Celebrating 10 Years: Patient & Community Voices at UBC Newsletter!

In this 10th Anniversary issue we celebrate and reflect on the past, present and future of the Patient & Community Voices at UBC newsletter!

Looking back, it is heartwarming to see that many of the stories featured in the first issues continue to be the cornerstones of the newsletter articles published today. The interprofessional Health Mentors Program is now a source of experienced patient educators for new learning activities and the Patient & Community Voices workshops have developed into a series that is offered annually and part of the curriculum for some students.

It also the 10th anniversary of the R. Paul Kerston Community Educator Award. Mo Korchinski and Tiare Laporte were the first recipients of the award in November 2014. Since then there have been 17 recipients of the award. This year’s awardees will be announced soon. Stay tuned!

We also continue to host a growing number of visitors from around the world who come to UBC to learn from our work. Looking ahead we are starting to plan for our 3rd international conference on ‘Where’s the patient’s voice in health professional education?’ which will be in Vancouver in November 2025. Stay tuned for ‘Save the Date’ and ‘Call for Abstracts’ information in upcoming issues.

Each issue has been filled with wonderful stories and tributes that are testaments to the power of patient involvement in education. We are grateful for the many patients and people from the community who have allowed our students to learn from them and believe, as we do, that education makes a difference. Thank you for giving us so many good stories to tell and we look forward to sharing more of them in the next 10 years!