RedZone Podcast

Welcome to a special two part special two part episode of the RedZone podcast.

We sit down with Dr.Paxton Bach, an addictions medicine specialist from the BCCSU, and leading expert to explore what tools we have in the toolkit to address the opioid crisis.

Is the traditional medical model for delivering addictions medicine care, really not a structured model at all?

In Part 2, Dr.Bach weighs in on how fragmented episodic addictions care is failing all stakeholders and what needs to be done.

ABOUT Dr. Paxton Bach

Paxton Bach MD, MSc, ABIM, FRCPC is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a general internist and addiction medicine physician at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC. He additionally serves as the Co-Medical Director for the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, and is the Director of the BCCSU Clinical Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program.

Dr. Bach is certified as a specialist in General Internal Medicine through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and an Addiction Medicine specialist through the International Society of Addiction Medicine and the American Board of Preventative Medicine.

Welcome to a special two part special two part episode of the RedZone podcast.

We sit down with Dr.Paxton Bach, an addictions medicine specialist from the BCCSU, and leading expert to explore what tools we have in the toolkit to address the opioid crisis.

From safe supply a new lo acting injectable formulation of suboxone, we look at recent developments within the Canadian context and the BC landscape, as well as some of the real world considerations when deploying these tools on the frontlines.

ABOUT Dr. Paxton Bach

Paxton Bach MD, MSc, ABIM, FRCPC is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a general internist and addiction medicine physician at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC. He additionally serves as the Co-Medical Director for the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, and is the Director of the BCCSU Clinical Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program.

Dr. Bach is certified as a specialist in General Internal Medicine through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and an Addiction Medicine specialist through the International Society of Addiction Medicine and the American Board of Preventative Medicine.

Does cannabis have a role in combating opioid use disorder? What's the verdict with the most recent evidence and what does this mean for the future?

We head to sunny Los Angeles to chat with the Director of the UCLA's Cannabis Research Initiative and researcher, Dr.Ziva Cooper.

In 2016 the Province of BC declared a public health emergency-the opioid crisis. We sit down with the Health Minister of BC at the time, Terry Lake, who shares some of the behind the scenes decisions that he and his team had to calibrate as the crisis worsened. Terry shares his thoughts about addiction, mental health and how we need to take a deeper look at our public approach.

Stigma, safe supply and stakeholders-we sit down with BC's Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Hon. Sheila Malcolmson, to look at what steps the province is taking curb the opioid crisis and how we can build care and service capacity.

The Ministry is unique to BC, and Minister Malcolmson, the second minister to lead it since it was established in 2017.

Exposure to opiates is largely unavoidable after major surgery, whether that be knee surgery, hip replacement, or heart valve replacement.

Leading anesthesiologist and Director of Pain Services at Toronto General Hospital (TGH), Dr.Hance Clarke, takes us on a behind the scenes patient journey from the surgical incision at the operating room to recovery and the pitfalls in between.

With a colleague at TGH, Dr.Clarke shares his work pioneering the Transitional Pain Service is a world-leading pain program breaking the cycle of pain, opioid use, with a multimodal, multidisciplinary care model.

We also hear about his candid thoughts on the role of medical cannabis for pain management, and a national study Dr.Clarke is leading with Shoppers Drug Mart.

We sit down with the City of Vancouver's Mayor, Kennedy Stewart, to discuss the role of cities and municipalities in combating the opioid crisis.

Mayor Stewart takes us on a behind the scenes look at the decision, the opportunity and the controversy surrounding Vancouver's proposed model submitted to Health Canada for decriminalization of the simple possession of illicit drugs as a potential new tool in the tool kit. What do the provincial and federal governments think? What could this exemption really mean in terms of how many lives it could save, and what needs to happen next? We also look at how healthcare providers could be supporting a patient-centred model of care at the city level.