The Pulmonary Function Testing Symposium 2016 Was Again Successfully This Year. It Was

The Pulmonary Function Testing Symposium 2016 was again successfully this year. It was held over 2 days (instead of only 1 day like last year) and focused on half day workshops. This event could not have been held without the support of Murray Beaton from Novus Medical Inc. He and his company are committed to helping the CACPT to provide an education forum for Pulmonary Function Testing. They were instrumental in recruiting speakers, advertising the event and handling the AV during the symposium. The CACPT thanks them for their support and are looking forward to continuing this collaborative effort in the years to come. A special thanks to Tony Kajnar for co-chairing this event with me. His contributions to the program has been invaluable.

The Pulmonary Function Testing Symposium is generating a lot of interest as there is no other such event in Canada. It is open to all Pulmonary Function Technologists (registered and nonregistered), RTs and any other allied profession. Delegates came from across the county (Halifax to Vancouver) and based on the evaluations no one was disappointed. The event began with Dr. Raymond Gottschalk (chair of the task force on Respiratory Disease, CPSO) providing an entertaining overview of PFTs. Dr. PJ Subbarao’s presentation on LCI provided some insight on research activities in the area of PFTs. We were provided with information that was “hot off the press” surrounding guidelines on Methacholine Challenge (Dr. Allan Coates), guidelines on DLco (Dr. Brian Graham) and how the GLI can streamline reference values (Dr. Sanja Stanojevic). Susan Blonshine from TechEd Consultants Inc. provided a presentation and workshop on issues surrounding Quality Assurance. Dr. Anna Chow during her presentation on Asthma and COPD Overlap Syndrome, drove home the need for more physicians to use spirometry in their offices. Last but certainly not least a very “animated” and unique presentation from Dr. Kieran Killian on exercising testing which left us literally afraid to ask questions. CACPT and Novus Medical would like to thank the presenters for volunteering their time to provide us with some insights into their area of expertise.

Another focus of the PFT Symposium was the workshops provided by technologists in the field: Laura Seed, Bernie Ho, Tony Kajnar and Susan Blonshine. With the use of MGC Diagnostics equipment provided by Novus Medical, the workshops provided hands on experience on performing Spirometry, Plethysmography and DLco as well as Quality Assurance practices such as calibration. These workshops gave everyone the opportunity to discuss and ask questions.

Most of the presentations are posted on this website. Due to fact that information from presentations given by Dr. Coates and Dr. Graham are not published we are not able to post them at this time.

Continuing to build on the successful turnouts for the PFT Symposium, the CACPT and Novus Medical will collaborate on the PFT Symposium 2017 to be held at the same time of year at the same venue in Toronto. Thank you to all who made some good suggestions on the evaluation forms for topics. All other suggestions are welcome. Please contact Laura Seed at

Please Note: If the Symposium is to be held in another city it would be helpful to have an individual volunteer from that city to collaborate with Laura Seed.

Thanks everyone,

Laura Seed, M.Sc., RCPT(p)