More than a Drip: Using a Planetary Health Lens to Quantify the Carbon Footprint of Bioequivalent Antimicrobials Prescribed Intravenously
Speaker: Dr. Rosanne Thalakada and Meghan MacLaren
DATE: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5TH AT 12:00PM
About: Dr. Rosanne Thalakada and Meghan MacLaren will be presenting on their Planetary Health project which was supported by a CSHP-BC Pharmacy and Sustainable Environment Grant Competition (SAVING). Together with the project team, they have determined the proportion of patients receiving highly bioavailable antimicrobials intravenously when they could have received oral administration as well as the related carbon footprint and cost. Based on the results from the study, they have identified a need to educate target prescribers on IV to PO switch and the benefits to patients, healthcare system and the planet.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Rosanne Thalakada is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist and Clinical Instructor with the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is passionate about the judicious use of antimicrobials to limit the development of antimicrobial resistance and their effect on the environment.
Meghan MacLaren is a third-year pharmacy student at the University of British Columbia. She completed a BSc in Honours Biochemistry at McGill University in 2022. She was excited to be awarded with the CSHP-BC Branch Pharmacy Practice Poster Award in the New Researcher Category for this project at the 2024 CSHP-BC Branch Annual General Meeting.
Supporting healthcare providers and patients in reducing or stopping medications
Speaker: Wade Thompson
DATE: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12TH AT 12:00PM
About:Wade Thompson will be talking about creating and implementing evidence-based deprescribing guidelines.
About the Speaker:
Wade is a pharmacist and researcher working to optimize medication use for older adults. He is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC and a long-term care pharmacist with Providence Health. Wade is also a co-director of deprescribing.org.
The Fantastic Four Project – team-based approach to improving care for patients with heart failure in Northern BC
Speaker: Dr Daisy Dulay and Michael Matula
DATE: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19TH, AT 12:00PM
About: Dr Daisy Dulay and Michael Matula will be presenting on their quality improvement project which aims to improve access and optimization of goal-directed medical therapy (GDMT) for patients living with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) in rural and remote areas. Together they have been able to build an innovative model of care, with the Primary Care Pharmacist playing a central role in collaborating with a cardiologist and primary care providers (PCP) within the Northern Interior Rural Division (NIRD) Primary Care Network (PCN).
About the Speaker:
Michael is a Primary Care Pharmacist in Quesnel BC serving communities within NIRD PCN with a hybrid model including in-person and virtual assessments. He enjoys the rewarding work in primary care as it allows him to follow patients longitudinally and apply clinical skills ascertained through his Community Pharmacy Residency and 5 years of acute care practice at GR Baker Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Daisy Dulay (she/her) is a mother, wife, and cardiologist, and advocate for healthcare well-being, EDI, and QI. A second-generation South Asian settler on the unceded lands of the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations (Victoria, BC), she embraces a holistic, generalist perspective despite her specialized expertise. Her interest in collaborative, team-based care was sparked early in her career while working with pharmacists in the coronary care unit during her training and was further honed during her time as a consultant—experiences that demonstrated how a multidisciplinary approach to care should be extended to outpatients, moving away from the traditional solo practitioner model in medicine. Her interest in rural medicine stems from her grandmother’s stories in rural India and her training at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She provides cardiology consultation for Carrier Sekani Family Services, serves as the provincial medical co-lead for SSC’s Spreading Quality Improvement (SQI), and is a Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC. She recently joined as the Rural Coordination Centre of BC’s clinical lead for the Real Time Virtual Support (RTVS) Consultation to Conversation (C2C) 2.0 initiative and the RTVS Quick Reply Pathway.
Empowering you as a pharmacy professional: embedding climate change mitigation into your organization and practice
Moderator: Dr. Celia Culley Presenters: Rob Pammett, Christine Henderson, Dionne Martyn, and Dawn Robb
DATE: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26TH AT 12:00PM
About: Presenters will share their experiences with investigating opportunities and developing solutions and education for climate change mitigation and sustainability work across all levels of pharmacy.
Christine Henderson, Dionne Martyn, and Dawn Robb will present on Interior Health’s (IH) Greening the Pharmacy Opportunity Investigation. The goal of the Opportunity Investigation was to develop a guide for IH Pharmacy Services to embed environmental sustainability into clinical practice, culture, and pharmacy operations. Recommendations spanning 6 impact areas were developed: clinical practice, procurement, drug distribution, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management, engagement. The short- and long-term recommendations offer a wide range of actions for Pharmacy Services, from quick wins to major projects. You’ll learn how IH is planning to improve the environmental impact of clinical practice and operations while strengthening Pharmacy Service’s climate resilience.
About the Speaker:
Moderator: Dr. Celia Culley is the Pharmacy Clinical Coordinator at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria with Island Health. Her quality improvement project, The Critical Air Project, with co-collaborator internist Dr Val Stoynova focuses on climate-conscious inpatient inhaler practices. Together, they won the CSHP National Award for Excellence in Interprofessional Practice in 2024 and
the Health Quality BC Award for Achievement in Sustainable Health Care in 2025.
Presenters:
Rob Pammett (he/him) is the Research and Development Pharmacist – Primary Care, a partnership between Northern Health and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia, where he holds the rank of Associate Professor (Partner). Rob works as a team-based primary care pharmacist and supports other pharmacists in Primary Care Networks across the beautiful and vast geography of northern British Columbia, along with performing teaching and research activities at the University. He is also the chair of the Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada Planetary Health Special Interest Group, and The Director of Education for the Canadian Association of Pharmacy for the Environment (CAPhE).
Christine is Interior Health Authority’s Clinical Sustainability Coordinator. Her educational background is in population health and environmental engineering, two fields that intersect in Planetary Health. In her new regional role, she consults with multiple clinical departments to develop and operationalize sustainability initiatives, making recommendations into reality.
Dionne has been a Pharmacist with Interior Health Pharmacy Services at Vernon Jubilee Hospital since 2013. She completed her BSc Pharm at UBC, after first completing a BSc at UBC. Dionne sits on the local Environmental Sustainability Committee, as well as the Regional MDI Pilot Project, part of the Interior Regional Planetary Health Table.
Dawn is the Interior Health Pharmacy Services Program Director. Dawn completed her BSc Pharm at UBC, obtained her ACPR at Lions Gate Hospital and then worked as a clinical pharmacist prior to relocating to the Okanagan. She has held progressive pharmacy leadership positions in Interior Health since 2009 and obtained her Masters in Health Leadership at Royal Roads in 2016.
