Dr. Breen is a family physician specializing in rural and remote emergency and wilderness medicine. She has lived and worked in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories since 2009 and currently works in the Emergency Department at the Stanton Territorial hospital. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine and a member of the Canadian Association of Wilderness Medicine. She enjoys an array of outdoor pursuits but particularly loves sailing around the East Arm of Great Slave Lake with her husband and two small children.

Session: Big Save at the Local Health Center! ER updates for the North

Madeleine Cole is a family doctor who lives and works in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Despite growing up in downtown Toronto, she has found professional and personal happiness in a small northern community after an early career stretch of MSF and locum medicine. She has a longstanding commitment to sexual health and reproductive rights and remains passionate about improving the health of Inuit. Health Ethics is another professional interest of Madeleine’s and she is on the CFPC ethics committee and is a question writer for the CFPC Self Learning Program. If she is not at the hospital, she is likely playing on the tundra or the sea with her partner Kirt and their kids Noah, Jayko and Naja Jane.

Session: Avoiding a “Miss” in Miscarriage Management

Lila holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Native Studies from the University of Lethbridge; Social Services Diploma; and various certificates in Business Management, Conflict Resolution and Project Management. Lila also holds as a Master or Arts degree in Dispute Resolution from the University of Victoria, writing her thesis on how the Dene resolve disputes and work together to make decisions. Lila started her first business, Bows & Arrows Inc., in 2006 and her second, Naturally Dene, in 2010. Both offer support to our Dene/Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities by teaching culturally protocol that is respectful to our Elder’s and communities.

Session: Medicine Walk

Jess joined PEER in in September 2019 as an Assistant Professor with the University of Alberta. She has been a family physician at the Boyle McCauley Health Centre since 2012, providing primary care to patients that are unhoused and experience mental illness and substance use disorders. She has also worked at the Edmonton Isolation Facility providing emergency shelter and medical care to unhoused Edmontonians during the COVID-19 pandemic and in both federal and provincial corrections. She is very passionate about helping educate primary care providers and learners to care for marginalized patients in a way that is empathic as well as evidence-based. She attended medical school and residency at the University of Alberta. She has 2 kids, a fluffy dog and a very patient partner.

Sessions: Evidence Based Medicine Workshop

Last Call! Treatment options for alcohol use disorder

OATrageously Rewarding – Treating opiod use disorder in primary care

Mike is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. He practices in Peace River, Alberta using his additional skills training in gastroenterology.

He contributes to Tools for Practice, medical podcasts, CPD Roadshows, and academic detailing within Canada and enjoys presenting at local, provincial, national, and international events.

Mike also chairs the Practical Evidence for Informed Practice and Endoscopy Skills Day for Practicing Endoscopists conferences.

He is passionate about sports, coaches or has coached lacrosse, baseball and hockey. He enjoys the outdoors with his wife and three great (most times) teenagers.

Sessions: Evidence Based Medicine Workshop

The Diabetes Gamble: Chasing the Ace (A1C), an update in diabetes management 

The Ins and Outs of Gastrointestinal Health: Update for primary care

Tina is a Family Physician and Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. She is the Director of PEER, an organization that seeks to empower primary care through the use of best evidence. She participates regularly in the development of Tools for Practice (one page evidence summaries), PEER Guidelines and other knowledge translation activities. She is a frequent speaker at provincial and national conferences and has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is the co-coordinator of the EBM program for Family Medicine residents at the University of Alberta and proud to be a part of the leadership team for Pragmatic Trials, searching to improve the care of patients through pragmatic randomized controlled trials. Tina is happily married with four active kids, and enjoys being in the outdoors.

Sessions: Evidence Based Medicine Workshop

The Diabetes Gamble: Chasing the Ace (A1C), an update in diabetes management

Reducing the Pain of Chronic Pain

Share and Share Alike – Great patient centred decision aids

Cultural Advisor, Indigenous Wellness Program

Stanton Territorial Hospital
Former Chief of the Łutsel K’e Dene First Nation

Advisor, Institute for Circumpolar Health Research

Founding Chair of the Dene Cultural Institute

Session: Medicine Walk

Dr Mayich is a fellowship trained Orthopaedic Trauma and Foot and Ankle Surgeon. He has a related Masters degree in Biomechanics, and training in medical ethics – particularly resource allocation ethics. Having received training across North America and in Germany, his research interests have included the management of orthopaedic trauma patients, and resource utilization in the setting of orthopaedic trauma and foot and ankle surgery. Dr Mayich currently practices as a locum physician while continuing to do organizational ethics, and running his family hop and hazelnut operation on PEI, Canada.

Sessions: Fractured! Trauma travel Northern style

Claire Mennell originally born in the Okanagan has called Yellowknife home for eight years. Claire previously was a remote registered nurse in BC who obtained her Masters Degree through Dalhousie to be a family all ages NP. She started her NP career in Orthopedics in Yellowknife and continues to provide orthopedic care to populations in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Session: Once You Pass the Breaking Point: Tips and Tricks for Fracture Management

Co-founder of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation

Elder-in-residence, U of A School of Public Health

Original host of CBC North News, Inuktitut

Session: Medicine Walk

Dr. John Pawlovich is a Clinical Professor and the Chair in Rural Health at UBC and acts as the Medical Director for Carrier Sekani Family Services, and the Virtual Health Lead for the Rural Coordination Centre of BC. Dr. Pawlovich draws on his rural healthcare experience in these roles to innovate services and supports in remote regions to better address inequities in the healthcare system.

Session: Caring From a Distance: Evidence for safe and effective virtual care

Danielle received her degree in nursing from the University of Prince Edward Island in 2014 and her Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Alberta in 2021. She has been a member of PEER for over five years, a group of primary care professionals who develop and present practical, evidence-based content, free from pharmaceutical influence, for primary care. In her spare time, she works as a correctional nurse at Edmonton Institution, experiments in the kitchen and travels back to Prince Edward Island for the beach and her family.

Sessions: Evidence Based Medicine Workshop

Reducing the Pain of Chronic Pain

Alex is a a rural and remote multidisciplinary general surgeon. He has practiced general surgery in the Yukon for 20 years. His interest in mountain medicine and frostbite in particular has been fostered by having lived and worked in the Yukon, British Columbia, and Iceland. He has been on a mission to modernize Canadian frostbite care since 2015.

Session (virtual): Frosty Frosty Iloprosty: Assessment and treatment of frostbite

Dr. Katharine Smart is a pediatrician in Whitehorse, Yukon. Her work is centred on developing collaborative partnerships with community and government services to serve marginalized children using a model of social pediatrics. She works primarily with children who have experienced trauma and adverse childhood events, and she witnesses the broad and lasting impact these events have on children and their development daily. She is passionate about improving services for marginalized children in an effort to change their life trajectory. In addition to her community-based work, Dr. Smart enjoys acute care and provides on-call services to the hospital. Before moving to the Yukon, she was a pediatric emergency medicine physician at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. Dr. Smart is the past president of the Yukon Medical Association.

Session: Keynote – CMA President

Dr. Paul Soper is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who works at the Glenrose ADHD Clinic. This clinic specializes in the stabilization of complex, treatment resistant ADHD. Dr. Soper is also the consulting psychiatrist to the Glenrose Hospital 3 Week Assessment Classroom and the Resiliency Program at the Misericordia Community Hospital. Dr. Soper has been a member of the Canadian ADD Resource Alliance (CADDRA) since it’s inception and has served on its’ conference committee. He has been and continues to be involved in ADHD research and is an author of the Canadian Guidelines on Pharmacotherapy for Disruptive and Aggressive Behaviour in Children and Adolescents With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or Conduct Disorder. On top of this, Dr. Soper is a father of three children and the husband of a nurse. Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Glenrose ADHD Clinic; member of the Canadian ADD Resource Alliance (CADDRA); author of the Canadian Guidelines on Pharmacotherapy for Disruptive…and Aggressive Behaviour in Children and Adolescents With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or Conduct Disorder.

Session (virtual): Pay Attention! Another Speaker is Talking

Clare Whitehead is a paediatrician in Yellowknife. She completed medical school at the University of Ottawa and subsequently did paediatrics residency in Winnipeg. Over the past two years, she has learned about eating disorders from working closely with patients and their families, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She has also learned from working collaboratively with experienced colleagues as well as attending courses and lectures on eating disorders.

Session: Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders 

Dr. Sam Wong is a consultant pediatrician in Yellowknife who also is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. He has been practicing in the north for over 22 years and has an interest in Indigenous and Northern Pediatrics.

Session: Small Adults They are Not – An update in pediatrics