"Teddy Bear Hospital Project" school visits improve pre-clerkship students' comfort explaining medical concepts to children.

The "Teddy Bear Hospital Project" (TBHP) is a low cost, international initiative aimed at reducing children's fears associated with healthcare visits by modelling these interactions using teddy bears. The University of Ottawa program had the additional objective of assessing whether TBHP increased pre-clerkship medical students' comfort communicating medical concepts to children. Our student volunteers reported a statistically significant increase in their comfort communicating medical topics to young children and all volunteers would recommend TBHP to a colleague interested in pursuing family medicine or pediatrics.

Impacting child health outcomes in congenital heart disease: Cluster randomized controlled trial protocol of in-clinic physical activity counselling.

Background: Most (>90%) children with congenital health defects are not active enough for optimal health. Proactively promoting physical activity during every clinic visit is recommended, but rarely implemented due to a lack of appropriate resources.

Methods: This cluster randomized controlled trial will implement an evidence-based, multi-faceted physical activity intervention.