S2 Ep7: Virtual follow-up for emergency room visits and how to publish your quality improvement work - featuring Dr. Diala El-Zammar and Dr. Raj Johal

In this episode, Qualitycast North is leaving the snowy North (yes we still have snow in March) and heading South to showcase some of the excellent Quality Improvement work being done by  2 physicians in the Fraser Valley area; Dr. Diala El-Zammar and Dr. Raj Johal.  Dr. El-Zammar and her family came to Surrey, BC, Canada from Lebanon when she was 9. A self-described ‘nerd’, her love of sciences led her to medicine, and she now practices in the Emergency Department at Chilliwack General Hospital. Dr. Johal also grew up in Surrey and was influenced to pursue medicine by his parents who worked in healthcare and the sciences. He is currently a family physician in his hometown of Surrey and is the provincial PQI champion for publishing.Dr. El-Zammar shares her very successful  and innovative quality improvement work in implementing a virtual follow up process for emergency department patients. Integral to quality improvement is sharing the work and results through a variety of media including publishing.  Also in today’s episode, Dr. Johal discussing the topic of QI publishing, including the why and how of publishing QI work, and what supports are available to PQI teams, and we’ll hear about Dr. El-Zammar’s experience publishing her QI work in the ‘BMJ Open Quality’ journal. They also share what they enjoy most about living and working in BC.You can read Dr. El-Zammar and Dr. Johal published article here:El-Zammar D, Johal R, Eng J, Schultz, T. Implementation of an emergency department virtual follow-up care process in a community-based hospital: a quality improvement initiative. BMJ Open Quality 2022;11:e001782. doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001782