Inside Affair 2024

May 23, 2024, Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel

There were a few wrenches in the gears of this year’s occasion, but we still enjoyed a remarkable evening with varied conversations. One of our speakers, Douglas Clark, CEO of the pCPA (panCanadian Pharmaceutical Alliance), moved on from this job just two weeks before the event. On May 22, another panellist, Suzanne McGurn, the President and CEO of Canada’s Drug Agency, fell and broke her wrist. She was still in the hospital when our event began. With remarkable agility, Suzanne’s team figured out a last-minute understudy and sent Sudha Kutty, their Executive Vice President, Evidence, Products, & Services, who got on a plane in Ottawa that landed at 5:17 PM (our event reception began at 5:30 PM). She arrived at the hotel exactly at 6 PM, seamlessly for the program to start right on time. After the drama, we carried on with aplomb.

Gail Attara, the Gastrointestinal Society’s President and CEO opened the evening with a brief explanation of Suzanne’s absence and introduced our evening’s host, Robert Tam, Board Director of the Gastrointestinal Society. He acknowledged that we were respectfully meeting on the ancestral and traditional territories of many nations. He also acknowledged that the city is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands. It is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

He also thanked all of our generous sponsors and welcomed the attendees from a diverse mix of backgrounds, including persons living with diseases and disorders and patient group representatives across many health areas, physicians, nurses, pharmaceutical representatives, private insurance representatives, government officials, registered dietitians, pharmacists, researchers, students, and more.

The funds we raised at this event will help sustain our ongoing charitable work, including patient education initiatives, advocacy, and community support.

Using a colourful presentation, Dr. James Gray then gave a brief overview of the new resources we developed during the past year. Dr. Gray is a gastroenterologist, a clinical professor at the University of British Columbia, the Chair of the GI Society’s Medical Advisory Council, and Vice-President of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Society of Intestinal Research. He narrates many of our videos, and he has been a speaker at our BadGut® lectures for decades. Always entertaining, he anchored the evening in our cause of helping individuals who have all kinds of health conditions, from gum to bum.

Just before the panel began, Robert Tam showed a shortened video of our recent patient stories about living with inflammatory bowel disease (available on our YouTube channel in English and French).

Panel

Our panel theme for this year was Achieving a Patient-Centred Healthcare System, moderated by Rami Fayed, Vice President & General Manager of AbbVie Canada. In addition to Sudha Kutty and Gail Attara, the panel included Fred Horne, Senior Advisor, 3Sixty Public Affairs, and Former Alberta Health Minister.

Rami Fayed got things rolling by saying that AbbVie is honoured to take part in this event and noting that AbbVie feels a responsibility to be part of important, and sometimes challenging, discussions on health and pharmaceutical policy in Canada.

After a robust discussion, Rami Fayed added, “What’s critical for patients is not necessarily what’s being looked at in the clinical trial data. This is something healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical companies, and other members of the industry have to focus on more and more. Patient voices are becoming louder and louder and that is critical to include moving forward.”

As the discussion was winding down, he asked the panel to say something about healthcare for which they were optimistic.

Gail Attara challenged the audience to shift the culture around patient engagement. She asked, “Is there such a thing as slow optimism? Because progress has taken so long. I remember decades ago when we were saying we need patient input and others asked, why would you want patient input? I said that the patient is the object of the exercise. If you don’t have the patient included, then it doesn’t make a lot of sense. We really need to change our language. You must remember you’re doing it for patients, so you need to listen to what they need. That mindset must radiate all throughout healthcare. Are we doing it for the person we’re doing it for? Are we caring enough?”

Sudha Kutty added, “When you look at the work of Canada’s Drug Agency, by necessity we have processes and procedures that we have layered on over the years for consistency. Sometimes in doing that though, you lose sight in who you’re doing it for. Part of where we can do better as an organization is pushing some of the bureaucracy and procedure in some cases and really focusing on who is ultimately at the end of the decision we make and who is living and breathing this everyday.”

Fred Horne shared his perspective as a former Alberta Health Minister, “When it comes to provincial governments making funding decisions, they really don’t speak to patient centricity in any way. We fund programs that are established through legislation, or we fund units of service, and in most cases, we fund beds. We need to evolve to a point where we fund the identified needs of patients and those needs absolutely must be informed by patients themselves. There’s a lot of work across the country that gives me a lot of hope but when it comes to government, there’s still a long way to go addressing structural changes and barriers, and leadership needs to change those barriers.”

Networking

Guests enjoyed taking pictures at a selfie photobooth where they posed with props. Our infamous poop emoji mini brownies were also back. All attendees received a tote bag filled with goodies (thanks GluteNull and Costco), issue 229 of the Inside Tract® newsletter, our latest pamphlet on the Digestive System for Kids, and information about Canadian bakery GluteNull. The food was option-friendly with stations offering a delicious array of items that fit an assortment of dietary needs, including a carving station, as well as gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, vegetarian, and vegan food selections. There was something for everyone, even a chocolate fountain. As Gail Attara mentioned in a metaphor during the panel discussion, we need options in healthcare, just as we have different dietary options for the food we need.

Local Top Talent guitarist and vocalist, Vincent Soars, strummed and sang classic and modern hits. There was a flurry of activity on social media that evening, and in the following days, as guests shared their snapshots of the event. We had 200 seats booked and a few could not make it due to some challenges, including extreme traffic issues and sickness.

Volunteers

We thank the Board, staff, and volunteers for their support in hosting and helping us make these events a huge success. Our amazing volunteers, Judy Murray and Laurie Middleton-Crump were a vital part of the event running smoothly, as they assisted in so many ways.

The draw for everyone who donated during the Inside Affair went well, and they won these kindly contributed prizes:

• $280 Cucinato Italian Culinary Studio, Cooking Class, Dinner, or Tasting for Two (Jane O.)
• $200 Toronto Blue Jays, Kevin Gausman Autographed Baseball (Evan C.)
• $176 Arcadia Earth, Anytime Admission Tickets for Four (Chris P.)
• $100 Vancouver Canucks, JT Miller Autographed Ballcap (Alice L.)
• $ 86 CN Tower, General Admission Tickets for Two (Kimberly R.)

Finally, thank you to everyone who attended and made this a spectacular evening. We are grateful for your participation and donations.

Thank You Sponsors