Open letter
Please find below an open letter sent to Health Minister Adrian Dix on September 21, 2022 calling attention to the crisis in Specialty care. Scroll down to add your support.
September 21, 2022
The Honourable Adrian Dix, Minister of Health
Ministry of Health
1515 Blanshard Street, Victoria BC V8W 3C8
Dear Minister Dix,
We are writing to you to express our deep concern for the estimated 1 million patients waiting to see a Specialist in British Columbia. We are requesting an urgent meeting with you to discuss this critical issue and potential solutions.
Our entire health care system is crumbling, but not enough is being done to improve Specialist patient outcomes or shorten our overcrowded wait lists. If we do not work together to find solutions, Specialty care in this province is going to erode even further. We have been hampered by years of increasing challenges compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic. Patients are getting sicker and dying on our waitlists. Primary care providers, if available, do their best to support patients until they are seen. Urgent Primary Care Centres and Emergency departments are overwhelmed and can’t provide immediate access to Specialists. Increased admissions strain the already overburdened hospital system, and cost even more in both dollars and patient suffering.
Long surgical wait times are the most widely known, but the crisis in wait times extends to the entire breadth of Specialist care. Here are a few of the innumerable examples:
A patient with sudden hearing loss who if seen sooner wouldn’t have become permanently hearing impaired.
Over 16,000 people waiting for an echocardiogram in Vancouver Coastal Health alone.
Patients in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island with new cancer diagnoses waiting 2-3 months for their first visit with an Oncologist.
A lone respirologist in Northern Health, unable to recruit partners, who has had to close her practice to less urgent referrals for the last 2 years just to catch up and continue seeing urgent cases, meanwhile patients have to travel hundreds of kilometers to see the next closest Specialist.
One of the few remaining Dermatologists in Fraser Health getting crushed with 60 to 100 new referrals a day forced to limit accepting new referrals to only the most urgent cases.
Patients waiting on tenter-hooks for weeks for their lab results and surgical pathology because of lengthy backlogs in our labs.
A 3 year old with possible autism waiting more than 18 months for a formal assessment, while her anxiety-ridden parents are left in limbo with no support.
Interior BC patients forced to travel hundreds of kilometers just to obtain simple x-rays because local wait-times are untenable.
These are just some of the hundreds, if not thousands, of stories from across the province. Specialists care for complex patients who are often too ill to advocate for themselves. We need to stabilize and strengthen our Specialty Care infrastructure to support this vulnerable population.
We see the decline in Specialist care first hand every day and we are exhausted and demoralized; it is soul-destroying to be unable to provide the Specialty care that BC patients need and deserve. We request a meeting with you emergently, and that is not a word we use lightly. As you said on September 13, “We need to transform the health-care system”; to succeed, this must include repair of Specialty care. We can help you do that.
Respectfully,
Dr. Cassandra Lane Dielwart
Orthopedic Surgeon, Kelowna
President, BC Orthopedics Association
Dr. Tommy Gerschman
Pediatric Rheumatologist, North Vancouver
Past President, Consultant Specialists of BC
Dr. Charlotte Yong-Hing
Radiologist, Vancouver
President, BC Radiological Society
Dr. Maggie Aron
Otolaryngology Surgeon, Vancouver
Dr. Chris Hoag
Urologic Surgeon, North Vancouver
President, BC Urological Society
President, Consultant Specialists of BC
Dr. Brad Munt
Cardiologist, Vancouver
Past President, Society of Cardiology of British Columbia
Dr. Sharla-Rae Olsen
Respirologist, Prince George
Department Head, Internal Medicine UHNBC
Dr. Jon Slater
Pediatrician, Comox
Past President, Consultant Specialists of BC
Dr. Kamyar Kazemi
Vascular Surgeon, New Westminster
Section Head, Vascular Surgery
Dr. Michael Eng
Kidney Transplant Surgeon, Vancouver
Division of Urology Head, PHC
Dr. Claudine Storness-Bliss
Obstetrician-Gynecologist, Surrey
Co-Dept Head, Obstetrics & Gynecology, SMH
Dr. Daniel Wong
Cardiac Surgeon, New Westminster
Section Head, Cardiac Surgery
Dr. Glen Ward
Pediatrician, Langley
Dr. Bahar Torabi
Pediatric Immunologist, Vancouver
Dr. Chih-ho Hong
Dermatologist, Surrey
Dr. Brian Mayson
Kidney Transplant Surgeon, Vancouver
Dr. Karen Seland
Radiologist, Prince George
Dr. Dana Wong
Otolaryngologist, Nanaimo
Dr. Fareen Din
Nephrologist, Prince George
Dr. Priya Manjoo
Endocrinologist, Victoria
Dr. David Kendler
Endocrinologist, Vancouver
Dr. David Harriman
Kidney Transplant Surgeon, Vancouver
Dr. Daniel Mendelsohn
Neurosurgeon, North Vancouver
Dr. Brenda Farnquist
Radiologist, Kelowna
Dr. Chris Nguan
Kidney Transplant Surgeon, Vancouver
Dr. Lik Hang Lee
Lab Medicine Physician, Vancouver
Name | Affiliation |
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Nathan Hoag
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Dr. Tyler Smith
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Dr. Nazira Chatur
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Dr. Shahin Nabi
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Dr. Siobhan Perkins
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Dr. Robert Carruthers
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Emily Deane
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Charles van Rooy
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Ronak Rahmanian
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Dr. Mehtab Sekhon
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Dr Steven Krywulak
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Dr. Ross Demcoe
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Dr Timothy B. Latham
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Dr. Stanley Mah
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Douglas Kibblewhite
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Dr. Michelle Sherwood
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Dr. Stephany Quinn
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Dr. Pamela O’Connor
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Dr. John Yu
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Dr. Neil Chadha
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Dr. Sabrina Nurmohamed
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Dr. L. Alexandra Kuritzky
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Dr Megan Melnyk
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Dr. Colleen Nugent
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Dr. Mitchell Uh
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Jennifer Mickelson
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Dr. Henry Tran
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Heather Day
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Dr. Derek Ottem
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Dr Herman Kwan
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Dr. Aaron Clark
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Michelle Teo
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Dr. Michael Metcalfe
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Dr. Joshua Wiesenthal
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Dr Anali Dadgostar
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John Kinahan
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Dr. Zeid Mohamedali
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Dr. Vinod Kesavan
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Dr. Winston Teo
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Dr. May Kazem
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Dr J Andrew Bartlett
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Gilbert Lam
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Adrian Peter van Stolk
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Jeffrey Zorn
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Dr Chasta Bacsu
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Vu Truong
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Dr. Siu Him Chan
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Dr. Daniel Yanko
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Raymond Mak
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Dr. Kevin Owusu-Ansah
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Wendy Wong
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Peter Black
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Dr. Teffran Chan
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Rahul Hampole
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Dr. Richard Hooper
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Dr. Iain McAuley
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Dr. Joel Howlett
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Dr. David Cook
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Doris Conci de Souza Gomes
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Dr K. Kiara Hennessey
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Dr. Peter Stepaniuk
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Dr. Stephen Sohmer
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Dr. John Yun
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Dr. Richard Nadeau
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Dr. Kristin Noiles
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Dr. Lauren Roberts
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Dr. Matthew Lewington
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Daniel Rapoport
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Sasha smiljanic
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Dr Ewa Gizicki
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Dr. Mark Gatha
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Dr. Joyce Yu
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Dr. Jordan Leith
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Ashlee Dobbe
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Dr. Persia Pourshahnazari
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Joslyn Conley
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Dr. Seth Bitting
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Steven Sylvester
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Dr. Kevin Zhao
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Dr Michelle Bosch
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Dr. Paul Yenson
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Dr Marek Rozwadowski
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Dr. Steven Schieman
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Dr Sean Brown
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Dr. Melanie Brown
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Dr Marc Lambiotte
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Dr John Masterson
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Dr. Ian Warbrick
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Dr. Stephen Noseworthy
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Dr Ali Zentner
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Dr. Courtney Young
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Dr. Joanne Yeung
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Ileana Vasilescu
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Gordon Robinson
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Dr. Najam Mian
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Dr. Michael Copley
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Dr. Michael Schachter
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Dr. Nita Jain
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Dr. Polya Ninova
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Dr. Mark Chiu
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Michelle Withers
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Dr. Ryan Lo
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Lynnene Lewis
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AMELIE
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Victor Chow
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Dr Rolfe Luongo
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Dr. Scott B. Cameron
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Phil Hogan, CPA, CA, CPA (CO)
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Dara O’Donovan
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Borching Wang
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Dr. Linda Lee
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Dr. Jim Rose
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Dr. Claire Thurgur
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Shannon Hahn
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Jillian Boa
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Dr. Stacey Butters
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Dr. Nasim Abedi
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Dr. Adam Weathermon
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Ryan Paterson
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Dr. James McInnes
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Bruce Shearer
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Terri Betts
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Dr. Eiman Zargaran
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Victor Jando
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Dr. Evert Tuyp
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Dr. Hasandeep Kular
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Glenna Padley
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Julie Chou
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Dr. Derek Godinho
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Vera Devins
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Dr. Christina Poon
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Greg Houle
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Adrian Kurz
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Richard Lewis
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Dr. B.Blumenauer
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Dr. Carolyn Isbister
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Dr. Tomas Kuca
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Dr. Aven Poynter
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Dr. Kirsten Miller
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Dr. Janice Manthorne
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Catherine Sandison
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Sarah Parkes
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Dr. Jennifer Locke
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Dr. Kun Huang
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Dr. Howard Lim
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Dr. Mandeep Bal
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Dr. Jennifer Klok
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Dr. Julian Pleydell-Pearce
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Dr. Kostas Panagiotopoulos
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Amy Disbrow
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Dr. M. Suzanne Lewis
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Dr. Amrit Kahlon
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Dr. Greg Marcotte
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Roderick Chew
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Dr. Tamara Shenkier
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Deb Eckert
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Dr Shamim Wadiwalla
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Sharlene Gill
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Dr Shannon Samler
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Dr. Julian B Sernik
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Dr. Andrea Simmonds
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Dr. Dinesh Samarasekera
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Dr.Niels Schwarz
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Dr. Barbara Lelj Garolla
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Dr. Dean Malish
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Dr. Jeffrey Potter
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Dr. Deneen Baron
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Dr. Ian R Wilson
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Renee Ostafichuk
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Dr Janessa Laskin
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Monique Walkinshaw
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Ben White
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Dr. Kerry Savage
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Shelley Luciw
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Dr. Evan Ailon
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Dr. Krystal Cullen
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Dr. Grace Yu
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Ceilidh Soroka
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Dr. Robert Keyes
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Rheanna Menagh
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Dr Rebecca Munk
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Dr Jessie Ursenbach
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Dr. Arthur Wong
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Dr. Peter Skepasts
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Dr. Mathew Mosher
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Dr. Simon Baxter
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robert r moss
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Fadi Tarazi
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Justyn Lutfy
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Rizwan Mian
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Dr. Scott McGuffin
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Dr. Marek Majka
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Anick Godin
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Brad Merriman
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Eve Aymong
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Douglas Courtemanche
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Michael Hunter
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Frank Wong
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Dr. Jane Hailey
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Corey Metcalf
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Osama Ebesh General Pediatrician, Chilliwack
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Carolina Becerra
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Dr Claire Ang
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Dr Parthasaradhi Rachakonda
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Dr Akash Sinha
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Jyoti Balain
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Dr. Bikramjit Grewal
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Dr. Grace Song
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Kathryn Ng
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Dr. Christopher Thompson
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Dr. George Maryniak
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Owen Reid
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Peter Kokan
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Dr. Kaethe Clarke
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Dr. Katherine Wambera
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Dr. Charles Constantine
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Howard Young
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Dr Janine M. Davies
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Patti Young
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Dr. Matt Harding
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Dr. Annie Chou
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Derek Plausinis
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Dr. Tyson Boettcher
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Dr. Amin Kanani
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Matthew Hudson
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Dr. Reza Hamidizadeh
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Dr. Kang-Min Zhu
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Michael Katz
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gary bloomberg
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Monica Li
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Dr. Keith Neufeld
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Vu Le
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Dr Rusty Ritenour
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Dr. Alexandra T. Greenhill
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Dr. Sharnjeet Kahlon
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Sanjay Rao
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Richard Kendall
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Dr. James Loh
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Dr. Laurenna Peers
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Dr. Swetha Sriram
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Adam van der Merwe
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Dr. Kenneth F. Ryan
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Dr. Erin Burrell
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Dr. Jessica Guy
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Dr. Steve Meredith
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Dr David Nelson
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Dr. Katherine Buckley
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Camilla Ross
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John Ramsden
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Dr. Joanna Cheek
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Dr. Vipal Vedd
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Shannon Santana
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Pat Battles
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Dr. Karen Rivera
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Maura Brown
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Dr. Gerald Da Roza
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Emily Lai
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Donald Roth
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Dr. Kathryn Brown
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Dr. Amélie Pelland
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Mihaela Van Idour
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Max sun
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Dr. Vivian Yau
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Sally Roth
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Dr. Kingsley Lee
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Dr. Roopjeet Kahlon
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Kim browning
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Dr. Fatimah Alfaraj
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Kim Herdman
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John Gabor
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Dr. Patrick Laing
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Wendy Dahms-Robinson
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Gerald Robinson
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Dr. Jeremy Leung
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Jonathan Lawrence
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Dr. W.K. Larry Cheung
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Paula Gordon
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Dr. Derek To
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Tommy Tho
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Dr. Angeliki Barlas
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Jason Cheh
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Deborah Wong
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Dylan Naidoo
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Simon Woo
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Fiona Tjia
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Phyllis Griffiths
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Jessica Drzewiecki
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Sonja Soubolsky
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Alyssa Woodruff
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Dr. Tim Kostamo
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Dr. Darren Lazare
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Dr. Geoffrey Cundiff
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Mélissa Nadeau
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Robert Froh
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Dr. Kenny WJ Lee
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Naseem Gulamhusein
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Dr. David Saliken
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Teresa Craig-Morgan
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Dr. Morgan Lam
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Dr. Erika Henkelman
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Mae Johnson
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Tracey Johnson
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Alan Banister
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Daniel Fraser
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Dr. Albert Chan
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Dr. Niall Davidson
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Arusha Oloumi
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Dr. Michelle Sherwood
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Dr. Ben Chew
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Dr. Christopher Wu
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Dr Michael Robinson
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Dr. Ian Wright
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Dr. Dinesh Samarasekera
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Dr Karen Black
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Dr. Kelly Wilson
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Dr. Lee Jonat
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Okie Radjah
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Dr. Scott Comeau
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Nimrod Levy
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Ritesh Parekh
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Dr. Martha Spencer
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Dr. David Stockton
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Alastair Younger
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Pam Grossman
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Paul Winston
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Dr. Cheryl Wilson
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Dr. Jennifer Lajoie
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Dr. Warren Sun
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Jason Randhaw
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Andrei Karpov
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Dr. Timothy Ratzlaff
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Dr. Aarti Jani
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Judit Korosi
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Tun Zan Maung
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Dr, Navneet sidhu
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Dr. Anthony Barale
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Michele Jones
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Dr. Abeer Syal
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Rui Chen
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Dr Richard Bebb
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Dr. Sajal Jain
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Dr. Drew Phillips
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Francisco Lee
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Rhonda Smith
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Dr H V Gopinath
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Chris Little
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Donna Bell
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Carol Middleton
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George Higginson
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T. D. Jensen
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T. D. Jensen
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Rose Enes
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Ballon
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Dr. Joanna Lo
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Dr ARUP KUMAR DHARA
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Monica Jaeschke
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