Announcements

The Centre for Faculty Development (CDF)

is pleased to announce the registration schedule is now posted online at the following URL address: http://www.cfd.med.utoronto.ca/programs/workshops.html.

These workshops are devoted to the enhancement of teaching skills and are offered throughout the academic year. Each workshop is free to faculty in the Faculty of Medicine. Registration is required.

If you are not a faculty member, but are active in the teaching of health professionals at the University of Toronto, please feel free to register for workshops. Your name will be placed on the waiting list. Within three weeks of the course date you will be notified if there is space available. If at that time you are still interested in attending, you will be fully registered for the session. A $50 registration will apply to all non Faculty of Medicine participants.

Workshops meet the accreditation criteria of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and have been accredited for 3.5 MAINPRO-M1 credits per each workshop (unless otherwise noted). Workshops have also been approved as an Accredited Group Learning Activity under Section 1 of the Framework of CPD options for the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada - 3.5 hours per workshop (unless otherwise noted).

For questions/comments please contact: Hailey
Garcia-Gonzalez at: garciah@smh.toronto.on.ca
at: 416-864-6060 Ext. 3524.

Update on our story from the Spring/Summer 2008 publication:

Cardiac Resident Made History as Harvard and MIT Business Plan Team Winner Gilbert Tang (CardSurg Resident) was invited with his Harvard/MIT business plan winning team Diagnostics For All to ring the Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday June 20, at 9:29 a.m.
Each member was presented with a commemorative NYSE medal. The event was broadcast at Times Square in New York City and to over 120 million viewers worldwide, and can be viewed online at: http://www.nyse.com/events/1213870773035.html

Winning Team with Gilbert Tang (far right)

Gilbert was also featured on the same day in the Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/article/446504.

Appointment of University of Toronto Spine Program Co-directors

Albert Yee

Michael Fehlings

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Albert Yee and Dr. Michael Fehlings and as the inaugural co-directors of the newly formed University of Toronto Spine Program. This program will be an integrated effort supported by the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, the Division of Neurosurgery and the Department of Surgery. Michael Fehlings, currently a Professor in the Division of Neurosurgery has enjoyed outstanding success as a research scientist focusing on spinal cord protection after injury and as a spine surgeon. He is currently the Krembil Chair in Neural Repair and Regeneration, Director of the Neuroscience Program at University Health Network, and the newly appointed Director of the University of Toronto Neuroscience Program. Albert Yee is an Associate Professor in the Division of Orthopaedics and is an active surgeon scientist focusing his research efforts on biomaterials and biomedical engineering. He is cross appointed to IBBME at the University and is an Associate Scientist in Clinical Integrative Biology at the Holland Musculoskeletal Science Program at Sunnybrook.

The University of Toronto has a rich history in spine surgery. The enormous clinical volume of patients at our fully-affiliated hospital institutions and city-wide research networks nurtures the transformation of clinical care through translational and basic research in addition to presenting a unique opportunity in surgical training and education of future spinal specialists.

While there has yet to be a national accreditation process in the formal certification of a spine surgeon, there has been incremental progress and opportunity for broader trans-disciplinary training in surgery, with spinal surgical trainees gaining further exposure to and benefiting from the diverse backgrounds of both orthopaedic surgery and neurosurgery. The Department of Surgery has been keenly interested in the functional integration of specialties.

The program will focus on coordinated city-wide professorships, rounds and other educational programs. It will foster joint clinical fellowships. It will coordinate the city-wide capture of clinical and research data. It will explore and develop new models of multidisciplinary health care delivery that focus on a system-wide approach. The program will seek to engage our nonsurgical clinical and research colleagues with a vision of transformational patient care.

Zane Cohen Clinical Fellowship Achievement Award

Zane Cohen

The Department of Surgery is pleased to announce a new award oriented toward clinical fellows. Dr Zane Cohen has made a generous donation to enable this award of $1,000 to be awarded annually.

Clinical fellows in our Department often achieve significant accomplishments, which until now have gone unrecognized. This award is to be made annually, in perpetuity. The award will be adjudicated based on an assessment of the most significant achievement made by a clinical fellow. Achievement will be defined as any significant contribution made in any of the domains of medicine: clinical research, basic science research, publications, presentations, medical education/teaching, medical administrative systems, delivery of medical care, medical related community service, etc. The achievement or work may have taken place at the University of Toronto, in Canada, or in any international jurisdiction. The only limiting definition is that the majority of the work must take place while a clinical fellow in the Department of Surgery.

The selection process is as follows. The applicant, or the clinical fellow's supervisor, may initiate the process. The clinical fellow is asked to write a one-page summary of the achievement; this is to be supplemented by a one-page letter of support from the clinical fellow's supervisor. This application will be submitted to the Clinical Fellowship Coordinator of the division of the clinical fellow. Each of the 8 divisions in our Department will then select one nominee application from their division to be submitted to the selection committee comprised of Zane Cohen, the Chair of the Department, and the Director of Clinical Fellowship of the Department. The award will be announced at the annual Gallie Day Dinner. The application deadline will be March 31^st of each year.

This award is eligible to any clinical fellow in the divisions of Orthopaedics, General Surgery, Urology, Vascular Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Plastic Surgery, and Neurosurgery. As well, postgraduate trainees (clinical fellows and residents) in the surgical subspecialties training programs of Surgical Oncology, Colo-Rectal Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Paediatric, and Vascular Surgery are eligible.

David Latter Surgery Department Vice Chair of Education

David Latter

I am very please to announce that David Latter from the Division of Cardiac Surgery at St. Michael's Hospital has been appointed to the position of Vice Chair of Education, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto for a five year term. David will take over from John Bohnen who has assumed the position of Vice Dean, Clinical Affairs for the Faculty of Medicine. I'm sure you will all join me in thanking John for his many years of extraordinary contributions to this department. His role as an educational administrator, staunch student advocate and executive advisor has been unparalleled.

In welcoming David, we will be going from strength to strength. David did his medical school training, general surgery residency, and residency in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at McGill, finishing in 1989. He then went to Stanford where he trained under Norman Shumway. He returned to Montreal where he worked as a faculty member at McGill and at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He was successfully recruited to St. Michael's Hospital in 1996. For the last 12 years David has been one of our most outstanding teachers. He has served as a Royal College Examiner for many years and served as the Chief Examiner for Cardiac Surgery from 2000- 2003. At that juncture he became the Program Director for Cardiac Surgery at the University of Toronto. In 2005 he chaired a task force on clinical fellowships for the department and was named inaugural Director for Clinical Fellowships in 2006. In 2007 he was appointed Associate Surgeon-In-Chief at St. Michael's Hospital.

Please join me in congratulating David on this appointment.

Richard K. Reznick