U of T medical students made their way to Montreal, Quebec to participate in the Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME), which took place from April 16-19.  The enthusiasm and commitment of our students was evident by the vast number of students who presented posters and oral presentations and attended to enrich their learning. 

A few of our students who participated shared their experiences:

Justin Lam attended CCME to benefit from the ideas and discourse at the diverse plenary sessions, poster and oral presentations and workshops at the conference. He also presented his research on the experiences of medical students from social sciences and humanities backgrounds and helped run a workshop on admissions and the hidden curriculum for medical students from social sciences and humanities backgrounds.

CCME is always a conference with so many interesting things going on, and as someone who is passionate about medical education, it’s a really fantastic space to hear about what other people across the country are working on and to connect and exchange ideas with other individuals who are also passionate about medical education. I really enjoyed the thought-provoking talks and discussions that I had with my peers, colleagues and other people in the field, as well as learning about what medical educators all over Canada are thinking about and working on. I also took advantage of the opportunity to get invaluable feedback on the work that I’m doing.  The sessions at CCME are a constant source of inspiration that motivates my own research back at the University of Toronto with my supervisor, Tina Martimianakis. - Justin Lam 1T7 student.

Read the abstract: The Missing Patient in the Hidden Curriculum as Discourse: A Preliminary Analysis

Safoora Fatima gave an oral presentation about the evaluation of U of T’s Teaching, Research and Innovation in Medical Education (TRI-ME) program, which aims to educate future physicians about medical education. With an interest in incorporating medical education in her future career, Fatima chose to attend the conference to share information about the work she’s been doing and also learn about work that is being done across the country.

Learning about interesting projects and their findings, along with meeting several passionate individuals in the field were some of my highlights from the conference. Some of the findings in various research studies were applicable to my current and future learning in medicine and I started thinking about how I can incorporate them into my educational experience. Learning about several interesting initiatives at other schools prompted me to think about how I can engage and benefit students through similar initiatives at my school. - Safoora Fatima, 1T8 student.

Read the abstract:  Development and Assessment of the Teaching, Research and Innovation in Medical Education (TRI-ME) Series in Undergraduate Medical Education.

Sarah Silverberg attended the conference to present a poster on antimicrobial stewardship teaching in medical education. Together with a colleague, she sought to generate interest, gain perspectives from other medical educators and raise awareness on the topic.

I wanted to attend CCME to learn more about current perspectives on medical education and understand how the work that I've been doing, both on advocacy curricula and on antimicrobial stewardship, fits in to the current dialogue. Through the conference, I had the opportunity to network with other students from different universities who were also involved in education and interested in working on collaborative projects. I also received valuable feedback on my projects and ideas on how to move them forward.  I even learned of a creator of a new app from Alberta who is also working on antimicrobial stewardship!
 - Sarah Silverberg, 1T8 student (pictured right).

Siqi Xue attended CCME to present findings from a Community Population and Public Health 2 course project that explores the minority medical students’ perceptions of the Faculty of Medicine’s online environment, and based on their concerns and recommendations, validates a website equity and diversity audit tool for medical education institutions along with supervisor Dr. Joyce Nyhof-Young.  

I felt that it would be a privilege to present our findings at the CCME, obtain feedback from a broad audience and capture interest of moving the project forward on the national level. It was great having the opportunity to present orally and exchanging ideas with an incredibly engaged and knowledgeable network, and at the same time, learn about the most innovative practices in the fields of medical humanities, health and wellbeing, teaching technologies and many more. It was an eye-opening experience that definitely strengthened my interest in becoming more involved with medical education. - Siqi Xue, 1T7 student.  

Our faculty also participated in various presentations on a wide variety of topics.  A few moments were captured on camera.

Dr. Clare Hutchinson presents with Drs. Raed Hawa, Stacey Bernstein, Mahan Kulasegaram, Mark Hanson on Think, Act, and Feel: Why Students Apply to a New Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship.

Faculty members Karen Weyman (pictured left), James Owen, Sharonie Valin, Phillip Berger and Stacey Bernstein present a poster on Key Learning from an Advocacy Project within the U of T Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LInC).

SECOND-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT LAURA BURGESS. PHOTO BY CAROLYN MORRIS.

With advanced medical treatments available, many children struggling with cancer are able to survive their disease. But prolonged medical care often means they miss out on much of the social side of being a kid — like going to school and playing with friends. This is when community initiatives like Camp Oochigeas — an organization providing summer camp experiences and recreational programming for kids with cancer, even during chemotherapy treatment — step in.

“Programs like this are integral to help support people,” says Laura Burgess, a second-year medical student who has spent the past year collaborating with Camp Oochigeas staff members to collect and summarize the various research studies done on the camp’s impact. The document is intended as a resource for outreach and a foundation for future research. “Physicians are focused on medical treatment, but there’s so much more this population needs.”

Burgess spoke about the camp and her experience to medical school colleagues, as well as various community partners at a community forum held at U of T this week. As part of a new medical course called Community, Population and Public Health (CPPH), first and second-year medical students are partnered with community organizations around the city that support health in a variety of ways. They spend time learning and contributing in ways informed by the community partners — exploring the social determinants of health though a service-learning experience.

This community engagement is an important facet of the new Foundations Curriculum, which encourages an integrated approach to medical education. At this week’s event, the second years shared their experience, and reflected on how it might make them better physicians in the future.

“SOMETIMES IT’S NOT THE MEDICINE THAT HELPS AS MUCH AS THE ABILITY TO CONTEXTUALIZE WHERE IT FITS WITHIN THE BROADER COMMUNITY SUPPORT SYSTEM,” SAYS DR. CHASE MCMURREN, COURSE TUTOR AND UHN STAFF PHYSICIAN, PICTURED WITH STUDENT. PHOTO BY CAROLYN MORRIS

One student helped develop health and wellness seminars for seniors at the Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf; another pair of students worked with Children’s Aid Society of Toronto front-line workers to create a resource listing a variety of income supports their clients may qualify for. Others worked with groups involved in housing support for the homeless, childhood development, nutrition, diabetes education, rehabilitation and more.

“The community forum gives students the opportunity to share their experiences with their colleagues, faculty and community partners and highlights the role of partners and resources in the community,” says course director Dr. Allison Chris, a family physician and public health and preventive medicine specialist. “Students and community partners have the opportunity to reflect on the experience together.”

For Roxanne Wright, the course’s community health placement officer, it’s important for the students to get out of regular healthcare settings and into the community. “When you get into other contexts, you realize how you can really listen to people and lend your voice in a way that makes sense to them,” she says.

As for Burgess, she’s not sure how much of an impact her work with Camp Oochigeas will have. “In the grand scheme of things, they do so much for the patients, families and communities they work with,” she says. Ultimately she hopes she and her colleagues will be tuned into the many community resources available — and be able to connect their future patients to supportive networks.

For the first time ever, the MD Program is embarking on an Interim Accreditation Process. The Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS) recently introduced this interim process to ensure that Canadian medical schools continuously drive quality improvement.

“When you hear the words continuous quality improvement, you might think of some of the recent research on improving patient outcomes, or the development of interventions aimed at mitigating issues of patient safety within health care institutions,” says Dr. Martin Schreiber, Director of UME Curriculum, and the Senior Academic Coordinator of the 2012 self-study. “But continuous quality improvement is also an integral part of what we do in Undergraduate Medical Education and the essence of our accreditation process.”

Canadian medical schools must undergo a full accreditation review every eight years. Our last review took place in May 2012, and in November 2015, we received notification that we are in full compliance with all of the CACMS standards, following several updates. 

“The quality improvement journey is a process that involves each individual in the MD Program,” says Schreiber. “We should all be tremendously proud of our accreditation results.  At the same time, we need to look forward towards our next accreditation visit in spring 2020.  The interim accreditation review is a key part of that process.”

Accreditation standards have been significantly revised since our last review in 2012.  The 128 standards have been reorganized into 12 standards each of which has several elements – 95 in total.

“Over the next several months, we will conduct a detailed self-study, which will provide us with an opportunity to explore our level of adherence to the new standards and to identify areas where we may need to make adjustments to ensure continued compliance,” says Dr. Schreiber, who will be overseeing the self-study with administrative support from Christopher Jones, Accreditation Project Manager.   

The self-study committee will consist of a broad spectrum of education leaders, students, administrative staff and teachers, including several who are at arm’s length from the program. Student representatives will be selected by their peers to participate in the working group, and UME staff will be consulted throughout the process. Faculty members interested in participating in this work, please contact us. 

Following the self-study, an external site visit will take place in March 2017 by Dr. Rob Whyte, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education at McMaster University’s De Groote School of Medicine. 

In contrast to the full accreditation process, the information and recommendations gathered through the interim accreditation review are not shared with the accrediting bodies. They are used internally to make data-driven improvements to the program.

Read more about the IAR process on the CACMS web page.  Periodic updates on the progress of the review will be made available on the Accreditation web page.