PM Workshops

Rooms: TBC

Authors/Presenters: Praseedha Janakiram, Eleanor Colledge, Brenda Oliviera, Leila Makhani, Katherine Rouleau,

Description:

Background: Women family physicians play critical leadership roles in academic and clinical settings, yet many continue to face structural and gender-related barriers to advancing into senior and system-level positions. This workshop reflects on 2023-2025 and the 3 cohorts of the well-received virtual, global course “Advancing Women Excellence in Family Medicine (AWE-FM)” offered by the DFCM and co-created with international partners. We will focus on our approach to strengthening participants’ knowledge of AWE-FM to influence and lead within their institutions, health systems, and policy environments. This workshop targets early to -mid -career women family physicians, emerging academic leaders, and alumni of longitudinal leadership programs within the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), University of Toronto.

AWE-FM is building a virtual community across the globe and aims to enhance system-level leadership capacity, through knowledge of self, strengthened strategic communication and appreciation of gender and culture as influences in academic and organizational power structures, and promote leadership sustainability, community connection, and well-being at this critical time in family medicine and primary care.

Participants will engage with facilitators to discuss the lessons learned in creating and delivering a highly interactive virtual course program, key issues that resonate, possible next steps for program growth and scale, while reflecting on key themes of learning, feedback, and evaluation to date within today’s real world context.

In conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

Share gender specific challenges and opportunities for leadership advancement in their own departments and institutions.

2. Review the virtual program with key highlights and evaluations in the context of rationale for this course.

3. Explore and discuss opportunities to engage, grow and develop the AWE-FM community in the coming years.

Room: TBC

Presenters: James Owen, Ashna Bowry, Neal Belluzzo, Chris Gilchrist, Jordan Goodridge, Jennifer Sy

Description:

Family physicians play a pivotal role in training the next generation of medical students. They also support ongoing curriculum evolution across all four years of medical school. But the MD Program curriculum can appear quite complex! If you are interested in undergraduate education and want to contribute, where do you start?

This workshop will provide a practical orientation to Foundations and Clerkship, outline current curriculum priorities, and help decipher concepts like spiral curriculum, scaffolding, and curriculum integration. Family physician colleagues in the MD Program will share a practical and systematic approach to curriculum development to help make the process feel less daunting. Regardless of your level of experience with curriculum development, and whether you are an academic or community physician, this interactive session will provide an opportunity to collaborate with colleagues and familiarize you with the process of MD program curriculum creation.

In conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Describe the general philosophy and structure of the MD program curriculum at U of T, as well as opportunities for family physicians to support ongoing curriculum evolution across all four years.

• Describe the process for curriculum development in the MD Program.

• Collaborate with colleagues in the MD Program to develop an integrated curriculum.

Room: TBC

Authors: Osnat Melamed, Jiading Zhu, Tom Nguyen, Peter Selby, Jonathan Rose,

Description:

Family physicians play a pivotal role in training the next generation of medical students. They also support ongoing curriculum evolution across all four years of medical school. But the MD Program curriculum can appear quite complex! If you are interested in undergraduate education and want to contribute, where do you start?

This workshop will provide a practical orientation to Foundations and Clerkship, outline current curriculum priorities, and help decipher concepts like spiral curriculum, scaffolding, and curriculum integration. Family physician colleagues in the MD Program will share a practical and systematic approach to curriculum development to help make the process feel less daunting. Regardless of your level of experience with curriculum development, and whether you are an academic or community physician, this interactive session will provide an opportunity to collaborate with colleagues and familiarize you with the process of MD program curriculum creation.

In conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

1. Understand how Large Language Models are trained to create realistic patient simulations and provide automated expert-level MI feedback.

2. Discuss practical ways to integrate AI-driven patient simulations into existing undergraduate and postgraduate medical education training curricula

3. Identify new clinical scenarios where AI-simulated patients can help trainees practice clinical skills

RRoom: TBC

Authors: Jessica Ostrega, Yakubu Mafo, David Kaplan

Description:

This interactive workshop will highlight important opportunities to improve care for adults aged 18 years or older who have insomnia disorder (also known as chronic insomnia), as described in Ontario Health’s recent? new Insomnia Disorder: Care for Adults quality standard.

Insomnia disorder significantly impacts adults' functional ability, personal life, social life, health, and overall quality of life. In Ontario, over 20% of adults aged 18 and older report difficulties with sleep, with higher prevalence among women (24%) compared to men (16%). Among adults aged 45 to 85 years, insomnia is associated with decreased life satisfaction, psychological distress, and poor mental health. This impact worsens with age, with life dissatisfaction increasing 11% for every 10-year age increment. Additionally, insomnia increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, depression, cognitive decline, and road accidents with associated cost in Canada reaching $1.9 billion in 2021.

The quality standard outlines five quality statements for improving insomnia care: comprehensive assessment, individualized care plans, management of insomnia in individuals with comorbidities, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, and pharmacotherapy.

The quality standard is accompanied by useful resources to support clinical practice, including a patient guide, a clinician quick-reference placemat, technical specifications for indicators measuring local and provincial implementation and quality improvement efforts, and a Case for Improvement slide deck.

Through case studies, participants will explore the quality standard materials and reflect on opportunities to improve care for people with insomnia with the goal of improving patient outcomes and health care system utilization.

In conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

1) Describe what Ontario Health Quality Standards are, their development, and how to access them.

2) Identify improvement opportunities in their own practice to improve care for people with insomnia disorder.

3) Access useful tools and resources for use in clinical practice and to share with patients and their care partners.

Room: TBC

Presenters: Dana Arafeh, Melanie Henry, Noor Ramji, Patient Partners of PFAC

Description:

As patient engagement becomes increasingly embedded across medical education and academic health settings, educators and program leaders are asking new questions: what digital tools can support meaningful partnerships with patient partners, and how can these tools be used intentionally and accessibly?

Research has shown that virtual engagement formats can help include people who might otherwise face barriers related to geography, mobility, work, family responsibilities, or chronic health conditions, and can support broader participation in patient engagement activities (Carman et al., 2013). At the same time, virtual engagement can introduce challenges related to connection, cost, digital literacy, accessibility, relationship building, and shared understanding. Faculty and learners may value patient partnership but feel uncertain about which digital tools to use and how to use them in ways that support meaningful engagement while minimizing barriers.

The workshop will explore the roles patient partners play in the education of doctors. This interactive workshop focuses on learning how to leverage digital tools such as digital assessment tools, video platforms, online surveys, and Zoom classrooms to partner with patient partners in family medicine training. Faculty, learners, and staff will work alongside patient partners to explore how digital tools can be used to support relationship building, collaboration, and shared decision making.

Through facilitated discussion and small group activities, participants will identify challenges, considerations and opportunities to apply digital tools in family medicine education. The session will include practical tips shared by the University of Toronto Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Officer, along with an overview of institutional accessibility resources available to support patients, educators, and learners.

In conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

Identify opportunities and considerations associated with using digital tools for patient engagement in medical education.

• Describe patient-informed and accessibility focused considerations for selecting and using digital tools, including guidance aligned with Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act principles and institutional resources.

• Explore practical ways to collaborate with patient partners using digital tools in teaching and curriculum related activities.

Room: TBC

Authors/Presenters: Andrew Pinto, Nisanthini Ravichandiran, Tara Marie Watson, Christopher Meaney, Peter Selby

Description:

Work in primary care leads to numerous questions and ideas for research. These can be related to ways to improve clinical care or the healthcare system, or how to better train the primary care workforce. However, only a small fraction of primary care practitioners have the support and mentorship to develop proposals for the funding necessary to conduct research. In this interactive workshop, we will provide an overview to how to take an idea and develop a research question. We will work through the key parts of a research proposal. We will discuss how to form a team to conduct research, and explore the different roles that team members play. We will discuss factors that lead to success, and review opportunities for funding. Finally, we will share insights from the Ideas to Proposal course that is organized by DFCM Research and UPLEARN.

In Conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Develop an idea into a research question

• Describe the key components of a research funding proposal

• Identify common sources of funding for research proposals of various scale and size

Room: TBC

Please visit the Oral Papers page for more information on the presentations during this session.

Collaborative teaching for transformation in post-graduate family medicine: Teaching with teams for teams
Presenters: Jackie Bellaire, Lindsay Herzog

Exploring the Physical Space in Family Medicine Clinical Supervision
Presenters: Lindsay Herzog,

Family Medicine Clerkship Clinical Rotation Factors: Effect on Student Performance
Presenters: Sherylan Young

Shaping the future of family medicine (FM): how residency learning environments shape perceptions of comprehensive care and future workforce.
Presenters: Abigail Ramdawar, Mahan Kulasegaram, Cynthia Whitehead, Tina Martimianakis,

Working Towards Transformation: Exploring the impact of a rotation in equity-oriented palliative care on physicians’ perspectives and practices
Presenters: Alissa Tedesco, Naheed Dosani,

Room: TBC

Please visit the Oral Papers page for more information on the presentations during this session.

Bridging Cancer Screening and Mental Health Care: From Quality Improvement to Qualitative Inquiry
Presenters: Cristina de Lasa

Community Hypertension Outcomes Improvement by Computerized Education Seminars (CHOICES) for the Black Community – Sunnybrook Expansion
Presenter: Ezekiel Garuba

Medical Directives usage with Primary Care Clinics to Enable Peer Workers to Deliver Clinical Tasks
Presenters: Sherry Hao

Patient experiences of social prescribing among older adults in Toronto, Ontario: A photovoice project
Presenters: Han Yan

Revisiting “Healthy Toronto”: Social Medicine, Sociodemographic Data, and the 1911 Hastings Report
Presenters: Aaron Orkin

Room:

Authors: Vanessa Redditt, Ritika Goel,

Description:

Primary care providers play a pivotal role in supporting marginalized communities. Poverty is a well established risk factor for many physical and mental health conditions. As the cost of living rises across Ontario, a growing segment of the population struggles to afford basic necessities, from housing to food. Patients often need support in accessing publicly-funded income, health, and disability benefits, including medical documentation required for applications. This workshop will explore high-yield resources every primary care provider in Ontario should know how to navigate to best support low-income patients, with a focus on income supports and associated benefits. We will emphasize practical strategies for effective medical documentation, applications, and system navigation, equipping participants with tools they can effectively implement in their clinical practices.

In conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

Discuss and compare Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), including eligibility, tips for applying, supplemental income benefits, supplemental care, and discretionary funds.

• Identify other important income benefits and providers’ role in supporting applications (eg. Canada Disability Tax Credit [DTC], Canada Disability Benefit, Canada Pension Plan disability benefit, Employment Insurance sickness benefits).

• Explore publicly funded options for accessing medications, vision care, rehabilitation care, and dental care, including eligibility and the application process.

• Review important community resources, such as drop-in centres, shelters, and community legal clinics, highlighting services offered and how to connect people.

Room: TBC

Authors/Presenters: Rahul Jain, Sheldon Tobe,

Description:

This interactive workshop will allow participants to review the updated Diabetes Canada clinical practice guidelines on Chronic Kidney Disease in Diabetes and will be facilitated by co-authors of the guidelines (https://www.canadianjournalofdiabetes.com/article/S1499-2671(25)00020-6/fulltext). Current Canadian screening rates for diabetic nephropathy is only 13%. Time is kidney, and loss of kidney function cannot be recovered, so it is important to screen annually and promote early initiation of health behaviours change and new evidence-based medical therapies where appropriate to prevent or slow the progression of diabetic nephropathy toward ESKD (i.e. need for dialysis or kidney transplantation).

Our expectation is that implementation of the Diabetes Canada recommendations from the CKD chapter together with the new pharmacotherapy chapter will dramatically change the natural history of diabetic nephropathy for the better.

In conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

1) Identify screening recommendations for CKD in people with diabetes

2) Describe health behaviours and new therapies to prevent onset and progression of diabetic nephropathy toward end stage kidney disease

3) Integrate new Diabetes Canada recommendations into clinical practice