Allied Health Professionals Committee

The purpose of the Allied Health Professionals Committee is to represent the various members of the transplant multidisciplinary team that includes nurses, dieticians, psychologists, administrators, social workers, physical therapists, pharmacists, and many others, who have a specific interest in intestinal failure and transplantation. They contribute to the advancement of knowledge in these areas through clinical practice, educational endeavors and research.
Goals and Objectives
  1. Promote and advance the role of Allied Health Professionals in the treatment and management of intestinal failure and transplantation.
  2. Development of educational resources to improve the treatment of intestinal failure for multidisciplinary teams.
  3. Identify opportunities to improve Allied Health professional practice in the field of intestinal failure and transplantation.
Current Initiatives
  1. Development and launch of IIRTA/AHP Outstanding Achievement Award to be given during the biannual IIRTA Congress (CIIRTA)
  2. Targeted webinar series for Allied Health Professionals.
  3. Discussion forum for interesting cases and recent publications.
  4. Production of joint international resources and best practice guidelines.
Members
  • Christine Belza, Toronto, ON, Canada
    (Chair)
  • Beverly Kosmach-Park, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
    (Council Liaison)
  • Carly Bambridge, Birmingham, UK
  • Brooke Chapman, Melbourne, Australia
  • Lindsay Hogg, Birmingham, UK
  • Cate Fraser Irwin, Auckland , NZ
  • Jemma Mears, Birmingham, UK
  • Stephanie So, Toronto, Canada
If you are interested in joining the Allied Health Professionals Committee, please email sections@tts.org for more information.

IIRTA Allied Health Chat
  • Christina Belza
    Hospital for SickKids, Toronto, Canada

    Allied Health Professional Representative

The International Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplant Association Allied Health Group has received feedback from Allied health members regarding the value of connection and learning from each other. We all encounter challenging situations in our clinical practice everyday and have a wealth of knowledge in our colleagues that has not been utilized. Until now! We hope by setting up a network for allied health members to communicate we can learn from each other and “pick each other’s brains”.

What are the goals
  1. Create educational and learning opportunities among allied health members
  2. Increase knowledge and dissemination of education and practice challenges

What does this mean for you
  1. Opportunity to learn from colleagues
  2. Forum to reach out to other’s that may have clinical expertise and can provide academic evidence partnered with real world experience to create patient solutions

How to sign up
  • Please contact christina.belza@sickkids.ca to be added to the email list.  Please include the following:
    • Name
    • Preferred email
    • Current role (i.e. dietitian, occupational therapist)
    • Population of interest (i.e. Pediatric intestinal failure)
    • Affiliated intestinal failure/transplant center
    • Years of experience
  • You must be a member of IIRTA to participate (IIRTA Allied Health Membership is $50/year or $90 for 2 years and does not require TTS membership).
  • You may request removal from the listserv at any time.

How will it work
  • We recognize everyone is busy and the last thing you need is emails filling up your inbox.
  • Q&A: Anyone with a question will email christina.belza@sickkids.ca directly. Once weekly on a Monday an email will be sent out with questions that have been submitted with the heading IIRTA Allied Health ListServ Question. Responses can then be submitted using the “Reply All” Email setting so that everyone can benefit from learning. If there have been no questions submitted you will not receive an email.
  • Events: Maximum of 1 email per month will be sent to highlight upcoming IIRTA educational programming.

IIRTA AHP Chat Guidelines and expectations
  • Ensure all email responses and interactions are professional and respectful
  • Intestinal failure/transplantation is a rare disease that results in wide variation of practices across programs. Given the literature available many practices are customized based on center experience and may or may not be generalizable to other centers/programs.
  • Before posting a question, review previous submissions to limit duplication.
  • Include provided subject line to ensure the ability to search previous submissions. Please use “IIRTA Allied Health ListServ Question – YOUR TOPIC” (i.e. IIRTA Allied Health ListServ Question – USE OF LOPERAMIDE LIQUID”
  • Keep emails succinct and address the question directly
  • Do not send meaningless responses that do not contribute to the conversation (i.e. “me too”).
  • Do not send copyrighted material (send direct link/URL to relevant literature/information)
  • Do not send another individuals private email without obtaining permission
  • Do not send chain mail, job listing, advertising or promotional materials without previous approval from IIRTA AH committee
  • Do not be critical of other individuals questions or discussion responses
  • Avoid sarcasm or humour as these are often misunderstood in the context of email communication
  • Most importantly – Be kind


Social

Contact

Staff Directory
+1-514-874-1717 x216
sections@tts.org

Address

International Intestinal Rehabilitation & Transplant Association
c/o The Transplantation Society
740 Notre-Dame Ouest
Suite 1245
Montréal, QC, H3C 3X6
Canada