The Continuing Professional Development committee is pleased to announce that Professor Peter Slinger from the Department of Anesthesia has agreed to take up the role as our Chair of the CPD Committee of Faculty Council beginning this fall.

In addition to his teaching role at the University of Toronto, Professor Slinger serves as an anaesthesiologist at Toronto General Hospital. He studied medicine at the University of Western Ontario, and from there went on to a residency at the University of Alberta before serving as a family practioner in Yellowknife for five years. Resident positions in McGill and the University of Montreal led to an anaesthesiologist position at Montreal General Hospital.

After having worked and studied in every corner of Canada, Peter began to put down roots at the University of Toronto and has been with us for the last nineteen years.

Peter’s passion for continuing education is evident when he speaks about the community of professionals united by the department.

“I am fascinated that health care professionals continue to use their own time on weekends and evenings to travel to CPD events when there is an ever-expanding body of health care teaching available online,” Professor Slinger says.

“I believe that there is something in the process of learning in person with a group – whether from a lecture, workshop or problem-based discussion – that is very important, poorly understood, and needs to be appreciated.”

When he’s not in operating rooms and lecture halls, Peter spends his free time on golf courses and hockey rinks. He also enjoys spending quality time with his grandchildren.

CPD is proud to announce that the Continuing Education Leadership Program (CELP) is one of three recipients for the 2014 Royal College Accredited CPD Provider Innovation Awards.

CELP is a faculty development certificate program designed to meet the needs of individuals who are interested in promoting excellence, innovation, change, and scholarship in continuing education initiatives for health professionals. This program specifically aims to provide the participants with a broad range of valuable management and leadership skills and the tools necessary to lead continuing education initiatives for health professionals in today’s complex health care environment. To our knowledge the program is unique in its focus on leadership as it applies specifically to CPD.

It is geared towards leaders in CPD who are in a position to influence innovation including those engaged in patient safety, quality improvement, knowledge translation and performance improvement initiatives. Attendees have includes MD specialists, family physicians, pharmacists, allied health professionals, CE directors, managers and administrators.

The Royal College Accredited CPD Provider Innovation Awards are given annually to up to three (3) Accredited CPD Providers recognized by the Royal College to promote innovation in the development and implementation of

• Educational policies or processes
• Administrative policies or processes
• Education resources or tools

As many of you may know, our community lost a great leader and supporter of continuing professional development with the passing of Dr. Pamela Anne Catton on December 23, 2014

We had the privilege of working with Dr. Catton as the Event Director for multiple events that spanned over 20 years.

• Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT)
• Quality and Safety in Radiation Therapy
• Head and Neck IGRT Course
• Paraspinal SBRT IGRT Course
• Toronto Cancer 2012 – Transcending Boundaries
• Personalizing Cancer Medicine 2014

Dr Catton was the recipient of the 2012-2013 Colin Woolf Award for Course Coordination in Continuing Education excellence along with two of her colleagues for the Department of Radiation Oncology: “Princess Margaret Hospital Accelerated Education Program”.

We are thankful for her successful leadership in the annual continuing education programs she ran and hope that her legacy will continue to live through her work.

Here is a touching tribute to Dr Catton by colleagues at UHN, published with permission.

Dr. Pamela Catton was a Radiation Oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center, and a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto. She was an internationally renowned educator, and mentor to an entire generation of oncologists. Pam was a skilled and compassionate clinician, who consistently delivered exemplary care for her patients. She was a creative force in innovations in education, covering the spectrum from undergraduate, post-graduate, continuing education, faculty development, inter-professional, to patient and cancer survivor education.

Amongst many of Pam’s legacy was the development of a joint BSc Program in Medical Radiation Sciences (MRS) between the University of Toronto’s Department of Radiation Oncology with the Michener Institute, which at the time was the first Radiation Therapy Degree program in Canada. Since its initial establishment in 1999, the MRS program has trained more than 1500 radiation therapists, imaging and nuclear medicine technologists; many of whom are now leaders across Canada. Pam’s particular passion was the promotion of inter-professional education, and talent development in this domain. This passion translated into the creation of Clinical Specialist Radiation Therapists (CSRTs), which began as a pilot project at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center in 2007, and now has expanded to 24 CSRTs flourishing in 10 cancer centres across Ontario.

Pam’s contribution to the educational community extended well beyond our local environment; she was a key participant and leader in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, ranging from numerous site visits across the country reviewing residency training programs, to Co-chairing the Working Group on CanMEDS roles, to Chairing the Education Research and Development Committee. In all of these activities, Pam worked tirelessly, critiqued constructively, and facilitated the transformation of our medical training curricula.

Pam has always been a strong advocate for Radiation Oncology, and was an active contributor to our Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO). She was instrumental in the establishment of CROF (the Canadian Radiation Oncology Foundation), the philanthropic arm of CARO, and was its Board Chair from 2011-2013, during which time, she established the CARO-CROF Summer Studentship in Radiation Oncology, facilitating medical students’ career development in Radiation Oncology.

Through her strong vision, boundless energy, and organizational skills, Pam also established the trailblazing ELLICSR: Health, Wellness, and Cancer Survivorship Centre at the University Health Network, the first center of its kind in Canada, focused on empowering “patients, to improve their health, well-being, and the overall delivery of cancer care.”

Pam was an inspiring mentor, who believed in everyone’s capacity to thrive in our academic environment; she would pour her entire energy and soul into ensuring that all trainees and junior faculties achieve success. She has mentored and influenced an entire generation of radiation medicine professionals, who are now leading their own programs nationally, and internationally.

Accordingly, Pam has received numerous honours and awards for her achievements, starting with innumerable Teaching and Mentorship Awards within the Department of Radiation Oncology; the Mickles Fellowship Award for Postgraduate Medical Education from the Faculty of Medicine; and the Anderson Award for Excellence in Educational Administration from the Wightman-Berris Academy. She also held the Inaugural Princess Margaret – University of Toronto Butterfield/Drew Chair in Breast Cancer Survivorship; received the Excellence in Cancer Patient Education Award from the US National Cancer Institute – Cancer Patient Education Network; and just this year, the 2014 Margaret Hay Edwards Achievement Medal from the American Association for Cancer Education, awarded to those who have made sustained outstanding contributions to cancer education.

Pam will be dearly missed by everyone within our communities. Her legacy will continue through all the programs which she has launched and established; her impact will continue to reverberate through the generations of radiation medicine professionals who will strive to advocate for the highest quality oncology care for our patients, as did Pam.

Over the past academic year, CPD has worked towards our vision of international leadership in improving health through innovation in CPD research and education. We have followed our strategic and academic business plans and continue to position CPD as the ideal partner in transforming healthcare in Ontario and beyond.

A major milestone this year was our 5 year CACME Accreditation Review for which, after enormous work by the entire U of T CPD community, we received the highest possible rating and passed with flying colours. This CACME approval has reaffirmed our position as a national and international leader in CPD. I am grateful to our CPD leaders and directors, our course directors and teaching faculty and the CPD leadership team for their contribution to our accreditation success.

Key leadership and scholarship came from CPD Academic, CPD Research and CPD Global and Indigenous Health Program under Drs. Suzan Schneeweiss, Simon Kitto and Anna Banerji. Highlights included:

• ACPAC Partnership: Advanced Clinician Practitioner in Arthritis Care Program across Canada
• IDEAS 2-Day Introductory Course: Quality Improvement initiative with CPD partnering with provincial government and 5 other universities
• AMEE Conferences in Prague 2013 and Milan 2014: Only North American CPD group invited; presented Essential Skills in CPD
• Creating and Planning the North American Refugee Conference and the first ever Indigenous Health Conference
• CELP: CPD’s innovative and ongoing Continuing Education Leadership Program
• eRICE (Research in Continuing Education Committee)
• CPD Courses: Medical Record Keeping, Safe Opioid Prescribing

Our strategic communications initiative also had transformative results this year:

• Renaming the portfolio as CPD
• Realigning our brand more closely with the U of T brand and reputation
• Rebranding CPD according to U of T guidelines with our own Brand and Style Guide for all communications
• Launching of a new website and social media content

CPD provides a wealth of valued high quality service to the Faculty of Medicine. CPD has undergone significant reorganization to meet the growing volume of accreditation requests, managed events, and registrations. Several immediate changes put into place to better serve our over 500 Course Directors include:

• Focused and results-driven marketing and communications services
• Restructuring CPD financial services – becoming the gold standard in cost-recovery financial management
• Standardized CPD lexicon – consistent simplified language in all things CPD (i.e., contracts, invoices and marketing)
• Enhanced online registration, management and metrics tools

CPD is committed to further develop the required infrastructure to support expanded C-IPE, simulation-based CPD and eLearning. We have worked this year to reorganize the portfolio so as to create the platform that will further facilitate expansion of CPD U of T’s base of SIM-based courses and credits. We are intent on seeing a shift from traditional ‘bums in seats’ CPD to a greatly expanded use of simulation and eLearning in this portfolio in the near future. CPD U of T strongly advocates the use of simulation in health professions education and our future will prominently feature SIM-based learning as one of the foundational pillars that will transform the health professions CPD landscape. To this end CPD is very proud to support the upcoming 2014 SIM Expo as a living testament to the increasing need for more simulation in health professions education and CPD.

Two other units in the CPD Portfolio have also undergone transformation: SPP, the Standardized Patient Program, has completed its Strategic Review and Planning process and the Innovations in Education Office (i+e) has developed new business initiatives in online education, advanced technology and course partnerships.

We are proud to be Canada’s largest and most innovative provider of CPD and will continue to transform ourselves to provide cutting edge education for our learners. I would like to thank all of our team at CPD for their ongoing commitment and dedication during times of change and most all, to thank all of the CPD educators in the Faculty of Medicine for the opportunity to work with you as we position CPD to be the ideal
and preferred partner in transforming healthcare in Ontario.

Dimitri J. Anastakis MD, MHPE, MHCM, FRCSC, FACS, FICS
Professor of Surgery, Vice Dean
Continuing Professional Development
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Over the past 4 years, the CPD Research Office has enjoyed significant success and productivity under the leadership of Dr. Simon Kitto. Nonetheless, it is with mixed emotions that I inform the CPD community that Dr. Simon Kitto will be leaving CPD to join the newly formed Department of Innovation in Medical Education as a tenure-track Associate Professor in Continuing Professional Development at the University of Ottawa. The last day in his current role is December 31, 2014.

As with many members of the University of Toronto community, Simon will not be leaving us completely. He will retain a co-chair position of eRICE with Dr. Ryan Brydges here at CPD; the flagship of a global CPD research community. This Toronto innovation is the crucible within which global leaders in CPD research are tempered.

Simon’s career move also heralds the forging of a new and exciting relationship with the University of Ottawa’s CPD office. We look forward to what the future holds and how we might bring our strengths to the table to foster the development of an international CPD research community together.

Finally, Dr. Kitto will continue to work closely with Drs. Anastakis, Schneeweiss and Goldman on research concerning ongoing faculty development of Continuing Education Directors and Leaders.

Please join me in wishing Simon continued academic success in his new position at the University of Ottawa. Simon can be reached at skitto@uottawa.ca

As we look to the future, we will need to revisit CPD research and how best to support the scholarly work being done by CPD researchers, directors and leaders. This represents a unique opportunity for us to rethink, reinvest and restructure CPD research.

More to come in 2015!

DIMITRI J. ANASTAKIS MD, MHPE, MHCM, FRCSC, FACS, FICS
Professor of Surgery
Vice Dean

We invite the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine community to nominate members of their Departments for consideration of an award for excellence in Continuing Professional Development, for the academic year 2013-2014. The eight awards below provide an opportunity for the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine faculty to be recognized for their outstanding achievement in program development, research, on-line education, teaching excellence, interprofessional healthcare, innovation, and long-term contributions to continuing education.

The awards are named for exceptional University Toronto Faculty, recognized internationally for their scholarly contributions to the field of continuing professional development, and are as follows:

• Colin Woolf Award for Excellence in Teaching
• Colin Woolf Award for Excellence in Course Coordination
• Colin Woolf Award for Long-Term Contributions to Continuing Education
• Fred Fallis Award for Excellence in Online Education
• David Fear Fellowship
• Dave Davis Award for Excellence in Research
• Ivan Silver Award for Innovation in CEPD
• Interprofessional Healthcare Team Continuing Education Award
• These awards are presented to worthy faculty following a rigorous peer review process.

The deadline for receipt of all materials supporting nomination(s) is Monday, December 1, 2014 at 5:00pm. More information on both the criteria for each individual award and the nomination submission process here.

Questions? vashty.hawkins@utoronto.ca

As always, we look forward to continuing to receiving strong submissions from the community!

The annual Ontario Simulation Exposition (SIM Expo) is Canada’s largest healthcare simulation event. The 2014 SIM Expo is the ideal venue to connect with leaders in the growing field of SIM-based CPD.

Read more at www.sim-one.ca/events/simone-expo

SIM-one in collaboration with the Improving & Driving Excellence Across Sectors (IDEAS) program and the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) launches its 2014 program focused on advancing the use of simulation for quality and safety improvement in Ontario hospitals and other healthcare delivery agencies. Information on goals, funding, eligibility criteria and the application process is now available online.

More information