MD Scope archive

This archive will always contain links to one year of back issues of the MD Scope. For older issues, please contact the AMA web team at webmaster@albertadoctors.org.

2023

November 16

• Your issues, media coverage, AMA in the news
• Vote now: 2023 RF delegate zonal/regional elections
• Are you contemplating retirement or are already fully retired?
• Optimized Prescribing with Seniors: Emerging acute or decompensated heart failure?
• Changes to lipid reporting and the LDL-C equation in Alberta
• Want to advise the health minister on health information management?
• Reminder: Community providers take action to receive results without delay
• New: MD Culture Shift November 2023 issue
• MD Financial Management
  • Preparing for the family meeting: How to talk to your children about your estate plan
• Community Connections
  • Research study: Medical education needs of myalgic encephalomyelitis
  • Disability and accessibility in First Nations health centre survey
  • Research study: COPD care
  • Talent Research Roundtable: Health technology in Alberta

October 26

• Help Alberta get immunized: Alberta's fall vaccine program has launched
• Call for applications: AMA Income Equity Initiative Dispute Resolution Committee
• 2023 Tarrant Scholarship: Congratulations Hailea Purcell and Tina Nash!
• Turning lost minutes into patient care: the Health Care Unburdened Grant program
• Does your President's Letter come from a former president?
• MD Financial Management
  • Why it's ok to delegate your financial responsibilities
• Community Connections
  • Seeking physicians to discuss pregnancy and reproductive services for women with disabilities
  • CanMeds open call for public consultation on physician training and practice
  • Research study: Culture and positive regard

October 12

• Local doctors, local issues town hall meetings begin October 16
• Call for nominations: Zonal/Regional RF delegates
• Apply today: AMA Informatics Committee
• Alberta's Pathway Hub now live
• Follow these steps to ensure you get lab, specimen and imaging results
• Alberta Medical Association/TD Insurance Stabilization Fund
• Presidential ghosts in your inbox?
• October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• New: MD Culture Shift October 2023 issue
• MD Financial Management
  • Practice management team: Assemble!
• Community Connections
  • Are you interested in shared care planning with complex patients?

September 28

• National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
• 2023-24 AMA membership: United for the health of the profession
• AMA staff announcements: Service milestones and retirement
• Family physicians needed for Caregiver-Centered Care: Physician Education Advisory
• Apply for leadership opportunities with the CMA
• MD Financial Management
  • Meet Dr. Franco Rizzuti, AHS medical health officer and member of the MD Physician Council
• Community Connections
  • Call for Abstracts - Pediatric Academic Societies

September 14

• Optimized Prescribing with Seniors: Nocturia
• Giving Alberta infants the best start to life possible
• Meet this year's recipients of TD Insurance AMA Scholarships
• New resource guide for physicians for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
• Congratulations to AMA Executive Director Mike Gormley on his retirement!
• New: MD Culture Shift Issue #24
• MD Financial Management
  • Should I invest in a TFSA or leave excess funds in my corporation?
• Community Connections
  • Focus on Caregivers: Active wellness for Calgarians under age 65 with dementia

August 31

• AMA committee openings closing soon: Apply online ASAP!
• AMA reps needed for Alberta Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Programs’ Advisory Committee
• CMA Awards: Nominate in one-step
• MD Financial Management
  • Investing as a physician: a primer
• Community Connections
  • COVID-19 related Moral Injury in Health Care Workers

August 17

• Notice of elections and changes to AMA Bylaws
• Members needed for several important committees. Apply online today!
• Register for town hall Connect Care conversation with Alberta physicians
• Do you have an up-to-date Privacy Impact Assessment? Time-limited offer.
• Thinking of a +1 residency in 2024-25?
• CMA Awards: Submit a one-step nomination today!
• Curl with colleagues this winter
• MD Financial Management
  • Bank of Canada: Another 0.25% hike, target overnight interest rate now 5.0%
• Community Connections
  • Level 2 Advanced Caregiver-Centered Care Education – all six domain modules now online

July 27

• Don't miss out! Claim up to $2,200 in CME reimbursement before July 31.
• Members needed for important committees. Apply online today!
• MD Financial Management
  • Canadians are living longer. How does that impact my retirement savings?
• Community Connections
  • Is Alberta's surgical referral system working for your and your patients?

July 13

• Optimized Prescribing with Seniors: Constipation in the elderly
• Important committees: Members needed. Apply online today!
• Are you an Edmonton and area physician? Two special events to celebrate you!
• New MD Culture Shift Issue #23
• MD Financial Management
  • A guide to TFSA stock trading rules
• Community Connections
  • Is Alberta's surgical referral system working for your and your patients?

June 29

• A step toward anti-racism and anti-discrimination
• Medical students receive a boost from AMA's ADIUM Insurance!
• Lung cancer screening program expanding
• Want to help celebrate medicine's achievements?
• MD Financial Management
  • Medicus Pension Plan: Canada's first multi-employer pension plan for physicians has launched
• Community Connections
  • Educational needs assessment of Canadian health care professionals on myalgic encephalomyelitis
  • National survey of health care professionals' responses on domestic sex trafficking

June 15

• Claim your 2023 Continuing Medical Education allotments by July 31
• Connect Care surveys: Update from AHS and AMA
•  AMA Committee on Achievement Awards: Online applications now being accepted
• New MD Culture Shift Issue #22
• MD Financial Management
  • How to use income splitting to keep more of your money
• Community Connections
  • Educational needs assessment of Canadian health care professionals on myalgic encephalomyelitis
  • National survey of health care professionals' responses on domestic sex trafficking

May 25

• Connect Care lab results: please use provider and submitter IDs on all requisitions
• ABCs of Blended Capitation
• Celebrate Rural Health Week from May 29 to June 2
• Interested in assisting the AMA Board with the financial oversight of the association?
• AMA mourns passing of past president, Dr. Christopher Varvis
• MD Financial Management
  • Retirement timeline for physicians: How to prepare for a comfortable retirement

May 11

• Recognizing physicians in politics
• Optimizing Prescribing with Seniors: Focus on Parkinson's disease - Part 2
• Say thanks to a colleague using the JPAC Shine On Gratitude Program
• Your AMA Section: Three-question survey
• Apply for available positions on the AMA-AH ARP Working Group
• New MD Culture Shift Issue #21
• MD Financial Management
  • Your investment strategy, transformed
• Community Connections
  • Are you a female physician in Canada?

April 27

• Dr. Shelley Duggan is AMA's 2023-24 President-Elect
• Join the PFSP as an assessment physician!
• UAlberta Mental Health Monologues: a memorable night for all involved
• Reminder: AMA committee openings: Online applications now being accepted
• Taking tuition down a notch: $110,500 awarded in medical student bursaries!
• MD Financial Management
  • Financial literacy podcast: Physians and debt
• Community Connections
  • Do you prescribe antibiotics? Want to know more about antimicrobial resistance? Sign up for a CPSA focus group!

April 13

• How to prepare for Connect Care launch 6
• Reminder: Call for nominations: AMA President-Elect 2023-24
• Whom do you honour?
• AMA committee openings: Online applications now being accepted
• New MD Culture Shift Issue #20
• MD Financial Management
  • Here's what you need to know about the Silicon Valley Bank situation
• Community Connections
  • Research project: The views of internationally educated health care professionals in Canada on vaccinations

March 30

• CII-CPAR: Improving patient care with virtually no changes to daily workflow
• AMA President-Elect 2023-24: Call for nominations
• AMA committee openings: Online applications now being accepted
• Canada's national nature prescription program, PaRX, celebrates one year in Alberta
• Quick tips for privacy breaches
• WCB updates
  • Electronic reporting weekend interruption
  • Coming soon to myWCB: two-step verification
• MD Financial Management
  • Financial planning strategies for incorporated physicians
• Community Connections
  • Is Alberta's surgical referral system working for you and your patients? 

March 17

• Optimized Prescribing with Seniors: Orthostatic hypotension
• Diagnostic imaging reports available online for patients through My Personal Records
• eReferral improvements implemented February 23
• AHS newborn screening program has a new name
• AMA Section of Pediatrics grants: Improving care through research and innovation
• Call for applications: History of medicine scholarship and project grant 
• New rate increases for auto insurance paused until December 31
• New MD Culture Shift Issue #19 
• MD Financial Management
  • Tax changes for 2023
• Community Connections
  • Do you want to share your thoughts and co-design tools for cancer diagnosis?
  • Navigating children's best interests in child psychiatric inpatient settings during the height of the COVID pandemic 
  • Free counselling services to families with immigrant and refugee experience, and their children 

February 23

• Updated post polypectomy surveillance recommendations released in Alberta
• CPSA
  • Continuing Competence and Restricted Activities standards of practice take effect this spring
• Help protect children from medication poisoning
• Apply for the 2023 Tarrant Scholarship
• Replay privacy webinars
• MD Financial Management
  • Don't leave the important things to chance. Invest with purpose.
• Community Connections
  • Foster parent campaign hopes to recruit medical professionals
  • Calgary fitness venue in need of volunteer ringside physicians for boxing shows
  • Impact of Virtual Care on Decision Making Capacity Assessments

February 9

• CII/CPAR: Go-Live and Beyond
• Training staff about privacy tips
• Need $7,500 for additional training in a clinical area of recognized need in Alberta?
• New MD Culture Shift: Issue #18
• MD Financial Management
  • Hello from your MD Calgary office team!
  • MD can help with more than RRSP and TFSA contributions
• Community Connections
  • Micropsychosocial effect of accounting: health care context
  • Accessibility of CT: Identifying underserved populations in rural Alberta

January 26

• New enrolment period for extended health and dental coverage
• News from ACFP
  • Tonight: ACFP webinar on college complaints (and how to avoid them)
  • ACFP Family Medicine Summit savings end January 31 at midnight!
• Proclaim 'Privacy Week' in your clinic
• Welcome! Dr. Kimberley Kelly joins AMA Senior Management Team
• Apply for leadership opportunities with the CMA
• Thank you, AMA members!
• Will planning: protecting your assets and your family
• Community Connections
  • Pros and cons of new Narcotic Transition Service regulations
  • Have You Been Affected by the Recall of PAP Devices?
  • Accessibility of CT: Identifying underserved populations in rural Alberta

January 12

• Five reasons to sign up for CII/CPAR
• Optimized Prescribing with Seniors
• The ASaP maneuvers menu has been updated
• Help us rebuild the AMA website
• RF delegate election results
• Congratulations! 12 days of no privacy incidents
• Opioid Process Improvements Training now available!
• AMA seeks 2023 nominations for our highest awards
• Investing as a physician: A primer
• Community Connections (formerly known as Survey Corner)
  • Accessibility of CT: Survey to Identify Underserved Populations in Rural Alberta

2022

December 15

• Consultation 025: CPSA now seeking your feedback on three standards
• Enhancements to eReferral coming January 2023
• Apply today! Informatics Advisory Committee.
• News from ACFP
  • ACFP Family Medicine Summit - early bird registration savings
  • Big Bucks, Better Billing blog
  • ACFP's Future of Family Medicine: A strategic vision
• Need your Privacy Impact Assessment updated? Reduced PIA rates for CII/CPAR.
• Supporting injured workers: What information can employers request?
• News from Canadian Medical Association
  • Special opportunity for members of CMA Ambassador Program
  • CMA leadership opportunities
• Cash is king... or is it?
• Community Connections (formerly known as Survey Corner)
  • Impact of Virtual are on Decision-making Capacity Assessments (DMCAs)
  • AHS Childhood Immunization Survey 

November 24

• Vote now: 2022 RF delegate zonal/regional elections
• ANA testing to transition to Calgary lab
• CMA leadership opportunities
• AMA Senior Management Team news
• Privacy: Looking for risks at your clinic
• Physicians needed to interview applicants for the U of A Doctor of Medicine Program
• Alberta Blue Cross supports the CHANGE Health Community Program
• News from ACFP
  • Thursday Evening Webinars
  • ACFP Family Physician of the Year
• Survey Corner
  • Chiropractic Association of Alberta survey with Alberta doctors
  • AHS Childhood Immunization Survey

November 10

• Optimized Prescribing with Seniors: Deprescribing ChEl in LTC residents with progressive dementia
• Does your President's Letter come from a former president?
• User raves about AMA's privacy training
• News from ACFP: Innovation in Addiction Medicine - Dr. Monty Ghosh
• Make a positive impact on Alberta's health care: Join a CPSA committee
• 2022 Tarrant Scholarship: Meet this year's recipients
• TDIMM/AMA Medical Student Bursary: Apply today!
• Financial planning for physicians - why you're different
• Survey Corner:  Calgary Zone Survey: Primary Care Sleep Apnea Clinical Pathway

October 27

• Connect Care Launch 5 scheduled for November 6
• HQCA opens call for applications for 2023 Patient Experience Awards
• $1 million in funding will expand targeted services available through PFSP
• Updated breast cancer screening clinical practice guidelines released in Alberta
• ACTT training now available to access through Learn@AMA!
• News from ACFP:
  • Let's meet on Thursdays!
  • Doc Blog - "Medicine for the Gender Spectrum" by Dr. Charissa Ho
• Making responsible investing the norm
• Survey Corner
  • Having patients with advanced/decompensated/non-curative lung, heart, liver and kidney disease or solid organ cancers?
  • Awareness and perspectives on the role of artificial intelligence in primary care

October 14

• Help us rebuild the AMA website!
• Exciting new psychiatrist contract opportunity with PFSP
• Call for nominations: Zonal/Regional RF delegates
• Presidential ghosts in your inbox?
• Sign up your privacy officer for AMA's privacy training
• Bank of Canada raises interest rate: job's not done, more to come
• Survey Corner: 
  • Are you a family physician educated in South Africa?
  • Is Alberta's surgical referral system working for you and your patients?

September 29

• National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
• Register for the AMA's Annual General Meeting
• Help reduce the spread of communicable diseases
• Want to curl this winter?
• News from screeningforlife.ca
  • Lung cancer screening pilot project launched
  • Giving Alberta infants the best possible start to life
• CPSA’s Competence Committee is looking for new members
• Clinical opportunities
  • Impact of COVID-19 on colorectal cancer screening in Alberta
  • Cognitive Task Analysis Concept Mapping study on navigating cancer diagnosis
• How to build a credit score in Canada: A guide for international medical grads
• MD Culture Shift Issue #17 now available
• AMA staff announcements: Service milestones and retirement
• Survey Corner
  • Calgary Zone Survey: Primary Care Sleep Apnea Clinical Pathway
  • Medical cannabis perspectives

September 15

• 2022-23 AMA/CMA membership: Keep standing with us
• How to reduce anticholinergic burden to improve safety in older adults
• Get extended health and dental coverage from the AMA: Time to enrol!
• Enhance patient care, even when you can’t be there with CII/CPAR
• News from WCB-AB
  • New medical cannabis and pharmaceutical cannabinoid policy
  • Virtual opioids information session
• Alberta implementing HPV Test of Cure
• News from ACFP
  • CMN Collab Forum: Unraveling and Treating the Epidemic of Pain in Children
  • Collaborative ECHO® session on cannabinoids and pain
• What interest rate hikes mean for your mortgage
• Travelling soon? Here's a checklist.

August 25

• Make the most of your down time when you can take it
• Learn@AMA launches more free privacy training for custodians & privacy officers!
• Register today for AMA's media relations and social media training
• U of A research findings support implementation of Alberta FAST program
• ACFP's Chronic Pain Gains: An ECHO series is back for fall!
• Travelling soon? Don’t forget trip cancellation/interruption insurance.
• Survey Corner:
  • Is Alberta's surgical referral system working for you & your patients?
  • Pediatric Obesity Management in Canada

August 11

• Notice of elections and changes to AMA Bylaws
• Join more than 1,100 learners in taking AMA's online privacy training!
• Apply today: Healthy Working Environments Advisory Committee
• Note: Changes to serum IgE allergy testing for food and environmental inhalants
• News from the Alberta College of Family Physicians:
  • Building AAWEARness through Advocacy and Education
  • First Five Years of Family Practice blog: Tip on Wellness
• The inside scoop on being a CPSA councillor
• WCB-Alberta's prescribed opioids policy is now open for consultation
• Three strategies for physicians facing reduced cash flow
• Reminders:
  • Register! AMA Health Benefits Trust Fund - information webinar
  • Family Medicine Enhanced Skills residency programs
• Survey Corner:
  • Needs assessment for multi-disciplinary virtual men's health clinic