The Post MD Annual Report uses Javascript for enhanced features such as animation and floating navigation. Without Javascript enabled you may not have an optimal viewing expierence.

PostMD Annual Report 2017-2018 Competencies Developments and changes across Post MD Education

Welcome to the 2017-18 Annual Report for Post MD Education, outlining some of the achievements and progress in the goal of Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to provide excellent programs and support to our learners, faculty, administrators, practicing physicians, and hospital partners.

With the focus of this past year on Competency Based Medical Education (CBME), it is no surprise that the theme of this year’s report is “Competencies”.

For postgraduate medical education, CBME is an opportunity for enhanced tracking of resident progress and a positive change in the feedback process. You will read about the experience of Anesthesia and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery — the first programs to undertake this cultural shift in assessment of medical education. With appropriate faculty/resident development and program evaluation, future cohorts transitioning into this new model will benefit from these early adopters.

The competency based rubric has also changed program offerings and curriculum in CPD. The “Leading and Influencing Change in CPD” program restructured under Associate Dean Suzan Schneeweiss now offers more learner-centred instruction and coaching to assist in participant development.

CPD underwent a very successful external accreditation review in March 2018. The review noted strong decanal support, a creative mix of programs, research, and professional services model. In preparation for PGME’s formal accreditation survey in Fall 2020, our residency programs are engaged in a self-study process to prepare for assessment according to new RCPSC accreditation standards, and a mock review of the PGME office is scheduled for November 2018.

Vice Dean Salvatore Spadafora and Associate Deans Glen Bandiera and Suzan Schneeweiss

In the Research and Awards section, the report places a well-deserved spotlight on the retiring Dr. Ivan Silver who has served the Faculty of Medicine in a variety of roles during his tenure, an innovative proponent of scholarship, continuing education, inter-professional development and collaboration. Also highlighted is a program which received the Royal College CPD Providers Innovation Award, the Certificate Program in Foundations of CPD, which provides training in the development of effective CPD activities.

Our efforts to create a sustainable culture of wellness continued this year with CPD’s workshop on Wellness for Healthcare Professionals, offered as part of the U of T Alumni activities. The increased use of the Office of Resident Wellness is reflective of this ongoing challenge, and the Office has organized sessions at learner academic half-days to discuss the impact of clinical work on mental and physical health.

Along with changes in modes of program delivery, CPD implemented a more stream-lined system for faculty applying for accreditation of their workshops/conferences. PGME system development is highlighted under Elentra, an assessment platform enabling workplace assessment for residents in a clinical setting. The platform was successfully piloted in 2017-18 in collaboration with Discovery Commons using real-time, point of care assessment tools. Further developments will be made in conjunction with CBME programming.

The report also features a number of innovations at Post MD Education this year such as the simulation symposium held in January 2018 at Hart House, where innovators in the U of T community presented on their cutting-edge technology within the simulation sphere. In addition, PGME expanded its leadership program from the single annual workshop in August for chief residents to a series of reception-style networking events with keynote speakers.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the ongoing commitment and dedication of Associate Deans Dr. Suzan Schneeweiss and Dr. Glen Bandiera and the extraordinary efforts of staff and faculty in our community. I am proud of all we have been able to accomplish together.

Salvatore M. Spadafora MD FRCPC MHPE
Vice Dean, Post MD Education

The Impact of Competency based Medical Education

Over the past year, several programs at the University of Toronto have implemented the Royal College’s Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) model, Competence By Design (CBD), into their curriculums as part of a cultural shift to this style of evaluation. Programs implemented either a full launch for their incoming PGY1s (e.g. Anesthesia and Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS)) or a partial launch were components of CBD were implemented to test out what works and to determine where improvement can be made. Drs. Lisa Bahrey (Program Director, Anesthesia) and Paolo Campisi (Program Director, OHNS) reflected on the impact that the full launch of CBD has had on their programs.

Drs. Lisa Bahrey and Paolo Campisi

Dr. Bahrey noted that it has “…been a busy but exciting time for education reform and innovation. As one of the first programs to fully implement, there have been predictable challenges with change management and Faculty development. Communication through frequent departmental newsletters, grand rounds and training sessions was key in helping Faculty and residents understand the educational and assessment strategies. One clear positive of this has been the Competence Committee, which allows us to better understand and support each trainee’s progress.”

For Dr. Campisi, the change has focused training on the skills and professional activities of Otolaryngologists. “The Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) assessment has become the ‘new’ primer for a conversation between Faculty and learner to review performance in a constructive, formative and ‘low-stakes’ manner. This shift in assessment philosophy has required an ongoing process of Faculty and learner development, support and validation from the education leaders and resident champions. The early successes include learners more engaged in their education and a Competence Committee that is attuned to the performance and needs of learners.”

Locally, CBD has provided an opportunity for enhanced tracking of resident progress and a positive change in feedback culture. With ongoing support, faculty and resident development, and program evaluation to determine what does and does not work, it is anticipated that CBD will provide these benefits for future cohorts transitioning into this new model.

The following programs implemented CBME in 2017-18 either in part or full:

  • Anesthesia (full launch for incoming PGY1s)
  • Internal Medicine–Core (partial launch)
  • Medical Oncology (partial launch)
  • Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery (full launch for incoming PGY1s)
  • Pediatrics–Core (partial launch)
  • Surgical Foundations (partial launch), which includes the following 10 Surgical specialties:
    • Cardiac Surgery
    • General Surgery
    • Neurosurgery
    • Obstetrics & Gynecology
    • Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery
    • Orthopaedic Surgery
    • Plastic Surgery
    • Urology
    • Vascular Surgery
    • Urology (partial launch)

Additional Residency Training Opportunities for Unmatched Medical Students

The Ontario government is helping to meet the demand for physicians in communities across the province by funding more residency positions for medical school graduates who have completed their undergraduate training at an Ontario medical school. Although the vast majority of Canadian MD grads match to residency positions in Canada’s 17 medical schools, there weren’t enough spots for everyone in 2018 due to cutbacks in residency funding and an ongoing backlog of unmatched students.

As noted in its April 2018 announcement, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care provided additional funding to support 53 supernumerary residency positions at the six Ontario Faculties of Medicine in Family Medicine and high need specialties of Psychiatry, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine.  These positions were available to Ontario unmatched medical graduates and include a two-year return-of-service commitment in an area of need in Ontario. In the end, 33 Ontario medical graduates accepted one of the new spots, while the rest elected to pursue other opportunities, according to the Council of Ontario Universities.


Thanks to this one-time initiative of the provincial government, all students in our Faculty of Medicine’s 2018 MD graduating class now have found their next step: 16 accepted postgraduate residency positions at U of T in Family Medicine, Psychiatry and Internal Medicine, with the remainder of the unmatched cohort choosing to pursue further education and research.

“I’m grateful that the Ministry heard our voices and moved quickly to offer a residency spot to each of our deserving and highly qualified students,” says Professor Patricia Houston, Vice Dean of the MD Program. “Now we need to come together with the same level of urgency to create an enduring solution to the mismatch in residency positions to Canadian medical school graduates cross Canada.

In its January 2018 report, Reducing the Number of Unmatched Canadian Medical Graduates: A Way Forward, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada made several recommendations to respond to the unmatched student challenge.  These included Faculties of Medicine structures and programs to support unmatched students and a call to provincial funders to increase the number of residency positions for CMGs, aligned with population health needs.

Accreditation Reviews in 2018

Throughout 2018, Post MD has been preparing for accreditation reviews for its Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) offices.  CPD recently underwent its quinquennial review and the PGME review process will be held in November 2020.

Accreditation

For CPD offices across Canada, mandatory reviews are overseen by the Committee on the Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education (CACME), comprised of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, the Canadian Medical Association, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. As part of its recent review, U of T CPD was evaluated in four areas including: 1) Responsiveness to Societal Needs, 2) Scope of Activities, 3) Planning and Implementation, and 4) Administration and Organization.

Preparation for the review included the formation of a CACME Accreditation working group that met regularly to discuss the standards, and draft the report. Dr. Jocelyn Lockyer, Professor of Community Health Sciences at Cumming School of Medicine, facilitated a mock accreditation review, which also helped the CPD team shape the final version of the 40,000-word self-study report.  The official site visit in March 2018 involved a full schedule of interviews with CPD leaders, program directors, faculty leaders and external partners.

The external review highlighted the clear support of the Dean and Vice Deans within the Faculty as well as the effectiveness of the new decanal structure and synergies in the Post MD Portfolio. The large creative mix of programs, reinvestment in research, and new professional services model also received strong praise and the office was once again accredited based on its strong performance.

Although the next CACME accreditation visit is not until 2025-26, preparations are already underway. In line with feedback received, the office is reconstructing/streamlining the entire accreditation application process as it transitions to CadmiumCD, a new online system.

The accreditation review for (PGME) will be conducted in November 2020.  As part of this process, external accreditors have been invited to meet with several groups and committees to evaluate strengths and weaknesses as they relate to accreditation requirements.   Since the last review, new accreditation standards for programs General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs and for PGME institutions General Standards of Accreditation for Institutions with Residency Programs have been developed. The new standards provide a new evaluation framework with an emphasis on continuous improvement, high-yield markers and outcomes.

Programs will need to conduct an informal ‘self-study’ to estimate how well they currently meet the new standards.  The results of the ‘self-study’ and of the recent internal review process will be analyzed to determine areas for development and improvement in each program. Once these areas are identified, PGME will be able to prepare resources, templates and workshops to help address gaps in preparation for the next on-site accreditation visit in 2020.

Scholarship and Research across Post MD

Dr. Ivan Silver is a nationally and internationally respected scholar. As the inaugural Director of the Centre for Faculty Development (2002-09), Vice Dean of Continuing Education and Professional Development (2005-11), and inaugural Vice President, Education at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (2011 – present) he was a visionary in promoting a broad definition of continuing education and professional development that included quality improvement, interprofessional development and collaboration, and health care team behaviour.

At the Faculty of Medicine’s 16th Annual Education Achievement Celebration on May 9, 2018, Dr. Silver gave the keynote address entitled “Reflections on teaching, creativity, play, and living” in which he encouraged faculty members to support an interprofessional culture of learning and teaching in health care. He described teaching as a continuous and collaborative dialogue among teachers, learners, and patients and urged the audience to celebrate our successes in this dialogue.

In addition to education achievements, Post MD Education had much to celebrate in research, scholarship, teaching, and innovation. Over the past year, CPD scholarship and research included 75 papers, 29 presentations and 6 grants. Scholarship and research for PGME included 7 papers, 11 workshops/presentations, 12 posters, and 4 publications.

In addition to this, 5 PGME projects were awarded a  new grant funded by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada for Innovations in Competency Based Medical Education. The winning projects are noted below:

Radiation Oncology – Development and Implementation of a digital toolkit to teach and reinforce best practices in feedback and action plan coaching to support competence – Project Leads: Meredith Giuliani, Jenna Adleman, Gordon Locke

Diagnostic Imaging – Preparing medical imaging residents for independent after-hours duties: A comprehensive case-based small group curriculum evaluated through simulation-based testing – Project Lead: Rajesh Bhayana

Obstetrics & Gynaecology – Surgical Coaching in Obstetrics and Gynecology – Project Leads: Rebecca Cherniak & Siddhi Mathur

Geriatric Medicine – Structured Educational Goal Setting and Feedback on an In-Patient Geriatric Medicine Consult Service – Project Lead: Jillian Alston

Palliative Care – Competence as Palliative Medicine Teachers in Competency-Based Medical Education Project Leads: Sarah Kawaguchi & Giovanna Sirianni

Lastly, there were also several awards presented to faculty and learners in PGME and CPD in recognition of excellence in teaching and mentorship, leadership, and innovation.

Focus on Wellness

Members of the U of T medical community were recently invited to participate in the CPD accredited workshop, Wellness for Healthcare Professionals, held on June 2, 2018 as part of U of T Alumni activities.

Dean Trevor Young: "I cannot overstate how important the issue of wellness is across the Faculty of Medicine"
Dean Trevor Young gives opening address at alumni session

In the opening keynote, Dr. Carol-anne Moulton spoke candidly about the complexity of surgical judgement. Moulton’s research revealed how surgeons appear to carry the burden of error to the detriment of their own health. By identifying factors found to influence surgeon’s intraoperative decision-making, Moulton advocated for a new culture of critical self-reflection and transparency when discussing errors, which could lead to improved surgeon well-being.

A panel that followed conveyed that wellness is a challenge for all physicians. “We are all a mess,” Dr. Shelly Dev, declared as she pushed for greater transparency of the struggle. Dr. Giovanna Sirianni encouraged those battling wellness to act sooner than later to seek help, and shared methods that improved her own wellness. Dr. Michelle Marlborough confronted the stigma of sharing personal experiences with wellness in the hope that her story would encourage transparency and further dissolve barriers in the current healthcare system.

The Office of Resident Wellness is attempting to address this need for residents at PGME through providing additional services. “The office has seen incredible growth,” says Dr. Julie Maggi, the new Director of Resident Wellness. “Visits are up and we’ve seen an increase in workshops and sessions on wellness led by our team. We now need to extend our reach, which means providing the programs with tools to build internal capacity.”

The office began that work this year in Adolescent Medicine with Balint groups — small, safe gatherings in which participants discuss the impact of their work on their health — during academic half days. Next year, a representative from SickKids will co-lead the groups with ORW staff, to learn how to provide the sessions moving forward. In addition to this, the available hours for counselling trainees and wellness workshops have been increased.

CanMEDs in a CBE world

CanMEDS is itself a competence framework that outlines the expected competencies of physicians in Canada. CanMEDS has 27 key performance objectives organized around 7 roles (Medical Expert, Communicator, Collaborator, Leader, Scholar, Health Advocate and Professional). The 2015 update of the framework had some modest refinements. Among them, the Leader role was introduced, managing and leading objectives were added, and more explicit expectations in quality improvement, stewardship and leadership were included.

The CanMEDs Medical Expert Diagram

Dr. Michele Farrugia, the residency program director for Obstetrics and Gynaecology, notes “By enhancing our residents teaching and experience in health systems quality improvement, our residents are more confident to identify systems issues that need improvement. In their projects, residents have worked improving post-cesarean section care and the management of ectopic pregnancies  and had a positive impact both learning these skills and enhancing health care for their patients.”

Since 2017, Royal College residency programs are implementing Competence by Design (CBD) in national specialty cohorts over a 10-year period. As CBD is implemented, the CanMEDS objectives are refined by the specialty as the Competency Training Requirement to complement the Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs).


The Surgical Foundations residency program is a concurrent program completed by over 60 surgical residents in 7 surgical specialties. Surgical Foundations implemented their CBD curriculum in July 2018 starting with an intensive Preparatory Camp for basic surgical skills. One of the EPAs the residents worked on in addition to their surgical skills was ‘Supervising junior learners in the clinical setting’. This EPA is closely linked to the Scholar objective focused on teaching skills. Dr. Mark Wheatcroft, the Surgical Foundations program director says, “It is important for our trainees to have an opportunity to develop skills in feedback and coaching early in residency as they work alongside medical and other health professional students”.

As Dr. Glen Bandiera, the associate dean for PGME notes, “CanMEDs is a helpful broad framework that reminds us that effective physicians need a broad humanistic approach to our specialty work”.

Learner Statistics

CPD Programs & Conferences

Visiting Electives at U of T, 2016 to 2018

PGME Trainees Overview

PGME CaRMS Match Results

CaRMS 2018 results – IMGs by Year of Graduation

PGME Canadian International Matching

Post MD
Leadership

Engaged learners in classroom

Building capacity for competency based education at CPD

Competency based education continues to change program offerings and curriculum in medical education and CPD is no exception. In order to help in developing competencies in CPD, the Continuing Education Leadership Program (CELP) has been reinstated. Renamed “Leading and Influencing Change in CPD”, this program recommenced in 2018 under the direction of Associate Dean Suzan Schneeweiss and Education Consultant Jane Tipping. The 2018 program consisted of two on-site instructional weeks and self-directed projects where learners were matched with a coach to assist in their development. In the most recent cohort, 13 learners from across Canada, the US, and Europe represented a broad range of perspectives.

Key topics explored in the program included: Competency based CPD, Integration of Quality Improvement and CPD, Best Practices in CPD, the Future of CPD, Interprofessional and Team-Based Learning, Design Thinking and the Patient Voice. After completing Week 1 of the onsite course, A learner commented “(This program is) an exciting wonderful journey that completely exceeded my expectations. I am so happy I came.”


CPD also delivered the Certificate Program in Foundations of CPD for the third consecutive year.  This novel, webinar-based longitudinal program provides fundamental theory and skill training needed to ensure development of effective CPD activities. Its focus is on practical issues commonly experienced in the design, development, and implementation of CPD activities.  This year, the program was honoured with the Royal College CPD Providers Innovation Award.  Over the past three years, 75 participants from across Canada, United States, Europe and the Middle East have taken this program. By focusing on competencies in CPD, the aim is to deliver high quality CPD programs across a broad range of environments that will lead to improved practice and ultimately patient care.

Resident Leadership Forum Panel

Resident Leadership Forum

Postgraduate medical education (PGME) has been offering the Chief Resident Leadership Workshop (CRLW) for over 15 years.  Usually held in August, the one-day workshop offers senior residents sessions on communication, conflict resolution, contract issues, wellness, and leadership.

Through surveys and general feedback, PGME learned that medical residents wanted more. They wanted to network with their peers, and to have an opportunity to meet with academic medicine leaders in the Faculty in an interactive forum.

PGME responded by organizing a series of more intimate events, and by extending invitations to all PGY3-PGY7 residents, not just those in Chief and Senior Resident positions.  Instead of the typical classroom setting, venues were selected to create reception-style networking events, centered on a keynote speaker/panel discussion.

Three targeted events were created:

Dec 6, 2017 -  A Conversation with PARO – presented by the PARO President Toronto council members.

May 22, 2018 – Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Leading while being Caught in the Middle with Keynote Speaker Dr. Gillian Hawker.

June 26, 2018 – Power Players in Medicine: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.   Panel with Drs. Jacqueline James, Salvatore Spadafora and Trevor Young, moderated by Dr. Glen Bandiera

The changes made by PGME proved to be quite successful and the attendance for the

events increased by 400% - with over 80 residents registering for the most recent

panel on leadership in medicine.  Residents stated they preferred the "non-intimidating environment", and appreciated the ability to "…discuss pertinent topics not openly discussed in the day to day work day". Many also commented on the interactivity of the new format and insight provided by very successful people.

Post MD
Community

Improving Performance and Practice Through CPD

CPD activities and programs have the ability to enhance performance of health practitioners and improve health care outcomes. However, no single approach works in all circumstances, hence a variety of learning strategies are needed to meet the needs of individual healthcare practitioners.  As we move towards a competency-based framework for CPD, increasingly programs are being developed using a variety of assessment and feedback strategies.

Over the past year there were 27 simulation-based programs and 6 assessment based-programming accredited through CPD. These included virtual simulation-based programs such as ImageSim and the Advanced Imaging and Education Centre (AIEC) programs which help healthcare practitioners improve their diagnostic knowledge and skill for the interpretation of medical images. Live simulation-based programs such as the Mount Sinai Adult Procedural Sedation Course and the Advanced Paediatric Life Support Course both utilizing high-fidelity simulators and task trainers to enable learners to recognize and manage critical incidences, practice procedural skills and build team-based competencies. 

CPD also offers blended learning programs such as the Safer Opioid Prescribing Program (consisting of a series of interactive webinars and a live problem-based workshop with peer-to-peer feedback. This program, led by Dr. Abhimanyu Sud, was awarded the University of Toronto Fred Fallis award for distance learning for 2017-18.

Test-enhanced learning strategies with pre-and post multiple choice questions are increasingly being offered with live conferences such as the Annual Paediatric Update Conference.  This program, led by Dr. Mark Feldman, was awarded the Royal College Accredited CPD Provider Innovation Award in 2017 for the innovative and scholarly approach to this assessment modality.  Finally, there are a variety of hands-on surgical skills workshops such as those offered with the Update in General Surgery Conference including the oncoplastic partnership and the laparoscopic colectomy workshops aiming to increase accessibility of these innovative procedures to surgeons across Canada.

It is clear that contemporary learners are demanding more innovative approaches to their continuing professional development. Designing effective programs with impact on performance and practice is vitally important to improving quality of patient care. CPD remains committed to working with our faculty and CPD community partners to develop programs with impact.

The Launch of Elentra for CBME

The implementation of Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) for residency education at the University of Toronto (U of T) is heavily reliant on a user-friendly web-based teaching and learning information technology platform. In 2016, the Faculty of Medicine joined the Elentra (formerly Entrada) Consortium with a view to building on its success in North American medical schools such as Queen’s, Calgary, Ottawa, Rush and UCLA. Today the Elentra Consortium is comprised of 18 medical schools, including U of T, with many sharing ideas and features for supporting CBME.

Elentra Version 1.8 for CBME was first piloted in 2017-18 with the Orthopaedic Surgery residency program, a program with significant experience in implementing a CBME curriculum. In preparing the platform for U of T, staff from PGME worked closely with Discovery Commons, to tailor the software for our use and to ensure it was mobile friendly to support workplace based assessments in a clinical setting. Residents were assessed frequently using real-time, point of care assessment tools which enabled regular performance monitoring both by residents and faculty. Many of the assessments are initiated by residents and completed immediately after an observation of knowledge, skill and proficiency.

During 2017-18, 373 Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) types of assessments were completed on over 40 learners. The pilot allowed PGME and DC to assess the effectiveness and functionality of the platform, and develop improvements for the 2018 launch of Elentra Version 1.12 for 15 programs.

Leading up to the July 2018 launch, PGME staff, in conjunction with Discovery Commons, and guided by the Best Practices in Evaluation and Assessment (BPEA) Committee, developed the new user interface, responsive design (mobile design), assessment delivery via email and email confirmation of assessment completion components of the Elentra platform.

Development will continue throughout 2018-19 to ensure Elentra is a robust application meeting all of the CBME needs. Training and expertise with Elentra will be part of a full and comprehensive series of education and development sessions with faculty, administrators and learners and will contribute to building a community of expertise and commitment to CBME at U of T.

Post MD
Innovation

New system implementation provides scholarly insight

Continuing Professional Development accredits hundreds of programs and conferences annually. For each program, a detailed application for accreditation must be submitted for review. The review process provides feedback and ultimately determines if a programs or conference will be accredited. The CPD office identified that the lengthy application needed to be more user-friendly and better aligned with CFPC and RCPSC standards. This resulted in the development of a new application that would be clearer to the end user.

Staff and IT experts formed a team to develop the new application. Led by CPD Director Trevor Cuddy the team included Renice Jones, Karma Farah, Morag Paton, Katherine McConnell, and Carlo Kuepers. Their tasks were to deconstruct the existing application, assess the necessity of long held practices, harmonize the CFPC and RCSPC accreditation requirements into a single application, and then rebuild the application from the bottom up in an entirely new platform called Cadmium.

Much like the challenges faced with building a competency-based curriculum, building this accreditation application in Cadmium has enabled CPD to harness the expertise of multiple staff teams and incorporate many perspectives to change long-standing practices.
As we move into the pilot test phase of this new application system, lessons learned and the process that was required for this change will be shared with the CPD scholarly community at a poster presentation at the 10th National CPD Accreditation Conference this October. The new application and the new Cadmium platform will be implemented for use later this year.

UofT Similation Symposium Banner Graphic

Simulation Symposium

The Simulation Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) was established in 2016 to coordinate simulation expertise and activities within the Faculty of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals.  Chaired by Dr. Douglas Campbell, and advisory to Vice Dean Spadafora, SEAC meets quarterly to discuss ways to increase access to simulation resources in the U of T network, and promote best practices in the use of education simulation to improve patient safety.

One of the first tasks of the SEAC in 2016, was to undertake an inventory of all simulation equipment and related human resources in the Faculty and its training network.  The second proposed activity was the organization of a symposium to promote knowledge and integration of the latest simulation developments, create an education platform for a diverse simulation audience (technicians, scientists, health care professionals and learners) to move forward together towards a common goal and to foster the building of a strong simulation community and network within the Academic Health Sciences Network.

The Simulation Symposium was held in the Great Hall at Hart House on Wednesday, January 24, 2018.  With over 110 people in attendance, the half-day symposium saw the engagement of the simulation community through presentations and discussions with various presenters.    The keynote speaker, Dr. Ryan Bridges, Director of Research, Allan Waters Family Simulation Centre, with a Professorship in Technology-Enabled Education at St. Michael’s Hospital, spoke about the consolidation of strategic mandates for simulation integration and led an extremely engaging discussion on this topic.  The event also showcased simulation innovators in the U of T community who presented on their cutting-edge technology within the simulation sphere, including:

There was a high level of engagement by attendees, and a strong consensus from the simulation community that SEAC can provide leadership and enable collaboration among all partners.  Over 96% of the attendees felt that the objectives of the symposium were met and over 78% felt that what they learned would positively impact their teaching and research.

Participants felt that the university and affiliated sites and institutes should avoid distracting competition and collaborate on commercialization efforts.  Maximization of limited resources and expertise would allow the University network to compete favourably on a global stage.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the all of the staff at Post MD for their contribution to the continued success of the unit.

Thank you also to the Annual Report Working Group and those who contributed to the content and design of this year’s report – Caroline Abrahams, Mark Berkovich, Tereinsha Costa, Trevor Cuddy, Karma Farah, Marcella Fiordimondo, Susan Glover-Takahashi, Vashty Hawkins, Matt Jiggins, Renice Jones, Nadine McHorgh, Maureen Morris, Loreta Muharuma, Laura Leigh Murgaski, Suharu Ogawa, Morag Paton, Amanda Pullan, Carolina Rios, Mariela Ruetalo, Lisa St. Amant, Suzan Schneeweiss, and Jennifer Toulmin.