RxA’s Trusted Partners in Health
Spring Professional Development Conference

In this session, Dr. Kamea Lafontaine will describe the landscape of healthcare harm and waste. Kamea will cover fear and retaliation in reporting healthcare-related experiences and primary care reporting systems. With the background of lived experience, he will outline barriers to care, as well as review how to create a safe space to provide feedback. Lastly, Kamea will discuss specific Indigenous health barriers.

In this session, pharmacist Dr. Candace Necyk will describe the mechanism of action of common psychedelics. Candace will review current research findings for psychedelic-assisted therapy in patients with psychiatric conditions and review potential safety risks and drug interactions related to psychedelic use.

In this opening session, Dr. Monty Ghosh will describe what alcohol use disorder (AUD) is and how to screen for it. He will review medications used to treat AUD, their benefits and limitations, and outline the importance of psychosocial treatment in AUD.

In this session, clinician scientist Dr. Eliana Castillo will explain the physiological adaptations to pregnancy and the impact of infections (and vaccine preventable diseases) on maternal, fetal, and infant morbidity and mortality. She will explain the concept of fetal and neonatal protection through maternal vaccination. Finally, Dr. Castillo will describe effectiveness and safety data supporting the recommendation for COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy.

In this session, clinical pharmacist Frances Folkman will share her personal journey with breast cancer. She will identify the supportive care challenges facing breast cancer patients and describe how pharmacists can relate to the lived experiences of a breast cancer patient.