Once again, the University of British Columbia has reason to be very proud of our extensive participation and contributions to the 2024 International Congress for Academic Medicine (ICAM), held in Vancouver from April 11 – 15.
As the host city, UBC was well-represented on the conference leadership team thanks to the efforts of Cary Cuncic and Shanda Jordan (Executive Committee), Saleem Razack (Chair of the EDI and AR Advisory Group), Robert McMaster (co-Chair of the Health Research Program), and Tetiana Povshedna, Miriam Spering, Shayda Swann, and Martin Wong (Student Representatives).
It is impossible to say how many members of the UBC community were represented at the conference because the public program lists only presenting authors, but this year’s UBC offerings included at least 26 oral presentations, 13 posters, and 7 workshops. For a full listing of presentations known to be authored by UBC members, click here.
Plenary, symposia, and panel speakers included Saleem Razack (CanMEDS Town Hall), Matt Dolf (The Okanagan Charter: Inspiring Action to Support the Overall Wellbeing of Faculty, Staff and Students), Anna Blakney (Next Generation RNA Vaccines and Therapies), Robert Woollard (Towards a Global Consensus on Medical School Accreditation Standards for Better Health), Vincent Wong (The Struggling Medical Student: Insights from Lived Experience Research), Nel Weiman (Gairdner Global Perspectives Panel on Indigenous Health), Devon Mitchell (Inclusive Excellence in Learning Environments: How Leaders Can Support Sustainable Healthy Learning Systems), Cheryl Holmes, Julia Haines, and Rachel Giddings (Breaking Barriers: Redefining Technical Standards for Disability Inclusion in Canadian Medical Education), and Quinten Clarke (Shaping the Future: A Live Panel on Disability Inclusion in Canadian Medical Education). Both of the latter panels can be listened to on the Docs with Disabilities podcast.
As always, current CHES trainees and alumni were well-represented among UBC presenters, including: current CHES Postdoctoral Fellow, Rabia Khan; current CHES PhD student, Helen Hsu; past-PhD student, Andrea Gingerich; current Clinical Educator Fellow (CEF), Lucas Streith; CEF alumni, Derek Chang, Matthew Clifford-Rashotte, Maria Hubinette, and Brett Schrewe; current Masters of Health Professions Education student Kimberly Stewart; and past Masters students Catherine Macala and Vincent Wong; and MD Program FLEX student, Ziqi Liu.
Particular congratulations to Vincent Wong who was awarded the 2024 AFMC Award for Excellence in Graduate Health Professions Education Scholarship.
Of course, this represents just a small part of the many important contributions that members of the UBC faculty and staff made to various activities and committee meetings that round out ICAM. So, congratulations and thanks to all the members of the UBC community and partner organizations who participated in the conference this year.