Shared on behalf of Dr. Stewart Kennedy, Executive Vice President Regional Programs, Clinical Supports, and Medical Affairs

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I am pleased to share that Andrea Docherty, Director, Regional Cancer Program, will provide interim leadership to the Prevention & Screening portfolio.

I appreciate your support of Andrea as she assumes this interim role, and take this opportunity to thank her for her dedication and assistance.

The vacancy of any leadership position provides an opportunity to review and reevaluate our current organizational structure for effectiveness and efficiency. Rather than simply replace a position, we have a responsibility to consider potential improvements and adjustments that best align with our goals and to ensure we are being responsive to the needs of the population of Northwestern Ontario. This concept will apply to all vacant leadership positions going forward.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Sent on behalf of Dawna Perry, Director Nursing Practice

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Please join us in congratulating and welcoming Kristie Scalzo to her role as the temporary Nursing Resource Team Practice Coordinator.

Kristie is a Registered Nurse with 19 years of experience with our organization. She began her nursing career on the acute oncology ward before making the move to the Critical Care department. During her 16 years with Critical Care she has demonstrate leadership as part of MET (medical emergency team), in her charge nurse position and in her work with the Regional Critical Care Response Program. Throughout her career Kristie has demonstrated an ability to work and make decisions in fast paced high stress situations, passed on her knowledge to colleagues and learners as a preceptor, and provided education related to critical care throughout Northwestern Ontario.

Kristie has a strong passion for providing quality patient care. She has served as Clinical Lead Sustainability Digital Orders sets supporting the development, implementation, health care provider education and evaluation of the QBP digital order sets improving patient care through the alignment of evidence-based practice for quality improvement.

The addition of Kristie to our team has allowed us the opportunity to adjust our team member’s area of focus. As such, Rita Grenier Buchan will increase her focus to her role in the Staffing Office while continuing to providing leadership support to Jordan Stokes and

Kristie related to the Nursing Resource Team. Rita has relocated to the Staffing Office and can now be reached at 684-6152. Jordan and Kristie will support the NRT with Jordan as the primary contact for NRT related matters. Jordan and Kristie are located in the Professional Practice office space. Jordan’s contact number has changed to 684-6918, Kristie’s contact number is 684-7217

Sent on behalf of Dr. Peter Voros, Incident Manager

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The health and safety of all staff, professional staff, patients and the community is our utmost priority. To increase the number of individuals benefiting from a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, our Hospital, as guided by the province, is following recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) to extend the time interval of the second dose of vaccines up to 16 weeks.

Current evidence indicates high vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 for several weeks after the first dose, including among older populations. Since vaccine supplies remain limited, extending the interval for the second dose to four months will maximize the number of first doses administered. This contributes to health equity by increasing community protection against COVID-19. To learn more about vaccine intervals, please view the video at https://player.vimeo.com/video/510359261

Any staff, professional staff, learner, or volunteer who has already received their 1^st dose, and has their 2^nd dose scheduled will be contacted by our vaccination team to reschedule their 2^nd dose to 16 weeks after their 1^st dose. There is no need to contact us, we will contact you.

To learn more about NACI’ recommendation, please visit: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/immunization/national-advisory-committee-on-immunization-naci/rapid-response-extended-dose-intervals-covid-19-vaccines-early-rollout-population-protection.html.

The role of our Hospital continues to be to provide vaccination support as directed by the Thunder Bay District Health Unit. It is expected that all remaining Hospital and Health Research Institute staff who want to be vaccinated will have their turn within the next two weeks. More information will be provided as details are confirmed.

Thank you for your ongoing patience and understanding.

Please contact your manager with any questions or concerns.

All Hospital COVID-19 updates are also available on the iNtranet athttps://comms.tbrhsc.net/covid-19-information/

Join in via WebEx at https://tbh.net/th
To submit a question, visit tbh.net/thq
Can’t tune-in live? The Town Hall will be recorded and posted at https://cast.tbrhsc.net/townhall/archived/

In response to the growing need for support at the hospital’s main entrance, Volunteer Services developed the Wayfinding Volunteer service last summer.

The mission of the Wayfinding Volunteer service is to create a positive, welcoming, and friendly first impression at this hospital for out-patients, visitors, and staff.

Based at the Main Entrance, these Volunteers provide supportive wayfinding assistance, escorts, and wheelchair transports to out-patients, Care Partners and Essential Care Partners, and deliveries to patient units within the main hospital building, Monday to Friday from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, and on the weekends from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

IMPORTANT: Please note that at this time, Volunteers are not permitted to enter the Emergency Department, ICU, or the COVID-19 Unit for any reason, including for patient escorts or transports or deliveries of items.

Thank you for your understanding.

Please be advised that T4 tax slips for 2020 tax year are now available for viewing and printing through the ESS (Employee Self Service) Portal: https://ess.tbrhsc.net/

To access your T4 tax slip, please log into your ESS portal and select the “Tax Slips” option.

If you are trying to access your T4 Slip or Pay Stub in Virtuo ESS and the screen is blank, please perform the following:

1) Click the “Reset” button

2) A message will appear 

“This will delete your customized menu and replace it with the default.  Are you sure you want to continue?” 3) Click “OK“

The menu system should now appear and you should be able to view your details.

If your screen is still blank please contact the Help Desk at 684-6411 for further assistance.

Please note that certain employees will have two T4 slips issued for the same tax year. Please review carefully to determine if you have been issued two T4 slips, as both will be required for income tax preparation.

Update: It was discovered that for certain individuals, boxes 24 and 26 of the T4 tax slips were not displaying correctly in Virtuo ESS. The problem has been corrected by our software provider.

If you printed your T4 tax slip prior to 10 am Monday, March 1st, then please ensure you log back into Virtuo ESS to print a new copy.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please to contact Michael Iorianni, Manager, Payroll & Accounting by telephone at 684-6917 or by email at ioriannm@tbh.net.

Sent on behalf of Crystal Edwards, Director, Women & Children’s Program, Dr. Chiachen Cheng, Medical Director, Child & Adolescent Mental Health

We are pleased to announce that Jenny Stewart has accepted the position of Manager, Child & Adolescent Mental Health effective March 15th, 2021.

Jenny joined the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre Social Work team in 2011 working in various departments including Surgery, Trauma & Emergency, Maternal Child Services and General Medicine before finally joining Child & Adolescent Mental Health in 2014 upon successfully completing her Masters in Social Work.

During her time on the Child & Adolescent Mental Health team, Jenny has demonstrated strong leadership, advocacy for her patients and a commitment to improving patient care. Jenny has worked on various projects and process improvements which have resulted in noticeable improvements to patient care, process fluidity and efficiencies. Most recently, Jenny has worked hard at expanding the CAMHU program, creating internal and community partnerships and expanding the services and support of the program.

In 2019 Jenny became the Transitional Specialist for CAMHU, supporting youth and their providers, as they transitioned in and out of the hospital. In 2020, Jenny readily stepped up first as the CAMHU Program Lead and then as the Interim Coordinator for the department. Jenny quickly demonstrated her leadership, drive and passion to the program as well as her strong desire to guide and mentor.

We are very fortunate to have Jenny join the Women & Children’s Leadership team. In her new role, Jenny will provide operational oversight to the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Unit, as well as will provide leadership support to the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Service (CAPS) at the Sister Margaret Smith Centre. As a leader for child and adolescent mental health, Jenny will also assist with the expansion of outpatient mental health services to children and youth in Northwestern Ontario.

Please join us in congratulating and welcoming Jenny into her new role.

Sent on behalf of the The Northwestern Ontario Regional Stroke Network

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ECHO Ontario: Epilepsy Across the Lifespan is a virtual community and case-based learning program, which endeavors to build a provincial network of community health care providers and epilepsy specialists at academic hospitals to enhance care for people living with epilepsy and their families. The live learning virtual program provides CME credits at no cost and can be accessed virtually – no need to travel. Sessions are 60 minutes and offered over the lunch hour for ease of participation.

We are launching our updated Adult Curriculum for 2020-2021 which will be jointly delivered by our specialists from Hamilton Health Sciences, London Health Sciences, and Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences in March 2021. Program topics include:

> Epilepsy genetics overview
> Seizure mimics and differential diagnosis
> Transitioning to adult care
> Referring to an epilepsy center

Please click the link in the attached flyer to register.

For more information about our program, please visit: https://oen.echoontario.ca/

The curriculum is based on newly developed guidelines for the management of epilepsy.

Please don’t hesitate to contact the program at epilepsy@echoontario.ca if you have any questions

(Via Lakehead University)

Lakehead University held its Research and Innovation Awards of Excellence reception virtually on Thursday, March 4 to celebrate the exceptional achievements of professors, partners, and students.

Lakehead named Dr. Edward Rawana and Dr. Mitchell Albert the 2021 Distinguished Researchers for their work in social science and science, respectively.

Dr. Rawana, a Professor in the Department of Psychology and at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, is also the Director of the Centre of Education and Research on Positive Youth Development and a child and adolescent psychologist.

He started at Lakehead University as a Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Psychology in 1985, became an Adjunct Professor in 1987, and began a tenure track position as Assistant Professor in 2004.

Dr. Rawana’s career in psychology has been a continuous and colourful journey toward the subject he is most passionate about: strengths. He is highly active in exploring and promoting the assessment of psychological strengths and incorporating this information into practical methods that address issues of education, addiction, and mental health.

His research has three goals: to impact the theoretical/research literature pertaining to the influence of psychological strengths on the development of children, adolescents, and adults; to develop psychometric instruments for use in the assessment of psychological strengths of individuals; to focus on the assessment of psychological strengths in the Canadian population of Indigenous children and adults, especially students at Lakehead University receiving services through the Office of Indigenous Initiatives.

Dr. Rawana co-created a psychometric tool called the Strengths Assessment Inventory (SAI) for children and adolescents, which has been used more than 3,000 times and is featured on its own website at strengthassessment.ca. It has attracted considerable attention from a wide range of professionals who also work with youth in varying capacities throughout Canada and internationally.

Dr. Rawana also provides training and consultation to teachers, parents, and clinicians on the implementation of these strength-based methods, with an emphasis on providing a framework for utilizing strengths in addressing behavioural challenges in children and youth.

His work in the growing area of strengths involving children, adolescents, and their families has resulted in the authoring or co-authoring of over 30 academic and professional publications on the subject.

This includes the foundational book Reshaping School Culture: Implementing a Strengths-Based Approach in Schools, which lays out fundamental concepts of a strengths-based approach and its application within the educational system. His most recent co-authored book is a companion manual, Strengths and the Ontario Language Curriculum: Strengths-Based Lessons for Grades 4-6.

“My research is focused on the concept of psychological strengths developed by individuals to enhance their self efficacy and to address life challenges,” he said in his acceptance speech.

“It has been gratifying to see this concept be adopted in our community and elsewhere to enhance the mental health, well being and academic achievements of students in the schools.”

Dr. Rawana thanked his family, the Office of Research Services, and other colleagues for their contributions to this important research, including Dr. Keith Brownlee, and the staff and graduate students at the Centre of Education and Research on Positive Youth Development for their significant contribution to his research.

Dr. Albert is a Professor in Chemistry, a Lakehead University/Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute (TBRHRI) Chair in Molecular Imaging and Advanced Diagnostics, and a Scientist with TBRHRI. He joined Lakehead University and TBRHRI in the spring of 2011.

Dr. Albert is also an Adjunct Professor in Biology, Health Sciences and Physics at Lakehead University and an Adjunct Professor at the Northern Ontario Medical School.

He is a pioneer in the field of hyperpolarized (HP) noble gas magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) since its beginnings in the 1990s, when he co-invented this technology during his graduate studies at Stony Brook University.

Dr. Albert’s HP gas MRI invention changed the course of the pulmonary imaging field since it provided, for the first time, a way to directly visualize the ventilation and gas exchange in the lungs, which is something that other imaging modes cannot readily provide.

“This is important because gas exchange in the airways and lungs is paramount to etiology and understanding of small airway diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung fibrosis, and other diseases of the lungs,” Dr. Albert said.

For this contribution to research, he was awarded the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by President Clinton in 1999. He also received a prestigious US National Science Foundation Career Award for his contributions to the development of this technology and contributions to training of highly qualified personnel in this field.

Dr. Albert and his team recently began using HP xenon MRI to study the brain, and imaged the brain of participants with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) for the first time using HP xenon MRI. They went on to demonstrate the use of HP xenon MRI to acquire functional MRI (fMRI) images of the brain with superior sensitivity and signal strength compared to conventional methods.

During Dr. Albert’s career, his research innovation, scientific rigor, and insight has been amply rewarded in terms of funding awards totaling approximately $16.5 million.

Over the past 10 years at Lakehead University, he has been awarded 18 grants totaling approximately $6.6 million to support his research.

His research involved an investigator-initiated clinical trial at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute, and he is happy to see that his imaging invention has recently been approved for clinical use in the UK and is close to approval in the US and Canada.

“It is gratifying that our dream from 30 years ago is starting to be used in clinics at hospitals,” Dr. Albert said during his acceptance speech.

“Although I am receiving this award today, it was my students, staff and collaborators who did all the hard work. A hearty thank you to all of them, and thanks for choosing me to receive this award.”

Dr. Andrew P. Dean, Lakehead’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation, said he was exceptionally proud of the University’s researchers.

“Congratulations to Dr. Rawana and Dr. Albert, and to all Lakehead University researchers,” Dr. Dean said. “This has been a very different R and I Week with it being entirely online. I would like to thank everyone who participated, including the general public, students, faculty and staff, and all of our speakers as well.”

Award Recipients

Three-Minute Thesis

Third Place: Shadiya Aidid, Master of Health Sciences (Supervisors: Dr. Charles Levkoe and Dr. Lindsay Galway
Second Place: Taha Sadeghi, PhD in Biotechnology (Supervisor: Dr. Leila Pakzad)
First Place: Ashley Faulkner, Master of Science, Biology (Supervisor: Dr. Ingeborg Zehbe)
Graduate Studies Research Excellence Awards

Natural Sciences and Engineering Category

Oleksandr Grynko, PhD in Chemistry and Material Science, (Supervisor: Dr. Alla Reznik)

Social Sciences and Humanities Category

Keri-Lyn Durant, PhD in Educational Studies (Supervisor: Dr. Pauline Sameshima)

Canadian Institutes of Health Research Category

Rebecca Tzalazidis, PhD in Clinical Psychology (Supervisor: Dr. Kirsten Oinonen)

Graduate Student Conference Poster Winners

> Winner Engineering Category: Joseph Higginson, MSc in Chemical Engineering (Supervisor: Dr. Ehsan Behzadfar)
> Winner NSERC Category: Jocelyn Bel, PhD in Biotechnology (Supervisors: Dr. Neelam Khaper, Dr. Simon Lees)
> Winner SSHRC Category: Cassandra Burgess, PhD in Educational Studies (Supervisors: Dr. Sonia Mastrangelo, Dr. Alex Lawson)
> Winner CIHR Category: Jessica Allingham, PhD Chemistry and Material Science, (Supervisors: Dr. Michael Campbell, Dr. Wely Floriano)

Indigenous Partnership Research Award

Award recipients are Dr. Chris Murray, Department of Sustainability Sciences, Orillia campus, and Nancy Assance, Department of Education, Beausoleil First Nation for their research project, “Agaaming – Across the Bay: Beausoleil First Nation Wind and Water Monitoring Project.”

Ingenuity Award

Nehikhare Patrick Igbinijesu, Master’s student in Social Justice Studies for his company “Manilla”

Community-Engaged Research Award

Dr. Kathryn Sinden, School of Kinesiology in partnership with Thunder Bay Fire Rescue/Thunder Bay Professional Firefighters Association for the research project, “Protecting those who protect us: Supporting development of a mental health management strategy for Thunder Bay Fire Rescue.”

Canada Research Chair Award

The Canada Research Chair holder is Dr. Lindsay Galway, Department of Health Sciences.
Senate Research Committee Awards

Contribution to Research Award

Dr. Amir Azimi, Civil Engineering
Dr. Salimur Choudhury, Computer Science
Dr. Max Haiven, English

Distinguished Researcher Award

Dr. Mitchell Albert, Research Chair and Professor in Chemistry
Dr. Edward Rawana, Psychology

Please note that PALS Full Provider course for March 8-9 and PALS Renewal course on March 25 have been cancelled. This is for the health and safety of all due to the recent increase of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

If you have any questions, or wish to be added on the PALS notify list please contact Ashley at chiewa@tbh.net.