Welcome to a new episode! This week we got to chat with Ottawa Public Health's social media guru, Kevin Parent.

With Kevin's masterminding, OPH has risen to one of the top public health sources over the course of this pandemic, gaining a following of over 115k followers on Twitter at the time of this recording. You may know them from their informational threads, humour based combats against misinformation, or even their recent announcement that their intern 'Bruce' is really Ryan Reynolds ;) . Kevin chats with us about key strategies that he uses in Public Health / Science communication to provide evidence-based news, updates, and information while increasing engagement and gaining community trust. This is a fantastic episode filled with great information and lots of humour; a perfect glimps into the type of content you can expect from OPH.

Lastly, if you're not following them already, head over to Twitter and/or Instagram and follow @OttawaHealth / @OttawaSante !

We are back, and while lot’s has changed over the past couple of months, there is lots that has not. Some things that have changed: it’s a new year, and Vaccines are rolling out. Things that haven’t changed: we’re still living in a pandemic, we are still responding to it the same way we did 11 months ago, and we are still not entirely addressing inequalities. With all the questions we received about these topics, we are excited to host Dr. Stefan Baral on this episode.

Dr. Baral is a physician epidemiologist who is also an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg school of public health. Dr. Baral is an expert in infectious diseases and their epidemiology and control, as well as health policy and management.

Dr. Baral's twitter: @sdbaral

Recent policy briefing on Homelessness in the era of COVID19:  https://rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/Homelessness%20PB_EN_0.pdf

This week we are joined by Chief Michael Nolan, Director and Chief of the Paramedic service for the County of Renfrew. Chief Nolan’s impressive resume and reputation precede him, he garnered unprecedented results in kickstarting a drone program with the Renfrew paramedic service, is a strong advocate for community paramedicine and paramedic led research, and his vision for the future of paramedicine is one to aspire towards. We hope this episode gives you some further insight to the world of paramedicine and the incredible work that Chief Nolan has done and continues to do!

This week we welcome Dr. Adrienne Stevens, the Managing Director of Cochrane Canada. Cochrane is a global leader in the production of high quality SR, and have recently also started exploring the field of Rapid Reviews. Dr. Stevens expands on the differences between rapid reviews and systematic reviews, as well as the many ways that Cochrane is doing its part in combatting COVID-19 by continuing to promote evidence-informed health decision making. Not only have they released recommendations on rapid review methods to help investigators maintain high quality research, but they have also launched a recommendations map that is essentially a one-stop shop for all information regarding COVID. It launches today, Monday December 14th, and I’d highly recommend that this becomes your go-to for any questions you may have. It is both easy to use and understand for anyone, whether you are healthcare or not.

COVID19 Recommendations Map

https://covid19.evidenceprime.ca/grid

Guidance for Conducting a High-Quality Rapid Review

https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(20)31146-X/pdf

This week we welcome Dr. Dar Dowlatshahi to the show! Dr. Dowlatshahi is a dual doctor (has completed both his MD and PhD) who works at The Ottawa Hospital as a Stroke Neurologist and Senior Scientist. Dr. Dowlatshahi chats about how he balanced starting medical school in the middle of his PhD; his experience working with the Calgary Stroke Program before returning to Ottawa to build a Clinical Epidemiology Stroke Program; his research on Intracerebral hemorrhages, which is referenced in most ICH work worldwide; how COVID has negatively affected time to diagnosis and treatment; and, his advice for young Clinician Scientists. Enjoy!

Link to Dr. Dowlatshahi’s paper for young Clinician Scientists:

“Experience, the Name We Give Our Mistakes Common Pitfalls Encountered by Junior Clinician-Scientists”

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/STROKEAHA.118.021529

Welcome! This week we welcome Dr. Sarina Isenberg, a recent recipient of the New Investigator award for Research Excellence at the University of Toronto, and current Chair in Mixed Methods Palliative Care Research at Bruyere Research Institute in Ottawa. Dr. Isenberg holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and tells us how an interview with Oxford University was what prompted her to reevaluate her career interests after having done both an undergrad and Master’s degree in English Literature. She tells us about how her hobbies outside of school influenced her career interests, how her focus on HIV and marginalized populations slowly transformed into a passion for palliative care, and her main advice for all postgraduate students. Enjoy!

This week we are joined by ED Physician and Senior Scientist, Dr. Christian Vaillancourt! Dr. Vaillancourt is recognized for his world-renowned pre-hospital and cardiac arrest care research. He tells us about the biggest barriers in achieving a fast response to cardiac arrest, as well as the 3 key determinants for whether someone needs CPR. We chat about the roles of drones and AI technologies in pre-hospital settings (woah), as well as how FitBit’s and Apple Watches play a role in saving lives. We touch on Dr. Vaillancourt’s athletic success as a duathlete and triathlete competitor, who has represented Canada at a couple of World Championships. And, lastly, we touch on his experience with COVID as an ED Physician. Enjoy!

Happy Monday and please join us in welcoming Danial Qureshi to the show! Danial graduated from McMaster with a Master’s degree in Epidemiology and has not stopped throwing out publications ever since. He is a Research Coordinator at Bruyere Research Institute in Ottawa, focusing on palliative care and racial and ethnic disparities at end-of-life. Danial expands on his role as a research coordinator, as well as what working with Big Data is really like. He also dispels some myths about Epidemiology, including the idea that you ‘have to be a clinician or professor to do research’, and addresses the misconceptions about palliative care and how the process needs to improve. Enjoy!

The man, the myth, the legend.... the Kwadcast king!! Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, ICU physician and host of Solving Healthcare podcast, joins us for a fun, uplifting, and informative podcast this week. Why is the media sensationalizing COVID? Why are we not addressing the indirect effects of COVID (Mental Health, physical health, etc)? Where do we need to focus our attention and resources, AND... his experience in the ICU throughout all of COVID. This was an incredible episode & I hope you enjoy it!

You can also follow along with Dr. K on

Instagram (@kwadcast)

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