CAGS congratulates Dr. Rebecca Auer on her appointment as the Ottawa Hospital’s new leader of research and innovation

April 4, 2024, traditional unceded Algonquin Territory/Ottawa, Ontario – The Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS) is delighted that Dr. Rebecca Auer has been appointed to the role of Executive Vice-President of Research and Innovation at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) and as the CEO and Scientific Director of the esteemed Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), as of July 1, 2024. Given her exceptional leadership in undertaking and advocating for world-class cancer research and clinical trials in Canada, CAGS is not surprised to learn that Dr. Auer’s selection by a distinguished committee following an extensive global search has been unanimously endorsed.

Dr. Auer has been inspirational to CAGS’ Board and community through her dedication to advancing the field of general surgery and promotion of research.  Dr. Auer has been Chair of the CAGS Research Committee since 2019 and has led an outstanding group of surgeons by providing guidance to our organization’s research related initiatives and issues.  Dr. Auer also sits on the Board of the Canadian General Surgery Foundation, maintaining alignment of both CAGS and the Foundation on research granting and best practices.  In her role as Chair of the Research Committee, Dr. Auer has been instrumental in the promotion of research and educational activities within the Canadian general surgical community, including supporting research training for medical students, residents and attending surgeons, and supporting research excellence within Canadian Surgery Forum (CSF) and in the larger Canadian general surgery community.

Dr. Auer’s exceptional leadership also extends to her current role within the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine, where she holds full professor appointments in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology and as a Tier 1 Research Chair in Perioperative Cancer Therapeutics. Before she was recruited to Ottawa, Dr. Auer was Chief Fellow in the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. Other leadership positions at a national and international level include being an executive member of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and the Perioperative Care Network. She is the Canadian representative for the Global Forum for Cancer Surgeons and a Special Expert on the Gastrointestinal Steering Committee of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Auer’s appointments within TOH and the OHRI are truly well-deserved. We believe her expertise and vision will undoubtedly drive transformative advancements in healthcare and research, benefiting patients and communities locally and globally. We eagerly anticipate the remarkable contributions she will make in her new prestigious roles and will cheer her on as she continues her important work.

Congratulations Dr. Auer on this exciting journey of leadership and innovation!

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About CAGS
The Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS) is Canada’s only national organization representing the interests of General Surgeons.  Our Mission is to empower general surgeons to improve patients’ lives through continued advocacy, education, and research. We advocate on behalf of academic, community, rural and remote General Surgeons on issues related health human resources, transition of practice, pay equity, and the required access to resources to provide care for patients, and for quality of care for surgical patients.

CAGS manages the planning and delivery of the Canadian Surgery Forum – the largest scientific and networking event for General Surgeons in Canada.  In addition, through our General Surgery Learning & Resource Centre, we provide educational opportunities to ensure general surgeons can upgrade their skills as part of their Continuing Medical Education and assurance of optimal patient care.  To learn more about or join CAGS visit our website, connect with us on LinkedIn or donate to the Canadian General Surgery Foundation (CGSF) to help further surgical research in Canada.

 

For more information, contact:

Jennifer Scott
Manager, Membership & Communications
jennifer@cags-accg.ca
613-518-0556 x 2

Canada’s general surgeons support Health Workforce report recommendations

National licensure is an opportunity for the modernization our healthcare system needs to deliver optimal patient care.

 

March 24, 2023, unceded territory of the Algonquin and Anishinabek People/Ottawa, Ontario – The Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS) is pleased with the release of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health report, Addressing Canada’s Health Workforce Crisis.

Among its recommendations, the Health Workforce report states:

That the Government of Canada work with the provinces, territories, and professional regulatory bodies to establish pan-Canadian licensure for health professionals.

“While the issue of regulation and licensing of health professionals is a provincial and territorial responsibility,” says Dr. Sean Cleary, President of CAGS, “we are encouraged by the recommendation to opening a dialogue between the federal government and licensing entities, in hopes that this would extend to include general surgeons and not solely be for family physicians, nurses, and pharmacists.”

The issue of national licensure has long been a topic of great importance to CAGS. CAGS has a longstanding Rural Surgery Committee, one of its most productive, to examine rural and remote care issues, the specific challenges faced by surgeons in those contexts, and develop rural surgeon focused education.  Based on research by the CAGS Rural Surgery Committee, only 7% of all surgeons in Canada work in rural settings, however this number increases to 10% when only considering General Surgeons (Schroeder et al., Canadian Journal of Surgery, October 2020).  The current ability of general surgeons to move between licensing jurisdictions stifles their ability to serve in rural and remote areas on a temporary basis until vacancies can be permanently filled. There are other urgent needs for mobility such as locums to cover for surgeons who need to take time to attend to family, health, or continuing professional development and skill development. “As a first priority, as National Licensure evolves, the greatest attention needs to be given to those providing locum coverage in underserviced areas,” Roy Kirkpatrick, Rural Surgery Committee Member, Rural Surgeon Huntsville Ontario.  “The lack of surgical resources can mean that some patients will travel significant distances for treatment or possibly delay treatment due to the added travel expense, thereby potentially increasing Canada’s morbidity and mortality rates.”

Based on the data in the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s 2020-2021 National Physician Database, general surgeons in Canada – of which there are fewer than 2,500 – performed more than 2 million procedures in 2020. However, the distribution of general surgeons across the country and limitation of interprovincial mobility has meant that some provinces and territories remain grossly under-served proportionate to population. “A national licensure structure for all general and specialty medical practitioners would better serve patients and ensure a healthy future for all Canadians,” surmises Cleary.

The Canadian Association of Generals Surgeons fully supports the efforts of the Canadian Medical Association and all other witnesses who appeared before the Standing Committee on Health to call for a focus on short-term and long-term solutions to the current workforce crisis.

The adoption of the recommendations laid out in the report are key to bolstering Canada’s healthcare system and ensuring we remain a global leader in patient care and medical accessibility.

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About CAGS
The Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS) is Canada’s only national organization representing the interests of General Surgeons.  Our Mission is to empower general surgeons to improve patients’ lives through continued advocacy, education, and research. We advocate on behalf of academic, community, rural and remote General Surgeons on issues related health human resources, transition of practice, pay equity, and the required access to resources to provide care for patients, and for quality of care for surgical patients.

CAGS manages the planning and delivery of the Canadian Surgery Forum – the largest scientific and networking event for General Surgeons in Canada.  In addition, through our General Surgery Learning & Resource Centre, we provide educational opportunities to ensure general surgeons can upgrade their skills as part of their Continuing Medical Education and assurance of optimal patient care.  To learn more about or join CAGS visit our website, connect with us on LinkedIn or donate to the Canadian General Surgery Foundation (CGSF) to help further surgical research in Canada.

 

For more information, contact:

Jennifer Scott
Manager, Membership & Communications
jennifer@cags-accg.ca
613-518-0556 x 2

Theator Partners with CAGS to Launch Surgical Intelligence-Based Coaching Program

Prestigious surgical society CAGS deploys Theator’s Surgical Intelligence Platform to raise standards of surgical care and enhance training methodologies in General Surgery

Palo Alto, California, March 14, 2022 – Theator, the creator of Surgical Intelligence, announced today a new partnership with the Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS), the association empowering General Surgeons to improve patients’ lives through advocacy, education and research. Through this partnership, CAGS will create a new training and coaching program for its members leveraging Theator’s Surgical Intelligence Platform. The partnership represents the latest use of Theator’s Surgical Intelligence Platform, which has recently been adopted by a number of medical systems and surgical societies including the Mayo Clinic, McGill University, and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES).
Surgical Intelligence, a category created and defined by Theator, harnesses cutting-edge AI and computer vision methodologies to curate and analyze surgical video footage. AI-driven analysis of surgical procedures equips surgeons with actionable insights into procedures they perform, creating a new gold standard of surgical care.

Whether they’re in training or on the job, surgeons and surgical residents rarely get the chance to review the procedures they’ve performed. Theator’s Surgical Intelligence Platform offers that ability to surgeons and trainees, equipping them with performance analysis and actionable insights. CAGS coaches will be able to use the Surgical Intelligence Platform as a central line of communication with mentees in order to conduct thorough performance reviews, giving trainees practical feedback to improve their skills by tagging and commenting on specific events within the procedures they’ve performed.

“We are thrilled that an organization like CAGS recognizes the need for fundamental change in the surgical training process and will be adopting Theator as an integral piece of the mentor/mentee feedback process to raise the standard of surgical care among its members,” said Dr. Tamir Wolf, CEO and Co-Founder of Theator. “Surgical training isn’t over once a physician completes residency, and Surgical Intelligence enhances surgeons’ lifelong learning and contributes to phasing out an outdated apprenticeship model.”
“This partnership is an important opportunity to reimagine how general surgeons train and prepare for surgery,” said Dr. Sean Cleary, CAGS President-elect. “We look forward to exploring the analytics, efficiencies, and cost savings this virtual platform affords participants in the surgical training process. Providing general surgeons with actual visual and contextual insight into the procedures they perform will streamline and enhance communication between coaches and trainees.”

About Theator
Theator is pioneering the Surgical Intelligence revolution, with an innovative platform built for surgeons by surgeons to create actionable and accessible surgical data and use it to comprehensively analyze patient outcomes. By making routine video capture and analysis the standard of care in surgery, Theator improves surgical decision-making, boosting surgeon performance and the quality of patient care. Theator is partnering with leading surgeons, hospitals, professional societies, and research institutions to create a smarter, more transparent operating room. Based in Palo Alto, California, the company is paving the path for real-time surgical decision-support, creating a stronger, healthier world. For more information, visit https://theator.io/.

About the Canadian Association of General Surgeons
CAGS is the national voice of General Surgeons in Canada, representing over 1,500 practising members and general surgery residents. Through investments in education and research, CAGS provides the tools, support and resources for its members to achieve excellence in surgical care. Our advocacy efforts aim to improve the functioning of surgical care systems and practices and to improve access to quality surgical care in urban and rural settings, across Canada. For a detailed list of strategic initiatives and member services, visit cags-accg.ca.

CAGS renews agreement with MD Financial Management Inc. and Scotiabank

OTTAWA, November 16, 2021

MD Financial Management Inc. (MD) and Scotiabank today announced a renewed three-year agreement with the Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS) to support education and research in order to advance excellence in surgical care for all and empower General Surgeons to improve patients’ lives.

Funding will support the following:

  • The annual scientific meeting, a national conference that brings best practices, innovative approaches to surgery, research findings and non-technical skills development to practising General Surgeons and residents.
  • Development of strategic initiatives in education and research that empower General Surgeons to improve patients’ lives.
  • Programs to help launch residents’ careers in general surgery, including technical skills enhancement and education in non-technical areas such as managing a professional practice.

“We’re proud to support the development of programs and services that contribute to the professional growth of General Surgeons,” says MD CEO Daniel Labonté. “We also understand that financial well-being plays an important role in personal and professional growth, and we are committed to helping General Surgeons and their families achieve their financial goals.”

As the exclusive financial services partners of CAGS, MD and Scotiabank provide educational content, advice and financial planning solutions tailored to the specific needs of General Surgeons and their families.

“It is a pleasure to partner with Scotiabank and MD,” says Shelley Pelkey, CEO of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons. “By providing access to tools that empower our members to manage their finances, it is our hope that the burden of these challenging times will be alleviated somewhat, allowing them to focus on our shared vision of excellence in patient care for all.”

As the financial services partners of more than 30 organizations, MD and Scotiabank are deeply committed to supporting Canada’s physicians and their families.

About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: “for every future” we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of over 90,000 employees and assets of approximately $1.2 trillion (as at July 31, 2021), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @ScotiabankViews.

About MD Financial Management Inc.
With more than 50 years of physician-focused experience, MD Financial Management Inc. (MD) is dedicated to providing financial peace of mind to Canada’s physicians and their families, so they can enjoy what matters most to them while achieving their career and life goals. MD had more than $60 billion in assets under management as of October 28, 2021. MD Management Limited was the first of the MD Group of Companies to be founded, in 1969. MD Financial Management Inc. wholly owns or has a majority interest in its seven subsidiaries (the MD Group of Companies). It provides financial products and services, is the fund manager for the MD Family of Funds and offers investment counselling services. For a detailed list of the MD Group of Companies, visit md.ca.

About the Canadian Association of General Surgeons
CAGS is the national voice of General Surgeons in Canada, representing over 1,500 members and general surgery residents. Through investments in education and research, CAGS’s dedicated leadership team continually strives to provide the tools, support and resources for our members to achieve excellence in surgical care. Our advocacy efforts aim to improve the functioning of surgical care systems and practices and to improve access to quality surgical care in urban and rural settings, across Canada. For a detailed list of strategic initiatives and member services, visit cags-accg.ca.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Katie O’Dell
Director, Communications, Global Wealth Management
Scotiabank | Global Communications
647 472-5857
katie.odell@scotiabank.com

Yali N’Diaye
Communications Manager
MD Financial Management Inc.
367 995-8877
yali.ndiaye@md.ca

Shelley Pelkey
Chief Executive Officer
The Canadian Association of General Surgeons
613 518 0556 ext. 1
shelley@cags-accg.ca

Newfoundland Locum Pilot Project Announced

Rural specialty care in Canada has been in a state of crisis for far too long. There are multiple factors at play that have created this crisis.  Through its advocacy work, CAGS is attempting to address this issue head-on with a pilot project aimed to bring surgeons to rural areas in need.

In its 2019 Physician Workforce Survey, the CMA found that the vast majority of Canadian physicians would be willing to help provide care in other provinces to alleviate some of the burden. Forty-five percent of physicians answering the survey indicated they would do a locum, 39% would offer virtual care to patients in another jurisdiction, 30% would practise in multiple jurisdictions on an ongoing basis and 42% would practise temporarily in a rural or remote area in another jurisdiction.

CAGS is seeking interested members to participate in a pilot project by completing a locum in Newfoundland in the late summer/early fall.  Interested members will be kept in the loop as the pilot program moves forward.  Please email us at cags@cags-accg.ca.

 

Canadian Cancer Society releases peer-reviewed article, ‘Projected estimates of cancer in Canada in 2020’

As you all know, general surgery plays a key role in the treatment of several types of cancer, including common cancers like breast and colorectal.

This year’s Canadian Cancer Statistics publication was developed in the form of a peer-reviewed article Projected estimates of cancer in Canada in 2020, which was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) on March 2, 2020.

The article provides 2020 projected estimates of incidence and mortality by sex and geographic region for 23 cancer types. The link to the full article, along with supporting resources, can be found at www.cancer.ca/statistics. Key findings of the article are summarized in the attached infographic.

    

Comme vous le savez tous, la chirurgie générale joue un rôle clé dans le traitement de plusieurs types de cancer, y compris les cancers courants tels que le cancer du sein et le cancer colorectal.

Cette année, une publication Statistiques canadiennes sur le cancer a été rédigée sous la forme d’un article évalué par les pairs, intitulé Estimations prévues du cancer au Canada en 2020, qui est paru dans le Journal de l’Association médicale canadienne (JAMC) le 2 mars 2020.

L’article fournit les estimations projetées en 2020 de l’incidence et de la mortalité, par sexe et par région géographique, pour 23 types de cancer. Vous trouverez un lien vers l’article intégral, ainsi que des ressources de soutien, à www.cancer.ca/statistiques. Les découvertes clés de cet article sont résumées dans l’infographique joint.

High-quality cancer surgery for Canadians, from start to finish: A Q&A with Dr. Christian Finley

The Pan-Canadian Standards for Cancer Surgery were released earlier this year. Dr. Christian Finley, thoracic surgeon and Expert Lead, Clinical Measures, at the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer led development of the standards. Here he discusses why they were created and how they will help to improve the quality of cancer surgery in all parts of Canada

 

Why were the standards created?

In Canada, cancer is the leading cause of all deaths (30 per cent)1 and tremendously impacts the economy of the health system. In 2019 alone, there will be over 220,000 estimated new cancer cases2 and over 82,000 projected cancer deaths.2 In our fight against the disease, there are three pillars of treatment: chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. In recent years, we’ve identified that surgery largely sat outside management of the traditional cancer system as it’s often delivered, resourced and evaluated under provincial ministries of health and territorial health authorities, not cancer agencies, which typically manage chemotherapy and radiation. For this and many other reasons, we’re seeing significant variations in the effectiveness of cancer surgery in different parts of the country. These observations were quantified in a report we released in 2015. Seeing that these gaps existed, we needed to develop evidence-informed cancer surgical standards that could be applied to different types of the disease and adopted by any health care setting where cancer surgeries are taking place.

By setting standards for care delivery and promoting their adoption, we will improve surgical practices across Canada and deliver on a priority of the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control (2019-2029). The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer is the steward of the Strategy working with provincial and territorial governments and others to make changes that ensure the our cancer system delivers high-quality care in a sustainable, world class system.

 

What issues are you seeing with cancer surgery in Canada?

The 2015 report looked at surgeries for breast, rectal, esophageal, pancreatic, liver, lung and ovarian cancers. The findings were startling as we saw significant variances in surgery outcomes for these cancers in different parts of Canada. Through advances in screening, many cancers can now be identified at an earlier stage, and surgery is often the optimal treatment choice to cure or manage the disease. While many patients fare well after surgery with no complications and are discharged home within expected timelines, some experience more complex post-surgical effects with extended hospital stays, adverse effects requiring additional care, re-admission to hospital, or in some cases, death. While cancer prevention, early detection and screening are important in the fight against cancer, surgery is often the only way to cure the disease. High-quality surgical practices, along with pathology and imaging, can mean up to a 55 per cent increase in chances of survival.3 As such, we need to make sure all Canadians are receiving high-quality cancer surgery.

 

Why are there variations among hospitals delivering cancer surgery in Canada?

There are many reasons why cancer surgery practices differ from province to province. The first is having the right resources and services in place, particularly before and after surgery. It’s vital that hospitals have physicians and nurses well-trained in identifying the specific signs and symptoms of complications following surgery, and that processes are in place to support timely action and “rescue” a patient should adverse events occur. There also needs to be 24-hour access to a radiologist and a hospital must have an operating room open at night to allow surgeons to go back and assess patients experiencing complications following a cancer surgery. We’re seeing that this is not the case with every hospital in Canada where cancer surgery is being performed. The other key factor is quality improvement practices. No surgeon, institution or province is the best at everything. There is tremendous value in knowing your performance compared to others across the country. That means getting hospitals to allow their data to be collected and compared with others. Routine data collection on the process and outcomes of a cancer surgery are needed in every facility that provides these procedures. Currently, that data is two to three years behind and its retrieval takes more than six months. This is a major obstacle in identifying and addressing problems in the cancer surgical practices at many hospitals across Canada.

 

What are the standards and what do they hope to achieve?

To increase the quality of surgery, it requires significant support from a multidisciplinary group of healthcare providers, as well as appropriate equipment and processes. Combining these factors will ensure that patients undergoing cancer surgery receive safe, timely and high-quality care. In August 2019, we released a suite of pan-Canadian standards for the practice of cancer surgery, including defining training and resource requirements. These standards seek to address the challenges affecting the quality of cancer surgery in Canada. They have been developed to elevate and standardize surgical practices in every part of the country where these procedures are performed. The standards include surgeon criteria and processes to ensure every hospital is providing training and routine re-certification for those operating on cancer patients. The standards can help hospitals in ensuring organizational resources are in place to support high-quality care at all stages of a cancer surgery. And importantly, the standards include data collection practices to encourage continuous quality improvement, particularly with feedback directly from patients following their surgery.

 

How will the standards benefit the patient and the cancer system?

Surgery is one of the greatest success stories in treating many types of cancer. Because of this treatment option, we have reduced deaths from the disease by 35 to 50 per cent over the last decade.4 It’s because of this effectiveness that we need to ensure that these types of surgery are being done at the highest quality possible. A cancer system with high-quality surgery practices from coast-to-coast-to-coast is in everyone’s best interest. For a patient, surgery is less invasive and has fewer physical post-treatment effects compared to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. For the system, surgery can remove tumours completely and if done effectively, you can see improved outcomes and minimal care required for the patient after treatment. From an economic standpoint this means fewer resources used in the cancer system. Getting these standards implemented in all relevant health care settings will mean all Canadians, no matter where the live in the country, will receive high-quality cancer surgery and are supported from end to end from diagnosis through to post-treatment care.

 

What’s next?

Through our National Surgery Standards Implementation Network, we have a conduit to provincial and territorial government policymakers and healthcare providers involved in the practice of cancer surgery. We are actively meeting with surgeons in all jurisdictions to present and promote adoption of the standards or identify if there are any barriers in their jurisdiction to adopting them. We are also starting a mentorship program whereby we connect leading cancer surgeons with other surgeons to share current practices and lessons learned. The goal is to have champions of the standards who can help in facilitating their adoption on the front lines of cancer surgery in every province and territory. The other big focus is on measurement. We are currently gathering data to show the effectiveness of surgery for breast, rectal, thoracic, gynecological and prostate cancer. We know that resources required to improve cancer surgery are limited in every province and territory. By obtaining the data in each jurisdiction and identifying which cancers are being treated effectively through surgery, and which are not, we can allocate our efforts and resources appropriately. This data will be featured in a report to be released to the public in spring 2020.

 

Read the full Pan-Canadian Standards for Cancer Surgery

 

REFERENCES

 

 

CMPA Announces Inaugural Surgical Safety Program

Theatre Arts — The CMPA surgical safety course

CMPA is pleased to announce that they will offer the inaugural program to surgical teams October 2-4, 2019, at the CMPA building in Ottawa.

Participants will be selected once they submit an application including a surgical safety project that they wish to lead. The course will consist of plenaries, interactive discussions, case studies, and journal clubs. Various group activities will encourage cross-pollination of ideas and networking opportunities.

The three-day Theatre Arts program aims to foster collegial bonds among team participants. The collaborative approach will allow participants to build their personal network and encourage mutual support when implementing their projects.

Highly skilled faculty members, including physician advisors and national opinion leaders in surgical safety, will be delivering this evidence-based program. Using a combination of journal clubs, didactic plenaries, experiential sessions and small group work, participants will explore the human, organizational, and cultural themes that contribute to surgical harm.

Participants will learn how these themes apply to their work environment and will work in teams to generate actionable interventions.

 

To obtain additional information and access to the application form: https://www.cmpa-acpm.ca/en/education-events/workshops/workshop-theatre-arts