Charles Helm & Heather Gummow
At the end of the 2017 and 2018 3D medical education conferences in Tumbler Ridge, comments commonly heard included: “Is it possible to make this an annual event?” and “This is the most family-friendly conference I have ever been to.”
The 2019 conference will be held over three days (May 31-June 2), with many additions to the successful 2017 and 2018 programs. Sixty-three physicians, pharmacists, nurses and allied health professionals attended last year (with 125 people attending the banquet), making it one of the largest medical events ever organized in north-eastern BC.
3D stands for “Drugs, Dinos and Dinners”. The focus on “drugs” will be led by a team from the Therapeutics Initiative. This UBC-based think-tank rigorously analyzes evidence regarding which medications work, and which don’t. “Deprescribing” will be emphasized again for physicians – trying to get by with fewer medications. This year the program also addresses the opioid crisis, and a special feature will be hearing the patient’s perspective. Internationally acclaimed keynote speakers are being flown in from as far afield as the eastern USA. Altogether participants will be able to attend ten hours of talks and workshops.
So far, that’s not too unusual for a northern BC medical conference – intriguing and relevant lecture topics and constructive discussion. The second D, “Dinos”, goes beyond the ordinary. It reflects the partnership with the Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation and Tumbler Ridge Global Geopark Society, with tours of the Dinosaur Discovery Gallery, hiking to dinosaur trackways, waterfalls, and scenic destinations such as Shipyard-Titanic, guided by volunteers. Interspersing learning activities with dinosaur attractions that are available nowhere else in BC creates a unique ambience.
The third D is “Dinners”: on the Friday evening in the Dinosaur Discovery Gallery, catered by Action Play Café, followed by an innovation on the Saturday evening: a pig-roast at the Lions Campground, beside where BC’s only known dinosaur skull was discovered. This event will feature the best of Tumbler Ridge music, guest speakers, horse petting, and a noted comedian. Further attractions that promote the healthy lifestyles for which Tumbler Ridge is noted include morning trail-running, Zumba classes, early morning opening of the swimming pool and gym. Thanks to a generous donation from Conuma Coal, some lucky delegates will be able to go on jet-boat tours on the Murray River to the majesty of Kinuseo Falls. “3D” is a kid and family-friendly event; dinosaur camps are offered to children by the Museum while their parents take in the academic events at the Trend Conference Centre.
Each northern B.C. community receives Community RCME Funds to devote to educational activities. The Tumbler Ridge physicians decided to use all of their funds to create this regional conference of benefit to all. The communities of Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, and Fort Nelson have contributed to the conference from their Community RCME Funds, and Northern Health and the South Peace Division of Family Practice have also generously contributed. Mayor Bertrand and Council agreed to waive fees for the Conference Centre, noting the importance of this event for Tumbler Ridge.
Medical students and residents, the physicians of tomorrow, will play an important role in the conference. Not only will they make case presentations to the audience, but their ‘payback’ will be to help with chain-sawing and brushing the deadfall on a few of Tumbler Ridge’s famous hiking trails on the Sunday afternoon.
The event will once again be free of any pharmaceutical industry involvement. Informative booths will be hosted by a variety of important stakeholders: First Nations Health Authority, Northern Health Population and Public Health, Patient Voices Network, Physician Quality Improvement, Doctors of BC, South Peace Division of Family Practice, the Rural Co-ordination Centre of BC Research Node, and Medical Staff Retention and Recruitment.
Hopefully a globally unique learning environment will once again be created, the reputation of Tumbler Ridge as a conference destination and healthy lifestyle destination with a difference will be cemented, and “3D” will cement its place on the annual Canadian continuing medical education calendar.
