In this issue:
- Message from the Founder
- Announcing Our Re-Brand
- Giving Tuesday
- Health Together Updates
- Wellbeing Festival: Celebrating Local Mind-Body Health
- Health Together's Work in Somaliland
- The Sympto-Thermal Method Project
- Dr. Shroff's Recent Accolades
- Treating Lower Back Pain in 5 Minutes
- Day of Sexual and Reproductive Health 2024
- International Women's Day 2024
- Mother's Day 2024
- Dr. Shroff's Appointment to the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority's Governing Board of Directors
- Past Webinars
- Our Teams
- Partner Highlight: Dr. Ravi Sankaran
- Team Member Spotlight: Amaanat Gill
- Fundraising Opportunities
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 Dear Friends,
Happy Winter! This is a wonderful time to give you an update of our activities. Notably, our organization has undergone a major re-band to reflect our evolving themes of research and advocacy. Moving forward we will be known as Health Together! We are making wonderful progress as an organization and constantly have requests from international organizations to partner with us, as our reputation grows. We now have a Research Team, Knowledge Translation (KT) team, and Fundraising team. The KT team is key to our impact, as our research makes a difference when we spread the ideas in each study, and our fundraising team has developed some wonderful campaigns to help seek donations to support the integral work we do in our organization. Our event in January 2024 was a wellbeing celebration about the wellbeing of racialized women in Canada. It was very well attended and included art, music and yummy food. The video of this event is almost ready. We are also working on doing more work on Sympto-Thermal Methods (STM), an evidence-based natural form of birth control and conception. We are thrilled to have partnered with MOSAIC, Canada's largest settlement organization, to implement an online instructional STM course for newcomers and are humbled to have received funding for this project from the Michael Smith Foundation. We are growing this project into a social venture, which will be made possible through our acceptance and participation in the entrepreneurship@UBC venture founder program.
We are also excited about our work on an ecosystem health project, the Green Collective Wellbeing project. This is in conjunction with colleagues at the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. It is one of our biggest projects, aimed at supporting six wellbeing practices from around the world, including Shinrinyoku (from Japan, and also from Korea, where it’s called Salim Yok), which immerses people in nature for improving mental and physical health. We will also be engaging with practices in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere. The project will involve artists, filmmakers and other cultural creatives.
Another project is about showcasing the powerful voices of Nigerian citizens as they discuss their health status and healthcare; we have a draft of our video about people-centred health in the Nigerian Health System which we are working on with our newest member of MIHCan, Dr Chidi Ugwu, a Harvard Radcliffe Fellow and critical scholar from the University of Nigeria. There are many other projects bubbling up at MIHCan and we are really pleased about our growth and development over the past months.
Be Well,
Farah
Dr Farah Shroff
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Giving Tuesday
Join the global day of generosity this Giving Tuesday and make a lasting impact. Your support can ignite hope, uplift communities, and transform lives. Whether it's through a donation, volunteering, or spreading the word, every act of kindness counts. Together, we can turn small actions into big change!
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 Lullaby Agents: Harnessing Music for Wellbeing and Language Revival
Lullaby Agents addresses language loss and compromised health status by utilizing music as a healing tool. As a project in collaboration with colleagues at Harvard University, it focuses on decolonizing language through the power of music. Recognizing the threat of language due to colonization, especially among Indigenous groups, Health Together harnesses the cultural significance of music to revitalize ancestral languages and promote holistic well-being. Through ancestral songs, the project aims to instill cultural pride; improve mental, physical, and spiritual health; and foster intergenerational connection within Indigenous communities.
Drawing on research showing the profound benefits of music for infants, mothers, and families, Health Together plans to preserve traditional songs by recording them in a healing house and encouraging families to write their own. By promoting Indigenous leadership in health and environmental stewardship, the project not only safeguards cultural heritage but also aligns with ancestral systems of health promotion, envisioning a future where Indigenous communities thrive and lead in addressing climate injustices.
Please consider donating to the Lullaby Agents project! We are currently seeking donations to help us meet our fundraising goal of $300,000.
Green Collective Wellbeing (GreenCoWell)
Health Together strives to improve the health of the planet as part of our mission. The GreenCoWell project is designed to improve the wellbeing of groups of people simultaneously within systems of wellbeing that are lodged in philosophical frameworks of interconnection. This profound concept of interconnection of all life is common to virtually all Indigenous systems of health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment. It conceives of all beings as one family. Besides health systems, poets have eloquently captured the profound significance of this concept.
Please consider donating to the GreenCoWell project! We are currently seeking donations to help us meet our fundraising goal of $300,000.
 Nigerian Public Health Film
We are excited to be on the last stages of editing a short film that we made about the Nigerian healthcare system based on interviews with dozens of semi-urban and rural Nigerians. We are teaming up with Dr. Chidi Ugwu (pictured left), a professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka who is a former Radcliffe fellow at Harvard University and other such prestigious engagements. His research concerns the asymmetries of knowledge and power in the fields of public health, politics, and religion.
The HoM Project -- Honouring Ancestral Traditions for Better Wellbeing
The HoM project aims to tackle racialized health inequities, an urgent issue highlighted by the disproportionate impact of COVID-19, violence and other concerns, on Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Grounded in ancestral care practices, the project seeks to instill pride and rootedness while fostering improved mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing. These efforts are vital in addressing the complex intersectional factors contributing to BIPOC health disparities, including socio-economic hierarchies and systemic biases within healthcare systems.
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.”
-- Dr Martin Luther King Jr
Drawing inspiration from Dr. King's historic speech on health injustices, the project confronts the enduring legacy of weathering structural barriers that perpetuate preventable suffering and premature death among BIPOC. While conventional approaches focus on improving access to healthcare and addressing unconscious bias, the HoM project recognizes the need for holistic approaches that encompass mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. By embracing integrative practices rooted in Indigenous and BIPOC traditions, such as yoga, meditation, Shinrinyoku/Salim Yok (nature immersion) and other traditions, the project aims to build healthy communities and challenge Eurocentric notions of health and medicine.
Through health policy research and knowledge translation initiatives, the project seeks to inform policy recommendations that promote equity and inclusion in healthcare. By amplifying the voices of BIPOC leaders and engaging with policymakers, the project aims to catalyze systemic change and advance anti-racism efforts in both Canada and the US. With a commitment to holistic healing and community empowerment, the HoM project represents a crucial step toward realizing health and human rights for all BIPOC communities.
Please consider donating to the HoM project! We are currently seeking donations to help us meet our fundraising goal of $250,000.
Osteoporosis Randomized Control Trial (RCT) in Kerala, India
 Osteoporosis is a widespread older women's health disease which has not received significant public health attention. Non-pharmacological treatments for osteoporosis show great promise. MIHCan has thus taken the initiative to bring researchers together to test twelve yoga poses as a treatment for low-income people with osteoporosis living in Kerala, India. Inspired by remarkable advancements in the United States, we are leading the charge to explore the transformative potential of yoga in addressing osteoporosis, in Kerala, India. Teaming up with our partners at AIMS (Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences), led by the Head of Rehabilitation Medicine, Dr. Ravi Sankaran, we have Georg Gutjahr our biostatistician in place; another AIMS physician, Dr. Priya Nair, who is highly conversant with local cultural and logistical issues; a yoga theorist and researcher, Dr. Sivakumar; Dr. Loren Fishman is also on our team, he is a renowned musculoskeletal specialist from Manhattan. Dr. Fishman, with over five decades of dedicated yoga practice and tutelage under the legendary BKS Iyengar, brings unparalleled expertise to our endeavor.
Our randomized clinical trial, spanning two years, seeks to evaluate the efficacy of yoga in managing osteopenia and osteoporosis. With our study coordinator nearly onboard and our expert biostatistician and team members in place, we stand on the brink of commencing this groundbreaking research.
The next phase involves training our select cadre of yoga instructors, who will play a pivotal role in delivering the prescribed regimen of twelve yoga poses meticulously crafted for this study. We stand at the threshold of a transformative journey promising hope and healing for those grappling with bone health issues.
Please consider donating to the Lullaby Agents project! We are currently seeking donations to help us meet our fundraising goal of $150,000.
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 Fueled by passion and driven by the community, Health Together, in collaboration with UBC Connects, welcomed folks to join in and celebrate in amplifying the voices of Black, Indigenous and Women of Colour. The event was first thought of by our very own Dr. Farah Shroff, who wrote an article called Flames of Transformation, which calls for including BIWOC women to highlight the challenges they face, especially after a time such as the Pandemic and ways that we could instead uplift them to continue motivating them in their everyday lives and part in our respective communities.
This event is inspired by Dr. Farah Shroff's groundbreaking article, "Flames of Transformation," which sheds light on the disproportionate health issues faced by racialized women in Canada during the Pandemic. The article presents numerous recommendations to improve the health and wellness of marginalized groups facing systemic challenges. The event hosted more than 75 people, with the dynamic Dr. Leonora Angeles as MC. The event included Welcome and Land Acknowledgement with Deborah Baker and featured enlightening speakers such as Azra Hussain and Dr. Shroff.
The event also featured Light refreshments and exceptional food catered by Tayybeh. Their mission is to continue empowering newcomer women and offering employment opportunities, financial independence, and social integration by providing and highlighting their delicious and authentic local food. 
The event embodied elements of relaxation, mindfulness, fun, and creativity. Wellness talks took place to ensure and suggest ways to promote mental and physical well-being; live music also took part by Kurai Mubaiwa and Curtis Andrew, and the ability to reflect and meditate in this lively and immersive event. The event was a success, and attendees included UBC students, UBC faculty, staff, and diverse community members. This event was dedicated to the late Sophie Turner of Toronto and the late Behjat Mehrabadi of Iran.
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On February 16, 2024, representing the Obstetrical Acupuncture Association and MIHCan, Dr. Kate Levett and I (Dr. Emilie Salomons) travelled to Hargeisa, Somaliland to train 46 midwives, nurses, doctors and final-year midwifery students in the ’Acupressure and massage for Childbirth program’, with 6 attendees receiving additional training to become future trainers in the region. We are also conducting a research project to assess the program's implementation up to 6 months following the training. This is similar to the program we conducted in India last year, with survey data informing the rollout and implementation of this program in Somaliland.
“Is this really necessary?" is a question I'm sure many, including myself, asked prior to the trip. It's easy to dismiss acupressure as a fluffy, feel-good extra when compared to the more heroic life-saving surgical practices like c-sections. What happened over the next week was a profound reaffirmation of the need for both access to safe medical intervention AND the dire need for non-pharmacological and non-traumatic practices to support physiological birth.
Background:
Somaliland is an unrecognized independent state of Somalia, claiming independence in 1991. Though it has yet to be recognized internationally, over the past 30+ years, it has experienced democracy and relative stability compared to its southern neighbour Somalia. With that said, since they are yet to be recognized, foreign aid and supplies often bottleneck in Mogadishu and rarely make it to Somaliland. Despite this, the Edna Adan Hospital and University run by its namesake, a former; Midwife, First Lady of Somalia, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and UN/WHO employee, has managed to create a successful medical facility that now boasts an 80% female staff, including their chief of surgery, the only FIGO fistula fellow in Somalia and Somaliland. Edna Adan Ismail recognized the limitations in consistent medical supplies, the increasing medical requirements for the hospital such as for induction of labour, for interventions to address the rising preeclampsia rates, and the fundamental lack of pharmacological pain management options.
Seeing the need to provide non-traumatic labour support for her patients, she sought out our program for acupressure and massage training. As an additional layer of complexity, according to a 2021 study by the UNFPA, 98% of women aged 15-49 in Somaliland have undergone female genital mutilation. Despite the tireless work of Dr Edna and her hospital, which has managed to lower the severity of FGM (graded 1-4), the traumatic unnecessary practice remains, leaving generations of women both physically and emotionally scarred. This physical and emotional scarring directly impacts childbirth and often leads to tearing, almost guaranteed episiotomies, labour complications and obstetrical trauma. As Somaliland doesn't provide or have access/capacity for any pharmacological pain management in labour, this means increased tearing and complications are met without any pain management.
How do acupressure and massage for childbirth fill this gap?
Acupressure a safe, non-pharmacological, and easy-to-learn option for supporting physiological birth. It is cost-effective and does not depend on tools or supplies that could be impacted by political, economic, and environmental instability. It is evidence-based and a non-traumatic way to support the physical and mental challenges associated with childbirth. Reception was extremely positive during the training and the hospital implementation phase, which involved clinical application and supervision days following the training.
The trainees successfully supported 2 cases of fetal high presentation in labour, an induction for preeclampsia, a twin vaginal birth, a hyperemesis gravidarum case, 2 sciatica cases and a miscarriage case. At one point, after seeing acupressure in action, a physician who had not attended the training exclaimed, "when do I get to take the training? I want to learn!" Many current 3rd year midwifery students also requested that we come back next year to provide training for them. They h ad heard about the program excitedly from the 4th year students included in the training. The trainees felt that their options for supporting women increased with the practices taught them.
The biggest lesson learned from this training is that there is a great need for additional, safe, non-pharmacological, equipment-free, cost-effective, trauma-free options for supporting birth, both in high-resource settings and even more so in low-resource settings. This training may have been the first on the African continent, but based on the training reception, smooth implementation and the gaps in care it is filling, we hope it will be the first of many more. We look forward to publishing data from our implementation study in India and Somaliland, the first in LMIC countries.
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Health Together specializes in creating innovative solutions to global public health challenges, applying the triple aim lens to most of our work: the simultaneous improvement of health, care experience, and per capita costs. In this newsletter you see reminders of Dr. Helene Betrand’s work on eliminating back pain and Drs Emilie Salomons and Kate Levett’s work on improving birth outcomes using acupressure and other elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine. We are currently embarking on a project to provide education and training for birth control and support for conception. This technique is called Sympto-Thermal Methods (STM) and involves gauging cervical mucus, cervical os changes, and basal body temperature. Approximately half of Canadian pregnancies are unintended and the STM method is 98.2% effective in preventing unplanned pregnancies and can also be used increase the likelihood of conception if desired. We are excited to begin the creation of educational materials related to this evidence-based fertility awareness technique and share it with those who have low levels of access to birth control and conception support. We are also exploring the creation of a social, for-profit venture using this technique. We welcome your ideas and inputs on this project.
Collaborating with MOSAIC
We are thrilled to announce our partnership with MOSAIC, one of Canada's largest settlement non-profit organizations, to develop an accessible and culturally sensitive online STM course for newcomers in Canada. Newcomers are notoriously underserved and face challenges applying most conventional forms of birth control due to access, cost, or cultural and religious norms. Collaborating with MOSAIC will help us identify the needs and preferences of newcomers in fertility planning, contraception, and online modes of learning.
Funding from the Michael Smith Foundation
Congratulations to Health Together founder, Dr. Farah Shroff, who is a recent recipient of the Michael Smith Foundation's Health Research BC Reach Award! This grant will support our ongoing collaboration MOSAIC's staff and clients to plan and co-develop and online educational STM course, pilot test these materials with newcomers, and launch this course on both our and MOSAIC's networks.
Health Together's Acceptance to eUBC
We are pleased to announce our acceptance to the competitive entrepreneurship@UBC (eUBC) venture program. This program works with early-stage ventures across the University of British Columbia, which helps develop entrepreneurs and build their own ventures from the infancy to growth stage. This program is helping us develop the STM project into a social venture, led by Dr. Shroff, called 'Stretchy - Fertility Planning for All Couples.' The vision of this venture is to give people an evidence-informed option for natural birth control that has no side effects, with minimal costs, and an option that creates positive social communication between couples.
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Pictured: Dr. Shroff receiving the Gender Equity Award from DIVERSEcity.
In addition to her success in the Michael Smith Foundation's Health Research BC Award competition which will help support the STM project, our founder received two prestigious awards from DIVERSEcity and the Public Health Association of British Columbia.
On September 26th 2024, Dr. Shroff was awarded the Gender Equity Award by DIVERSEcity which honours an established leader who has made a significant difference towards women's rights. As a Canadian public health leader, Dr. Shroff has been instrumental in addressing critical issues affecting women and children. Her founder and leadership role at Health Together shows her dedication to enhancing the wellbeing of those who identify as women globally through an approach that is rooted in cultural competence, community-driven solutions, and feminist and anti-racist approaches to global health work and advocacy.
More recently, Dr. Shroff received the prestigious recognition of being awarded the Award of Merit from the Public Health Association of British Columbia. It is the highest of honours that she was nominated by Dr. Irving Rootman, who is a prominent public health professional. This award shines on those who have made significant contributions to enhancing the health of communities and Dr. Shroff was awarded for her role as a global public health leader who works in the area of wellbeing, women's health, policy, and more.
Pictured: Dr. Shroff receiving the Merit Award from the Public Health Association of British Columbia.
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 One of our members, Dr. Helene Bertrand is a retired family physician who was at the top of her McGill Medical School class and a Harvard Medical School student. She is currently a clinical instructor for the Department of Family Practice at UBC. Her research focuses on lower back pain, painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and new ways to address neuropathic pain. She discusses her experience with her work and a webinar with MIHCan below:
In January of 2020, I was invited to deliver a webinar for MIHCan. I discussed my lower back pain treatment and the research about it. The audience for the webinar was international. It was gratifying that one of those at the webinar was a family physician in Kerala, at a MIHCan partner institution, AIMS. He asked a few questions during the webinar. With the help of MIHCan's Founder and Lead, Dr Shroff, we spoke after the webinar and we decided to work together to do a study of back pain treatment using my technique, in India. By February of 2020, i was in Kochi, Kerala, working a team at AIMS. It was a very positive experience. You can read about my experience of arriving at the airport in India in my upcoming book, ‘Low Back Pain, 3 Steps To Relief In 2 Minutes.’ That day, I was in a dense crowd at the Kochi International Airport in India, waiting to pass through customs. It took a while to get to the front of the line, but as the crowd inched forward, I marveled at what had brought me here, and the adventure I was about to embark upon. At last, it was my turn to be interviewed by the customs officer.
"Why have you come to India?" he asked.
"I’m here to organize a research project on low back pain on the invitation of Maternal and Infant Health Canada," I answered.
"But that’s a business! I see you only have a tourist visa!" was his terse reply.
My heart sank.
"I’m not here to make money,” I said. “I’m doing research!”
The man would not let me through, but he did agree to summon his supervisor. Five minutes later, the tall, very imposing chief customs officer of Kochi International Airport was standing in front of me saying, “What you’re doing is a business and you only have a tourist visa.”
“Look,” I said, “in two minutes, I can remove low back pain.”
The officer looked up from my passport and squinted at me. “Two minutes?” he asked. I nodded. “Wait here.”
He disappeared into a back room and re-emerged with a female officer dressed in a sari. “She’s had 15 years of low back pain,” he informed me.
I realized at that moment that this man was expecting me to relieve his colleague’s pain, right then and there, under his watchful gaze and the curious stares of all the other travelers.
“There are too many people, I can’t examine her here!” I said. He gestured to a corner of the room. “There’s a little table over there."
The three of us walked over to the little table and I examined her through her sari. Sure enough, I found both of her pelvic bones were seriously displaced. To get them back into place, I had her hold the appropriate realignment position for two minutes. After that, she stood up and tested her back, bending forward and backward, side-to-side and twisting. Then she smiled, spread her arms high and shouted: “This is a miracle!” For the first time in 15 years, her pain was gone. Seeing this, the chief customs officer smiled at me and said, “Welcome to India.” He extended my visa and accompanied me to the door. There, a driver was waiting for me to get me to the guest residence at Amrita Hospital. The next day, I started coaching six doctors. They were going to carry out a research project, testing this new way to treat low back pain, to assess my research results which have since been published. Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, I could only spend a few days with them, otherwise, flights back home would be impossible to get. Also, as doctors, they had to start dealing with the pandemic, which meant that the research project would have to be postponed. On the day I left, as someone was taking our photograph, it really warmed my heart when one of them turned to me and said, “Thank you, Dr. Bertrand, we’ve never seen so many people with low back pain leave our office with a big smile on their face.”
On a Hong Kong to Vancouver flight, I had an interesting interaction with a flight attendant after sharing my occupation. She said, “I have terrible low back pain!” To which I replied, “You can fix that in two minutes. Let’s go to the galley and do it now.” She got up from the two-minute exercise entirely pain-free. Another flight attendant, witnessing this, asked to be examined and treated. Both ended up with no back pain, prompting one of them to mention the pilot’s similar struggle. I proposed, “Why don’t you invite him over, and we will provide him with relief too.” He did the two-minute exercise and ended up pain-free. Three airline employees now knew how to relieve their back pain. This encounter made me wonder how many other companies would benefit from their employees having the knowledge to treat themselves.
My relationship with low back pain has certainly been a transformative journey. After several years of research and experimentation, I finally came to understand what most healthcare practitioners don’t yet realize, which is that, usually, low back pain does not come from your spine, and that there are many things people who suffer from it can do to find relief and to prevent it from happening again. I wrote this book to teach all sufferers how to do these things, so they too can control their low back pain.”
You can find out more about Dr. Bertrand's book here: https://drhelenebertrand.com/low-back-pain-relief-book
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 On Friday, March 8th, 2024, Health Together celebrated International Women's Day with the launch of a video featuring one of our patrons, the Honourable Dr. Asha Seth, and Health Together Team members Dr. Nazia Ali, Dr. Indrani Paul, and Amaanat Gill. The Honourable Dr. Asha Seth shared some wise words on her path within medicine toward becoming a senator and how women can continue to pave their way toward pursuing leadership roles.
Dr. Nazia, Dr. Indrani, and Amaanat shared some poetry written by women poets and scholars. Following this, they participated in an open discussion on women's health, sharing their insights based on their different backgrounds and experiences. Topics of discussion included health service access during public health emergencies, maternal healthcare, and mental health.
You can watch this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deio05mROA0
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Congratulations to Health Together's Founder, Dr. Farah Shroff, who was officially appointed to the board of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority during March 2024! The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is British Columbia’s center point for providing healthcare innovation, research and academic excellence, and also contributing to the local, national, and global health ecosystem. Dr. Shroff brings a rich amount of interdisciplinary professional and educational experiences to this board role such as her role as the founder and lead of Health Together; her faculty position at UBC’s Department of Family Practice; her Takemi Fellowship at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and ongoing board role at Harvard Health Accelerator; her role as an independent consultant at Darya Consulting; and as a teacher of yoga, dance, meditation, self-defence, and other movement practices.
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We have had wonderfully inspiring and informative webinars this year! If you weren’t able to attend live, you can access all of our previous webinar recordings at: https://maa.med.ubc.ca/webinars/
Please stay tuned for upcoming webinars in 2025!
November 2023
Topic: Building Resilient Bones to Maximize Peak Bone Mass and Prevent Osteoporosis
Featured: Sarah Mapes and Dr. Doug Lucas
Summary: Sarah Mapes and Dr. Doug Lucas joined Health Together in November 2023 to provide an informative webinar on how mothers can improve their bone mass and prevent their likelihood of developing osteoporosis. Webinar highlights included learning how child bearing and breast feeding can decrease bone density in mothers and their children; ways for young mothers to increase bone mass and reduce their risk of osteoporosis through obtaining necessary vitamins and minerals that enhance bone health, types of posture techniques that can maintain good bone health, and exercising habits that can improve bone mass for mothers.
January 2024
Topic: An Anthology of Canadian Birth Stories: Inspiration and Essential Guidance for Parents, Parents-to-be, and Healthcare-providers
Featured: Laura Pascoe and Angela Douglas
Summary: During January 2024, Laura Pascoe and Angela Douglas joined Health Together to give an insightful webinar on the significance of birth stories. Much of the topics and discussions highlighted in this webinar were based on the book authored by Laura Pascoe: ‘An Anthology of Canadian Birth Stories: Inspiration and Essential Guidance for Parents, Parents-to-be, and Healthcare-providers.’ Laura and Angela discussed the importance of birth stories as a way to learn and understand the weight of centering perinatal care and birth givers. This webinar also served as a space for attendees to share their insights and experiences pertaining to birth and perinatal health.
March 2024
Topic: Breaking the Stigma: The Role of Communication in Challenging Anti-Fatness Messaging During Pregnancy
Featured: Dr. Margaret M. Quinlan and Dr. Erin Basinger
Summary: Dr. Margaret M. Quinlan and Dr. Erin Basinger joined Health Together to provide an enlightening webinar of weight stigma on pregnant individuals and any associated health outcomes. During this webinar presentation, discussion points included implications of stigma and how it leads to healthcare providers not knowing how to treat patients in large bodies, strategies pertaining to advocacy for healthcare providers communicating in a respectful and unbiased manner, and developing ways to integrate inclusive language during discussions of pregnancy and weight.
May 2024
Topic: Changing the international conversation through qualitative research: the case of the World Health Organisation maternity care guidelines
Featured: Dr. Soo Downe
Summary: Dr. Soo Downe, well known for her contributions to midwifery and maternal health, joined MIHCan during May 2024 to give a valuable webinar on her expertise in qualitative research methods and tying that into her work with the WHO as a member of their technical working group for various types of maternity care guidelines. She provided attendees with an introductory base of knowledge on qualitative evidence synthesis techniques; an understanding of how the WHO maternity care guidelines are created for antenatal care, intrapartum care, postpartum care, and optimizing cesarean sections.
July 2024
Topic: Pain in Childbirth: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Featured: Prof. Vanora Hundley and Prof. Carol Clark
Summary: Health Together had Prof. Vanora Hundley, a Professor of Midwifery, and Prof Carol Clark, a Professor of Psychotherapy deliver a thoughtful webinar that combined their areas of expertise to help participants understand the pains and challenges associated with childbirth. This webinar described the challenges of latent phase labour, identified the role that pain plays in bringing women to the hospital during the latent phase, how prior experiences of pain can influence behaviour in childbirth, and how this knowledge can plan additional support for women who have negative perceptions of pain.
September 2024
Topic: Hypertensive disorder of pregnancy among women in South Western Uganda
Featured: Dr. Henry Lugobe
Summary: Dr. Henry Lugobe, a faculty member in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, provided an enlightening presentation on the burden, morbidity, and mortality associated with hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. In addition to discussing the risks associated for future cardiac disease.
November 2024
Topic: Homemade Orthotics for Foot and Knee Problems: A Functional Approach.
Featured: Dr. Hélène Bertrand
Summary: One of our members, Dr. Hélène Bertrand delivered a live webinar for our organization where she shared her innovative expertise to teach participants on how they can make their own orthotics to correct the functional anatomy, discussed research evidence on orthotic effectiveness for different foot and knee problems, and how relief can be provided for different foot, ankle, and knee conditions.
Pictured: Dr. Soo Downe presenting a webinar on understanding WHO maternity care guidelines through qualitative research methods.
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Our organization has a number of teams that are led and made up of bright students and health professionals. These teams work tirelessly to ensure this organization continues to uphold its mission of improving the health and wellbeing of those who identify as women, the health of young ones, and improving the environment. All of these teams and their members deserve recognition and praise for their dedication.
Research Team: Amaanat Gill (Lead), Edna Eguale, Mabell Mathews, Jasleen Sahota, Dorothy Chen, Stefania Stirban, Harleen Randhawa, Atika Juristia, Gurnaib Virk, Tomi Yoloye, Blake Ruel, Sid Das, Satika Suresha, Pahul Saini, Ishita Agarwal, Divya Dhingra, Cindy Park, Dami Mabadeje, Carlton Yan, Simran Grewal, Dr. Nazia Ali, Ekaterina Potapova, and Kevin Virk.
Knowledge Translation Team: Christina Weir (Co-Lead), Amaanat Gill (Co-Lead), Karolina Avis, Alex Weir, Satvika Suresha, Sid Das, Gurnaib Virk, Ysabella Tumaneng, Kevin Virk, and Nicole Cha.
Grant Writing Team: Sarah Kelly (Lead), Jesse Luyan, Mandeep Bhabba, and Bea Paterno.
Fundraising Team: Stefania Stirban (Lead), Jasleen Sahota, Dorothy Chen, Fernando Ferro Braga Laurindo Correia, Blake Ruel, Tegbir Gill, and Sian Huang.
Human Resources: Stefania Stirban (Lead), Jenna Hernandez, Harneet Mangat, Vani Gupta, Bea Paterno, and Sian Huang.
Social Media Team: Isabella Wen (Lead), Ishita Agarwal, Dr. Yasmine Asaad, Dr. Nadar Chawla, Jesse Luyan, Tiya Iyengar, and Soseul Park.
Webinar Team: Tomi Yoloye (Lead) and Tegbir Gill.
Sympto-Thermal Method Team: Dr. Narjes Gorji (Lead), Sarah Kelly, Jasmandeep Sekhon, Amaanat Gill, Dr. Yasmine Asaad, Dr. Isaac Touloum, Dr. Nadar Chawla, Divya Dhingra, Harleen Randhawa, Sid Das, Blake Ruel, Satika Suresha, Edna Eguale, Gurnaib Virk, Kevin Virk, and Kevan Wu.
UBC's Alma Mater Society Student Club: Nicole Cha (Co-Lead), Kevan Wu (Co-Lead), Edna Eguale, Dorothy Chen, and Cindy Park.
Website Team: Kevan Wu (Lead) and Mabell Mathews.
Water Team: Jasleen Sahota (Lead), Ekaterina Potapova, Fernando Ferro Braga Laurindo Correia, and Tegbir Gill.
Sexual Health Team: Ishita Agarwal (Lead), Kevan Wu, Jenna Hernandez, and Pahul Saini.
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Dr. Ravi Sankaran is a professor and the Head of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences. His areas of specialty include disorders of consciousness, peripheral nerve injury rehabilitation, cardiac rehabilitation, and pelvic floor rehabilitation. Dr. Sankaran received his MBBS from Manipal University in Karnataka, India. He is also the Director of Amrita Hyperbaric Medical Services as of January 2015.
Dr. Sankaran is the co-principal Investigator with Dr. Shroff of the osteoporosis clinical trial that MIHCan initiated. The trial will run from 2024 to 2026. Please stay tuned for progress updates!
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Amaanat is an MSc candidate at the University of Manitoba's Department of Community Health Sciences, having completed a BSc (Honours) in Life Sciences and a BA (General) in Global Development Studies from Queen's University. She works as a Research Assistant at the University of Manitoba's Institute for Global Public Health and has worked as a Teaching Assistant at Queen's University and the University of Manitoba. She is also a trainee at the University of Manitoba's International Infectious Disease and Global Health Training Program. Recently, Amaanat concluded a 6-month assignment working with United Nations Women's Ending Violence Against Women Team where she's helping with research and data collection on the Global Database on Violence Against Women. Amaanat has been involved with Health Together since May 2023, where she has been leading the Knowledge Translation and Research Teams. Her research interests include prevention and control of sexually transmitted infectious diseases -- particularly HIV, health service access by marginalized communities, family planning, and reproductive justice. In her free time Amaanat can be found hiking, baking, knitting, and spending time with loved ones. |
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Health Together is a 100% volunteer-driven collaborative. Fundraising is still the key to catalyzing our projects. If you, or someone you know would like to donate or host a fundraiser, please click here or feel free to contact us to learn more about how your donations can impact the lives and well-being of women and children globally. Furthermore, we offer a UBC Faculty of Medicine tax receipt! |
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MIHCan's COVID Catalyst Study is almost complete. We carried out virtual focus groups in Canada, Mexico, Egypt/Sudan, India, and the U.S. and found that women's health could improve through: greater dialog about mental health; valuing front line workers; developing digital technologies to continue flexible workplace locations and for greater access to tele-counseling and tele-medicine. MIHCan is very excited about this study as it is promoting solutions to women's health. This is one of the ways that MIHCan shows leadership: our focus is steadfastly about improving health even when evidence shows that prospects are dim.
colleagues affiliated with Harvard University, the University of British Columbia, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Suez Canal University, and the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar. This paper is based on the policy study conducted by MIHCan that aimed to explore how the changes introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic have catalyzed potential improvements in global women's health toward the creation of a more equitable post-pandemic world. This was a mixed methods study with a total of 280 participants from India, Egypt/Sudan Canada, and the U.S./Mexico.
Our Founder presented on Digital Health solutions for Women's Health at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, UNCSW67, in March 2023 in New York City--the largest gathering of women in the world. The theme for UNCSW 67 matched one of the themes of And Still She Rises--digital health technologies to improve women's health. Dr Shroff's presentation was balanced, in that it also included some of the downsides of technology dependence such as human rights violations and surveillance concerns, musculoskeletal and eye health problems with prolonged screen use, and screen dependency disorder.
Our founder, Dr. Shroff, was a Keynote Speaker at The Network Towards Health Unity Conference at the University of Sharjah in Dubai recently! This international health conference focused on global health policy and equity. Dr. Shroff's gave a Keynote on 'Catalyzing Health for All: Promoting a Culture of Learning for Policymakers.'
Did you know that Women Deliver, the global conference, is coming to Vancouver in 2019 - June 3-6th? Its purpose is not simply a conference but also to leave a legacy in the country selected for the conference. The conference was launched by the Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, in October 2017 at the Vancouver Convention Centre where the Women Deliver conference will take place. There is a Canadian mobilization across all sectors and as a representative of the CanWACH Board, I was honoured to attend a round table with Minster Bibeau on August 21st 2018 where several key BC stakeholders in the cross-sector mobilization were present to share their planned activities, including two Olympic champions and the president of our BC Women’s Foundation, Genesa Greening, who is chairing the mobilization group. CanWACH is the umbrella for the Canadian mobilization for Women Deliver. Dr. Jan Christilaw, known to many of you, has been the initiator of a pre-Women Deliver conference on global Indigenous Women’s Health a with our own indigenous leaders taking on the role of sharing this conference to create a legacy for Canada’s indigenous women. Dr. Lori Brotto, the Executive Director of the Women’s Health Research Institute was also present at the round table and the annual WHRI symposium has been scheduled the Friday before the main Women Deliver conference and will include global women’s health researchers. In terms of MIHCan, I encourage you to explore the website and consider attending because the networking opportunities in terms of the global community is wonderful and MIHCan will fit right in. We are still in time to submit an abstract about MIHCan’s work. 
Happy festive season to all! 
