Message from the Director, Integrated Physician Scientist Training Program
The University of Toronto continues to be a national and international leader in physician scientist training, and the Integrated Physician Scientist Training Programs (IPSTP) remain a cornerstone of this leadership. Our programs are intentionally designed to be competency‑based, flexible, and responsive to the evolving landscapes of medicine, research, and education. At a time of rapid change within academic medicine, our mandate is clear: to prepare physician scientists who are equipped not only to advance discovery, but also to lead innovation across healthcare systems, education, and policy.
This past year, our focus has extended beyond program growth to thoughtful evaluation, sustainability, and future readiness. Major milestones—including the successful completion of the Clinician Investigator Program accreditation review, ongoing scholarly review processes, and strengthened approaches to program evaluation—demonstrate our commitment to quality improvement and accountability. These efforts ensure that our training pathways remain rigorous, relevant, and aligned with national and international standards, while remaining responsive to the lived experiences of our learners.
Looking ahead, the IPSTP is actively engaged with emerging priorities shaping medical education. We are contributing to faculty and learner development across the continuum through initiatives such as the Physician Scientist Mentorship Academy, now entering its second year, and through national and international scholarly collaborations. We are also engaging critically with the growing role of artificial intelligence in research and clinical practice, supporting educational programming that emphasizes responsible, high‑quality, and ethical use of AI. Together, these efforts reflect a program that is not only adapting to the future of medical education but helping to define it.
I am deeply grateful to our learners, faculty, staff, and institutional partners whose dedication, creativity, and leadership continue to strengthen our community. Their achievements—across scholarship, education, and innovation—underscore the vital role of physician scientists in addressing today’s most complex health challenges. As we look forward, the IPSTP remains committed to fostering an inclusive, supportive, and forward‑thinking training environment that enables our learners to thrive and to lead meaningful change in the years ahead.
Nicola L. Jones, MD, FRCPC, PhD
Director, Integrated Physician Scientist Training Program
Impact by the Numbers
Program Innovations
Strengthening Quality Through Program Evaluation and Accreditation
Over the past year, IPSTP has made significant strides in advancing a culture of quality improvement and accountability. The successful completion of the Clinician Investigator Program Accreditation Internal Review represents a major milestone, reaffirming the program’s alignment with national standards and best practices in physician scientist training. This successful internal review positions the program well for the full external review set for 2028. In parallel, the Graduate Diploma in Health Research has undertaken an internal program review, with a scholarly review planned, ensuring that curriculum design, learner experience, and outcomes remain responsive to the evolving research and educational landscape.
Advancing National Leadership and Community Building
The Clinician Investigator Program (CIP) continues to play a leading role in shaping the physician scientist community at both local and national levels. For the second year in a row, the program hosted the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation –Clinician Investigator Trainee Association of Canada Annual Joint Meeting, bringing more than 150 learners and faculty from across the country together for career development, scholarly exchange, and community building. This national engagement reinforces the University of Toronto’s leadership in clinician scientist training and provides learners with exposure to diverse career pathways, mentorship networks, and collaborative opportunities beyond their home institutions. The CIP was also proud to present the inaugural Clinician Investigator Program Research Supervisor Award to Dr. Shaf Keshavjee who attended and provided remarks to participants on the importance of clinician scientist and research mentorship.
Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Research and Medical Education
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform clinical practice and research, the IPSTP has expanded its educational offerings to support critical engagement with AI across medical specialties. Recent workshop initiatives—including programming such as Understanding the Quality of AI in Research and Artificial Intelligence in Medical Specialties—are designed to equip learners and faculty with the skills needed to evaluate, apply, and lead AI‑informed innovation responsibly. These initiatives position physician scientist learners to be thoughtful consumers and developers of AI tools, ensuring that advances in technology are grounded in rigor, ethics, and patient‑centred care.
Developing Mentorship Capacity Across the Continuum
Now in its second year, the IPSTP Mentorship Academy continues to evolve as a cornerstone of faculty and learner development across the continuum. The program employs a structured group mentorship model that supports early‑career researchers while simultaneously building mentorship capacity among MD/PhD and CIP learners and early-career mentors. Through targeted mentor development and community‑based learning, the Mentorship Academy fosters durable professional relationships, peer support, and leadership skills essential for sustaining a vibrant physician scientist workforce. This initiative reflects the program’s long‑term commitment to mentorship as both an educational strategy and a core component of academic culture.
Education Scholarship
Our IPSTP learners were actively engaged in scholarship activities for the 2025-2026 academic year. Representatives from the Integrated Physician Scientist Training Programs participated in national and international medical education conferences and were highly productive in knowledge translation of their work through impactful publications. A selection of impactful publications from the past year are highlighted here. A complete list of MD/PhD student publications can be found on our website.
- de Gregorio, V., Barua, M., & Lennon, R. (2025). Collagen formation, function and role in kidney disease. In Nature Reviews Nephrology (Vol. 21, Issue 3, pp. 200–215). Nature Research. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-024-00902-5
- Dent, A., Khan, M. K., & Subbarao, P. (2025). Leveraging artificial intelligence for the management of preschool wheeze: A narrative review. In Pediatric Allergy and Immunology (Vol. 36, Issue 10). John Wiley and Sons Inc. https://doi.org/10.1111/pai.70207
- Florescu, A., Zuo, M., Wang, A. A., Champagne-Jorgensen, K., Noor, M. A., Ward, L. A., van Puijenbroek, E., Klein, C., & Gommerman, J. L. (2025). Dynamic alterations of dural and bone marrow B cells in an animal model of progressive multiple sclerosis. The Journal of Experimental Medicine, 222(12). https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20241255
- Kang, J. R. W. (2025). Could alcohol warning labels work in Canada? BMJ, 389. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r672
- Kavianpour, A. A., Ghasempour, S., Meyer, K. J., Le, T., Cai, R., Marques, P. E., Nodwell, J. R., & Freeman, S. A. (2025). Phosphatidylethanolamine is a phagocytic ligand implicated in the binding and removal of apoptotic and bacterial extracellular vesicles. Current Biology, 35(17), 4276-4284.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.07.043
- Monteiro, J. K., & Miron, V. E. (2025). Microglia conduct the symphony of white matter degeneration in aging through T cell recruitment. Nature Neuroscience, 28(6), 1116–1117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-01929-y
- Postill, G., Dent, A., Cheng, R., Nikouline, A., Kishibe, T., McGowan, M., Kwong, J. C. C., & Nolan, B. (2026). Systematic review and meta-analysis of machine learning models predicting massive hemorrhage protocol in trauma. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-49472-5
- Wennberg, E., Mohmand, Z., D’Arienzo, D., Majeed Grant, S., Uleryk, E., Vyas, M. v., Wanigaratne, S., & Guttmann, A. (2025). Virtual Care among Adults Facing Language Barriers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JAMA Network Open, 8(6). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.13906
Awards
Year over year, our learners in the MD/PhD Program continue to be recognized through various awards. This past year, 13 CIHR Vanier Awards, 9 Canadian Graduate Scholarship Awards (Masters & Doctoral), and 5 departmental/local awards were awarded to learners in our program. These are just a few highlights of the financial awards bestowed upon our learners.
