Participants who register for this event have the option to attend live-online and/or watch the recording later. The recording will be available to all registrants for a 2-week period after the event. This allows participants who may not be able to attend the live event to still benefit from the content.

To facilitate attendance tracking, please indicate on your registration form if you won't be attending live.

The 11^th Pelvic Health Solutions online symposium will enrich your theoretical and practical knowledge of pelvic health. Learn the science, critical reasoning and inter-disciplinary approaches needed to fully understand the direction that pelvic health is taking in your community, provincially, nationally, and internationally.

More topics and speakers to be announced! 

Delinquent Bowels: What you're missing in your constipation patients - Dr. Rachel Fobert

Constipation is not as benign as we think it is, not only is it well known to be a treatment resistant condition but patients are at a high risk of developing eating disorders, anxiety and depression. Patients often do not share the full scope of their symptoms unless asked specific questions making it difficult as their health care provider to make a full assessment. This makes it our job to know what we are looking for, ask specific questions, communicate clear expectations, and know what the patient's next best step is within our offices, and outside of them. 

Objectives

• How to know what to look for and ask about in your constipation patients to curate a clear treatment roadmap that leaves them confident in your expertise.
• Knowing what to prioritize based on patient presentation. Ever wonder why some patients can miss three days of bowel movements with no abdominal distension and feel fine, and others are left with immense discomfort? 
• How to give them clear expectations. Do you know how long it should take for a laxative to work? Do you know how long it should take for more dietary fiber to make a change? 

Pessaries: What, Who, When and How - Jenny Telfer-Crum & Cara McDougall

Jenny Telfer-Crum and Cara McDougall are Physiotherapists who have performed hundreds of pessary fittings since they started offering this service in 2017. In this presentation they will provide an overview of what pessaries are, who is suitable to use a pessary, when you can recommend a client pursue a pessary trial, how someone gets a pessary in Canada and what happens in a pessary fitting appointment. The goal of this talk is to provide pelvic health practitioners with the information they need to educate their clients with stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse about pessaries and feel confident referring clients to a pessary fitting practitioner as part of their care plans.

Objectives:

• Outline what pessaries are and the types of pessaries available in Canada
• Perform a high level overview of current definitions and research around stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse to understand where pessary use fits in
• Explain who is a suitable pessary candidate including risks, contraindications and considerations for pessary use
• Summarize what vaginal products are commonly used concurrently with pessaries
• Detail how clients get a pessary in Canada and what clients can expect during a pessary fitting appointment 
• Detail how clients use pessaries and standard follow up recommendations.
• Brief introduction to setting up your own pessary practice

The Use of Phenotyping in the Diagnosis and Treatment of IC/BPS - Jill H. Osborne

It is now widely accepted that interstitial cystitis and bladder pain patient community is heterogenous with at least four distinct patient groups, each with their own recommended therapies. Phenotyping allows for the development of an individualized treatment protocol for this demanding patient population. We will review the history of phenotyping and the three proposed phenotyping systems in use today and how its use in clinic will simplify patient care and improve long-term outcomes. Gone are the days when we assumed that every IC patient had a bladder disease. In fact, very few patients demonstrate any disease. Rather, IC/BPS is now widely considered a neuromuscular disorder in most patients, often driven by increased pelvic floor tone and/or central nervous system dysregulation. Phenotyping simplifies patient care and treatment, minimizes the risk of using ineffective treatments and reduces long-term costs over time.

Bios:

Dr. Jo Milios

Jo Milios is an Australian Physiotherapist who has a special interest in Men’s Health, focusing on Prostate Cancer (PCa), Urinary and Erectile Dysfunction, Pelvic Pain, Peyronie’s disease (PD), Exercise, and Yoga. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Physiotherapy) in 1993, the big gap seen in Men’s Health proved pivotal in her decision to specialize in 2005. Recently completing Ph.D. studies at the University of Western Australia, Jo investigated the quality of life outcomes in men undergoing surgery for PCa via a large randomized controlled trial aimed at reducing the impact of urinary continence and erectile dysfunction. A second RCT utilizing therapeutic ultrasound to treat scar tissue in the 1 in 6 men who develop Peyronie’s disease following treatment for PCa was also completed.

Jo has presented her research findings at several international conferences including WCPT15, 17 & 19, APCC 2014-18, CSM 2020, and locally at Men’s Sheds, Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, and ANZUS Conferences 2011-2018. Recent publications include papers in the ANZ Continence Journal (2018, 2019) and BMC Urology (2019) with further papers in review, Jo provides workshops throughout Australia and internationally, lectures at Charles Sturt and Curtin University, and in 2012 established, ‘PROST! Exercise 4 Prostate Cancer Inc. a not-for profit organization, which provides an exercise and peer support program for ANY man diagnosed with PCa.

Jo’s passion is education and she will happily provide this in any forum- in person, online, via TeleHealth, or through the Men’s Health Physiotherapy Facebook group which Physiotherapists can access.

Dr. Rachel Fobert

Dr. Rachel Fobert is a registered Naturopathic Doctor who has treated residents all across Ontario. Rachel completed her Naturopathic medical degree from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in 2019. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in biopharmaceutical sciences, and has also completed additional training in functional medicine. She has over half a decade of clinical practice experience, and a passion for getting patients long lasting results. 

Prioritizing constipation care has allowed Dr. Fobert to treat hundreds of constipation cases and curate an integrative medicine roadmap that leaves patients feeling empty (in the good way!). She achieves this through a combination of patient education, recommending supplementation and addressing the biopsychosocial aspect of constipation. The gaps in constipation care can be closed — it starts with us.

Cara McDougall

Cara McDougall received her Master Degree in Physical Therapy in 2013 from the University of Saskatchewan, after completing an Honours Bachelor of Arts Psychology degree in 2007. After graduation, she practiced as a Registered Physical Therapist in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in a private orthopaedic clinic, before moving to Ontario to continue her career.

Cara has a particular interest in and passion for pelvic health physical therapy. She has engaged in extensive continuing education courses since graduating. Her training has included courses on pelvic pain, incontinence, prolapse, pre-/post-natal care, and fitting of pessaries, to name a few. Her current practice is devoted to the assessment and fitting of pessaries for women with stress urinary incontinence and/or pelvic organ prolapse. Additionally, Cara enjoys helping others learn about pelvic health physical therapy; in 2016, she began assisting at Pelvic Health Solutions’ continuing education courses as a lab assistant. Cara approaches health from a holistic perspective and is committed to providing individualized, empowering, compassionate care.

Jenny Telfer-Crum

Jenny Telfer-Crum (she/her) has been a Pelvic Health Physiotherapist since 2015 and has been fitting Pessaries since 2018. Clinically, Jenny works collaboratively with people who are experiencing pelvic concerns so that they can understand their bodies, stop worrying, and confidently progress towards their fitness and lifestyle goals. She strives to provide compassionate, inclusive and trauma-informed Physiotherapy care that revolves around her client’s needs and goals. Jenny works with people of any sex and gender throughout the lifespan, and has a special interest in working with clients who wish to return to moderate to high levels of fitness. She is currently working at All Things Pelvic Physiotherapy and Pessary Clinic in Kitchener, Ontario.

Jenny is the course co-creator and instructor for The Pessary Course and Clinical Update: SUI and POP Research Review and Management, as well as being a teaching assistant with Pelvic Health Solutions. Jenny has been a teaching assistant with Antony Lo on his Female Athlete courses since 2017, and also works with Athletic Therapist Ashley Burr on their External Approaches to Pelvic Health courses. Jenny is a life-long learner and enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for all things pelvic health, exercise and pessaries with her clients and colleagues.

Jill Heidi Osborne

Jill Heidi Osborne MA us the president and founder of the Interstitial Cystitis Network, a health education company dedicated to interstitial cystitis, bladder pain syndrome and other pelvic pain disorders. As the editor and lead author of the ICN and the IC Optimist magazine, Jill is proud of the academic recognition that her website has achieved. The University of London and Children’s Hospital Boston have rated the ICN as the top IC website for accuracy, credibility, readability and quality.  (Int Urogynecol J - April 2013). Jill currently sits on the AUA Guidelines Committee for Male Pelvic Pain, is a guest lecturer for the International Continence Society and has served on the CDMRP IC/BPS research committee (US Army).  Jill has conducted and/or collaborates on a variety of IC research studies and clinical trials, most notably demonstrating eye disease with pentosan polysulfate use, shining a light on issues that influence patient quality of life. An IC support group leader and national spokesperson for the past 30 years, she has represented the IC community on radio, TV shows, at medical conferences.  She has written several books, including IC101: It’s Not Just a Bladder Disease, the first patient book which reviews phenotyping, as well as the IC Chef Cookbook. Jill has a Bachelors in Pharmacology, a Masters in Psychology and was awarded Presidential Management Fellowship while in graduate school. (She was unable to earn her PhD due to the onset of her bladder and pelvic pain.) She spends the majority of her time providing educating patients and developing new, internet based educational and support tools for IC patients, including her new, free IC101 Master Class on YouTube, live streamed Support Group Meetings via Youtube & Facebook and the “Living with IC” video series. Jill was diagnosed with IC at the age of 32 but first showed symptoms at the age of 12. Her phenotype is pelvic floor driven and COPC’s. 

Linda McLean

Linda McLean is full professor and holds the Endowed Chair in Women’s Health Research at the University of Ottawa. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Physiotherapy from McGill University, followed by Master’s and PhD degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of New Brunswick. Her MFMLab at the University of Ottawa has developed state-of-the-art tools and innovative methods to study female pelvic floor disorders, including a custom automated intravaginal dynamometer, 2D, 3D and 4D ultrasound imaging, shear wave elastography, and custom intravaginal electrodes for pelvic floor electromyography. She holds over  $4Million in funding as principal investigator for studies related to female pelvic health, and has published over 150 articles in peer reviewed journals on this topic. She has a particular interest in pelvic floor disorders among female athletes. Over the past five years she has completed several studies on running-induced urinary incontinence from which she will draw on in her presentation today.

Amanda Homen

Amanda Homen graduated with a Doctor of Physical Therapy in 2016 and has worked in Pelvic Health since then. She is the chair of the Pelvic and Reproductive Health Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association. She has been an instructor with Pelvic Health Solutions since 2020. She is also the Owner and clinical director of Thrive Hive Physiotherapy. She is passionate about continuing education, enhanced communication between researchers and clinicians, and advocating for evidence-based care for the public and further opportunities for professionals.

Date: November 15, 2024

Registration Form

Symposium November 2024

Schedule

Date: November 15, 2024

Delivery Format

Live attendance is not mandatory for this online event. Enjoy a 2-week window to access and review the event recording, which is sent out on the next business day. We understand that life can be busy, which is why we offer you the freedom to access the recording during the time-limited viewing period.