CEPD is preparing for the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada Committee on Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education (CACME) Review on March 21-22, 2013. The two-day schedule includes meetings with the Faculty of Medicine Dean and Vice Deans, CEPD Executive, Department Chairs, CE Faculty Council, CE Directors and Leaders, Research in Continuing Education (RICE) Committee and many of our valued institutional partners.

The 2013 CACME Site Surveyors are:

Jocelyn Lockyer, PhD
Senior Associate Dean of Education and Professor
Department of Community Health Sciences
University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine
Calgary, Alberta

As Senior Associate Dean of Education, Dr. Lockyer’s portfolio includes all of the medical education programs (MD, PGME, CME & PD), science programs (BHSc, MSc/PhD), Distributed Learning and Rural Initiatives, Global Health and International Partnerships, and the Office of Health and Medical Education Scholarship.   Jocelyn is the former Associate Dean of Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development and has over 30 years of experience in CME & PD as an administrator and researcher.  She is active in national and international CME work and has served as Chair of the AFMC Standing Committee on CME, President of the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education, and Board Member of the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education. Jocelyn is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, and is faculty in the MSc and PhD Medical Education Program at the University of Calgary.

Brenda Cholin, MD
Medical Health Officer, Prairie North Health Region
Northwest Central Saskatchewan

Dr. Cholin is the Medical Health Officer for the Prairie North Health Region in the northwest part of central Saskatchewan. Brenda completed a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Saskatchewan, MD at the University of Alberta, and residency training in Family Medicine at Dalhousie University. Brenda accepted an opportunity to work with the Canadian military in Germany and spent a decade working internationally for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In 2000, Brenda received her Masters in Public Health from the University of Edinburgh and returned to Canada to practice public health in Saskatchewan.

The Continuing Education Awards Adjudication Committee has selected the following nominees as award recipients for this past academic year (2011-2012):

Colin R. Woolf Award for Excellence in Course Coordination: 
Dr. Al Chiodo (Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology), for “Otolaryngology Update”

Colin R. Woolf Award for Long-Term Contributions to Continuing Education:
Dr. Mary Bell (Associate Professor, Department of Medicine)

Colin R. Woolf Award for Teaching Excellence:
Dr. Marcus Burnstein (Associate Professor, Department of Surgery)

Fred Fallis Online Award:
Dr. Heather MacNeill (Associate Professor, Division of Physiatry, Department of Medicine)

Ivan Silver Innovation Award:
Dr. Peter Selby on behalf of CAMH Stop Nicotine Dependence Program (Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry)

Interprofessional Team Continuing Education Award:
Drs. Catherine Yu and Rene Wong (Assistant Professors, Department of Medicine)

CEPD congratulates all the Continuing Education Award winners on their recognized achievements and success!

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Suzan Schneeweiss as Academic Director for Continuing Education and Professional Development. Dr. Schneeweiss is an Associate Professor of Paediatrics and an Emergency Paediatrician at The Hospital for Sick Children. She has been Director for Continuing Education for the Department of Paediatrics for the past 9 years and has been working with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons as a CPD Educator since July 2010. She holds a Masters Degree in Health Professional Education from OISE, University of Toronto. She brings with her a wealth of experience working with this office in various capacities including the Continuing Education Leaders and Directors Committee, Faculty Council CEPD Committee, Strategic Planning Committee and has led in program planning for CE faculty development. Please join me in welcoming her to this new leadership position.

Sincerely,

Dimitri Anastakis, MD

Vice Dean CEPD

CEPD has commenced a new initiative encouraging Course Directors to reach out directly to potential registrants about their upcoming events through video promotion on YouTube.

Dr. Andy Smith, Course Director for the Update in General Surgery – Annual Course for Practising Surgeons, is the first to engage in this novel way of communicating directly to his target audience. Other Course Directors have expressed interest in this initiative for their events and are soon to follow suit. CEPD can manage all stages of video production, from filming and editing to graphics and promotion.

Click on the video below to watch Dr. Smith extend a personal invitation to attend the Update in General Surgery meeting, actively promoting its speakers, sessions, hot topics and even venue.

In anticipation of CEPD’s CACME Accreditation Review taking place on March 21^st and 22^nd, the office has put together an infographic highlighting our key areas of activity over the past five years (2008-2012).

We present CEPD by numbers:

• 1,114  – Accredited Events. CEPD is building upon a reputation of excellence in education. The University of Toronto is where health professionals want to come to learn.
• 118,801 – Registrants. We are Canada’s largest provider of CEPD driving C-IPE.
• 234 – Managed Events. CEPD is where the brightest come for event solutions. Witness the power of the University of Toronto brand working for you.
• 107 – CEPD Research Grants. We are driving integration across QI, PS, KT, and CEPD domains of expertise.
• $25,926,586 – Combined CEPD Research Funding. We drive innovation and impact in CEPD through research.
• 185 – CEPD Publications. We are global leaders in CEPD research.

The city of Toronto is busier than ever, and while that’s excellent news for local business, it has created a hurdle for those looking for meeting space. Most of CEPD’s events are held in Toronto’s downtown core where space is at a premium. With an increasing number of courses and events being planned each year, CEPD is hard at work finding the most suitable space available for Course Directors and participants. But what happens if that ideal meeting space is not available?

Alison Lind, CEPD’s Business Development Coordinator, provides five tips to consider when planning/hosting a CPD event, but your ideal space is booked.

1. Have more than one set of possible dates. It’s great if you know exactly when you want to host your conference, but having a set of backup dates will help speed up the process when negotiating with venues. Be prepared and have a backup date to fall back on if your ideal venue cannot accomodate your event on first date of choice.
2. Timing is everything. Think about hosting your event at a less busy time of year. January to March, July and August are off seasons when venues have more space available. Weekends in particular tend to be less busy than weekdays for large-scale events.
3. Increase your event value. Don’t forget you’re competing with other events to book meeting space. Does your event have what it takes to nab the ideal venue for your participants? Make your conference more appealing to participants and venues alike by including a lunch or an evening reception.
4. Maybe it’s time for a new tradition. If there’s no space available for your event during a time that’s best for your participants, you may want to consider a non-traditional event space. Theatre settings or the Art Gallery of Ontario are non-traditional and may be able to accomodate you when other venues cannot.
5. Don’t be afraid to explore the city. There are many venues perfect for both small and large-scale events spread throughout the Greater Toronto Area. If your first choice for a venue is booked solid, try looking farther afield. There are event spaces situated outside the downtown core, but near major highways making them easy to access.

When it comes to event space Alison says “it’s never too early to start looking.”

The University of Toronto, including CEPD, will be closed for the holidays as of Monday, December 24th, 2012. We will reopen on January 7^th, 2013 and messages will be responded to at that time. From all of us at CEPD, we wish you festive tidings for this holiday season and look forward to working with you in the New Year!

CEPD’s 2011-2012 Annual Report is now available online and  marks the occasion of our 30th anniversary. Click on the following link to read about CEPD and the Faculty of Medicine’s departmental CE activities, initiatives and scholarship over the past academic year. Download Annual Report

In celebration of this benchmark, we have created an online history timeline to document where CEPD started and how it arrived at where it is today. Information was derived from a variety of sources including the University of Toronto archives, past and present CEPD leaders and administrative staff, offering a wealth of collective institutional memory. To view CEPD’s journey over the last 30 years along with the milestones and leadership that have shaped our office visit us at: http://www.cepd.utoronto.ca/history/

If you have any CE stories or photos from past events you would like to share, we would love to hear from you. Please forward by email to: amanda.jerome@utoronto.ca. They may become part of CEPD’s official history!

“CEPD Connect” has recently been optimized for mobile use. Now readers can easily access blog posts on their mobile devices without text or images being distorted. Posts range in content from event activities, office initiatives and research news to profiles on faculty members and other health professionals.

CEPD has been increasingly integrating mobile technology into course websites and day-to-day operations to ensure information can be accessed anywhere at anytime. Innovative technology and advancement in information sharing and accessibility continue to be a priority for CEPD and future development.

Medical Record-Keeping, a new workshop offered by CEPD, has been getting positive feedback and a general consensus from participants that it fills a gap in their practice.

Medical Record-Keeping: Developing Approaches for Good Record-Keeping, is a one-day interactive workshop that uses case based learning, peer assessment exercises, and training on practice tools to help physicians improve their medical record keeping to help improve quality and continuity of care.

Currently delivered by CEPD at our offices in downtown Toronto, the workshop will be offered across Ontario in 2013. The workshop reviews the CPSO Medical Records Policy and helps participants assess and keep medical records using the criteria defined in that policy.

To learn more about the Medical Record-Keeping workshop, please click here.