Highlights from the CSACI Conference in Ottawa

In October 2023, I visited Ottawa for the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (CSACI) conference 🦠🧬😷. Our McGill group was a mix of adult and pediatric Fellows in Training (FITs) from Canada🇨🇦 , Saudi Arabia🇸🇦, and the UAE🇦🇪. For some, it was a treat as it was their first time visiting Canada’s capital✌🏼

Touring and eating in Ottawa 👣🍅 🥕,

Seeing the autumn leaves against the Rideau Canal was especially beautiful. 🍁🍂 We did all the usual touristy things, like visiting the Parliament buildings and checking out the bustling ByWard Market. Our culinary stops included the vegan St Elsewhere, a healthy lunch at Mad Radish, and a comforting bowl of ramen🍜 at Jinsei after a cold and rainy day.

The next generation🥼

The NREP (National Residents Educational Program) aims to introduce residents to our field and allows them to rub shoulders with other interested peers in allergy.

I caught up with Dr. Clara Long and Dr. Adhora Mir, who are both amazing internal medicine residents who rotated with us and are hopefully going to become allergists soon!

Meeting Danielle Ben-Shoshan was also very inspiring. She is passionate about helping marginalized populations in Canada through health equity, and recently received her Master’s of Public Health at Brock University.

CAAIF gala💃🏻

One of the fun evening events was the annual Canadian Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Foundation (CAAIF) gala. This year, it was hosted at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum, where we enjoyed dinner amidst the backdrop of vintage airplane models ✈️. Founded in 1995, the Canadian Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Foundation (CAAIF) is a non-profit organization which aims to improve the quality of life of Canadians who suffer from such conditions.

Each year at the gala, CAAIF awards grants and fellowships to Canadian researchers delving into the intricacies of asthma, food allergies, and other immune-related conditions. The biggest accidental highlight of the night was the CSACI president leading us in singing the wrong national anthem! 🇺🇸

FIT bowl💪🏼

Another highlight was the FIT (Fellows in Training) Bowl, a tradition carried over from the AAAAI conference. FITs from various universities competed in an allergy trivia showdown, which got quite intense. In the end, we made it into the finals and won second place🥈

Posters and presentations💬

At the conference, five of us presented our research at the oral presentations and the poster abstracts. Two of us even won awards for best poster and best abstract 🏆

My poster was about my experiences in Rwanda🇷🇼. Back in February/March 2023, I did a three-week rotation with the country’s first allergist and piloted a mobile allergy unit at the University of Rwanda with Dr Isabwe. I’ll share about that in a later post 😎

That’s it for now! I’m off to another adventure for which I will post soon 🙃