support roles, professional and managerial positions, and those in academic leadership roles.

During times such as these, it’s especially encouraging to acknowledge the impact these contributions have on the Faculty of Medicine. The deadline to submit a nomination is April 30, 2020.

Questions
Thank you to everyone who has reached out with feedback and questions during this ever-changing period and have expressed how this is impacting your education, research or professional responsibilities. Please know that we are meeting regularly to address your questions and communicate the answers to you in a timely manner. If your questions aren’t answered here, or on the website, please contact the Faculty of Medicine’s Communications Advisor, Jason Bremner (jason.bremner@dal.ca). For further information related to the impact of COVID-19 in the Faculty of Medicine, please visit our website at https://medicine.dal.ca/news/covid.html.

A reminder that the Public Health Agency of Canada, Nova Scotia Public Health, New Brunswick Public Health and PEI Public Health remain the best source for up-to-date public information on this rapidly changing situation. More information related to Dalhousie can be found at www.dal.ca/coronavirus