CANN - 55th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions

By invitation only for CANN and WFNN board members.

Join us for some refreshments, hors d'oeuvre and live music and meet, chat and discuss with fellow conference delegates, invited speakers and conference organizers.

Thank you to Luke Nickel Trio for their live jazz performance! Learn more about your musicians for the evening:

KEON NARINESINGH
Keon is a Toronto based bass player and improviser. He is from Kelowna BC, where he fell in love with jazz in high school before moving to Toronto to study music at the University of Toronto. Since moving to Toronto, Keon has performed at a variety of venues, such as The Rex, The Jazz Bistro, Casino Rama, Grand Bend Rotary Stage, Tranzac Club, and the Cameron House. He has also performed with many Toronto artists, including Allison Au, Ethan Ardelli, Chris Pruden, Tara
Kannangara, Leland Whitty, Brodie West, Mackenzie Longpre, and Eric West.

STEVEN NORONHA
Steven Noronha is a Pianist, Composer and Improviser from Toronto Ontario. He is currently completing his undergraduate degree and has studied with Chris Donnelly and Tania Gill. Steven is focused on exploring the
boundaries of technical practice at the piano especially in the realm of rhythmic identity and hand independence. He is also interested in exploring the conventions of the performer/audience relationship. Currently he plays and performs in
various groups around the city and is working towards recording an album of original compositions, sketches, and improvisations.

LUKE NICKEL
Luke Nickel is an up and coming trombone player in the Toronto scene with roots in jazz and jam music. He specializes in jazz, but has experience playing pop, funk, R&B, prog rock/punk classical, and folk music as well. Due to his experience playing in a myriad of different genres, Luke plays in a unique style, mixing blues, jazz, and funk to create an exciting musical experience for those to listen to. Luke has played at a variety of places in Toronto including The Emmet Ray, Free Times Cafe, The Rex, The Jazz Bistro, Collective Arts Brewery and The Tranzac. He has studied with great Toronto based musicians including Terry Promane, Karl Silveira, and Luis Deniz and has played with established musicians such as Anderson Paak, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, Sean Jones and Rich Brown.

Enjoy a buffet breakfast to kick off the first morning of the 55th CANN Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions!

Food will be available from 7:30 until 8:30. Please make sure you have your food and are seated for 8:00 in time for the opening ceremony. Thank you!

Spotlight on PD is a balanced educational program which was designed by Parkinson key opinion leaders for their healthcare practitioners colleagues treating Parkinson's. By the end of this one hour program, participants will be able to:

1) Understand the need for additional treatment options to control fluctuating symptoms in advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD)
2) Summarize the efficacy and safety profile of device-aided therapies (DAT) to control fluctuating symptoms in advanced PD
3) Apply strategies to optimize management of patients who require DAT to control fluctuating symptoms in advanced PD

The buffet will be served as of 7:30. We ask that everybody be seated as of 8:00 to start the sponsored breakfast presentation.

Introduction:
Since 2010, immunoglobulins (Ig) utilization rate has doubled internationally (NAC & CBS, 2020). Despite efforts since 2018 to make Canada self-sufficient in Ig inventory management, the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need to reach this goal (NAC & CBS, 2020). Immunology and neurology are the two most prevalent medical sub-specialties for Ig treatments, neurology being the one that uses the highest volume of Ig products administered to patients in some provinces (INSPQ, 2023). 
In neurology, generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) represents the second largest patient population receiving IVIg (INSPQ, 2023). Although various strategies may be implemented to reduce IVIg usage rates in Canada, each province has the mandate of managing its own Ig stocks. As such, there may be disparities between provinces in Ig inventory management initiatives.
To inform decision-makers on how to prioritize IVIg usage and establish clear policies to maximize Ig availability to treat patients, clear financial data should be available. Publications have compared treatment costs between IVIg and SCIg (Ritchie et al., 2022), others have retrospectively assessed the costs of IVIg usage (Murphy et al., 2019) over a period of time. However, no systematic pan-Canadian cost assessment of IVIg administration in the hospital ambulatory care setting has been performed.
Method:
To estimate the cost of hospital ambulatory care IVIg administration, the gMG patient population was selected. From January to March 2024, clinician salaries, medical equipment and hospital overhead costs were compiled for all Canadian provinces and territories. A baseline scenario of chronic gMG patient treatment cycles was established and costs were calculated to compare all health jurisdictions in the country. In addition to direct costs such as salaries and medical supplies, indirect costs such as indirect salaries, energy and infrastructure costs were factored into the final calculations.
Results:
Salary differences, mainly nursing, and infrastructure costs were the two main elements affecting the IVIg administration cost between provinces. Yearly IVIg treatment costs in hospital ambulatory care settings for one chronic gMG patient may be upward of $9,000 in certain parts of Canada.
Discussion:
With the availability of alternative treatments to cyclical hospital-based IVIg therapies for chronic gMG patients (CADTH, 2023; CADTH, 2020), health authorities and decision-makers could reallocate significant budgets and move closer to Ig products self-sustainability should they offering this type of treatments in the community. Non-public healthcare patient support programs (PSP) would also further decrease the financial burden of gMG treatments on public healthcare networks.

Objectives: In this one-hour program, participants will be able to

1. Understand the types of epilepsy and available treatment options.
2. Explore medical treatments for epilepsy and understand the unmet needs with current medications.
3. Examine the role of surgery in managing drug-resistant epilepsy, and post-surgical considerations.

The buffet will be served as of 7:30. We ask that everybody be seated as of 8:15 to start the sponsored breakfast presentation.

Research has shown that the manner in which a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neuron disease (ALS/MND) is delivered is a source of discontent for many people living with the disease and their caregivers. This is not surprising given that conveying sensitive news to patients is an arduous and emotionally challenging task for healthcare professionals (HCPs), which many feel ill prepared for given the lack of medical training curricula devoted to this area.5,6 How to Break the News in ALS/MND: A Primer for Physicians and Allied Health Professionals has been designed to improve HCP comfort and confidence in this task by providing them with the skills required to deliver challenging news effectively. The program centers around the A–L S–PIKES protocol which uses well-established principles of communication and counselling that are aimed at improving patient quality of life and promoting the well-being of HCPs involved in the care and management of people living with ALS/MND.

This committee has voluntarily removed the word bad from the communication skill of delivering bad news in ALS/MND. Whereas there will always be an element of suffering and challenge when speaking of an ALS diagnosis and/or disease progression, qualifying this as only “bad” news could potentially prime all parties to “only” focus on the BAD components.

The objective of the lunch and learn are:

• Provide an overview of neuromuscular diseases, with particular attention to myopathies such as Pompe disease, focusing on the clinical manifestations, differential diagnosis considerations and patient management good practices
• Share more about the available testing options including enzymatic assays and genetic testing for neuromuscular diseases
• Highlight the role of Neurology nurses and supporting staff in recognizing the signs and symptoms of neuromuscular disease, facilitating early diagnosis, and guiding patients to early disease treatment