PACE returns on a virtual basis
By Cecilia Nasmith
The popular monthly Northumberland PACE Talk series will return virtually for the 2021 season, with a timely topic for the first session on Jan. 20.
A COVID Conversation – Three Unique Experiences With COVID-19 will take place on the Zoom platform at 5:30 p.m. That day, with a panel of speakers that includes Dr. Pavel Ketov (an Emergency Department physician at Northumberland Hills Hospital), Dr. Michael Barrie (NHH Chief of Anesthesiology), and Dr. Madhav Rao (a cardiologist from Scranton, Pa., and a COVID survivor).
This informative PACE talk will see panelists sharing their unique experiences with the virus – the changes that COVID-19 has brought to the delivery of primary care in the community, steps taken to manage risk from COVID in a surgical environment, the lived experience of a COVID survivor.
PACE stands for Personalized Assessment and Change Education, and the series grew from the experiences of NHH chief of staff Dr. Mukesh Bhargava who sought to establish a forum to address the questions his patients seemed to be most concerned with.
The series was launched in 2018, offering free public-education sessions on a broad range of health and wellness topics and consistently drawing large groups of community members with a range of questions and perspectives.
Along with NHH, the Northumberland Family Health Team, the Community Health Centres of Northumberland, internal medicine specialists IMCare, the NHH Foundation, as well as local patients and caregivers are all represented at the PACE planning table.
The monthly sessions alternated between Cobourg and Port Hope. However, like many other events, the series has adapted to a new virtual format as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following A COVID Conversation, future sessions in the 2021 series will address such topics as virtual health care, end-of-life options in Northumberland, advance care planning, maintaining mental health in a global pandemic and lifestyle improvements that are within our control (such as sleep and exercise).
Lasting an hour in length, each PACE event consists of a 30-minute talk, a 20-minute question-and-answer period with the guest speaker, and a 10-minute moderator summary. Virtual PACE Talks will follow this same format. Bring your questions, your suggestions and your experience, and join in what is expected to be another informative discussion.
Pre-registration is required, and space is limited to the first 300 registered attendees. As this event is being hosted through Zoom, attendees will need a Zoom account and internet access, and should plan to log in to the event five minutes prior to the start.
Register for A COVID Conversation today at www.pacetalks.com, where you’ll also find video and highlights from many of the previous seasons’ talks.
For those unable to attend, efforts will be made to share a recording of this conversation following the event, technology permitting.
