Date: Monday, March 16th

Time: 12:00pm - 12:45pm

Location: KHRA (formerly ECHA) 2-150

You may remember Bean Gill, who spoke to the Class of 2028 in our very first year. Bean Gill is an equity, diversity, and inclusion expert who has earned local and national recognition, including Top 40 under 40, RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award, and Global’s Woman of Vision Award. Dr. Avery Wynick provides primary care to a diverse population of patients, with a special interest in LGBTQ2S+ care. Dr. Jessica Kirkwood has been a family physician in Edmonton’s inner city since 2012, providing primary care to patients that are unhoused and experience mental illness and substance use disorders at Radius Community Health and Healing. Together, our three panelists will share their experiences and tackle your questions. 

Contact: hdean@ualberta.ca 

Date: Tuesday, March 17th

Time: 12:00pm - 12:50pm

Location: KHRA 4-001 and Zoom

This presentation will discuss Dr. Oluwakemi Amodu's research which focuses on advancing health equity in maternal and reproductive health, particularly among displaced populations, racialized women, and refugee communities. 

She will examine how structural and systemic barriers impact access to perinatal and reproductive health services, as well as how community-based and culturally responsive interventions can improve outcomes for marginalized populations. 

Dr. Oluwakemi Amodu has clinical experience as a Registered Nurse in reproductive health and public health settings, and research experience in both global and Canadian contexts. She uses qualitative, ethnographic, and mixed methods approaches. She is the Principal Investigator of an SSHRC-funded project examining gender and conflict among displaced populations and co-Investigator on multiple interdisciplinary studies focused on health equity. 

For more information and to register go to:  https://www.ualberta.ca/en/medicine/about/social-accountability/globalhealth/rounds/oluwakemi-amodu.html

Contact: ghfomd@ualberta.ca

Date: Tuesday, March 17th

Time: 5:00pm - 6:30pm

Location: Virtual

The Developmental Pediatrics Virtual Career Night will take place on Tuesday, March 17 from 7:00pm-8:30pm EST! This event will feature five Developmental Pediatricians from across Canada, who will be sharing pearls of wisdom and guidance on career pathways, a typical day in the field, mentorship, and much more, as well as a Q and A session with questions submitted by attendees. This event is open to any current Canadian Pediatrics resident or medical student. We ask that you please register in advance using this link to the Google form, where you will also have the opportunity to submit questions for the panel: https://forms.gle/XJumFS3yekbZXS6QA

The event will take place on MS Teams, see below for the link:

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/23084316489522?p=0D30L0p1Zlu6HLxIUx

Meeting ID: 230 843 164 895 22

Passcode: qD648db2

Date: Thursday, March 19th

Time: 3pm

Location: Zoom

Through the Rehabilitation Medicine Students' Association (RMSA) Speaker Series, we aim to shine a light on health topics you may not learn in the classroom. Rehabilitation has been evolving since people started having pain, but especially in the past 100 years. Now it’s time we look toward the future to see what the role of rehabilitation holds and how it will continue to change alongside society. Amidst increasing health inequities and access to care at home and globally, what is rehabilitation’s position? What can we do to make rehabilitation radical and more accessible? Stephanie Molloy, MScPT, will discuss where rehabilitation could be headed, the use of social media in radical rehabilitation, and provide examples of inspiring organizations that are already disrupters and change makers. You will leave this session feeling inspired and hopeful about what is to come, and the impact you can have on the world.

Learn more and sign up here:

https://forms.gle/4mQPw56zqRtqUj51A 

Date: Friday, March 20th

Time: 5:00pm - 9:00pm

Location: Education Gym

The Health Science Student Association (HSSA) is hosting a multidisciplinary basketball tournament bringing together students from Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and other health disciplines for a night of friendly competition and teamwork. 

Teams can sign up as a full team, small group, or individual player and will be guaranteed at least two games. No prior basketball experience needed, everyone is welcome. Max 12 teams total so sign up early! An afterparty will follow at Beercade from 9 PM to midnight. The entry fee is $10 per person, which includes an afterparty ticket with one prepaid drink, priority entrance until 11 PM, and half priced pizza. This event aims to bring together students from different health disciplines to encourage teamwork, networking, and community building through friendly competition.

Please full in this google form if interested: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ePQDrf1x5WJnO4YzXm8DN3GuI8r-kvhIesoiher-TVE/edit  

Contact: scanlanl@ualberta.ca, Hssa@ualbert.ca 

Medical students and residents in Canada are invited to submit reflective essays, prose, poetry, plays, or graphic novellas exploring the intersection of mental health and the humanities to the Dalhousie Department of Psychiatry Annual Student Writing Competition.

Submission Deadline: May 31, 2026

Entries can be sent as PDF attachments to the Department of Psychiatry Medical Humanities Coordinator, Dr. Abdulmohsen Alhumoud, at Psych.Education@dal.ca. Please indicate in your email whether you are a medical student or a resident/fellow.

Contact: Psych.Education@dal.ca 

Build your resume with the VAW Global Team Leader Fellowship! This leadership opportunity is generally an 8-10 month intensive fellowship — valuable to future nurses, physicians, physicians assistants, dentists, dental hygienists, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, as well as other future healthcare providers and anyone interested in gaining skills in public health while supporting healthcare systems around the world.

This pre-professional internship entails around 3-5 hours per week and is a truly enriching experience that will provide you with great skills for professional life such as learning about healthcare in a global context, gaining effective leadership and communication skills, acquiring international and public health work experience, and attending several orientations and workshops focused on personal development and cultural sensitivity. 

Applications are open to any students, regardless of experience, class level, or major. This fellowship takes place as a hybrid role - partly on campus and partly remote.

To register for an Info Session using registration code : THRIVE

https://calendly.com/chelseavaw/team-leader-info-session

Medical students in clerkship (Years 3–4) are invited to complete a 10-minute anonymous survey on nutrition education. Your input will help improve undergraduate medical training and inform future curriculum development. Scan the QR code to participate!

Medical students currently in their clerkship years (typically Years 3 and 4) are invited to participate in a brief, anonymous survey exploring current knowledge and perspectives on nutrition education. The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

This study aims to better understand how nutrition is taught and applied during undergraduate medical training. Your responses will help identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for improvement in current nutrition education and will inform future curriculum development.

Participation is voluntary, and all responses are anonymous. The study has received Research Ethics Board approval. If you have any questions about the study, please contact the research team using the information provided on the poster.

Contact: msavpext@ualberta.ca 

Date: Thursday, March 26th

Time: 4:00pm - 6:00pm

Location: KHRA 2-140

Edmonton Down Syndrome Society has partnered with the DSDD elective to offer ALL students an opportunity to learn from families and advocates of Down Syndrome. The event includes an evening of teaching, small groups, and dinner! We welcome everyone interested! 

Please RSVP for dinner here: https://forms.gle/q1GuHEpVZU8bMtWz5

Contact: mwolsey@ualberta.ca, shibraa1@ualberta.ca 

Date: Tuesday, April 21st

Time: 12:00pm - 12:50pm

Location: KHRA 4-036 and Zoom

Food insecurity is a racialized inequity issue that disproportionately affects immigrants and Indigenous communities. However, existing food security interventions and policies do not reflect the unique food needs of the at-risk communities. 

Engagement of these populations in the design and implementation of food security policies and interventions is limited in most countries, including Canada.  Furthermore, such initiatives must go beyond addressing hunger to also combat systemic factors associated with intergenerational poverty, discrimination, and criminalization of food across borders. In my presentation, I will discuss the shifting definitions of food at and across borders and the geographies of engagement of immigrants in community-led and government initiatives for food secure ethno-cultural communities in Canada. I will highlight the temporal, place, and systemic factors that influence such definitions and the participation of immigrants in the decision-making processes on food security initiatives including their engagement in food importation policies. I link these experiences to the increasing risk of non-communicable diseases in the immigrant population soon after resettlement in Canada. 

Elizabeth Onyango, PhD, is an assistant professor in the School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Canada. She is a health geographer and a social epidemiologist whose research work focuses on migration and food security, intersections of gender, gender-based violence, and the associated health outcomes in minority populations. In her current research program, Dr. Onyango is exploring barriers and facilitators of migrant community engagement in social support services including access to food security initiatives and in building alternative masculinities for gender-equal migrant communities. She has extensive experience in working with vulnerable populations. Dr. Onyango is passionate about community service and is a member of Rotary International.

For more information and to register go to:  https://www.ualberta.ca/en/medicine/about/social-accountability/globalhealth/rounds/elizabeth-onyango.html

Contact: ghfomd@ualberta.ca 

Date: July 20th - 21st, 2026

Time: 9:00am - 6:00pm

Location: Paris, France

Dear Esteemed Colleagues, Researchers and Innovators!

It is with great honor and anticipation that we welcome you to the 2nd International Conference on Diabetes and Endocrinology, to be held in the historic and inspiring city of Paris, France, on July 20–21, 2026.

This event brings together over 300 experts to share insights, research and innovations in endocrine and diabetes under the theme “Global Perspectives on Endocrine Health and Diabetes."

We are delighted to cordially invite professionals from around the world to participate in the International Conference on Diabetes and Endocrinology 2026, hosted by Intelli Meetings. This prestigious event offers a unique platform for Endocrinologists, healthcare professionals, academics and researchers to connect, share insights and collaborate across global boundaries.

More about us: https://diabetesconferences.org/ 

Register: https://diabetesconferences.org/registration

Contact: Raja Nandivada, endocrinology@intellimeetings.org

We’ve officially launched a Partners for Life team with Canadian Blood Services (CBS)!

Every time you donate blood under our team, you help us save lives and boost our chances of winning Peace Collective and Patagonia merch for all pre-clerks. Learn how to sign up here.

Using the CBS app, join these teams under the "Partners" tabs: 

UNIV0128472 → University of Alberta – Medical Students

 (new team — the med school with the most donations wins Peace Collective hoodies)

CANA008957 → Canadian Federation of Medical Students – Edmonton

 (This counts toward the CFMS Phlebotomy Bowl for Patagonia sweaters)

We also have group donation opportunities that you can access through our Partners for Life tab on the CBS app. We will be booking more group donations, so fill out the form (linked below) to choose dates that work for you.

If you prefer to donate alone, that's okay too! Just make sure you register under our Partners for Life teams so your donations count towards our totals.  

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KC4EUFN729-Skwj259XC1aPhNmAnZQ8llcnZimJm8nE/edit 

Contact: hdean@ualberta.ca, poeze@ualberta.ca 

Applications are now open for the Canadian VIGOUR Centre (CVC) Scholar Program, a unique training initiative dedicated to enhancing the research expertise and academic careers of early-stage investigators focused on cardiovascular disease.

The Scholar Program offers trainees supportive mentorship, research opportunities, and a collaborative environment to advance their skills and career goals. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis from those planning to pursue or currently enrolled in Master's/PhD, Fellowship, or Residency programs. The program runs for a 1 or 2-year term, with flexible start dates. Additional program information, including the application link, is available here: https://thecvc.ca/programs-and-development/cvc-scholar-program/ 

Contact: cvcschlr@ualberta.ca

🎧 Intro episode is out now — check it out here: https://youtu.be/xOtYnm2gpBY

📺 Subscribe to the channel for future episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe7OwIv8PNRNNSpvX8XdVNg

The AMA Medical Student Advocacy Committee is a student-led initiative dedicated to promoting advocacy efforts and spotlighting advocacy-worthy causes across Alberta’s medical student population. To date, our work has primarily taken shape through social media (Instagram) and article publications on our website. These posts highlight pressing issues in medicine from a student lens, outline areas that may benefit from further advocacy, and share existing efforts while offering ways for peers to get involved. We believe this type of engagement is essential in raising awareness and fostering a culture of positive change among trainees—one that will persist into future clinical practice.

However, as impactful as these efforts have been, we’ve encountered a challenge that limits reach: time. Many students—and even physicians—don’t always have the bandwidth to read through full articles or scroll through lengthy posts on social media. Recognizing this gap and inspired by successful models from both the University of Alberta and University of Calgary medical schools, we decided to expand our platform by launching a podcast.

This podcast is a collaboration led by Kaiden Jobin, Adam Bubelenyi, Abdullahi Mohammed, Sana Samadi and — medical students from the University of Calgary and Alberta. Sana Samadi and Abdullahi Mohammed will serve as the primary hosts, also contributing to the editing and development of episode scripts. Kaiden Jobin and Adam Bubelenyi will assist in writing and preparing scripts for the podcast with occasional hosting. This effort highlights an important spirit of inter-university collaboration and reflects the diverse perspectives within Alberta’s medical student community.

Episodes will feature topics that mirror the themes explored in our past articles and social media posts, such as the primary care crisis, accessibility in medicine, rural and Indigenous health, social accountability in admissions, and structural inequities in medical training. But we won’t stop there. The podcast will also create space for new conversations that go beyond written formats, bringing in guest speakers, experts, policymakers, and physicians to add nuance and broaden perspectives.

Crucially, this format allows listeners to hear voices they might not otherwise encounter—those of students sharing their lived experiences, preceptors unpacking the historical roots of today’s issues, and leaders offering insight into how change is made at policy and system levels. This kind of dialogue is often lost in written media but is essential for humanizing healthcare challenges and creating meaningful engagement.

We are medical students entering the profession during a pivotal moment in Alberta’s healthcare landscape. As we witness shifts in team-based care, physician workforce planning, and evolving patient needs, we also recognize that early-stage trainees can sometimes feel distanced from the ability to influence these systems. Our podcast aims to bridge that gap by showing students—and anyone interested in the next generation of doctors—how we think, what we value, and where we believe healthcare should be headed.

This is not just a podcast for medical students. It’s also for physicians curious about how today’s learners are approaching the future of medicine. It’s for policy leaders who want to understand the emerging priorities of tomorrow’s physicians. And it’s for fellow students who may not yet see themselves as “advocates” but are ready to take their first step toward action.

Ultimately, our vision is to help cultivate a generation of physicians who view advocacy not as an optional add-on, but as a fundamental aspect of what it means to practice medicine. Through this podcast, we hope to not only inform but inspire—giving listeners the context, confidence, and motivation to engage with healthcare issues that affect us all.

By expanding our committee’s work from Instagram and written articles into the podcast space, we are embracing a format that resonates with how people connect and learn today. The podcast will be published on our official student advocacy website www.amamedicalstudents.ca and shared through the Alberta Medical Association’s main site at www.albertadoctors.org, helping us reach a broader audience across the province and beyond.

Contact: ssamadi2@ualberta.ca 

A research study has received approval from the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board (Approval ID: Pro00151609). This qualitative study aims to amplify the voices and lived experiences of Muslim individuals in Canada, particularly in the context of rising Islamophobia and hate crimes. I am seeking to connect with participants willing to share their perspectives through confidential one-on-one interviews via Zoom (approximately 60–90 minutes). 

Contact: marefin1@ualberta.ca 

Towards Affirmative Intersex Health Communication in Canada, accessible for free download and distribution here.

We would be grateful if you could forward this announcement to any staff, students, and colleagues whom you think might be interested in this guide. The guide is a primer for healthcare providers interested in learning about accessible, supportive, and inclusive health communication with intersex patients. It is the first specifically written for the Canadian context. Content was shaped by original interviews with intersex adults and healthcare providers from diverse areas of care, as well as a comprehensive literature review. Towards Affirmative Intersex Health Communication in Canada is the final component of a multi-year SSHRC-funded project. The heart of this research initiative was to help work towards improving health communication practices with intersex people in Canada via interdisciplinary research and community engagement. While there have been important inroads in medical reforms in recent years, people with intersex variations continue to face stigma, discrimination, and pathologization in healthcare, as well as significant disparities in access and outcomes. Health communication forms a crucial component of positive health outcomes and wellbeing.This project contributes to a small but vital and growing body of work that centers intersex voices regarding the Canadian context for intersex healthcare. It is also the first to include perspectives both from intersex adults experiencing health communication in Canada and people trained and working in the Canadian healthcare system on what is needed towards affirmative health communication as the status quo. This work was carried out by members of Professor Joly’s research team at McGill University’s Centre of Genomics and Policy, containing people from various disciplines, academic and applied, with experience in intersex advocacy. The guide was peer reviewed by interested interviewees, a BC-based intersex advisory group, and Intersex Canada is a co-author. The guide discusses four key aspects of affirmative communication between patients and providers: patient-centered care, shared decision-making, culturally responsive trauma-informed care, and accessible and relevant medical information. Further, the guide provides notes on terminology and concepts, highlights needs for different life stages, and offers suggestions for welcoming healthcare environments, and addresses structural barriers to access. Towards Affirmative Intersex Health Communication in Canada also has two companion articles: a qualitative paper centered-on interviewee insights, perspectives, and experiences, and a comparative legal paper arguing for a more proactive approach to legal and medical reforms and protections in Canada. 

We are currently conducting a study designed to inform curriculum design principles that will help prepare learners to effectively navigate the novelty, uncertainty, and complexity of today’s evolving healthcare landscape. Given the critical role that medical student associations play in supporting trainees, we respectfully reach out to your organization for assistance in sharing information about our study with your members. 

By participating, students will have the opportunity to test their knowledge while contributing to a growing body of evidence that aims to inform more effective training, guide institutional policy changes, and ultimately enhance the learning environment for future physicians.

Key Details:

• Eligibility: Current medical students at any Canadian university in year 1 and year 2 of training.

• Participation: 

  • Completion of knowledge acquisition and diagnostic tasks, online - using their own computer, remotely.

  • Dedicating 3.5- 4 hours in total to complete the cases (the total amount of time to answer the cases can be broken down into separate blocks of time)

• Confidentiality: Responses will remain confidential, and no identifying information will be shared outside the research team. Participation in the study will have no bearing on academic status or grades.

• Potential Student Benefits: Students will learn about eight neurology conditions, knowledge acquisition and diagnostic abilities will be assessed, and you will receive immediate feedback on the screen indicating whether the response is correct or incorrect. 

• Potential Societal Benefits: Insights gained from this research may guide improvements in medical education, contribute to improved training approaches, and inspire supportive educational policies.

• Token of Appreciation: Participants will earn $50 for taking part in the study and will receive a gift card of their choice (either Amazon or Uber One).

You can learn more about our team and research goals at: https://www.theexcellab.com/research

Contact: ellena.andoniou@uhn.ca