National award recipients commended for major contributions to medical education, CanMEDS integration
Save the date! September 21 is our 2022 Awards Ceremony, where we will celebrate this year’s award recipients. Register today for the free, virtual event.
Join us in celebrating two new national award recipients. These medical educators are impacting residents, contributing to scholarship, and helping shape future leaders.
Advancing scholarship in medical education
Dr. Susan Humphrey-Murto is the recipient of the 2022 Duncan Graham Award for Outstanding Contribution to Medical Education
Dr. Susan Humphrey-Murto (photo submitted)
Rheumatologist Susan Humphrey-Murto, MD, FRCPC, is known for being ahead of the curve as a medical educator. An associate professor in the Department of Medicine and Department of Innovation in Medical Education at the University of Ottawa, her research interests include performance-based assessment, rater cognition, consensus group methods and best practices for training physicians in the use of electronic health records.
Named this year’s recipient of the Duncan Graham Award for Outstanding Contribution to Medical Education, Dr. Humphrey-Murto’s contribution to medical education is largely shaped by her scholarly publications. These include articles in high-impact journals like Academic Medicine, Medical Education, Advances in Health Sciences Education and the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. She has published 57 peer-reviewed papers, four book chapters and has 1,675 citations.
Dr. Humphrey-Murto’s current research focuses on learner education handover. A lack of information sharing about the learner between different stages of training leads to wasted time rediscovering strengths and areas for improvement. Learner education handover provides a potential solution, but uptake has been slow due to concerns about the potential for bias. Dr. Humphrey-Murto and her team are studying if and how learner education handover has the potential to bias raters.
“A paucity of research in medical education led her team to publish a scoping and narrative review that integrated literature from multiple disciplines including business, psychology, sports and education that demonstrated that when prior performance information is provided to a rater about an individual, this can lead to bias, and this is more pronounced when the information is negative,” writes Bernard Jasmin, PhD, dean and professor in the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine, in his nomination letter.
Dr. Humphrey-Murto has held several key leadership positions including as deputy registrar for the Medical Council of Canada and co-chair of the Royal College’s Education Research and Development Committee. For over a decade, she has been director of the University of Ottawa’s Fellowship in Medical Education.
“In this role, she has trained scores of future leaders in medical education who have gone on to careers as educators not just in Canada but internationally,” explains Lorne Wiesenfeld, MDCM, FRCPC, vice-dean of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine, in his letter of support. “Much of the medical education leadership in the Gulf States can be traced back to this fellowship. She has mentored countless educators both formally and informally.”
Nurturing professional identity development with the CanMEDS Roles
Dr. Mala Joneja is the recipient of the 2022 Royal College AMS Donald Richards Wilson Award for CanMEDS Integration
Dr. Mala Joneja (photo submitted)
Little is done at Queen’s University related to the CanMEDS Roles “that does not have Mala’s fingerprints on it.” These words, written by nominator David Taylor, MD, FRCPC, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Queen’s, reflect the skill of Mala Joneja, MD, FRCPC, in integrating the CanMEDS Roles across the spectrum of UGME, PGME and continuing professional development at the university.
Dr. Joneja is creative when it comes to integrating the CanMEDS Roles, especially in developing reflective practice in trainees with a focus on professional identity development. She is this year’s recipient of the Royal College AMS Donald Richards Wilson Award for CanMEDS Integration.
Dr. Joneja’s work in this area started with the co-development of CanMEDS learning modules, used in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. These interactive online modules support student reflection on clinical experiences related to each of the roles.
“At a time when the CanMEDS Framework was still relatively new, her work on this project brought clarity to their value in shaping curricula and the aspiring physicians in our medical school,” writes Dr. Taylor.
Later, as residency program director for Rheumatology and associate program director for the Core Internal Medicine Residency Program, she integrated the CanMEDS Roles in new ways.
“For example, all CORE IM [Internal Medicine] residents are now required to complete written reflective exercises for each of the roles, created and coordinated by Mala,” explains Dr. Taylor. “The exercise was itself highly valuable for residents; but the time she took to respond in writing to each resident’s seven submissions was awe-inspiring. Each resident got a personalized and detailed response from her.”
In subsequent positions, her work has highlighted “the natural relationship between the [CanMEDS] framework and important aspects of physicianship including wellness, professional identity development and, most recently, the advancement of equity, diversity, inclusion, indigeneity and accessibility,” adds Dr. Taylor.
“Trainees in these programs have the space to debrief on hidden curriculum experiences, receive personal feedback and mentorship through this process.”
Dr. Joneja is also recognized as “a physician who has completely integrated the CanMEDS Roles into her own professional identity,” shares colleague Leslie Flynn, MD, FRCPC, a professor at Queen’s University, in her letter of support. “She is an exceptional scholar, professional, communicator, leader, collaborator and advocate.”
Dr. Joneja has widely shared her scholarly work on the integration of the CanMEDS Roles at provincial, national and international medical education conferences.
Karen Laframboise | April 29, 2022
