Author: hinal

Congratulations to the Continuing Professional Development COVID-19 Response Fund Recipients

We would like to thank all of the applicants to the CPD COVID-19 Response Fund for their thoughtfulness and effort in quickly assembling teams and ideas to support their projects related to COVID-19 and Continuing Professional Development. The response from our community was impressive, we received 26 applications for funding, and we are happy to announce that the following 7 projects have received funding from the CPD COVID-19 Response Fund:

Project Title: Re-Deployment in Response to COVID-19: Knowledge Mobilization for Occupational and Physiotherapy
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Sylvia Langlois
Team Members: Mylopoulos M, Switzer-McIntyre S, Tassone M.

Project Title: Awareness and capacity strengthening of African rehabilitation professionals on COVID-19 to optimise health services in African contexts
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Lynn Cockburn
Team Members: Ngeh E, Chigbo N, Whitehouse Z, Mukaruzima L, Sichela J, Musago K, Kitur R, Lindelwa, Belay M, Kamere C, Shirima R.

Project Title: Creating and Sustaining the Pivot to Virtual Primary Care: Implementation and Evaluation of the Virtual Care Competency Training Roadmap (ViCCTR)
Principal Investigator(s): Drs. Nikki Woods, Risa Freeman
Team Members: Kulasegaram M, Mylopoulos M, Rowland P, Rojas D, Murdoch S, Grundland B, Papadakos T, Paul R, Moaveni A, Whitehead C.

Project Title: Rapid Knowledge Mobilization in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Paula Rowland
Team Members: Lowe M, Tripp T, Richardson J, Anderson M, Oja L, Tavares W, Woods N, Ng S.

Project Title: Evaluating Rapid Implementation of Educational Resources During a Pandemic: The Case of the Quick ICU Training for COVID-19 Initiative
Principal Investigator(s): Drs. Ryan Brydges, Dominque Piquette
Team Members: Ng S, Onurya B, Spring J, Cuthbertson B.

Project Title: Experiencing Covid-19 through virtual reality: The patient’s perspective
Principal Investigator(s): Prof. Lisa DiProspero
Team Members: Thomson H, Legere L, Harth T, Parzanese M, Rashleigh L.

Project Title: Rapid Upscaling of Psychiatric Virtual Care Education in Response to COVID-19
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. David Rojas
Team Members: Paul R, Whitehead C, Vigod S, Wasserman L, Barker L, Wright E.

We would also like to extend our appreciation to the Temerty Foundation and the Dean’s COVID-19 Priority Fund who made this funding possible and to the members of the adjudication committee for their time and attention in reviewing the grants: Dr. David Wiljer, Dr. Mark Feldman, Dr. Betsy Williams, Dr. Suzan Schneeweiss, Ms. Morag Paton, Dr. Sophie Soklaridis, Dr. Tina Martimianakis, Dr. Ivan Silver and Dr. Anna Banerji.

The Continuing Professional Development office is working closely with our Academic and Clinical partners to provide important COVID resources for our community. Stay current on the most recent information by visiting our COVID-19 Resource Library.

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Launch of CPD’s COVID-19 Resource Library

The current unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the medical community closer together—virtually. Various credible sources are frequently producing new resources and information to support healthcare professionals learn new skills, adapt to the current situation, and understand coping mechanisms, just to name a few. CPD has curated these trusted resources into the recently launched COVID-19 Resource Library—a hub for clinical resources.

Healthcare professionals can access a variety of clinical information—both general and speciality specific, as well as resources that support virtual care and wellness. Online learning materials are also available such as the Quick ICU Training resource to assist physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who are upskilling, renewing, or reviewing their knowledge and skills for temporary redeployment to critical care.

CPD is also contributing to resource development by partnering with departments to develop COVID-19 professional development webinars on a variety of topics including virtual care, wellness, and clinical areas. These webinars are designed for both generalist and specialist healthcare professionals. Information about upcoming webinars will similarly be listed on the Resource Library, and thereafter be moved to an archive page of recordings for on-demand viewing.

This is a difficult time for many healthcare professionals and CPD is committed to providing content to support the needs of clinicians, faculty, and other members of the CPD community.

If you have a related important resource that you think should be included in our Resource Library, please let us know by contacting: facmed.registration@utoronto.ca

We encourage you to visit the COVID-19 Resource Library often for the latest healthcare materials on COVID-19.

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Highlights from SACME’s 2020 Annual Meeting

Continuing Professional Development would like to congratulate our faculty and staff colleagues for a strong presence at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education (SACME), held in Miami, Florida. CPD was well represented in both the peer-reviewed academic workshops and oral and poster presentations. Our faculty colleagues also presented the plenary keynote: Developing Educators for Healthcare Environments Affected by Disruption and an experiential activity focused on Evolving for Change.

SACME is the organization for continuing medical education professionals in North America. The organization offers a wealth of resources to a community of members dedicated to the advancement of continuing medical education for the ultimate improvement of patient care. Our team is looking forward to the next SACME Annual Meeting which will be held February 23 – 26, 2021 in Marina del Rey, California.

View the complete list of presentations, posters, and workshops here.

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Create an Optimal Digital Learning Environment with Zoom

The COVID-19 pandemic has recently presented several challenges to both educators and learners in delivering and acquiring knowledge and information digitally. Many organizations have adapted to using videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom to stay connected. However, Zoom is going beyond a traditional online meeting tool, and being adapted by educators to facilitate learning online. While Zoom offers many useful features, some users may not necessarily be aware of how to implement them. CPD has produced a new Quick Tip as a guide to help both first-time and frequent users enable better and secure digital learning environments.

Before you can dive into the vast features offered, one of the first few steps you will take is setting up your meeting to invite participants. During this step there are necessary security measures to consider as a result of recent concerns around “Zoombombing”. Taking the recommended steps in the guide will assist in creating a secure meeting to avoid or limit unwanted visitors in your digital classroom.

You may want to imitate an in-person teaching environment and encourage engagement. This can be done by implementing interactive features such as video, audio, screensharing, and small working groups to augment the learning experience. In addition, there may be a need to archive meeting content for participants that were unable to join. Zoom offers a neat feature to easily record the entire meeting. However, to ensure compliance and security there are particular settings that must be reviewed beforehand.

For a detailed overview of Zoom tips and tricks you can integrate in your next digital classroom, click here.

This Quick Tip is part of CPD’s Quick Tips for program design series. Visit our Quick Tips Resources webpage to review all of the tips to help you create your best program.

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Online Guide for Quick ICU Training – COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, many physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals may need to upskill, renew, or review their knowledge and skills for redeployment to critical care. In collaboration with clinicians, educators, and scientists from the University of Toronto and the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN), the Critical Care Education Pandemic Preparedness (CCEPP) project was created. The team worked together to build the Quick ICU Training for COVID-19 website to provide quick, accessible learning resources and reference materials to non-intensive care clinicians.

The site serves as a quick reference guide for both practice-based and simulation-based learning through a variety of learning resources: quick-reference pocket cards, short lectures, procedural videos, and additional resources. Learners are also able to check their knowledge on each topic after reviewing the provided resources. An array of related topics are covered including airway, breathing, circulation, disability/sedation, environment and personal protective equipment, as well as general ICU care. In addition to the learning resources, each of these topics include a short description of its importance, who it is relevant to, and the healthcare professional’s potential role.

As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, the website will be updated and expanded accordingly. The CCEPP organizers welcome your feedback to improve this progressive yet important learning resource.

CPD encourages all healthcare professionals—who are either currently or potentially redeployed—to review the website and learning resources.

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Celebrating Excellence at CPD – 2018-2019 CPD Award Winners

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) team annually recognizes and celebrates faculty members who demonstrate excellence in research, teaching, scholarship, innovation, teamwork, and long term commitment to CPD.

We would like to thank all nominators, and offer our congratulations to the 2018-2019 CPD award winners for their impactful contributions to CPD! Winners will receive a cash prize and will be invited to a formal Educational Achievement Celebration event taking place on May 20, 2020 at University of Toronto’s Hart House.

Colin Woolf Awards

Excellence in Program Development and Coordination

  • Mark Feldman, Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics
    • Annual Paediatric Update

Long Term Contributions to CPD

  • Rene Wong, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine

Sustained Excellence in Teaching in CPD

  • Kenneth Fung, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Dave Davis Research Award

  • Co-Winner: Savithiri Ratnapalan, Professor, Department of Paediatrics
  • Co-Winner: Anupam Thakur, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry

David Fear Fellowship

  • Claire Acton, Lecturer, Department of Medicine; Kate Hayman, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine; and Evelyn Dell, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine

Excellence in Interprofessional CPD Award

  • Centre for Interprofessional Education; Co-Directors Ivy Oandasan, Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine and Belinda Vilhena, Director Business Development and CIPE Operations; and EHPIC Faculty
    • Educating Health Professionals in Interprofessional Care (EHPIC)

Ivan Silver Innovation

  • Branka Agic, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry/Dalla Lana School of Public Health; and Provincial System Support Program (PSSP) Project Team
    • Increasing Access to Structured Psychotherapy (IASP) cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) training program
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Transitioning to an Online-Learning Format

Recently, organizations have been exploring new ways to engage with their audiences. With the increased interest in providing learning options through an online format, CPD has produced a new Quick Tip to guide you in developing and transitioning programs and conferences to be web-based.

Three accredited online learning formats to consider include: Synchronous Online Group Learning, Online Self-Learning, and Asynchronous E-Learning. Each of these methods ensures content delivery and engagement amongst participants. In order to receive accreditation approval, a number of requirements must be met including a minimum of 25% interactivity, and participation verification.

There are several free and cost-based online tools offered for program delivery, with many giving the option to encourage interactivity with embedded group chat and poll functionality. Some of the proposed tools include: Zoom, Skype, Adobe Connect, Screencast-o-matic, Quercus, GSuite Products, and Ontario Telemedicine Network.

You may want to include other interactive elements in addition to the above methods. For groups of 12 and under, simple approaches are recommended to encourage engagement within the group. Twitter, Slido, Poll Everywhere, Kahoot!, and Mentimeter are all supplementary online platforms that can help add an active learning element such as polling, Q&A, and discussions.

To learn more about how you can incorporate these formats into your future CPD activities, reach out to CPD’s Education Consultants at quicktips@utoronto.ca.

This Quick Tip is part of CPD’s Quick Tips for program design series. Visit our Quick Tips and Resources webpage to review all of the tips to help you create your best program.

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