AM Workshops

Authors: David Kaplan, Nadine Laraya, Karine Baser

Description:

Join us for an engaging workshop where we will delve into how we can understand what high quality care looks like and close quality gaps when managing conditions such as Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and Diabetes. Learn about the Quality Standards and Evidence2Practice programs at Ontario Health, and how they can both be used for Quality Improvement in your own practice and across the province.

Participants will gain valuable insights into how the Quality Standards present evidence-based practices and system-wide collaborative strategies aimed at improving patient outcomes. Using the CHF, COPD, and Diabetes Quality Standard documents and related Evidence2Practice tools as examples we will explore approaches to addressing the specific clinical quality gaps that exist in the management of these prevalent chronic conditions.

This workshop isn't just about theory – it's hands-on. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to engage with Electronic Medical Record (EMR) clinical tools (Evidence2Practice) that are specifically crafted to support and streamline daily practice. Through interactive demonstrations, participants will learn how to integrate these tools seamlessly into their workflow, enhancing both efficiency and the quality of patient care, as well as providing an avenue to facilitate formal QI projects in academic settings.

Authors: Matt Orava, Dr. Chris Tomlinson

Description:

The Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine brings together researchers, health practitioners, families and knowledge resources to improve the nutrition of children. The University of Toronto Department of Family and Community Medicine is one of the key academic departments involved in the Centre. This workshop will use case-based presentations and allow for interactive audience participation using tools such as electronic audience polling. This will introduce participants to initiatives at the Lawson Centre including innovative undergraduate medical education programs, nutrition education for health-care professionals and trainees, and community-level advocacy efforts. With a focus on the culinary nutrition education workshop, clinical assessment of nutrition status, patient education resources and food security, participants will gain a better understanding of curriculum, clinical tools and opportunities to address access to nutritious foods in diverse groups of children. Discussion will allow participants to share nutrition education approaches being used across teaching environments. At the end of this workshop, participants will have further resources to bring to the clinic to aid in trainee and patient education.

Authors: Robyn Moxley, Bailey Hollister, Dr. Alena Hung

Description:

The 2SLGBTQIA+ community is an extremely resilient group - in particular, the older adults who have endured years of interpersonal, institutional, and structural discrimination based on their sexuality and gender identity. Their identities and experiences may be effectively erased as they enter the healthcare and long-term care systems, as cisheteronormativity impacts how they are perceived by providers. They are also at risk of discrimination and abuse, and in some cases even go "back in the closet" for their own safety.

This workshop will provide a brief introduction to the historical experiences of older 2SLGBTQIA+ adults through the decades in Canada, as well as some of the unique challenges they experience today. We will explore ways we can change our perceptions of older 2SLGBTQIA+ adults and provide more inclusive care to this often neglected population.

Authors: Kimbery Wintemute, Susan Deering, Samantha Green, and Karen Cameron

Description:

Climate change (CC) is causing negative effects that have both direct and indirect impacts on human health. Many Canadian and global institutions have declared CC to be the greatest public health emergency currently facing humanity. Some groups more vulnerable to the health effects of CC include the very young, Indigenous populations, the poor, racialized groups, and the elderly.

Many primary care providers do not feel they have the knowledge or skills to counsel their patients or educate learners on CC related health issues. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), when learners in health disciplines are not prepared in this area, the capacity of healthcare systems to adapt to and mitigate the effects of CC is limited. Through the CFPC, Canadian family medicine residents requested more deliberate education around planetary health in 2020.

This workshop will review the known direct and indirect health impacts of climate change on human health. We will consider how this affects primary care practice. We will discuss practical strategies for helping patients to adapt and protect themselves against specific risks. Small groups will explore ways to incorporate CC health risks in clinical teaching with medical learners.

Authors: Eva Knifed

Description:

We will provide an overview of the development, implementation, and dissemination of an evidence-based ethics curriculum at the DFCM.

Attendees will be introduced to the IDEA framework and the intention and impact tool that are used in the postgraduate curriculum as the basis for the ethics program. They will have the opportunity to apply the tools to ethical dilemmas and will work in groups to arrive at a resolution.

Presenter: Arun Sayal

Description:

Some fractures are serious and significant and require specialist management. Other fractures are minor, heal well and can be well managed by family physicians. This case-based workshop will help you appreciate serious from minor fractures and then will focus on the management of minor ones.

Authors: Margarita Lam Antoniades

Description:

Patient safety (PS) is increasingly recognized as a vital component of medical practice. The WHO patient safety curriculum has defined learning objectives for for medical schools. The CanMeds competencies include “ Analyzing patient safety incidents to enhance systems of care “ ( Leader 1.3) and “ Contributing to a culture that promotes patient safety” Leader 1.2 Effective implementation of patient safety curricula, however, is still needed. ( Vogt, 2020) In Canada, Kassam et al. found that explicit PS content was missing from important national residency curriculum objectives and accreditation standards, resulting in unclear expectations for PS teaching. Similarly in the United States, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education highlighted the importance of residency PS education, but its 2018 Clinical Learning Environment Review Program report concluded that only a limited number of residents are receiving appropriate PS education.

Many barriers exist to incorporating patient safety teaching in medical school curricula, including competing demands, lack of time and faculty comfort, and underdeveloped local PS cultures and systems.

In parallel with the need for robust structural systems, simple, practical tools for teaching PS are needed. We have developed and evaluated such a tool, which we will share during this workshop and give an opportunity to participants to apply it to cases. We will discuss setting the stage for having sensitive conversations around safety incidents and how to create a psychologically safe environment. We will also discuss creating local structures to support patient safety teaching, including faculty development.

Authors: Dana Arafeh, Dr. Melanie Henry, Dr. Noor Ramji, Mrs. Tricia Thomson, Mr Atif Zia and Mr Amadou Barry

Description:

Patients are experts through their diverse healthcare experiences and play a crucial role in shaping primary care. DFCM patient partners – patients at our teaching clinics – joined our department in June of 2022 and are experts on the primary care patient experience. Representing all teaching clinics, they've actively collaborated on various initiatives, crafting educational materials, guiding decisions connected to the patient experience survey, and have contributed to department decisions, including our strategic planning.

Our workshop spotlights patient partners' voices, to offer insights on what truly matters in the world of family medicine. We'll showcase their involvement in department activities, and shed light on how we can use patient stories to drive improvement in primary care. We will illustrate how patient stories can be used to support primary care teams to better understand a problem, inform improvement, and foster accountability back to our patients.

The session explores tailored strategies for healthcare professionals navigating burnout and resource constraints. Leveraging tools from the DFCM Patient Engagement Toolbox like the DFCM Patient Engagement Roadmap and compensation structure, we'll illustrate practical methods of engagement. We will also present topics of engagement identified by DFCM patient partners and faculty illustrating examples of areas of patient engagement in primary care. Through a reflective exercise, participants will apply these tools to their practice, bringing forth projects or queries.

Attendees depart with a robust toolkit, concrete examples of engaging patient partners, and practical insights, fully prepared to champion patient engagement in today's family medicine landscape.

Authors: Navsheer Gill, Noah Ivers, Noor Ramji, Susie Kim

Description:

Family physicians represent the foundation of a patient-centred, effective and efficient health system. Our expertise are valued and our patients appreciate us; however, this job can be hard, frustrating and exhausting.

The Peers for Joy in Work program has been designed in collaboration with certified charting coach, Dr. Sarah Smith, to train family physicians to help themselves and colleagues help rediscover what drove us to become family physicians and identify ways to create joy in clinical work again.

Family medicine can be tough, and we all know what it feels like to have hard days, weeks or even months. We also know that being a family physician is a privilege and that helping your colleagues remember this and finding ways to sustain their role could impact hundreds or thousands of people. To date, 30 family doctors have been trained as Peer Guides for Joy in Work.

This workshop will create a space for participants to discuss challenges in family medicine, what creates our feelings and how to experience the discomfort of change in order to create a different experience of clinical family medicine. Participants will have an opportunity to assess their circumstances, learn about the skills that can help promote joy in work and have an opportunity to practice these skills in real time.

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

An education scholarship consultation service journey: Navigating from clear goals to dissemination
Presenters: Milessa Nutik, Kulamakan Kulasegaram, Risa Bordman, Rachel Ellis, Milena Forte, Joyce Nyhof-Young, Betty Onyura, Nick Petten, Nicole Woods, Sarah Wright, Risa Freeman

Healing Ourselves through Healing Patients: How to Leverage Generalism and McWhinney’s philosophy for FM
Presenters: Aisha Husain, Renee Logan

Preparing health care educators for their teaching roles using technology: A mixed methods study
Presenters: Deanna Telner, Heather MacNeill

The Canadian Physicians Financial Wellness Conference: A novel initiative to improve physician wellness through financial literacy
Presenters: Stephanie Zhou, Thrmiga Sathiyamoorthy, George Kachkovski,

The Role of International Medical Graduates (IMGs) in Advancing Equitable Primary Care in Ontario
Presenters: Cindy Sinclair, Amirreza Salamat, Ibukun Abejirinde

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

Canadian Team to Improve Community-Based Cancer Care along the Continuum (CanIMPACT): Key Findings from the Research Program
Presenters: Eva Grunfeld, Bojana Petrovic

Closing the gap in access to HIV testing: Implementation and outcomes of a protocol for rapid HIV testing in the Emergency Department
Presenters: Megan Landes, Jennifer Hulme, Isaac Bogoch, Davor Brinc, Kyle Vose, Alexandra McKnight, Tony Mazzuli

Knowledge of anal cancer risk and attitudes towards anal screening among women living with HIV in Ontario
Presenters: Ashley Mah, Jennifer Gillis, Anita Benoit, Claire Kendall, Abigail Kroch, Ramandip Grewal, Mona Loutfy, Gina Ogilvie, Janet Raboud, Anita Rachlis, Anna Yeung, Mark Yudin, Ann Burchell

How Medical Schools Are Reviewing Curricula for Social Justice, Anti-Oppression and Advocacy: Lessons from the Literature
Presenter: Ritika Goel, Tracey Edelist, Hadeel Al Hadi, Ashley Li, Neha Shah, Christian Singh

Racial disparities and Factors Associated with Type 2 Diabetes screening in a large primary care setting
Presenters: Azza Eissa, Victoria Young, Stephanie Garies, Lisa Miller, Andrew Pinto

Presenters: Jeff Myers, Leah Steinberg, Nadia Incardona

Description:

The majority of people with serious illnesses are surprised when their illness progresses or when they experience a functional decline. The majority also wish to discuss their serious illness with clinicians, however in practice, few conversations about serious illness occur. Barriers that frequently prevent these conversations include unclear roles that have resulted from variable definitions of advance care planning and goals of care discussions, uncertainty with what to discuss and when to discuss it, inadequate training, and time constraints.

There is a shift underway to move from the idea that singular conversations about serious illness need to occur at specific points in an illness trajectory and towards brief, individualized encounters that occur over time. Emerging through discussions with frontline DFCM teachers, Preparing or Deciding is a simplified framework within which the components of serious illness communication can be understood. Recognizing that conversations about serious illness are either to help with preparing or deciding can bypass many of the barriers to having these conversations.

Participants of this workshop will become familiar with the Preparing or Deciding framework and its use as an approach to teaching family medicine learners how to have conversations with people living with serious illnesses. Participants will learn practical teaching strategies that reinforce a serious illness communication curriculum and that can be implemented right away in family medicine teaching practices.