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Winter 2020 (Volume 30, Number 4)

Communications Committee Update

By Dax G. Rumsey, MD, MSc, FRCP(C)

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The year 2020 has been an interesting year for everyone (to say the least) and the Communications Committee is no exception to this!

Our major initiative this year has been launching the official podcast of the CRA, Around the Rheum. We took advantage of what may prove to be the last in-person meeting for some time by recording several episodes of the podcast at the Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) in Victoria back in February (which seems like years ago now)! We have been releasing these episodes throughout the year. With the support of the Canadian Medical Association, Scotia Bank, and MD Management, we have also been working on a special COVID-19 series of episodes. We have had excellent feedback on the podcast so far and have had over 1,700 listens to date! A big thank you goes out to the Around The Rheum team, which include Kevin Baijnauth (Marketing and Communications Coordinator of the CRA), David McGuffin (Producer from Explore Podcast Productions with extensive experience), Dr. Daniel Ennis (adult rheumatologist based in Vancouver and our host), and Aaron Fontwell (Producer from Fontwell Estate Creative Agency, who has been helping us with the final mixing).

Another one of our initiatives has been improving the social media presence of the CRA. We have been actively using our Twitter account (@CRASCRRheum) to promote events happening within our community and to share major/ interesting rheumatology publications and guidelines.

We have also launched "Rheum for Growth," an accounting column aimed at both practicing rheumatologists and rheumatology trainees who are about to enter the workforce. This column is written by Peter Simpson, CPA, CMA, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the CRA, based on topics that our committee thinks will be of interest to the membership.

In addition, we continue to interview members of the community for our "Who’s in the Rheum?" column. The Communications Committee also performs several other formal and informal communications functions, including the vetting of surveys, liaising with outside organizations who wish to communicate with our membership, and other related tasks.

We are open to new and fresh ideas/input and encourage any CRA members interested in joining our committee to drop us a line! You may contact me at dax.rumsey@ahs.ca or Kevin Baijnauth at kbaijnauth@rheum.ca.

Dax G. Rumsey, MD, MSc, FRCP(C)
Chair, CRA Communications Committee
Zone Section Chief, Paediatric Rheumatology,
Alberta Health Services – Edmonton Zone (Stollery Children’s Hospital)
Division Director, Paediatric Rheumatology,
Assistant Professor, University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta



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