Congratulations to:
October 2024
Robert Sternszus, MCDM, MA(Ed), FRCPC, who has been appointed as the Wendy MacDonald Chair in Pediatric Medical Education. This prestigious chair is named after the late Dr. Wendy MacDonald, a devoted pediatrician and teacher at McGill and the MCH for decades. This chair was conceived to support health professions education scholarship and to promote the development of educational research and other initiatives.
Maryam Wagner, PhD who has been promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor! Congratulations on this milestone achievement!
Carlos Gomez-Garibello, PhD who has been promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor! Congratulations on this milestone achievement!
Elisa Ruano Cea, MDCM, who has been appointed the Associate Chair [Education] for the Department of Pediatrics.
Dan Poenaru, MD, PhD, who has been appointed to the Order of Canada. The Order of Canada celebrates outstanding achievements and extraordinary contributions. Over the years, its members have been honoured for inspiring innovation, for shaping who we are, and for enriching Canada’s fabric.
Gabriel Venne, DO, PhD, who is a recipient of this year’s Osler Awards for Outstanding Teaching in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. The awards, presented for the first time to a recipient from each campus, are presented to professors in the Faculty who, in the opinion of the senior medical students, have made the most outstanding contribution to their medical education.
Yvonne Steinert, PhD for being recognized as one of the top 50 most cited primary care researchers in Canada as noted in Aggarwal M, Hutchinson B, Katz A, Wong ST, Gard Marshall E, Slade S. 2024. Assessing the impact of Canadian primary care research and researchers. Canadian Family Physician. 70(5):329-341.
Osamu Nomura, MD, MEd, IHSE PhD student, who was awarded the KAKEDA award, a young investigator award from the Japan Medical Education Foundation, for his research paper from his Master’s study at McGill. Nomura O, Wiseman J, Sunohara M, Akatsu H, Lajoie SP. 2022. Japanese medical learners’ achievement emotions: Accounting for culture in translating Western medical educational theories and instruments into an Asian context. Advances in Health Sciences Education. 26:1255-1276.
The Team of IHSE faculty and members, including Meredith Young, PhD (Axis 1 leader); Aliki Thomas, PhD (Knowledge Mobilization Committee Chair); Maryam Wager, PhD; Carlos Gomez-Garibello, PhD Beth-Ann Cummings, MD MSc; Lily HP Nguyen, MD MSc; who along with principal investigator, Christina St-Onge and other co-investigators from the University of Sherbrooke, the University of Laval, Université de Montreal, and Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, received an FRQ-SC team grant for their project entitled “La qualité des décisions qui s’appuient sur l’évaluation des apprentissages et des programmes : un enjeu societal. The quality of decisions made using assessment and evaluation data: a social stake.”
Laurie Plotnick, MDCM, who received and Institute of Health Sciences Education Innovation Seed fund for her project entitled: “McGill Healthcare-Management Case Competition: An Educational Program on Healthcare Flow Management.”
Ilana Bank, MDCM; Elisa Ruano-Cea MDCM MHPE; Najma Ahmed, MD and Meredith Young, PhD who were awarded the 2024 Medical Service Staff Association Pilot Grant from the Montreal Children’s Hospital Medical Service Staff Association for their project entitled, “Pediatric Sim-Gym: Gaining Strength in CBD.”
Antoine Pryzbylak-Brouillard and Allison Chrestensen, IHSE PhD Candidates, who were both awarded an IHSE Doctoral Student Research Award. This award is made possible through the Drs. Richard and Sylvia Cruess Legacy Fund.
April 2024
Community Members and Colleagues who participated in an outstanding inaugural Richard and Sylvia Cruess Symposium in Health Sciences Education: Insights and Innovation on May 14, 2024. A separate newsletter is being prepared to feature highlights of that day and will be forwarded soon.
IHSE Faculty Members, Graduate Students, and Postdoctoral Fellows who recently attended and presented at the International Congress on Academic Medicine (ICAM) in Vancouver. McGill was well represented at this year’s event!
The IHSE Admin Team who led an outstanding exhibitor booth at ICAM. The booth showcased the IHSE graduate programs, and served as a meeting hub for faculty members, doctoral students, and postdoctoral fellows.
Monica Molinaro, PhD, Assistant Professor at the IHSE, who has been awarded a four year Junior-1 Chercheuse-boursière (salary award) from the Fonds de Reserche du Québec – Santé (FRQS), for her program of research: “Moral distress and morally complex healthcare: what, who, and what to do?”
Allison Chrestensen, PhD candidate at the IHSE, who received an honorable mention in the International Conference on Academic Medicine 2024 Health Research Poster Competition, for her research entitled “Moral Distress is an Underrecognized Challenge in Residency Education: Findings from a Scoping Review”.
Allison Chrestensen, PhD candidate at the IHSE, who has successfully completed her comprehensive examination.
Jennifer Fitzpatrick, PhD candidate at the IHSE, who is the recipient of a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship.
Nancy Forget, PhD student at the IHSE, who is the recipient of a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship.
Carlos Gomez-Garibello, PhD, who recently presented at the University Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine Seminar Series on “Is it Significant? Uses and Applications of Statistics in 21st Century Research in Health and Veterinary Sciences Education.”
Susanne Mak, PhD, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation entitled “An Investigation into Attrition and Retention of Rehabilitation Professionals” on April 10, 2024.
Dan Poenaru who was recently featured in CBC’s The National, highlighting the impact of PetitVR in advancing pediatric trauma care. This innovative platform aims to enhance simulation training by offering an immersive training experience for trauma teams and was developed with the CommiSur Lab.
PetitVR was developed by Drs. Fabio Botelho, completing his PhD studies in Experimental Surgery at McGill University, his supervisor Dr. Dan Poenaru, pediatric surgeon, senior scientist at MUHC, and lead of the CommiSur Lab, in collaboration with PetitVR Inc’s co-founder and CommiSur’s Research Director, Elena Guadagno and UK's i3 Simulations. PetitVR was also featured in Canadian Healthcare Technology.
Robert Sternszus who will deliver the conference opening plenary at the International Conference on Residency Education on September 19, 2024 in Ottawa ON. Dr. Sternszus' contributions to medical education are significant, including being the recipient of a Certificate of Merit from the Canadian Association of Medical Education in 2021, as well as the 2022 Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada Young Educator Award.
March 2024
Shaifali Sandal and colleagues including IHSE Associate member Lorraine Bell, MDCM, FRCPC, IHSE Director Elizabeth Anne Kinsella, PhD and IHSE Postdoctoral Fellow Anita Slominska, PhD who received a 3-year Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) project grant for their project entitled “A health systems approach to improve the care of kidney transplant recipients with graft failure.”
Don Boudreau, MD, FRCPC who is the recipient of the AFMC Gold Humanisn Award and Lecture. This award was created in 2018 to emphasize, reinforce and enhance the importance of humanistic qualities among medical school students and faculty. Don will be presenting his lecture entitled “The 3 Ps of a Curricular Edifice” at ICAM 2024 in Vancouver on April 13.
Nathalie Buu, MDCM who is the recipient of the McGill’s PGME Program Director of the Year Award. Dr. Buu was Director of the McGill Anesthesiology Residency Program from 2014 to 2023.
Sherif Emil, MDCM, FACS, FRCSC, FAAP who received a 3-year award from the International Development, Aid, and Collaboration (IDAC) from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada for the project entitled: “Democratizing The TRiK: Expanding the Trauma Resuscitation in Kids Course to Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa.”
Recipients of a 2023 Department of Medicine Grant for Education Scholarship including Owen Dan Luo, Rosemarie Vincent, Ning-Zi Sun, MD, MHPE and Linda Snell, MD MHPE, for their project entitled “Evaluating the planetary health knowledge and beliefs of Canadian resident physicians involved in in-patient care” and Lindsey Gerstein, Ning-Zi Sun, Amal Bessissow and Joyce MW Moonen-van Loon for their project entitled “ Trainee and expert perspectives on competency-based training requirements for perioperative medicine training for medical specialists. “
Sean McWatt, PhD whose undergraduate research student, Cat Wang, won the Early-career Anatomist Publication Award from the American Association of Anatomists for her first-author paper, Visuospatial ability and student approach to learning as predictors of academic performance on written versus laboratory-based assessments in human anatomy. Professor McWatt and Cat Wang worked on this together during his time at McGill, and the IHSE is listed as one of the affiliations. Cat Wang is currently in the Public Health MSc program at McGill, and will receive the award at the Annual Meeting of the AAA, Anatomy Connected 2024, in Toronto (March 22-25).
Antoine Przybylak-Brouillard, PhD candidate who received a Dialogue McGill Research award funded by Health Canada. This award recognizes students in health and social services programs, who are researching access to health care and social services for the English-speaking community in Quebec.
Timothy Wideman, PhD who was named to Arthritis Society of Canada’s top 10 Research Advances of 2023 for his research on sensitivity to pain from physical activity.
Jeffrey Wiseman, MD, MEd, DRCPC who is the recipient of the AFMC Clinical Teacher Award. This award recognizes excellence in clinical teaching by an individual faculty member in a Faculty of Medicine in Canada. This award was established in 2014 and is intended to emphasize the importance of clinical teaching in academic medicine.
January 2024
Tamara Carver, PhD and Jeffrey Wiseman, MD who, along with colleagues, including IHSE Associate Member Gerald Fried, MDCM are the recipients of the Class of 77 MedEd Innovation Grants Program for their proposal entitled: “Development of an “E-XSimulation Booster Hub.”
Robert Sternszus, MDCM; Stuart Lubarsky, MD and Dr Keyvan Mohammad-Ali who were awarded and IHSE Innovation Seed fund for the proposal entitled: “Becoming medical educators: Exploring the impact of a novel curriculum for students and residents.”
Aliki Thomas, PhD and Louis-Pierre Auger, PhD who were awarded an IHSE Innovation Seed fund for the proposal entitled: “OT and Sexuality – An evidence-based curriculum to improve occupational therapy (OT) students’ competencies regarding sexuality across Canada”.
Meredith Young, PhD and IHSE colleagues Maryam Wagner, PhD; Ilana Bank, MDCM; Beth Cummings, MDCM, and Laura Elbaz, MD who were awarded an IHSE Research Seed fund for the proposal entitled: “First-person video capture of pivots in clinical reasoning in simulated emergency medicine cases: A
proof-of-concept study.”
Meredith Young, PhD; Carlos Gomez-Garibello, PhD and Maryam Wagner, PhD who were awarded the 2024 CAME Certificate of Merit2. They will be recognized at an upcoming virtual award event on Thursday, February 29 from 18h00 to 19h30; all CAME members are invited to attend.
Stuart Lubarsky, MD, MHPE and Robert Sternszus, MDCM, MEd, who are winners of the Learner and Faculty Award for Teaching Innovation3 for the Foundations in Medical and Health Sciences Education elective. The awards, offered by Office of the Vice-Dean, Education, and announced during Quebec’s
Teacher Appreciation Week, recognize innovative, effective and sustainable teaching strategies that have been shown to have a positive impact on learners and learning.
December 2023
Natalie Buu, MDCM, FRCPC, who is the recipient of the 2023 PGME Program Director Leadership Award.
Richard Cruess, MD who is the recipient of the 2023 Bronfman Department of Oncology Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sherif Emil, MDCM, FRCSC, FACS, FAAP who is the recipient of the 2023 Montreal Children’s Hospital Surgical Teaching Award for the second time.
Kuo-Chen Liao, a past Master’s student whose research paper Striving to thrive or striving to survive: Professional identity constructions of medical trainees in clinical assessment activities was published in Medical Education. Kuo-Chen Liao was also was selected for the 2023 research awards by the Taiwan Association of medical Education, and invited to speak about the paper on the Medical Education Podcasts
November 2023
Dr. Charo Rodriguez who is a recipient of the 2023 Excellence in Reviewing Award for Academic Medicine by the AAMC in recognition of her service as a peer reviewer for the journal Academic Medicine.
Dr. Thomas Hutchison who chaired the hugely successful 5th Annual Whole Person Care Conference at McGill University from October 19-22. The international event was an incredible success with many members of the IHSE community participating as organizers or presenters at the conference.
October 2023
Ning-Zi Sun, MD, MHPE - who was recently promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine.
September 2023
Aliki Thomas, PhD, who is the recipient of the Canada Research Chair in Education, Practice and Policy for Evidence-Based Health Care, CIHR, Tier 2.
Nicole Ventura, PhD who was the recipient of the Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching – Associate Professor category.
Incoming PhD students Khoa Duong, MD, Nancy Forget, MSc & Niki Soilis,MEd who are the inaugural recipients of the Sylvia Cruess Excellence in Health Sciences Education Doctoral Research Award, Entrance Scholarship that Recognizes academic excellence, and strong potential to contribute to the field of health sciences education.
Michelle Elizov, MD who has been appointed as the interim McGill Division Director of General Internal Medicine.
Maxime Denis, PhD who is a recipient of the Institute of Health Sciences Education Innovation and Research Seed Fund for his proposal entitled: Assessment of critical-thinking skills acquisition in health sciences
Lauri Plotnick, MDCM who, along with her colleagues in the Eating Disorders Program team, was one of the recipients of the Awards of Excellence from the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation. The awards honour staff members of The Children’s and community leaders who, every day, find Unexpected Ways to Heal.
IHSE members who presented at AMEE August 2023, Glasgow Scotland: Donald Boudreau, Allison Chrestensen, Beth-Ann Cummings, Nissim Maxim Frija-Gruman, Matthew Hunt, Elizabeth Anne Kinsella, Yvonne Steinert, Robert Sternszus, Linda Snell, Ning-Zi Sun, Aliki Thomas, Jeffrey Wiseman
June 2023
Ethan Bazos, IHSE PhD student, working with Meredith Young, PhD who has been awarded a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), for his project entitled “The use of authentic assessment in anatomical sciences education: From conception to ensuring quality practices.”
Antoine Przybylak-Brouillard, IHSE PhD student, working with Peter Nugus, PhD and Sylvie Lambert, PhD who has been awarded a doctoral fellowship from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS), for his project “Learning to implement eHealth technologies: Healthcare professionals.”
Dr. Fabio Botelho, a PhD student with the CommiSur lab, under the supervision of Dr. Dan Poenaru has been awarded a CIHR Doctoral Fellowship for his project "Testing Debriefing as a Tool to Improve Non-Technical Skills in Pediatric Trauma." Fabio is also the recipient of the “Marika Zelenka Roy Simulation Prize”, of the 2023 McGill Clinical Innovation Competition, for the "PetitVR - a virtual reality simulation module for trauma training."
Sherif Emil, MDCM, FRCSC, FAAP, who hosted the first Canadian conference on Pediatric Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) at the MUHC by the title: ERAS: A New Era in Pediatric Surgical Care on April 28.
Jason Harley, PhD (co-principle investigator) who, along with colleagues, is the recipient of a New Frontiers in Research Fund grant for a project entitled: “Detecting emotion activation using wearable biosensors and developing an application to promote emotion regulation using smartwatch feedback: Promoting effective parenting for children with ADHD.”
Susanne Lajoie, PhD who was named a Distinguished Fellow in recognition of her significant contribution to the quality of education in Quebec by the Ordre de l’excellence en éducation du Québec
Mélanie Mondou, MD, MPHE, who was reappointed Associate Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Norma Ponzoni, RN, MScN, MEd, PhD(c) and Gabriel Venne, DO, MSc, PhD, who have been named to the Faculty Honour List for Education Excellence. Please join us in congratulating them at the Faculty Honour List Symposium on Thursday, June 8, 2023, which will be held in the Meakins Amphitheatre at the McIntyre Building. To RSVP for this symposium, please click here.
Aliki Thomas, PhD, MEd, OT(C), egr, who is the inaugural recipient of the Institute of Health Sciences Education Research and Catalyst Award. This award recognizes faculty members who have shown a commitment to catalyzing, supporting, and facilitating research and scholarship in Health Sciences Education.
April 2023
Jennifer Fitzpatrick who is the recipient of the Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors 2023 Research Grant for her research proposal titled “Understanding attrition from genetic counselling: The role of educational programs.”
March 2023
Dr. Miriam Boillat who is the recipient of the 2023 Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) Award for Outstanding Contribution to Faculty Development in Canada.
Dr. Ning-Zi Sun and Dr. Thomas Hutchinson who are the recipients of the 2023 CAME Certificate of Merit. The certificate of Merit promotes, recognizes and rewards faculty committed to medical education in Canadian medical schools.
Graduate student, Dr. Osamu Nomura who is the recipient of the 2023 CAME Rising Star – Certificate of Excellence. This award is intended to recognize learners who have demonstrated a commitment and/or passion for medical education.
February 2023
Joanne Alfieri, MMEd, MDCM, FRCPC, who is the recipient of the Institute of Health Sciences Education’s 2023 Class of ’77 MedEd Innovation Grants Program for her proposal entitled “Simulation-based educational intervention of a brachytherapy emergency for an interprofessional team.” Dr. Alfieri was also appointed as Assistant Dean, PGME curricula.
Ethan Bazos, PhD(c) who was awarded a peer-reviewed competitive graduate bursary from the Research Group in Pursuit of Validity (RGPV) funded as a team grant by the FRQ-SC.
Stephanie LeBlanc-Omstead, PhD and Elizabeth Anne Kinsella, PhD whose paper “Come and share your story and make everyone cry”: Complicating service user educator storytelling in health professional education, published in Advances in Health Sciences Education was identified by John Hopkins medical School as a “MedEd Must Read” article for December 2022.
Allison Odger, PhD who along with Yvonne Steinert, PhD is the recipient of the Institute of Health Sciences Education Innovation and Research Seed Fund in the research category for her proposal entitled “Travelling Concepts and Methodological Engagement: A Qualitative Study of Research Reflexivity in Health Sciences Education.”
Norma Ponzoni, RN, MScN, Med, PhD(c)who has been promoted to Associate Professor at the McGill Ingram School of Nursing.
Robert Sternszus, MDCM, Med, who has been promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Institute of Health Sciences Education.
Meredith Young, PhD who is working with Drs. Akina Fay and Anali Maneshi. The team has received funds from the Programme de subvention de rescherche de la FMRQ for their project entitled Daily feedback conversation in the emergency department: Resident and clinical teacher perspectives.
Gabriel Venne, PhD who was appointed as the new Director of the Division of Anatomical Sciences. McGill’s Division of Anatomical Sciences was created in 2014, by the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at McGill, to address the expanding and diverse demands on services provided within the Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences and Dentistry, as well as external to McGill
December 2022
Alexandra Cohen, Yvonne Steinert, PhD and Elisa Ruano Cea, MDCM, MHPE, FRCPC who received a Research Paper Award for their presentation given at AMEE Lyon 2022 entitled “Student-as-teacher curricula: Literature-informed recommendations for undergraduate medical education”
Jeffrey Wiseman, MD, Med, FRCPC, who was recently appointed the position of Director of Education for the Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning (SCSIL) in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
November 2022
IHSE members Joanne Alfieri, Farhan Bhanji, Richard Cruess, Gerard Fried, Jason Harley, Susanne Lajoie, Elizabeth Anne Kinsella, Saleem Razack, Linda Snell, Robert Sternszus, Yvonne Steinert, Ning-Zi Sun, and Jeffrey Wiseman who participated in the International Conference on Residency Education in Montreal in October. We had a tremendous showing of IHSE members involved in planning and presenting at the conference. A special tribute to Sylvia Cruess’ contributions to MEdEd was also a memorable part of the conference. Kudos to all who were involved in making this such an exceptional event!
Tamara Carver, PhD who is the 2022 recipient of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Maude Abbott Prize. The Maude Abbott prize was established in 2010 by the Faculty in order to recognize outstanding female faculty members with academic appointments who excel in Teaching, Research or Administration in the early stages of their career.
Nicole Gignac, who is the recipient of the 2022 Pamela Chase Award (Clerical classification). The VP-Dean of Medicine and Health Sciences Awards of Excellence, also known as the Ovation Awards, recognize remarkable managerial, clerical, and technical staff members from the Faculty.
Yvonne Steinert, PhD who has received the AAMC Award for Excellence in Medical Education. This award honors extraordinary individual or team contributions to medical schools and to the medical education community as a whole. This award recognizes the highest standards in medical education and is the AAMC’s most prestigious honor. She will receive the award in Nashville, Tennessee, in November.
October 2022
Terry Hébert, PhD who has been re-appointed Assistant Dean, Biomedical Science Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Prof. Hébert, the first person to hold this position, was initially appointed to the role in 2018.
Annette Majnemer, PhD whose CHILD-BRIGHT Network’s application to the SPOR Networks – Knowledge Mobilization and Implementation Science competition was awarded a CIHR grant. This will allow CHILD-BRIGHT to realize its mission for Phase 2 of moving its patient-oriented research into action through insight and methods grounded in implementation science and knowledge mobilization that embed the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization and Indigenization.
Baijayanta Mukhopadhyay, MCDM, the 2021-2022 Richard and Sylvia Cruess Faculty Scholar in Health Sciences Education who has been appointed Director, Office of Social Accountability and Community Engagement, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Mukhopadhyay replaces Saleem Razack, MD, the inaugural Director.
Linda Snell, MD who is the first recipient of the McGill Department of Medicine Clinician Educator Award. Dr. Snell was nominated for this award by Dr. Ning-Zi Sun, Dr. Beth-Ann Cummings, and Dr. Michelle Elizov in recognition of her excellence as a clinician educator, as a ‘physician who applies theory to education practice, engages in education scholarship, and serves as a consultant to other health professionals on education issues
Linda Snell, MD who was recently profiled in the Department of Medicine’s 2021 Annual report, (see pages 36-38). “Dr. Linda Snell is redefining the way medical professionals learn to teach.”
Aliki Thomas, PhD who along with colleagues was awarded a CIHR research grant for their project entitled “Effectiveness of a customized digital platform to increase coordination of care and uptake of evidence-based practices: A stepped-wedge design.” The same team was awarded CIHR bridge funding for the project.
September 2022
Lorraine Bell, MD, FRCPC, who is the recipient of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Recognition Award. This award is given to a physician who has had a lasting, positive impact on the MCH.
Farhan Bhanji, MD, MSc (Ed), who has been appointed Vice-Dean, Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Farhan replaces Annette Majnemer, PhD, who recently completed her second term in the position.
Farhan Bhanji, MD, MSc (Ed), Niki Soilis, MEd, along with colleagues, Tamara Carver, PhD, Fernanda Claudio, PhD, Françoise Filion, and Saleem Razack, MD who are the recipients of the Institute of Health Sciences Education Innovation and Research Seed Fund for their proposal entitled “Creating an Interprofessional, Intersectoral and Multimodal Educational Program for Gender-Based Violence Screening and Referral.”
Tamara Carver, PhD who has been promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor at the Institute of Health Sciences Education.
Tamara Carver, PhD and colleagues at the Office of Ed-Tech and the Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning who received a gift of $1.5 M from the Amelia and Lino Saputo Foundation. The gift will expand opportunities for online learning in dementia education and other community-based and professional training initiatives. The award will be used to support learning about immersive educational technologies, such as Virtual Reality(VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) and precision medication education using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Tamara Carver, PhD who is a recipient of the Class of Medicine 1970 Education Award for Teaching Excellence and Innovation. This award is designed to support a faculty member who wishes to learn and/or further develop a skill, which can be applied directly to the education of McGill medical students and residents. Prof. Carver will use the funds to dedicate time to learn about the application of immersive educational technologies, such as interactive Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), and precision medical education using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Dan Poenaru, MD, PhD, along with IHSE colleagues Jason Harley, PhD, and Gerald Fried, MD and PhD student Dr. Fabio Botelho, who were awarded the RI-MUHC Trottier Webster Innovation Competition Award Grant for their project entitled: “Pediatric Trauma Innovative Training in VR (PeTIT-VR) Increases Trainees’ Performance in Pediatric Trauma.” (December 2022 – November 2023).
Dan Poenaru, MD, PhD, who was awarded an operating grant for his project entitled: "A voice to the voiceless: Longitudinal patient-reported outcomes, experiences, social determinants of health and health services utilization after major neonatal surgery" (July 2022 – June 2023). He is also co-PI on an awarded planning grant to explore partnerships and opportunities for the participation of Indigenous children and families in the Pediatric Inpatient Research Network (June 2022-June 2023).
Charo Rodriguez, MD, MSc, PhD, who is the recipient of the Institute of Health Sciences Education Innovation and Research Seed Fund for her project entitled “Mentoring Relationships in the Community: Nurturing Empathy and Psychosocial Wellbeing in Undergraduate Medical Education.”
Meredith Young, Sneha Shankar, Beth Cummings, Stuart Lubarsky, and Laura Elbaz recently received research seed funding from the ReTHINK Clinical Reasoning Conference to investigate how patient-focused clinical assessments (i.e. assessments done on patients for documentation and decision making) shape the clinical reasoning process in practicing physicians.
May / June 2022
Ilana Bank who is the recipient of the Anna Jarvis Paediatric Emergency Medicine Teaching Award. This award recognizes an individual in the field of paediatric emergency medicine who has been identified as an exceptional educator at all levels – undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing education.
Farhan Bhanji along with colleague, Niki Soilis who were the recipients of the John G Wade Visiting Professorship in Patient Safety and Simulation-Based Medical Education at the Hospital for Sick Children / University of Toronto (March 31 – April 1)
Jason Harley who has received tenure and has been promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery.
Elizabeth Anne Kinsella whose doctoral student, Vivetha Thambinathan (Western University) is a recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada doctoral fellowship for her project on “Historical trauma and healing through arts based participatory action research with 2nd generation refugee youth in Canada”.
Sean McWatt whose BSc undergraduate student, Cat Wang was selected as a finalist and won second place in the Educational Research Platform Award competition at the American Association of Anatomists 2022 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia for her presentation titled, “Student Approach to Learning and Visuospatial Ability as Independent Predictors of Academic Performance in Human Anatomy.” (April 2, 2022)
Charo Rodriguez who was awarded funds from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for her project entitled “Professional Identity Work of Nurse Practitioners and Family Physicians in Primary Care in Quebec and Ontario.” Dr. Rodriguez is the PI; co- investigators include Kelley Kilpatrick, Douglas Archibald, Roland Grad, and Katya Loban; collaborators include Francesco Luconi.
The Family Medicine Education Research Group (FMER), including IHSE members Charo Rodriguez (P-I), and Peter Nugus and Tamara Carver, who was awarded a team grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC), Research Team Support Program.
Linda Snell who is the recipient of the Prix d’excellence en médecine interne 2022. The Award of Excellence in Internal Medicine, presented annually by the Association of Internal Medicine Specialists of Quebec (ASMIQ), recognizes the academic, clinical or community career of one of its members who has contributed to the advancement of internal medicine.
Yvonne Steinert who was awarded the Spinoza Chair in medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Amsterdam. The chair is named for Baruch Spinoza, the 17th-century Dutch enlightenment philosopher. It was established in 1995 by the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam. The prestigious visiting professorship is awarded to two prominent thinkers each year, one in medicine and the other in philosophy. She will be in residence at the university for a week during the month of June 2022, giving “master classes” on different aspects of faculty development and professional identity formation. She will also deliver the Spinoza Lecture in June, discussing the notion of teaching as leadership.
Robert Sternszus who was named to the 2022 Faculty Honour List for Educational Excellence in recognition of exceptional contributions to education in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Robert Sternszus who is the recipient of the AFMC Young Educators Award that recognizes individuals within their first seven years as a faculty member who have produced change withing their university or within the medical community as a whole through their vision, work, and interaction with colleagues.
Aliki Thomas who received her Chercheur Boursier Senior FRQ-S Salary award for her program of research entitled: Optimisation des pratiques fondées sur les données probantes en matière de réadaptation post-AVC: mobilisation des connaissances intégrée aux milieux de l'éducation, de la pratique et des politiques (Optimizing evidence-based practices in stroke rehabilitation: integrated knowledge translation with education, practice and policy environments). Aliki ranked second in her category!
Gabriel Venne who was awarded the Leo Yaffe Award recognizing superior teaching at the undergraduate level in the Faculty of Science.
Gabriel Venne whose student Beryl Arnould, was selected as a finalist for the Undergraduate Student Poster Award at the American Association of Anatomists 2022 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia for her poster titled, “Anatomical variations of the liver and its suspensory system: a cadaver-based study” (April 4, 2022)
Nicole Ventura who was named to the 2022 Faculty Honour List for Educational Excellence in recognition of exceptional contributions to education in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Meredith Young who is the recipient of the Early Career Medical Educator (ECME) of Canada Mentor Award. The ECME awards honour contributions to the field of medical education, with an emphasis on the advancement, amplification, support, promotion, and mentorship of medical educators – those involved in education scholarship and research – in our community.
Meredith Young who received her Chercheur Boursier Junior 2 FRQ-S Salary award for her program of research entitled: le raisonnement Clinique et les erreurs diagnostiques: Raisonnement en context d’incertitude our d’ambiguité. Meredith ranked second in her category!
April 2022
Saleem Razack (MD, FRCPC), who is one of the recipients of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s 12th annual John A Benson Jr., MD Professionalism Article Prize for the article “Professionalism revisited during the pandemic of our time: COVID-19 and racism” coauthored with Zareen Zaidi and Arno K Kumagai.
Elisa Ruano-Cea, MD who recently published her first senior authored research paper in Academic Medicine - one of the top journals in the field of medical education. Dr. Ruano Cea mentored medical student Alexandra Cohen in work culminating in a publication entitled, "Teaching Medical Students to Teach: A Narrative Review and Literature-Informed Recommendations for Student-as-Teacher Curricula". Congratulations, we look forward to future publications!
March 2022
Sherif Emil, MDCM who is one of the recipients of the Learner and Faculty Award for Teaching Innovation for his project entitled “Interactive case-based pediatric surgical education for a global audience.”
Elizabeth Anne Kinsella, PhD whose Preceptor Education Program Team (www.preceptor.ca ), received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Long Term Care in partnership with the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care (Ontario CLRI), to develop and launch a province wide Preceptor Resource and Education Program for Long Term care.
Karen Moniz, IHSE Graduate Student who received the “Best Poster Award” at the Innovations in Medical Education Conference (February 2022) for her poster entitled “The teaching connection when your clinic is your classroom: Ethnography as an innovation.”
Yvonne Steinert, PhD who has been identified as one of the top 20 scholars in the last 20 years in medical education by Maggio LA, Costello JA, Ninkov A, Frank JR, Artino Jr AR. 2022. The voices of medical science: Describing the published landscape.
Aliki Thomas, PhD and colleague Dr. Sara Ahmed from SPOT who received a CIHR grant from the patient-oriented priority announcement for the BRILLIANT project entitled “Effectiveness of a customized digital platform to increase coordination of care and uptake of evidence-based practices: A stepped-wedge design.”
Gabriel Venne, PhD who is one of the recipients of the Learner and Faculty Award for Teaching Innovation for his project entitled “3D Anatomy Factory and reconfiguration of McGill’s Anatomy Laboratory to enable small-group teaching.”
January/February 2022
Tamara Carver, who is leading the team that was awarded funds from the Public Health Agency of Canada for a new online initiative, TOTAL eLearning. This project will adapt and enhance the existing bilingual Dementia Education Program (DEP) workshop content to the current COVID-19 context by using a virtual learning platform to educate and support family/friend care partners of people living with dementia. More information about the project can be found here: https://mcgill.ca/x/JnW
Catherine Giroux, along Aliki Thomas, who is a recipient of the Institute of Health Sciences Education Innovation and Research Seed Fund for her project entitled “Social Media as a Dissemination and Knowledge Translation Strategy among Health Professions Educators.”
Susanne Lajoie, who is the recipient of the Prix Acfas Jeanne-Lapointe, Sceinces de l’éducation, sponsored by the Ministry of Education through the Superior Council of Education, and the Quebec Research Fund – Society and Culture. Dr. Lajoie was also a finalist for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Impact Partnership Award.
Peter Nugus and colleagues, Fernanda Claudio, Tracie Barnett, Ciro Piccirillo, Jörg Fritz, Tibor Schuster, Peter Steinmetz, Aron Friedlander and Shrage Muller, for their $1.2 million grant from PHAC / CITF for their inter-disciplinary study on COVID-19 in the Orthodox Jewish Community.
Dan Poenaru, Jason Harley, along with their PhD student, Fabio Botelho who were awarded the 2021 RI-MUHC Trottier Innovation Competition for their project entitled: “Trauma Innovative Training in VR-PeTIT Increases Trainees’ Performance.”
Sean McWatt, whose student, Cat Wang, won the Building Community Scholarship Travel Award to attend the American Association for Anatomy's Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2022 in Philadelphia, PA. The award is presented to six researchers attending the conference from outside of the USA. Cat will be presenting her abstract titled, “Student Approach to Learning and Visuospatial Ability as Independent Predictors of Academic Performance in Human Anatomy.”
Robert Sternszus who is the 2022 recipient of the AFMC Young Educators Award. This award recognizes individuals within their first seven years as a faculty member who have produced change within their university or within the medical community as a whole through their vision, work, and interaction with colleagues.
December 2021
Sero Andonian (Associate member), on his promotion to Full Professor of Surgery, Division of Urology.
Markus Martin, who graduated this past spring from the University of Manitoba with a PBDE (Post Baccalaureate Diploma in Education).
November 2021
Donald Boudreau, who is completing his term as Acting Director of the Institute of Health Sciences Education. We are indebted to Don for his wisdom, vision and gracious leadership of the IHSE during this time of transition.
Elizabeth Anne Kinsella who has been appointed as Director of the IHSE for a five-year term beginning Nov 1. Please join us in welcoming Professor Kinsella to her new role.
October 2021
Ning-Zi Sun, along with Penny Toliopoulos, who was awarded a 2021 Department of Medicine Grant for Education Scholarship for their project entitled: "Service, education, and professional identity formation in residency training: a qualitative study.”
Yvonne Steinert, who together with Diana Dolmans from Maastricht University, edited a special issue of Medical Teacher (volume 43, issue 8) on Faculty Development Research and Practice. The issue is now available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/imte20/current.
Mary Ellen Macdonald whose recent article in the Journal of Dental Education entitled “It’s time to make dental education ‘grief literate,” was picked up by the British Dental Journal for broader exposure.
Sofia Valanci Aroesty who successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Development of a conceptual framework for peer surgical coaching.”
Joanne Alfieri who, earlier this year, successfully passed her Master’s in Medical Education dissertation entitled “What motivates the post-graduate medical trainee in seeking feedback” from the University of Dundee.
September 2021
Aliki Thomas and team, including IHSE members Peter Nugus and Elizabeth Anne Kinsella for their SSHRC grant entitled “Creating synergies between education, practice and policy environments to catalyse capacity building of the scholar role in rehabilitation.”
Yvonne Steinert who has been reappointed for a five-year term as the Richard and Sylvia Cruess Chair in Medical Education.
Linda Snell and Ning-Zi Sun, who supervise, Andreanne Leblanc, who was one of the three winners of the McGill Resident Research Award for her project entitled: “Development of ownership of patient care during clerkship.”
Dan Poenaru who is the recipient of the 2021-2022 Class of ’77 MedEd Innovation Grant for his proposal entitled: “Improving the teaching of informed consent in pediatric surgery.”
Gerald Fried who is the 2021 recipient of Duncan Graham Award for Outstanding Contribution to Medical Education from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Beth-Ann Cummings who has been nominated by the AFMC Senior Education Deans to represent them on the Medical Education Committee that will plan the new conference replacing CCME.
For more success stories from members of the IHSE, please view 
more_successes.pdf