CAEP Symposia are created for our members and delegates to learn about a specific topic from both Emergency Physicians as well as other physician specialists who are experts in their area.
These presentations highlight recent discoveries and the latest in research developments of relevant topics in Emergency Medicine.
Improving COPD Care in the ED: From diagnosis to discharge
Sunday, June 9
8:00-9:00
Learning Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- More effectively manage COPD exacerbations when patients present to the ED.
- Evaluate patients presenting to the ED using:
- Screening tools to identify, diagnose, and stratify COPD in patients with risk factors.
- Risk stratification tools to identify patients with COPD at risk for serious outcomes.
- Recognize the impact of comorbidities on the management and discharge planning of the COPD patient, including coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, and chronic kidney disease.
- Develop safe discharge plans to reduce the risk of returning to the ED that involve follow-up and discharge medications.
Presenter: Dr. Erika Penz
Erika Penz is Associate Professor and Division Head of Respirology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, and the Medical Advisor for the Saskatchewan Lung Cancer Screening program. Dr Penz’s main research focus revolves around health economics and health policy, and burden of disease studies, with a focus on respiratory diseases. She is co-author of the 2023 COPD Pharmacotherapy Guidelines for Stable COPD. She serves as President-Elect for the Canadian Thoracic Society and is an Advisory Board member of the Institute for Cancer Research of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Presenter: Dr. Mitch Shulman
Dr. Mitch Shulman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at McGill and an attending physician in the emergencies of the 2 campuses of the McGill University Health System. He has presented at McGill’s Thursday Evening Lecture series and its Lunchtime Webinars, at the McGill Refresher Course for Family Physicians and at many other professional meetings including CAEP. He’s an ACLS Master Instructor. He’s also actively engaged in educating the public. He appears daily on Bell Media Radio, appeared for many years on Global TV’s: Montreal This Morning and is an award-winning columnist with a weekly column in the largest English language weekly in Quebec, The Suburban. He volunteers his time speaking at many charitable events.
Moderator: Dr. Bo Zheng
Dr. Bo Zheng is an emergency physician at the University of Alberta Hospital and Clinical Lecturer within the University of Alberta Department of Emergency Medicine. He completed residency training in emergency medicine with a clinical epidemiology research fellowship at the University of Ottawa. He completed a Master of Science in Epidemiology, and his thesis examined the role of antibiotics in the management of exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He is an early career clinician-investigator with an interest in respiratory illnesses within emergency medicine.
Deciphering Invasive Group A Strep in Adults: Essential insights for emergency physicians
Monday, June 10th
8:00 – 9:00
Learning objectives:
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Defend existing management of pharyngitis despite rising rates of iGAS
- Differentiate the diagnosis and management of simple skin and soft tissue infections from necrotizing fasciitis
- Identify evidence and resources regarding infection control precautions and public health measures in the management of close contacts of invasive GAS cases
- Integrate new guidelines for the assessment and management of skin and soft tissue infections in practice
Presenter: Dr. Satchan Takaya
Dr. Satchan Takaya is an Adult Infectious Diseases specialist in Saskatoon. She completed her medical school and Internal Medicine residency at the University of Saskatchewan, followed by an Infectious Diseases Fellowship in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia. After a short time with the University of Alberta Division of Infectious Diseases based at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Satchan returned to Saskatoon in 2005. From 2020 to 2022, Satchan became the Pandemic Chief of Staff for Saskatoon, involved in Covid leadership with the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Things are now back to usual with a return to both inpatient and outpatient Clinical Adult Infectious Diseases.
Presenter: 
Dr. Krishan Yadav
Dr. Krishan Yadav is an Associate Professor with the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of
Ottawa, and Associate Scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Krishan is a New Investigator
within the Department of Emergency Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital and currently holds a Junior Clinical
Research Chair in Skin and Soft Tissue Infections with the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine. His
current research focuses on infectious diseases in the emergency department setting, with a focus on
improving the care of patients with skin and soft tissue infections.
Moderator: 
Dr. Ariel Hendin
Dr. Ariel Hendin completed her FRCPC-EM residency training at the University of Ottawa, followed by a fellowship in Critical Care. She practices Emergency Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital, and her ICU at the Montfort Hospital, the city’s Francophone teaching hospital. She had the good fortune of working in multiple places (including Saskatoon and in her home city of Edmonton) during the pandemic, but Ottawa is now her home. Her interests lie in knowledge translation, improving resuscitative care in the Emergency Department, and resident education.
Navigating the Grey Zone: Understanding and managing patients with mild head injury in emergency medicine
Monday, June 10th
12:00-13:15
Learning Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Define head injury as it relates to mTBI and apply emerging approaches to diagnostic labelling of concussion in the ED.
- Analyze evolving paradigms for management of head injury in patients prescribed direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs).
- Use the Falls clinical decision rule to determine the need for CT in patients with head injury.
- Evaluate different approaches to facilitate rural management of mTBI.
- Integrate new evidence regarding the potential use of biomarkers to accurately diagnose head injury and predict prognosis.
Presenter: Dr. Eddy Lang
Presenter: Dr. Eric Clark
Eric Clark, BSc, MD, FRCPC finished medical school and emergency medicine residency at Queen’s University. He then completed a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Dr. Clark has been working at the Ottawa Hospital since 2000 as an emergency physician and was Director of Faculty Development from 2006-2015 and has been Deputy Head, Department of EM, University of Ottawa: Clinical performance and operators since 2015. He was a member of the FRCPC exam board from 2006 until 2014 and served as the chair from 2009 until 2014 and held the position of Co-Chair with Kuwait Emergency Medicine Exam Board from 2015-2018. In 2020, Dr. Clark became CAEP’s CPD Chair.
Moderator: Dr. Suneel Upadhye
Suneel Upadhye is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine/Health Research Methods, Evidence & Impact (HEI) at McMaster University. He completed his Royal College Emergency Medicine training in 2001, and his Masters in HEI in 2005. He is a co-founder of the Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine (BEEM) course since 2005. He is a former Standards Chair for CAEP, and is the inaugural Research Lead for the EM Researchers of Niagara (EMRoN). He also serves as a Methodologist for the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Guidelines for Reasonable & Appropriate Care in the Emergency Room (GRACE) program since 2019, which has led to numerous guidance documents and reviews for EM practice. He is also a jazz music enthusiast, founding bassist for Docs that Rock, master scuba diver, and mediocre golfer.
Name that Rash: Differentiating the dangerous from the mundane
Learning Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Integrate best practices and strategies for diagnosis of rare dermatological diseases into emergency medicine practice.
- Use dermatologic-morphologic nomenclature to accurately form a differential diagnosis, including differentiating between bullous and pustular eruptions.
- Critically assess skin reactions to diagnose and manage dermatological manifestations of drug reactions and other diseases.
- Decrease the time between diagnosis and treatment initiation for dermatologic urgencies in the ED.
Presenter: Dr. Rachel Asiniwasis
Dr. Rachel Asiniwasis is a dermatologist and early career clinician researcher based in western Canada (her hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan). She is the founder of Origins Dermatology Centre, a combined multidisciplinary model that services both the general population and provides outreach clinics (in-person and virtual care) for underserviced remote and rural Indigenous (First Nations and Metis) communities. Rachel is of Plains Cree, Saulteaux and English background. She carries a Master’s of Science in Health Sciences in clinical and translational research, and has special interest in common inflammatory dermatoses (atopic dermatitis, psoriasis), virtual care, underserviced areas, holistic impact of skin disease, medical education, and translational interpretation and implementation of research with the ultimate goal of tangible health outcomes. She currently has active educational and research projects ongoing in the areas of inflammatory skin disease, virtual care, and Indigenous and rural health in western Canada.
Presenter: Dr. Tetyana Maniuk
Dr. Tetyana Maniuk is a recent graduate of the FRCPC-EM residency program at the University of Ottawa and currently works as an emergency physician at the Queensway Carleton Hospital in Ottawa, ON. Additionally, she holds a master’s degree in Health Informatics from the University of Waterloo and is working with the Canadian Institute for Health Information on their Pan-Canadian Health Data Content Framework building data standards for primary care.
Moderator: Sachin Trivedi
Sachin is an emergency physician and transport physician in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He is the Volunteer Chair for #CAEP24. He is also the chair of CAEPs QIPS committee, and one of the Assistant Program Director’s for the University of Saskatchewan’s Royal College Emergency Medicine residency training program.