2023 - 2024 CPD Program Updates

Our Narrative-Based Medicine Lab’s programming continued to expand over the past 12 months with several new offerings exploring innovative focus areas and free community-based events. The year culminated with an in-person, community event in April as we gathered for a Literary Evening.

In addition to the Foundational Certificate in Narrative-Based Medicine and the Advanced Certificate in Narrative-Based Medicine we delivered 13 unique offerings spanning multi-session series, experiential workshops, and free activities that introduced Narrative-Based Medicine to a wider audience. Learners explored the restorative role narrative plays in responding to moral injury, developed facilitation skills to lead writing workshops of their own, and so much more.

Members of our community also shared their own creative work and heard from physicians, academics, and writers engaging with narrative-based medicine in novel ways during our six drop-in Literary Lunch Hours. “The body in the practice” was the theme for our spring season of free programming where guest speakers illuminated how narratives can nourish us, sustain us, and help us make sense of the bodies we inhabit.

Building community was at the heart of the 2023-24 year for the Narrative-Based Medicine Lab. Our celebration at the Art Gallery of Ontario in September brought facilitators, learners, alumni, and friends of the NBM Lab together for a night of connection and creativity. It was also a chance for us to reflect on the evolution of the NBM Lab and connect over a shared appreciation of what’s possible when we engage with narrative in healthcare.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to introduce more learners to Narrative-Based Medicine as an essential field of study, practice, and critical inquiry through planned programming for 2024-25.

Visit the Narrative-Based Medicine Lab.

Coaching is gaining momentum in healthcare as a transformative, skills-based practice that has positive impacts on healthcare delivery and clinician satisfaction. Our Coaching Essentials for Healthcare Professionals certificate program launched in January 2024 to help learners foster skills for practice improvement and resilience in healthcare.

Through interactive sessions, skills training activities, and reflection exercises, our participants learned how to foster a coaching culture at work, partner with colleagues to create more humanistic work environments, support patients to achieve their health and wellness goals, and so much more. Over the course of 9 sessions, our learners discovered how working with a coaching approach can facilitate creativity, enhance productivity, and help restore our sense of purpose as professionals in healthcare.

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) over the past year has transformed the way we live and work, marking a new era of medicine where AI can shift the way we deliver healthcare. From improving medical consultations and designing personalized treatment plans to delivering precision medicine and more, the possibilities are vast.

Designed as an intensive and hands-on survey of AI in health and medical contexts, our Applied AI in Medicine: From Coding to Implementation certificate program equips learners with the necessary tools and knowledge to apply AI in their own field of expertise — whether that’s in the hospital, clinic, or laboratory. Sinch launching in October 2023, over 80 learners have learned how to code and implement AI applications using Python libraries through programming practice and exercises relevant to medicine.

We invite you to read the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions (JCEHP) supplement focused on Conceptual Advances in Continuing Professional Development in the Health Professions published in fall 2023. Led by supplement editors Dr. Walter Tavares, Dr. Sophie Soklaridis, Dr. Sanjeev Sockalingam (all from the University of Toronto) and Dr. Ronald Cervero, the publications included works by University of Toronto and affiliated scholars including, among others, Dr. Paula Rowland, Dr. Walter Tavares, Dr. René Wong, Dr. Branka Agic, Asha Maharaj, Helen Toews, Dr. Kathryn Parker, and Dr. Abhi Sud.

AMEE Guides are international guides on health professions education produced by AMEE and published in Medical Teacher.

In 2023, Dr. Heather MacNeill and collaborators published the AMEE Guides to Online Learning in Health Professions Education. Part 1 covers foundational concepts of online learning such as theory, evidence, methods and instructional design principles and provides the foundation for Part 2 and its associated website which covers specific online learning tools. These open access guides have consistently been in the top six most read papers of the year in Medical Teacher with international impact and over 10K views.

Building upon previous research, and through a collaboration of the AFMC CPD Research Sub-committee, four University CPD Providers modified standardized language of the required bias question on CPD evaluations.

Together, we piloted an expanded response format to prompt for specific types of bias and explored the impact of this approach on the identification of bias in CPD programs. We identified that, while reports of bias remain low, multiple forms of bias were perceived by program participants. Narrative analysis identified a nuanced understanding of bias involving conflicts of interest, implicit biases, and expressions toward an acceptance of bias. While the expanded response format did not result in more frequent reports of bias, there was more granular data on the types of bias encountered.

This study contributes to our understanding of measures of bias in CPD programs and the types of bias perceived in CPD programming. The study findings were presented at the 2024 SACME Annual Meeting and the study team of Morag Paton (University of Toronto), Clare Cook (NOSM) and Tanya McLeod (Dalhousie University) were awarded the Fox Award for Best Research Presentation.

Dr. David Wiljer and Dr. Sanjeev Sockalingam were both invited into the SACME Academy of Fellows. The Academy recognizes preeminent leaders of national and international renown from the field of academic CPD.

Members of the University of Toronto continue to take on leadership roles within SACME. Dr. Suzan Schneeweiss was recently appointed SACME’s Vice President for the 2024-25 term. Dr. Wiljer’s term as SACME’s President was completed in early 2024, and he now takes on the role of Past-President. Dr. Paton continues to lead the SACME Awards and Grants Committee.