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Around town: Where’s the Patient’s Voice …?

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By English: Clinic Painter (eponymous vase)Français : Peintre de la Clinique (vase éponyme) (User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2007-07-21) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsMost of the conferences covered in the Around Town series are annual or occasionally biennial events, hosting professionals for continuing education to update their skills, knowledge base and networking in the subject of their passion. The Patient’s Voice conference, held November 12–14, 2015 in Vancouver, was different: this was an evaluation of progress made since the first meeting ten years ago.

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Diagram of generic protein structure.

Around town: Human Proteome Organization World Congress 2015

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For a former protein scientist, the arrival of the HUPO World Congress in Vancouver is a Big Deal. First, one of my ongoing Talk Science to Me projects is a subcontract writing primary research reviews for a proteomics blog. Second, I am a proteins #fangirl.

Whenever I think about proteins, Tigger’s song floats around my head, for proteins are indeed wonderful things (not to mention flouncy, bouncy, trouncy, pouncy, fun fun fun fun fun…but that could just be me)[1] to study, as I remember from way back when I sat behind a bench.

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Around town: The 8th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2015)

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Vancouver AIDS Memorial, Sunset BeachNext week, Vancouver welcomes the 8th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention to the Vancouver Convention Centre. According to the conference website, this biennial forum is expected to receive about 6,000 delegates from a wide range of HIV/AIDS disciplines around the world.

Organized by the International AIDS Society (IAS), the conference is also a partnership with the University of British Columbia (UBC) Division of AIDS, which works out of St. Paul’s, Providence Health Care’s downtown hospital.

In addition to learning through seminars and keynote presentations (find the full program here), delegates will have the opportunity to experience first-hand part of the continuum of care that Vancouver offers people with addiction and mental illness, as well as HIV. Conference attendees can sign up for an engagement tour of Insite, North America’s first legal supervised drug injection site, to learn about the city’s outreach to marginalized members of our community.Read More »Around town: The 8th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2015)

Around town: 24th Annual John K. Friesen Conference—Harnessing Technology for Aging-in-Place

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Whiskey barrels in the Jack Daniels distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee.On Thursday, May 14, the Segal Centre at the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Vancouver Campus will host the 24th Annual John K. Friesen Conference. The purpose of this event is to explore how technology can help adults in British Columbia to age in place, helping seniors to adapt their homes so they can keep living in them as they get older.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines aging in place as “the ability to live in one’s own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level.” The concept encourages people to stay in their own homes for as long as they wish, surrounded by everyday familiarities, without being forced into institutional care or other living conditions prematurely simply because of their age. However, for this to become feasible and a reality for the majority, society needs to change to support older adults and their needs without automatically consigning them to the health care system.Read More »Around town: 24th Annual John K. Friesen Conference—Harnessing Technology for Aging-in-Place

Around town: 6th Networking World Anesthesia Conference

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1753_Traversi_Operation_anagoriaThe Networking World Anesthesia Convention (NWAC) takes place next week in Vancouver, BC, bringing together clinicians and researchers working in this vital medical field. It is worth remembering that without adequate anesthesia, modern medicine and surgery would be stuck in the quick and dirty field of “getting it over with fast”: read Fanny Burney’s account of a conscious mastectomy to get a feel for uncensored steel (note: not for the faint of heart).

Quite simply put, anesthesia makes a lot of modern medicine possible. From regional or local to full-immersion general anesthesia, the power of the drugs and the skill of the anesthetist smooth the way for both patient and clinician.

But how does it work—how does anesthesia take the unpleasantness away?

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Around town: The 6th International Conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

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Conferences are great places to hang out if you’re a scientist. The buzz of knowledge fills the air, and it’s often the only chance you get to brainstorm with like-minded enthusiasts in your field. By the end of the conference, you are high on knowledge transfer and giddy with sharing the science…and exhausted. But then you take it all back to your lab and the sharing process begins again.

This week, Vancouver hosts the 6th Annual Conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Hosted by Interprofessional Continuing Education of the University of British Columbia, the conference brings together delegates with expertise in research, teaching, counselling, justice and other related fields to highlight recent research progress. It is truly a multidisciplinary event, because FASD affects people in so many different ways and touches every level of society. Read on to learn a little more about what’s happening in your neighbourhood and beyond.

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