By Cecilia Nasmith

The Northumberland PACE speakers' series returns for the 2022-2023 season with a virtual conversation with Dr. Jason An on the subject of inflammatory arthritis.

So You've Been Referred To The Rheumatologist will take place Thursday, Sept. 22, at 5:30 p.m. via Zoom.

After medical school at the University of Calgary, Dr. An completed an Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Alberta, followed by his Rheumatology Fellowship training at McMaster University and a Fellowship in Rare Diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children (where he focused on the genetic analysis of rare autoinflammatory and immune dysregulation disorders). He joined the NHH network of specialists in March, and today provides local patients with virtual rheumatology consultations for a range of inflammatory disorders such as arthritis, connective tissue diseases, and autoinflammatory conditions.

Dr. An will explain what a rheumatologist does, and the ways they can help patients who experience severe symptoms of arthritis. Attendees will leave the session with more familiarity of the two major types of inflammatory arthritis, as well as prevention tips to help maintain healthy joints.

As always, questions from the PACE audience will be addressed. These may be posed live or submitted in advance at mbhargava@imcare.ca

It was Dr. Mukesh Bhargava who originated the talks as a means of disseminating educational information on the issues his patients were questioning him about. Offered since 2018, PACE talks (which stands for Personalized Assessment and Change Education) are free public-education sessions on a wide range of health and wellness topics. Originally offered live, alternating between Cobourg and Port Hope, they drew large groups of interested community members with a variety of questions and perspectives. The series adapted to a new virtual format as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organizers are pleased to announce that the list of participating partners has increased, with the Ontario Health Team of Northumberland joining the founding partners at the planning table for this new season.

PACE talks are an hour in length – a 30-minute talk, a 20-minute question-and-answer period with the guest speaker and a short moderator summary.

Bring your questions, your suggestions and your experience, and join in what is expected to be another informative discussion on a topic chosen by previous PACE attendees.

Pre-registration is required, and space is limited to the first 300 attendees (who are asked to log in five minutes prior to the start of the event).

Register for So You've Been Referred to the Rheumatologist at www.pacetalks.com – where you will 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 presentation, technology permitting.