Category Archives: Uncategorized

The University of Oxford recently posted on Oxford Vaccine Group‘s Charlie Firth’s piece on Ebola outbreaks and “why trust, community engagement and public health measures remain critical alongside vaccination.”

On that note, a few weeks ago, in one of our recent Primary Compassionate Care educational sessions, I challenged our mentees to rethink how a public health campaign could be repackaged to help stop the spread of Ebola.

They reflected on key messaging, community needs, and public understanding, then transformed their ideas into powerful graphics and posters.

What emerged so clearly were themes of cooperation, fear and stigma, education, leadership, engagement, prevention, shared responsibility, practical support, misinformation, and more importantly how to respond with compassion and empathy.

As one of our cohort members, Regina, explained, “This shifts the focus from controlling people through fear to protecting lives through understanding and dignity.”

Their work reminded me that effective public health communication is about building trust, being creative, and responding with humanity.

I’m really proud of what our Primary Compassionate Care mentees produced.

The painting above represents Pachelbel’s Canon in D as structure.

The gold arches along the bottom represent the repeating basso continuo, the steady ground bass that cycles throughout the piece.

The horizontal gold line acts like the musical timeline, while the vertical gold lines show how the upper voices rise from and connect back to that foundation.

The light glow on the left suggests the opening of the canon: simple, spacious, and luminous. As the painting moves right into deeper blues, it reflects the way the music builds through layering, repetition, and harmonic richness.

The blue textured field represents the overlapping violin lines, felt through depth and movement rather than literal notes.

In short: it shows Canon in D as a luminous blue architecture of repetition, order, and emotional build, with the bass as the foundation and the upper voices rising above it.

Created by AI.

You know when you read an article and the content just sticks with you? This article by Martin, Nasmith, Takahashi, and Harvey, Exploring the Experience of Residents During the First Six Months of Family Medicine Residency Training, has stayed with me because it captures something deeply recognizable about the transition into residency that I have observed.

Becoming a family physician is not simply about knowing more medicine. It is about learning to carry responsibility differently: responsibility for clinical decisions, patient relationships, time, uncertainty, follow-up, and the everyday realities of practice.

The paper breaks this transition down beautifully across three areas: knowledge, practice management, and relationships. That framework resonated with me again today after speaking with a family physician preceptor who described the importance of helping residents understand that they are no longer students. They are emerging professionals, learning to be reliable, accountable, and responsible within real clinical environments.

What I appreciate most about this work is that it normalizes the anxiety of early residency while also showing how residents grow through continuity of care, feedback, role modelling, and repeated practice. The first six months are not only about building competence. They are about identity formation: learning, slowly and meaningfully, what it feels like to become someone’s doctor.

Read more on Martin D, Nasmith L, Takahashi S, Harvey B. Exploring the experience of residents during the first six months of family medicine residency training. Canadian Medical Education Journal. 2017;8(1):22-36.

“There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked by the Chinese and those that don’t know they have been hacked by the Chinese.”

Artwork: “Pine, Plum, and Two Cranes” (detail), Shen Quan (1682–1762), Qing Dynasty. Ink and colour on silk, 191 cm × 98.3 cm.

The University of Oxford tells students that consent is “an essential foundation for a safe and respectful community of learning.”

It also requires all first-year students to complete Consent for Students training, and encourages all students to refresh that training annually: https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/welfare/supportservice/consent-training

That’s why the recent reporting by Al Jazeera English and Liberty Investigates is so troubling.

According to the investigation, University of Oxford was among several UK universities that paid Horus Security Consultancy Limited to monitor campus protest activity, including pro-Palestine student activism.

And here’s the part that should make University of Oxford especially uncomfortable: Al Jazeera reports that Horus was originally established in 2006 as a project within Oxford’s own security team.

So this isn’t just a story about universities outsourcing surveillance. It’s also a story about how a campus security function can evolve into a private intelligence service, then be sold back into the university sector.

There may be legal arguments about whether this was permitted. But legality is not the same as ethical legitimacy. If consent is central to a respectful learning community, then institutions must model it too. Monitoring students’ social media activity or protest involvement without their knowledge raises serious questions about transparency, trust, academic freedom, and the chilling effect on lawful political expression.

Learn more here: British universities paid security firm to ‘spy’ on pro-Palestine students. Investigation reveals how a company led by ex-military intelligence officials scanned social media use and undertook background checks on a Palestinian guest speaker: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/20/uk-universities-pay-to-spy-on-students-social-media-accounts.

“The Neuroscience of Learning: improving the effectiveness of people skills Technical know-how is always changing, and L&D departments have to adapt their training programs to fulfil a company’s relevant needs at any given time. We can never really know what the future holds for hard skills. Soft skills, on the other hand, are always needed, regardless of innovations in processes or technology. For example, active listening and leadership are critical people skills that are always needed, in addition to effective communication. Team members who can communicate effectively will be able to avoid unconscious biases and take on appropriate behaviors in the workplace. Other essential soft skills are respect, compassion and empathy. A team can demonstrate well-polished hard skills, but without the ability to cooperate and work together, those hard skills will be lost amidst a climate of misunderstanding and frustration.training.”

Learn more here via The Neuroscience of Learning: improving the effectiveness of people skills training.

What are your thoughts on AI companies hiring philosophers?
Personally, I love the idea. I think their inclusion may change the paradigm for how we view our relationship with technology. I would also challenge these companies to employ a few physicists to work alongside them. Physics explains, at every level, how things relate to, influence, and shape one another. I’m thinking of Newton’s Third Law of Motion, that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Bringing physics into the conversation also changes how we think about these dynamics.

Thank you, Lord John Alderdice, for reminding me of this during your lecture this morning. And thank you to the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences Global Centre for hosting the Academic Primary Care Alumni Retreat.

Lord John Alderdice’s lecture this morning left me thinking deeply about conflict, hope, and the relationships that shape both communities and institutions. These are difficult issues to navigate right now, and he did a beautiful job weaving his personal observations and experiences into what we’re witnessing today.

One idea stood out in particular: we often assume that political violence, social division, and destructive behaviour are driven by rational actors. But as he suggested, the deeper issue is often a damaged relationship saturated in humiliation, fear, exclusion, and compounded by the distortion of how communities see one another and themselves. And as he described, when a damaged and distorted history exists between communities and collectives, the feelings of anger and rejection can carry on for generations.

His reflections on Northern Ireland were especially powerful. Structural solutions matter, but they are not enough on their own. As he explained, you cannot simply design the “right” system or model and expect conflict to disappear. The first step is understanding the relationship and what events unfolded.

I see this clearly in our healthcare systems. We often think a new paradigm will change how people work together, when what is actually required is a much deeper dive into the transactional relationships among healthcare providers, the services rendered, and the patient. If people feel humiliated, dismissed, or treated unfairly, those experiences endure. And it is these emotions that shape the architecture of behaviour, identity, and trust.

I was also struck by his framing of what I keep thinking of as the physics between people: how human beings influence one another, how relationships create fields of meaning, and how the quality of those relationships can either deepen division or create the conditions for repair.

There was realism in his words, but not cynicism. Hope was not presented as naive optimism. It was something more disciplined: the choice to remain constructive, to engage across difference, and to build relationships even with those we disagree with. Disagreement is necessary in unpacking the different perspectives people bring to the topic. It also brought to mind the German-American psychologist Kurt Lewin, associated with field theory, who is often quoted as saying, “If you truly want to understand something, try to change it.”

In a time shaped by political polarization, social media distortion, and increasing intolerance, his message felt both timely and urgent: there is no replacement for human relationships. We may disagree deeply, but how we disagree matters.

For those of us in healthcare and medical education, that may be one of the most important reminders of all.

Interprofessional simulation is one of the most effective ways to strengthen team-based care. In 2020, through the British Columbia Simulation Network, I connected with Lee-Anne Stephen, Associate Professor and Director of the School of Health Studies at UFV, and together we launched an interprofessional simulation project bringing together the UBC Family Practice Residency Program and UFV’s Nursing Program.

One lesson stood out right away: communication between physicians and nurses cannot be assumed. It needs to be taught, practised, and intentionally designed. Working with University of British Columbia Family Practice residents and University of the Fraser Valley nursing students, we saw that strong simulation depends on clear expectations, skilled facilitation, thoughtful use of technology, and meaningful learner feedback.

We also learned that shared learning works best when we pay close attention to differences in professional training, language, and role preparation. This was not a one-time event. It was an iterative process that strengthened collaboration, mutual respect, and team-based thinking.

A valuable reminder that better patient care begins long before practice, it begins with learning how to communicate and work well together.

Learn more here “UFV nursing students learn with UBC medical residents”: https://blogs.ufv.ca/health/ufv-nursing-students-learn-with-ubc-medical-residents/

New AI-themed issue of The Lancet Primary Care 🤖

From generative AI chatbots to AI-based glaucoma screening, this issue explores the growing role of artificial intelligence in primary care.

The possibilities are significant, but important questions remain around regulation, patient safety, and the meaningful empowerment of both patients and clinicians.

This one looks pretty good: The mandate for clinical artificial intelligence education in primary care via Lancet.