PGME recognizes significant social impact
Drs. Adrienne Chan and Sharmistha Mishra (Faculty) and Dr. Danielle Rodin (Trainee), are the 2016 recipients of the Social Responsibility Award in Postgraduate Medical Education.
Since 2015, the Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) Office has recognized outstanding contributions of faculty members and medical residents/fellows in the development and/or implementation of socially responsible initiatives, programs or research related to postgraduate medical education.
During the Ebola outbreak, Drs. Chan and Mishra volunteered as Ebola clinicians in Sierra Leone. With meticulous preparation, they integrated into existing Ebola treatment units, and soon both assumed local clinical coordination roles on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr. Mishra helped to transform acute care delivery in the Port Loko District of Sierra Leone through her example and training, earning the respect of numerous NGOs, the WHO and national health workers. Dr. Chan helped to train many hundreds of international and national clinicians in safe and effective Ebola care as part of the World Health Organization – International Organization for Migration (WHO-IOM) national Ebola training initiative in Freetown, Sierra Leone. With the numbers of newly infected patients waning and the number of survivors ever-increasing, both saw the need to establish survivor clinics, and helped national staff and NGOs build capacity to establish referral clinics in Sierra Leone throughout 2015. They were successful in their application to Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for a $250,000 grant to follow Ebola survivors (“Gone but not Forgotten”) and have been the senior authors among the first group in all of West Africa to publish a detailed, rigorously performed, consecutive, 600-patient follow-up study. They have discovered previously unknown chronic eye and joint morbidity (Lancet ID, 2016). Throughout this process, their focus has been on teaching national doctors, nurses and health support staff, the principles of integrated medical care and observational research methodology. Drs. Chan and Mishra are both rising stars in postgraduate global health training and education, but both have already achieved incredible academic success, and have done so, working together.
Dr. Rodin has recently pioneered the advocacy of global access to radiation therapy (RT) through scholarship, contributing to a landmark publication in the Lancet Oncology journal, which highlights the economic benefit of investing in RT in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Her work provides the first evidence to support investment RT infrastructure in LMICs and will be critical to planning global cancer management strategies. Dr. Rodin has also worked at the advocacy level to address these inequities. One of her creative outputs includes a co-directed short film which occurs in Lima, Peru entitled, Veronica: A Peruvian Story of Cancer, and Health,. The goal of the film was to raise awareness about the burden of cancer in other countries and to highlight the need to use RT in the treatment process. Over the past 3 years, Danielle has had a pioneering role as the Project Lead and Founder of GlobalRT. Through this platform, Dr. Rodin and colleagues work to challenge and re-define critical perspectives pertaining to RT. By building consensus and using evidence-based data, Dr. Rodin’s work with GlobalRT promotes the equitable, global distribution of RT. GlobalRT connects patients, providers, and policymakers who are committed to the advancement of global cancer care. Dr. Rodin has an exceptional ability to collaborate and drive social transformation at the highest level to bring about reform in health care.
For more information on 2015-16 PG awards and publications, please visit: http://pg.postmd.utoronto.ca/about-pgme/awards/2015-16-award-recipients/