Dr. Kiran Dhillon was recently awarded with both the Westview Physician Collaborative Resident Leadership Award and the Patricia Ann Peat Family Medicine Enhancement Fund award.
Carol Herbert MD’69
Carol is President of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences 2015-17. Note that prior President was John Cairns (Class of 1968) and President-elect is Linda Rabeneck, also UBC alumna.
2017 Alumni Achievement Awards
The Faculty of Medicine congratulates Dr. Karim Damji (MD’87) and Dr. Lianping Ti (PhD’15), 2 of the recipients honoured at the 2017 alumni UBC Achievement Awards held on November 30, 2017 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
The alumni UBC Achievement Awards recognize members of UBC’s global community of alumni accomplishments in 7 categories: Alumni Award of Distinction, Research and Innovation, Faculty Community Service, Global Citizenship, Honorary Alumni, Volunteer Leadership and Young Alumni.
Dr. Karim Damji heads the University of Alberta’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Eye Institute of Alberta. Dedicated to global health — with strong links to East Africa, where glaucoma is a common blinding disease — he shares knowledge and skills with ophthalmologists, so they are empowered to find sustainable solutions and offer quality eye care in their own countries. His approach has enabled thousands of people to benefit from innovative training, detection, and treatment models.
Global Citizenship Award
This award is given to a UBC alumnus / alumna in recognition of significant community or voluntary service which has gained international recognition and made a global difference.
Dr. Lianping Ti is an outstanding young academic whose research focuses on the efficacy of healthcare systems for people suffering with drug addiction and related infectious diseases, with a focus on viral hepatitis and HIV. Her research has uncovered barriers to healthcare for these marginalized populations and has already played a role in shaping new hospital policies to address them. She is a generous mentor to other young researchers, and is admired for the quality, innovation, and exceptional productivity of her work.
Young Alumni Award
This award recognizes a young UBC alumnus / alumna (aged 35 or under) whose accomplishments are of such excellence that they provide inspiration and leadership to students and other young alumni. The recipient has shown significant leadership in either in their professional career and/or community, public or humanitarian service.
Congratulations to all the recipients of the alumni UBC Achievement Awards. To read more about all the accomplishments of the recipients visit the alumni UBC website.
UBC Medicine United Way 50/50 winner Pierre Tanguay from Risk Management Services
Together we are Possibility
Fall Graduation
Congratulations to the Class of 2017!
Graduates, guests, family, friends and supporters – join in the excitement by tweeting, posting and sharing your #UBCgrad stories here.
Karim Damji MD’87
Clinical Care
My focus is providing care for adults and children with glaucoma
Education & Teaching
- MD, University of British Columbia, 1987
- FRCSC, Ophthalmology Residency, University of Ottawa, 1994
- Research Fellowship, Ophthalmic Genetics, Duke University Eye Centre, 1995
- Clinical Fellowship, Glaucoma, Duke University Eye Centre, 1996
- Executive MBA, Queen’s University, 2005
I am motivated by sharing knowledge, skills and perspectives that enables learners to flourish while simultaneously enhancing my own learning. I also have a passion for developing Institutional capacity to enhance access and quality of glaucoma care for underserviced populations within Canada and Sub Saharan Africa. I have been fortunate to contribute to recent editions of Shields Textbook of Glaucoma.
Awards
- Manjari Sankurathri Memorial Foundation (MSMF) Humanitarian Award for contribution to the development of professional staff at Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology India, 2015
- University of Alberta Excellence in Humanism Award – August 30, 2012
- McCalla Professorship for developing e-learning modules related to teleglaucoma, 2012
- Best teacher award for 2011 – presented by the University of Alberta residents
- Muslim Heritage Award (awarded by the Association of Progressive Muslims of Canada for humanitarian service as a Canadian Muslim), 2008
Research
My research involves many collaborators to leverage technology so that patients with glaucoma in under serviced areas have good access to glaucoma care. We have termed this new field teleglaucoma. Our research group has also demonstrated that Trabectome keyhole surgery is safe and effective in lowering eye pressure for patients with juvenile and exfoliation related glaucoma by opening up natural drainage pathways within the eye. Finally, we have shown that the commonest cause of glaucoma worldwide – exfoliation syndrome – is associated with an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
In the past we have demonstrated that selective laser trabeculoplasty is as effective as argon laser trabeculoplasty in lowering eye pressure for patients with open angle glaucoma and exfoliation related glaucoma.
MD’83 35th Anniversary Reunion RSVP
Please complete the RSVP here to let us know of your interest in attending the MD’83 35th Anniversary Reunion
Building the Future – Faculty of Medicine Showcase & Reception
With a total of nine exhibitors, as well as some appropriately healthy food and drinks to go with our Healthy Challenge for the day, most guests took an hour to get through the showcase and the feedback was wonderful. There was a lot of praise for the enthusiasm and knowledge of the students and residents who participated in the exhibits, and for the opportunity to connect with faculty members.We received over 80 visitors which were varied and included over 30 medicine alumni, and a number of UBC staff, students, donors, community members and friends of UBC.
Thank you to all our exhibitors and visitors!
For more information about each showcase item, click below:
Photo Credit: Umberto Salvagnin
The health of honey bees has been declining over the past decade, with Canadian beekeepers losing more than a quarter of their colonies each winter since 2006-07. We often replace these colonies by purchasing bees and queens from offshore but we cannot rely on these sources because of the risk of importing new diseases or invasive strains of honey bees (such as the Africanized 'killer' bee).
The team of researchers at the Beeomics project will improve the health of Canadian honey bees by developing new genomic and proteomic tools that will enable beekeepers to rapidly and cost-effectively breed healthy, disease-resistant, productive bee colonies that are better able to survive our harsh Canadian winters
Visit their website to find out more - www.beeomics.ca
Why cycle? It’s a fun sport, great for fitness, and an economical and environmentally-friendly mode of transport.
Credit: Martin De
Good for you...
• Increase your level of fitness
• Reduce your risk of chronic diseases
• Save time and your sanity during rush hour traffic!
Good For Your Wallet...
• Bicycles require no insurance, no licensing, no breakdown recovery services, and above all, no gas bills
• A good bicycle needs at most about $100-worth of maintenance a year - less if you do a bit yourself.
• A good bicycle will last for years, if not decades.
• A bicycle can be parked just about anywhere, so no more expensive parking costs.
Good For Your World...
• Many bicycles can be parked in the same space taken up by one car.
• To make a bicycle requires only a fraction of the materials and energy needed to make a car.
• Bicycles produce no pollution and are quiet
• Bicycles don't generally cause harm to others
Learn more at http://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/
Results from the Showcase day research: http://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/perceived-vs-actual-risk/
Air pollution information at event courtesy of Professor Mike Brauer, SPPH
Work at the NINET (the Non-Invasive Neurostimulation Therapies) Laboratory at UBC focuses on alleviating the suffering of those afflicted with severe forms of mental disorders through the discovery of brain stimulation techniques for the treatment of depression. They believe making knowledge accessible to the public is a powerful tool to enhance health and well-being in our communities.
Mental illness indirectly affects all Canadians at some time through a family member, friend or colleague. In any given year, 1 in 5 people in Canada will personally experience a mental health problem or illness, and approximately 8% of adults will experience major depression at some time in their lives, with 1% experiencing bipolar disorder (or ‘manic depression’).
Join us to discover the TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) machine – it uses an infrared camera to see into the brain allowing for the highly concentrated, focalized, pulsating magnetic fields to target specific areas of brain tissue - neurons within the targeted area will begin communicating with other connected neurons, ultimately causing pathways in the brain to activate and strengthen. Cool, eh?!
Fidel Vila-Rodriguez, MD, MedRes’10, FRCPC, Assistant Professor. Director, Non-Invasive Neurostimulation Therapies Laboratory and Schizophrenia Program, Department of Psychiatry, UBC.
For further details visit www.ninet.ca.
Modern medicine exists in part thanks to the many organ donors who have allowed doctors and scientists to learn from the parts they left behind or donated.
Join Helen Dyck, MSc'95, Curator and Manager at the David F. Hardwick Pathology Learning Centre, to explore heart and lung specimens in plexiglas cases and find out how the study of these organs enable education for physicians and future generations.
www.pathology.ubc.ca/education-resource/dhplc/
Meet Dr. Paul Hanson from the Cardiovascular Tissue Registry who will be on-site to facilitate a hands-on experience of heart disease - you'll get to see and hold human hearts and learn about the associated diseases. Get all of your questions answered and learn how tissue donation is training the next generation of doctors, and empowering research at the university and beyond.
www.heartbiobank.ca
Think pathology is passé? Discover what could be the future of organ replacement with specimens of 3D bio-printed human tissue. Be dazzled by the data behind it and re-visit what you think you know about the human body!
Note: Due to the nature of this exhibit it will be held in a separate room just off the lobby.
UBC Faculty of Medicine's Department of Radiology
The UBC Department of Radiology is the only academic Radiology Department in the province. It provides extensive teaching to medical students, radiology and nuclear medicine residents, radiology fellows, as well as residents in other specialties. Research mentoring and infrastructure is also provided, all in an atmosphere that is pure West Coast
The team look forward to welcoming you at the Faculty of Medicine Showcase and Reception to give you the opportunity to learn how to perform an ultrasound guided needle biopsy!
Visit our site at radiology.med.ubc.ca to learn not only of our outstanding programs and services and the breadth of activities available in and around Vancouver, but also of the tremendous accomplishments of our Faculty, Fellows, Residents and staff.
Join Dr. Shazhan Amed, SCOPE Team Lead; Pediatric Endocrinologist - BC Children's Hospital, Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC, and Population Health Researcher; and Susan Pinkney, SCOPE Project Manager, for some fun activities and to better understand the SCOPE initiative.
This may shock you: one in three Canadian children today is overweight or obese. Obesity increases the risk of developing chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and even cancer. As a result for the first time in history, the current generation of children may live shorter lives than their parents. Up until now, treatments haven’t worked. It is important that together, we prevent this from happening.
Live 5-2-1-0 is an evidence-based simple, easy-to-remember message to help kids and families adopt healthy habits. We know that a consistent message that is supported by a healthy community environment is important. By working together with communities, Live 5-2-1-0 helps build partnerships and opportunities to create healthy environments. Live 5-2-1-0 provides four simple guidelines for raising healthy children:
5 - Enjoy five or more vegetables and fruits every day
2 - Limit screen time to no more than two hours a day
1 - Play actively for at least one hour a day
0 - Drink zero sugary drinks
The Holographic Brain Project, an app designed by Dr. Claudia Krebs, Parker Holman, PhD candidate in neuroscience and Dr. Tamara Bodnar, postdoctoral fellow, in collaboration with Microsoft, is allowing students to see the brain in a way they never have before. The app allows the overlay of two-dimensional MRI scans on correlating sections of the brain which when used with Microsoft's new mixed reality technology - the HoloLens - allows people to virtually explore the brain - highlighting, isolating, expanding and rotating its many structures. Come dive deeper into neuroanatomy and come see for yourself the brain's three-dimensional structure like you've never seen it before.
If you have any questions about this event, please contact Christina Salvatori, MBA’15, Associate Director Alumni Engagement, at christina.salvatori@ubc.ca.
2017/18 Alumni Program Sponsors
