We wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.
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We have a duty to take on the biggest challenges facing the healthcare system . To answer them, we need a new plan, new energy, and newschool thinking .
The Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto is proud to be one of the largest academic departments of family medicine in the world. We are home to a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Family Medicine and Primary Care. Our community is made up of motivated, kind, and generous academic family doctors, scholars, and staff who share a bold and inclusive vision for the future of family medicine.
Our department is incredibly distributed and diverse—geographically, with teaching and clinical sites across Ontario, and professionally, through our many Divisions and the wide-ranging skills and passions of our people. Our scholarship spans the range from small-scale quality improvement to multi-centre randomised trials, from educational curriculum evaluation to public engagement on the future of primary care. This diversity is our strength, allowing us to respond to the evolving needs of our communities with agility and energy.
We are rooted in the excellence of our institutional home. The University of Toronto (U of T) is recognized globally for its research impact and academic strength. It was ranked among the top five universities in the world in the 2025 NTU Rankings for research performance in medicine. This places U of T alongside institutions like Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and Johns Hopkins. The Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Ontario’s largest medical faculty, is a national leader in medical education and research, and plays a pivotal role in shaping the country’s health workforce. It is the largest contributor of newly trained physicians in Canada, and DFCM is one of the largest of its departments.
At DFCM, our daily commitment is to “the patient of today and the patient of tomorrow.” As clinicians, we strive to lead in the delivery of excellent primary care and to help shape a health system that meets the needs of our communities. As educators and scholars, we are preparing the future workforce and answering the critical questions that will ensure family medicine and primary care are even stronger for our children and grandchildren.
Outstanding primary care for all, powered by world-leading research, education, and innovation.
We deliver the world's best education for family doctors and propel knowledge, systems and teams to help people and communities thrive.
Our mission and vision are underpinned by a set of shared values that guide our decisions, relationships, and impact:
f Integrity in all our endeavours.
f Commitment to innovation, academic, and clinical excellence.
f Lifelong learning and critical inquiry
f Promotion of social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
f Advocacy for accessible and quality patient care and practice.
f Multidisciplinary, interprofessional collaboration, and effective partnerships.
f Professionalism.
f Accountability and transparency within our academic communities and with the public.
Ultimately, our aim in everything we do is to work towards family and community health.
We assess and prioritize our actions, concentrate our energy, and focus our strategic intention using three lenses: community, relationships, leadership.
The core tools of our work are education, research, and high-quality clinical care.
See some of the Department’s key documents from the past five years.
First, we feature the Strategic Plan, which has served as a guiding framework for our priorities and initiatives.
Next, you’ll find the Family Medicine Reports, which provide stories and insights into our progress, achievements, and areas of focus across education, research, and clinical care.
When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto, like all clinical academic departments and everyone else around the world, found itself thrown into a rapidly evolving crisis. As clinicians, our faculty members were propelled into a new universe of demands. And as educators and scholars, we quickly learned that our work could not just pivot; it needed to be totally transformed to meet the moment.
We didn’t wait. Our leadership team began a series of regular meetings to facilitate communication, coordination of response, and mutual support–one that we would go on to evaluate and publish on. This closeness and mutual support formed a strong foundation for the many overnight changes that were to come.
Our staff, of course, were immediately sent home to work remotely, and a set of supports for their well-being were put in place that ranged from laptops and equipment being brought to their homes to frequent updates on the state of lockdown to–eventually–online group cooking classes and social events to maintain morale and a sense of team solidarity.
We understood that we needed both to learn to provide family medicine education virtually and to educate our trainees on how to provide effective virtual care. We developed a “just-in-time” virtual care curriculum grounded in adaptive expertise, with modules on virtual primary care, medicolegal considerations, and care for vulnerable populations. Additional initiatives included a website of supplementary
educational resources, a pandemic-specific electives catalogue, and the transition of all core days and events to virtual formats. Residents also gained novel clinical experiences through redeployment and COVID-specific roles, building competencies in public health, virtual care, and adaptability.
Our clinical sites pivoted swiftly to virtual care, even as we realized that many of our patients, especially seniors, newcomers, and those in low-income communities, lacked the technology or ability to access it. So we adapted. We developed new protocols for outreach, testing, and in-home monitoring of patients who were sick enough to require our care but hopefully stable enough to be able to avoid hospitalization. We created COVID-19-focused goals-of-care guides and end-of-life symptom management kits. Our faculty members and learners brought the full range of family medicine care to people who needed our ongoing services while simultaneously standing up assessment centres, outreach testing teams, online resources for people managing symptoms at home, and more.
Our home visit teams, made up of family doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and care coordinators, stepped in where others couldn’t. In 2020 alone, DFCM clinicians made over 2,500 house calls, often to patients who were too frail or isolated to seek help outside their homes. We cared for people like Buzz, a 90-year-old patient who contracted COVID-19 and was too weak to go to a testing centre. Our team swabbed him, monitored his oxygen levels, and supported his family’s wish to bring him home to die peacefully.
As vaccines became available, our faculty members and trainees were at the forefront of efforts to vaccinate elders in long-term care facilities and played a leading role in Operation Remote Immunity—bringing COVID-19 vaccines to remote Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario through partnerships with Indigenous leaders and health organizations. DFCM faculty also advanced Black health equity initiatives, collaborating with community partners such as TAIBU and the Black Physicians Association of Ontario to improve access to care and address systemic barriers through education, research, and advocacy.
We collaborated with our bilingual faculty to develop COVID-19 resources for patients in multiple languages, including Arabic, French, and Hindi.
We also turned to research and academic leadership. DFCM faculty contributed to the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, authoring briefs that underscored the vital role of primary care in pandemic response. We studied how family doctors, nurse practitioners, and allied health professionals adapted—taking on new roles and innovating to meet community needs—helping shape provincial strategies and highlighting the value of strong primary care systems. We also launched CanCOVID, a national network dedicated to evidence-informed pandemic response. Beyond research,
our leaders chaired provincial and national committees and drove collaborations that informed health policy, reinforcing family medicine’s role in equitable, evidence-based care during a global emergency.
All across the board—from learner, staff, faculty, researcher, and leader—DFCM stepped up to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the cost was high.
The emotional and physical toll on our people was profound. We were stretched thin, professionally and personally, trying to care for others while navigating our own fears and fatigue. By late 2021, with a tremendous vaccine rollout beginning to slow and exhausted faculty facing the long tail of deferred chronic disease management, screening for cancers and other illnesses, and a cohort of learners whose in-person contacts had been dramatically less than their predecessors, we knew that a new approach to the next phase would be necessary.
We pledged to rebuild with intention, centring wellness, equity, and sustainability. We are still on that road, and having achieved a great deal–as you will read in these pages–there is more still to be done.
~2,300 FACULTY MEMBERS
400+ FAMILY MEDICINE RESIDENTS YEARLY
1,300+ LEARNERS
50+ STAFF
4 INTEGRATED COMMUNITY STREAMS
Five years ago, DFCM—and the discipline of family medicine in Ontario—was in crisis. We were in the midst of a global pandemic, navigating a departmental leadership transition, and trying to support a demoralized workforce. Family physicians across Ontario were retiring in record numbers, and many who remained were burnt out—feeling underappreciated by the public, unsupported by government, and undervalued by the health system. With the increase in retirements and as a result of many other factors, 2.5 million Ontarians found themselves without a family doctor or primary care team, unanchored from a medical home.
Our department achieved remarkable things during the pandemic. We transitioned rapidly to virtual teaching and care, maintained the excellence of our training programs, and continued to support our learners and communities. But the sense of exhaustion was palpable, and a mounting narrative of crisis in the discipline of family medicine was taking hold across the system. Within our community, faculty members expressed a growing sense of disconnection, with academic responsibilities often perceived as additional burdens on already-full clinical plates.
The leadership transition with a new incoming Department Chair offered a natural opportunity to pause, reflect, and ask: How can we rebuild and further strengthen our DFCM community? What is our role in rebuilding our discipline? We chose to use the process of developing our strategic plan not only to chart a concrete course of action for the next five years, but also to intentionally strengthen our ties, renew our shared identity, and deepen our commitment to one another. As we repeatedly said throughout the process, “the antidote to burnout is common purpose.”
Our strategic planning process was designed to be inclusive, transparent, and energizing. It was designed to be a conversation. In total, we engaged about 500 people, including faculty, learners, staff, external advisors, and patients and caregivers. We convened leadership circles, representing DFCM leadership from the trainee level to the level of the Chair; international experts in the field of academic family
medicine; patients, families and community leaders; and Indigenous DFCM faculty and learners. We created collaborative wiki documents that were open to all faculty and learners for their contributions, conducted a department-wide survey, and held 12 workshops, each on a different topic, to gather input from across our ecosystem. Many elements of the plan were built directly on the recommendations of our prior external review, while also incorporating new priorities that emerged from deep listening and reflection.
When we launched the five-year plan in the fall of 2022, we felt that its visual beauty and its substantive force with actionable commitments gave every member of our community something to be proud of. The plan was an articulation of a shared renewed commitment to our collective work ahead. And today, three years into its implementation, we find ourselves in a much stronger position—both as a department and as a discipline. Even amid tremendous tensions—including the ongoing ripple effects of the pandemic and the challenges faced on university campuses during the war in the Middle East—we have modelled a culture of decency, mutual support, and shared purpose. We continue to show up for each other and for the people we serve.
This approach has enabled us not only to weather the storms, but to lead through them. Our faculty have been leaders in calling attention to the crisis in family medicine in Ontario and across Canada, and we have contributed meaningfully to the evolving solutions. Through massive educational expansion, research partnerships with the public, and system leadership at every level, we have begun to restore a sense of agency and optimism among family physicians.
As we move forward, we remain committed to the vision and values that shaped our strategic plan. With the final 18 months of our plan cycle on the horizon and at the moment of this five-year external review, we are proud of what we have achieved, curious about what we can learn, and committed to continuing to build a stronger, more connected, and more impactful future for family and community medicine.
Our strategic plan outlines clear commitments across three lenses— community, relationships, and leadership—and is grounded in our core tools: education, research, and high-quality clinical care. Under each of the bullets below, we have made very specific and measurable commitments, and we are monitoring our progress and evolving as the needs shift and change over time. In total, the plan includes 54 specific commitments which can be reviewed in detail on our website, www.primarymatters.ca, and are also found in the appendices to this self-study.
f Invest in community partnerships across our Education, Research, and Quality & Innovation work. (There are four specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Expand and enhance the community-based experience of learners. (There are three specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Optimize patient and community health outcomes by supporting, connecting, and upskilling healthcare providers. (There are five specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Maximize our impact and visibility through deepened engagement across the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the University of Toronto. (There are four specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Connect and support the DFCM community of learners, faculty, and alumni. (There are four specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Build and sustain more collaborative relationships with our patients and communities to guide our work. (There are three specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Amplify the voice and unlock the academic potential of community sites and faculty in the community in order to better represent the needs and perspectives of those they serve. (There are three specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Elevate our position as a socially accountable, equity-focused academic leader for our faculty, learners, and staff. (There are 10 specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Lead and inform health system improvement, working collaboratively with local and global health system partners. (There are eight specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Empower our faculty, staff, and learners to prioritize personal leadership by embracing and adopting practices that promote their well-being and that of their colleagues in order to foster excellence in care, education, and scholarship. (There are three specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Support the self-determination of Indigenous health leaders and communities. (There are four specific commitments under this commitment.)
f Help scale health technologies and innovations that enhance patient-practitioner relationships. (There are three specific commitments under this commitment.)
In 2023, the Department of Family & Community Medicine (DFCM) made a bold and uncommon move by embedding Dr. Denise O’Neil Green—a globally recognized leader in equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and transformational leadership in universities—directly into the leadership of our department for a one-year term. This was not just a consulting engagement, but a time-limited leadership appointment that allowed Dr. Green to work closely with faculty, staff, and learners to advance principles of equity and social accountability in a sustained and collaborative way. Dr. Green joined our senior leadership meetings, met with front-line faculty and staff, and became a temporary but fully-engaged member of our team to help us accelerate principles of equity and social accountability work and build capacity to sustain our commitments beyond her term.
With over 30 years of experience across academia, government, healthcare, and business, Dr. Green brought a visionary approach to this work. Her work was informed by over 30 coffee chats with individual members and groups from the DFCM community, which surfaced key themes around onboarding, promotion, departmental culture, and support for marginalized groups.
Following her term, Dr. Green has now joined DFCM as an Adjunct Faculty Member, continuing her connection to the department and its mission.
DFCM Strategic Plan Priorities on which Dr . Green consulted and helped to lead:
Community (C.3.3) - Establish and convene a Black Health Advisory Table.
Relationships (R.1.1.a) - Integrate already developed systems and practices, such as e-learning and equity and social accountability practices. practices developed through Temerty Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
Leadership (L.1.1) - Dedicate resources and supports to recruitment, retention, and promotion of learners, faculty and staff from equity-deserving communities and ensure that the environment they join is safe, supportive and respectful.
Leadership (L.1.2) - Establish a staff role focused on improving and expanding internal Equity, Diversity, Indigeneity, Inclusion, Accessibility (EDIIA) practices starting with collecting and analyzing equity-based data and determine ambitious, quantitative goals.
Leadership (L.1.3) - Prioritize equitable healthcare, anti-racist, and anti-oppression approaches by offering mentorship, training and continued professional development for learners, staff and faculty tied to accountability.
f Black Health Advisory Table (BHAT): Established terms of reference, developed the team with formal governance and leadership integration, and began regular meetings. The BHAT continues its work under the leadership of Drs. Melanie Henry and Onye Nnorom.
f Principles of Equity and Social Accountability
Data Collection Committee: Formed to align with Indigenous leadership and HR, with a focus on trust-building and strategic data use. This work is ongoing under the leadership of Dr. Jeff Kwong and Professor Mahan Kulesagaram.
f Faculty Development Recommendations: Addressed barriers for racialized women, mentorship gaps, and inclusive promotion practices. This has resulted in a concerted set of
initiatives across faculty appointments, promotions, wellness, and faculty development.
f Website Content Review: Proposed a dedicated Principles of Equity and Social Accountability page with strategic goals, definitions, and support resources. Implementation of this recommendation is underway.
f Leadership Model Update: Suggested a Distributive Principles of Equity and Social Accountability Leadership Model with six guiding principles for departmental leaders. This model has been incorporated.
Read more about Dr. Green’s time embedded with the DFCM in her report.
This section outlines the Department of Family and Community Medicine’s (DFCM’s) progress in addressing recommendations from the previous self-study. The tables below summarize key suggestions from the 2020 external reviewers, summary of the DFCM’s previous Chair’s initial responses, and the actions we have taken in the years to follow. View the complete reviewer comments and the Chair’s responses from the 2012-2020 review.
The demise of the longitudinal integrated clerkship is unfortunate. We recommend consideration be given to a longitudinal experience in family medicine integrated into the block rotation system.
Though the longitudinal clerkship was discontinued, we are continuing to advocate and seek opportunities for pre-clerkship exposure to family medicine.
An overarching goal of the Undergraduate Program is the promotion of family medicine as the career of choice for medical students. Various initiatives have been launched to increase opportunities in family medicine during pre-clerkship. These include the Family Medicine Longitudinal Experience (FMLE), which is now a required course for all second-year students, and additional longitudinal experiences in family medicine such as the Family Medicine Immersion week, Family Medicine Community Longitudinal Leadership Enrichment Opportunity (FM-CLLEO) and the Gagnon scholarship (additional details in the Undergraduate Medical Education section of self-study).
We have increased efforts to recruit Family Medicine Learning Experience (FMLE) preceptors and succeeded in recruiting more than 200 community preceptor recruits. We support FMLE preceptors through the Preceptor Resource Webpage and the PLANK match system. We introduced the Family Medicine Community Longitudinal Leadership Enrichment Opportunity (FM CLLEO), giving early medical learners a chance for a longitudinal placement with community-based family physicians focused on quality improvement and prevention interventions in vulnerable populations.
DFCM should pilot additional methods of assessing clerkship progress beyond multiple-choice examinations.
Regarding assessment of clerkship progress, a family medicine specific Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has been replaced with a broader clerkship OSCE. DFCM will continue to advocate for sufficient family medicine content in the OSCE to ensure that family medicine competencies are effectively assessed.
The success rates on the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) should be tracked as an additional metric of quality for DFCM.
Information on success rates from the certification examination in family medicine is provided, and U of T success rates typically exceed national averages.
The Lester and Jean Gagnon Summer Student Scholarship provides a seven-week paid opportunity for firstand second-year medical students to explore careers in family medicine. As part of the program requirements, students must opt into either the FM-CLLEO program or the Education Scholarship Accelerator Program (ESAP), which focuses on education scholarship.
In 2021, a new Blueprint for the Family Medicine Clerkship exam was developed. The exam was also converted from all multiple-choice questions (MCQ) to having some MCQ questions and part Clinical Decision Making (CDM) Questions. In 2024, as per direction from the MD program, the exam was converted back to being all MCQs to reflect the types of questions that the students would encounter on their Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada (LMCC) exams.
The MD program introduced Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) in 2023. The students are required to complete six EPAs during their six-week rotation. After the full implementation of EPAs, the Family Medicine Clerkship also lost our other type of unique clinical assessment tool – the FM-CEX – as per the direction of the MD program.
In response to the review suggestion, we receive our spring and fall exam results and the Program Director and Associate Program Director-Assessment review results and report confidential data to the Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) Committee on how DFCM residents are doing nationally. We provide feedback on how to help support any exam preparations by site Program Directors. DFCM PGME graduates have been consistently at or above the national average for all CFPC board exams for the past five years.
Faculty should consider investing a portion of resources (if given) by the Ontario Ministry of Health into additional PGY3 positions in the DFCM.
The program would welcome additional PGY3 positions to expand our Integrated 3-Year Programs (I3P) in Leadership and Enhanced Skills, as well as offer new opportunities and prepare for the lengthening of the family medicine residency program.
We have expanded additional PGY3 positions without additional funding provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health in response to the review recommendations. This has been spread between palliative care, emergency medicine, sports medicine, and addictions. This was an additional increase of eight positions in 2020-2024, with an increase planned for additional two PGY-3 positions in 2026-27, for a total of 10 additional PGY3 positions. More information can be found in the Postgraduate section of the report
Consideration could be given to rationalizing and describing some continuing education programs in a different way; a more in-depth review of these programs is likely warranted.
Our Academic Fellowships and Graduate Studies program remains extremely active and effectively pivoted to a virtual format during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to look for ways to meet learner needs most effectively, and an in-depth review is worthy of consideration.
Over the last two years, Academic Fellowship and Graduate Studies (AFGS) has completed a program evaluation of students and alumni and we have consulted with international and local hospital partners to redefine the needs of students and institutions. These learnings will support the rationale for degree level change with the School of Graduate Studies.
There is redundancy in the Master of Science in Community Health-Family and Community Medicine (MScCH-FCM) and Master of Public Health-Family and Community Medicine (MPH-FCM degrees). Our family physician faculty are primarily drawn to our MScCH Health Practitioner Teacher Education (HPTE) degree and our advanced standing MPH-FCM degree. There was some consideration in eliminating the MScCH-FCM degree and focusing on the MPH, however, this would eliminate the one-year training option for allied health professionals as well as our international partners.
Our program evaluation and consultations support conversion of the MScCH to a hybrid degree with increased focus on primary care and interprofessional content. We plan to submit a proposal to the School of Graduate Studies and Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Our goal is a 2027 launch. In the meantime, we have developed a new graduate level course in Team Based Primary Care that will become a core requirement in the redefined MScCH degree. Additional preparation for degree-level change has included successful conversion of the core research methods course to hybrid delivery design and maintaining an online policy course.
The wide scope and robustness of the faculty development activities may require a more distributed leadership structure.
Restructuring of the faculty development (FD) portfolio into its discrete components is under discussion and will likely be rolled out in 2022. This will permit growth in programming and reach in key areas including wellness and resilience, mentorship, awards and academic promotion, and will foster new and innovative faculty development offerings.
The vast faculty development (FD) portfolio was restructured in 2021. In addition to the existing leads for FD education scholarship and Health Professional Educators, four new leads were introduced: Faculty Appointments and Junior Promotions, Faculty Wellness, Awards Grants and Funds, and Mentorship.
The Faculty Development Program Director (FD PD) now oversees the work of each of these six leads, as well as the committee of FD leads from each site and division across the DFCM.
The main work of the FD PD is organizing and running all central FD activities, including the BASICS Program for New Faculty, the Leadership MasterClass series, and the annual DFCM Conference. Novel FD programming is developed in response to evolving faculty needs, for example through the Equity Grand Rounds series.
New and important work has been undertaken in the FD portfolio to align with accreditation standards and ensure that teachers are assessed, recognized, and supported in their development.
The Office of Education Scholarship is a strength, not replicated elsewhere. Consideration should be given to recruiting more BIPOC educational scholars and studying the impact of various new initiatives and curricula in equity, diversity, and inclusion and anti-racism.
The Office of Education Scholarship (OES) is an exceptional departmental asset that can assist and promote the evaluation of educational efforts in EDI, anti-racism, Indigenous health and social accountability, as recommended by the reviewers.
The OES team has actively advanced Principles of Equity and Social Accountability since 2021 with the funding of many equity and social accountability-focused projects through the Art of the Possible grants.
This included the evaluation of educational efforts in EDI, anti-racism, Indigenous health and social accountability, as recommended by the reviewers, as well as alignment with the departmental strategy to strengthen commitments to socially accountable education scholarship.
Recruitment of more BIPOC educational scholars was done with the addition of an Education Scholar at Large for Principles of Equity and Social Accountability to catalyze departmental activities in education scholarship and equity and social accountability. This Scholar served as a resource to the Social Accountability committee and continues to provide leadership on equity relevant education scholarship.
The OES Person Centered Care research pillar also advances inclusion in medical education by conducting research that promotes inclusive medical education practices in admissions and assessment.
Consider a more structured and standardized onboarding process for faculty taking on leadership roles, as well as faculty development for specialty teachers of family medicine learners.
A more structured approach to onboarding new leaders is a helpful recommendation that can be addressed through expanded mentorship programming.
In our BASICS Program for new faculty, our session leads are all academic leaders from across the department that allow new faculty to see leadership in action right from the start in their role as teachers. There is a session on academic careers with a focus in leadership in academic family medicine.
Further, at our newest sites, specialist teachers who will teach our family medicine learners participate in the mini-BASICS new faculty orientation. The intention is to build relationships, foster open dialogue, and encourage collaboration between family physician and other specialist teachers of our family medicine learners.
The Leadership MasterClass series provides a unique opportunity for evolving leaders to learn from DFCM’s expert family medicine leaders with diverse skills, experience, and perspectives for faculty taking leadership roles.
For women physician leaders (not just in our own department but globally) the DFCM offers a unique course: Advancing Women’s Excellence in Family Medicine (AWE-FM), which connects local and global FM leaders.
In addition, faculty leaders are supported through the DFCM mentorship program for ongoing longitudinal support on their leadership journey.
Developing a more focused mission statement for the Physician Assistant (PA) Program that emphasizes preparing health professionals to meet the needs of underserved communities.
The Consortium of PA Education’s mission is built on a foundation of social accountability, particularly to rural, remote, and underserved communities and there is an opportunity to engage northern physicians to better understand the value that Physician Assistants bring to patient care, quality, and access.
The PA Program has transitioned to the Vice Dean, Medical Education portfolio in preparation for its move to the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH) in July 2026. We are working closely with the SAMIH team to support the transition, one which makes sense for the program and for our department.
Resident leaders identified a culture of responsiveness, caring, and proactive attention to wellness from staff and faculty. All patient-facing learners with whom we spoke have been immunized against COVID.
Learner wellbeing is a top priority, and DFCM will continue to share and amplify Temerty Medicine support tools and resources to focus on the health of our learners through regular group and individual discussions and support where required.
Residents are introduced to wellness resources during orientation and can access them throughout the program. These include the Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) Office of Learner Affairs, the Professional Association of Residents in Ontario (PARO) 24-hour helpline, the Physician Health Program, the Learner Experience Unit, and online wellness guidelines and policies.
The PGME program developed and launched the Foundations block in July 2025 for incoming PGY1 trainees, in response to Continuous Quality Improvement survey feedback around residents feeling they needed a greater orientation to the Postgraduate Residency Program. This included core curriculum developed and delivered regarding Wellness as well as related to Social Accountability, that received high satisfaction rates from residents, particularly regarding building connection and fostering collaboration.
Supporting learner wellness is essential at all levels of DFCM learning. In addition to supports provided to undergraduate learners by the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the DFCM developed the DFCM Red Button in 2021. This tool is a quick-access resource that helps learners navigate challenging situations — from health concerns to safety issues.
Consider how the DFCM Q&I Learning Health System approach can be generalized to promote greater integration of clinical practice improvement and research across specialties with academic credit for this applied form of scholarship.
The concept of a broadly integrated learning health system, whereby multiple elements grow and coalesce for collective impact, is being contemplated. This will benefit from clear articulation and discussion.
Over the last five years, the Q&I program has grown its learning health system approach. Specifically, we have a robust, common patient experience survey that the DFCM facilitates among all teaching sites. Results drive local quality improvement and aggregate results have contributed to peer-reviewed research.
The Q&I program also partnered with the Research Program to develop CareCanvas, an audit and feedback dashboard that provided clinicians and clinics with data from electronic medical records and other sources. CareCanvas was paused due to challenges with UTOPIAN, which are described in detail in the Research section. The transition to UPLEARN should improve options for sites to engage in Q&I activities with a model being tested at Unity Health (St. Michaels Hospital). This is now being discussed with site chiefs to explore operationalization of this model that does not need sharing of data beyond the site.
Q&I also continues to partner with researchers to bridge disciplines, for example, through a new collaboration to implement advanced access.
Consider having a flexible pool of funds to support pilot studies and other forms of seed funding for research projects of young investigators. Further support from a librarian and qualitative research expertise would also be appreciated.
The interim Vice-Chair has conducted an environmental scan to study research program models in selected departments of family medicine nationally and internationally, which will inform the evolution of DFCM’s Research Program and the selection of the next Vice-Chair.
We have initiated seed funding in the form of awards for those participating in the new Ideas 2 Proposal (I2P) program. I2P participants have access to dedicated funds for new projects and access to central staffing and mentorship resources.
Some DFCM-affiliated scientists offer seed funding and salary support to early-stage faculty through their own grants or philanthropic support.
The new Waddington Family Awards Program has dedicated funding set aside for research staff time to support funded researchers at community-based sites.
All funded investigators have annual generative reviews that include mentorship on grants, publications, sponsorship, and provision of mentorship to others. They are also advised on Research Program services available to them.
All faculty with a U of T identification can access the central library in person or online. They have remote access to the online database for articles, software to sort and store literature, access to Covidence for systematic reviews, and consultation regarding literature searches if needed. Funding a departmental librarian would be duplication of services.
The current Associate director has PhD level qualitative research skills and is available to faculty to mentor and collaborate on appropriate projects.
The ten-year anniversary of UTOPIAN is an opportunity for a more formal and systematic review.
The Research Program, including UTOPIAN, would likely benefit from a focused review of its strategic direction and activities.
Since the last report, we undertook a full and formal external review of UTOPIAN in response to this recommendation. Following the review, as we were preparing to implement the recommendations, UTOPIAN was paused and then subsequently discontinued as a result of system-level challenges (details available here). We have introduced a new initiative called UPLEARN to advance our primary care practice-based research and learning networks (PBRLN) goals in a refreshed way that is less dependent on the use of EMR data while we await system-level solutions to these challenges which lie outside the control of our department.
We suggest a more structured approach for early-career and adjunct faculty to help with career advancement, as well as more dedicated administrative support for CVs, updates, and preparing promotion materials.
Achieving academic promotion at junior and senior levels is of considerable importance to DFCM faculty members, and the creation of a faculty lead for appointments and promotions, reporting to the Vice-Chair Family Doctor Leadership, will support new efforts toward academic advancement through mentorship, coaching, and workshops.
The Faculty Development Program offers “Learn, Teach, Thrive,” a series of events to support the diverse needs of faculty across the trajectory from initial appointment through to senior promotion.
As well, the Appointments and Promotions team hosts regular workshops for faculty interested in pursuing promotion.
See the Research section of the self-study for the processes we have instituted to help early-career and adjunct faculty advance their career. These efforts include Research Rounds, access to methodological support and guidance, regular and detailed emails about funding opportunities through the research listserv, and inclusion in retreats such as our recent and interactive Research Program symposia in 2025.
Cognate Department Chairs expressed a wish for the new Chair to be a partner with them, with several ideas about the forms these partnerships could take (ex. joint educational programs).
Expanding our partnerships across clinical practice, education, research, quality, innovation, and international programs with other disciplines and departments in Temerty Medicine, and across other faculties and institutions, will be important for DFCM.
Our Strategic Plan outlines a commitment to maximize our impact and visibility through deepened engagement across the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the University of Toronto. Through our Divisions, our Office of Health System Partnerships, and work with TFoM Extra-Departmental Units, we now have well-developed partnerships with many of the cognate departments, which are described in more detail in this self-study; most of these are indeed in the education realm. The relationship between our Chair and the other cognate chairs has been one of true and growing partnerships, which also reflects a growing culture of partnership across Temerty Medicine leadership.
Consideration should be given as to how DFCM could contribute to Ontario Health Teams.
DFCM faculty members and teaching sites have been active in the development and implementation of Ontario Health Teams (OHTs). These contributions will expand as OHTs mature into integrated systems of care.
We are very proud of the work our department is now doing in the health system, including with Ontario Health Teams but also well beyond, through our Office of Health System Partnerships, which is a major area of focus in our strategic plan and a unique initiative in academic family medicine. For example, this year, the OHSP led the first primary care census of family doctors/nurse practitioners in the City of Toronto to better understand the current physician supply and support local human resources. The results of the survey will support primary care planning and inform OHT development and regional clinician engagement. Further details about the exciting work of the OHSP are in the Partnerships section of this document.
There is a perception of inequity in the distribution of financial support across all sites, particularly sites without an academic alternative funding plan.
Recent work by a finance working group sought to remedy some disparities but remained challenged by the highly complex arrangements and variability in funding resources existing across DFCM and its multiple sites. This matter will require further consideration by the new Chair.
Over the past four years, DFCM has reviewed our distribution to teaching sites. As a first step, we sought to ensure distribution to our community sites was more equitable. Concrete changes in distribution to these community sites occurred and laid the groundwork for the distribution of funds to new community sites during our most recent expansions at Humber River, Georgian Bay, and Orillia.
Calculation of distribution of funds continues to be a function centrally at DFCM and is based on assumption of AFP and careful analysis and review with DFCM finance and Postgraduate Directors who identified the disparity. Recent announcements of FM expansion, possible increase in funding levels, increase to preceptor funding along with the appointment of a new DFCM Business Director, position DFCM to conduct an extensive review of distribution to its sites and central resources. DFCM will conduct a comprehensive internal and external scan to align our strategic plan, central resources and develop a strong funding distribution model that is predictable centrally and for our teaching partners.
While funding is never sufficient for the level of support we would wish for, we believe that the combination of small funding re-allocations, additional dollars for sites that are expanding, and concerted advocacy for additional funds from government have helped with the perceptions mentioned by the reviewers in the last review.
Members could benefit from thinking through what it is about the family medicine department’s mission that could attract donor support.
Philanthropic support will continue to be important for DFCM. Endowed Chairs should be sought to support the DFCM Chair and Vice-Chair Education positions. This matter will require further consideration by the new Chair.
The Chair has been actively working with Advancement to pursue other sources of revenue and advocacy is ongoing across the medical faculties of Ontario to increase funding to levels that reflect the cost of delivering a medical education. Our strategic plan is an excellent vehicle for engaging with donors. Recent donations such as the Gagnon Fellowship and the endowed Chair in Indigenous Health speak to the compelling message we have been bringing to donors. The superb TFoM Advancement team tells us that we have the largest number of large asks out to donors of any department in the faculty.
The effect on the provincial budget post-COVID is a potential threat to financial stability. Additional support in IT might be of use given the additional pressures of online work.
This matter will require further consideration by the new Chair.
DFCM would benefit from consolidating its many strengths and articulating more clearly which communities it seeks to serve, as there is a lack of community advisory councils and community engagement.
Suggestions regarding the need to articulate which communities DFCM seeks to serve and greater clarity regarding the department’s vision and mission would be beneficial and help guide decisions in future strategic planning. The department is contemplating the establishment of an equity committee with representatives from our sites and divisions to share ideas, reach out, and contribute to the needs of communities.
The transition of our IT supports to MedIT, a central resource in the faculty of medicine, has ensured greater stability in this realm. MedIT has now taken over all IT functions for all departments in TFOM, and budget has been transferred centrally to account for this.
We have made Community, Relationships and Leadership the cornerstones of our 2022-2027 strategic plan. The plan was developed with multiple community leadership circles deeply engaged. We established a Vice-Chair for Community and Partnerships, whose mandate includes advancing principles of equity and social accountability alongside building strong relationships with the communities we serve. We have also launched and aggressively grown our Patient and Family Advisory program, as outlined in this self-study in more detail.
The commitment to EDI is certainly well understood at the departmental leadership level and is aligned with the Faculty’s commitment in these areas. Development of metrics and evaluation of these efforts will be important.
Equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, Indigenous health and social accountability are priorities for DFCM and will continue to be areas of focus and integral to our work.
Significant process has been made on principles of equity and social accountability. Please see the section on the work of our embedded expert, Dr. Denise O’Neil Green, the launch of the Black Health Advisory Table, the Indigenous Leadership Circle, and the nascent faculty survey to collect equity and social accountability data among faculty.
The fairly frequent turnover in chairs, all of whom are talented individuals, has left DFCM longing for some stability. The new department chair might well be found amongst internal candidates who have a good understanding of the complexity of this department.
There was no comment about this suggestion.
Our current Chair, Dr. Danielle Martin, is now four years into her five-year term.
It has a strong reputation in Canada for its innovations, generosity, and leadership in family medicine venues. Internationally, it is known for its academic fellowship programs, its program in Ethiopia, and its contributions to the WHO and WONCA.
The Department is proud of its reputation and contributions locally, nationally, and globally and will strive to continue to be seen as a leader in education, research, quality of care, and innovation. As a WHO Collaborating Centre, DFCM can continue to provide valuable contributions to global primary care.
The Department continues to be proud of our strong reputation. We continue to be a WHO Collaborating Centre. In 2025, DFCM hosted the Starfield Summit— the first ever held outside the United States—marking a historic milestone. The Summit produced The Starfield Statement, a global call to strengthen family medicine, and A Call to Action for the Canadian Government, urging support for global primary care leadership. It also launched a collaboration with WONCA to co-develop advocacy and policy resources, which will be refined at the WONCA World Conference in Lisbon.
There is considerable opportunity for greater synergy among DFCM programs and people. More structured community input and advice will help define the mission of the department and strengthen efforts in equity and inclusiveness.
Important strategic directions and areas of attention in the coming months and years include EDI as well as social accountability efforts that will include reaching out to our communities and patients to seek input on our programming, clinical services, and strategies.
Our Strategic Plan was developed through an inclusive process that brought together diverse voices from across the department and community. It was a collaborative conversation designed to define our mission and priorities collectively, ensuring equity and inclusiveness were central to the plan. Our engagement with Dr. Denise O’Neil Green on principles of equity and social accountability has strengthened our work in this area considerably. The launch of the Black Health Advisory Table and the Indigenous Leadership circle have offered more structured ways for important voices to guide our work, as has the Patient and Family Advisory input.
A well-articulated plan for e-learning, digital health, and artificial intelligence, which interfaces with the Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM) program will help make the case for philanthropic support, and define the unique contribution of family medicine to this endeavor.
Strive to articulate how your many assets may contribute to other initiatives of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the university, and other key stakeholders such as the Ministry of Health.
Important strategic directions and areas of attention in the coming months and years include virtual care, AI in family medicine, education technologies and e-learning strategies.
This work has been launched with our new Digital Health Committee (DHC), led by Dr Raj Girdhari.
The DHC provides leadership and a community of practice for DFCM-affiliated sites and faculty on issues related to the use of digital tools in clinical practice and education. The DHC is committed to faculty development to further support faculty with responsibly integrating AI into their teaching and practice, and to provide a forum for discussion on this emerging topic.
One example of the DHC’s work is implementation and evaluation of AutoScribe, technology that is helping reduce administrative burden for family physicians.
We are expanding our continuing professional development programs, professional development offerings, and Global Health initiatives. In addition, we are exploring the development of a Family Medicine PhD program to promote research growth.
Our Strategic Plan emphasizes increasing DFCM’s presence and connections across the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the University of Toronto. This includes enhancing research collaborations and opportunities, strengthening existing partnerships, and increasing representation and the role of family medicine across diverse settings. Our new Office of Health System Partnerships has become a leading team in the health system at the local and provincial levels.
I trained in this department as a resident 20 years ago, and throughout my career and journey as a health system leader, my identity as an academic family doctor and a member of this great department has been core to my self-conception. I think many Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) faculty members feel this way: academic contributions, whether an afternoon once a week with a medical student or a Canada Research Chair, are a throughline for our careers and an important part of our identities.
When I joined the DFCM leadership team as Chair nearly five years ago, I was bowled over by the incredible talent of our teams and saddened by the sense of overwhelm and disconnection in the culture of family medicine in Ontario, including inside our department. I can’t take credit for what has happened since—an alchemy of post-pandemic investments, renewed interest in our discipline at all levels of government, and the fundamental culture of decency built and sustained by my predecessors has propelled us to where we are today. Our challenge was never excellence, but in 2021, I understood that my primary task as a leader was to help this incredible group of people actually see themselves as a team and apply their skills together to a common set of goals.
At a strategic level, in addition to setting stretch goals for existing work and consolidating and restructuring aspects of it, our plan sets out three areas of focus that, while not entirely new, reflected the needs of the moment and have required significant effort and energy:
f Deepening our commitment to reconciliation: Key initiatives include the establishment of the Indigenous Leadership Circle (ILC), the acceleration of cultural safety training, the opening of a new Indigenous Health Space, and the commissioning of murals that honour Indigenous cultures. These initiatives ensure that the department is a safe space for Indigenous faculty and learners and honours the territory on which we work. We were also proud to announce the establishment of a new $5M endowed Chair in Indigenous Health, reinforcing our long-term commitment to Indigenous leadership into the future. This donation represents one
of the largest investments in Indigenous Health in the history of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
f Strengthening community partnerships: The restructuring of our leadership team and the launch of a new Vice-Chair of Community Partnerships represent our commitment to lead efforts to build a more socially accountable and community-driven agenda in all we do. We have increased the size, scope, and support for our Patient and Family Partners program to deepen engagement; launched the Black Health Advisory Table (BHAT) to advance the Black Health agenda; and are exploring collaborations with community organizations and Community Health Centres (CHCs) to co-create approaches to our work that will be more embedded in the community. The launch of new and expanded education sites outside the downtown core, in neighbourhoods such as Scarborough and northwest Toronto at Humber River Health, and the new Waddington research fellowships for community-based researchers are just a few examples of this commitment. In addition, the expansion of our Patient Partners network has led to the inclusion of patients and families in every area of our work, from leadership searches to our twice-annual retreats, in addition to education, research, and quality improvement and innovation.
f Establishing the Office of Health System Partnerships (OHSP): The creation of the OHSP signals our commitment to leading transformative change within the health system—both locally and globally. Through OHSP, we aim to embed academic family doctors in system leadership, opening opportunities for our amazing faculty members and learners to help shape the direction of primary care in Toronto, across the province and the country, and around the world. We believe primary care becomes stronger and more sustainable when the university partners meaningfully with the health system to tackle complex policy goals—such as improving patient attachment, building interprofessional teams, and enhancing clinicians’ work lives. This includes adopting technologies and processes that enable better-quality care while fostering an environment that supports joy and professional fulfillment.
Of course, this work has been achieved in tandem with big and exciting new work in each of our core areas:
Education (led by Vice-Chair Dr . Shirley Lee; previously by Dr . Risa Freeman)
DFCM has expanded education significantly over the past five years, adding six new residency positions in 2023 and eight more in 2024 at sites like Humber River Health and UHN’s Toronto Western Hospital. We also introduced new streams in Midland/Orillia and Uxbridge/Markham, increased capacity at Scarborough Health Network, Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, and Royal Victoria Health Centre, and added six Enhanced Skills spaces in areas such as
emergency medicine and palliative care. Looking ahead, the government has set a goal for us of creating 40 additional residency positions to further strengthen family medicine training and meet growing patient needs. This massive expansion is demanding tremendous effort on the part of our education teams, who are actively recruiting and training new faculty, establishing new rotations in communities across the province, and putting in place creative ways to ensure that our extensive education programs do not preclude the development of a strong sense of local community and connection among learners.
Research (led by Vice-Chair Dr . Peter Selby)
DFCM’s research program has continued to advance priorities in primary care, public health, and health system improvement, supported by research funding that grew from $10M in 2019–20 to over $22M in 2023–24. During this term, we launched UPLEARN, a “living laboratory” connecting over 2,000 family physicians to drive clinical and health services research, strengthen collaboration, and improve care for patients and providers. The commitment in our strategic plan to grow research capacity at our community sites and among community-based researchers is demanding new ways of thinking about research capacity-building, including through partnerships with Community Health Centres and front-line community clinicians who bring the realist perspective to research questions. To lead this work, we appointed Dr. Aisha Lofters as the inaugural Waddington Family Community Research Capacity Building Program Director; provided funds for faculty, clinician scientists, and senior researchers; and developed a training program to help clinical faculty develop their ideas into fundable proposals including seed funding.
Quality and Innovation (led by Vice-Chair
Dr . Tara Kiran)
DFCM’s Q&I work has advanced system improvement over the past five years by embedding patient voices in our department and fostering collaboration with patients and families in our work. The program hired DFCM’s first-ever Patient Engagement Specialist to strengthen partnerships and co-design initiatives with patients. It also launched a COVID-19 Community of Practice, which regularly connects hundreds of primary care providers across Ontario to share strategies, adapt to evolving challenges, and shape new models of team-based care. Dr. Tara Kiran also led the national OurCare initiative, engaging thousands of Canadians to share their experiences and priorities for primary care. The resulting OurCare Report provides actionable recommendations to improve access, equity, and quality in primary care across Canada, and the province is now using these recommendations to help guide system change.
Community and Partnerships (led by Vice-Chair Dr . Melanie Henry)
In addition to the community work highlighted above, including the hiring of the new Vice-Chair of Community and Partnerships and advancing local and provincial partnerships, the DFCM deepened collaborations globally. We had the honour of celebrating our 15-year relationship with Addis Ababa University (AAU) in Ethiopia, with whom we worked to establish Ethiopia’s emergency medicine residency program. A new partnership with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana has allowed a growing number of clinical faculty to experience the re-
ciprocal learning of international work. We also had the honour of bringing dozens of international colleagues to Toronto, as we hosted the first-ever Starfield Summit outside of the United States.
Excellence (led by Vice-Chair
Dr . David Tannenbaum and Director of Planning and Operations Brenda Chow)
Throughout a time of fiscal constraints and uncertainty, we have put in place new structures and staff roles to support our expansion and new work. We have been intentional about succession planning and offering opportunities for our faculty to grow their leadership skills. We have offered flexibility to staff through hybrid work while ensuring that in-person meetings and opportunities for connection and celebration continue. We have renovated our physical space and rethought our model of physical space use. We have onboarded a fantastic and skilled new Director of Planning and Operations after over 20 years with the same person in this role, ensuring a smooth and successful transition to support our staff.
As we reflect on these achievements, what stands out most is the collective effort that made them possible. Our department’s strength lies in its people—their commitment to excellence, collaboration, and innovation. Together, we have built a foundation that not only meets today’s challenges but positions us to lead boldly and partner with humility to support the future of family medicine and primary care.
Dr. Danielle Martin Chair, Department of Family and
Community Medicine
The Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto is one of the largest academic family medicine departments in the world, with over 2,300 faculty supporting learners across clerkship, residency, and graduate programs, as well as in our research, quality improvement, and innovation programs. Our vibrant community also includes more than 1,300 learners and about 50 dedicated staff members. Together, our faculty leaders, clinicians, researchers and staff form a strong and committed network across a broad geography and an incredibly diverse range of interests that reflect the reality of modern family medicine in Canada.
Since the last external review, DFCM has continued to create and hire positions as new programs are created and existing programs expand. Planning for administrative support is done in collaboration with Vice-Chairs and Program Directors, taking into consideration administrative responsibilities and changes in technology. Currently, our department is lucky to have the appropriate complement of staff for the management and support of all Department programs. In terms of faculty renewal, DFCM continues to look for ways to improve our leadership structure. In the last five years, this is demonstrated by the fortification of leadership through Associate Program Directors and addition of new positions responsive to the needs of society and stakeholders.
DFCM benefits from strong leadership and expertise in major areas of education, research, quality & innovation, and community & partnerships. We are proud to be the home of a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care.
In each of our major portfolios, leadership positions are filled with knowledgeable and skilled educators and researchers. This includes Vice-Chairs who are nationally and internationally recognized as thought-leaders and innovators.
Over the past five years, all of our education programs have been strengthened by the addition of Associate Program Directors. This enables our programs to expand and thrive thanks to greater collective expertise and more stable leadership. It also creates a pipeline of future senior leaders in our department. These programs are exemplars within the University and across Canada for their commitment to innovation and evaluation systems that are informed by best practices in learning science and respond to the needs of the University and society.
Since the last external review, the DFCM has added more than 400 new faculty members. With these new additions, the DFCM has added nearly 40 new faculty leaders, including a new Vice-Chair Community and Partnerships, Dr. Melanie Henry. The former roles of Vice-Chair, Family Doctor Leadership and Vice-Chair, Global Health and Social Accountability have shifted into a more distributed model that has allowed growth of the ongoing commitment to these priorities across all our programs.
The creation of the Community and Partnerships portfolio in 2023 was a priority articulated in our strategic plan as part of DFCM’s commitment to grow community partnerships across our education, research, and quality and innovation work. In this role, Dr. Henry has a broad scope to build and steward partnerships with community organizations and groups, public health units, and other health system and social service organizations and associations—especially those serving equity-deserving communities—to promote better health outcomes.
The work of the Vice-Chair, Community and Partnerships touches all portfolios in DFCM, and entails close collaboration not only with community partners, but with internal leaders in education, research, health equity, and quality and innovation.
As part of our department’s commitment to principles of equity and social accountability, the DFCM launched the Equity Grand Rounds series in 2024 to create space for critical conversations about systemic discrimination, health equity, and social justice in healthcare. These sessions are open to all members of the DFCM community—faculty, learners, staff, and community partners—and are designed to foster reflection, learning, and action.
Each session features expert speakers, community leaders, researchers, and individuals with lived experience, offering evidence-informed insights and practical strategies for change. The series has become a key platform for advancing equity within the department and beyond, with strong engagement across our community.
To date, Equity Grand Rounds sessions have addressed a range of timely and important topics, including:
f Addressing Antisemitism in Healthcare
f Black Health and Anti-Black Racism in Healthcare f Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom f Islamophobia in Healthcare Settings
f Anti-Indigenous Racism in Healthcare
Looking ahead, we are planning a session focused on Muslim, Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Discrimination. This session will continue our commitment to centring marginalized voices and equipping our community with the knowledge and tools to advance equity in all aspects of our work.
Launched in 2022, the New Horizons Speaker Series was created to spark bold, forward-thinking conversations about the future of family medicine. The series invites influential voices from diverse sectors outside family medicine—including public health, politics, the arts, and community activism—to challenge conventional thinking and inspire innovation within the DFCM.
Each session features a dialogue between Dr. Martin and a guest speaker, offering fresh perspectives on the evolving role of family physicians in a rapidly changing world. These conversations are designed not only to provoke thought but also to equip DFCM leaders with new ideas, frameworks, and inspiration to lead with vision, courage, and creativity.
Sessions to Date:
f “Building Narratives of Hope,” with Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing and Civil Society, Harvard University
f “Will AI Fix or Fracture Family Medicine?” with Professor Enid Montague, Northwestern University
f “Hockey and Healthcare,” with Katherine Henderson, CEO, Hockey Canada
f “The Future of Healthcare,” with Olivia Chow, Mayor of Toronto
f “What if What You Know About Lands and Bodies is Wrong?” with Professor M. Murphy
f “Bringing Creativity to Our Work,” with Sarah Polley, Oscar-winning screenwriter and director
f “What Can Peer Counsellors Do That Family Doctors Can’t?” with Dr. Ruth Heisey, Dr. Bjug Borgundvaag, and peer counsellors from the BETTER Women program
f “How to Better Serve Communities,” with Dr. Kwame McKenzie, CEO, Wellesley Institute
f “The Role of Technology-Enabled Virtual Care in Ontario’s Future,” with Dr. William Cherniak and Dr. Tara Kiran
f “From the Clinic to the House of Commons,” with The Honourable Carolyn Bennett
f “Prevention in Place,” with Medhat Mahdy, President and CEO, YMCA of Greater Toronto
f “Good Listening is Healing: A Remedy for Healthcare Burnout,” with Frankie Abralind, Co-founder, The Good Listening Project
f “The Forces Shaping Health and Society,” with Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean, Boston University School of Public Health
Professor David Tannenbaum served ably as Interim Chair from April 2020 to September 2021, following Professor Michael Kidd’s departure to help lead the Australian pandemic response in March 2020. Dr. Tannenbaum has remained a key part of the department’s leadership team as Vice-Chair, Operations, providing continuity and support throughout this period of growth.
After a period of frequent transitions in the Chair position, the DFCM has experienced renewed stability and momentum since September 2021, when Professor Danielle Martin was appointed Chair. Her leadership has been guided by Primary Matters, our strategic plan that was built over the first year of her term and has shaped the department’s priorities and direction since then.
Under Dr. Martin’s leadership, DFCM has expanded significantly and deepened its impact in primary care—locally, nationally, and globally. The department has also benefited from the continued friendship and support of Professor Michael Kidd, who returned from Australia to participate in the DFCM Conference this year, reflecting the strong and lasting connections among DFCM’s leadership community.
Over the past five years, the DFCM has grown and expanded our scope and our impact. Between 2020 and 2025, ~900 new faculty appointments were made, including 217 appointments in 2024, as we met the challenge of further expanding our training programs by opening new sites and building new partnerships with community family physicians.
With ~2,300 faculty members, the DFCM is well-positioned to advance its mission in clinical care, education, and research. Our academic department is constantly evolving with approximately 150 new faculty members every year, and a 45 per cent growth in the past five years. The vast majority of our faculty are Clinician-Teachers (95 per cent). Of those, 73 per cent are at the rank of Lecturer, 21 per cent Assistant Professor, 4 per cent Associate Professor, and approximately 2 per cent at the rank of full Professor.
We are so grateful to our Clinician-Teachers—busy clinicians who give their time and energy to help train the next generation. Twenty-eight percent of our Clinician-Teachers are full-time faculty (>80 per cent of time spent in academic work), while 31 per cent are part-time (20-80 per cent), and
41 per cent are adjunct faculty (<20 per cent). The DFCM also has 112 non-physician faculty who contribute to research, education and administration, of which approximately 60 are Health Professional Educators (HPEs).
DFCM faculty appointments are managed either through affiliated hospital sites or through divisions/programs for community-based teaching. Non-hospital-based faculty are reflected in aggregate graphs by rank and appointment type rather than by site, contributing significantly to the Lecturer and Adjunct categories. This dual structure ensures broad engagement in teaching across both institutional and community settings.
DFCM faculty span a wide range of academic ranks, with the majority serving as Lecturers. Progression across ranks demonstrates the department’s commitment to faculty development and academic advancement. The appointments and promotions team hosts regular workshops for faculty interested in pursuing promotion.
*2025 data is as of September 2025. 2020 data is from December 2020.
Number of Clinical Faculty by Appointment
Number of Clinical Faculty by Rank
Non-Clinical Faculty by Appointment Type
DFCM continues to prioritize diversity in its faculty recruitment. With respect to gender diversity, between 2020 and 2025: f New female faculty consistently outnumbered new male faculty, with the highest representation in 2024 (138 female vs. 79 male). In Canada, 49 per cent of family physicians are male versus 51 per cent who are female f The department also recorded a small but important presence of new faculty identifying as non-binary or another gender.
Additionally, for the first time ever, the Data Collection Working Group through the Office of Education Scholarship is working towards a survey to collect demographic data beyond gender to advance our principles of equity and social accountability mandate. Co-chaired by Dr. Jeff Kwong and Dr. Mahan Kulasegaram, this work is focused on collecting
a broader range of identity dimensions for faculty. The insights gained from this initiative will help inform approaches to fostering equity in appointments, promotions, leadership searches, and other processes. This work takes time and trust-building. On a macro level, the number and diversity of our faculty has increased over recent years.
As DFCM continues to expand, the focus will remain on:
f Supporting faculty through transparent promotion pathways
f Enhancing faculty development programs
f Strengthening inclusive hiring and retention strategies
f Promoting interdisciplinary collaboration across divisions
Find more DFCM faculty information in the People section of the appendices
The DFCM is committed to preparing future family physicians for comprehensive primary care in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. Through our Pre-Clerkship, Clerkship, Postgraduate Residency, and Enhanced Skills programs, we equip learners with the competencies needed to serve patients, communities, and society effectively. Graduate opportunities—including Master’s programs, Fellowships, and teaching certificates—further support career advancement and leadership development for health professionals.
A major priority for DFCM is the expansion of our training footprint to better serve diverse communities and meet growing healthcare needs. Recent additions include our new teaching sites at Humber River Health (2023), Uxbridge, and the Midland-Orillia stream (2025), which features a PGY1 Indigenous rotation co-developed with Indigenous partners. The Integrated Communities Stream will expand to Alliston in 2026, and the first PGY3 Emergency Medicine program has launched in Barrie. A doubling of the size of our Scarborough program is planned in the coming few years as the University of Toronto builds out a full new medical campus in Scarborough. These targeted expansions in communities where the need for primary care is great reflect our commitment to social accountability.
Learner wellness and inclusivity are central to our educational philosophy. Competency reviews are conducted through an equity lens, with gender-inclusive language and ongoing
consultation with the Family Medicine Patient Advisory Committee (PFAC). Annual programming includes a dedicated health equity day, and continuous collaboration with PGME supports anti-racism, Indigenous health, and climate-informed care initiatives. Feedback from the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) survey (2022–2024) shows strong learner endorsement of principles of equity and social accountability training, reinforcing DFCM’s commitment to creating a safe, supportive, and socially accountable learning environment. In responses to our CQI survey from 2022–2024, learners consistently endorsed strong program support for principles of equity and social accountability training, with more than 80 per cent agreeing or strongly agreeing.
PREPARED BY FRAT PRESIDENTS DR. YASMIN DINI AND DR. DARIYA DARVIN
The Family Residents Association of Toronto (FRAT) represents all Family Medicine residents to DFCM. It is composed of chief residents, PGY1, and PGY2 representatives from every teaching site, as well as resident delegates to a wide range of internal and external committees. FRAT is overseen by two co-presidents, who also serve as co-chief residents for the Family Medicine program. Each month, approximately 80 members convene to discuss issues related to resident wellness, central curriculum, and site-specific concerns.
Site Chief Residents
Committee Reps
Social Reps
Exeternal Reps
Internal Affairs
PGY1 Reps
FRAT’s strength lies in its integration with DFCM, ensuring the resident voice is present at every level of departmental decision-making. Representatives sit on key DFCM committees such as Curriculum, Evaluation, Integrated Communities, and Quality Improvement; as well as the Residency Program Committee (RPC). Externally, FRAT maintains representation with the Ontario College of Family Physicians and the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
FRAT also connects residents across all sites, fostering collaboration beyond individual training environments. Social representatives organize site-wide socials, wellness initiatives, and the annual retreat.
Core Day planning is another hallmark: co-presidents organize two annual sessions of central, resident-driven curriculum to complement site-specific Academic Half Days. In addition, FRAT has championed revitalized Practice Management sessions, which prepare residents for independent practice; financially, organizationally, personally, and professionally.
Another important strength is the diversity of our resident body. International Medical Graduates (IMGs) bring a wealth of global knowledge, cultural insight, and clinical perspectives that enrich discussions and patient care. At the same time, Public Health residents strengthen our capacity to integrate population-level thinking with family medicine training, blending prevention, health promotion, and community-level strategies into clinical education. Together, these voices broaden the scope of FRAT’s leadership and enrich the learning environment across all sites.
PGY3 Reps
Environmental Health Lead
Indigenous Health Lead
Social Accountability Lead
Wellness and Safety Reps
Since the pandemic, FRAT has sustained a virtual format, which limited in person opportunities for learning and social engagement. However, 2026 will mark the first in-person DFCM Practice Management central programming since the pandemic, a milestone in rebuilding resident connection and community.
The geographic vastness of our program has long posed a challenge; however, the introduction of hubs this year has helped the orientation block foster greater cohesion, and this approach will be extended to future social initiatives.
Building on its foundations, FRAT is leading several initiatives that both respond to current needs and shape the program’s future direction. This year, FRAT is focused on revitalizing the elective database to ensure it reflects each site’s strengths and learning opportunities, supporting innovative approaches to studying through centralized resources, and advancing wellness initiatives that address burnout and work-life integration. Our work also emphasizes equity and accountability by embedding Indigenous Health, EDI, and Social Accountability perspectives into central decision-making, while fostering leadership development to prepare residents not only as clinicians but as advocates, collaborators, and system leaders.
Through these efforts, FRAT continues to amplify resident voices, foster community, and shape the future of Family Medicine training in Toronto.
Further details on learner opportunities are provided in the Education section.
Find more DFCM learner information in the People section of the appendices.
Over the past year, DFCM has continued to grow and evolve and the staff complement has changed along with the needs of the department. Our team includes approximately 50 appointed staff members, along with a number of temporary staff who support our operations during peak periods.
In response to changing public health guidelines and the evolving COVID-19 landscape, we transitioned from a fully remote work model to a hybrid arrangement, with staff now working in the office two days per week. This shift has been well received, supporting both productivity and work-life balance, and helping foster greater collaboration and connection among team members.
This year also marked a major leadership transition within our administrative team. After 22 years of dedicated service to DFCM and 38 years with the University of Toronto, Caroline Turenko retired from her role as Director of Business Administration. Caroline’s leadership was instrumental in guiding the department through significant growth and transformation, and her legacy of mentorship and strategic insight continues to shape our work.
We were thrilled to welcome Brenda Chow as our new Director of Planning and Operations on September 2, 2025. Brenda brings nearly a decade of experience in administrative leadership at U of T, with a strong background in finance, HR, space planning, and IT. Her thoughtful, collaborative approach and deep commitment to the university’s mission have already made a positive impact.
The DFCM Staff Wellness group began in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Holly Downey and Megan Parry (then Global Health and Social Accountability Program Coordinator) launched virtual wellness initiatives to support staff during the pandemic. Over time, the team evolved to include Ancy Jacob (2021), Linna Liu (2023), Thanusha Rajathurai (2024), and most recently Alyshia D’Cunha (2025). The current team—Holly, Ancy, and Alyshia—continues to champion staff wellness and connection.
Formed to strengthen camaraderie among colleagues who had never met in person, the group promotes physical and mental well-being, encourages balance, and fosters a positive, connected workplace. Meeting regularly, they organize wellness activities and share opportunities from across the University.
Early initiatives included Eat, Chat, Grow sessions, virtual exercise challenges, cook-alongs, gardening and wellness channels, and holiday-themed events like pumpkin carving and gingerbread building. As staff returned to the office, the focus shifted to in-person coffee breaks, the annual U of T Step Challenge, and seasonal wellness and exercise events. Popular offerings have included the DFCM Bake-Off, potlucks, and outdoor walks in summer.
Feedback from staff surveys (2021–2024) shows continued enthusiasm for the variety of activities and appreciation for the sense of community they build. The team presents regularly at staff meetings, welcomes new members, and remains committed to making wellness a valued part of DFCM’s culture.
After an illustrious 22-year career at the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), Caroline Turenko retired as the Business and Administration Director in October 2025.
Education remains at the heart of the Department of Family and Community Medicine’s (DFCM) mission. Over the past several years, we’ve significantly expanded our programs, deepened our commitment to learner support, and embraced innovation in how we teach and train future family physicians. Our goal is clear: to make family medicine a compelling and inspiring choice for learners at every stage of their journey.
DFCM’s educational offerings span Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Academic Fellowship and Graduate Studies, Global Health, Faculty Development, and Education Scholarship programs. Each is designed to reflect the evolving needs of our communities and the healthcare system. We have grown in size, scope, and impact—reaching more learners, offering more diverse training experiences, and strengthening our leadership and administrative infrastructure across all sites.
All University of Toronto medical students continue to receive foundational family medicine training, and our Undergraduate Program has expanded its clinical and elective opportunities to better showcase the breadth and relevance
of the discipline. Our Postgraduate Program prepares residents to be safe, effective, and comprehensive family physicians, with enhanced skills training available for those pursuing focused areas of practice.
Graduate and Fellowship programs now offer even more pathways for learners to develop expertise in teaching, leadership, research, and clinical. Across all levels, we’ve prioritized wellness, equity, and mentorship—ensuring learners feel supported, valued, and equipped to thrive.
While the COVID-19 pandemic brought significant challenges, our current message is one of growth and hope. We’ve emerged stronger, more connected, and more committed than ever to shaping the future of family medicine through education that is inclusive, responsive, and visionary.
OVER 1,300 LEARNERS ANNUALLY ACROSS PROGRAMS
Over the past five years, the DFCM’s Undergraduate Program has continued to grow in scope, adaptability, and innovation. We’ve implemented curriculum changes aligned with the renewed MD Program structure, including enhancements to the Foundations Program, expansion of virtual and hybrid learning opportunities, and strengthened longitudinal family medicine experiences in year 2. These changes were implemented to advance the program goals of delivering excellent education, designing and developing scholarly innovations in healthcare, and promoting family medicine as the career choice for medical students.
The DFCM Undergraduate Program delivers mandatory clinical experiences for all MD students in their second and third years, followed by selective and elective opportunities in the fourth year.
During the core family medicine clerkship, students train in both community and hospital-based practices across urban,
suburban, and rural areas of Ontario. These diverse teaching sites offer learners exposure to a wide range of care models and interprofessional teams, enriching their clinical education.
The rotation begins with a seminar series, after which students transition to clinical placements in family medicine teaching units, community-based physician offices, or a combination of both. In addition to their clinical responsibilities, students attend site-specific seminars and complete online modules designed to reinforce their learning.
As part of the clerkship, students complete a scholarly project focused on either evidence-based research or advocacy. Topics have included access to medications, refugee health, addiction, health literacy, food security, infant nutrition, and social isolation.
DFCM faculty remain deeply engaged in Undergraduate curriculum innovation, assessment strategies, and educational research. The Undergraduate Education Committee (UEC) meets regularly to review and improve educational processes, with strong student representation from clerkship years and the Interest Group in Family Medicine (IgFM), as well as junior and senior residents. Recent expansions—including a new teaching site at Humber River Health and increased rural capacity through Rural Ontario Medical Program (ROMP)—have further enhanced training opportunities.
~290 enrolled per year in the MD undergrad program with a projected 303 class size with Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health launch (compared to 260 in 2020)
~285 thirdyear core clerkship placements in 2025 12 Greater Toronto Area and eight distant and rural sites for clerkship
~100 fourthyear electives in family medicine per year ~100 fourthyear selectives in transition to residency in family medicine
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Family and Community Medicine continues to receive strong ratings from clerks across key areas, including Organization and Resources, Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), Feedback and Learning Experience, e-Modules, Responsibilities and Opportunities, Learning Environment, Overall Experience, Workload, and Facilities. Most items consistently score above 4 out of 5, with the learning environment and supervision often rated 4.7 or higher, indicating clear strengths. EPA-related feedback is also positive: 64 per cent of clerks rarely face challenges finding assessors, 86 per cent report effective feedback, and 92 per cent say preceptors are aware of EPAs. Student comments highlight high-quality teaching and overall positive experiences, though some note scheduling challenges, outdated course handbooks, and overlapping seminar content.
View Temerty Medicine’s Family Medicine learner ratings from 2020-2025
The DFCM Undergraduate Clinical Program is consistently rated highly by students.
Formal student feedback is gathered by completion of online course evaluation forms prior to the students’ final evaluation with the hospital program director. The overall course rating has been consistently high.
OVERALL
5-point scale: 1 = Poor, 3 = Good, 5 = Excellent
Rate the quality of your educational experience in your clerkship rotation
The table below shows teacher effectiveness scores (TES)/ learner assessment of clinical teacher (LACT) scores over the last five years at all sites.
5-point scale: 1 = Poor, 3 = Good, 5 = Excellent
Teaching Effectiveness
Score / Learner Assessment of Clinical Teacher
Principles of equity and social accountability guide the selection of committee members and physician leads, ensuring diverse representation and inclusive leadership. MD students and residents are actively involved in key decision-making bodies, including the undergraduate education committee, clerkship committee, and award panels, allowing their voices to shape all aspects of the program.
DFCM faculty develop inclusive assessment tools and educational technologies to support learner success; student feedback is regularly incorporated to improve the learning environment. Evaluation tools have been updated to reflect inclusive language, and the program works closely with the Office of Learner Affairs to ensure accommodations are implemented as needed.
The Family Medicine Longitudinal Experience (FMLE) program has evolved in response to recommendations from the prior review to integrate principles of equity and social accountability for learners. Through engagement and collaboration with Black and Indigenous Health Leads to create a new stream that offers students a safe, identity-affirming experience by pairing them with faculty who share aspects of their identity. Collaborations with Dr. Onye Nnorom and the Black Medical Student Association support preceptor recruitment and training for this initiative.
In clerkship, students learn inclusive LGBTIQ2S terminology, participate in advocacy projects, and engage in patient-centered care through seminars like Motivational Interviewing.
Further, since 2014, the Undergraduate Program has implemented three iterations of an experiential Health Advocacy Project in the family medicine third-year clerkship. For the project, students identify a patient for whom social factors impact health, and they develop, implement, and present an advocacy plan. Evaluation data has been collected from students and faculty. Principles of success and pitfalls to avoid while implementing a health advocacy curriculum during clerkship have been shared widely. This initiative is important because it equips future physicians with practical skills to address social determinants of health, fostering a more holistic and equitable approach to patient care.
Supporting learner wellness is essential at all levels of DFCM learning. In addition to supports provided to undergraduate learners by the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the DFCM developed the DFCM Red Button in 2021. This tool is a quick-access resource that helps learners navigate challenging situations — from health concerns to safety issues. For undergraduate learners, it introduces a culture of support and transparency early in their training, showing that help is available and that wellness is a priority in family medicine education. At the end of each academic year, learner feedback is reviewed to identify challenges and inform program improvements.
Third-year students in the University of Toronto’s MD Program have been sharpening their advocacy skills to help patients — from improving access to care for those without phones to making medical spaces more inclusive for gender-diverse people and helping others navigate vision and dental care.
One of the overarching goals in the Undergraduate Program is the promotion of family medicine as the career of choice to our MD students. A variety of innovative initiatives have been launched to attempt to increase exposure and interest in family medicine in the pre-clerkship. These include the Family Medicine Longitudinal Experience (FMLE), which is now a required course for all second-year students, and optional experiences such as the Family Medicine Immersion week, FM CLLEO and the Gagnon scholarship (more on those programs below).
Additionally, the Interest Group in Family Medicine (IgFM), a student-run group, has grown and flourished under the leadership of Dr. Lauren Payne as the Student Leadership and Engagement Lead.
An example of an event organized by the IgFM is FM101, which includes a keynote speaker and panel of family doctors. The event showcases the breadth and scope of family medicine at the very beginning of medical training and has had rave reviews from attendees.
These new pre-clerkship innovations are being evaluated in a scholarly way to understand their impact on interest in family medicine and future choice of family medicine as a career. We look forward to the results of these evaluations.
The Family Medicine Longitudinal Experience (FMLE)
The Family Medicine Longitudinal Experience (FMLE) is a mandatory community-based clinical experience. The program offers 1:1 preceptorship and longitudinal exposure to family medicine. Students schedule six half-days with the same preceptor in their clinical offices and participate in a mixed model of observation and participation with patients.
The main goals of the FMLE Program are:
f Experience clinical care in the community-based primary care setting.
f Develop an appreciation of the significant role of family physicians and the importance of primary care within the healthcare system.
f Learn about important issues in our healthcare system such as physician distribution, physician remuneration, primary care reform and social accountability.
f Have an opportunity to apply the skills acquired in the Integrated Clinical Skills Course in the ambulatory care setting, to conduct a supervised office visit in person or virtually.
For faculty, the FMLE Program acts as a gateway to other teaching opportunities in DFCM. Many of these faculty go on to teach in our elective and selective programs. Some have gone on to attain hospital-based appointments and serve as teachers in our core clinical clerkship and postgraduate programs. FMLE has recruited more than 200 community teachers over the last five years.
FMLE updates since the last self-study:
FMLE PRECEPTOR RESOURCE WEBPAGE
f In 2024, the FMLE office, under the leadership of Dr. Jane Chow (Undergraduate Recruitment Coordinator and Faculty Development Lead), began work on an FMLE Preceptor resource webpage. The site is part of a larger strategy of the FMLE administration to move toward more central and cloud/web-based supports for faculty.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW FMLE MATCH SYSTEM
f One of the biggest changes for the FMLE in the past five years has been the development of the FMLE Match system, in partnership with engineers from PLANK (more information about PLANK in Undergraduate Partnerships section) in 2023. The system reduces the administrative and preceptor burden and improves match results for the learner.
DEVELOPMENT OF FMLE 101 AND RESIDENT RECRUITMENT AND PRECEPTORSHIP
f As we grow in class size, the FMLE continues to rely on the participation of our DFCM Postgraduate year 1 and 2 (PGY1 and PGY2) residents to meet our student placement needs. Over the last five years, resident preceptorship and participation have greatly increased. Resident recruitment and site training process is more streamlined with the introduction of our new annual “FMLE 101” presentation.
The DFCM led the development of the Toronto Generalism Assessment Tool (T-GAT) in 2021—an evidence-informed tool designed to evaluate the presence of generalist principles in pre-clerkship curricular materials and to guide enhancements in generalism content.
The T-GAT was used to conduct a comprehensive review of the U of T Foundations curriculum (the first two years of the MD program). Detailed feedback was provided to curriculum developers, resulting in strengthened generalist representation across course materials. Other universities, including the University of Manitoba, are now using T-GAT.
Building on this foundational work, DFCM launched a national study titled “A Cross-Country Check-Up: Assessing Generalism in Canadian Pre-Clerkship Case-Based Curricular Materials.” This initiative aims to quantify the integration of generalist principles in case-based learning across undergraduate medical programs in Canada and to offer targeted recommendations for improvement.
The Family Medicine Immersion (FMI) Week offers first and second-year medical students an early and engaging opportunity to explore careers in family medicine. The week combines interactive seminars, hands-on skills training, and clinical observations, balancing didactic learning with practical experience. Students rotate through clinical skills workshops where they practice procedures such as injections, suturing, cervical exams, and newborn delivery.
FMI Week also emphasizes mentorship and career exploration, and incorporates community-based observerships, where learners shadow family physicians in their practices, offering exposure to primary care settings across the city.
Led by our Office of Health System Partnerships and with support from OntarioMD, this initiative offers early medical learners an innovative and focused brief longitudinal placement with community-based family physicians. Students learn to use EMR data to identify patients overdue for preventive care—such as immunizations and cancer screening—and assist physicians in delivering these interventions over at least three clinic days.
Learners also gain procedural skills through simulation and hands-on experience in underserved communities. The program aims to foster interest in family medicine and support physicians in improving preventive care delivery.
Students and preceptors shared overwhelmingly positive feedback, with several students newly inspired to consider Family Medicine as a career.
See the Google Map of the FM CLLEO location.
Over the past few years, the Clerkship Mastery Evaluation (ME) has undergone key improvements to enhance its alignment with national medical standards and improve assessment quality. In 2021, a new exam blueprint was developed to better reflect the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) framework. This involved extensive faculty training in blueprint design and crafting Clinical Decision Making (CDM) questions. Then in 2023, the MD Program requested that all Mastery Exercise assessments shift to a multiple-choice format. As a result, a dedicated team of faculty exam writers now contributes to a growing bank of high-quality multiple-choice questions. These questions are rigorously reviewed and revised before and after each exam, contributing to strong reliability and validity scores. The MD Program’s latest course report also recognized the strength of this assessment.
In addition to exam updates, improvements were made to the evaluation tools used for clerkship projects. Specifically, the rubrics for both the advocacy and evidence-based projects were revised to make them clearer and easier to use. These changes help streamline the marking process and support more consistent, constructive feedback for students.
Finally, a new evaluation aims to determine if site-specific differences influence student performance during their core rotation. The goal is to optimize learning experiences and guide future resource planning. Results are expected to be published in fall 2025.
A new resource called the Family Medicine Electives Primer was developed to support students preparing for their electives in family medicine. This tool is designed to help students navigate their learning experiences more effectively
Most training sites have now implemented formal clinical learning experiences led by health professional educators (HPEs). These structured interactions have helped learners gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the roles played by Interprofessional Healthcare Providers (IHPs). By observing interprofessional collaboration in action, students report feeling more prepared to work effectively with IHPs and recognize the value of HPEs as educators. This exposure has enhanced their ability to contribute to high-quality, patient-centered care.
A new one-day in-person conference has been introduced to enrich student learning in addiction medicine. This event is paired with shadowing opportunities in both outpatient and inpatient settings, giving learners a comprehensive view of clinical practice. The conference includes keynote speakers with lived experience, panels featuring addiction medicine specialists, and interactive sessions that encourage active engagement and reflection.
The new Lester and Jean Gagnon Scholarship Program, supported by a generous donation that started two years ago, provides a seven-week paid opportunity for first- and second-year medical students to explore careers in family medicine. This program combines clinical exposure, mentorship, and leadership development, offering students handson experience in both academic and community settings, so that medical students can develop a strong professional identity within the field of family medicine.
Over the last five years, the DFCM Undergraduate Program has developed and studied a number of scholarly innovations in education. Many of these innovations have received Art of the Possible Education Grants, a DFCM Office of Education Scholarship initiative that provides seed grants to DFCM education programs and faculty members to support academic education initiatives that will benefit a DFCM program.
Over the past five years, the department has faced several challenges in Undergraduate Education. A wave of retirements among family physicians across Ontario has reduced the availability of preceptors, while the COVID-19 pandemic further strained clinical teaching capacity. During the twoyear disruption, many curriculum projects were paused, and community preceptor numbers declined to levels that have yet to fully recover. Despite these setbacks, the department ensured a smooth transition to virtual and hybrid care and then back to in-person care, prioritized student safety with PPE, remained focused on maximizing clinical learning, and continued to advance family medicine training with new curriculum ideas and scholarly work, as well as managing learner expansion.
Securing adequate funding for community preceptors and clerkship preceptors at Family Medicine Teaching Unit
(FMTU) sites remains a persistent concern. The expansion of medical schools has driven a rise in enrollment numbers, intensifying the demand for clinical rotation placements and making it increasingly challenging to ensure every clerk is matched to an appropriate site. In response, the department has focused on increasing the preceptor pool by expanding faculty appointments, particularly at strategic locations, in anticipation of the new Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health and its associated training needs.
As of the 2021-2022 academic year, the FMLE stipend was increased by the Government of Ontario per student per block, which was vital to ensuring the continuity of the program and as an acknowledgement of appreciation for our outstanding U of T preceptors. As new medical schools continue to open across the GTA, it is important to ensure we can stay competitive as the demand for preceptors increases.
The last few months have seen many leadership changes within the program. We have a new Vice-Chair of Education and a new Program Director for Undergraduate Education. In addition, we have a new Lead for the FMLE program, a new Clerkship Exam Lead, and several new Hospital Site Leads. We will maintain our excellence through these leadership changes as well as take advantage of fresh ideas and energy that they will bring to the program. It is the goal of our new team to implement key components of the DFCM Strategic Plan throughout our work.
In the next five years, we hope to continue to expand student interest in choosing family medicine as their first choice in careers at the completion of their medical school training. Our ongoing scholarship projects will help to inform best practices on how to do that, as will increasing exposure to meaningful family medicine clinical experiences through programs such as FMLE, Family Medicine Immersion Week, and the Gagnon Mentorship Scholarship Program.
Learner feedback has identified challenges in understanding the various practice models that family doctors work in, the complexity of how Family Health Teams work alongside these practice models, and now the introduction of Ontario Health Teams. Questions about compensation, administrative burden, and leadership opportunities were also prevalent in student feedback. As a result, we are piloting a new seminar that will address the following topics:
f Review the role family doctors within the healthcare system
f Funding models in primary care
f Addressing the reality of the FM crisis in a historical context
f Primary care reform/Innovations (i.e., what is being done to fix the system?)
f Highlighting the opportunities for leadership in an FM career
As the MD program expands, our team is committed to maintaining the high standards of education across new training sites. Research initiatives such as “Clerkship Clinical Rotation Factors: Effect on Student Performance” will guide this process, while our Physician Recruitment Lead plays a key role in growing community-based clinical learning. Sustainable funding for community preceptors remains essential to ensuring consistent, high-quality experiences for all students.
We also continue to embrace innovation, leveraging technologies like AI to enhance learner evaluation and curriculum delivery. To further strengthen our scholarship efforts, we aim to secure dedicated support—such as a research associate—to help organize, lead, and publish our scholarly work, maximizing the impact of our academic contributions.
f DFCM partners with 21 hospital and community sites across Ontario, including Humber River Health, Markham-Stouffville, Midland-Orillia, Uxbridge, Barrie, Orangeville, Port Perry, and Alliston.
f These partnerships provide diverse, high-quality clinical experiences for students in urban, suburban, and rural settings.
f In collaboration with the ROMP, DFCM supports and funds student placements in rural communities for core clerkship rotations.
f Generous donor partnerships support meaningful student opportunities, including the FM-CLLEO and Gagnon Fund, which provide funding for research and clinical experiences.
f The FMLE program and DFCM partner with engineers at PLANK to develop and maintain innovative matching applications that enhance the student experience.
f The emergence of new medical schools, such as the one at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), introduces the challenge of potential of increased competition in attracting learners.
f At the same time, it presents exciting opportunities for collaboration, shared learning, and advancing the discipline of family medicine together.
Introduction
The University of Toronto’s Family Medicine Postgraduate or Residency Program is one of the largest and most diverse in Canada, offering a comprehensive two-year training experience accredited by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
The program accepts both Canadian and international medical graduates through the CaRMS matching process using Postgraduate Medical Education’s (PGME’s) Best Practices in Application and Selection (BPAS 2.0), which emphasizes equity, transparency, and standardized processes.
The program features multiple geographic training streams: the Greater Toronto Area, Barrie/Newmarket, Midland/ Orillia, Integrated Communities (which combines one GTAbased year and another year in a different community), and Uxbridge/Markham. Each stream includes unique combinations of hospital-supported Family Medicine Teaching Units (FMTUs) and community-based preceptor models, providing residents with exposure to a wide range of clinical settings and patient populations.
In the past five years, the Postgraduate Program has expanded the number of teaching sites to include Humber River Health in 2023, and the Midland/Orillia and Uxbridge/ Markham streams in 2025. These new sites seek to provide primary care to unattached patients, with a significant proportion being from the Indigenous community. In the Midland/Orillia stream, there is a Postgraduate Year 1 (PGY1) core Indigenous rotation, which was co-developed with Indigenous community partners. This expansion reflects a key priority in the Department of Family and Community Medicine’s (DFCM) strategic plan to advance equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigenous engagement through distributed education and community partnerships.
With over 18 teaching sites—four more than our previous self-study term—and an internal post-match process that allows residents to rank their site preferences, the program emphasizes flexibility and learner choice, welcoming approximately 200 new family medicine residents per academic year. Residents have access to either horizontal or block rotation schedules (depending on their training site) and to a rich array of electives to support individualized learning goals. The curriculum is competency-based and includes innovative tools such as the Family Medicine Medical Expert Assessment of Progress (FM-MAP) to support formative assessment and professional development.
Academic excellence is a hallmark of the program, with consistently high certification exam pass rates and integrated pathways such as the optional Integrated 3-Year Programs (I3P), which offer advanced training in areas like leadership or enhanced skills.
The program fosters a supportive, learner-centered environment through initiatives like the Family Medicine Residents Association of Toronto (FRAT) and maintains a strong focus on resident wellness, mentorship, and work-life balance. This structure ensures that graduates are exceptionally well-prepared for comprehensive, community-responsive family medicine practice across a wide range of settings.
The overall goal of the DFCM’s Postgraduate Residency Program is to provide residents with the skills to practice family medicine anywhere–provincially, nationally, and internationally. Our learners often go on to become leaders in education and research, as the program ensures that graduates are exceptionally well-prepared for comprehensive, community-responsive family medicine practice across a wide range of settings.
The Residency Program Committee (RPC) advises, assists and makes recommendations to the Postgraduate Program Director on policy and procedures regarding the resident training program, including: selection of residents, educational design, policy and process development, safety and resident wellness, assessment of resident progress, continuous improvement, and resident engagement.
The RPC assists the Postgraduate Program Director in planning, implementing, organizing, supervising and evaluating the DFCM’s two-year Postgraduate Family Medicine Program to ensure that the Standards of Accreditation, as set out by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), are met.
The following subcommittees manage various aspects of the program and curriculum:
f Joint Curriculum and Evaluation Committee
f Awards Committee
f Internal Match Committee
f Policy Committee
f Resident Progress Review Committee
f Teaching Practice Committee
f Maternity Care Group
f Family Medicine Resident’s Association of Toronto (FRAT)
f Program length is two years; residents can opt to apply to the Integrated 3-Year Program (I3P) or an Enhanced Skills program
f 409 PGY1&2 learners in 2025-2026 compared to 362 postgrad learners in 2021-2022
f Program Director is Dr. Stuart Murdoch
f Program Administrator is Lela Sarjoo
f Approximately 2,300 faculty members at DFCM who are active in all levels of DFCM education
Across all 18 teaching and integrated community sites, the DFCM Postgraduate competency framework is built on:
f CanMEDS–FM 2017 roles (Family Medicine Expert, Communicator, Collaborator, Leader, Health Advocate, Scholar, Professional)
f The College of Family Physicians of Canada’s (CFPC) Professional Profile & Four Principles of Family Medicine
f Triple C curriculum (Comprehensive, Continuity-based, Centred in Family Medicine)
Progressive levels guide the 24-month residency:
f Resident Readiness (first month): Foundations Block focused on transitions, wellness, and early clinical skills.
f Essential Competencies (throughout two years): Core skills delivered through longitudinal and block rotations, Academic Half Days (AHDs), and Core Days.
Z Domains of practice covered by the Essential Competencies (all fully mapped to CanMEDS-FM roles):
Women’s Health & Sexual Health
Maternal/Perinatal Care
Pediatric & Adolescent Health
Care of the Elderly & Frailty
Mental Health & Addictions
Musculoskeletal & Sports Medicine
Emergency & Urgent Care
In-Hospital and Transitional Care
Palliative & End-of-Life Care
Men’s Health
Public & Population Health (including immunization, environmental health)
Surgical & Procedural Skills
Social Accountability & Health Equity — new domain, 2026
f Enriched Competencies (throughout two years): Advanced skills tailored to residents’ targeted interests and career directions, which can be achieved through electives or high-volume exposure in areas of interest.
Z Areas can include, but are not limited to:
Addictions
Obstetrics
Transgender care
Dermatology
f Enhanced Competencies (optional, following two-year residency): Optional electives and scholarly work that support individualized career goals.
Category 1 programs are designated by the CFPC as programs leading to a Certificate of Added Competence (CAC). Category 2 programs are intended for learners to gain additional experiences in research/scholarship or in areas of individual interest. Category 2 programs do not lead to a CAC. Enhanced Skills programs occur after the resident has gone through the two years of Postgraduate Residency.
We also offer the Family Medicine and Enhanced Skills (FAM-ES) Integrated 3-year Program (I3P), as suggested by reviewers from our last self-study. The program is open to PGY1 residents at U of T only. The FAM-ES program integrates PGY3 content (either Palliative Care or Sport & Exercise Medicine) alongside core Family Medicine during the PGY2 and PGY3 years of training.
There are 17 Enhanced Skills programs divided into Category 1 and Category 2:
Category 1:
f Addiction Medicine
f Anesthesia
f Care of the Elderly
f Clinician Scholar
f Emergency Medicine
f Palliative Care
f Sport and Exercise Medicine
Category 2:
f Adolescent Medicine
f Breast Diseases
f Education Scholar
f Global Health and Vulnerable Populations
f HIV Care
f Hospital Medicine
f Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
f 2SLGBTQ Health
f Low-Risk Obstetrics
f Women’s Health
DFCM’s educational offerings are also enhanced by our Academic Divisions, which provide an academic home for family physicians and other primary care providers practicing comprehensive care and developing enhanced skills in family medicine. We now have six Divisions, compared to two during our last review. These Divisions allow DFCM to unite academic family physicians working in focused practice to support collaborative education and research. They are focused on areas of practice that are integral to comprehensive educational programming and crucial to the future of family medicine. Read more information about our Academic Divisions
Competencies are directly linked to progress reviews, field notes, In-Training Evaluation Reports (ITERs), Family Medicine Medical Expert Assessment of Progress (FM-MAP) performance, and Resident Practice Profile (RPP) data—ensuring real-time tracking and responsive adjustments.
We collect feedback from residents through multiple channels:
1. Centralized Surveys and Feedback Processes
Z Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Survey (Annual)
Led by CQI Lead Nasreen Ramji.
Distributed to residents at each site in May/June.
Results are shared with sites for self-comparison and broader DFCM benchmarking.
CQI team conducts site visits to support CQI initiatives.
Data is reviewed centrally for curricular innovations (e.g., Foundations).
Z Family Medicine Longitudinal Survey (FMLS)
Administered at PGY1 and PGY2 levels.
Created by CFPC; we add customized questions and manage dissemination.
Z Temerty “Voice of the Resident” Survey (Every two years)
Captures data on learners.
Informs program quality and improvements to the learning environment.
Sites provide protected time for completion.
2. Resident Evaluations of Training Experience
Z Evaluating Rotations
Residents can submit evaluations at the end of each rotation.
For multi-site or longitudinal rotations, separate evaluations can be submitted for each site/ subrotation.
Z Evaluating Faculty (Learner Assessment of Clinical Teaching – LACTs)
Completed after a rotation with a faculty member.
Minimum of three evaluations required to generate a LACT report.
Includes qualitative comments.
We collect feedback on residents through multiple channels:
1. Competence Committees (at each teaching site)
Use multiple data sources (field notes, ITERs, FM-MAP scores, RPP dashboards, progress reviews) to:
Z Evaluate resident progression relative to expectations.
Z Make formal promotion recommendations twice annually (PGY1 → PGY2 and graduation readiness).
Z Submit recommendations to the Residency Program Committee (RPC) for final approval.
Z Assess CFPC exam readiness based on demonstrated competencies.
2. Resident Progress Review Committee (RPRC) –Escalation Process
Residents may be referred to the RPRC if they show signs of difficulty, including:
Z Concerning ITERs or mid-rotation feedback.
Z Patterns in field notes or FM-MAP data.
Z Performance concerns raised by site directors, faculty advisors, or progress review discussions.
GRIT AND GOALS: DFCM RESIDENT DR. HAYLEY WICKENHEISER ON THE TEAM SPORT OF EMERGENCY
1 Mount Sinai Hospital, Sinai Health System
2 Unity Health Toronto, St. Michael’s Hospital
3 Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
4 Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
5 Credit Valley Hospital, Trillium Health Partners
6 Markham-Stouffville Hospital
7 Mississauga Hospital, Trillium Health Partners
8 North York General Hospital
9 Women’s College Hospital
10 Scarborough Health Network
11 Michael Garron Hospital
12 Unity Health Toronto, St. Joseph’s Health Centre
13 Humber River Health
14 Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre
15 Southlake Regional Health Centre
16 Georgian Bay General Hospital
17 Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital
18 Oak Valley Health - Uxbridge Hospital
GTA stream:
f Humber River Health
f North York General Hospital
f Oak Valley Health - Markham Stouffville Hospital
f Scarborough Health Network
f Sinai Health - Mount Sinai Hospital
f Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
f Toronto East Health Network – Michael Garron Hospital
f Trillium Health Partners – Credit Valley Hospital
f Trillium Health Partners – Mississauga Hospital
f Unity Health Toronto – St. Joseph’s Health Centre
f Unity Health Toronto – St. Michael’s Hospital
f University Health Network – Toronto Western Hospital
f Women’s College Hospital
Barrie/Newmarket Stream:
f Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre – Barrie
f Southlake Health – Newmarket
Midland/Orillia Stream:
f Georgian Bay General Hospital - Midland
f Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital - Orillia
Integrated Communities – Uxbridge Markham:
f Oak Valley Health - Uxbridge Hospital
Teaching Practice Rotations: All residents complete two consecutive four-week blocks in 36 rural/underserved Ontario communities (e.g., Moose Factory, Lake Erie), acting as most responsible physicians (MRPs), working with interprofessional teams, and delivering care in resource-limited settings.
f Integrated Communities Stream (ICS): Introduced as a replacement for the rural program, ICS combines one GTA-based year with a year in a community hospital in Port Perry or Orangeville, focusing on underserved populations, newcomers, and patients facing housing or food insecurity. A new site in Alliston will be added in 2026.
f Rural Northern Initiative: In partnership with the Ministry of Health, this initiative offers core and elective rotations in Northern Ontario, exposing residents to resource-limited contexts and emphasizing system navigation, interprofessional collaboration, and community-responsive care.
The program undergoes regular accreditation cycles at the external and internal levels:
f The DFCM Postgraduate Program successfully passed external accreditation in 2020. We submitted our response to the two-year Accreditation Progress and Outcomes Report (APOR), and our next submission—the Action Follow-up Report (AFI)—is due in November 2026.
f Underwent internal review at the site level this past winter (2024-2025).
f Undergoing internal review at the central FM level in January 2026.
f Renewed our World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) accreditation in February 2025.
The Postgraduate Program opened a training site at Humber River Hospital in 2023, with the site graduating their first PGY2s in June 2025. Three new sites opened for the 2025-2026 academic year: Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (Orillia), Georgian Bay General Hospital (Midland), and Markham-Uxbridge which was done in collaboration with Oak Valley Health Hospital in Markham Stouffville.
We also conducted the first PGY3 expansion in Barrie with emergency medicine in Barrie (Royal Victoria Hospital) as well as two more teaching sites announced for Scarborough by the Primary Care Action Team.
Since the 2020 accreditation cycle, the DFCM has demonstrated a strong and sustained commitment to Indigenous health education through:
f Mandatory San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training for all PGY1 residents. San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training is a program designed to foster critical reflection and knowledge around the impacts of colonization, anti-Indigenous racism, and systemic inequities in healthcare delivery.
f Thoughtful planning of an Indigenous Health Education Workplan, co-developed with community partners.
f Expanding clinical learning opportunities in Indigenous health, including urban electives, remote community placements through the Rural Northern Initiative, and community-based Teaching Practices serving
Data from the College of Family Physicans of Canda Family Medicine Longitudinal Survey (2019-2024) survey
“How prepared do you feel to begin independent practice as a family physician?”
f High preparedness overall: Across 2019–2024, between 82–89 per cent of graduates rated themselves as “Prepared” or “Very Prepared” for practice.
f Upward stability: Results were consistent year-to-year, with a slight upward trajectory noted between 2019 (82 per cent) and 2023 (89 per cent), sustaining at 87per cent in 2024.
f Strengths identified: Graduating residents particularly reported confidence in:
Z Comprehensive primary care delivery.
Z Managing complex chronic disease.
Z Communication and collaboration skills.
Indigenous patients.
f Expansion of the program to include a Midland-Orillia stream, which seeks to provide primary care to unattached patients, with a significant proportion being from the Indigenous community. In this stream, there is a PGY1 core Indigenous rotation, which was codeveloped with Indigenous community partners.
Through these efforts, Indigenous health and cultural safety are embedded as core elements of residency training.
Survey results indicated that fewer than half of learners viewed social accountability as an important element of curriculum renewal, underscoring the need to strengthen engagement.
In response, the program’s leadership collaborated with the Vice-Chair of Community and Partnerships to draft competencies for a Social Accountability domain of competencies that residents will be evaluated on. The Vice-Chair of Community and Partnerships developed these competencies through a rigorous process involving patient partners, the Health Equity Committee, the Residency Program Committee (RPC) committee, and health professional educators.
The draft competencies were reviewed by Postgraduate Program leadership and members of the ILC and will be presented to the RPC for final review. The goal is for these new competencies to be fully integrated into the program in 2026.
As planned in the previous self-study, the Postgraduate Program has fully implemented a five-step Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) framework that systematically integrates feedback, monitors outcomes, and drives program improvement. Areas for improvement are identified through multiple data sources, including surveys, field note and assessment data, progress reviews, and stakeholder feedback.
Since the last review, we added a CQI lead to the Postgraduate team that runs the annual survey, interprets the data and disseminates results to central leadership and site directors/admins, conducts site visits, etc.
This fulfills requirements in the Accreditation Standards and allows for continuous improvement to occur in the residency program.
In response to some CQI survey feedback around residents feeling they needed a greater orientation to the Postgraduate Residency Program as they transitioned from medical school, the Postgraduate Program developed and launched the Foundations Block this July 2025.
This block consists of both central- and site-level initiatives to introduce the residents to the main principles of the program, begin professional identity formation, and productive struggle. Sites provided residents with family medicine clinic, debrief sessions to discuss patient cases, and site-provided courses. The central DFCM Postgraduate Program planned centrally-run courses such as Serious Illness Communications Education, Physical Exam Skills, Wellness, Social Accountability, and Prescribing, where facilitators consisted of health professional educators such as pharmacists, faculty members, recent graduates, and current residents. This curriculum initiative was conducted in collaboration with the site directors, and site administrators received high satisfaction rates from the residents.
We plan to conduct Foundations again in 2026.
Resident wellness and safety are foundational to the DFCM residency program, guided by the DFCM Resident Wellness Guide and embedded in program governance through the Residency Program Committee (RPC). Wellness updates are a standing agenda item, and many sites have designated wellness officers. Dr. Kim Lazare represents DFCM on the PGME Wellness Subcommittee, ensuring alignment with central policies.
Residents are introduced to wellness resources during orientation and throughout the program, including:
f The DFCM Resident Wellness Guide
f The DFCM Red Button and PGME Yellow Button for anonymous support
f A dedicated Foundations Block wellness half-day
f Flexibility for leaves (e.g., parental, mental health) and deferred start dates
f Social events hosted by Family Medicine Residents Association of Toronto (FRAT) and Professional Association of Residents of Ontario (PARO) to foster community
f PGME Office of Learner Affairs (OLA)
f PARO’s 24 hr helpline
f Office of Learner Experience (OLE)
f Indigenous Student Services and Supports
f Black Health Advisory Table (BHAT) provides resources for Black students
f Physician Health Program
f Resident wellness guidelines, PGME policies and guidelines
Resident feedback is actively gathered through the CQI survey and FMLS, informing curriculum and support planning. In 2022–2024, over 80 per cent of residents consistently agreed they felt safe and supported in their learning environment. These results affirm the program’s commitment to a positive culture, supported by faculty professionalism workshops and wellness leads.
Graduates also report strong supervision structures: according to the CFPC FMLS Exit Survey (2019–2024), 87–93 per cent had identified mentors guiding their development, and 85–90 per cent rated supervision as Excellent or Very Good.
The DFCM Family Medicine Residency Program offers training across urban, suburban, rural, remote, and even international settings, including academic health science centres, community hospitals, interprofessional clinics, and specialized community health sites.
In addition to family medicine, learners can also explore areas including pediatrics, internal medicine, emergency, OB/GYN, psychiatry, geriatrics, addictions medicine, Indigenous health, LGBTQ2S+ health, and correctional health.
Learners can also pursue placements to support underserved populations, like in shelters, refugee clinics, with Indigenous organizations, in youth mental health, and addiction services to foster socially accountable, equity-oriented care.
Further expansion and capacity-building: The DFCM has been instructed by the Government of Ontario to add 40 additional positions to the Postgraduate Residency Program by 2028, as part of the work underway to try to increase access to primary care. This expansion is important for our communities and will require hard work to implement. The program has taken steps to accommodate this expansion, but will need to collaborate with the government and our training sites to ensure we can expand more and build capacity.
Technological systems: We need to ensure that our technological systems are adequate to support the demands of our curriculum delivery, learner and program assessments, keeping educational materials up to date, etc. Opportunities for innovation are limited by our current technological structures.
Sufficient financial support: Our training sites require ongoing financial support to continue to achieve excellence. In an environment where supports to the university and the department have not increased for many years, it is difficult to continue to grow and innovate within fixed budgets.
We are continuing to work on capacity-building and expansion efforts to meet our 40-seat expansion requirement by 2028, and we remain on track to achieve this goal.
Following the success of the Foundations block this year, we aim to further enhance this novel curriculum initiative to better meet the evolving needs of our residents.
We remain committed to ensuring our curriculum not only prepares residents to practice anywhere in Canada and globally but also equips them to deliver socially accountable medicine. As part of this commitment, we will be implementing Social Accountability competencies into the Postgraduate curriculum in 2026.
We are also collaborating with the Indigenous Leadership Circle (ILC) to integrate Indigenous health-specific competencies and electives.
In addition to our close ties with Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Postgraduate Medicine Education team to ensure we are continuously following their policies and guidelines, the DFCM Postgraduate team also has close relationships with the below.
f DFCM partners with these hospital and community sites to provide diverse, high-quality clinical experiences for learners in urban, suburban, and rural settings:
Z Georgian Bay General Hospital – Midland; Humber River Health; North York General Hospital; Oak Valley Health – Markham Stouffville Hospital; Oak Valley Health – Uxbridge Hospital; Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital – Orillia; Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre – Barrie; Scarborough Health Network; Sinai Health – Mount Sinai Hospital; Southlake Health –Newmarket; Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Toronto East Health Network – Michael Garron Hospital; Trillium Health Partners – Credit Valley Hospital; Trillium Health Partners – Mississauga Hospital; Unity Health Toronto – St. Joseph’s Health Centre; Unity Health Toronto – St. Michael’s Hospital; University Health Network – Toronto Western Hospital; Women’s College Hospital.
f The emergence of new medical schools, such as the one at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), introduces the challenge of potentially increased competition in attracting learners.
f At the same time, it presents exciting opportunities for collaboration, shared learning, and advancing the discipline of family medicine together.
The Family Residents Association of Toronto (FRAT) is a close and essential partner to DFCM Postgraduate Education, ensuring strong resident representation in all aspects of program planning and decision-making. With members from every teaching site, FRAT provides direct resident input through active participation on key departmental committees and regular collaboration with Postgraduate leadership. Together, we co-create initiatives like Core Day, Practice Management sessions, and wellness programming that reflect the evolving needs of our learners. This partnership allows us to build a responsive, inclusive, and resident-centered training environment that is strengthened by FRAT’s diverse voices and leadership.
The Academic Fellowship and Graduate Studies (AFGS) Program at DFCM has provided advanced and comprehensive professional development for practicing clinicians since 1990. It sees 30-50 learners each year, returning to explore academic leadership, education, research, and scholarly training.
Programs are delivered collaboratively with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH), with administration housed in DFCM.
In alignment with DFCM’s strategic vision, AFGS programs contribute to a growing cohort of family medicine and health professional education champions locally and abroad. Graduates are equipped to examine the health trends in their communities and contribute to leadership and system planning in their contexts. Our recent survey of graduates highlighted that approximately 70 per cent of graduates go onto leadership roles in education, research, and clinical capacities.
AFGS supports advanced faculty development both within and external to the department. It offers graduate master’s degrees, continuing education (CE) certificates, fellowship programs, and single course options that focus on both family and community medicine and health professions education.
Offerings include: f Graduate Studies:
Z MScCH (HPTE): Master of Science in Community Health in Health Practitioner Teacher Education | 1 year degree – 10 courses
Z MScCH(FCM): Master of Science in Community Health in Family and Community Medicine | 1 year degree – 10 courses
Z MPH(FCM): Master of Public Health in Family and Community Medicine | 2-year degree – 20 courses
Z MPH-AS(FCM): Master of Public Health – Advanced Standing in Family and Community Medicine | 1 year degree – 10 courses
f Continuing Education:
Z Clinical Research Certificate (CRC) – 4 module certificate | 1 year
Z Clinical Teacher Certificate (CTC) – 4 module certificate | 1 year
Z Certificate in Academic Family Medicine – 4 module certificate | 1 year
Z INTAPT: Interprofessional Applied Practical Teaching and Learning in the Health Professions – 2 course program (Fall to Winter)
Programs are designed for working professionals and coursebased (non-thesis), with flexible full-time and part-time options and a unique experiential learning practicum component.
Learners include family physicians, clinician educators, early, mid, and late career faculty of interprofessional disciplines, and international participants from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Oman, Kuwait, Japan, and India— creating a collaborative, rich learning experience and networking opportunities for all students.
Programs and courses are led and instructed by revered healthcare professional DFCM faculty across various disciplines.
Current 2025-26 academic year metrics: 10 program offerings (4 degrees, 2 fellowships, 3 certificates, INTAPT), 33 core faculty instructors, 86 active enrolled students (graduate & continuing education).
Over 217 primary care providers (162 family physicians) have completed a graduate degree through AFGS – most are DFCM faculty and have gone to take on clinical and education leadership roles, like program directors or site chiefs.
of participants described taking on new role(s) or opportunities y Leadership y Research y Teaching
Perceived impacts
y Improved confidenced y Feeling empowered to lead change
y Understanding health systems
y Broadened career paths
Statistics based on 2025 scholarly program evaluation of AFGS
prefer more virtual learning
“...I certainly wouldn’t have been able to fly back and forth to Toronto to take courses... online learning was really helpful.” (P3)
prefer more inperson learning
“I was really glad it was in-person. It was engaging and good for networking, meeting other people.” (P 1 )
MASTER OF PUBLIC HEALTH IN FAMILY AND COMMUNITY MEDICINE ADVANCED STANDING (AS) STREAM DEGREE GROWTH
This stream was established in 2019 and continues to attract new candidates. It enables Canadian-trained physicians to complete a full Master of Public Health degree in one year. The program has seen continuous enrolment since its launch in 2019.
SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION TO ONLINE TEACHING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
During the pandemic, the AFGS courses successfully transitioned to online delivery. This shift increased both recognition of the need for flexible learning and confidence in delivering fully online or hybrid degrees. Most instructors now offer both online and in-person learning opportunities within their courses.
COMPREHENSIVE ADMISSIONS EVALUATION (2017–2022) FOR INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL GRADUATES
Over five years, a comprehensive evaluation of admissions processes for International Medical Graduates was completed. The findings informed updates to eligibility criteria and improved admissions procedures.
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW COURSE: CHL8010H | TEAMBASED PRIMARY CARE: PRINCIPLES, PRACTICES AND TRANSFORMATIONAL CONCEPTS
DFCM is leading the shift toward team-based care with CHL8010H, a graduate course that prepares learners to design and lead collaborative care models. Piloted in summer 2025, the course explores how interprofessional teams improve patient outcomes, enhance system efficiency, and reduce provider burnout. Delivered in a hybrid format, it supports flexible, engaged learning aligned with the future of primary care.
Course Revisions
Several existing courses were revised to reflect current needs and improve accessibility:
f CHL5622H | Patient-Related Healthcare and Public Policy in Canada was transitioned to a fully online format.
f CHL5601H | Appraising and Applying Evidence to Assist Clinical Decision-Making is now delivered fully online.
f CHL5605H | Research Issues in Family Medicine/Primary Care was adapted for hybrid delivery.
LAUNCH OF A NEW HYBRID CONTINUING EDUCATION CERTIFICATE: CERTIFICATE IN ACADEMIC FAMILY MEDICINE (FALL 2025)
Launching in fall 2025, this accredited continuing education certificate offers advanced academic training in family medicine. Its design focuses on the core competencies in health professional education, scholarship, and system understanding—supporting faculty and leadership development for those not yet ready for the commitment of a graduate degree. This certificate was purposefully designed to offer both online and in-person opportunities to enhance accessibility of our programming to faculty outside of the GTA while maintaining opportunities to build relationships in-person across sites and within the central department.
COLLABORATION WITH THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP (OES)
We work closely with the Office of Education Scholarship (OES) to optimize opportunities for graduate students to enhance education scholarship skills in collaboration with the Essence of Education Scholarship program. The partnership aims to fill an identified curricular gap in graduate studies and support robust enrollment in the Essence program.
COMPLETION OF A SCHOLARLY PROGRAM EVALUATION PROJECT (2023–2025): SCHOLARS FOR TOMORROW
A scholarly evaluation project titled “Preparing Primary Care Scholars for Tomorrow: A Scholarly Program Evaluation of the Academic Fellowship and Graduate Studies Program” was completed between 2023 and 2025. The project involved alumni surveys and interviews to assess curricular gaps and inform future program innovations. Findings are now in the reporting and dissemination phase, including a presentation at the DFCM conference.
ENHANCED AFGS PROGRAM VISIBILITY WITHIN DFCM
The AFGS Program increased its visibility by sharing student practicum work within the department and online, promoting student research at the DFCM conference, and recognizing both instructors and students through the annual awards process.
Enrollment and Engagement: AFGS is adjusting to changing enrolment patterns after the pandemic, including more parttime learners due to increased clinical demands.
Program Development and Innovation: Evolving learner needs are driving requests for hybrid attendance, but temporary restrictions from the School of Graduate Studies have slowed changes to online and hybrid delivery.
AFGS is advancing with a new vision for the MScCH (FCM) degree, exploring fully online and hybrid formats to improve access and reach. It aims to include senior medical trainees through collaboration, updated eligibility, and a stronger focus on interprofessional and primary care content.
As usual, course materials for all our programs will continually be updated based on evaluations, and we will explore potential new courses to support learner needs, like AI in education.
We also look forward to strengthening recruitment and supporting our faculty, especially as the DFCM continues to expand in size. We are working to reengage international partnerships and potentially develop new offerings to meet their evolving needs.
Dalla Lana Schoxs(DLSPH): DLSPH is our academic partner for graduate degree programs. Together, we set admissions and course standards, and they provide the public health foundation that underpins our degrees.
Affiliated Hospitals and Health Centres: We work with partners such as Unity Health Toronto, Trillium Health Partners, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Women’s College Hospital, and others to provide clinical and academic support for our AFGS programs. We are committed to training their faculty for leadership roles.
International Collaborators: Our programs have supported primary care development in multiple countries (Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Japan, India, Ethiopia, China) through training of international fellows and graduate students. We have designed revisions of DFCM certificate offerings to meet international learners’ needs and implemented through collaborative delivery efforts in Canada and internationally.
Alumni: Temerty Alumni continues to support and promote our program offerings, and many former learners return to AFGS to serve as course instructors or to take on leadership roles in their own contexts.
Introduction
Global Health (GH) efforts at DFCM aim to strengthen primary care and improve health equity through education, research, advocacy, and clinical partnerships. With a focus on sustainable, community-responsive solutions, the program engages across all levels of education and works with international partners to address barriers to equitable care and training. It aims to improve health systems and the wellbeing of populations worldwide.
The DFCM is recognized as a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care— the first globally to focus specifically on family medicine. This designation means DFCM partners with WHO to support global efforts in strengthening primary care systems through research, education, and policy development.
GLOBAL HEALTH FACULTY
Global Health Core Leadership spans both Global Health Education and Global Health within the Office of Health System Partnership. The GH “core” leadership team includes:
f Dr. Katherine Rouleau
Professor and Global Primary Healthcare Lead, Office of Health System Partnerships
Director, WHO Collaborating Center on Family Medicine & Primary Care
f Dr. Praseedha Janakiram
Director, Global Health Education
Global Health Education Lead in the Office of Health System
Partnership and WHO Collaborating Center on Family Medicine & Primary Care
f Mrs. Jamie Rodas
Program Administrator
In addition, the following individuals hold positions that include Global Health leadership:
f Dr. Vanessa Reddit - Faculty Lead: CHL 5618H Family Medicine & Collaborative Interprofessional Primary Care in the Global Context
f Dr. Leila Makhani - Global Health PGY3 Enhanced Skills Coordinator, Associate Lead, Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration-Family Medicine (TAAAC-FM)
f Dr. Michael Bartucci - TAAAC-FM Advanced Clinical Skills Lead
f Dr. Jennifer Wilson - Faculty Lead, African Health Education Collective (AHEC) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)-DFCM Partnership
Z AHEC Short courses faculty leads:
Z Dr. Kirsten Wentlandt - Palliative Care
Z Dr. Margarita Lam Antoniades - Quality Improvement
Z Dr. Ian Drennan - Pre-Hospital Emergency Care
Z Dr. Kimberly de Souza - Emergency Preparedness and Response
Z Dr. Nour Khatib - Community Emergency Care
f Dr. Kate Stead - Co-Chair, World Rehabilitation Alliance, Primary Care Working Group
f Dr. Julia Alleyne - Co-Chair, World Rehabilitation Alliance, Primary Care Working Group
f Dr. Megan Landes - Head of Division of Emergency Medicine
f Dr. Archna Gupta - Assistant Professor, Research Scientist, Upstream Lab
f Dr. Abbas Ghavam-Rassoul - Co-director InTaPT, former TAAAC-FM lead, former director DFCM Graduate program
UNDERGRADUATE GLOBAL HEALTH FAMILY MEDICINE ENGAGEMENT
University of Toronto MD Global Health Education Program (GHEP)
f GHEP is a Temerty Faculty of Medicine certificate program for first- and second-year medical students.
f DFCM faculty members Dr. Praseedha Janakiram and Dr. Leila Makhani contribute annually by teaching “Module 13: Global Primary Care” within the program.
f The module has been offered from 2021 to 2025 and is ongoing.
MD Students per year 22 10 8 17 19
Undergraduate Foundations Curriculum — Year 2: Complexity & Chronicity Course (CNC), Global Health (GH)
f The GH CNC course provides global health teaching to all second-year MD students (approximately 300 students per year).
f DFCM faculty contributors include Dr. John Ihnat, Dr. Jessica Osumek, Dr. Leila Makhani, Dr. Kate MacNaughton, Dr. Katherine Rouleau, Dr. Michael Bartucci, Dr. Vanessa Redditt, and Dr. Praseedha Janakiram.
f The course has been active and well-received since 2018.
POSTGRADUATE GLOBAL HEALTH FAMILY MEDICINE ENGAGEMENT
Temerty Medicine Global Health Education Initiative (GHEI) is a Temerty Faculty of Medicine postgraduate certificate program, which DFCM GH faculty members teach in.
f Module 5C: Global Primary Care.
Z Taught by DFCM faculty members Dr. Praseedha Janakiram and Dr. Leila Makhani, joined by Dr. Jennifer Wilson and international collaborator Dr. Princess Acheampong (both since 2024).
Z 5C began with six learners. Participation grew more than threefold in the next year.
Z Learner participation:
Post Grad Students per year 6 19
f Module 19E: Teaching in International Settings
Z Taught by DFCM faculty members Dr. Abbas Ghavam Rassoul (since 2015), Dr. Praseedha Janakiram (since 2015), Dr. Ashna Bowry (since 2017), Dr. Michael Bartucci (since 2020), and Dr. Leila Makhani (since 2021).
Z Module 19E was selected from 26 Temerty Medicine modules to receive the 2024 GHEI Module Award of Excellence.
Z Learner participation:
Module 19E was selected from 26 Temerty Medicine modules to receive the 2024 GHEI Module Award of Excellence .
Enhanced Skills Year in Global Health and Vulnerable Populations (GHVP)
f GHVP is a 52-week enhanced skills residency available to two learners per year, designed to equip family physicians to address Global Health issues and reduce healthcare access barriers for equity-seeking populations.
f Since 2009, 16 graduates have completed the program.
f The program engages 19 DFCM faculty supervisors.
f For 2025–2026, there are three PGY3 residents currently enrolled.
f The Enhanced Skills Program Director is Dr. Leila Makhani.
Enhanced Skills Year in Global Health and Vulnerable Populations (GHVP)
f GHVP is a 52-week enhanced skills residency available to two learners per year, designed to equip family physicians to address Global Health issues and reduce healthcare access barriers for equity-seeking populations.
f Since 2009, 16 graduates have completed the program.
f The program engages 19 DFCM faculty supervisors.
f For 2025–2026, there are three PGY3 residents currently enrolled.
f The Enhanced Skills Program Director is Dr. Leila Makhani.
CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & GRADUATE COURSES
Advancing Women’s Excellence in Family Medicine (AWE FM)
f This leadership program supports early to midcareer women physicians in family medicine to strengthen leadership skills in clinical, team, and system domains.
f The program delivers six interactive hybrid modules via a virtual platform.
f Co-chaired by Dr. Praseedha Janakiram and Dr. ThuyNga (Tia) Pham, with core faculty from Canada, Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand.
f This course won the prestigious Temerty Medicine Helen Batty Award 2023–2024.
f View the AWE-FM poster from the 2025 WONCA Conference
Toronto International Program to Strengthen Family Medicine (TIPS / V-Tips)
f This program is designed to enhance leadership in family medicine, health policy, and academic settings, drawing on Canadian and global lessons.
f It went on hold during the pandemic, was restarted in 2021 virtually, and is now on hold again, but is expected to reactivate in the future.
CHL 5618H: Family Medicine and Interprofessional Primary Care in the Global Health Context
f This course aims to foster a deep understanding of primary healthcare, interprofessional collaboration, and family medicine within national and global social policy contexts.
f It is taught by Vanessa Redditt (lead), Katherine Rouleau, and Freida Chavez (Nursing).
GLOBAL HEALTH EDUCATION LEADERSHIP
In 2022, DFCM created the Program Director role for Global Health Education, reinforcing its commitment to global learning and collaboration. Global Health is now recognized as a key part of our education mission alongside Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Faculty Development, and Academic Fellowships and Graduate Studies.
WHO COLLABORATING CENTRE
DFCM continues its pivotal role as a WHO Collaborating Centre—the first globally to focus specifically on family medicine.
Our 15-year collaboration with Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia has led to impactful knowledge translation and exchange and national and international recognition. View a publication in the African Journal of Primary Healthcare and Family Medicine on the partnership.
NEW WORK WITH KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (KNUST)
The partnership with KNUST in Ghana has grown through successful short courses under the Africa Health Collaborative, gaining wide acclaim.
DFCM WORLD ORGANIZATION OF FAMILY DOCTORS (WONCA) CONFERENCE PRESENCE
DFCM has had a presence at the WONCA conference every year during this term, consistently contributing to global conversations on family medicine and primary care. In 2025, the department had its largest showing ever, with 19 posters presented and 111 Canadian attendees, many from DFCM. A standout moment was Dr. Danielle Martin’s presentation on the building community through building DFCM strategic plan. Her talk drew attention to DFCM’s innovative use of strategic planning to build community in an academic environment, reinforcing our influence on the international stage.
A selection of the posters can be found in the Global Health Education section of the Appendices
Based on the foundational work of Barbara Starfield, the Starfield Summit is a two-day international gathering designed to advance policy, research, and advocacy in family medicine and high-quality primary care. It brings together a diverse group of global leaders, researchers, educators, and health system experts to explore how family medicine can strengthen primary healthcare systems worldwide.
The DFCM hosted the 2025 Starfield Summit, marking a historic milestone as it was the first Starfield Summit ever held outside the United States.
It was co-chaired by Dr. Katherine Rouleau and Dr. Praseedha Janakiram, and the event was coordinated by the Office of Health System Partnerships.
The Summit welcomed 92 participants from 25 countries, with strong low- and middle-income country engagement, and included leaders in family medicine, nursing, rehabilitation sciences, pharmacy, research, education, policy, and health systems—as well as patient experts. Representatives from WONCA and the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) also joined, reflecting the Summit’s broad reach and influence. The gathering intentionally included early- and mid-career professionals alongside senior leaders, fostering inclusive and meaningful dialogue across generations and disciplines.
Over two days, participants engaged in small group discussions and catalyst commentaries, all aimed at driving practical action. The Summit honoured DFCM’s 15+ year partnership with Addis Ababa University and acknowledged the shared challenges faced by family medicine globally. Discussions centered on how family medicine can optimize health system performance through the three components of the primary healthcare approach.
The Summit produced several immediate outputs:
1. The Starfield Statement, a collective call to strengthen family medicine globally, which was already adapted by Thailand for advocacy.
2. A Call to Action for the Canadian Government, urging support for global primary care leadership.
3. A collaboration with WONCA, with plans to co-develop advocacy and policy resources, to be refined at the WONCA World Conference in Lisbon.
As a WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care, DFCM has contributed meaningfully to global efforts led by the World Health Organization. These contributions span research, education, policy development, and advocacy, reflecting DFCM’s commitment to strengthening primary healthcare systems worldwide.
a. Case study compendium (March – April 2024)
Dr. Kate Stead led a team at DFCM to support the development of a compendium of case studies for the WHO’s Special Program on Primary Healthcare (PHC). The group carried out multiple steps to populate this unique WHO resource, which features searchable case studies drawn from the grey literature and organized by PHC levers, geography, and components.
b. Literature Reviews: A number of scoping, realist and rapid reviews have been carried out at the request of the WHO. Publication is pending for each.
Z Social Determinants of Health interventions in the primary care setting in LMIC (February – May 2022)
Z Integration of noncommunicable diseases in primary care (Dec 2023-June 2024)
Z Conceptualization of MSPA in WHO publications (August 2024– June 2025)
Z Evidence about Sexual and Reproductive Health as presented in a selection of WHO primary healthcare Case Studies. (2024-2025)
Z Evidence about anti-microbial resistance as presented in a selection of WHO primary healthcare Case Studies (2024-2025)
c. World Rehabilitation Alliance:
Drs. Kate Stead and Julia Alleyne co-chair a working group on primary care and rehabilitation for the World Rehabilitation Alliance (WRA) hosted by the WHO.
Output: Inform the work plan of the WRA as it pertains to the integration of primary care and rehabilitation globally.
The working group has completed several key activities, including collecting case studies on successful integration of primary care and rehabilitation, developing a stakeholder presentation template, creating a policy brief and infographics/social media materials, publishing an article in the WONCA newsletter, collaborating with the Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Alliance on advocacy initiatives, and presenting at multiple conferences and sessions.
d. Primary Healthcare Leadership Course
Dr. Danielle Martin provided initial conceptual guidance in the development of the WHO Primary Healthcare Leadership course and Dr. Katherine Rouleau contributed to the development and delivery of the course in her capacity as WHO consultant.
e. Expert contributions to WHO Regional activities
Dr. Rouleau has contributed to regional WHO endeavours as a technical expert including:
Z Panel presentation in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization on primary healthcare progress in the Americas at the Canadian Public Health Association Conference in Winnipeg (April 2025)
Z Workshop on addressing noncommunicable diseases in those most disadvantaged hosted by WHO Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila July 2024
Securing sustainable funding for Global Health work is difficult, especially in the current geopolitical climate, while engaging faculty is increasingly complex given the intense demands of the primary care community in Canada. The decentralization of Global Health within the DFCM structure has created closer collaborations with other parts of the department but can present challenges for harmonizing activities and ensuring a coherent team working on global initiatives.
DFCM aims to build on existing collaborations—especially with KNUST in Ghana —and establish new partnerships focused on education, research, and advocacy to advance family medicine and primary care in other countries.
For example, work is underway with Thai colleagues to explore possible deeper collaborations in Thailand.
A key goal is to renew DFCM’s designation as a WHO Collaborating Centre in 2026, continuing our global leadership in primary care.
In collaboration with international partners, DFCM will develop and refine professional development programs and needs-based education to support family medicine globally. Discussions are in progress with both departments of family medicine and colleges of family medicine in Singapore and Thailand respectively, to develop co-created course offerings building on the rich experience and alumni network of the DFCM built through the in-person, hybrid, and virtual versions of the Toronto International Program to Strengthen Family Medicine and Advancing Women’s Excellence in Family Medicine. Additional education and continuing professional development course offerings are in early development to support advocacy for health policy change in family medicine, in close partnership with colleagues from low, middle and high-income settings.
DFCM will strengthen its role as a convener and knowledge broker, working with stakeholders to create evidence-based resources and advocate for interdisciplinary primary care and family medicine.
The still-new Office of Health System Partnerships (OHSP) represents an important platform for our department to broaden its work in health system strengthning internationally. Many of the issues the OHSP is working on locally such as primary care attachment, integration of AI-based technologies in family medicine, and local health system infrastructure for primary healthcare, are also global priorities. In the coming years we hope to optimize the reciprocal contributions of local and global policy initiatives to reinforce shared goals in family medicine and primary care.
This information can be found in the International Partnerships section.
With over 2,300 faculty members—including Health Professions Educators (HPEs)—the Faculty Development (FD) program at DFCM is designed to support faculty in building skills across their academic careers as teachers, scholars, leaders, and administrators. DFCM has a long-standing tradition of excellence and remains committed to aligning its development initiatives with the strategic priorities of the department. This includes continually evolving how we train the next generation of primary care clinicians and academics.
The FD program is organized into three main branches:
f Central Faculty Development Offerings
f Local Faculty Development Activities
f Portfolio Areas
These branches work together to provide comprehensive support tailored to the diverse needs of our faculty.
Program Leadership
f Dr. Allyson Merbaum – Program Director
f Danielle Dudycha – Program Administrator
The BASICS Program for new faculty is an accredited, multiday orientation program for newer faculty members who have been teaching for one to five years, or for those who have increased their teaching load and need more support. The program focuses on developing the skills and knowledge to help navigate common teaching situations successfully. This program goes through a yearly review and modification based on evaluations and reviewing the workshops included. It covers foundational topics such as effective teaching strategies, effective feedback, assessment, professionalism and challenging teaching situations. As learners progress through the course, the material becomes more advanced.
The Leadership MasterClass series provides a unique opportunity for evolving leaders to learn from DFCM’s expert family medicine leaders with diverse skills, experience, and perspectives. Participation is by invitation from Site and Division Heads (one faculty member per site or division per year), and individuals may be at different career stages, engaged in a variety of leadership settings, and will have demonstrated both achievement and future potential. Through a small group and highly interactive format, the program intends to strengthen existing partnerships within teaching sites and divisions and increase representation, leadership, and the role of family medicine across diverse practice settings.
The annual conference is designed to support the growth and development of our faculty, learners, and staff with invaluable opportunities to network with colleagues from across the department and learn from the scholarly work of our team members. Each year, the conference planning committee works to develop a program to meet the diverse needs of our faculty members and, where possible, to further the department’s strategic priorities. This event provides a foundational experience to help faculty members present their work as posters, papers and workshops, which helps set the groundwork for them to then showcase their work at national and international conferences. Presenting at the conference also offers faculty members the opportunity to build their portfolio for promotions. With keynote speakers, networking tables, poster presentations and workshop sessions, it is a comprehensive educational experience for all participants.
Learn, Teach, Thrive is a series of events offered centrally by the Faculty Development program to support the diverse needs of faculty across the trajectory from initial appointment through to senior promotion and everything in between. Portfolio Leads for Appointments & Promotions, Awards, Grants & Funds, Health Professional Educators, Mentorship, and Wellness organize a variety of events open to all faculty. FD Leads for community preceptors in the MD program (FMLE & Electives) and for rural preceptors (Teaching Practices and Integrated Communities Stream) also host events with topics targeted to the needs of these faculty members.
OFFICE OF INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY)
The Equity Grand Rounds series was designed to deepen DFCM education offerings related to principle of equity and social accountability. More information can be found in our Principles of equity and social accountability section
The Faculty Development Committee (FDC) includes representatives from all DFCM sites, divisions, and select programs. Meeting monthly, the FDC discusses departmental updates and helps guide central initiatives by identifying faculty needs. FD Leads support appointments and promotions, coordinate local awards committees, and contribute to faculty development programming both locally and centrally.
Our academic department is constantly evolving, with approximately 150 new faculty members every year. The appointments and promotions team hosts regular workshops for faculty interested in pursuing promotion.
f Faculty Appointments and Junior Promotions Lead: Dr. Debbie Elman
f Site Appointments Administrator: Maryam Nafari
f Divisions and Programs Appointments Administrator: Hiring in process
f Promotions Administrator: Sarah Letovsky
DFCM recognizes the vital role of Health Professional Educators (HPEs)—non-physician faculty such as nurses, social workers, dietitians, and other allied health professionals—in training medical students and residents, and in supporting team-based primary care. To strengthen their involvement with our department, we actively engages HPE faculty and supports the growth of a Community of Practice (CoP) that fosters collaboration and shared learning. Ongoing research is exploring how DFCM can better integrate and support HPEs and their CoPs in educational activities, ensuring they have the resources and recognition needed to thrive in their roles.
f HPE Lead: Serena Beber
f HPE Administrator: Danielle Dudycha
Mentorship is key in helping faculty fulfill their professional goals, improve their job satisfaction, and build a supportive culture across our department. DFCM has over 100 faculty mentors with various interests in research, teaching, and career development. Much work has been done to continue building the roster of mentors, identify areas in need of immediate mentorship, increase access for potential mentees, create informal mentorship opportunities, run events to support areas of mentorship needed, and match mentees to available mentors
f Mentorship Lead: Dr. Viola Antao
f Mentorship Administrator: Jasvinei Sritharan
The DFCM has a faculty wellness committee, chaired by a Faculty Wellness Lead. The goals for this portfolio include exploring wellness needs for our diverse faculty and developing and implementing initiatives at the central department level as well as at the site level to enhance the well-being of our distributed faculty. This area has evolved substantially since its inception in 2021, as the wellness needs of faculty have evolved from post-pandemic burnout and lack of in-person connection with colleagues to increasing administrative burden for family physicians. A multi-dimensional approach has been undertaken with significant collaboration across the department, including the Quality & Innovation program through the Peers for Joy in Work program, as well as with the Digital Health committee in creating funding strategies for AI scribes as prime examples.
f Mentorship Lead: Dr. Navsheer Gill
f Mentorship Administrator: Jasvinei Sritharan
DFCM is proud to recognize and support the outstanding work of our faculty through a wide range of awards, grants, and funding opportunities. Faculty Development funds help faculty present at conferences, publish in academic journals, and participate in leadership programs such as the New and Evolving Leaders (NEAL) initiative at the Centre for Faculty Development. NEAL candidates are nominated by site chiefs or division heads and selected through an internal review process.
Our awards program celebrates excellence at every level— from program-specific recognition to departmental Awards of Excellence and prestigious external honours. DFCM faculty are internationally respected, and over the past five years have received notable accolades such as the Order of Canada, the Canadian Medical Association’s Mentor of the Year, and multiple King Charles III honours. These awards reflect the impact our faculty have in clinical care, education, research, and leadership.
Each year, our virtual Awards and Celebration Event brings together over 100 attendees to honour award recipients, promotions, and notable contributions. Highlights include presentations from distinguished winners—such as the Academic Family Physician of the Year—and a video tribute to senior promotion recipients.
f Awards Lead: Dr. Michelle Homer f Awards Administrator: Jasvinei Sritharan
Between 2020 and 2025, DFCM welcomed 970 new faculty members, including 217 in 2024 alone, supporting the department’s expansion into new training sites and partnerships. With a total of ~2,300 faculty members, and an average of 150 new appointments annually, DFCM has grown by 45 per cent over five years.
Launched in 2024, Equity Grand Rounds reflect DFCM’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. These sessions bring faculty together to explore systemic issues and share strategies for advancing equity in academic and clinical settings.
Recognizing the importance of well-being, in 2021, DFCM introduced the Faculty Wellness Committee to support mental health, work-life balance, and resilience across all career stages.
Notable recent recognitions include multiple inductees to the Order of Canada, the Canadian Medical Association’s Mentor of the Year, and multiple King Charles III honours.
Originally held in person, the Awards and Celebration Event transitioned to a virtual format during the COVID-19 pandemic. This shift has significantly increased attendance, with over 110 participants annually. The event honours promotions and award recipients, featuring presentations from distinguished winners and a video tribute to senior promotion honorees.
See the DFCM award winners from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
View other import faculty development documents from the span of the self-study term in the Faculty Development section of the appendices
Given the large, diverse, and distributed nature of our faculty, it can be challenging to ensure that all members feel connected to the central department and receive the support they need to thrive in their academic roles. As the department continues to grow, with new divisions and sites, the Faculty Development Committee also expands, which can make it difficult to maintain engagement, keep meetings relevant and action-oriented, and foster a shared sense of purpose.
Looking ahead, the Faculty Development program is focused on several key priorities:
ENHANCING TEACHING PERFORMANCE
We will continue efforts to support teaching excellence by sharing teaching evaluation data and collaborating with site chiefs and divisions. Our goal is to encourage faculty to meaningfully reflect on this feedback—alongside other performance indicators—and take actionable steps toward improvement.
ADAPTING TO EVOLVING DELIVERY NEEDS
We aim to respond to the changing preferences of faculty and presenters regarding in-person versus virtual formats, ensuring our offerings remain accessible, relevant, and engaging.
STRENGTHENING INTEGRATION OF HEALTH
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS (HPES)
We are committed to improving the involvement of HPEs in teaching and learning activities, both at the central level and within local contexts.
ADVANCING EQUITY IN ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES
We will continue to explore ways to promote equity in awards, funding supports, leadership roles, and academic promotion processes.
As part of Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty Development program works in close collaboration with several internal groups and committees to support academic growth and leadership across the faculty, including: the Executive Council of the Centre for Faculty Development, the FD Leads Committee, the CFD’s Awards Committee, the Education and Teaching Awards Committee, and Temerty’s Appointments Working Group.
Introduction
Education Scholarship is a core activity of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM). The Office of Education Scholarship (OES), established in 2012, provides resources, guidance, consultation, and mentorship to faculty and programs in adopting an evidence-based, scholarly approach to family medicine training.
In just over a decade, the OES has earned national and international recognition—including designation as a Leading Practice Indicator by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and commendation by the World Organization of Family Doctors—affirming its role as a national exemplar in medical education scholarship.
THE OES ENGAGES IN BROAD SYNERGISTIC AREAS OF ACTIVITY TO SUPPORT OUR MISSION: SCHOLARSHIP CAPACITY BUILDING AND CREATING NEW KNOWLEDGE We provide these services to build scholarship capacity:
f The Better Together consultation service – Open to any faculty member who seeks advice, mentorship, and guidance in any stage of the education scholarship journey.
f Art of the Possible (AoP) grants – For over 10 years, these formative grants have supported a diverse group of scholars across DFCM programs and sites. Each grant is accompanied by in-depth consultation and feedback from the OES.
f Essence of Education Scholarship program – A free, longitudinal, highly mentored course where participants develop their own projects—often in preparation for an AoP grant or similar opportunity.
f Embedded Scholars – Three scholars with protected time are embedded within DFCM to promote, consult on, and engage in education scholarship.
f Celebration of Education Scholarship events and Journal Clubs – Well-attended opportunities to hear from local and external scholars, explore new ideas, and foster scholarly community and networking.
f Education Investigator Program – This program provides support for scientists to engage in theorydriven research relevant to family medicine education. The OES provides a research coordinator, which is a substantial in-kind support for scientists. These awards have been held by Drs. Nikki Woods, Mahan Kulasegaram, and Sarah Wright
STRATEGIC SERVICE FOR DEPARTMENTAL NEEDS
The OES contributes to DFCM’s strategic priorities by offering expert consultation and scholarly evaluation for key initiatives, such as co-chairing the Equity, Diversity, Indigeneity, Inclusion, Accessibility (EDIIA) Data collection group and providing consultation support for the pivot to virtual care. It also supports curriculum development and facilitates award nominations, while tracking scholarly productivity across the department. A sample of OES-support projects can be found in the appendices.
Since its inception
f 73 Art of the Possible grants awarded to Education Programs, Q&I, Global Health, Emergency Medicine, Palliative Care, Care of Elderly across 12 Sites
f 18 Celebration of Education Scholarship Events
f >40 Essence Participants
f >400 consultations, coffee chats, and meetings to support faculty
RECOGNITION & RESILIENCE
f Named a Leading Practice Innovation in the 2020/21 Accreditation.
f Maintained core programs during the pandemic while responding to emerging departmental needs and scholarly questions (2021–2023).
STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT & GROWTH
f Aligned OES programs following the 2023 strategic plan reflection, creating a clear pathway for newly engaged scholars to receive training, funding, and consultation to actualize their scholarship projects.
1. Essence of Education Scholarship Develop skills with structure and mentorship Refine and focus ideas with world leading experts
2. Consultation with education scientists and scholars
3. Art of the Possible Grant
Funding + suppport for a project
f Launched a redesigned website and created new communications, including informal “coffee chats” to foster accessibility and community.
INNOVATION IN ENGAGEMENT
f Leveraged virtual platforms for hybrid Celebration of Education Scholarship Days and Journal Clubs, increasing participation and accessibility across sites.
f Continued hybrid programming to reach faculty across all divisions and locations.
STRATEGIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO DFCM
f Supported key education initiatives including:
Z Outcomes of Training (OTP) response and retreat organization
Z Family Medicine and Enhanced Skills (FAMES) program evaluation
Z Innovations in postgraduate education (e.g. Foundations Block, FM CLLEO Project)
f Contributed to strategic scholarship efforts such as embedding learners in Community Health Centres, evaluating Q&I initiatives, and supporting the KNUST collaboration.
CELEBRATING SCHOLARSHIP
f Introduced two new awards:
Z Cynthia Whitehead Award for Education Scholarship Publications
Z Dr. Risa Freeman Award for Excellence in Education Scholarship
f These awards celebrate both scholarly excellence and mentorship, reinforcing a culture that values education scholarship.
f In addition to scholarly publications, the OES also contributed to blogs and podcasts to broaden the reach of its work and engage diverse audiences.
Z https://healthydebate.ca/2024/06/topic/undervaluedunderappreciated-family-physicians/
Z https://healthydebate.ca/2021/03/topic/teachingand-learning-to-trust/
Z https://healthydebate.ca/2022/10/topic/designingvirtual-spaces/
Z https://healthydebate.ca/2024/08/topic/medicaleducation-gen-z/
Z https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/ s/689f783a436325e278a830bc/e/004c7124-3d47-4501949c-7df023b9f944/media.mp3
Z https://paperspodcast.ki.se/2024/09/10/64-learnersgot-talent/
f Funded a limited-term Education Scholar role in Social Accountability, supporting curriculum development aligned with equity and social accountability goals.
f Provided consultation for the Indigenous Elective Experience and presented at the Indigenous Leadership Circle (ILC).
f Supported the Vice-Chair, Community & Partnerships portfolio through consultation and project development focused on community-based learning and equity and social accountability leadership.
f Advanced principles of equity and social accountabilityfocused scholarship through the Person-Centered Care pillar and AoP-funded projects.
f Co-chaired the Equity, Diversity, Indigeneity, Inclusion, Accessibility (EDIIA) Data Collection Working Group, contributing to a consultative approach for demographic data collection.
f Supported learner wellness scholarship through AoPfunded projects
f Consulted on wellness-related initiatives for CQI and the Foundations Block.
f Promoted team wellness during the pandemic by reducing demands, creating connection opportunities (e.g., OES Cookbook), and hosting virtual celebrations.
f OES scholars and projects received major awards, including:
Z Dr. Lindsay Herzog – The College of Family Physicians Canada Early Career Award
Z Dr. Nikki Woods – WXN Top 100 Women in Canada
Z Dr. Cynthia Whitehead – Ian Hart Award
Z Dr. Milena Forte – Sydney G. Frankfort Chair
Z Dr. Mahan Kulasegaram – Temerty Chair, KIPRIME Fellowship, MCC Award
Z Dr. Joyce Nyhof-Young – OISE Leaders & Legends Mentorship Award
Z Multiple CAME Certificates of Merit
Z ViCCTR – DFCM and ICRE “What Works” Awards
f Disseminated scholarship through publications and presentations.
f Influenced policy and practice within DFCM and beyond, including presentations at national retreats (e.g., CFPC OTP Curriculum Retreat).
f Expanded presence across divisions and sites, supporting scholarship at new locations like Humber River and in emerging areas like Care of the Elderly.
As senior education scholars complete their terms of service, identifying and preparing new leaders to support consultation, mentorship, and strategic direction in Education Scholarship requires significant time and effort. While a growing pool of trained faculty exists, transitioning them into leadership roles remains a resource-intensive process.
Most PhD and MD/PhD scientists affiliated with the OES hold part-time roles, with the highest commitment at 0.5 FTE. This reliance on external institutional support introduces vulnerability, as stability depends on strong relationships with partner organizations.
Additionally, maintaining faculty wellness is an ongoing challenge. Balancing scholarly expectations with flexible timelines, limited meetings, and sustained mentorship is essential to supporting faculty engagement and well-being.
AND MEETING DEMAND FOR EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP CONSULTATION, MENTORSHIP
As the profile of Education Scholarship (ES) continues to grow within DFCM, so does the demand for consultation and mentorship—particularly around seed grants and project development. This demand is especially pronounced at clinical sites, where structural limitations such as staffing, time constraints, and resource availability hinder faculty engagement. Additionally, the increasing complexity of scholarly work and rising costs of conducting scholarship present ongoing challenges to sustaining and expanding ES capacity across the department.
CONTINUED ENGAGEMENT ACROSS THE DFCM DURING EXPANSION.
Since the OES is centrally located, it limits our ability to proactively engage faculty across DFCM’s expanding network of sites throughout the province. Structural challenges—such as site size and practice organization—can make it difficult for faculty to find time and resources for scholarly activities.
As more scholars engage with OES programs, their needs are becoming more advanced—particularly around dissemination. While AoP projects are often presented widely, fewer are published. To address this, we’ve increased support for both traditional and non-traditional dissemination strategies, including hosting a Celebration of Education Scholarship focused on dissemination, inviting journal editors, and integrating dissemination sessions into the Essence program.
We are exploring collaborative models that engage clusters of training sites rather than individual ones. With central support from DFCM, this approach could enable shared embedded scholars across sites with geographic or programmatic ties, improving efficiency and impact.
As we mark the 10-year anniversary of the Art of the Possible grant program, we are enhancing its strategic focus through the Big Ideas Themes (Specialist Generalist, Big Data, Patient-centered Care), including expansions in Comprehensive Care and related training.
With 18 training sites, we continue to prioritize strong representation and relationships with scholars across all locations to ensure equitable support and engagement.
Education Scholarship Units in Other Departments
Departments like Pediatrics, Medicine, and Psychiatry have similar scholarship units. While informal collaborations exist, a formal structure—potentially at the TFoM level— could foster better coordination and shared learning.
OF FAMILY
OF CANADA (CFPC)
OES members contribute to national initiatives (e.g., Data Governance, FM-PROC), but a stronger presence within CFPC’s scholarly structures is needed. Advocacy from DFCM leadership could help elevate OES’s role and support shared goals in advancing family medicine education.
The overview of our work plan for the next three years can be found in our OES Strategic Response Document.
View a sample of OES-supported publications from this selfstudy term.
Most OES scientists and scholars have strong ties to the Wilson Centre, ranging from primary appointments to general membership. This partnership brings theoretical depth, methodological expertise, and access to resources such as PhD trainees, presentation venues, and research networks. Future plans may include a structured approach to embedding Wilson Centre learners within the OES.
OES has collaborated closely with CACHE through co-founding team members and seconded researchers. While these collaborations have been opportunistic and individual-driven, formalizing this relationship could strengthen joint efforts—especially as CACHE supports primary care reform initiatives.
OES has shared an embedded scientist across these sites. As personnel changes occur, we are exploring ways to maintain and evolve these partnerships.
OES has collaborated with CFD scholars and continues to promote CFD programs and initiatives to AoP and OES members, seeking further opportunities for joint scholarship.
Introduction
The Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) continues to lead nationally in Family Medicine Maternity Care (FM-MC), guided by a vision of outstanding primary care for all. Over the past five years, FM-MC efforts have focused on four pillars: building a community of practice, enhancing postgraduate training, supporting faculty development, and advancing scholarship.
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE:
f 140 providers across 13 sites. Initiatives include:
Z Teaching Competence in Primary Care Obstetrics conference.
Z Developing FM-MC Core Values document with the College of Family Physicians Member Interest Group.
Z Pan- Canadian study of over 2,800 pregnant people examining values underlying choice of pregnancy care providers
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT:
f Collaborated with Toronto Metropolitan University and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada to provide access to the ALARM course for our residents and third year family med OB fellows
f Faculty-authored Teaching Perinatal Care: A Practical Guide (2022).
f Ongoing faculty development workshops and mentorship programs, including:
Z Annual refresher in pregnancy and birth conference
Z Pregnancy care in the first trimester rounds
Z Exercise in Pregnancy workshop and seminars
Z Breastfeeding education workshop
SIGNIFICANT FM-MC PUBLICATIONS:
f Strategies to support maternal and early childhood wellness: insight from parent and provider qualitative interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic. Simpson AN, Baxter NN, Sorvari A, Boury H, Shore EM, Bogler T, Campbell D, Gagliardi AR. BMJ Open. 2024 Jan 25;14(1):e079479. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-079479.
f Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists during pregnancy and lactation. Zipursky JS, Bogler T, Maxwell C. CMAJ. 2024 Dec 15;196(43):E1413. doi: 10.1503/ cmaj.240768.
f Omega-3 levels in prenatal supplements. American Journal of Perinatology. Scourboutakos M, Harper E, Kopec M, Rose L, Forte M. 4 Dec 2024. DOI: 10.1055/a2465-5163
f Impact of postpartum physical activity on maternal depression and anxiety: a systematic review and metaanalysis. Deprato A, Ruchat S, Usman Ali M, Cai C, Forte M.et al British Journal of Sports Medicine. November 2024. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2024-108478
f A more comprehensive list can be found here
DFCM will continue to foster collaboration, expand national partnerships, and support innovation in FM-MC education and scholarship.
140 providers across 13 sites .
Introduction
The Supplemental Emergency Medicine Experience (SEME) program is an innovative fellowship administered by the DFCM and funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health. SEME is a three-month accredited continuing medical education (CME) fellowship designed to equip family physicians with the skills, confidence, and knowledge to provide emergency care in rural and remote communities across Ontario. In many communities across the province, family physicians are the sole physicians providing emergency care and ensuring that such care is accessible to all.
Since its inception in 2012, SEME has trained over 240 physicians, with 88 per cent continuing to practice emergency medicine years after graduation. SEME is a proven solution to address the province’s emergency medicine (EM) workforce shortage, especially in underserved areas.
PROGRAM GROWTH
f Launched SEME Barrie in Fall 2025, hosting 6 fellows/year.
f Training provided across 14+ U of T-affiliated sites, including ED, ICU, trauma, anesthesia, and pediatric EM rotations.
CLINICAL EXCELLENCE
f Winner of the 2022 CFPC Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program Award.
f Fellows report significant increases in confidence and competence, especially in critical procedures like airway management, chest tube insertion, and point-ofcare ultrasound (PoCUS).
COMMUNITY IMPACT
f SEME graduates practice in rural and remote communities, including Northern Ontario and Indigenous regions.
f 52 graduates have successfully obtained CCFP Certification of Added Competence in Emergency Medicine (CAC-EM).
INNOVATIVE CPD INITIATIVES
f Launch of the SEME Community of Practice (CoP) to support alumni through:
Z Virtual rounds and simulation events.
Z In-situ training with Dynamic Simulation.
Z Faculty development and leadership workshops.
Z The SEME Refresher Series, including:
Airway Day: Hands-on training and simulations for airway management and decision-making
PoCUS Skills Day: Practice with ultrasoundguided procedures and diagnostic scans
Procedural Skills Day: Refreshing and practicing both rare critical procedures and those common in emergency care
f Physician Burnout & Attrition: Ongoing stress and isolation in rural EDs contribute to provider burnout.
f Limited Training Capacity: Growing demand for SEME exceeds current resources and faculty availability.
f Funding Uncertainty: Current funding cycle ended in March 2025; renewal is essential to sustain and expand impact.
EXPANSION PLANS
f Increase SEME fellowships to 40 annually across Toronto, Thunder Bay, and Barrie.
STRENGTHENING THE SEME COP
f Broaden CPD offerings, including traveling simulation programs, hybrid conferences, and exam prep support.
f Enhance collaboration with Ontario Health and other provincial initiatives.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
f Grow the SEME executive team to include dedicated leads for CPD and CAC-EM exam preparation.
f Create new physician leadership roles within DFCM to support distributed medical education.
Since its inception
SEME has trained over f 240 physicians, with 88 per cent continuing to practice emergency medicine years after graduation.
The SEME Program Met My Expectations in Enhancing My:
The Overall Content of the SEME Program Enhanced My EM Skills:
EM Clinical Skills EM Knowledge Base % of respondents N=21 Confidence in Providing Emergency Care Confidence to Work in a Rural ED Setting
Participant evaluations of Dynamic Simulation’s sessions
Session Improves Interprofessional Team Dynamics & Communication
% of respondents N=21
Session Allows for Reviews of Up to Date Recommendations & Guidelines
The percentage of this year’s SEME graduates who report they are “very likely” to work ER shifts in a rural setting in the next 12 months . >75%
The Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) is home to one of the largest family medicine research programs in Canada. The DFCM Research Program’s overarching themes include equity, quality, and efficacy in primary care, encompassing a range of scientific methodologies and content areas. DFCM’s Research Program was established in 1995 to create a critical mass of family medicine researchers, provide faculty with protected research time, develop research excellence and productivity, and build an infrastructure that supports high-quality, impactful research.
DFCM provides a multidisciplinary and supportive environment for research, mentorship, and capacity building to nurture family medicine researchers from undergraduate medicine training to the senior faculty level. The core functions of the program are to develop and support faculty with salary stipends and pre- and post-award resources including methodological expertise in study design, analysis, budgeting, REB expertise and access to working space, as needed. In addition, the Research Program supports other DFCM programs and senior leadership (e.g., patient engagement survey for the QI program, analyses for OES researchers).
The core program investment is in UPLEARN, the University of Toronto’s Practice- and Community-Based Learning and Research Network, to advance all types of research and scholarship with all DFCM sites and teaching practices. This includes having designated leads at each site. Lastly, we also offer training and support for the next generation of researchers including the CSP. These varied activities are enabled by dedicated funds for research infrastructure, faculty salary support and strategic use of donor funds (e.g., the Waddington Family Fund to advance the DFCM’s Strategic Plan to double the number of community-based family medicine researchers).
At the time of the previous review, the DFCM Research Program was led by Vice-Chair Dr. Eva Grunfeld and Associate Director Dr. Paul Krueger, who both retired from these pos-
itions in 2020. In 2021, Dr. Peter Selby led the Research Program as interim Vice-Chair of Research, and in 2022, he was selected as the Vice-Chair for a term of five years. Dr. Selby holds the Giblon Professorship in Family Medicine Research. He is a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) where he is the Principal Investigator (PI) of a learning health system called INTREPID Lab, which is focused on the intersections of innovation, nicotine, tobacco, research, education, programming, implementation science and digital health. He is cross-appointed as Professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychiatry and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
To align the administrative and reporting structure of the department, we created a new senior research administrator position. In 2023, Dr. Tara Marie Watson joined DFCM as the Research Program’s Associate Director, assuming administrative oversight of all program staff and operations including those supporting UPLEARN, the relaunched PBRLN. The Research Program is also supported by Senior Biostatistician Dr. Rahim Moineddin, Biostatistician Dr. Chris Meaney, Program Administrator Tara Jeyaram, and highly-skilled staff trained in data systems management, data analysis and visualization, clinical research, and research coordination and project management. Three administrative positions were eliminated to align with the needs of the program and stabilize research positions instead.
The governance structure has been streamlined to have an efficient decision-making committee that oversees and directs the program. The new Research Executive Committee (REC) is comprised of the Vice-Chair of Research, Associate Director, Dr. Andrew Pinto as UPLEARN Director (i.e., the lead of the University of Toronto’s Practice- and Community-Based Learning and Research Network), the Senior Biostatistician, and Dr. Aisha Lofters as the recently established Waddington Family Community Research Capacity-Building Program Director. The REC, in turn, consults on programmatic matters and the selection of faculty for awards with a larger Research Advisory Committee (RAC), comprised of a number of primary care researchers including several longstanding DFCM faculty members.
The REC meets bi-monthly to:
f provide overall direction for the Research Program; f shape and achieve the research goals and objectives of DFCM’s Strategic Plan; f develop policies and procedures for reviewing the Research Program and its impact; f develop policies and procedures for conducting annual and five-year reviews of DFCM Investigator Award recipients, including periodic review of award criteria; f select candidates for DFCM Investigator Awards; and f develop strategies to support the career trajectories of DFCM Investigator Award recipients.
DFCM Investigator Awards Program:
DFCM is home to internationally recognized researchers whose work advances primary care and health systems worldwide. This program supports up to 30 research investigators, providing them with protected research time.
A breakdown of the five Investigator Awards categories is as follows:
1. Clinician Scientists: Established researchers with a PhD degree or equivalent and ≥50% protected research time.
2. Clinician Investigators: Established researchers with at least a master’s degree or equivalent and <50% protected research time.
3. New Investigators: Researchers within five years of receiving their highest academic degree and interested in becoming Clinician Scientists (maximum three-year award).
4. Graduate Research Fellows: Those completing a master’s degree or PhD (maximum two-year award for a master’s degree and five years for a PhD).
5. Non-Clinician Research Scientists: Funding for those with 80% or more protected research time.
This program of Funded Investigators forms a critical pipeline for developing research expertise within the DFCM.
These competitive research awards are designed to support research activities and build research capacity in DFCM to advance the practice of family medicine, nurture research interest throughout the lifecycle of a primary care researcher, and encourage them to share their expertise with the next generation of investigators. Recipients must be active faculty members working to improve quality, efficacy, and equity in primary care. Each award recipient is required to leverage these funds to obtain at least matching funds from
their respective site/division/other acceptable sources (e.g., from research chairs, other departments/organizations), complete annual internal reviews and, for the established researcher roles, five-year internal/external reviews to demonstrate that they are meeting the expectations related to research productivity and contributions to DFCM.
View a full list of current DFCM-funded investigators
Since 2021, we have had the following Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) and hospital-funded chairs in family medicine/primary care. In addition, we have protected time for research activities of the following leaders during the last five years. These research leaders are having tremendous impact across national, provincial and local systems relevant to DFCM including its divisions.
f Dr. Rick Glazier, Scientific Director of the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Senior Core Scientist at ICES, program co lead of INSPIRE-PHC;
f Dr. James Orbinski, Principal of Massey College;
f Dr. Onil Bhattacharya, the Frigon Blau Chair in Family Medicine Research Director, WCH Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care;
f Dr. Bjug Borgundvaag, Director of Schwartz/Reisman Emergency Medicine Institute (SREMI) at the Sinai Health System;
f Dr. Ann Burchell, research director for family medicine at Unity Health and CRC in STI prevention;
f Dr. June Carrol Co-founder of Genetics Education Canada Knowledge Organization (GEC-KO);
f Dr. Noah Crampton, CEO of Autoscribe;
f Dr. Sheila Dunn, Associate Director of Research, Canada’s Contraception Access Research Team
f Dr. Michelle Greiver, Gordon F. Cheesbrough Research Chair in Family and Community Medicine at NYGH
f Dr. Liisa Jaakkimainen, Project lead of POPLAR, senior core scientist and scientific lead of the Primary Care and Health Systems Program at ICES;
f Dr. Tara Kiran, Vice-Chair Quality and Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation at DFCM;
f Dr. Jeff Kwong, Associate Director, Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases, University of Toronto;
f Dr. Bernard Le Foll, Chair in Addiction Psychiatry, University of Toronto;
f Dr. Peter Selby Giblon Professor and Vice-Chair Research DFCM and PI of INTREPID Lab at CAMH
f Dr. Janet Smylie, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Advancing Generative Health Services for Indigenous
Populations in Canada and Director of Well Living House Applied Research Centre
f Dr. Abhi Sud, Chief Scientific Officer at the Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence;
f Dr. Catherine Varner, Deputy Editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Other notable research leaders at DFCM but who do not receive funding for protected time from the central department include:
f Dr. Ross Upshur, Head, Division of Clinical Public Health and Scientific Director at Bridgepoint Health from 2015 to 2024;
f Dr. Meldon Kahan (Medical Director of Meta-phi, a provincial program to improve care of people who use substances);
f Dr. Jeff Meyers, the Bresver Family Chair at DFCM focused on the End-of-life Care and Medical Assistance in Dying.
We have also created the opportunity for PhD faculty in the PA program and Paramedics in the ED program to have scientific appointments at UofT. Several PhD researchers at the sites or divisions are offered adjunct appointments to facilitate their careers and collaboration with our core faculty.
Promoting excellence in Research: The impact of supporting faculty from diverse backgrounds
Seven notable examples from the current group of Funded Investigators include the following:
Dr. Tara Kiran has led a program of research evaluating the impact of primary care reforms on quality in primary care in Ontario for the past decade. In 2022, she launched OurCare, a national, public engagement initiative to co-create the blueprint for a stronger, more equitable primary care system in Canada—a blueprint that can be used by government to inform and enact reforms, and by professional organizations and the public to advocate for change.
In addition to being the DFCM’s Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation and Vice-Chair of Quality and Innovation, she is also a Scientist in the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital, and an Adjunct Scientist at ICES.
Dr. Andrew Pinto is the Research Program Director for UPLEARN, the PBRLN situated at DFCM. He holds an applied Public Health Chair from CIHR on Upstream Prevention in Primary Healthcare and is the founding and current Director of the Upstream Lab. The lab focuses on tackling social factors that impact health by incubating novel interventions that tackle social factors that impact health, rigorous evaluation of interventions, sharing findings widely and training “upstreamists” to become change agents. The Upstream Lab was founded in 2016 to bring together a number of linked projects and initiatives. It is based in the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at Unity Health Toronto.
Dr. Aisha Lofters is the Inaugural Waddington Family Community Research Capacity Building Program Director within the Research Department at the DFCM. She works closely with Dr. Peter Selby on leading the development of a robust research capacity-building program focused on community-based family physicians.
Dr. Aisha Lofters is a family physician at Women’s College Hospital and Associate Professor with the DFCM. She is the Medical Director for the Peter Gilgan Centre for Women’s Cancers at Women’s College Hospital and holds a CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in Advancing Health Equity in Cancer Prevention and Screening. Her research program lives at the intersection of health equity, cancer care and primary care, using a variety of research methods and with an emphasis on community partnership.
Dr. Nav Persaud has dedicated his career to narrowing the health gap between the highest and lowest wealth brackets and to ensuring that everyone in Canada can afford the medication that they need. Dr. Persaud is a Canada Research Chair in Health Justice.
He is leading the first-ever trial providing people with free access to essential medicines – quantifying the links between medication cost and health outcomes and bringing to light the unfair choices that millions of Canadians are forced to make about their health. He is also the Chair of the Government of Canada’s Committee of Experts to make recommendations on National Pharmacare. Dr. Persaud compares national essential medicines lists between countries.
Dr. Persaud is a scientist with MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital. He is a staff physician in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital, and a professor in the DFCM. Dr. Persaud was named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 in 2017.
Dr. Karen Tu is Chair of Family and Community Medicine Research in Primary Care at University Health Network, Research Scientist at North York General Hospital, and Professor in the DFCM at the University of Toronto, with a cross-appointment in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She also practices as a family physician with the University Health Network–Toronto Western Hospital Family Health Team. Dr. Tu earned her MD from the University of Toronto and an MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing through a joint program at the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
She has received significant support from the Rathlyn Foundation Primary Care EMR Research and Discovery Fund, which advances research using primary care electronic medical record (EMR) data in areas such as mental health and obesity, and supports data quality initiatives for the University of Toronto’s former practice-based research network, UTOPIAN.
Dr. Tu founded INTRePID, a global network of family physicians and primary care researchers from 17 countries. INTRePID uses EMR and health insurance data to conduct international comparative studies, including its first major project on the impact of COVID-19 on primary care systems worldwide.
View select infographics from INTRePID’s research in the Research section of the appendices
Dr. Noah Ivers is a family physician at Women’s College Hospital Academic Family Health Team and also leads a research program in implementation science at Women’s College Hospital. He is a full Professor in the DFCM at the University of Toronto. He holds a Canada Research Chair in the Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice. Noah’s research focuses on the use of data to drive evidence-based, patient-centred improvements in healthcare. He has conducted multiple pragmatic randomized trials, systematic reviews, and qualitative work on health services and quality improvement interventions. He is presently the scientific lead of the Office of Health System Partnerships at DFCM.
He contributes to the Patient-Partnered Diagnostic Centre of Excellence, an international initiative focused on reducing diagnostic errors and improving diagnostic safety. The Centre emphasizes collaboration with patients, families, clinicians, and researchers to co-create solutions that make diagnosis more accurate, timely, and patient-centered.
Dr. Abhimanyu Sud is the inaugural Humber River Health Research Chair in Primary Care and Population Health Systems and an Assistant Professor in the DFCM at the University of Toronto. A family physician and health services researcher, his work focuses on developing and evaluating clinical interventions to improve population health, particularly for individuals living with chronic pain, mental illness, and opioid use. He is a nationally recognized medical educator, co-chairs the Interprofessional Pain Curriculum at the University of Toronto, and contributes to national pain and opioid prescribing education programs.
Dr. Sud is an excellent example of a community-based family physician who returned to pursue a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Ross Upshur a senior faculty member and researcher. The research program provided financial support to Dr. Sud for five years. Thereafter, Dr. Sud successfully competed for a clinician-investigator award and the Chair at HRH.
In 2023, we decided to build on the UTOPIAN PracticeBased Research Network (PBRN) to transform into a PBRLN that expanded beyond data-driven research. Through a competitive process, we appointed Dr. Andrew Pinto for a five-year term as the Research Program Director to lead this transformation within the new reformed administrative structure of the research program.
UPLEARN is a “living laboratory” that connects over 2,000 family physicians across 15 academic sites affiliated with the DFCM throughout the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. It is dedicated to advancing clinical and health services research in family medicine to enhance the primary care experience for both patients and providers, optimize resource use, and improve population health. Building on more than a decade of collective effort through the development of the University of Toronto Practice-based Research Network, UPLEARN expands its scope beyond research to include:
f Excellence in research
f Practice support and quality improvement (QI)
f Health professional education
f Policy evaluation and impact
f Community partnership and services
UPLEARN is actively engaged in several research- and data-oriented networks. At the provincial level, it is part of the Primary Care Ontario Practice-based Learning and Research Network (POPLAR). Nationally, UPLEARN is a founding member of the Canadian Primary Care Research Network (CPCRN), the Canadian Primary Care Trials Network (CPCTN), and a member of the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN).
By fostering collaboration among primary care clinicians, patients, researchers, and policymakers across jurisdictions, UPLEARN plays a vital role in advancing a sustainable Learning Health System – one that continuously evolves to deliver high-quality, evidence-based, and equitable primary care to populations across Canada.
UPLEARN is overseen by Dr. Andrew Pinto, UPLEARN Director, with key operational support from Research Program staff including the Research Program Coordinator, Data Managers, and Research Officers. The Vice-Chair and Associate Director of the Research Program also provide support and recommendations in relation to UPLEARN’s external relationships and partnerships, funding management, and staff assignments.
In addition, UPLEARN is governed by the Site and Community Council (the Council), which plays a key role in shaping strategic priorities and guiding decisions on projects and initiatives. The Council is composed of representatives from 15 DFCM-affiliated sites, nine patient partners, subject matter experts in areas such as research ethics and methodology, and the Research Program leadership team, all supported by UPLEARN staff.
Since its launch in September 2023, UPLEARN has strengthened relationships with DFCM-affiliated sites, deepened collaboration with peer programs, enhanced engagement with patient partners, supported the development of emerging researchers, and advanced multiple research initiatives.
In 2024, UPLEARN completed visits to each affiliated site, engaging physicians and site staff directly to help shape the network. Each site has since been assigned a dedicated UPLEARN staff liaison. Nearly 200 faculty members, learners, and staff shared their interests and posed questions arising from their day-to-day work. This input is helping UPLEARN foster stronger site and community collaborations and ensure that DFCM scientists are addressing these emerging and important questions that matter to all of us. These insights are being shared through our newly launched newsletter, the UPLEARN Update, and will also inform the 2025 annual reviews of DFCM Funded Investigators.
UPLEARN has also been a key contributor to CareCanvas, a flagship initiative led by DFCM’s Quality and Innovation Program (Q&I). Since the project’s inception, UPLEARN has collaborated closely with Q&I, providing data analytics and visualization expertise to support the development of the CareCanvas dashboard. This collaboration has since expanded to other Q&I-led projects, including consultations on research ethics strategies for the Access Dashboard and Coaching project.
The UPLEARN patient partners group within the Site and Community Council has grown to include nine members from six sites, with a goal of engaging at least one patient partner from every site. These partners, alongside other Council members, continue to play a vital role in setting priorities and contributing to a wide range of research activities and initiatives.
In January 2025, we launched the Ideas to Proposal (I2P) Course, enrolling 13 learners—11 family physicians and two residents from across our sites. The course is designed to build primary care research capacity by equipping earlystage investigators with the skills and knowledge necessary to transform a research concept into a well-defined research question and develop it into a competitive proposal. I2P also fosters mentorship connections between learners and DFCM-based researcher mentors to support the growth of primary care research and the development of research outputs. Three proposals received monetary awards thanks to the generous support of the Waddington Family Foundation. These projects aim at addressing a range of critical issues pertaining to primary care, such as equitable care access, continuity of care, and risk identification using advanced analytic methods.
As a “living laboratory” committed to advancing knowledge to improve primary care and health for all, UPLEARN continues to invest significantly in supporting clinical and health services research across the full research lifecycle–from grant application to post-award administration, from clinical trials to secondary data analysis studies. Over the past five years, UPLEARN has supported a range of research initiatives, including but not limited to:
f CanTreatCOVID: An adaptive platform trial evaluating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of existing and emerging medications for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) in nonhospitalized patients.
f PREPARED: An infrastructure project aimed at enhancing surveillance and pandemic response, improving patient care and health system efficiency, accelerating the development of diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics, and facilitating trial linkages.
f SPIDER: A pragmatic clinic trial assessing the effectiveness of a Q&I-oriented approach to reducing potentially inappropriate prescriptions among elderly patients experiencing polypharmacy. View more information about SPIDER in the Research section of the appendices.
f INTRePID: An international consortium leveraging electronic medical record (EMR) data to conduct comparative studies on a wide range of primary care topics across sixteen member countries.
To facilitate the review and approval of various support requests, UPLEARN has also streamlined the project intake process by creating a single intake form for anyone wishing to connect with UPLEARN for support.
UPLEARN is poised for continued growth and impact across five strategic areas. In the coming years, UPLEARN will continue to support CareCanvas and other Q&I initiatives, offer increasingly robust I2P courses for early-stage researchers, and strengthen partnerships with peer programs and networks. These efforts will enhance research capacity, support data infrastructure development, influence policy relevant to primary care, and integrate technologies to improve clinical decision-making and administrative efficiency. Together, these initiatives will reinforce UPLEARN’s long-standing commitment to excellence in family and community medicine research, education, and high-quality clinical care. UPLEARN is also innovating methods to meet new privacy and REB requirements to assist sites extract and analyse data locally for QI and be ready for broader sharing with the POPLAR network when ready and authorized to receive data from sites.
Productivity and Funding RESEARCH
DFCM faculty are successful recipients of funds from a variety of peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed granting agencies. Accurate collection of such data is problematic because most grants are held at the host hospital. A new initiative has been implemented such that the information is automatically shared with the university on a 6 monthly basis.
More grant information can be found in the appendices
DFCM faculty are productive in terms of publications and are well represented in national and international journals. Given the large size of the faculty, new mechanisms are being developed to capture publications by faculty who are not funded researchers. The latter are required to submit annual reports and are identified as researchers more explicitly.
Please see Table 1 for publication counts for a subset of DFCM researchers, i.e., the Funded Investigators.
DFCM faculty are productive in terms of publications and are well represented in national and international journals. Please see Table 1 for publication counts for a subset of DFCM researchers, the Funded Investigators.
Table 1: Number of Scopus-indexed publications, generated by N=27 DFCM Funded Investigators, between 2020-2025
*The Scopus IDs for N=3 DFCM Research Program funded investigators did not return valid bibliometric data and were excluded from the analysis in Table 1.
**Data was collected in summer/fall 2025, so not all 2025 publications are included.
Table 2: Overall bibliometric statistics derived from Scopus-indexed publications, for N=27 DFCM Funded Investigators, aggregated over the years 2020-2025
*The Scopus IDs for N=3 DFCM Research Program funded investigators did not return valid bibliometric data and were excluded from the analysis in Table 2.
The top 5 journals DFCM-funded investigators were most likely to publish in are listed below:
1. PLOS One (N=53)
2. BMJ Open (N=47)
3. CMAJ (N=37)
4. CJEM (N=36)
5. CMAJ Open (N=32)
The top 5 most prevalent keywords associated with DFCM-funded investigator publications are listed below:
1. COVID-19 (N=112)
2. Primary Care (N=70)
3. Canada (N=45)
4. HIV (N=41)
5. Public Health (N=37)
Table 3: Comparison of bibliometric statistics associated with Scopus SciVal indexed “Family Practice” research publications (2020-2025), from select academic institutions
f Persaud et al. (2025). Voucher for Healthy Foods and Diabetes Control JAMA.
f Carroll et al. (2025). An Innovative Strategy for Collecting Family Health History: An Effectiveness-Implementation Trial in Primary Care Clinics. Annals of Family Medicine.
f Butt et al. (2025). Healthcare Use in Individuals with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Population-based Longitudinal Matched Cohort Study. PLOS Mental Health
f Garrison et al. (2025). Antihypertensive medication timing and cardiovascular events and death: The BedMed Randomized Clinical Trial JAMA
f Su et al. (2025). Association between medication adherence and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with both diabetes and hypertension in primary care settings in Canada: A retrospective cohort study PLoS ONE
f Kiran et al. (2024). Public experiences and perspectives of primary care in Canada: results from a crosssectional survey CMAJ
f DFCM & Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table (2022) COVID-19 Science Table Briefs
f D’Urzo et al. (2022). Primary Care Severe Asthma Registry and Education Project (PCSAR-EDU): Phase 1 – an e-Delphi for registrydefinitions and indices of clinician behaviour BMJ Open
f Stephensen et al. (2021). Changes in family medicine visits across sociodemographic groups after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario: a retrospective cohort study. CMAJ Open
f O’Neill et al. (2021). Association between new-onset anosmia and positive SARS-CoV-2 tests among people accessing outpatient testing in Toronto, Ontario: a retrospective cross-sectional study CMAJ Open
f McIsaac et al. (2021). A pragmatic randomized trial of a primary care antimicrobial stewardship intervention in Ontario, Canada BMJ Family Practice
f See more DFCM Publications
f View DFCM’s full bibliometric data from 2020-2025.
As well as disseminating findings through publications, faculty are encouraged to share knowledge and address local issues through conference and symposia presentations, research reports, workshops, Research Rounds, and other professional channels as informal networks. DFCM researchers are also regularly quoted in local and national media.
Examples:
f DFCM researcher Dr. Catherine Varner is the deputy editor for the Canadian Medical Association Journal and is often quoted.
Z Rates of pre-eclampsia, hypertension in pregnancy up 40% over 10 years, study says for The Canadian Press
Z Diagnosing Cancer in the ED ‘Becoming Routine’ in Canada for Medscape
Z Virtual urgent care didn’t divert Ontario patients from ER visits during pandemic, study suggests for CBC f DFCM researcher Dr. Tara Kiran’s OurCare continues to appear in top health news headlines.
Z Ontario has more family doctors, but fewer are working in primary care, study shows for The Globe and Mail
Z ‘Concerning:’ New research reveals trend that may be contributing to family doctor shortage for CTV News
Z Toronto-based researchers want to hear from you about your experiences in healthcare for CBC
DFCM shares annual Family Medicine Reports, which showcase stories and innovative research happening across the department. These reports highlight key projects, findings, and collaborations that advance family medicine and primary care research.
Explore the reports:
f 2021 DFCM Family Medicine Report
f 2023 DFCM Family Medicine Report
f 2024-2025 DFCM Family Medicine Report
The Research Program hosts bimonthly Research Rounds, an interactive, College of Family Physicians of Canada-accredited, in-person and online opportunity open to all family and community medicine and primary care researchers, faculty, residents, students/trainees, and staff. Invited keynote speakers include the Funded Investigators and research colleagues from across all DFCM sites to share their current research proposals, outcomes from funded studies, and/or new research practices and methods. Research Rounds usually include a research-in-progress presentation, which is often presented by investigators who are looking for feedback and mentorship from more senior investigators.
As of 2024, generously funded by the Waddington Family Fund, the Research Rounds series became accredited and has started to re-emphasize in-person engagement at events, fostering a culture of networking and socializing among family medicine researchers in the department. In March 2025, a special DFCM community site edition of Research Rounds was hosted by Humber River Health, featuring community health and equity-focused research presentations. This event was attended by over 50 participants in person and online.
In May 2025, a special half-day research symposium was hosted by DFCM Research titled, “Building capacity and community to help inform the future of family medicine research at DFCM.” The event was attended by over 40 in-person attendees, including current funded investigators and research site leads representing the DFCM sites. Presentations focused on each site’s research vision, capacity, and productivity. The event included hosting the 2025 Earl Dunn Lecture, a prestigious lectureship in primary care research and excellence. Presented by the Honourable Jane Philpott, this presentation was titled “Ontario’s journey to primary care for everyone” and was attended by an additional 60+ participants who joined the research symposium virtually. A follow-up in-person research symposium with a focus on research collaboration across all DFCM sites has been planned for November 2025, titled “Ideas to action on building research collaboration across DFCM sites”.
DFCM-SUPPORTED RESEARCH AND EDUCATION INITIATIVES:
Over the years, hundreds of DFCM-affiliated researchers have conducted high-quality, locally focused research with support from the central DFCM Research Program. This support—delivered through teaching, training, services, and resources—aims to improve quality, efficacy, and equity in primary care. The program also draws on the expertise and resources at each teaching site, guided by Family Medicine Chiefs, Research/Academic Project Leads, and others.
Research support services and resources:
SUPPORT WITH BIOSTATISTICS AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The DFCM Research Program offers biostatistics and research methodology support services for faculty, including assistance writing grant applications, designing studies, data management, data analysis, and dissemination of findings. For DFCM faculty, there is no cost for research support services related to core DFCM program activities.
GRANT AND REB APPLICATIONS:
The DFCM Research Program offers voluntary internal peer review of research grant applications to help improve grant-writing skills and the overall success rates of peer-reviewed grant applications. The program also provides support with Research Ethics Board applications submitted through the University of Toronto’s automated My Research Applications platform.
DFCM fosters dynamic reciprocal mentorship relationships leading to positive change both for the career development of the involved individuals and for the cultural development of the department. DFCM Investigator Award recipients are required to provide research mentorship. The Research Program staff also provide formal and informal mentorship and connect mentees with research mentors.
RESEARCH TRAVEL FUND AND PUBLICATION FEE AWARDS:
These awards are available to support DFCM faculty to present peer-reviewed research at national and international conferences or have peer-reviewed research articles accepted for publication. In the last five years, the DFCM has supported five research travel awards to conferences around Canada and the world and 13 publication fee awards to support high-quality, open-access publications.
Qualtrics is a secure, user-friendly, feature-rich, web-based survey tool that allows users to build, distribute, and analyze online surveys, collaborate in real-time, and export data in multiple formats. The Research Program previously provided Qualtrics access for DFCM faculty, staff, and learners. In mid-2025, the Research Program shifted to providing survey support by developing a REDCap information sheet and directing researchers and staff to the University’s REDCap Office for relevant trainings and support. REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is an established, cost-effective, secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases, and is freely available to members of the University of Toronto community.
The DFCM Research Program provides important opportunities for learners to participate in research. Below are key examples that highlight its involvement in shaping and supporting research in medical education.
The Comprehensive Research Experience for Medical Students (CREMS) engages interested medical students to gain extracurricular research experiences in two structured programs. There is a 12-week Summer Program open to first- and second-year medical students, and a 20-month Research Scholar Program for first-year medical students.
f The Academic Fellowship Program is a rigorous continuing education program intended to strengthen the practice of family medicine and primary care by developing the leadership, teaching, and research skills of practitioners.
Resident Academic Projects (RAP) are completed by all residents in their second year and are often supervised by a DFCM Investigator Award recipient and/or other DFCM researchers. These projects can take the form of research, quality improvement, education scholarship, or a community-oriented primary care project. The specific objectives of all RAP projects are to:
1. Develop and precisely iterate a question that arises during residency;
2. Develop and submit a preliminary project plan;
3. Conduct a critical review of the relevant literature;
4. Complete the specific objectives of the project chosen;
5. Reflect on findings and its implications for the resident as a family physician, and for the discipline of family medicine;
6. Submit a final written report;
7. Present findings and respond to questions at the site Resident Research Day; and
8. Consider additional opportunities for dissemination, such as conference presentations or distributing findings or tools to stakeholders.
At each site, RAP support is provided by a RAP Coordinator, Site Directors, faculty and an online resource. All residents also participate in regular teaching sessions relating to critical appraisal and the practice of evidence-based medicine.
The Clinician Scholar Program is part of the Enhanced Skills Program (PGY3). It provides residents with adequate knowledge, training and experience to enable them to pursue careers as clinician investigators under the supervision of DFCM research faculty.
Postgraduate education offers one-month research electives for family medicine residents, typically supervised by a DFCM Investigator Award recipient.
f Clinical Research Certificate Program, primarily for faculty, significantly enhances understanding, effective use, engagement and collaboration in research. Students complete two required courses that provide an introduction to research methods in family medicine and primary care, a practicum for hands-on practice, and an elective. The Clinical Research Certificate is issued by the Office of Academic Fellowship and Graduate Studies.
f There are also graduate courses attended by faculty, graduate students and residents including, “Applied Survey Methods for Healthcare Professionals” and “Research Issues in Family Medicine and Primary Care.”
f Graduate studies can be pursued through the School of Graduate Studies either through the Dalla Lana School of Public Health or the Institute of Medical Sciences situated in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto
f The investigator program offers salary support for those pursuing research Masters ( 3 years) or PhDs ( 5 years)
f The I2P program offered through the PBRLN described below with funding from the Waddington Family Foundation to help faculty develop research ideas into fundable proposals.
UTOPIAN, the earlier University of Toronto Practice-Based Research Network, was a cornerstone of the research infrastructure at the DFCM. The DFCM had planned for it to play a key role in POPLAR (Primary Care Ontario Practice-based Learning and Research Network), to offer expanded opportunities for data collection and synthesis, allowing researchers to answer key questions in primary care across Ontario and improve quality of care through measurement. However, since our last departmental review, UTOPIAN was forced to undergo a major shift, bringing challenges as the department adapted to new processes and priorities.
Established in 2013, UTOPIAN was one of the largest practice-based research networks (PBRNs) in North America. With a strong focus on electronic medical record (EMR) data, UTOPIAN systematically collected information from the EMRs of consenting primary care practices and transformed it into a de-identified standardized format stored in the secure analytic environment, the Data Safe Haven (DSH) repository. The authority to collect and use data was granted through research ethics approval under PHIPA Section 44. Over the years, the data supported numerous research and quality improvement (QI) projects, resulting in many publications, conference presentations, and new initiatives.
A recommendation of our last departmental review was to undertake an independent external review of UTOPIAN, to guide its future evolution. This review was conducted in 2022 by an impressive panel of 3 reviewers: Dr. Beth Coleman. Dr. Michael Green, and Dr. Robyn Tamblyn.
Varied internal and external groups also participated in the review, the details of which can be found in the full final review included as an appendices. The review outlined several key takeaways or recommendations for UTOPIAN, as follows:
f To position itself to deliver excellence in research and quality improvement equally.
f For the governance structure to reflect the emphasis on both practice-based research and quality improvement.
f For the DFCM to renegotiate its relationship with North York General Hospital to ensure that UTOPIAN can deliver on research excellence and quality improvement for all participating sites and practices.
f To conduct a cost and access analysis of in-house versus alternative data safe havens to reduce cost and increase adoption of best practices.
As the department was preparing to implement the external review recommendations, in November 2022, the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Ontario initiated an investigation of UTOPIAN in response to an anonymous complaint. During the time of the investigation, data extraction was paused. In May 2024, the IPC completed its review. The IPC did not find any evidence to substantiate the complainants’ allegations and determined that the matter should not proceed to adjudication. The IPC also found that the University had provided proper notice to custodians regarding a 2023 data collection. In other words, there was no evidence of a data breach or wrongdoing. That said, the IPC identified
several areas for improvement, including the need for greater transparency and communication with physicians and patients. The IPC also recommended a robust re-identification risk assessment, which UTOPIAN completed in full compliance within a six-month reporting window. With permission from the University of Toronto Health Sciences Research Ethics Board (REB), the DSH project was archived, and no new data were extracted into the repository thereafter. Existing data analysis studies with active REB approval were permitted to continue using the archived data until completion.
In the wake of the external review of UTOPIAN, and facing changes in privacy and REB standards, and in the absence of robust hospital and institutional support for community-based EMR data extraction, a decision was made to sunset the program. Many of the challenges for ongoing EMR data use will require system-level solutions that are beyond the scope of an individual academic department to resolve. These include the negotiation of data extraction from private EMR vendors at a reasonable price and frequency; appropriate structures for consent at the level of patients, clinicians, and practices; mechanisms to feed data back to clinicians in a de-anonymized manner to support quality improvement within practices; secure data housing and ethics oversight for data use for research; and the list goes on. These are challenges under existing research frameworks that do not contemplate community-based research in their design. However, while we work with provincial partners to build these systems, the need for a robust local PBRN remains. We are determined to continue to build our capacity for practice-based research and learning in spite of these challenges.
We created UPLEARN under a new leadership structure. Although it builds on the collective efforts that created UTOPIAN, UPLEARN is expanding the scope of research to support additional key areas such as QI, education, policy change, and community engagement and moving beyond the earlier PBRN’s focus of EMR/administrative data as the sole modality of research.
More details can be found in the UPLEARN section of the self-study report.
Another key challenge is with respect to stipends we offer faculty, as these have not changed since the Research Program’s inception in 1995. Thus, the amounts offered have not kept pace with being competitive, especially if a community site does not have a conforming practice plan designed to support research. Moreover, the competing demands from clinical and personal time, coupled with the uncertainty associated with securing funding and roles as a researcher, diminish the pipeline for research being done by family doctors. Moreover, there have been instances of funded investigators who have a significant body of work but have been designated and are still evaluated like early-stage scientists without weighting contributions towards senior authorship, mentoring faculty, and students in research, and so on. There is also a gap in our program at the moment in being able to allow senior scientist designations. With pending retirements and the challenges of a clear pathway into a research career in comprehensive family medicine, plus the availability of jobs after training, it is difficult to develop and nurture new talent.
Lastly, the Research Program’s Senior Epidemiologist is retiring in early 2026. Due to the way such staff are appointed to the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, attracting top talent will be challenging in 2026. Regardless, we are committed to create further pathways into a research career for learners and faculty by creating more funding opportunities aligned with the DFCM’s Strategic Plan.
When the Strategic Plan was launched in 2022, it initiated new and important reflections and actions grounded in equity principles for the Research Program to consider. In particular, there were recommendations to cultivate and invest in new community-based research partnerships. An important example of actioning this investment can be seen with establishing the Inaugural Waddington Family Community Research Capacity Building Program Director. With this new leadership, and generously funded by the Waddington Family Fund, the Research Program has launched calls for new opportunities to mentor and protect research time for early-stage investigators at community-based sites. These new awards include opportunities for Early-Career Investigators and Fellowships, with emphasis on attracting applicants from sites that may be outside of the Greater Toronto Area and working in community clinics and practices. We are planning for the new investigators to commence their roles in January 2026.
With the launch of UPLEARN, the Research Program continues to advance toward being part of a sustainable Learning Health System. Over the coming years, UPLEARN will continue to expand its scope of projects supported across the areas of not only research but also QI, education, policy change, and community engagement. While primary care EMR data extraction remains a valuable resource for innovation and improvement in all these areas, UPLEARN will continue to support and collaborate with the provincial network, POPLAR, in its development and will also explore other feasible approaches to EMR data extraction and database maintenance. UPLEARN is committed to ensuring research capacity is built among faculty and residents who are interested and engaged in research, and as such will continue to be a key partner in the evolution of the updated Ideas to Proposal (I2P) course.
In sum, our goal is to have more community-affiliated hospitals develop research capacity in family medicine. We have been developing partnerships focused on research, providing guidance, promoting applications to newly established chairs in primary care and facilitating grant submissions via the University. In addition, the new governance structure promotes succession planning for the Vice-Chair role within the department. We are reviewing the methodological expertise requirements of faculty with the Associate Director available to advise and collaborate with researchers on qualitative studies.
Researchers have partnerships individually with members in their local hospitals, across departments in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health, Information Science, Computer and Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Social Work, Nursing, and Rehabilitation Sciences. We have created partnerships with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) including staff collaborations and service agreements to support faculty at their local sites.
In addition to central resources, the DFCM Research relies on research expertise, resources and supports at each teaching site, under the direction of Family Medicine Chiefs, Research/Academic Project Leads and others. Researchers embedded at these sites are also partners with DFCM for a variety of projects, especially those involving data analysis.
We have several researchers, especially those in our Divisions, supported by specialty hospitals (e.g., CAMH supports Drs. Selby, Le Foll, Osnat Melamed and Scott Veldhuizan) or institutes (e.g., SREMI supports Drs. Borgundvaag and Varner), Palliative Care at Mount Sinai Hospital (e.g., Dr. Meyers), DLSPH (e.g., supports Drs. Upshur and Orkin) and Massey College (e.g., supports Dr. Orbinsky).
The Department of Family and Community Medicine’s (DFCM’s) Quality and Innovation (Q&I) Program exists to make primary care in Canada–and the world–even better than it is.
The program was founded in 2011 under the leadership of Dr. Phil Ellison, the inaugural Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation and Vice-Chair, Quality and Innovation, following recommendations from a 2010 Quality Task Force. It was rebranded in 2017 under the leadership of the new Chair, Dr. Michael Kidd, to the Quality and Innovation Program to align with the new strategic vision of “Advancing Family Medicine globally through scholarship, social responsibility, and strategic partnerships.”
Under the leadership of Dr. Tara Kiran, Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation and Vice-Chair Quality and Innovation since 2018, the Q&I Program focuses on building leadership capacity in the primary care workforce, using and generating evidence to drive improvements, directly supporting clinicians and teams, and fostering dialogue among government, clinicians, and patients to influence policy and practice. The ultimate goal is to improve health outcomes and patient experiences, ensure safety and efficiency, and promote equitable health for all while ensuring provider wellness and maintaining costs
In 2018, the program operated with a lean core team consisting of the Vice-Chair, Program Manager, and Program Administrative Officer. Since then, Fidani funds and department supports have enabled the addition of key leadership roles, including a Q&I Faculty Development Lead, Q&I Data Science Lead, and Patient Experience Measurement Lead. By 2020–2021, the program further expanded with the introduction of a Patient Engagement Specialist and a Research Officer to support measurement and special initiatives. Most recently, in 2023, departmental supports made it possible to appoint our inaugural Practice Improvement & Continuing Professional Development Program Directors, recognizing the importance of this leadership to achieve our ambitious goals as set out in the DFCM strategic plan.
Our core program team currently includes:
f Dr. Tara Kiran, Vice-Chair Quality and Innovation
f Dr. Noor Ramji, Practice Improvement Program Director
f Dr. Eleanor Colledge, Continuing Professional Development Program Director (currently in transition)
f Dr. Margarita Lam Antoniades, Quality Improvement Education Lead
f Erin Plenert, Q&I Program Manager
f Marisa Schwartz, Administrative Officer
f Kirsten Szymanski, Research Officer
f Dr. Erica Li and Dr. Debbie Elman, Patient Experience Measurement Co-Leads
View a selection of Q&I publications in the Q&I section of the appendices.
Leadership for these efforts is provided by Q&I Directors at each of the department’s 18 family medicine teaching sites, where they champion practice improvement and support quality improvement education.
The Q&I Program has led the way nationally in the development of a comprehensive, longitudinal quality improvement curriculum that is contextualized for primary care. Driven by our Q&I Education Lead, Dr. Margarita Lam Antoniades, we continue to set the standard for quality improvement-focused educational initiatives for family medicine residents, family medicine physicians, teachers and educators, and community-based primary care clinicians nationally and internationally.
In the spirit of quality improvement, the curriculum has been revised regularly to include content on: f patient safety f patient engagement f equity f environmental sustainability
The curriculum was updated to an e-learning platform prior to the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, which dramatically enhanced the experience for learners through its visual design and usability and offered embedded links to important articles, videos, and resources. All three of our Q&I self-learning e-modules for primary care physicians, family medicine faculty and teachers, and family medicine residents and learners continue to be made available at no cost to anyone interested in improving quality in primary care.
Faculty development has also been strengthened through quality improvement training opportunities, including scholarships for quality improvement certification through the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS), and a new partnership with CQuIPS to co-create a Primary Care–focused Masterclass.
Parts or all of our curriculum are now used at several medical schools including the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Queen’s University, and the Aga Khan University campus in Nairobi, Kenya.
Additionally, as part of the Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative (AHEHC), faculty from DFCM are collaborating with the School of Public Health at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to co-create and co-deliver educational programs to improve primary healthcare in Ghana. Dr. Lam Antoniades, alongside a number of
our Q&I Directors and in partnership with our colleagues in Ghana, developed a two-part Quality Improvement in Healthcare Course designed to equip leaders and managers of healthcare facilities with contemporary knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to improve healthcare quality to enhance clinical outcomes in service delivery.
In 2021, we hired our inaugural Patient and Family Engagement Specialist, Dana Arafeh. The role was initially funded half-time through the Fidani funds, with Dana spending the other portion of her time with Dr. Johnathan Maguire, Lawson Chair in Patient Engagement in Child Nutrition. The role is a unique one within the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and across Departments of Family Medicine in Canada. It has helped to strengthen patient engagement across the department, embedding it into our culture and day-to-day work.
In 2021, Dana collaborated with the Q&I program and DFCM leadership to conduct a department-wide needs assessment on patient engagement. Her findings were summarized in Patient and Family Engagement in the DFCM: Current State and Future Directions, which outlined the landscape and key priorities for advancing engagement. Guided by this work, she focused on building capacity, strengthening patient partnership in postgraduate education, and establishing the DFCM’s inaugural Patient and Family Advisory Committee (PFAC).
In 2022, she led the committee’s development, working with sites to recruit and interview more than 40 potential advisors and preparing terms of reference and orientation materials to enable their success. That September, the 16 selected patient partners—each from a DFCM teaching clinic and representing diverse backgrounds—convened for the first time.
In 2023, the department recognized the impact of the role of Patient and Family Engagement Specialist by matching Fidani Chair funds to support Dana full-time. In this expanded capacity, she developed key resources such as the DFCM Patient Partner Compensation process and a comprehensive engagement roadmap. She has also provided over 50 consultations annually to internal and external partners on best practices for patient engagement, reflecting a department-wide commitment to culture change in this area.
More recently, Dana has led collaborative initiatives, together with the PFAC, such as the Role of a Resident project, which developed patient-facing materials to increase understanding of residents’ roles in teaching clinics. Alongside the PFAC, she has co-created workshops for the annual DFCM conference, contributed to optimizing our patient experience survey, and supported the creation of a Social Accountability rotation for residents. Our pool of over 150 patient partners has also been deeply engaged in departmental initiatives, from renewing mental health competencies and informing the annual Family Medicine Report to sharing lived experiences at the Undergraduate Addiction Week conference.
PFAC’s impact has been felt across DFCM, playing an important role in shaping departmental initiatives.
PFAC has contributed to quality improvement and family medicine education, including:
f revising patient experience survey questions
f co-creating knowledge translation tools such as infographics and videos to share the results with patients
f interpreting survey data
f sharing patient perspectives on AI scribes
f sharing perspectives on revised mental health and social accountability competencies.
PFAC has also identified a widespread gap in patient understanding of the role of resident doctors and responded by co-developing educational materials for teaching clinics.
Their early and ongoing involvement has shaped major initiatives, such as a new social accountability rotation for residents.
PATIENT EXPERIENCE SURVEY
PATIENT EXPERIENCE SURVEY
PATIENT EXPERIENCE SURVEY
12,658 total patients completed the latest survey
12,658 total patients completed the latest survey
The survey is distributed and analyzed twice a year. We look at the results over time to see what changes we need to make to give better care.
12,658 total patients completed the latest survey
The survey is distributed and analyzed twice a year. We look at the results over time to see what changes we need to make to give better care.
The survey is distributed and analyzed twice a year. We look at the results over time to see what changes we need to make to give better care.
% respondents know how a resident doctor differs from a family doctor compared to 65% in the last survey
% respondents know how a resident doctor differs from a family doctor compared to 65% in the last survey
% respondents know how a resident doctor differs from a family doctor compared to 65% in the last survey
This question helped us understand the usefulness of the resources shared to explain the role
This question helped us understand the usefulness of the resources shared to explain the role
This question helped us understand the usefulness of the resources shared to explain the role
33% of patients reported needing urgent care compared with 16% in 2020
33% of patients reported needing urgent care compared with 16% in 2020
33% of patients reported needing urgent care compared with 16% in 2020
View the Patient and Family Engagement in the DFCM: Current State and Future Directions report
More information can be found in the Relationships, Partnerships, and Social Accountability section
DFCM Patient Experience Survey
However, same day/next day access to urgent care has remained stable
However, same day/next day access to urgent care has
From the winter 2025 survey
PATIENT-CENTERED CARE OUTCOMES
However same day/next day access to urgent care has
PATIENT-CENTERED CARE OUTCOMES
Meaningful measurement is essential for data-driven improvement. In 2019, the Fidani funds supported the creation of the DFCM Patient Experience Measurement Lead role to develop a common patient experience measurement across all sites to inform improvement opportunities. Having a common survey would allow for local decision-making while also helping the DFCM identify and share best practices among sites. The first common patient experience survey was launched in the summer of 2020 to better understand the patient experience in primary care following the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically in terms of access, timeliness, and continuity of care. To date, twelve iterations of the survey have been circulated to thousands of registered patients at each teaching site. The survey has been modified to include other key dimensions such as equity, accessibility for individuals with disabilities, and patient-centredness.
~13,000-14,000 patients complete the bi-annual survey
75% of patients always felt involved in decision making about their care and treatment
patients always felt involved in decision making about their care and treatment
69% of patients said that their doctor or nurse practitioner spent enough time with them
Data collected from the survey has been used to do a deep dive into equity in care, understanding how experience during COVID-19 varied based on patient sociodemographic characteristics. The findings from this were published in BMJ Open in 2022, “Sociodemographic differences in patient experience with primary care during COVID-19: results from a cross-sectional survey in Ontario, Canada.” Our team has also collaborated with Dr. Rebecca Etz in the United States, to include the novel Person-Centered Primary Care Measure into our survey, an inclusion originally piloted at our St. Michael’s Hospital site
To increase its reach, the patient experience survey has been translated into French and simplified Chinese and patient-facing infographics have been developed to communicate survey results directly to patients.
SURVEY FINDINGS: WAVE 1 EQUITY DATA
The University of Toronto family medicine teaching clinics have been surveying patients to understand their care experiences and needs during COVID-19. The survey has been sent to patients every 3-4 month since June 2020. The healthcare teams at each clinic meet regularly to discuss the survey results and find ways to provide better care.
From the fall 2020 survey
likely to have received it
• Were more likely to note discomfort with the privacy and security of virtual care and less likely to want virtual care to continue to be offered
75% of patients always felt involved in decision making about their care and treatment.
Meeting everyone’s needs equally
Providing multiple options for care
69% of patients said that their or nurse practitioner spent enough time with them.
Making sure that virtual care meets the needs of newcomers, those with financial troubles or poor health
We will continue to work with you to provide care in the way you need
63% of patients said they are very satisfied with their care.
Learning from each other
Have our clinics share how they are doing things so we can learn from one another to provide better care
From the winter 2025 survey
We understand this data does not represent everyone we see at our clinics. This is just one way for us to learn about your needs. Data for the analysis includes results from 7482 patients across 13 teaching clinics that completed the first survey. Keep sharing your ideas with us! If you have never been asked to complete one of the surveys, please make sure we have your email address on file. Your turn will come!
Click here to learn more.
To complement our work on patient experience survey measurement, we advanced a broader culture of data-driven improvement through the launch of CareCanvas in 2022 an interactive online dashboard that provides at-a-glance electronic medical record (EMR) information to support patient care. The design of this first dashboard was a collaborative process, guided by Audit & Feedback theory and user-centred design principles. In April 2023, CareCanvas+, the clinic-level dashboard, was rolled out to all DFCM teaching sites, marking a first in Ontario by integrating EMR data, ICES administrative data, and patient experience surveys. In parallel, development of an Ontario Health Team–level dashboard is ongoing to help identify population-level gaps in care. While these advances were made possible through grant funding and represent an exciting step forward, further CareCanvas development was paused due to unforeseen circumstances related to UTOPIAN, which provides EMR data for CareCanvas.
Led by Dr. Tara Kiran, OurCare is a national initiative that engaged nearly 10,000 people between 2022-2023 in conversations about the future of primary care. The initiative culminated in the creation of the OurCare Standard, a set of six aspirational elements that articulate what every person in Canada should expect from primary care. The OurCare Standard is now the basis for Ontario’s new Primary Care Act—a first-of-its-kind legislation in Canada.
While not solely a DFCM initiative, OurCare reflects the department’s commitment to patient engagement and system-level improvement, and through the DFCM’s Office of Health System Partnerships, it is being used to engage with Ontario as part of ongoing efforts to shape the future of primary care.
The COVID-19 pandemic required rapid adaptation to evolving guidelines, uncertainty, and new ways of working. During this period, significant progress was made in strengthening physician support and capacity across our family medicine network.
In April 2020, we launched the COVID-19 Community of Practice (CoP) with the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP). These bi-weekly virtual sessions quickly became a central forum for family physicians across Ontario to share expertise, innovations, and resources with up to 1,300 attendees per session. Now called the Changing the Way We Work Community of Practice, the series remains active five years later, consistently drawing more than 500 attendees, and will soon celebrate its 100th session, reflecting its sustained relevance and engagement.
The program’s impact was recognized nationally with the 2023 CFPC Continuing Professional Development Program Award In the 2024–2025 year alone, 8,504 participants attended 15 sessions, averaging 567 attendees per session, with the highest-attended session reaching 663 participants. Evaluation results demonstrate exceptional value: 98% of attendees reported that they value the overall experience, and 95% indicated that the content is relevant and applicable to their practice.
In May 2020, we partnered with the Centre for Effective Practice (CEP) to develop practical tools supporting a virtual-first approach to chronic disease management during
and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The first tool, launched in July 2020, focused on diabetes care and was nationally disseminated through Canadian Family Physician. Subsequent tools addressed virtual visit integration, alcohol use disorder, and youth mental health—areas significantly impacted by the pandemic.
In spring 2021, the Department collaborated with the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) to develop a free e-learning series to support the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Canada. The modules were designed to build knowledge and capability among family physicians and primary care professionals, serving as both a learning tool and an ongoing reference resource. Each module included interactive features, references, practical tools, reflective questions, and short videos from the COVID-19 Community of Practice for Family Physicians. Close to 5,000 family physicians and primary care professionals registered for the series, and over 470 evaluations highlighted its effectiveness in increasing participant confidence.
Recognizing the impact of the pandemic on physician wellness, we launched the Peers for Joy in Work program in the fall of 2023, training 32 Peer Guides to support colleagues in addressing burnout and rediscovering joy in practice. Evaluation of the inaugural cohort showed that both Peer Learners
and Peer Guides reported an increased likelihood of recommending family medicine as a career. Peer Learners also experienced greater validation, motivation, and joy at work, along with new strategies for managing work-life balance, while Peer Guides developed coaching skills they could apply to support colleagues in their own practice environments. The program is in the process of being transitioned to the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) for continuation at scale.
“Joyful experience! It was a well organized program where our well-being was addressed by our own peers through the creation of a cheerful environment, mindfulness and fitful schedule . ”
Dr. Erum Raheel, Family Physician, Scarborough (Peer Guide)
More recently, with the leadership from our CPD Program Director and the Office of Health System Partnership (OSHP), we introduced the First Five Years Community of Practice, which now supports more than 400 early-career physicians through clinical development, systems learning, and peer connection.
“I appreciate the ongoing support/community with the University of Toronto even after graduating. There are so many logistical questions that come up after residency - having the built-in sessions makes it a lot easier to have formal (and more importantly, informal) conversations about what others’ experiences are like in practice and normalizing my own experiences,” says one First Five Years CoP participant.
Quality improvement is a unifying focus across all 18 academic family medicine sites, underscoring a shared commitment to equitable, patient-centred care. Sites advance initiatives to improve access and outcomes in areas such as diabetes management, smoking cessation, incident reporting, and antimicrobial stewardship. Equity-focused projects address gaps in cancer screening and care for marginalized populations. For example, the team at St. Michael’s Hos-
pital has developed a team-based pathway to attach new patients to the Family Health Team, prioritizing those who identify as Black, Indigenous, living in precarious housing, or experiencing poverty.
Many sites also emphasize amplifying the patient voice. At Sunnybrook Family Health Team, the team has identified that despite the inclusion of a patient-engagement module in the quality improvement curriculum for residents, patient perspectives were still absent from resident-led projects. In response, they have implemented a change idea where all resident quality improvement projects would require the participation of a patient partner. This included an evaluative component where both residents and patient partners were able to provide feedback on their experience to ensure meaningful engagement moving forward.
Innovation is further driven by optimizing team-based models, workflow redesigns, and emerging technologies. Several sites—including Scarborough Family Medicine Teaching Unit, Women’s College Academic Family Health Team, and North York Family Health Team—have piloted an AI solution aimed at reducing after-hours charting and administrative burden. The trial has helped identify implementation barriers and engaged a subset of preceptors in testing the tool.
“I appreciate the ongoing support/community with the University of Toronto even after graduating . There are so many logistical questions that come up after residency - having the builtin sessions makes it a lot easier to have formal (and more importantly, informal) conversations about what others’ experiences are like in practice and normalizing my own experiences . ”
First Five Years CoP participant
One of the most persistent barriers has been the variation in resources available to support Q&I work at local DFCM sites. Academic sites differ in the amount of protected time faculty have for improvement initiatives, with clinical demands often leaving limited capacity to step back and focus on improving care delivery. This imbalance has required us to think strategically about how to build Q&I capacity while recognizing the realities of frontline practice.
The COVID-19 pandemic further tested our ability to advance Q&I. While our program had focused on using data to improve clinical quality of care indicators pre-pandemic, we recognized this was not a realistic focus even a few years into the pandemic due to physician burnout and overwhelm. In response, we pivoted to initiatives like the Peers for Joy in Work program, which addressed wellness directly and reinforced our commitment to supporting physicians in ways that met their most urgent needs. This experience highlighted the importance of flexibility and responsiveness in our programming.
Another major challenge has been sustaining CareCanvas. Following an exciting launch in 2022, the project was put on hold due to unforeseen circumstances that resulted in
the cessation of data flows from UTOPIAN, the database of records from which CareCanvas built its physician and clinic-facing dashboards. While this delay has slowed progress, it has also underscored the need for stronger alignment between data infrastructure and Q&I priorities to ensure longterm sustainability.
Finally, securing ongoing funding remains a critical issue as we approach the 10-year renewal of our Fidani Chair support. Continued investment is essential not only for maintaining our Q&I initiatives but also for sustaining patient engagement efforts, which have become a cornerstone of our approach. Strengthening and expanding this work will require careful planning to ensure that both faculty and patient partners have the support they need to remain meaningfully engaged. Our department leaders are actively partnering with the Temerty Faculty of Medicine Advancement team to seek out donor support that might allow permanent endowment of this critical work.
Together, these challenges have prompted us to adapt, innovate, and advocate for the resources necessary to sustain Q&I and patient engagement across the department. They also serve as reminders that building a culture of continuous improvement requires persistence, collaboration, and flexibility in the face of uncertainty.
Looking ahead, DFCM will deepen its commitment to evidence-informed practice and the advancement of equitable health outcomes for all. A central priority will be securing sustainable funding to support the Q&I Program and its longterm impact. In the last year, the program has also been pivoting from supporting practices to improve clinical quality of care for existing patients to supporting practices to optimize access and efficiency with the goal of ultimately being able to serve more patients. Optimizing practice teams to serve more patients and the public is critical in the context of over 2.5 million people in Ontario lacking access to primary care. We foresee opportunities to advance work in this area in collaboration with the Office of Health System Partnerships (OSHP) and Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team.
Through sustained partnerships and the integration of Q&I principles across education, research, and professional development, the department is well-positioned to champion safety, equity, and excellence—not only within the University of Toronto, but also as a national and global leader in primary care.
Bridging gaps, building meaningful connections, and sharing expertise with the goal of improving quality are central to the work of the Q&I program. We, of course, work closely with other programs within the DFCM and collaborate with partners across the Temerty Faculty of Medicine to align efforts and amplify impact.
We also continue to collaborate with numerous stakeholders, such as:
Provincial Partners
f The Centre for Effective Practice (CEP)
f Ontario Health (OH)
f Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP)
f The Primary Care Ontario Practice-based Learning and Research (POPLAR) Network
f The Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPs)
f The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC)
f Healthcare Excellence Canada (HEC)
f Research team from Université de Sherbrooke
f The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) Patient Partner Network
f Other Departments of Family Medicine
f University of California Department of Family Medicine’s Center for Primary Care Excellence in San Francisco, USA
f School of Public Health at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana
f Aga Khan University campus in Nairobi, Kenya
Deliberate effort has been made to establish and sustain international partnerships, recognizing that learning from global best practices, exchanging knowledge, and collaborating across diverse health systems strengthens our capacity to innovate, improve patient care, and advance equitable outcomes in primary care.
f Family Medicine Patient Advisory Committee & Patient Partner Pool
Our Program actively involves patients and family members through the Patient Advisory Committee and a pool of patient partners. These individuals provide vital insights, co-design initiatives, and participate in evaluating programs, ensuring that patient voices shape priorities and solutions for service improvement.
These partnerships have been instrumental in advancing the Q&I Program’s objectives. Through each relationship, our Program contributes expertise, co-creates meaningful initiatives, and leverages partner resources and perspectives to drive quality and innovation in family medicine over the past five years.
As part of the Department of Family and Community Medicine’s (DFCM) 2022–2027 Strategic Plan, a new leadership role was introduced: the Vice-Chair of Community and Partnerships. This role was created to deepen our commitment to social accountability and to foster meaningful, equity-focused collaborations across the health and social service sectors. Dr. Melanie Henry was appointed to this position in 2023.
The Vice-Chair of Community and Partnerships functions as a key member of the DFCM leadership team, actively contributing to strategic initiatives and working collaboratively across portfolios. Central to this role is the advancement of equity as a core departmental priority, the cultivation of interdisciplinary and inclusive culture, and the strengthening of DFCM’s global reputation and local social accountability efforts.
In leading Community and Partnerships initiatives, the ViceChair builds bridges across university departments and divisions, works closely with the Indigenous Leadership Circle (ILC), and has played a key role in establishing the
Black Health Advisory Table. Her responsibilities are closely aligned with the strategic plan’s commitments, including:
f Expanding community-based learning opportunities for medical learners
f Embedding equity and advocacy into the curriculum
f Building internal and external partnerships to support communities
f Enhancing DFCM’s presence across the University of Toronto and affiliated institutions
f Supporting initiatives such as the Summer Mentorship Program and the Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC)
f Collaborating with the Office of Health System Partnership (OHSP) and the ILC to improve access and attachment for underserved populations
The following pages highlight key work and partnerships that have been fostered through the addition of this role and reflect the strong value DFCM places on these collaborations as central to our mission and impact.
DFCM programs work collaboratively across all portfolios, fostering a culture of integration and shared purpose. This collaboration extends beyond departmental boundaries to include strong partnerships with the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, ensuring alignment with broader institutional priorities and leveraging resources for innovation and impact.
With the DFCM’s strategic vision to facilitate academic engagement, several structures have been established. The following highlights some key initiatives that support partnership and collaboration with: patients and families, Indigenous leaders, Black communities, and system policy makers.
As mentioned in the Q&I section, in 2021 the DFCM hired its first Patient Engagement Specialist, marking a significant milestone in our commitment to embedding patient voices. From the outset, our approach has been guided by a department-wide needs assessment, which shaped the strategic direction of patient engagement for the first three years. Patient engagement collaboration has extended to beyond the department to Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s extra departmental unit Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare and Education (CACHE), and beyond the University to national networks.
This year, we are celebrating the third anniversary of our Patient and Family Advisory Committee (PFAC), a first-of-itskind initiative at a department of family medicine. The PFAC was launched in 2022 and includes 16 members, representing almost all of our academic teaching clinics. With the creation of the PFAC it was determined that there were many more patient partners who wanted to work with the department, thus a much larger patient partner pool, currently 244 individuals strong, was formed. In addition to the PFAC, approximately 65 individuals from the pool are actively engaged in initiatives around the department.
View the Patient Engagement summary (2022-2025) by the numbers
Beyond the PFAC, patient partners from the broader pool have participated in a wide range of departmental activities, including the Digital Health Committee, the Starfield Summit, UPLEARN, the Physician Assistant Program, and resident quality improvement projects. Their involvement extends to leadership, where they have served on five selection committees and have attended four Executive Committee retreats to ensure patient voices are present. Patient partners have also shaped the DFCM Family Medicine Report
by helping determine which stories to highlight, and to build community, they launched a patient partner newsletter, now led by our patient partners, which reaches 344 subscribers with an impressive 88 per cent open rate.
Patient partners have also contributed to DFCM’s scholarly efforts. Between 2021 and 2025, they:
f co-authored five conference posters
f co-led four workshops
f supported the submission of a peer-reviewed manuscript.
Their work has been presented at
f International Congress on Academic Medicine (ICAM)
f Family Medicine Forum (FMF)
f Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS)
f North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG)
f DFCM Conference (2022, 2024, 2025)
f National forums such as the National Health Engagement Network and the Patient Engagement in Medical Education Network.
DFCM is an active member in the newly formed Patient Engagement in Health Professional Education Network, a national community of practice soon to be affiliated with Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. We are one of the few groups in Canada advancing patient engagement in postgraduate medical education. Our tools and resources are being shared nationally, and we are contributing to a collaborative toolkit on patient engagement in medical education.
In November 2025, DFCM patient partners will attend the Patient Voices Conference in Vancouver, which brings together leaders, faculty, and patients from across the country. DFCM will participate in three formats:
1. Lead a workshop on patient engagement in medical education
2. Contribute to a presentation on patient partner compensation practices in collaboration with the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare and Education
3. Co-present a poster on the patient engagement process in the formation of social accountability competencies
Through this network, our patient partners are also collaborating with colleagues at the University of Leeds (UK) and
the University of Maastricht (Netherlands) to co-develop an international toolkit on patient engagement in medical education. This resource will include practical guidance on recruitment, diversity, and evaluation.
To support faculty, learners, and staff, the Patient Engagement Specialist has provided 154 individual consultations since 2021. These consultations have addressed common topics such as recruitment, compensation, orientation, readiness, and evaluation, informing 44 new patient engagement initiatives across education, research, quality improvement, and global health.
Resource development has been another core focus for the patient engagement program. These resources include more than 12 tailored resources created to support both faculty and patient partners including:
f Patient Engagement Toolbox
f Compensation framework
f Onboarding and orientation materials
f Recruitment templates
f Clinical resources for patients
f Faculty-focused resources
f Patient-facing resources
While DFCM’s patient engagement program has achieved significant growth, several challenges have emerged alongside valuable lessons.
Many faculty members are interested in engaging patients but require time, tools, and constant support to move from intention to meaningful practice. Faculty readiness takes time and benefits from structured supports such as intake forms, compensation frameworks, guidelines, ongoing communication, and availability for consultation. Patient partners, many of whom are new to engagement in medical education and university settings, also have much to learn and require continued support. Having a dedicated Patient Engagement Specialist is critical to building trust, ensuring continuity, and supporting both patient partners and faculty.
Despite having a compensation framework that is strongly encouraged, institutional payment processes are not always flexible for patient partners, especially for individuals receiving disability benefits, which unintentionally limits diversity. We have found that it’s important to identify alternative forms of recognition, such as awards or providing food at events. Engaging underrepresented communities, such as individuals whose English is their second language or those from low-income backgrounds, requires tailored outreach methods, relationship-building over time, and inclusive practices. Some of the things that have helped us with high participation rates and hearing from patients with
Looking ahead, we hope to involve patient partners in more initiatives and to further expand their engagement within family medicine education. Patient partners bring more than just lived experience; their professional skills have greatly enhanced communications, education, evaluation, and project design across the department. To ensure long-term engagement and continuity, we are developing alumni pathways for PFAC members after their terms end.
different experiences and backgrounds are offering flexible meeting times, consulting patient partners about their availability when planning events, providing accommodations, and implementing inclusive onboarding practices.
Although our patient partner pool is diverse, there are still voices we need to capture, and many individuals remain missing from the table. Expanding our outreach and engagement efforts is essential to ensure these voices are heard and valued.
Over 250 individuals have applied to join the patient partner pool, demonstrating significant interest. Keeping the broader patient partner pool actively involved requires planning and available opportunities. Many patient partners in the DFCM pool remain less engaged with a desire to participate, due to limited available opportunities. Actively engaged patient partners have consistently emphasized that clear roles and expectations are essential for meaningful engagement, a message that has been echoed throughout patient partner evaluations.
A key challenge moving forward is securing sustainable funding for patient engagement, including the Patient and Family Engagement Specialist role and patient partner compensation. We are actively working with Advancement to explore grant opportunities, cost-recovery models, and other strategies to ensure long-term support.
Our commitment also includes continuing to co-develop tools and resources in collaboration with national networks to advance patient engagement in medical education more broadly. By partnering with other organizations, we aim to share best practices, standardize approaches, and foster innovation that benefits the broader healthcare education community.
Furthermore, we will consistently utilize post-initiative evaluations and feedback surveys to assess the effectiveness of our engagement strategies.
The Indigenous Leadership Circle (ILC) exists within the institutional contexts of the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and the University of Toronto. These institutions are located on lands that have been home to Indigenous peoples for millennia and are subject to national and international law regarding the rights of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis (FNIM) peoples, including but not limited to treaties.
Access to culturally safe primary care is a critical need for the more than 100,000 FNIM peoples living in Toronto and surrounding communities serviced by DFCM. As we draft this statement in 2025, we acknowledge the greater than 100,000 FNIM peoples living in the City of Toronto, one out of three of whom do not have a regular primary care provider. This situation is in tension with the Constitution of the World Health Organization, which states that: “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition” (The Right to Health, 2008).
DFCM, Temerty Medicine, and U of T have committed to advancing reconciliation and addressing anti-Indigenous racism in all that they do. They also have committed to an equity-oriented and socially accountable mission. These principles ought to inform all DFCM systems and operations across the core DFCM work of program accreditation, upholding duties to learners, advancing research and quality improvement excellence, and advancing the departmental strategic objectives.
Currently, DFCM aspirations towards systemically equitable and culturally safe systems are not yet matched with existing systems. The ILC is working to help ensure these gaps are addressed.
f Advance the social accountability of DFCM to First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and other Indigenous peoples and populations.
f Increase the tangible social value of DFCM activities for these communities.
f Align DFCM policies and activities with the principles of domestic law (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982), international law (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007), and Indigenous reconciliation policies and recommendations (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015; National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, 2019).
f Align the number of Indigenous faculty and learners with the size and needs of Indigenous populations.
f Address gaps in effective and culturally safe Indigenous primary care training opportunities, including patientand population-focused evaluation of these programs.
f Allocate departmental resources more effectively to meet the unmet needs of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis populations.
All decision-making and activities regarding and/or involving Indigenous peoples across the DFCM, unless otherwise delegated.
f Dedicated Indigenous Coordinator (under consideration in light of the new funding from the Indigenous Health Chair)
f Community Council (in development)
f DFCM Executive (see governance and leadership diagram)
f Rotate chairing responsibilities for meetings.
f Strive for consensus in decision-making, drawing on traditional Indigenous approaches to conflict resolution. If consensus cannot be reached, engage mutually trusted voices from outside the ILC to mediate further discussions.
f Ensure every member has the opportunity to share their views and perspectives, recognizing that everyone “holds a piece of the puzzle.”
f Prioritize Indigenous voices and perspectives in all discussions and decisions.
The ILC includes Indigenous and allied leaders from across the department:
f Dr. Suzanne Shoush – Indigenous Health Lead
f Dr. Janet Smylie – Indigenous Health Research Lead
f Dr. Sarah Park – Indigenous Health Education Lead
f Dr. Joel Voth – Indigenous Health Clinician
ALLY ROLES WITHIN THE ILC
f Dr. Katherine Rouleau — Director, WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care
f Dr. Danielle Martin – DFCM Chair
References:
CULTURAL SAFETY TRAINING FOR ALL RESIDENTS
All family medicine residents are now required to complete San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety modules during PGY1.
Collaboration with DFCM sites and leads on work relating to Indigenous communities, including:
f Supporting expansion to Barrie and Orillia sites
f Developing new curriculum, which includes Indigenous health
f Reviewing Indigenous health content within Planetary Health e-modules
f Collaborating with faculty on lectures related to Indigenous health
STRATEGIC PLANNING AND RECONCILIATION
Participated actively in the DFCM strategic planning process to ensure a focus on reconciliation and addressing anti-Indigenous racism throughout the department, emphasizing support for the self-determination of Indigenous health leaders and communities.
DATA COLLECTION AND IDENTITY VERIFICATION
Guiding processes for collecting data on Indigenous learners and staff, including developing a protocol for verifying identity statements.
Creating a clinical elective to enhance medical learner engagement with Indigenous communities in Toronto and Scarborough through Inner City Health Associates (ICHA) Indigenous clinics. The elective aims to foster learner development, build skills for working with Indigenous patients effectively, and improve access to high-quality care.
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, s 7, Part 1 of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c 11.
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019). Reclaiming power and place. The final report of the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. The National Inquiry. https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a-1.pdf
The Right to Health, Fact Sheet No. 31, (2008). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/Factsheet31.pdf
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action,” (2012). https://exhibits.library. utoronto.ca/items/show/2420
United Nations (General Assembly). (2007). Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
Liaise with learners and colleagues across DFCM, Temerty, and beyond (such at Royal College Indigenous Health leads) to advance equitable, safe healthcare for Indigenous peoples.
A $5 million gift will establish a permanent Chair tied to the Indigenous Health Lead role, strengthening the ILC’s leadership and sustainability. The ILC is currently working on plans to operationalize the gift, name the Chair, and establish priorities and the necessary staff supports.
The new Indigenous Health Space is intended to be a welcoming, safe space for learners and staff to gather for quiet study time, to share ideas and meet, form mentorship connections, and nurture relationships. Artist Shawn Howe was commissioned to paint beautiful murals in the space and within the DFCM office. All furnishings and carpets will be sourced from Indigenous creators/companies.
ILC members led a session on anti-Indigenous racism in healthcare, sharing strategies for cultural safety and systemic change
As Indigenous Health Faculty Lead and a recurring beneficiary of the Equity in Primary Care Fund, Dr. Shoush has advanced opportunities for Indigenous learners and improved health-care outcomes for Indigenous communities. Her initiatives include:
f Mentorship: Supporting Indigenous women entering family medicine and guiding them throughout their careers.
f Academic Excellence: Completing a master’s degree in mathematical modelling at the Institute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, focusing on disease and intervention spread.
f Community Partnerships: Collaborating with Indigenous leaders in Orillia and Midland to integrate local health learning opportunities.
f Curriculum Innovation: Developing an Indigenous health elective for family doctors in Toronto community clinics to enhance culturally safe care.
The ILC faces time and capacity constraints as members balance leadership roles, clinical work, and academic responsibilities. Coordinating initiatives and advancing new projects across a large department requires significant effort, and considering this work can be emotionally demanding, this must be also be considered when planning and supporting these efforts.
The Indigenous Health Enhanced Skills Program is currently in development. Envisioned as a one-year elective, the program aims to deepen family medicine residents’ expertise in working with and advocating for Indigenous communities. Initial steps include engaging with preceptors, clinics, and communities that are well-positioned to teach and host learners.
Work is underway to establish robust evaluation tools and metrics for assessing competency in Indigenous Health. Drafting of core competencies has begun to ensure that graduating students meet the expectations required for effective and respectful practice in Indigenous communities.
The Indigenous health space is nearing completion, with efforts focused on finalizing furnishings to create a welcoming and culturally safe environment.
Planning is in progress for the establishment of a Chair in Indigenous Health, including discussions around the allocation of funds and potential administrative support to sustain the role and its initiatives.
The Black Health Advisory Table (BHAT) was established in 2023, in alignment with the DFCM 2022–2027 Strategic Plan, under the Community priority.
Its purpose is to advance health in Black communities and advise the Department on ways to support Black faculty and learners. Specifically, the BHAT works with the Black Health Faculty Lead (BHFL) and the Vice-Chair of Communities and Partnership (VCCP) on matters regarding:
f Black data governance
f Black patient care
f Black community partnerships
f Black faculty, staff and medical learner recruitment, engagement and career trajectory.
f Creating community along with learning and sharing experiences
The Table consists of 48 members in total, including residents, DFCM faculty, clinical staff, allied health professionals, and administrative staff. It is led by:
f Co-Chairs Dr. Melanie Henry (Vice-Chair, Community and Partnerships) and Dr. Onye Nnorom (Black Health Faculty Lead).
f Executive members
Z Dr. Oare Samuel Alufohai (Faculty)
Z Sador Bereketab (Medical student)
Z Dr. Evonemo Esievoadje (Resident)
Z Dr. Aisha Lofters (Faculty)
Z Chantal Sorhaindo (Faculty)
Z Nkechi Ikeaba (Resident)
Z Nifemi Adeoye (Medical student)
The Table convenes four times annually, reflecting its commitment to shared leadership, accountability, and community engagement. Since its inception, BHAT has built a strong network of Black faculty, residents, learners, and staff, and has hosted regular meetings and events to foster community, mentorship, and strategic planning.
Early work focused on identifying broad priority areas, including Black data governance, mentorships, community partnerships, equitable patient care and access, education and representation, and visibility in hiring and leadership.
Since the establishment of the BHFL role in 2024, the BHAT has strengthened its internal organization by establishing an Executive Table and securing administrative support from DFCM staff.
BHAT advanced the mentorship pipeline by engaging with the Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario’s Network for the Advancement of Black Learners. The Table also expanded its role in research and system design, partnering with faculty leaders to build Black health research capacity, convening a provincial meeting of Black academic leaders to explore collaboration, presenting at international and national conferences, and exploring innovative projects such as the Afrocentric Seniors program.
In addition, BHAT hosted some special events throughout the year, including a session featuring Dr. Notisha Massaquoi as a keynote speaker on Black health research, and a collaborative planning event with the Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario at their annual Black health symposium.
The BHAT has actively engaged with partners across the department, university, and province. Notably, Dr. Notisha Massaquoi was invited to a special meeting to discuss Black health research. Dr. Massaquoi gave an inspiring keynote about her Black Health Equity Lab, which includes the phenomenal work that is being done to transform the quality of care and accessibility of safe care to Black folks with HIV.
The BHAT Co-Chairs have also met with the Black Medical Students’ Association (BMSA) to explore the development of a Black stream within the Family Medicine Longitudinal Experience (FMLE) program. This option, explored by BHAT and the MD Program, addresses the needs of the growing number of Black medical students at the University of To-
ronto who are curious about Black health, but also seeking some support and clinical mentorship.
At the provincial level, BHAT has engaged with several Black health organizations with a provincial or national mandate to address Black health. In May 2025, the Co-Chairs convened and participated in a provincial meeting of Black family medicine faculty, where consensus was reached on the importance of a unified network to support Black primary care physicians and learners. Engagement with organizations such as the Black Health Equity Lab, Ontario’s Black Health Plan Tri-Council leadership, Black Health Alliance, Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario, and the Black Health Education Collaborative reinforced the need for collaboration to ensure sustainability, mentorship capacity, and meaningful community-based research.
See BHAT’S one-year report from March 2025.
A key challenge was securing stable administrative and project coordination support. Recent improvements in administrative assistance have enabled BHAT to function more effectively, and of course long-term sustainability requires dedicated resources. Black health research, particularly in primary care or through data governance, are opportunities but require project coordination.
The BHAT aims to consolidate its leadership model and strengthen sustainability.
In the short term (2025-2026), priorities include redistributing responsibilities among the executive team and pursuing external funding opportunities through collaborations with academic and community partners.
In the long term (2026-2030), the BHAT seeks to secure funding for Black health leadership roles, expand research and mentorship capacity, and increase the recruitment, retention, and success of Black learners and faculty. Ultimately, the BHAT leadership is focused on ensuring long-term impact over the next five years and well into the future.
Introduction
The Office of Health System Partnerships (OHSP) is a solutions workshop within the DFCM.
Established in 2023, OHSP brings people together to solve complex problems, drawing on the collective expertise of 2,000+ academic family physicians, researchers, health system leaders, clinicians, learners, patients, and community partners to find bold, pragmatic solutions to strengthen primary care and improve the health of our communities.
Together, we are working toward a clear goal:
f Every person is attached to a responsive and highquality, publicly funded primary care team
f Every primary care team is designed in partnership with its community.
As a solutions workshop, we believe that by catalyzing practical, data-driven thought leadership, we can shift how healthcare systems work and how clinicians practice to improve the health of our communities.
Our work aligns with the following components of the DFCM strategic plan:
C1.2 Improve access and attachment for communities most in need of care by collaborating with partner organizations.
R.2.3 Through the work of the OHSP and beyond, strengthen supports for graduates in their first five years of practice by offering extended mentorship, as well as additional CPD in order to provide early career guidance that meets a variety of needs
R.2.3 Through the work of the OHSP and beyond, strengthen supports for graduates in their first five years of practice by offering extended mentorship, as well as additional CPD in order to provide early career guidance that meets a variety of needs
L.2.1 Develop and sustain the Office of Health System Partnerships (OHSP) to focus on a) Covid recovery
L.2.1 Develop and sustain the Office of Health System Partnership (OHSP) to focus on b) Attachment to primary care
L.2.1 Develop and sustain the Office of Health System Partnership (OHSP) to focus on c) Health Human Resource Planning
L.2.1 Develop and sustain the Office of Health System Partnership (OHSP) to focus on d) Primary Care Engagement
L.2.3 Strengthen inter-professionalism and enable progress towards purposeful integrated and effective teambased care including exploring partnerships for developing new roles for unregulated primary care workers such as scribes, community health workers, peer support workers and others to grow a fit for-purpose primary care workforce.
L.2.5 Establish the role of Global Lead within the OHSP reporting directly to the chair to foster and oversee the development, integration and dissemination of primary healthcare-related innovations, and play a lead convening role to set an agenda with global thought leaders.
Our areas of focus include initiatives that are relevant at the local, provincial, national and international levels, aimed at:
f Supporting healthy public policy through evidence synthesis, research and evaluation
f Engaging with patients and communities as well as the workforce that supports them
f Addressing care gaps and inequities for priority populations
f Supporting health human resources planning and new approaches to education of the future workforce
f Innovating in care delivery including through digital health and team-based care
Read the OHSP Temerty Fund Narrative Report.
The OHSP Team
LEADERSHIP
f Dr. Danielle Martin, Chair, DFCM
f Dr. Tara Kiran Vice-Chair, Quality and Innovation; Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation, DFCM
f Dr. Noah Ivers, OHSP Scientific Lead, Associate Professor, DFCM
FACULTY LEADS
f Dr. Ryan Banach. Family Medicine Early Career Supports Lead
f Dr. Ali N. Damji, Primary Care Collaborative Partnership Lead
f Dr. Rajesh Girdhari, Digital Health Lead
f Dr. Katherine Rouleau, Global Primary Healthcare Lead
f Jennifer Shuldiner, PhD, Evaluation Faculty Lead
f Dr. Jack Westfall, Senior Advisor, Health System Leadership
f Dr. Karen Weyman, Education Lead
f Dr. Catherine Yu, Engagement Lead
SUPPORT TEAM
f Sydney Pearce, PhD, OHSP Post-Doctoral Fellow
f Khalida Nasir, Research Officer
f Shantel Walcott, Program Manager
OHSP’S RELATIONSHIPS
f Ontario Health Toronto Region (OH-TR)
f Ontario Health (specifically the Primary Care Action Table)
f Canadian Medical Association (Healthcare Unburdened Grant program)
f Ontario College of Family Physicians
HEALTH SYSTEM LEADERSHIP AND ENGAGING PRIMARY CARE PROVIDERS IN TORONTO (LEADS: DR. DANIELLE MARTIN AND DR. CATHERINE YU)
The OHSP plays an increasingly prominent role in health system leadership and family physician engagement to support primary care planning, improved access and attachment to comprehensive primary care and other local priorities for improving care delivery. As the regional primary care lead for Toronto, the OHSP is instrumental in shaping the city’s annual primary care workplan, providing strategic direction, and ensuring that priorities reflect the evolving needs of our community.
The OHSP also supports enhanced preparedness for Toronto’s respiratory illness season by strengthening the integration of the primary care and public health sector needs in strategic planning, vaccine program coordination, and community engagement.
This year, the OHSP led the first primary care census of family doctors/nurse practitioners in the City of Toronto to better understand the current physician supply and support local human resource and capacity planning in the city. Launched in February 2024, the initiative received 1,000+ responses by March 31, 2025, with a governance advisory table established to guide ongoing regional database maintenance. The results of the survey will support primary care planning relevant to provider supply, practice characteristics, and recruitment factors to inform Ontario Health Team (OHT) development and regional clinician engagement. Lessons from this initiative will also guide future primary care censuses and health human resource planning, with preliminary results already shared with provincial leaders at Ontario Health to support broader planning efforts.
NEW FAMILY PHYSICIANS (LEADS: DR. RYAN BANACH, DR. ALI DAMJI, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE QUALITY AND INNOVATION
Mentorship improves retention in family medicine by fostering professional development, enhancing job satisfaction, mitigating burnout, and building strong collegial relationships. It offers guidance on navigating clinical and organizational challenges and creating a supportive environment.
We are now entering our third year of offering the First Five Years Community of Practice. This monthly online series is designed for new University of Toronto graduates, U of T faculty, and Toronto-based family physicians in their first five years of family medicine. Offered for free, the sessions are engaging, highly practical, and provide valuable expertise from both speakers and peers. Each session is fully accredited for 1.5 Mainpro+ credits (totalling 13.5 credits).
So far, we have delivered 18 sessions, with 30–90 attendees per session, covering a wide range of topics including the use of AI scribes in clinical practice, inbox management and forms, as well as financial planning and incorporation.
COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY MEDICINE LOCUM OPPORTUNITIES
Locum opportunities play a vital role in family medicine by addressing physician shortages, maintaining continuity of care, and providing temporary coverage during leaves, retirements, or vacations. For physicians, locuming offers clinical variety, the chance to explore potential practice locations, and flexibility to support work-life balance and personal pursuits. These roles also support physician retention and help bridge healthcare gaps, particularly in rural and underserved communities.
Now in its third year of operation, the Family Medicine Jobs and Locum Opportunities website and newsletter continue to support new family physicians in their daily work as comprehensive family physicians. OHSP will continue to promote this service among job posters and new graduates.
Welcome packages play a key role in helping new family physicians transition smoothly into their practice and community by reducing overwhelm, fostering connection, and supporting both emotional wellbeing and professional success. These packages typically include essential information about the clinic, operational procedures, and the local area, helping physicians settle in quickly. They also support orientation with tips on billing, documentation, and efficiency, and facilitate team integration by introducing colleagues and assigning a peer mentor for ongoing support. By providing structured guidance and a warm welcome, these packages encourage engagement, demonstrate organizational support, and help new physicians feel valued and connected.
To provide a central hub for these important resources for early-career physicians, our website now hosts welcome packages for OHTs in the Toronto Region.
Learner feedback has identified challenges in understanding the various practice models that family doctors work in, the complexity of how Family Health Teams work alongside these practice models, and now the introduction of Ontario Health Teams. Questions about compensation, administrative burden and leadership opportunities were also prevalent in student feedback.
To address these needs, the OHSP, in collaboration with DFCM’s Clerkship Undergraduate Education Program, developed a new seminar that will expose learners to the real-world application of health system leadership in family medicine.
This new “Family Medicine in the Health System” seminar will play a crucial role in laying the groundwork for the other components of the MD curriculum by contextualizing the essential role of family medicine in the health system through practical examples and first-hand reports from practicing primary care leaders influencing policy in Ontario. This foundational knowledge will help learners appreciate and be better equipped to navigate the broader context in which patient care occurs.
This optional seminar is now offered at the beginning of Year 3 of the family medicine rotation.
The Family Medicine in the Health System seminar addresses the following topics:
f The role of family doctors within the healthcare system
f Funding models in primary care
f Addressing the reality of the FM crisis in a historical context
f Primary care reform/Innovations (i.e., what is being done to fix the system?)
f Highlighting the opportunities for leadership in an FM career
DR. CATHERINE YU)
The OHSP, together with health system partners, is supporting the implementation and evaluation of AutoScribe, a Canadian AI scribe technology for transcribing patient-clinician conversations in real time and enhancing medical record documentation. To date, the project has deployed 200+ AI Scribe licenses with 75+ offered exclusively to DFCM faculty members.
OHSP’s evaluation aims to explore the effectiveness of AI scribes in Ontario. It will assess physician perceptions of AI scribe accuracy and reliability, and evaluate the impact on perceived physician burnout, satisfaction with clinical interactions, clinical efficiency, as well as perceived patient satisfaction with encounters, experience, and quality of communication.
DIGITAL HEALTH ENGAGEMENT AND ADVOCACY (LEAD: RAJESH GIRDHARI)
This year, the DFCM Digital Health Education Subcommittee collaborated with the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM) Education Committee Faculty Affiliate to develop and distribute a faculty resource for teaching in an AI-enabled context. The committee is also in the process of planning a Faculty Needs Assessment relevant to AI in Clinical Practice.
MAKING PRIMARY CARE FOR ALL A REALITY: A SERIES OF ONTARIO POLICY BRIEFS (LEADS: DR. DANIELLE MARTIN, DR. TARA KIRAN, DR. NOAH IVERS)
The OurCare Standard outlines six aspirational elements that reflect Canadians’ collective vision for a sustainable, high-quality, and equitable primary care system. These elements were developed through extensive public engagement, including surveys, panels, and roundtables, and serve as a guide for future government investments in primary care.
With Ontario’s recent commitment of $1.8 billion over four years to ensure every resident has access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner supported by a publicly funded team, the province is taking a major step toward realizing the first element of the OurCare Standard. This initiative will be led by Dr. Jane Philpott’s Primary Care Action Team (PCAT) and will require collaboration across the entire health system.
To support this transformation, a series of OHSP briefs will offer practical, evidence-informed steps to help implement the OurCare Standard. These briefs aim to provide actionable guidance for improving access and quality in primary care, using the Standard’s six elements as a framework. The goal is to create a roadmap that aligns with the aspirations of Canadians and enables rapid, coordinated action across government, healthcare organizations, and communities. By organizing policy topics around themes of sustainability, quality, and equity, the briefs will help ensure that Ontario’s primary care system evolves in a way that truly reflects the needs and values of its people.
In 2025, we’ve developed the following policy briefs:
f Retain existing clinicians practicing comprehensive longitudinal primary care
f Expand the capacity of doctors and teams to serve more people
f Patient access to health records
f Promoting a primary care system that is accountable to communities
f Recruit more early-career clinicians into primary care
SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF INTERPROFESSIONAL PRIMARY CARE TEAMS (IPCTS) (LEADS: DR. NOAH IVERS, DR. JENNIFER SHULDINER, DR. SYDNEY PEARCE)
In response to staffing shortages and limited access to primary care in Ontario, particularly within equity-deserving populations, the Ontario government has invested $90 million to establish and expand Interprofessional Primary Care Teams (IPCTs). The IPCT model includes family health.
To ensure the success and scalability of this model, OHSP conducted a large-scale evaluation to examine how high-performing or “bright-spot” IPCTs have achieved rapid improvements in access, attachment, and equity. This study is now in its second year.
The objectives are to:
f Determine whether the teams improved access and attachment to primary care, especially for equitydeserving communities, without negative effects on other metrics related to quality of care (impact evaluation)
f Understand how and why the new primary care teams achieved different outcomes and establish a generalized logic model and series of context-specific logic models; to inform a toolkit and measurement guide for spread and scale (process evaluation)
f Provide data and insights to teams and government partners to identify and share best practices across teams on an ongoing basis (developmental evaluation)
GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AND COLLABORATION
(LEAD: DR. KATHERINE ROULEAU)
Building on decades of global collaboration and its long-standing partnership with Addis Ababa University, the DFCM hosted the Starfield Summit Toronto 2025 from May 12–15. To our knowledge, this was the first time the Summit was held outside of the United States. The initiative was led by Drs. Katherine Rouleau and Praseedha Janakiram (Program Director Global Health Education) with support from Dr. Jack Westfall. The Summit focused on the vital role of family medicine in enhancing PHC-oriented health systems and brought together 92 participants from 23 countries and six WHO regions. Experts from various disciplines including nursing, pharmacy, rehabilitation sciences, and patient advocacy joined forces to explore how family medicine can drive better health system performance globally.
Read more about the Starfield Summit
MP3 COLLABORATIVE
Since 2024, the OHSP has participated as the sole Canadian member of the MP3 Collaborative hosted by the American Board of Family Medicine. The group consists of approximately 11 healthcare systems representing 15.6 million patients. It has focused on sharing strategies to tackle common challenges in primary care. Central to their efforts are four interconnected concepts: access, attachment, continuity of care, and team-based care, which are essential components of a high-performing health system.
Drs. Noah Ivers, Jennifer Shuldiner, and Sydney Pearce are also leading a collaborative study with MP3, which aims to systematically identify and compare emerging strategies that improve access and empanelment, focusing on changes in team composition, scheduling innovations, and workforce integration. It will explore barriers and facilitators to balancing access, quality, and patient attachment, while assessing the perceived success of these initiatives from the perspective of primary care leaders. The findings will offer valuable insights for policymakers and healthcare leaders, helping to guide future improvements and promote the dissemination of effective practices across health systems.
OHSP will continue to play a pivotal role in system thought leadership as the regional primary care lead, supporting the implementation of innovative practices across Toronto. We’ll also expand practice supports for early-career physicians to help them establish sustainable and effective care models.
At the provincial level, the OHSP will continue to provide thought leadership to inform government discussions and policy development related to primary care in Ontario. The OHSP will provide recommendations to the province to support their efforts in achieving their strategic goals relevant to:
f Develop an implementation plan for primary care objectives
f Develop a primary care workforce strategy
f Develop a monitoring and evaluation plan for Primary Care
Additionally, the team is actively working to strengthen relationships with key professional organizations such as the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP), the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), and other groups committed to improving primary care and supporting physician well-being.
Nationally, the OHSP will continue to offer strategic insights to guide primary care policy debates and reforms. The team is also committed to ensuring that primary care models reflect the needs and values of the communities they serve.
Internationally, the OHSP will continue to support the World Health Organization’s efforts to develop evidence-informed policy guidance for implementing primary healthcare-oriented systems. The team is also committed to supporting global knowledge exchange and collaboration to enhance the implementation and delivery of high-quality, PHC-oriented primary care and family medicine.
In addition to its operational and strategic efforts, the OHSP will focus on expanding the visibility and impact of our initiatives and scholarly activities. This includes enhancing brand awareness and promoting the dissemination of knowledge generated from our projects.
The Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) faculty plays a pivotal role in shaping family medicine leadership locally, nationally, and internationally. Our faculty actively contribute to policy, education, and research through representation on numerous committees, councils, and professional organizations. These collaborations strengthen academic family medicine and advance patient care across Ontario and beyond.
Our faculty and learners have active academic work underway in partnership with many of the other clinical departments within the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, every Extra-Departmental Unit (EDU), and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Just a few examples (many of which are described in more detail in this report) include:
COGNATE DEPARTMENTS:
f Pediatrics: We collaborate through the Lawson Centre for Childhood Nutrition, which focuses on advancing research and programs to improve child health and nutrition outcomes.
f Anaesthesia: We work together to support access to rural anaesthesia through a joint leadership appointment and educational and policy/advocacy initiatives.
f Internal Medicine and its Subspecialties: Through the Office of Health System Partnerships, we are exploring integrated care pathways and central intake models to reduce wait times for specialty care in partnership with the new Chair of the Department of Medicine. Joint divisions and partnerships are active in Palliative Care, Emergency Medicine, Hospitalist Medicine, and Mental Health and Addictions.
f Psychiatry: We have extensive joint clinical and academic work through our core clinical site at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH) and our Division of Mental Health and Addictions, as well as the STOP program that supports smoking cessation in primary care.
f Obstetrics and Gynecology: Through our Maternity Care Community of Practice and the PGY3 program in Women’s Health, we collaborate on a wide range of education initiatives.
f Rehabilitation Science: Partnerships are in early stages as we explore opportunities related to interprofessional team-based primary care reforms underway in Ontario and global work through the World Rehabilitation Alliance.
f Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS): partnerships with our Quality and Innovation program are described in the Q&I section of this report. Our Chair Dr. Danielle Martin conducted the external review of this EDU.
f Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM): Dr. Martin sits on the governance advisory board of T-CAIREM.
f Wilson Centre: The Wilson Centre sits at the nexus of Temerty’s education community and advances the sciences of education. Dr. Cynthia Whitehead is the Director of the Wilson Centre and OES Scientist. OES team members are members of the Wilson Centre including several scientists and scholars; DFCM collaborates closely with the community to advance evidence informed education cross all of the DFCM portfolios.
f Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health, and Sustainable Care: DFCM is the administrative home within Temerty Medicine for this Centre, and many of the education initiatives within it are being led by our faculty members. Read an update on the Collaborative Centre from the 2025 Executive Committee Meeting
DALLA LANA SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH:
We are a close partner in delivering all our Master’s programs through our Academic Fellowships and Graduate Studies program. Our new Division of Clinical Public Health will serve as the foundation for deeper collaborations. Many of our research faculty hold cross-appointments with DLSPH, where they teach, supervise graduate students, and actively contribute to its work—particularly through the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation.
We have formal relationships with 18 affiliated teaching sites that provide comprehensive clinical training. View site reports
Each of our programs collaborates with external partners to deliver high-quality education and research. Explore program partnerships.
f Undergraduate Partners
f Postgraduate Partners
f Graduate Studies and Academic Fellowships Partners
f Faculty Development Partners
f Education Scholarships
f Research Partners
f Quality and Innovation Partners
CFPC represents over 47,000 members and sets national standards for family medicine education and certification. It reviews and certifies continuing professional development programs and materials that enable family physicians to meet certification and licensing requirements. Current priorities include expanding residency positions, reducing administrative burden, and promoting team-based care. DFCM faculty have held leadership roles on governance, ethics, and faculty development committees.
OCFP supports more than 18,000 family physicians and learners in Ontario through education, advocacy, and leadership development. Key initiatives focus on improving access through team-based care, leveraging technology to reduce administrative tasks, and collaborating on programs like Practicing Well webinars with DFCM.
Community Health Centres (CHCs) are comprehensive, community-governed primary healthcare organizations that deliver health and social services through interprofessional teams. With a strong focus on health equity, population health, and preventive care, CHCs primarily serve populations that face barriers to accessing care in other settings.
The DFCM is committed to expanding community-based learning opportunities and optimizing health outcomes by embedding family medicine residents and medical students in CHCs. This approach enhances learners’ exposure to diverse communities and deepens their understanding of socially accountable medicine.
DFCM currently has two formalized CHC teaching sites with the Scarborough CHC and Flemingdon Health Centre and we hope to expand. To advance this vision, we have launched an Academic CHC Project, which aims to:
f Transform CHCs into academic centres affiliated with DFCM hospital teaching sites
f Ensure consistent placement of residents and medical students in CHCs
f Evaluate and monitor learner experiences at teaching site-affiliated CHCs
We have collaborated with the Advancement Team to seek funding for this initiative, including submitting a Letter of Interest to the Gloria Baylis Foundation. These efforts reflect
our ongoing commitment to community engagement and to building a strong, equitable primary care system.
Although not all formal partnerships, currently, five of 18 teaching sites host learners who rotate through CHCs. Experiences range from short-term specialized clinic visits to full-time daily clinical placements, providing exposure to diverse communities and socially accountable care.
Faculty Leadership
f Dr. Melanie Henry
f Dr. Jennifer Rayner
f Dr. Catherine Yu
Notable Projects
f Handbook for CHCs
Becoming an Academic CHC
Authors: Dr. Jennifer Rayner and Dr. Melanie Henry
Panel Presentation
Academic CHCs at Alliance Executive Leaders Meeting
October 24, 2024 Panellists: Dr. Melanie Henry, Dr. Avnish Mehta, and Dr. Jennifer Rayner
ALLIANCE FOR HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES
The DFCM began its partnership with the Alliance for Healthier Communities in March 2023, holding its first official meeting on May 24, 2023. Through this relationship, DFCM and the Alliance work together to expand learner placements, share best practices, and build capacity within CHCs to advance a model of socially accountable care.
Our collaboration with the Alliance allows us to:
f Explore the CHC learning experience through educational scholarship
f Educate CHC executives and managers about the unique requirements of medical learners to support increased learner presence in local CHCs
f Partner with CHCs to collaborate on academic projects and dissemination
FLEMINGDON HEALTH CENTRE AND MICHAEL GARRON HOSPITAL
Lead Faculty: Dr. Catherine Yu
Overview and Relationship with DFCM
Flemingdon CHC has been taking on leaners from the DFCM since its inception 50 years ago and has been regularly taking learners from Michael Garron Hospital Teaching Site for quite some time. In the spring of 2022, Dr. Martin initiated discussions to strengthen connections between Flemingdon Health Centre and Michael Garron Hospital’s Family Medicine Teach-
ing Unit. The collaboration focuses on providing learners with exposure to equity-deserving communities in Flemingdon and Thorncliffe Park, while supporting integrated care models.
Learner Participation
Each year, the site hosts approximately seven postgraduate family medicine residents and six to seven medical students, offering robust clinical experiences in community-based care.
Faculty Involved
Drs. Allyson Merbaum, Melanie Henry and Kulamakan (Mahan) Kulasegaram have contributed to scholarly work examining family medicine learner experiences in CHCs including, Flemingdon. Their research aims to expand opportunities for learners to develop competencies in caring for complex populations.
Notable Projects
The primary scholarly output from this partnership is featured in the ICAM 2025 abstract, and FMF 2025 Poster Abstract, which explores family medicine learner experiences in CHCs and informs strategies for expanding community-based education.
SCARBOROUGH CENTRE FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES (SCHC) AND SCARBOROUGH HEALTH NETWORK— OFFICIAL CHC TEACHING SITE
Lead Faculty: Dr. Avnish Mehta
Overview and Relationship with DFCM
Our formal partnership with SCHC began in 2023. This collaboration has strengthened academic integration by formalizing processes and encouraging new physicians to seek DFCM appointments. SCHC now has the IT infrastructure and streamlined onboarding systems needed to support medical learners.
Learner Participation
At any given time, two DFCM residents are consistently placed at SCHC. In addition, several medical students have completed family medicine electives at the site, providing exposure to community-based care.
Faculty Involved
Currently, four faculty members are engaged in teaching and supervising learners at SCHC.
Future Plans
The goal is to expand faculty presence and increase the number of residents. By July 2026, SCHC plans to host three residents, with one at each of its main sites.
Lead Faculty: Dr. Karen Fleming
Overview and Relationship with DFCM
Vibrant and Sunnybrook officially came together on April 1, 2025. Since then, DFCM has worked closely with Vibrant, Sunnybrook, and the North Toronto Ontario Health Team (NT-OHT) to conceptualize the development of a second Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) in addition to the one at Sunnybrook. This FMTU would be embedded within Vibrant to provide learners access to a different model of care and improve services for equity-deserving populations. The Vibrant Women’s Health Clinic also offers prenatal care, further enhancing community health services.
Learner Participation
Learners have been engaged at Vibrant CHC since our launch of the Women’s Health Clinic at Vibrant in May 2023. Currently, the site hosts a weekly family practice resident, and clinical clerks attend RAAM (Rapid Access Addiction Medicine) clinics during their Family Medicine block rotations.
Notable Projects and Collaborations
f Women’s Health Clinic – Provides prenatal care and serves as a training site for learners.
f RAAM Clinic Integration – Clinical clerks participate in addiction medicine care during rotations.
f Faculty Leadership in Addiction Medicine – Dr. Stephanie Zhou supervises family medicine residents and supports RAAM clinic learning.
f Interprofessional Collaboration – Tom Nguyen (Social Work/Mental Health Navigator) contributes expertise in mental health navigation during Monday evening clinics.
f Future Plans – Exploring the integration of an addiction medicine clinic within the Family Health Team to expand services and learning opportunities.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE HOSPITAL FOR THE REFUGEE HEALTH PRIMER
The Crossroads Clinic at Women’s College Hospital (WCH) is dedicated to serving refugee populations in the Greater Toronto Area and regularly receives inquiries from clinicians seeking guidance on managing unfamiliar medical needs and navigating the healthcare system for refugee patients.
In response to these inquiries, the Refugee Health Primer was developed—a one-day educational event designed to equip primary care clinicians and medical learners with practical skills and knowledge to care for newcomers and
refugees. With an objective on increasing the number of primary care providers comfortable with accepting refugees into their practices, this event brings together leaders in refugee health and fosters collaboration among providers committed to health equity.
View the 2024 Refugee Primer poster for the DFCM Conference
This educational partnership provides medical learners— both residents and medical students—with clinical opportunities to understand and deliver care for people experiencing homelessness. Through these placements, learners gain firsthand experience in addressing complex health needs and navigating systemic challenges faced by marginalized populations.
This educational partnership supports medical learners by providing access to an online platform and collaborative academic half-day sessions. These sessions help residents understand health-harming legal needs, learn how to make appropriate legal referrals, and connect patients with community resources. Through this initiative, learners gain practical knowledge to address social determinants of health and advocate for patients facing legal challenges that impact their wellbeing.
Introduction
In 2022, DFCM’s Office of Health System Partnerships (OHSP) partnered with Ontario Health – Toronto Region (OH-TR) to implement a new model of health system leadership. Rather than appointing a single-family physician as regional primary care lead, OH-TR engaged DFCM OHSP to provide strategic leadership under Dr. Danielle Martin and Dr. Catherine Yu. Together, they guide primary care planning and regional engagement through a multi-level model that integrates strategy with implementation across the Toronto Region.
Over the past three years, this collaboration has enabled significant progress on health human resources planning, primary care supports, and partner engagement. The OHSP works closely with OH-TR leadership to co-develop annual workplans that address key health system priorities, highlighted below.
See the Ontario Health Toronto Region Workplan.
ESTABLISHED REGIONAL ENGAGEMENT STRUCTURES FOR PRIMARY CARE SYSTEM LEADERSHIP
f Establishing and co-chairing the Primary Care Strategic and Operational Leadership Tables, which brought together OHT and Primary Care Network (PCN) leaders to align efforts across COVID recovery, health human resources (HHR), patient attachment, and OHT-based primary care engagement.
f Leading extensive engagement with eight OHTs to surface local priorities and readiness, catalyzing early dialogue around PCN development and models of team-based care.
Ontario Health (OH) is the provincial agency that oversees and coordinates Ontario’s healthcare system. Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) are local networks of healthcare providers supported by Ontario Health, working together to deliver integrated, patientcentered care in specific regions. The Ontario Health Toronto Region (OHTR) is one of six regional branches of Ontario Health.
FROM COLLABORATIVE DESIGN TO COORDINATED ACTION: BUILDING HIGH-FUNCTIONING PCNS WITHIN OHTS ACROSS TORONTO
In 2023-24, the DFCM OH-TR partnership transitioned from early engagement to coordinated, multi-partner execution. With priorities co-developed and aligned across OHTs, DFCM faculty—led by Dr. Catherine Yu—took on a more central role in guiding strategy implementation. The work plan reflected a mature collaboration that combined provincial direction with local intelligence and leveraged growing trust among system partners. This included not only bilateral work with individual OHTs, but also regular convening of cross-regional PCN and human health resources (HHR) leaders to build shared approaches and troubleshoot challenges collectively. This work laid the foundation for the more formalized coordination structures that would take shape in 2025-26.
Key focus areas in 2023-24 included:
f Structural Integration of Primary Care into OHTs: Dr. Yu provided guidance to help embed primary care within OHT governance.
f Localized Solutions Through PCNs: DFCM leaders worked closely with OHTs to strengthen Primary Care Networks (PCNs) as vehicles for clinical integration and population-based planning.
f Collaborative HHR Planning: Through partnerships with the Canadian Health Workforce Network and OH Analytics, the team co-developed regional methodologies to identify high-needs areas, inform comprehensive HHR plans, and expand capacity in OHTs.
f Enabling access to primary care: The DFCM OHSP established the Family Medicine Jobs and Locum
Opportunities platform to connect new graduates with employment opportunities across Ontario.
f Analyzing and Synthesizing Evidence-Based Attachment Strategies for PCNs: The Attachment Best Practices Report (August 2023), co-developed by DFCM-OH Toronto Region, informed and enhanced the effectiveness of Primary Care Networks (PCNs).
f Supporting Community-Based Family Physicians: Launched in summer 2023, the Family Medicine Community Longitudinal Leadership Enrichment Opportunity (FM CLLEO) offers early medical learners hands-on experience in family medicine while helping community physicians address preventative care backlogs using EMR data.
CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF PCNS AND ESTABLISHMENT OF A
Key focus areas in 2024-25 included:
f Establishing a Primary Care Census and database for the Toronto Region: The primary care census, launched in February 2024, gathered 1,088 responses and established a governance advisory table to support ongoing database maintenance and primary care planning.
f Toronto Region Primary Care Network Community of Practice: In response to feedback from regional primary care leaders, the DFCM established a PCN community of practice to develop a collaborative strategy for connecting all Torontonians to primary care within three to five years.
Regional Readiness to Embrace Transformative
The region’s embrace of a new primary care leadership model reflects its commitment to innovation, enabling the DFCM–OHTR partnership to develop creative solutions and address complex challenges.
DFCM OHSP’s ability to unite diverse expertise and leverage specialist networks strengthens collaboration, enables efficient task allocation, and drives innovative, comprehensive solutions for primary care challenges.
As an academic department, we provide a trusted, impartial platform for collaboration that fosters open dialogue, mitigates conflicts, and supports equitable, evidence-based primary care planning and delivery.
To achieve meaningful and lasting impact, local innovation must be supported by broader policy, funding, and structural enablers. Without alignment at higher levels of the system, local progress risks being isolated, unsustainable, or unable to scale. Recognizing this, we have actively engaged regional and provincial leaders at Ontario Health and beyond, ensuring our work is informed by—and connected to—emerging provincial directions. Wherever possible, we align our local initiatives with system-level strategies to maximize relevance, mitigate risk, and contribute to broader transformation.
OHTs and PCNs are at varying stages of development, which adds complexity to regional coordination and implementation efforts. Moving forward requires a flexible, relationship-based approach that respects each group’s unique context—often described as “moving at the pace of trust.” This approach emphasizes the importance of meaningful engagement, building strong partnerships, fostering mutual understanding, and creating shared accountability, ensuring that system transformation is both inclusive and sustainable.
All of these lessons will inform our work by reinforcing a team-based approach and, where appropriate, actively engaging frontline primary care leaders or guiding them on when and how to engage directly.
All of these lessons will inform our work by reinforcing a team-based approach and, where appropriate, actively engaging frontline primary care leaders or guiding them on when and how to engage directly.
As one of the largest departments of family and community medicine in the world, and a designated World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care, the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) is uniquely positioned to foster meaningful global relationships. Guided largely by our Global Health team, we actively collaborate with international partners to advance primary care, strengthen health systems, and support capacity-building initiatives across diverse contexts.
Efforts are made to anchor all global health activities in partnerships that reflect our emphasis on building community, nurturing relationships, and fostering leadership—always in alignment with the DFCM Strategic Plan wherever possible. These partnerships embody our commitment to equity, knowledge exchange, and the shared goal of improving health outcomes worldwide.
Hosted by the Office of the Vice-President International at University of Toronto, the Africa Health Education Collaborative (AHC) aims to enhance primary healthcare across Africa through workforce education, entrepreneurship, and innovation. As part of this initiative, the DFCM collaborates with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology’s School of Public Health (KNUST SPH) in Ghana to co-create and deliver short courses on critical topics, including:
f Palliative Care
f Quality Improvement for Health Professionals
f Prehospital Emergency Care
f Community Emergency Care
f Emergency Preparedness and Response to EpidemicProne Diseases
Now in its third iteration, the Collaborative has equipped primary care practitioners with enhanced education and expertise in one of the five focus areas, strengthening capacity for high-quality care and emergency response.
Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration in Family Medicine (TAAAC-FM)
Through the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration in Family Medicine (TAAAC-FM), the DFCM works closely with Addis Ababa University (AAU) in Ethiopia to strengthen medical training and education. The primary goal of this partnership is to develop and sustain Ethiopia’s first family medicine training program, which was inaugurated in 2013.
This collaboration focuses on four key areas: delivering education offerings for AAU family medicine trainees, preparing DFCM faculty for partnership work, fostering faculty development and leadership at AAU, and advancing scholarship, mentorship, and knowledge sharing.
The impact of this partnership has been significant. Over the past 12 years, more than 35 teaching trips have been delivered by DFCM faculty through TAAAC-FM. Today, over 100 family doctors have graduated from Ethiopian residency programs, and 10 AAU faculty members now lead the Department of Family Medicine at AAU.
The Advancing Women’s Excellence in Family Medicine (AWE-FM) program is designed to equip participants with critical leadership skills that support their professional growth and advancement in family medicine. It also fosters collaboration to address the unique challenges faced by emerging women leaders worldwide.
This initiative features a six-module online program, co-created by an international steering committee.
The program is co-chaired by Dr. Praseedha Janakiram and Dr. Thuy-Nga (Tia) Pham, alongside an esteemed group of international collaborators:
f Mrs. Jamie Rodas (Canada)
f Dr. Meseret Zerihun – Family Physician, Souther= Africa; Former Department Head, Department of Family Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
f Dr. Baraa Alghalyini – Vice Dean, College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Saudi Arabia
f Dr. Hathaitip Tumviriyakul – Head of Social Medicine Department, Hatyai Regional Hospital, Thailand
f Dr. Orawan Tawaytibhongs – Deputy Director, Bureau of Primary Care Support, Ministry of Public Health; Director of Khaoyoi Hospital, Petchaburi, Thailand
Through these partnerships, AWE-FM exemplifies DFCM’s commitment to global collaboration and leadership development in family medicine.
The DFCM maintains a strong and longstanding relationship with the World Health Organization as a designated WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care. This status reflects our global leadership in advancing primary care and our commitment to supporting WHO’s mission of strengthening health systems worldwide. Through this collaboration, we contribute expertise, research, and educational resources that inform global policy and practice in family medicine.
The DFCM also follows the WHO’s definition of “principles of equity and social accountability” for medical schools.
That definition is: the obligation to direct their education, research and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region, and/or nation they have a mandate to serve.
Refer to the Global Health Education section for a detailed overview of the scholarly work, courses, and activities we undertake in partnership with WHO.
The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) invited DFCM to collaborate on developing resources that advance advocacy and policy transformation for high-quality primary care worldwide.
A planning meeting took place during WONCA World in Lisbon, where partners refined the framework for this collaboration. This initiative reflects DFCM’s commitment to global health through partnerships that strengthen family medicine via education, research, and advocacy, and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with WONCA on this work.
Read more about DFCM’s showing at WONCA 2025
f National University of Singapore – Exploring adaptation of TIPS/VTIPS to strengthen teaching and assessment in primary care education across Asia.
f Hong Kong University – Engaging through the Lancet Commission on Primary Care co-chaired by HKU, where DFCM faculty contribute expertise to global policy and research.
f Thailand (Royal College of Family Physicians & Ministry of Public Health, Bureau of Primary Care Support) – Early discussions to share best practices and support capacity-building for family medicine and primary care systems.
f Aga Khan University (Karachi) – Connected through the Starfield Summit to advance shared priorities in health system strengthening and family medicine education.
f Brazil (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte) –Partnership through a postdoctoral fellowship (2023–24) focused on research and knowledge exchange in family medicine.
The Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) has experienced tremendous growth since our last external review in 2020. With the recognition that primary care is a key priority, the Ministry of Health has authorized an expansion of the Family Medicine programs across Ontario as well as the opening of two new medical schools. DFCM has responded to the imperative to expand by increasing our support of learners and educators.
Organizationally, DFCM is structured in seven functional areas: Education, Operations, Quality and Innovation, Research, Community and Partnerships, the WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care, and the Indigenous Leadership Circle. The first five areas are helmed by a Vice-Chair, who in turn, has Directors and Associate
Ontario’s expansion of medical school enrollment and post-graduate training has resulted in huge growth in DFCM. The number of DFCM faculty members has grown from 1,562 to 2,249 from 2020 to 2025, an increase of 43%. Consequently, the number of academic leadership positions has grown to 101 from 68, an increase of ~49%.
Key changes include an expansion of the number of divisions within DFCM. In 2020, the Department supported two divisions, Emergency Medicine and Palliative Care. Today, DFCM supports six divisions. The new divisions are: Mental Health and Addictions, Hospitalist Medicine, Clinical Public Health (a partnership with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health), and Care of the Elderly. The increase in the number of divisions reflects these growing areas of interest in family medicine clinical practice as well as health system need, and the consequent need to form communities of education, research, and practice for physicians working in these areas.
Another new area within DFCM is the establishment of the Office of the Health System Partnerships (OHSP). The OHSP was formed to fulfill the ambitious goal of leveraging the university’s strengths to lead in health systems locally, nationally, and globally.
Directors. The WHO Collaborating Centre and the Indigenous Leadership Circle report directly to the Department Chair. All faculty leaders have a detailed job description that links back to key points in DFCM’s strategic plan, which allows a large and complex group of faculty members to be focused and to work together coherently. In turn, the faculty are supported by administrative staff, organized in roughly similar functional areas.
DFCM currently has a total annual budget of ~$22M, of which ~ $15.2M is provided by the Government of Ontario to fund postgraduate education. An additional ~$511,000 is provided by the Temerty Faculty of Medicine (TFoM), and DFCM also has income from some endowments.
In 2020, 42 administrative staff members were supporting DFCM. Today, there are 53 administrative staff members, an increase of ~26%. These numbers include five administrative staff supporting our Physician Assistant (PA) program. The PA program will be transitioned out of DFCM to the Medical Education portfolio in the near future, as part of the newly established Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH), which will bring together a number of allied healthcare professionals together in one space. Currently offered as a Bachelor’s degree, the PA program will be restructured as a Master’s degree to align with similar programs.
In March 2020, the global pandemic radically changed DFCM and how we operate. With very little notice, the entire department shifted into virtual mode. Fortunately, we were well placed to do so. Many staff already had laptops and those who did not were able to work using personal machines until a departmental machine could be issued. Although many processes were paper-based, OneDrive was already widely used prior to the pandemic and staff switched to using electronic storage of electronic documents rather than physical storage of paper documents. The IT staff had already started piloting the use of Zoom for classrooms prior to the pan-
demic, and this application became the standard modality for meetings. A sense of community was maintained by setting up Teams channels as a way for staff to chat informally. Prior to the pandemic, an informal social committee planned a series of wellness events for the entire team. During the pandemic, there was a shift to virtual social events, the most memorable of which were virtual cooking classes led by an enthusiastic staff member. As the pandemic waned, staff gradually returned to on-site work, following the safety protocols in place at the time. Staff coped admirably during the pandemic due to the great leadership of the Director of Business Administration, Caroline Turenko. Her meticulous planning, dedication, and care for all staff members made it possible for the department to function effectively throughout this turbulent time.
By 2022, staff started the transition from working fully remotely to working a hybrid schedule, first working on-site one day a week, then moving to working on-site two days a week. This schedule worked well with staff, allowing them flexibility while continuing to meet operational needs. Initially, staff chose their remote days, leading to a minimum number of staff members being on-site every day. More recently, staff shifted to working the same hybrid schedule, with the same two “anchor” days on-site. The adoption of anchor days made it easier to promote a sense of community by being more inclusive for on-site engagement activities.
There has always been an emphasis on the professional development of staff. Under the mentorship of Caroline Turenko, the Director of Business and Administration, staff were encouraged to seek out new opportunities and were advised to take on new roles, both internal and external to DFCM and to U of T. Even though this sometimes meant that valued staff members left DFCM, we ultimately believe that this turnover contributes to a healthier work environment by keeping staff challenged and engaged. Apart from this personal mentoring, structured mentorship programs are also available at both the institutional and divisional level, and staff have been encouraged to participate in these both as mentors and mentees.
DFCM is deeply embedded in the community at the divisional level as well. Staff frequently connect with divisional counterparts in Academic HR, Finance, and Infrastructure and Planning. In addition, senior administrative leaders meet regularly with the CAO’s office, as well as other senior administrators in TFoM. These groups allow for the exchange of ideas and enhanced communication between the complex layers of governance at TFoM.
A few minor renovations were completed since 2020 using residual capital funds. A large room, previously used as a library, was repurposed as a boardroom/classroom and outfitted with the appropriate technology to allow for hybrid meetings. The library was not well-used, and the new space allows DFCM to offer additional classroom space to support learners. In the last year, DFCM implemented one of our strategic goals to support the self-determination of Indigenous health leaders and their communities by building two new spaces for Indigenous learners, faculty, and staff: the reception area and a new Indigenous lounge. These new spaces represent a small but tangible contribution to DFCM’s ongoing commitment to advancing Indigenous reconciliation by centering First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples, leadership, and primary healthcare and public health priorities. It is intended to be a place where First Nations, Inuit, and Metis faculty members, learners, staff, and community from the university and beyond can gather to advance work and nurture relations.
In terms of funding, DFCM has received additional funding from the Ministry of Health for some of our postgraduate expansion, albeit at rates that have not changed for many years. Advocacy is ongoing across the medical faculties of Ontario to increase funding to levels that reflect the cost of delivering a medical education, and we continue to be hopeful that some increases will be forthcoming.
Funding for postgraduate education has increased by ~6% since 2020, but this increase is based on an expansion of the postgraduate cohort; the funding per resident remains flat. We do expect an increase in funding per resident starting in fiscal year 2026, on a slip-year basis. However, funding from the TFoM has decreased during that same period, from ~$850,000 in fiscal year 2019-2020 to ~$511,000 in fiscal year 2024-2025. This is a decrease of ~40%, primarily as a result of TFoM reallocating a portion of the DFCM budget to fund shared services at the divisional level, notably information technology, which led to a small decrease in our staff complement to support that portfolio of work.
Fundraising and advancement work in partnership with the superb team at TFoM has yielded some support from donors, though more work remains to be done with respect to creative ways to seek alternative funding sources. DCFM recently received a $5M donation from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous to fund a Chair in Indigenous Health. This generous donation will allow DFCM to grow and sustain the work of the Indigenous Leadership Circle and the Indigenous Health Lead in the years to come.
The explosive growth in the number of DFCM faculty members has presented DFCM with great opportunities and has increased our breadth of expertise and community reach. However, it has been a challenge to provide sufficient administrative support for all of DFCM’s ambitious programs and projects. More work remains to be done to focus and prioritize core functions and activities rather than continuing to add to the already-full agendas of our wonderful team.
Opportunities also exist to reconsider our structure: the administrative staff are organized as a flat structure with a large number of reports to the Director. This does not allow for sufficient growth and development opportunities for our staff, and prevents the Director from focusing sufficiently on strategic work. Ideally, additional people managers would be hired to manage functional teams within the administrative staff; the challenge will be finding and liberating budget to do so. With a new Business Director joining our team in Sept 2025, we have an opportunity to put fresh eyes on our structure and ask how we can better align our structure to our strategy.
Although the Ministry of Health will be providing additional funds for expansion, there is uncertainty about the exact amount and timing for receiving the funds, which results in
Resource challenges in academia are common. While challenging, they represent the daily work of academic leaders and do not diminish our enthusiasm for our mission. DFCM faculty and staff are dedicated and loyal, working diligently towards a shared vision to improve education, research, and partnerships in family medicine and primary care. Working together with TFoM, DFCM will seek to support our current and future learners, educators, and staff by maximizing the use of existing resources while seeking new partnerships to diversify its revenue streams. We understand that this is our mandate and we are committed to pursuing it together.
DFCM planning for activities without knowing the financial resources that will be available. This has caused us to have to draw down on reserves for interim funding and leaves very little room for contingencies. Furthermore, TFoM will be reducing funding to DFCM over the next five years to address a deficit at the faculty level. These financial pressures have made it difficult to provide adequate administrative support for the exciting growth of DFCM programs and portfolios.
To mitigate financial risk, the Chair has been actively working with Advancement to pursue other sources of revenue. Most recently, as mentioned above, DFCM has been the recipient of a generous $5M donation for an endowed chair in Indigenous leadership. It is difficult, however, to raise funds for primary care. We continue to work closely with Advancement on opportunities. In addition, through its OHSP team, DFCM has recently been pursuing contracts with Ontario Health and other system partners to provide expertise for policy reform in family medicine and primary care. Though a smaller revenue stream, these contracts provide the dual role of providing a new source of income to DFCM as well as raising our profile as thought leaders and experts in primary care. Similarly, we are exploring potential global partnerships in education and capacity building that might open doors to new, albeit modest, revenue streams.
Over the past five years, the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) has focused deeply on community— supporting one another, rebuilding systems, and recovering from the profound impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This period has been marked by resilience, adaptation, and a shift toward a narrative of hope. We are committed to continue to strengthen our connections and expand our reach.
The coming years will bring important opportunities for renewal and growth across the Department and the Faculty. With new Decanal leadership at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine (TFoM) and an external review of the Faculty underway, DFCM is poised to play a central role in shaping the Faculty’s evolving priorities.
Within DFCM, we continue to implement our Strategic Plan (2022–2027). 2027 will provide an opportunity to reassess our direction, reaffirm the enduring aspects of our shared vision, and ensure alignment with TFoM’s priorities and the evolving needs of our learners and communities.
Education remains central to DFCM’s mission. With the upcoming launch of the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH) and growth across all our education programs, we aim to balance strong central supports with vibrant local learning communities. Maintaining high standards and ensuring all learners benefit from DFCM’s infrastructure and collaborative spirit remains Job #1.
Undergraduate feedback has driven curricular innovations, including a new seminar series on the evolving landscape of family medicine—covering care models, funding, leadership, and system reforms. Research initiatives such as “Clerkship Clinical Rotation Factors: Effect on Student Performance”
continue to guide quality improvement, supported by physician recruitment and investment in community preceptors.
At the postgraduate level, we are refining the Foundations block to better meet residents’ needs and foster early identity formation as generalist family physicians. Social Accountability competencies will be introduced in 2026, alongside expanded Indigenous health content through collaboration with the Indigenous Leadership Circle.
Academic Fellowship and Graduate Studies (AFGS) is reimagining the MSc in Community Health in Family and Community Medicine, exploring online and hybrid formats to enhance accessibility and interprofessional learning, ensuring our programs remain responsive and forward-looking.
DFCM’s Office of Education Scholarship (OES) and Faculty Development programs will continue to advance a culture of academic excellence and reflection. Priorities for the coming years include strengthening teaching performance through systematic feedback and evaluation, promoting equity in academic opportunities, and expanding dissemination support for educational scholarship.
We are also exploring innovative engagement models that connect clusters of training sites, enabling shared embedded scholars and resources. The Art of the Possible (AoP) program, celebrating its 10-year anniversary, will be enhanced with new “Big Ideas” themes—such as comprehensive care, big data, and patient-centered practice—to align with emerging departmental priorities.
DFCM is also committed to building stronger connections with Education Scholarship units in other TFoM departments and enhancing our visibility within the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s (CFPC’s) scholarly structures.
These collaborations will help amplify our collective impact in advancing family medicine education nationally.
The DFCM Research Program is entering a new phase of growth, with a particular focus on supporting community-based research. The launch of the Waddington Fellowships reflects a major investment in developing research capacity among community clinicians. Over the next several years, we have committed significant funding to provide salary support, mentorship, and training for community-based researchers. This will help create thematically linked research communities across our sites, leveraging DFCM’s collective expertise and infrastructure.
Our research and Quality & Innovation (Q&I) programs remain deeply aligned with DFCM’s social mission. The Q&I program continues to evolve from improving clinical quality for existing patients toward optimizing access and efficiency—critical work as more than 2.5 million Ontarians remain unattached to a family doctor. In collaboration with the Office of Health System Partnerships (OHSP) and Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team, DFCM will continue to lead efforts to strengthen primary care capacity, access, and integration.
Partnership is at the heart of our department’s identity. We hope that our still-new Office of Health System Partnerships will grow its leadership in system integration and primary care reform, while seeking new opportunities to involve learners and trainees in its work. Collaborative initiatives are also expanding with departments such as Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology, focusing on shared areas of interest like health leadership, reproductive health, and advocacy.
Globally, DFCM is building on long-standing international partnerships while exploring new ones in Singapore, Thailand, and Tanzania. We will continue to strengthen ties with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana and aim to renew our designation as a WHO Collaborating Centre in 2026—affirming our role as a global leader in primary care education, research, and policy. Across all our international work, DFCM seeks to act as a convener and knowledge broker, creating evidence-based resources, advancing primary care reform, and aligning local and global policy initiatives.
Operational excellence and fiscal responsibility are essential to sustaining our mission. In collaboration with the new Director of Business Operations and TFoM’s Chief Administrative Officer, we are implementing models that enhance staff career advancement while ensuring efficiency and accountability.
We are also working closely with Advancement to secure donor funds that will accelerate our ambitions in across all of our programs. These investments will help sustain DFCM’s ability to innovate, adapt, and lead.
Our strength as a department is in the breadth and diversity of our networks. As an enormous and distributed department, there is “something for everyone” in DFCM – we offer a place of community and belonging for the myriad ways people can engage with their identities within academic family medicine. But this diversity must never come at the cost of shared purpose. The past five years have been a time of responding to and then recovering from crisis, and rebuilding in a way that we believe has renewed that common vision. We imagine a future of even greater accountability – to ourselves, to each other, and to the communities we serve.
The University of Toronto’s DFCM includes 2,300+ faculty and 1,300+ learners across 18 hospital sites. It is recognized internationally for excellence in education, research, and clinical care, and hosts the WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care.
Areas for Improvement: Enhancing integration across its large network and addressing physician shortages in underserved communities.
Leadership: DFCM leads globally in primary care research, equity-focused initiatives, and innovative education models, including distributed learning and Indigenous health partnerships.
The UBC Department of Family Practice has over 5,000 faculty and staff, including 4,600+ clinical faculty across British Columbia. It supports 1,700+ learners across undergraduate, midwifery, residency, and enhanced skills programs. UBC ‘s DFP is a distributed program with four geographically distinct undergraduate sites.
Areas for Improvement: Reducing silos within its expansive department and improving integration of research and education.
Leadership: UBC demonstrates leadership through equity-informed hiring, rural and Indigenous health initiatives, and expansion of postgraduate and midwifery programs to meet growing demand.
Oxford’s Nuffield Department is a leading global center for academic primary care, with 600+ staff and students, with partnerships with 200 GP practices for medical student placements.
Areas for Improvement: Balancing research excellence with clinical teaching demands and expanding global collaborations.
Leadership: Oxford drives innovation in evidence-based healthcare, digital health, and patient engagement, supported by major funders like NIHR and Wellcome Trust.
NUS does not have a standalone family medicine department but offers a Family Medicine program within its Master of Medicine degree. The school admits 280–300 medical students annually and is Singapore’s oldest and largest medical school.
Areas for Improvement: Limited dedicated infrastructure for family medicine compared to other institutions.
Leadership: NUS exhibits leadership through interprofessional education, integration of digital health, and strong research programs aligned with national health priorities.
University of California, San Francisco –Department of Family and Community Medicine
UCSF’s department includes 80 faculty and 48 residents, with a strong focus on urban underserved care and social justice. It is nationally recognized for innovative curricula and community partnerships.
Areas for Improvement: Scaling distributed training beyond urban centers and addressing faculty recruitment challenges.
Leadership: UCSF leads in health equity, advocacy, and practice transformation, integrating quality improvement and social determinants of health into education.
University of Sherbrooke – Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine
Sherbrooke’s department comprises 662 clinical teaching professors, 107 full professors, 255 residents, and 83 graduate students, supported by a small administrative team. It emphasizes proximity and community-based training.
Areas for Improvement: Expanding research capacity and international collaborations.
Leadership: Sherbrooke champions social accountability and distributed learning, with strong ties to local communities and innovative competency-based education.
The Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto includes academic divisions and teaching sites. Academic divisions provide enhanced skills for learners to develop in addition to their family medicine training. Teaching sites are embedded in hospitals and community health centres across the region, providing clinical training and patient care for our postgraduate learners.
DFCM Teaching Sites
1 Mount Sinai Hospital, Sinai Health System
2 Unity Health Toronto, St. Michael’s Hospital
3 Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
4 Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
5 Credit Valley Hospital, Trillium Health Partners
6 Markham-Stouffville Hospital
7 Mississauga Hospital, Trillium Health Partners
8 North York General Hospital
9 Women’s College Hospital
10 Scarborough Health Network
11 Michael Garron Hospital
12 Unity Health Toronto, St. Joseph’s Health Centre
13 Humber River Health
14 Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre
15 Southlake Regional Health Centre
16 Headwaters Health Centre
17 Georgian Bay General Hospital
18 Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital
19 Collingwood General and Maine Hospital
20 Stevenson Memorial Hospital
21 Ross Memorial Hospital
Lakeridge Health Port Perry
The Department of Family and Community Medicine’s (DFCM) educational offerings are strengthened by six Academic Divisions: Care of the Elderly, Clinical Public Health, Emergency Medicine, Hospital Medicine, Mental Health and Addictions, and Palliative Care.
A large number of DFCM faculty members provide clinical care and academic contributions in focused areas of practice in family medicine. They collaborate with those providing comprehensive care, and some also practice comprehensive longitudinal primary care themselves. These focused practitioners are members of the DFCM Academic Divisions, forming clinical and academic communities of practice.
The Divisions of Emergency Medicine and Palliative Care have been part of DFCM for decades, while the four newer Divisions were created in more recent years—Hospital Medicine, Care of the Elderly, Mental Health and Addictions, and Clinical Public Health. Physicians in the six Academic Divisions participate in clinical care, teaching, research, quality initiatives, faculty development, community outreach and advocacy, health policy, and international work, and significantly enhance DFCM’s clinical reach, scholarship and contributions to the community.
Physicians belonging to an Academic Division may have primary or secondary appointments at affiliated teaching sites, or in some cases are community-based faculty members. Faculty in certain Academic Divisions–Emergency Medicine, Hospital Medicine, Palliative Care, and Care of the Elderly–hold key teaching and leadership roles in our PGY3 enhanced skills educational programs in their respective disciplines. The Divisions play important roles in operating these programs; however, their administrative direction and governance are the purview of the Enhanced Skills Program, which resides in DFCM’s Postgraduate Education Program.
The Division of Care of the Elderly (COE) is a small Division of the DFCM with 17 primary members, in addition to those with secondary appointments who also contribute actively to the academic mission, led by Dr. Sid Feldman. Clinically, many COE members continue to have office-based comprehensive family medicine practices while also working in domains more specific to the needs of older adults. Some division members work full-time providing comprehensive primary care only to older adults, in areas such as long-term care, geriatric assessment clinics, memory clinics, day treatment centres, post-acute hospitals, acute care of the elderly units, and home-based primary care to more frail seniors.
A major emphasis has been on undergraduate medical education. COE members participate in providing education at all levels of the Temerty Medicine undergraduate program, including formal lectures (e.g. fitness to drive; falls etc.) as well as a new two-week older adult medicine experience in the fourth-year transition to residency.
In addition, FM-COE preceptors support numerous learner placements at both academic and community sites. On a national level, Division members contributed to the development of published competencies for undergraduate geriatric education (the Aging Care 5Ms Competencies), which were presented at the Canadian and American Geriatric Society annual meetings as poster presentations and published in Academic Medicine (2024).
The COE also supports education of family medicine residents at many core DFCM sites, and through rotations at Baycrest Hospital, in long-term care (LTC) homes, assisted living, post-acute care, and with home-based primary care teams. An innovative program helping residents learn how to conduct family meetings in LTC, for example, has been very well received by learners.
Another major Divisional focus has been on supporting the Enhanced Skills Care of the Elderly program and Family Medicine and Enhanced Skills (FAMES) program. Division members are actively involved in resident selection, curriculum development, rotation supervision, and evaluation. Many of these program graduates have gone on to join the Division as faculty.
Local Initiatives
Division members play key governance and leadership roles in Ontario Health Teams, focusing on coordinated care for older adults. This includes integrating specialized geriatric services with primary care and innovative Neighbourhood Care Teams to support older adults in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs). Members are also advancing frailty identification through electronic health record review.
In collaboration with the Toronto Dementia Research Alliance, members are leading initiatives to integrate specialty and primary care for patients living with dementia and their care partners, emphasizing co-design with patients and community family physicians.
Division members also lead the LTC+ program, which connects acute care hospital hubs with local long-term care (LTC) homes to ensure residents receive care in the most appropriate setting. Other LTC-focused initiatives include improving the wellbeing of 2SLGBTQI+ residents and disseminating “Leading and Learning with Pride: A City of Toronto Toolkit for Supporting 2SLGBTQI+ in LTC.”
Provincial Contributions
At the provincial level, Division members have led the Provincial Geriatric Leadership Ontario (PGLO) steering committee, which coordinates specialized geriatric services across Ontario. They have also consulted for The Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada on strengthening medication safety in LTC and contributed to the Ontario Coroners’ Geriatric and Long-Term Care Review Committee.
Members played key roles in developing and implementing the mandatory LTC Medical Directors Course, led by the Ontario Long Term Care Clinicians organization.
National Leadership
Nationally, Division members hold leadership roles within:
f The College of Family Physicians of Canada Care of the Elderly Members Interest Group
f The Canadian Society for Long-Term Care Medicine
f Choosing Wisely Canada (LTC) – focusing on antimicrobial stewardship and antipsychotic reduction
f The Canadian Geriatrics Society (CGS) annual scientific assembly committee
f The CGS Primary Care Special Interest Group.
Members have contributed to national clinical practice guidelines on:
f Osteoporosis and fracture prevention
f Loneliness and isolation in seniors
f Culturally appropriate dementia diagnosis
f Management of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia
f Knowledge translation in bone health research.
Planetary Health and Global Engagement
Division members champion planetary health, submitting recommendations on climate impacts affecting older adults, presenting at national forums, and leading innovative collaborations—such as “It’s Getting Hot in Here: Leveraging Primary Care Teams to Help Patients at Risk of Heat-Related Illness.”
Internationally, members participate in the Seniors Quality Leap Initiative, a consortium dedicated to improving LTC quality through shared learning and practice.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND CONTINUING
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
Division members are leaders in faculty development and continuing professional education through initiatives such as:
f Project ECHO Care of Older Adults, delivering over 40 sessions annually on community, LTC, and dementia care.
f The Care of the Elderly Certificate Course (five-weekend program), now with over 300 participants.
f Collaborative Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) webinars on osteoporosis and fracture prevention.
Members regularly present at major conferences, including the Family Medicine Forum, and the annual meetings for. The Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario, Ontario Long Term Care Clinicians, and Canadian Geriatrics Society. They also organize and teach at the Canadian Geriatrics Society’s Resident Education Day and provide ongoing education for geriatric medicine and COE family medicine residents.
Division members have received numerous teaching awards recognizing their excellence and dedication to medical education.
Research:
Recent research by Division members covers a broad swath of older adult medicine. Some highlights include published works in COVID support in LTC, specifically integrating LTC with acute care; nurse practitioner/physician models of care in LTC; supporting safe and healthy intimacy and sexuality in LTC; and virtual primary care for people living with dementia. Education scholarship includes evaluating the impact of a national geriatric mental health ECHO, in addition to the published geriatric competencies noted above.
Advocacy:
Division members work tirelessly along with our older adult patients to support change. Key work has been in the areas of recognizing the disproportionate effect of the climate crisis on older adults, the devastating effect of COVID (emphasizing LTC), and the harms of loneliness and isolation.
The Temerty Faculty of Medicine has recently made mandatory an older adult rotation for all undergraduate medical students. This is an exciting opportunity to garner interest in family medicine COE, but also provides pressure to meet the educational needs of all learners at all levels of training. While continuing our strong and successful roles in education, QI, and advocacy, we need to continue to grow research depth and skills of Division members. As the population of Canada ages, we remain optimistic that the Division of COE will continue to grow and play a key role supporting family physicians in caring for all older adults, providing care to some of the most frail and vulnerable members of our communities.
The Division of Clinical Public Health, established in late 2019 and led by Dr. Ross Upshur, supports scholarship at the intersection of family medicine and public health. Its mandate includes advancing core public health competen-
cies in residency training and fostering research on health promotion and disease prevention within family medicine. Residents in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) Public Health and Preventive Medicine program complete two years of family medicine training and write the certification examination in family practice before continuing specialty training.
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed programming development, and the Division remains relatively small with six faculty members. Despite this, it has built strong partnerships with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH), collaborating on the Master of Public Health in Family and Community Medicine and the Master of Science in Community Health (MScCH) programs, including Health Practitioner Teaching Education.
A conforming practice plan is currently under development. If approved, it will allow physicians dually certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and RCPSC to join the Division, expanding membership and teaching capacity in public and population health. COVID-19 underscored the need for closer collaboration between family medicine and public health—a relationship few health systems have formalized. The Division aims to lead this integration to improve population health outcomes.
Emergency medicine (EM) is a fast-paced specialty that requires a broad base of medical knowledge and a variety of well-honed clinical and technical skills. DFCM’s Division of Emergency Medicine scope of activities are led by EM leaders in Ontario and Canada who deliver high-quality, innovative educational programs and research and scholarship. DFCM offers a variety of opportunities to train in EM for MD students, residents, and practicing physicians looking to upgrade their skills.
Dr. Megan Landes is the Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine. She is an Associate Professor and Clinician Investigator at the DFCM and Attending Staff at the University Health Network. She is a global emergency medicine leader and scholar, and the founding Director of the Global Equity in EM Centre in the Divisions of EM at the University of Toronto.
The four-week EM clerkship course commences with three days of hands-on workshops and seminars. Students are then placed at one of 10 or more Emergency Departments (EDs) in the Greater Toronto Area to complete 13 shifts, including up to two weekends and two overnight shifts. Dr. Michelle Klaiman is the Course Director. Dr. Adam Kaufman is the Associate Course Director. During the clinical experience, students function as members of an interprofessional team and are assigned one to two primary preceptors with whom at least half their shifts occur. Each clerk spends half a shift with members of the interprofessional team. Clerks learn to manage many types of patient problems that present to the ED, including exposure to core emergency medicine cases.
Emergency medicine is an important part of the curriculum for all DFCM residents. Each of the 18 sites ensures residents develop skills and confidence to practice EM as part of their comprehensive family medicine careers, especially for those residents planning to work in smaller communities where the need for family practitioners to practice EM is essential.
Family medicine residents can also apply for a third year of training (Category 1) in Emergency Medicine. Dr. Amna Karabegovic is the Program Director of the Emergency Medicine PGY3 Fellowship and Dr. Carly Ng is the Assistant Program Director. Dr. Jordan Shaw is the Barrie site Program Director. The PGY3 fellowship training occurs at a number of community and teaching hospitals. Core rotations include: emergency medicine (five blocks, including two blocks of paediatric emergency medicine), trauma at St. Michael’s Hospital, anesthesia, plastics/orthopedics, ICU (two months), CCU (one month), and ED Ultrasound (one block). Learners have one elective block to explore other interests, such as toxicology, addictions, rural medicine, advanced ultrasound, etc. The Barrie stream welcomed its first CCFP-EM PGY3s in 2025-2026, with most blocks being completed at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre.
The program is very popular, with 120 applications for 10 spots in Toronto and two spots in Barrie for 2025. Graduates have gone on to important leadership positions in emergency medicine, and indeed healthcare, across the country.
SEME is an innovative program funded by Ontario Ministry of Health and delivered by the DFCM to provide family physicians practicing in smaller and rural communities with
a three-month, full-time, remunerated, comprehensive enhanced skills program in EM. The program, the first of its kind in Canada, has generated similar programs in British Columbia, with programs in development in other provinces. In its 12 years, SEME has graduated 242 family physicians. Dr. Eileen Cheung is the Program Director of the SEME program. Read more about SEME in the Postgraduate Education section.
The Division of Emergency Medicine, comprising over 450 faculty across 16 sites, is supported by Faculty Development Leads, Drs. Meeta Patel and Maria Ivankovic. Together, they spearhead initiatives that strengthen academic engagement, foster professional growth, and enhance connectivity across the Division. Signature achievements include the creation of the EM Division website, the launch of an informative quarterly newsletter, the establishment of Tri-Division Community of Practice Rounds, and the development of the EM Awards Program—initiatives that have significantly advanced faculty recognition, collaboration, and career progression.
Faculty development offerings also include targeted sessions such as Teaching to Teach workshops for EM educators, promotion-focused seminars, and tailored guidance to connect faculty with resources, mentors, and academic opportunities. These efforts have cultivated a supportive and high-performing academic community, driving both individual success and collective excellence across the Division.
SCHWARTZ-REISMAN EMERGENCY MEDICINE INSTITUTE (SREMI)
SREMI Director Dr. Bjug Borgundvaag, Professor in the DFCM, and Research Director Dr. Shelley McLeod, Associate Professor in the DFCM, lead Canada’s first and only institute of emergency medicine. Based at Mount Sinai Hospital, SREMI is a partnership between Sinai Health and North York General Hospital that aims to improve patient care through the generation of new knowledge relevant to the care of ED patients, and to translate that knowledge into practice.
SREMI was established in November 2013 by a founding gift from the Schwartz/Reisman Foundation. SREMI includes a team of scientists, educators and staff, with expertise in research methodology, biostatistics, knowledge translation and dissemination. This infrastructure creates a vehicle to support sustained and stable funding for researchers and educators to conduct meaningful work on a long-term basis.
SREMI brings together some of Canada’s leading EM educators and researchers, including members of our Division,
who are working hard to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of EDs, train the next generation of ED healthcare providers and attract the world’s best and brightest minds in the field, all with the goal of improving patient care.
Since inception, the SREMI team have produced over 340 peer-reviewed publications, and have won 250 scholarly and research excellence awards. Additional DFCM faculty members as part of SREMI faculty include: Drs. Qassim Tejpar (Interim Chief, Mount Sinai Hospital ED), Kevin Wasco (Chief NYGH ED), Anton Helman (EM Cases Podcast), Don Melady, Howard Ovens and Catherine Varner.
TAAAC-EM is a partnership between the two University of Toronto Divisions of Emergency Medicine (Family Medicine, Medicine) and the Department of Emergency Medicine at Addis Ababa University (AAU) in Ethiopia. Established in 2010, its intention was to foster the development of the country’s first EM Residency Program and to continue to support the growth of the specialty. Over the past 15 years, TAAACEM has trained over 100 EM Specialists, many of whom now practice and serve in leadership and administrative roles in 18 public hospitals across Ethiopia
TAAAC-EM sends visiting faculty to teach and clinically mentor Ethiopian EM residents three times a year. Teaching trips cover a longitudinal, three-year curriculum including didactic teaching sessions, practical seminars, point-ofcare ultrasound (POCUS) training, simulation, and bedside clinical supervision. Each trip consists of two U of T Faculty and one senior postgraduate U of T resident.
TAAAC-EM also supports our Ethiopian partners through curriculum design and development, operational research training and support, and continuing professional development and leadership initiatives. The 10-year goal of TAAACEM is to assist in the graduation of a self-sustaining cohort of EM leaders at AAU who will continue to train future generations of Ethiopians, and spread their expertise throughout the region. In October 2013, AAU graduated the first Ethiopian EM physicians.
Dr. Julia Wytsma of the Division is one of the TAAAC-EM Co-Directors, along with Dr. Alexandra Stefan from the Department of Medicine. Many Divisional faculty members have volunteered for the Collaboration, in fact, over 60 per cent of the teaching faculty for TAAAC-EM are affiliated with the DFCM.
The Division of Hospital Medicine (DHM) was established in 2020 to support the growing number of hospitalists working in academic centers who supervise and teach Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) learners. Its mission is to strengthen the academic presence of hospital medicine in Toronto and Greater Area, advance education, and foster a connected community of practice.
Dr. Hedieh Molla Ghanbari serves as Head of the Division. She is an academic hospitalist, Site Director for Hospital Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto.
She chairs the Division’s Executive Committee, a diverse group appointed by the Division Head that meets quarterly to plan Grand Rounds, guide strategic direction, and promote academic advancement. Members include:
f Dr. Cary Fan – Faculty Development Lead
f Dr. Simrran Gohal – Early Career Representative
f Dr. David Esho – Education Lead
f Dr. Sabrina Lim-Reinders – Rehab and CCC Lead
f Dr. Richard Osborne – Comprehensive Family Medicine/ Hospitalist Representative
f Dr. Tania Tajirian – Mental Health Lead
f Dr. Yalda Karimi – Wellness Lead
The Division currently has 50 appointed faculty members (primary and secondary appointments), though this underestimates the total number of hospitalists working across DFCM sites. Many hospitalists hold only a primary appointment within DFCM Family Medicine sites. This year, DHM has focused on ensuring that all hospitalists at DFCM sites also obtain an appointment within the Division.
DHM held its first divisional retreat in spring 2024, followed by a second in September 2025. These retreats bring together hospitalists from across sites to connect, exchange ideas, and strengthen our academic community. Highlights included a panel discussion on integrating comprehensive family medicine into hospitalist work and a keynote presentation on artificial intelligence in hospital medicine. The Division plans to continue hosting annual retreats to foster collaboration and professional growth.
With support from the Executive Committee, DHM is launching its first quarterly newsletter to share updates, highlight achievements, and promote engagement across the Division.
Family medicine residents are introduced to hospital medicine through core and elective rotations during postgraduate training. As patient complexity continues to grow, many residents interested in hospitalist practice pursue a thirdyear Enhanced Skills program in one of two streams: f Academic Hospital Medicine (12 months, Category 2) f Clinical Hospitalist Fellowship (12 months)
The Academic Family and Hospital Medicine program prepares graduates with advanced inpatient clinical skills and leadership experience in education and research. The Clinical Hospitalist Fellowship, offered through Postgraduate Medical Education at three hospitals—University Health Network/Sinai Health System, Unity Health Toronto, and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre —trains physicians to independently manage complex medical patients in diverse settings while developing procedural expertise.
Each year, approximately 20 residents complete these programs. In collaboration with DFCM leadership, the Division is looking to develop an integrated Family Medicine–Hospital Medicine program that will allow residents to combine PGY2 and PGY3 training, fostering a more comprehensive and flexible family medicine career path.
Postgraduate learners are supervised by faculty hospitalists from both family medicine and specialty disciplines (e.g., internal medicine), gaining experience across a range of clinical areas including acute care, rehabilitation, wound management, complex continuing care, and oncologic medicine.
Faculty development within the Division is led by Dr. Cary Fan, who promotes educational offerings, coordinates promotion seminars, and develops Grand Rounds topics relevant to hospitalist practice. The Division is also creating a Faculty Excellence Award to recognize outstanding contributions across academic and community hospitalist streams.
Key priorities include:
1. Increasing awareness of DFCM awards available to DHM members.
2. Promoting opportunities for academic promotion at
junior and senior levels.
3. Sharing information on conferences, the BASICS program, and professional learning opportunities within the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
The Division introduced its first Wellness Lead, Dr. Yalda Karimi (CAMH), in 2025. Her work focuses on fostering community, connection, and wellbeing among hospitalists. The Division plans to launch its first wellness initiative in spring 2026 to further strengthen engagement across sites.
A growing number of hospitalist sites are engaged in quality improvement (QI) and medical education initiatives. At Sinai Health, a formal research program has been established with the recruitment of its first clinician scientist. Faculty across sites have presented their work locally, nationally, and internationally, earning multiple awards for excellence.
Key priorities include:
1. Ensuring DHM members are aware of QI training opportunities through regular communication.
2. Promoting collaboration among sites on QI projects and research initiatives.
3. Developing a Quality Improvement Day where members can submit and present posters showcasing their projects.
A future goal is to appoint a QI Lead within the Executive Committee to further support and coordinate this work.
The Division maintains strong relationships with major hospitals across the GTA, for example Sinai Health, University Health Network, and Trillium Health Partners. While many of our initiatives and opportunities are outlined in previous sections, a key ongoing challenge remains building a cohesive community of practice where all members are aware of available supports and opportunities within DFCM.
To address this, the Division has undertaken site visits across all DFCM locations to raise awareness and strengthen engagement. More than half have been completed, with the remainder planned in the coming months. The launch of the quarterly newsletter will further enhance communication and highlight achievements across sites.
Looking ahead, there are opportunities for collaboration with other DFCM divisions on shared educational initiatives, particularly in palliative care, mental health and addictions, and
geriatrics. The Division also aims to explore how hospitalist work can be more seamlessly integrated within family medicine careers to support wellness and reduce burnout.
As the Division continues to grow, we anticipate the need for additional support, including administrative resources, funding for retreats and academic half days, and stipended leadership roles within the Executive Committee.
The DFCM Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA) is the academic home of family physicians engaged in work to support the mental health of our communities.
Our Division has the following priorities:
f Support a cohesive academic program in mental health and addiction by encouraging primary mental healthcare, undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, continuing professional development, quality improvement, and research in the areas of mental health and addictions.
f Establish an identifiable community of practice among faculty and learners across all DFCM sites.
f Champion mental health and addiction care with a strong focus on access, stigma reduction, medical home, and shared care.
Under the leadership of Dr. Nikki Bozinoff, the Division of Mental Health and Addiction has experienced significant growth, increasing its membership from five official members to 49 over the last three years. Our Division’s cohesion has grown during this time via regularly planned socials to support connectedness and a sense of belonging amongst our members.
The Division of Mental Health and Addiction has demonstrated continued leadership in medical education across all levels of training led by our Division Education Lead, Dr. Sarah Whynot.
At the undergraduate level, the division has provided faculty support to the student-led “Addiction Medicine Week” initia-
tive in 2024 and 2025. Our division faculty supported students in the development of conference material, participated in career panels, delivered in-person teaching, and provided experiential learning opportunities for medical students.
A key recent initiative was the revision of the competencies in Mental Health and Addiction for the family medicine postgraduate curriculum. This iterative process took place 2023-2024, guided by a working group of family physicians at diverse career stages and with varied expertise in mental health and substance use. A draft was created and continually revised following input from two panels of patient partners with lived experience as well as the Curriculum Committee and received final approval from the Residency Program Committee.
To support implementation, Division members created and delivered a faculty development workshop introducing the revised competencies and offering practical teaching strategies. This was presented at DFCM Day in 2025.
The Division also launched a unique “Primary Care Mental Health” clinical fellowship in 2023, currently offered to international trainees. Now in its second year, the fellowship offers enriched training in psychotherapeutic techniques and management of mental health conditions in a primary care setting. The Division is exploring opportunities to expand this training opportunity.
In the area of education scholarship, division members have received the “Art of the Possible” grant from the Office of Education Scholarship twice in the past five years—Dr. Kim Lazare in 2021 for a needs assessment on teaching behavioural medicine in family medicine residency, and Drs. Sarah Whynot and Nikki Bozinoff in 2024 for an ongoing qualitative study exploring the outcomes of the Enhanced Skills in Addiction Medicine program.
Highlights of recent medical education publications from the Division include two studies that explore the training and preparedness of family medicine physicians in addressing mental health and addiction:
f Ramdawar A, Bozinoff N, Lazare K. “Not doing it justice”: Perspectives of Recent Family Medicine Graduates on Mental Health and Addictions Training in Residency. J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2024.
f Bassi J, Ramdawar E, Selby P, Stolarski K, Wyman J, Lazare K, Bozinoff N. “I Really Didn’t See a Lot of This in My Training”: Family Medicine Residents’ and Recent Graduates’ Experiences of Training and Readiness to
Deliver Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder. Canadian Journal of Addiction. 2024.
The Division of Mental Health and Addiction is excited to have expanded our portfolio by creating a role to lead our Faculty Development and Faculty Relations, led by Dr. Rachel Shour. While in its early stages, we are working both to foster representation and collaboration departmentally on the Faculty Development Committee and to ensure our faculty have a sense of community, an awareness of opportunities, and are appropriately supported in their professional goals. To assist in this aim, we are excited to have initiated a quarterly newsletter to engage our faculty, celebrate successes, and ensure we are all up to date on Division-related events in the Department and within the broader community.
We are proud to have had two of our faculty receive senior promotion: Dr. Osnat Melamed and Dr. Nadia Minian. In addition, two of our faculty’s exemplary work have been recognized in their receipt of DFCM awards, one for Excellence in Teaching (Dr. Sarah Griffiths) and one for Sustained Excellence in Research (Dr. Bernard Le Foll).
In recognition of the distributed nature of our Division as well as the complex and often community-based nature of much of the work done by our faculty, we are in the process of developing Division-specific awards to acknowledge and celebrate the unique work done by our faculty.
Here is a list of the key events and courses we organized and collaborated on for faculty:
f Webinar for Faculty: Preparing for the Holidays: What’s New, What’s True, and How to Create Non-Alcoholic Brews — Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health
f DFCM Day Poster Presentation: Charting the Course: A Patient’s Voyage Through the Rapid Access Addiction Medicine Clinic in Primary Care
f Webinar for Faculty: Dealing with Grief in Family Medicine
f DFCM Day Workshop: Adaptive Expertise: How to Teach the New Competencies in Mental Health and Addiction
f Webinar: The Role of Medication in the Management of Alcohol Use Disorder
f Counselling and Psychotherapy Course: Five-weekend program led by faculty member Mel Borins
f CAMH Course: Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
f CPD Program: Practicing Well: Monthly webinars with the Ontario College of Family Physicians focused on
mental health and addictions. This community of practice continues to grow, with participation increasing by 27% in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter. On average, 167 participants attend sessions live, and recent assessments show that 93% of respondents find the sessions valuable for day-to-day practice.
The Division of Palliative Medicine is dedicated to advancing excellence in clinical care, education, research, and quality improvement for patients with serious illness and their families. The division fosters collaboration across disciplines and sites, ensuring equitable, patient-centred care and innovative approaches to palliative medicine.
The division is chaired by Dr. Kirsten Wentlandt and Dr. Ebru Kaya.
The leadership team includes:
f Program Directors: Dr. Sarah Kawaguchi and Interim Leads Dr. Jonathan Ailon and Dr. Sarah Torabi
f Education Lead: Dr. Alisha Kassam
f Quality Improvement Leads: Susan Blacker and Dr. Lise Huynh
f Research Lead: Dr. Breffni Hannon
f Faculty Development Leads: Drs. Haley Draper and Nadine Gerbera
f EDI Lead: Dr. Jenny Lau
The committee also includes student representation, and all site leads are invited to participate, ensuring diverse perspectives and shared leadership.
Undergraduate students are introduced early in their undergraduate family medicine studies to palliative care (PC). Week 61 is a full week of PC curriculum in Foundations including lectures, self-learning modules, small group case study, ethical cases, and clinical skills. In the third year of family medicine clerkship, there is an interprofessional PC seminar called Hillary’s Heart that includes serious illness communication, advanced care planning, symptom management and end-of-life care. During fourth-year clerkship, there is another PC seminar with a focus on interprofessional education and collaboration. The fourth-year clerks participate with other health discipline learners in small group learning on a palliative care case. Both PC residents and faculty
actively contribute to the development, delivery, and evaluation of palliative care lectures, online learning modules, and workshops throughout the undergraduate curriculum.
Family medicine residents find substantial opportunities to explore palliative care during postgraduate training in palliative care, family medicine, internal medicine, psychiatry, and medical oncology rotations. Residents can also go on to complete additional training in palliative care through either the PGY3 enhanced skills program or the Family Medicine and Enhanced Skills (FAMES) program.
Both the PGY3 and FAMES programs aim to train physicians who will directly provide, build capacity for, and mentor other healthcare professionals in providing high-quality, equity-informed palliative care in multiple settings. These include community-based care, hospice care, outpatient, and inpatient work. The FAMES program allows residents to combine training in both palliative care and family medicine across their PGY2 and PGY3 years. Approximately five residents complete the PGY3 program, and one to two residents complete the FAMES program annually.
For both undergraduate and postgraduate education, learners are supervised by dedicated family medicine and specialty faculty actively involved in the Division of Palliative Care (DPC). Faculty have diverse skills and practice environments; there are a large number of rotations/preceptors who have different focuses (hospital-based care, homebased care, cancer, non-cancer illnesses, marginalized populations, research, education, administration), which allows for exposure to diverse patient populations across care settings.
The overall goal of the program is to train physicians who will directly provide, build capacity for, and mentor other healthcare professionals in providing high-quality, equity-informed palliative care to all patients through best-practice palliative care teachings.
The DPC’s Faculty Development Committee (FDC) continues to focus on four key areas: f Grand Rounds
f Faculty Awards
f Community Building f Mentorship
These initiatives aim to enhance professional development, strengthen connections, and recognize the contributions of faculty across the department.
The Grand Rounds group has hosted quarterly virtual sessions that have been well-received and well-attended, with plans to further develop and enhance future offerings.
The Awards group has supported several successful DFCM awards seasons, with many faculty members being recognized for their outstanding contributions to clinical care, education, research, and leadership. In addition, an internal Palliative Care Division Award has already been established to further recognize outstanding contributions within our own community.
The Community Building group is developing a new DPC website to serve as a central hub for continuing professional development, faculty development resources, clinical site information, and equity and social accountability initiatives.
The Mentorship group is planning a formal program to support new faculty in areas such as education, research, and clinical practice.
The DPC has an active Q&I program with primary objectives to:
f Promote and facilitate cross-site collaboration on quality improvement initiatives
f Identify and measure palliative care quality indicators as it relates to program structure, palliative care delivery process, and patient outcomes
f Use data/quality indicators to drive change
f Support faculty development in Q&I knowledge and in engaging in Q&I work
f Support resident and fellow education in quality and safety
Work in the above-mentioned areas have been underway. Some activities/outcomes over the past few years include the creation of Q&I education resources for faculty, organization of forums that allow faculty members to share Q&I work and ideas (e.g. rounds, conferences, retreats), active engagement in Q&I curriculum development and delivery for palliative care trainees, and the organization of a multi-site working group, working towards establishing and measuring standardized quality indicators for the division of palliative care that are in alignment with national and provincial priorities.
The DPC has a growing research program that spans several sites. Its overarching goals include: the advancement of high-quality palliative care research in both malignant and non-malignant populations; to contribute to clinician training in conducting and appraising palliative care research; and to use research to advocate for greater palliative care access and resources.
The current research priorities include:
f Identifying common research areas across DPC
f Hosting the biannual Barrie Rose Research Day in Palliative Medicine, with themes aligned with key research areas across DPC
f Developing sustainable processes for capturing key clinical metrics across all sites to facilitate data sharing for benchmarking, Q&I and research purposes
f Developing a new quarterly innovation newsletter to highlight DPC members’ publications and grants; communicate funding opportunities and conference deadlines; foster greater awareness of research, Q&I and innovation across DPC/DPM through a “spotlight” series
f Strengthening opportunities for learners to engage in palliative care research
We are proud to share the continued progress and expansion of our Palliative Global Health initiatives. A key development has been the establishment of the Palliative Global Health Working Group, which has brought together a diverse and growing team of faculty members actively engaged in a range of global health projects. This collaborative effort underscores our commitment to advancing palliative care globally, particularly in the context of primary care and health system strengthening.
Building on the success of our inaugural Basic and Advanced Palliative Care Short Course in Ghana in 2023, we were thrilled to return in 2024 and 2025 to offer more iterations of the course. This program, delivered in collaboration with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), is part of our ongoing commitment to co-create and co-deliver continuing education programs designed to enhance the skills and competencies of primary care practitioners in palliative care. In the last three years, we were able to send over 15 faculty members to Ghana to teach and
support the course, reflecting the depth of expertise and collaborative spirit that defines this partnership. This collaboration is expected to be sustained for the next five to 10 years, further cementing our role in advancing palliative care education in the region.
In addition to this direct educational collaboration, we are also proud to be actively involved in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Palliative Care Working Group, as part of the DFCM’S designation as a collaborating centre in primary care and family medicine. In this capacity, we are contributing to the development and implementation of the WHO’s plan to support global palliative care, which aims to improve access to palliative care services worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
To further strengthen our global impact, we have established an international collaborative of clinicians and researchers in palliative care, education, and primary care. This network is focused on conducting research that will inform best practices in palliative care education and service delivery. One of our key initiatives is a series of scoping reviews designed to provide evidence to guide the education of primary palliative care providers. This research is essential to shaping the future of palliative care education, ensuring that healthcare workers worldwide are equipped to provide compassionate, high-quality care to patients with serious illnesses.
Looking ahead, we are excited to continue expanding our global palliative care efforts, strengthening partnerships, and engaging with international leaders and organizations to drive meaningful change in the field. Our work is grounded in a shared vision of improving palliative care access and quality for patients around the world, and we remain committed to advancing this mission through education, research, and advocacy.
DFCM includes a number of teaching sites, including 18 residency teaching sites—four more than in the previous external review term. Our sites span hospitals, community health centres, and academic family health teams, offering diverse clinical environments for training. This distributed structure ensures flexibility and learner choice, with residents ranking site preferences through an internal post-match process. In addition to these core sites, our academic network spans hundreds of family physician offices across an enormous geographic area, allowing learners to experience community-based rotations in a diverse variety of settings. Our governance model of having all these distributed faculty members receive their faculty appointment through a site, a division, or a program (such as Undergraduate Education or Research) ensures that appropriate faculty support and oversight exist across the DFCM network. Therefore, our site leaders (Chiefs of Family and Community Medicine) often oversee and support the work not only of faculty working inside their hospital or family health team but also of distributed faculty members working in their neighbourhood or region. We believe this “hub and spoke” model is a strength of our distributed department.
Fully affiliated sites are those that are part of the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN). Members participate in health and biomedical research and teach undergraduate and postgraduate medical and healthcare professional students.
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW
(NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Residents: 17 (8 PGY-1 and 9 PGY-2)
f Faculty Members: 18
f Academic Department Chief: Dr. Priya Sood and Dr. Patrick Safieh
f Quality Improvement Lead: Dr. Navsheer Gill
f Faculty Development Lead: Dr. Gurpreet Mand
f Academic Half-Day Leads: Dr. Tarin Arenson
f Undergraduate Program Director: Dr. Neal Belluzzo
SITE DESCRIPTION
Humber River Health (HRH) operates across three sites and is one of Ontario’s largest community hospitals. Despite this volume, HRH was recognized by the Globe and Mail in 2025 for consistently having the shortest ED wait times in the province thanks to its state-of-the-art Command Centre and its relentless commitment to innovation. It is Canada’s first fully digital hospital. The Emergency Department sees about 133,000 visits annually, with 40,000 inpatient admissions, 398,000 outpatient visits, and over 4,600 births each year. There are 793 credentialed medical staff working within its walls.
The Schulich Family Medicine Teaching Unit includes 5 core faculty members who are also building new practices. They are members of the Humber River Family Health Organization (FHO) linked with the Humber River Family Health Team (FHT). Temporary funding supports interprofessional staff (social work, nursing, dietitian, Nurse Practitioners) while permanent funding is pursued. Thirteen community physicians assist with supervision 2–4 times per month. By 2026, there will be 8–10 core faculty and at least 13 community teachers.
HRH’s program is uniquely supported by hospital and foundation funding. It plays a central role in revitalizing primary care access in northwest Toronto. Graduates are encouraged to remain locally connected through team-based practice.
The Schulich FMTU has a social accountability mandate built into its core mission from its inception, which manifests primarily through strict inclusion criteria: exclusively accepting unattached patients from the local community and the most equity deserving geographies in Toronto. The vast majority of patients are internally referred from within the hospital, through the Emergency Department, Mother and Baby Program, and Internal Medicine Division. Patients are also accepted from retiring family physicians and Healthcare Connect.
The Humber River Health (HRH) Family Medicine Residency Program demonstrates exceptional commitment to learning and community care, supported entirely by hospital and foundation funding. Its mission aligns with HRH’s strategic goal to revitalize comprehensive primary care in underserved areas of Toronto. The program features strong assessment and evaluation processes, a collaborative approach to Quality and Innovation projects—many of which have been adopted by the hospital—and a dynamic mix of experienced clinician-educators and developing community faculty that together ensure high academic quality. Resident wellness is a central focus, supported through individualized mentorship, retreats, and social engagement, fostering a nurturing and high-performing learning environment.
f The HRH Family Medicine Residency Program began in May 2023, accepting its first 4 residents in July 2023. The program expanded to 11 residents in 2024 and 17 residents in 2025. By 2026, it will train 18 residents (9 PGY-1, 9 PGY-2). Training occurs at the Schulich Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) at the HRH Wilson site.
f HRH hosts a horizontal Family Medicine residency program, the only postgraduate program at the hospital. Residents receive priority for all learning opportunities.
All core specialty rotations occur within HRH.
f Each resident is assigned a primary preceptor for the two-year program and manages a defined panel of approximately 200 patients. Faculty provide continuity and mentorship throughout. Interprofessional staff collaborate in teaching and care delivery.
f The Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) offers diverse clinical exposure, including musculoskeletal (MSK), gynecology, palliative care, counseling, and minor procedures. Residents work closely with Family Health Team (FHT) and Family Health Organization (FHO) teams for complex patient management.
f Resident wellness is prioritized through individualized support, social activities, smaller cohorts, and an annual resident retreat. Feedback reflects high satisfaction among learners.
AND EVALUATION
The Teachers and Competence Committee meets regularly to assess resident progress. Evaluations integrate feedback from multiple teachers and healthcare providers to ensure a comprehensive, balanced assessment.
EDUCATION:
HRH participates in the U of T Medical Clerkship Program (Year 3), with the goal of hosting 10–12 clerks annually. A dedicated Undergraduate Lead coordinates with the central program to ensure requirements are met.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION:
f Faculty development includes monthly meetings, local events, and one to two major sessions annually.
f Activities are informed by monthly and yearly faculty needs assessments, survey data (CQI Survey), and resident feedback. As well, they work closely with the Postgraduate Director to develop and arrange local Faculty Development events that address teaching needs. Support is also provided for faculty applying for junior and senior promotion.
f HRH partners with a private event promotions organization to deliver hybrid Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs. Twice-monthly grand rounds and Clinical Day events attract hundreds of participants, with thousands attending the multi-day Primed Conference.
f The program follows the DFCM longitudinal Quality Improvement curriculum. The curriculum is mandatory for first-year residents. Residents complete a Quality Improvement (QI) project in PGY1 and a research project in PGY2 with a site faculty member serving as their research project supervisor.
f Quality Improvement (QI) Lead and Research Lead (who is also the Primary Care and Health Populations Research Chair at HRH), mentor residents in their QI research projects.
f Residents participate in Quality Improvement (QI) bootcamps and fests, aligning many projects with hospital initiatives. Primary Care and Health Populations Research Chair at HRH (supported by a research assistant).
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY:
f Between 2023-2025, faculty demonstrated robust academic engagement through peer-reviewed publications, active research, and extensive scholarly dissemination at local, national, and international levels.
f Key themes included medical education, faculty development, learner assessment, quality improvement, and clinician wellness—reflecting a strong culture of scholarship and collaboration across teaching and research domains.
f HRH engages in multiple scholarly activities, including resident research and faculty mentorship. Resident projects are presented annually at Research Day.
SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY SUMMARY (2023–2025) PUBLICATIONS:
f Mand et al., 2023 — “Identifying the exceptional learner in medical education: A doing vs. being framework.” Medical Teacher.
f Belluzzo et al., 2024 — “Barriers and facilitators for community-based family physicians to act as undergraduate medical supervisors in the postpandemic context.” Supported by the University of Toronto’s Art of the Possible Grant (project in progress).
Local Presentations and Workshops:
f Schulich FMTU Faculty Development Rounds (2023–2024): Series of teaching-focused presentations on effective instruction, feedback, professionalism, and managing learners in difficulty (Drs. Sood, Mand, Gill, Belluzzo).
f Queen’s Office of Physician Education (2023): “Building a Teaching Dossier” (Dr. Sood).
f University of Toronto DFCM Conferences (2023–2024):
Z “The Exceptional Learner” (2023, Dr. Mand)
Z “Navigating Your Career Path” (2024, Dr. Mand)
Z “Peers for Joy at Work” (2024, Dr. Gill)
f Grand Rounds & Faculty Development (2024): “The Exceptional Learner in Medical Education” presented at Humber River Health and Scarborough Health Network (Dr. Mand).
f UofT DFCM Basics Program (2023–2024): Workshops on “Challenging Teaching Sessions” and “Faculty
Wellness” (Drs. Mand and Gill).
f Peer Coaching for Joy in Work (2024): Collaborative research with UofT DFCM and Women’s College Hospital, supported by the OMA (Dr. Gill).
National and International Presentations:
f International Congress on Academic Medicine (2023–2024):
Z “Essence of Education Scholarship: Creating an Introductory Course for Healthcare Providers” (Drs. Mand, Gill).
Z “Development and Implementation of an InterDisciplinary Faculty Development Program for a New FMTU” (Dr. Sood, poster).
f Society of Teachers in Family Medicine (2023–2024):
Z “University of Toronto DFCM CQI Program” (2023, Dr. Mand).
Z “Faculty Development for a New FMTU” (2024, poster, Dr. Mand).
f STFM Spring Conference (2024): “Tips and Tricks for Teaching the High Performing Learner” (Dr. Mand).
f Family Medicine Forum (2024): “Developing and Evaluating a Postgraduate Education CQI Program” (Dr. Mand).
f Telfer Health Executive Quality Improvement (QI) and Patient Safety Program (2024): “Complex Adaptive Systems and Processes: A Practical Guide” (Dr. Colin Wilson).
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW
(NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Credentialed Members: 299
f Faculty Members: 165
f Core Family Medicine Clerks: 24
f Family Medicine Residents: 30
f Executive Committee Members:
Z DFCM Chief: Dr. Dani Manis
Z EDISAN Lead: Dr. Allanah Li
Z Wellness Leads: Drs. Amy Chan & Sara Pardisnia
Z Long Term Care (LTC) Lead: Dr. Ann Li
Z Continuing Medical Education (CME) Lead: Dr. Dahlia Balaban
Z Undergrad Program Director: Dr. David Silver
Z Palliative Care Education Lead: Dr. Desmond Leung
Z Family Medicine Obstetrics Lead: Dr. Eva Knifed
Z Quality Improvement (QI) Leads: Drs. Nathalie Gans, Michael Taglione & Jen Stulberg
Z Faculty Development Lead: Dr. Jordana Sacks
Z Research Lead: Dr. Karen Tu
Z Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) Lead: Dr. Katie Ker
Z Postgraduate Program Director: Dr. Kim Lazare
Z North York Family Health Team (NYFHT) Medical Director: Dr. Lara Rosenberg
Z Deputy Chief: Dr. Rebecca Cohen
Z Primary Care Network (PCN) Co-Chairs: Drs. Maria Muraca & Rebecca Stoller
Z Co-Chief Residents: Drs. Sauliha Alli & Mohamed Ghassan Alwafai
Z Operations: Committee meets monthly; first inperson event hosted with leadership training, divisional reports, and wellness activities. Feedback was positive.
SITE DESCRIPTION
North York General Hospital is a popular training site for University of Toronto family medicine residents and MD students. It is a suburban community hospital in northern Metro Toronto with departments in all major fields of medicine: family medicine, internal medicine, geriatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, emergency, medical imaging, paediatrics, genetics and psychiatry. The hospital has approximately 80,000 emergency visits and over 7,000 obstetrical deliveries a year.
NYGH serves as a community-based teaching site for the DFCM, offering students a diverse and comprehensive family medicine experience. Learners are primarily placed in community offices within the hospital’s catchment area, supervised by two to three main preceptors, with additional exposure to the Family Medicine Teaching Unit. The program emphasizes variety and flexibility, matching students with preceptors aligned to their career interests whenever possible. Mandatory experiences include time in the Breast Diagnostic Centre, Diabetes Education Program, and palliative care home visits, complemented by a wide range of electives such as surgical assisting, sports medicine, breastfeeding clinics, and homeless shelter care. This structure ensures students gain insight into the breadth of family medicine while engaging with outstanding community physicians.
POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION
NYGH is a key teaching site within the DFCM, offering a robust postgraduate residency program. The program hosts residents who follow a block rotation curriculum, providing structured exposure to diverse clinical settings. Residents benefit from elective opportunities—one month in the first year and three months in the second year—allowing them to tailor their learning to specific interests. As a community academic hospital, NYGH combines high-quality patient care with comprehensive training, preparing residents to excel in family medicine across varied practice environments.
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT (QI)
f Three QI leads are involved in resident curriculum and QI initiatives with Ontario Health Team/Family Health Team and NYGH
f Leads: Drs. Nathalie Gans, Jennifer Stulberg, Mike Taglione.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
f NYGH Cheesbrough Chair search is complete; faculty appointment being finalized before announcing widely.
f Departmental research lead Dr. Karen Tu will bring prominent high-level primary care research to NYGH and foster and mentor department members in research.
f Past Cheesbrough Chair, Dr. Michelle Griever, is volunteering for mentorship to support the department.
SYSTEMS INNOVATION
f Ontario Health Team (OHT): Active participation with North York Toronto Health Partners and the Primary Care Network, led by Drs. Maria Muraca and Rebecca Stoller.
f Primary Care Action Team (PCAT): Three proposals submitted, with two successfully funded.
f New Family Health Team: Funding secured for the Get Well Family Health Team in North York.
f Strong collaborations: with community partners, including the foundation, corporate donors, Community Health Centres, and Family Health Teams (FHT).
f Many successful programs have been launched and are running to facilitate patient attachment and streamline chronic disease care:
Z Chronic Disease Management (CDM) HUB
Z North York Community Care Clinic (NYCCC)
Z ACCESS CLINIC
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Chief: Dr. Avnish Mehta
f Postgraduate Site Director: Dr. Jennifer McDonald –29 residents
f Undergraduate Site Director: Dr. Karthika Sithamparanathan – 22 clerks
f Faculty/Professional Development Lead: Dr. Donna Vlahos
f Quality Improvement (QI) Leads: Drs. Susanna Fung & Preeni Rathuge
f Research/Academic Project Leads: Drs. Rosemarie Lall (Director of Family Medicine Research) & Nisha Ravichanidran (Director of Family Medicine Resident Research Projects)
f Wellness Advisor: Dr. Janice Weiss
f Scarborough Health Network (SHN) is one of Canada’s largest urban community hospitals. It delivers innovative, high-quality patient care and advocates for our community’s health and wellness.
f Location: Scarborough, east of Toronto (~600,000 population), highly ethnically diverse, including a large immigrant population
f Hospital Network: Scarborough Health Network (SHN) – three hospitals (General, Birchmount, Centenary) serving ~1 million people
f Teaching Program Mission: Inspire excellence in education, research, and leadership in family medicine within a diverse community
f Mission: Improving lives through exceptional care. We believe in providing exceptional care to help patients and families achieve their best quality of life.
f Values: Compassionate, inclusive, innovative, courageous
CURRICULAR AND SITE INNOVATIONS:
f SHN’s site strength is its community Family Medicine preceptors, who have varied and diverse “real-life” community practices.
f SHN also has a 1:1 teacher: learner ratio, with dedicated Family Medicine and specialist preceptors.
f SHN prides itself in its flexibility to meet resident learning needs. We are focused on the residents’ learning and career goals and have a dedicated Academic Advisor/Wellness Advisor to support this.
f Residents also have the opportunity to work in both a rural and urban environment with a diverse, global community including a large new immigrant and refugee population, allowing residents to have Health Advocacy roles.
The family medicine residency program at Scarborough Health Network is learner-centered, offering both urban and rural preceptor experiences with a strong focus on handson, community-based training. Each resident is matched with a family medicine preceptor based on a pre-matching survey and participates in mini-practices to ensure continuity of care. Residents also have the option for a rural rotation in Bowmanville, which includes inpatient care, ER shifts, nursing home visits, palliative care, and home visits. Specialty rotations occur across SHN’s three hospitals—General, Birchmount, and Centenary—where residents work closely with specialist preceptors in diverse settings such as clinics, hospital wards, and emergency consults. Core rotations include Internal Medicine, Paediatrics, Family Medicine, Geriatrics, MSK, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Emergency, Palliative Care, and Psychiatry. With few other specialty
residents at SHN, family medicine residents gain extensive hands-on experience and play a vital role in patient care.
At SHN, the Clerkship Program includes 6 rotations of 6 weeks each, with 2–4 clerks per rotation. Clerks work with community-based family medicine preceptors in Scarborough, North York, and Markham, gaining exposure to a wide range of medical problems in family practice. The program is designed to build confidence, independence, and problem-solving skills.
Family medicine residents are encouraged to teach in the undergraduate program, leading seminars on topics such as domestic violence, motivational interviewing, and chronic disease management. Some residents also teach clerks during rotations and contribute to the formal curriculum.
f Annual needs assessment survey and discussions with the Site Chief and Site Director determine topics for quarterly Professional Development Days.
f Past topics include:
Z Managing residents in difficulty
Z Continuity in family medicine clinics
Z Competency review
Z Applying improv techniques to medical education
f Biannual site visits with the Faculty Development Lead provide opportunities for feedback and priority setting.
f Faculty development is supported through DFCM central programs, coordinated by the Faculty Development Lead.
f All new teachers complete the BASICS course within their first 2 years of teaching.
f Comprehensive longitudinal Quality Improvement (QI) curriculum with mandatory practicum for first-year residents.
f Our Faculty Q&I Group promotes practice-based Q&I activities, including our projects of increasing the achievement of targets in patients with diabetes, increasing screening for poverty in clinics, and improving processes surrounding the provision of care post-discharge from the hospital.
f Focus on patient-centered, relationship-centered care through the Simulated Office Oral (SOO) program, which also prepares residents for the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) Exam.
f The Health Equity curriculum addresses Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), including Stand Up for Health workshops, and encourages residents to experience the role of Health Advocate.
f NEW 2024: HEALS rotation – Health Equity, Advocacy, Leadership, Social interventions residents and preceptors have the opportunity to focus on the social determinants of health that affect their patients and develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to meet the diverse needs of their current and future patient population.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
Faculty research and scholarly activity are strong both in clinical and educational research. The program produces well-regarded national and international scholarly activities
Inspired by the culturally diverse population they serve, common themes of primary care-oriented research at SHN include health equity, access to healthcare, and systems integration. Our researchers are also examining the emerging role of artificial intelligence in improving the quality and efficiency of primary care.
SHN Scholarly Activity (2020 onwards):
f Grants: 10 PI/co-PI grants, 6 peer-reviewed, 4 non-peerreviewed, 12 co-investigators
f Publications: 51 peer-reviewed, 4 non-peer-reviewed
f Research Focus: Health equity, access to care, systems integration, AI in primary care
f Research Leadership: Drs. Rosemarie Lall (Academic) & Nisha Ravichanidran (Community)
SINAI HEALTH
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW
(NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Residents: 13 PGY1, 12 PGY2, 1 PGY3
f Clerks: 19
f Chief: Dr. Erin Bearss
f Postgraduate Site Director: Dr. Natalie Morson
f Undergraduate Site Director: Dr. Yasna Mehdian
f Faculty/Professional Development Lead: Dr. Anita Greig
f Quality Improvement (QI) Lead: Dr. Sakina Walji
f Research/Academic Project Leads: Drs. Milena Forte (Research Director), Dr. Bojana Petrovic (Project Manager) and Dr. Sakina Walji (RAP)
f Wellness Leads: Drs. Natalie Morson & Erin Bearss
f Education Director: Dr. Daniela Keren
f Maternity Care Education Lead: Dr. Sabrina Kolker
f Mental Health Education Lead: Dr. Kristina Powles
SITE DESCRIPTION
Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH) in downtown Toronto is a leading 442-bed academic health sciences centre recognized for excellence in women’s and infants’ health, chronic disease management, oncology, emergency medicine, and
geriatrics. Serving a highly diverse population from across the Greater Toronto Area, MSH and its Vaughan site care for patients from varied ethno-cultural backgrounds and all age groups. The Mount Sinai Academic Family Health Team (MSAFHT) provides comprehensive, team-based primary care to approximately 20,000 patients across both sites, supported by an interdisciplinary team that includes social workers, nurses, midwives, a pharmacist, and specialists in geriatrics and psychiatry. With accessible online booking and a strong commitment to research and scholarly integration, the program exemplifies innovation, inclusivity, and academic excellence in patient care.
CURRICULAR AND SITE INNOVATIONS:
f Strong leadership and faculty with hospital, university, and professional organizational roles.
f Innovation in program initiatives: Wellness Curriculum, Ethics Curriculum, Family Medicine Longitudinal Survey, Triple C Curriculum
f Emphasis on professional identity, teaching excellence, and integrated care
POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION
f Horizontal model: highly centered in family medicine, as many of the off-service rotation preceptors are family physicians, including teachers in Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Obstetrics, Sports Medicine, and Palliative Care.
f Residents inherit and manage a patient practice from a graduating resident, developing professional identity and continuity of care as well as patient-physician relationships.
f Strong inter-professional collaboration and mentorship.
f Faculty provide comprehensive care and focused care in areas such as perinatal care, hospitalist medicine, emergency, home visits, and women’s health.
f Strong primary maternity care program—residents get an excellent primary care maternity experience in a well-supported environment.
f Dedicated education team supporting continuous program improvement—in addition to the Site Director, there is an Education Lead, Maternity Care Education Lead, Mental Health Education Lead, and a Resident Academic Project Lead who has significant time dedicated to the residency program and its continuous improvement.
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
f Faculty members are extensively involved in preclerkship teaching, including Integrated Clinical Experience, Case Based Learning, Health in Communities, and Portfolio.
f Expanded longitudinal clerkship continuity so clerks are paired with the same preceptors during their rotation and “half-day back” sessions for near-peer teaching between residents and clerks.
f Elective opportunities are now available at Mount Sinai.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION
f Needs assessed via informal dialogue between the Faculty Development Lead and the academic team.
f Community-based Department members’ faculty development needs are assessed by a needs assessment, focus groups, and ongoing email dialogue.
f Opportunities are communicated via quarterly Professional Development newsletter, in addition to inperson discussions.
f Group Faculty Development occurs quarterly through an evening of Professors Rounds held as an informal social event at a fellow colleague’s home whereby new and innovative Faculty Development concepts and themes are presented for dialogue.
f Through the Family History Quality Improvement Initiative, clinicians reported that collecting family history information was particularly valuable for physicians, especially for new patients. This information is now being integrated into the rostering process for new patients.
f Our residents contributed to multiple quality improvement projects, including establishing criteria for virtual appointments, streamlining urgent care bookings, improving follow-up for gestational diabetes, and standardizing resident documentation tools to support clinical care.
f In response to safety report data, the Family Health Team collaborated with the Emergency Procedures and Acute Resuscitation Committees to develop a new Sinai Health Medical Emergency Response Policy, conducted team mock scenarios, and provided hands-on AED and oxygen training for all PGY1 and PGY2 residents.
f Significant work continues in standardizing our electronic medical record (PSS) to reduce administrative burden and streamline care. Additionally, in response to ongoing vaccine safety concerns, nurses developed a new resident curriculum focused on hands-on immunization training, aiming to decrease incidents and improve patient safety.
f Select Innovative Programs:
Z Wellness Curriculum includes: HeArt Day for sharing and discussing artistic pieces, Medical Storytelling Rounds for fostering conversations, Resident Retreat for team building
Z Group Perinatal Care: resident-facilitated group sessions for providing prenatal care and education to patients
Z Home-Based Interdisciplinary Primary Care for Seniors (HIPS) Program: home-based care for seniors, resident involvement in tracking patient progress during their residency, and work with the HIPS team on their Geriatrics rotation.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
f The Research Program is dedicated to advancing excellence in primary healthcare practice and education through scholarship, quality improvement, and research.
f Focus: maternal/newborn care, education scholarship, primary care genomics, contemporary family medicine.
f Residents engaged in faculty-led or led their own independent research projects with faculty mentorship.
f Expanded research team: Dr. Milena Forte (Director), Dr. Bojana Petrovic (Project Manager)—with the goal of growing the program.
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW
(NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Learners: 27 residents
f Faculty Development Lead: Dr. Rahul Jain
f Postgraduate Site Directors: Dr. Purti Papneja & Dr. Mira Shuman
f Chief: Dr. Karen Fleming
SITE DESCRIPTION
f Founded in 1967, one of the first academic family medicine departments in Canada and the University of Toronto.
f Sunnybrook Academic Family Health Team (SAFHT) serves ~11,500 patients.
f Strong primary care focus, with six divisions: Family Practice Unit, Palliative Care, Long-Term Care, Family Medicine Obstetrics, St. John’s Rehab Hospitalists, and Holland Bone & Joint Program Hospitalists.
CURRICULAR AND SITE INNOVATIONS:
Learners can participate in unique programs such as:
f Family Medicine Obstetrics: Comprehensive resident involvement through pregnancy to postpartum in a softcall model.
f Procedures Clinic: Hands-on resident experience in minor procedures (CONNECT Clinic).
f Bridging Care Clinic: Supports unattached patients discharged from the Emergency Department.
f Vibrant Community Health integration: An additional teaching site and with administrative support off the Sunnybrook main capus.
f RAAM Clinic: Rapid Access Addiction Medicine services.
f EDI/Planetary Health: Equity, diversity, inclusion, social accountability, and environmental health initiatives.
f Neighbourhood Care Team / Homebound Care: Integrated care for seniors in Toronto Housing Corporation buildings.
POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION:
f Family Medicine residency emphasizes academic excellence, clinical reasoning, and holistic training.
f Key initiatives:
Z San Yas Training: a mandatory online module that ensures residents learn to provide culturally appropriate care to Indigenous peoples.
Z Virtual Care Competency Training Roadmap (ViCCTR): online modules that teach virtual care skills and clinical reasoning.
Z Ethics Curriculum: Case-based learning using the IDEA framework focusing on consent, capacity, medical errors, and end-of-life care taught by family medicine faculty, senior home-based program nurse, or ethicist.
f Social accountability is cultivated in residents with their participation in: home-based primary care, allowing for collaboration with community partners, providing care under supervision to residents in the Toronto Housing collaboration buildings, working with Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (RAAM) clinics and shared care clinics to support patients, the Tory Trauma Program, and the Bob Rumball Center to support diverse patient needs.
f Resident wellness initiatives: include dedicated social and wellness representatives to organize wellness activities and advocate for residents, virtual academic half-days, protected admin time, annual cottage retreats, wellness stipends to be used for wellness-based activities, and recognition for resident contributions to the department.
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION:
f Core clinical rotations for 15–20 clerks per year.
f Clerkship integrates inter-professional healthcare educators (nurses, dietitians, diabetes team), palliative care, RAAM clinic, and community-based experiences.
f Faculty pre-clerkship teaching contributions include Toronto Patient-Centered Curriculum (TOPIC), Integrated Clinical Experience (ICE), Portfolio, Health Science Research, as well as clerkship courses such
as Transition to Clerkship, Electives, and Transition to Residency.
f Support for faculty as teachers, researchers, administrators, and leaders.
f Programs for faculty development include Grand Rounds, DFCM Basics for New Faculty, DFCM Conferences, and Mentorship Network Committees.
f For new faculty: co-developed Professional Development Plans, the “Your Academic Neighbourhood” orientation resource, and mentorship opportunities.
f Numerous awards, promotions, and scholarly grants are celebrated at Sunnybrook, recognizing leadership and research excellence.
f Focus on opportunities for faculty to develop academic identity, leadership, and scholarly productivity.
QUALITY & INNOVATION:
f Quality Improvement Program (QIP) is submitted annually to Ontario Health and has included projects on diabetes care, sedative deprescribing, equity initiatives, environmentally sustainable care, and patient safety, with many of these projects leading to the development of tools and resources.
f The Patient and Family Advisory Committee (PFAC) is involved in QI projects and sustainability initiatives, allowing patient voices to be amplified and considered in decision-making processes.
f Resident Quality Improvement (QI) curriculum includes multiple modules and didactic sessions with 5-6 annual projects that foster inter-professional engagement amongst members of the family health team, including nurses, pharmacists, office coordinators, and diabetes educators.
f Patient safety initiatives include “Doing it Better” (DIB) rounds with systematic evaluations to identify and rectify potential system issues. Topics include medication errors, vaccine errors, and delayed diagnoses.
f Post-pandemic catch-up programs are offered for cancer screening and vaccines.
f Ongoing patient experience surveys guide service improvement (e.g., phone access initiatives).
f Division-specific Quality Improvement (QI) projects in palliative care, long-term care, St. John’s Rehab, and Holland Centre are currently working on addressing operational, clinical, and patient safety challenges.
f Challenges: Limited access to shared Quality Improvement Data Support Specialist (QIDSS) and a lack of time for project leadership from faculty.
f Opportunities: Greater dissemination of presentations, opportunities for residents to present their projects at conferences, and greater use of QIDSS to leverage cross-site QI expertise.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
f Faculty and residents engage in research and academic scholarship locally, nationally, and internationally.
f In future years, we plan for residents to move their QI projects forward to a PGY2 research project or present at a conference.
TORONTO EAST HOSPITAL NETWORK-
MICHAEL GARRON HOSPITAL
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Chief: Dr. Catherine L. Yu
f Postgraduate Co-Directors: Dr. Rajani Vairavanathan & Dr. Adam Kaufman
f Undergraduate Director: Dr. Meera Shah
f Site Education Leads:
Z 840 Coxwell Ave. Site – Dr. Eleanor Colledge (13 Family Physician Medical Doctors, 11 learners)
Z 1871 Danforth Ave. Site – Dr. Rachel Goldberg (12 Family Physician Medical Doctors, 8 learners)
Z Flemingdon Community Health Centre (FHC) Site –Dr. Denise Wong & Dr. Marina Aptekman (7 Family Physician Medical Doctors, 7 learners)
Z Health Access Thornclifee Park (HATP) Site – Dr. Elaine Cheng (7 Family Physician Medical Doctors, 2–4 learners)
f Faculty/Professional Development Lead: Dr. Jackie Bellaire
f Quality Improvement Lead: Dr. Blaise Clarkson
f Research/Academic Project Lead: Dr. Deanna Telner
f Family Physician Obstetrics Lead: Dr. Stephanie Godard
SITE DESCRIPTION
f Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) serves over 500,000 people in East Toronto, one of Canada’s most diverse regions.
f Hospital Stats: 529 beds, 651 physicians, 106,910 ER visits (+23% in 5 years), 2,603 OB deliveries annually, 23,026 inpatient stays annually.
f Ken and Marilyn Thomson Patient Care Centre (2023): 550,000 sq. ft., 215 inpatient beds, new outpatient clinics.
f New Carswell Family Centre for Medical Education (2023): new state-of-the-art hub featuring a large classroom, the Rands Family Simulation Centre, and nine call rooms to support immersive training for future physicians
Innovative and Clinical Programs
f Skills Training: Five-part procedural workshop series (Gynecology, Dermatology, Obstetrics, musculoskeletalMSK, Emergency).
f Simulation: Emergency Medicine Simulation Program, held four times per year.
f Teaching Development: “Teaching Residents to Teach” and Simulated Office Oral (SOO) Sessions.
f Interdisciplinary Care: Opportunities through South East Toronto Family Health Team (SETFHT) and other community programs
Residents at Toronto East Hospital Network (TEHN)–MGH benefit from a community-focused, learner-centred environment where education is prioritized, and training is supported by dedicated faculty and a wide range of clinical experiences.
f Focus: Community-based, learner-centred education with dedicated faculty and personalized supervision (1:1 ratio), including 60+ full-time and part-time family medicine teachers supported by specialists.
f Training: Procedural skills workshops, simulation sessions, hands-on training, including Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Program and Academic Half Days. Also features Family Practice Half Day Backs: Weekly sessions where residents manage their own patient panels at one of four community family practice sites.
f Community Network: Includes Michael Garron Hospital (MGH), South East Toronto Family Health Team (Coxwell site & Danforth site), Flemingdon Community Health Centre, Health Access Thorncliffe Park (HATP), and Health Access Taylor Massey (HATM).
f Program Scale: 32+ residents trained annually; 450+ graduates, over half remaining within TEHN–MGH/DFCM.
f Accreditation: Both South East Toronto Family Health Team (SETFHT) and Flemingdon Community Health Centre hold full Accreditation Canada status.
f Clinical Structure: Three 4-week Family Medicine blocks in each of the first and second years, with a continuity half-day during off-service rotations.
f Training Areas: Emergency, Obstetrics/Gynecology (Year 1 ward-based; Year 2 community).
f Interdisciplinary Focus: Collaboration with allied health professionals such as psychiatric consultants, nurse practitioners, dietitians, chiropodists, and social care providers.
f Excellence: High learner satisfaction and top choice among community teaching hospitals. Remains the #1 choice for Family Medicine training at a community teaching hospital.
f Base site for DFCM’s Integrated Communities Stream: PGY1 at MGH, PGY2 in rural settings.
f Faculty Recognition: Multiple teaching and emergency medicine awards received by faculty.
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
f Capacity: 18 medical students annually across seven community sites.
f Learning Model: Distributed, community-embedded education in equity-deserving settings serving patients with diverse health and social care needs.
f Training includes clerkship selectives/electives in Emergency Medicine, Palliative Care, Family Practice, Obstetrics, and Seniors’ Outreach Clinics.
f Sites: Flemingdon Community Health Centre, HATP, SETFHT (Coxwell/Danforth), Magenta Health, Albany Medical Clinic, VIVO Family Medicine.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION
f Regular needs assessments are conducted at each site by the Chief, Site Director, and Faculty Development Leads.
f Annual half-day Faculty Development Sessions and Education Grand Rounds have been hosted since 2020.
f Priorities: Academic promotion, mentorship, foundational training (expectation to complete BASICs program within 3 years of appointment), and workshops.
f Upcoming initiatives: Local mentorship for faculty, annual professional development program reviews, and an annual needs assessment to guide biannual inperson workshops.
PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS
f Partnerships: New collaborations with Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) School of Medicine and UTSC Scarborough Academy.
f Expansion: First postgraduate learners welcomed at Health Access Thorncliffe Park (HATP) in 2025.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY
f Resident Projects: All PGY2 residents complete a Research/Academic Project and present their poster at Research Day.
f Quality Improvement (QI) Projects: Team-based practicum with poster presentations. Practicum integrates online learning, project design, and implementation, concluding with a poster presentation reviewed by the QI education lead.
PUBLICATIONS
f Blom, Lee & Tai (2021): Collaborative publication highlighting innovations in family medicine education and interdisciplinary training.
f Green, Deering, Ng, Lee (2024): Collaborative publication on family practice treatment approaches to heat-related illness.
f Lies, Kelly & Vairavanathan (2024): Collaborative publication on how simulation training improves resident physicians’ confidence in managing firsttrimester bleeding in the emergency department
f Lies, Kelly & Vairavanathan (2024): Collaborative case report on post-partum headache presenting to the emergency department
ART OF THE POSSIBLE EDUCATION GRANTS
Faculty recipients include Drs. Bellaire, Lockyer, Lee, and Telner for education and research initiatives.
LOOKING FORWARD
f Priorities: Strengthen family medicine program infrastructure, expand interprofessional teams, and develop leadership capacity.
f Ensure that TEHN remains a leading site for communitybased family medicine education.
f Initiatives: Launch of Primary Care Access Clinic and mentorship for future system leaders to sustain growth.
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Residents: 21
f Clerks: 30
f Site Director: Dr. Nina Yashpal, (previously Dr. Kimberly Kent 2022-2025, and Dr. Melissa Graham)
f Quality Improvement (QI) Lead: Dr. Ali Damji
f Family Health Teaching Unit (FMTU) Faculty Members: 16
SITE DESCRIPTION
Credit Valley Hospital, part of Trillium Health Partners, is a major community-based acute care facility in. It offers a full range of primary and secondary care services, with regional programs in renal, maternal-child, oncology, and clinical genetics. The hospital has 442 beds, a 30,000 sq. ft. ambulatory care centre, and handles hundreds of thousands of emergency visits annually. As one of three sites under Trillium Health Partners, it serves Mississauga’s diverse population and provides comprehensive care from prenatal to geriatric stages, supported by interprofessional teams and robust teaching facilities for undergraduate and postgraduate learners.
CURRICULAR AND SITE INNOVATIONS:
f Introduced and expanded horizontal learning experiences in dermatology, adult and adolescent
psychiatry, procedures, prenatal/women’s care, and palliative care clinics.
f Integrated family medicine across hospital rotations (hospitalist medicine, palliative, emergency, obstetrics).
f Developed the Newborn Assessment Team, improving early newborn care and connecting families to primary care—recipient of multiple awards and featured on Global News.
f Piloted Home Visits and Long-Term Care (LTC) electives under Dr. Nina Yashpal and Dr. Sahra Gedleh, supported by an Art of the Possible grant and recognized for innovation.
f Enhanced Palliative and Home-Based Care for patients diagnosed with malignant and nonmalignant conditions, as well as advanced neurologic diseases. This care allows for longitudinal learning, interprofessional collaboration and has been presented at provincial forums.
f Strengthened bilingual care services for underserved French-speaking and newcomer populations.
f Launched a Foundations Block for PGY1s to orient new residents to the family medicine teaching unit, emphasizing interprofessional collaboration and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) optimization and collaboration with a large range of interprofessional healthcare providers.
The Credit Valley Hospital site offers medical clerks handson experience through the Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) and community practices near the hospital. Clerks rotate through two to three practices serving diverse patient populations and work closely with family medicine residents. Unique features include video cameras for observation and feedback, and a bilingual Family Health Team site for French-speaking clerks. Mandatory experiences include participation in a COPD clinic, a half-day in palliative care, and a prenatal clinic. While there are no formal on-call requirements, clerks may join preceptors for hospital duties, obstetrical deliveries, or home visits. The program emphasizes flexibility, encouraging clerks to share their interests so tailored learning opportunities can be arranged.
The postgraduate curriculum at Credit Valley Hospital emphasizes comprehensive family medicine training through a mix of hospital-based and community experiences. Residents rotate through the FMTU and affiliated practices, gaining exposure to diverse patient populations and a wide scope of care, including obstetrics, geriatrics, chronic disease management, and palliative care. The curriculum integrates ambulatory care, inpatient medicine, and interprofes-
sional collaboration, leveraging the hospital’s regional programs in renal care, oncology, and maternal-child health. Residents participate in structured learning activities such as academic half-days, case-based teaching, and procedural skills workshops, while mentorship and tailored electives allow customization based on career goals. This approach ensures graduates are well-prepared for comprehensive family practice in both urban and suburban settings.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION:
f Significant faculty growth and recruitment of new leaders:
Z Dr. Deema Couchman – Obstetrics and Gynecology teaching
Z Dr. Ali Damji – Quality Improvement (QI) lead, former Primary Care Division Head
Z Dr. Sahra Gedleh – Clerkship Site Director, Long Term Care (LTC) curriculum innovator and award recipient
Z Dr. Karina Prucnal – Associate Program Director, DFCM 50th Anniversary Award recipient
Z Dr. Melissa Graham – Program Director, Academic Fellowship Program, Postgraduate leadership award recipient
Z Dr. Sandra Totounji – Academic Half Day Lead and bilingual physician
Z Dr. James Pencharz – Ontario Health Team (OHT) Primary Care Lead, Regional Family Physician of the Year (2020)
f Faculty actively engaged in leadership and professional development. e.g., New and Evolving Academic Leaders (NEAL) Program and Leadership Masterclass.
f Appointment of Program Consultant Carleene Burrell, improving scheduling, communication, and faculty onboarding.
f Site leadership evolved from Dr. Melissa Graham to Dr. Nina Yashpal (current Site Director).
f Creation of an Executive Leadership Committee to align academic, hospital, and departmental goals.
PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS:
f Strong collaboration with hospital specialists and Trillium Health Partners committees, especially within geriatrics, palliative care, hospitalist and emergency medicine.
f Increased cross-site collaboration with the Summerville Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) in psychiatry, addictions, and research.
f Active participation in DFCM and Trillium governance bodies.
f Planning for rotation redesign and primary care reform to improve patient attachment and system integration.
f Future planning for a Women’s and Children’s Hospital at Credit Valley is underway, with leadership input into rotation redesign and curriculum development.
f The residency program is set to play a role in primary care reform and attachment of patients in the community at large who have no access to a family physician.
The Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) aims to:
f Continue aligning education with primary care system reforms
f Sustain quality improvement through data and feedback
f Expand community partnerships and innovative care models
f Maintain its leadership role in family medicine education and community health
f Our vision is to remain at the forefront of Family Medicine training, contributing to the health and wellbeing of our Mississauga community and beyond.
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW
(NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Residents: 20 residents (21 as of January 2026)
f Clerks: 30 clerks
f Family Medicine Teaching Unit Faculty: 12
f Faculty at the Summerville Family Health Team: 17
f Interim Chief: Dr. Abhishek Narayan
f Interim Academic Lead Family Medicine Teaching Unit: Dr. Bachir Tazkarji
f Postgraduate Program Director: Dr. Lina Al-Imari
f Undergraduate Program Director: Dr. Evangeline Seganathy
f Faculty Development Lead: Dr. Ammar Bookwala
f Quality Improvement Program Director: Dr. Rosy Zafar
f Physician Research Lead: Dr. Farhan Asrar
f Academic Half Day Coordinator: Dr. Anu Joneja
SITE DESCRIPTION
Trillium Health Partners - Mississauga Hospital is situated in the heart of the city’s south end. Mississauga is the sixth largest city in Canada and is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the nation. The Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) at Mississauga Hospital is one of a five-site group called Summerville Family Health Team.
f Located in one of Canada’s most diverse and fastgrowing regions, Mississauga Hospital serves a population exceeding 1.2 million with significant cultural and linguistic diversity.
f The Mississauga Hospital site alone provides 827 acute, rehabilitation, and chronic care beds and houses a 24-hour Emergency Care Centre, which sees 96,000 ER visits annually.
f The hospital offers regional programs in advanced cardiac surgery, geriatric mental health services, hepato-pancreato-biliary services, neurosurgery, palliative care, primary percutaneous coronary intervention, sexual assault and domestic violence, specialized geriatric services, stroke, and vascular services.
f Home of the Colonel Harland Sanders Family Care Centre, Canada’s first hospital-based comprehensive women’s and children’s services hub.
f One of the largest birthing centres in the region.
f Provides rural residents the opportunity to teach and mentor the clerks.
f Mississauga Hospital offers an exceptionally supportive and well-structured administrative environment. The Curriculum Committee integrates resident feedback into program design and assessment, ensuring continuous quality improvement.
f Home Visits Program: Each resident is assigned two homebound patients at the start of residency and follows them throughout training.
f Home Palliative Program: Runs in parallel with the home visits program, enhancing continuity of care for patients who become palliative.
f Integrated Specialty Clinics: Memory and cognitive disorders clinic, COPD clinic, diabetes clinic, and psychiatry shared care clinic delivered within the teaching unit.
f The Mississauga Hospital Family Medicine Residency follows a two-year horizontal curriculum emphasizing continuity of care.
f Residents manage their own patient panels (~150 patients) throughout training, maintaining ongoing relationships while completing 8–12 specialty rotations annually.
f The program integrates flexibility for personalized learning objectives and emphasizes real-world family practice experience. Specialty departments include emergency medicine, internal medicine, continuing care services, diagnostic imaging, neuro/MSK, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery.
f A new Heart House Hospice partnership will soon expand training in hospice and palliative care and provide access to long-term and hospice palliative care for the people of Mississauga.
f The Mississauga Hospital provides a growing range of undergraduate teaching opportunities through collaboration with the Mississauga Academy of Medicine (MAM).
f Residents and faculty teach medical students in Foundations, clerkship seminars, and formal undergraduate medical education curriculum, and mentor learners through the Transition to Residency Program and shared academic sessions.
f The site fosters integration between undergraduate and postgraduate education through joint teaching, research events, and academic half-days.
f THP’s Quality Improvement (QI) curriculum, part of the DFCM longitudinal program, trains first-year residents in practical QI methodologies and includes a mandatory practicum.
f The Mississauga Hospital QI program, established in 2011, has produced numerous award-winning projects—most notably a 2024 DFCM Project Award for work on improving opioid documentation. Residents collaborate with allied health professionals on interprofessional QI initiatives, contributing to both scholarly output and enhanced patient care. Furthermore, our site is part of a larger family health team group, and the whole group has quality improvement metrics and a separate committee that enables our residents to collaborate with allied health professionals on several of their projects.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
Research at THP is actively supported, with faculty leading multiple evidence-based practice publications and grant-funded projects. Notable recent works by Dr. Bachir Tazkarji and collaborators have explored cannabis and selfharm, adolescent suicide screening, HIV prevention, and dementia caregiver education. Dr. Azza Eissa received a grant for developing digital tools to support advanced care planning with racialized communities.
f Javeria Pervez & Bachir Tazkarji – What are the most effective screening tools for adolescents at risk of suicide?
Evidence-Based Practice, January 2024
f Mohamed Z. Atcha & Bachir Tazkarji – Is cannabis use associated with greater self-harm in patients with mood disorders?
Evidence-Based Practice, November 2023
f Tang H & Bachir Tazkarji – Is pre-exposure prophylaxis
effective and feasible for preventing HIV transmission in adolescent males?
Evidence-Based Practice, 2021; 24(12):33-34. doi:10.1097/ EBP.0000000000001397
f Andrew N. Rouble & Bachir Tazkarji – Is cannabidiol an effective treatment of anxiety in adults?
Evidence-Based Practice, June 2021
f Amy Reinhart & Bachir Tazkarji – In geriatric adults with newly diagnosed dementia, does psychoeducation for their caregivers decrease caregiver burden or result in clinical improvement in the patient’s dementia?
Evidence-Based Practice, June 2017
f Approved Grant: Deliberative Dialogue to Co-design a Digital Technology to Facilitate Serious Illness Conversations and Advanced Care Planning with Racialized Populations in Primary Care – Dr. Azza Eissa
f Art of Possible Grant: One since 2020
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Learners and Faculty:
f Residents: 24
f Clerks: 14 clerks annually
f Faculty Development Lead: Dr. Judy Thompson
f Quality & Innovation Program Director: Drs. Linda Weber
f Quality & Innovation Education Coordinator: Dr. Anna Holland
f Residency Research Coordinator: Dr. Alice Ordean
f Chief, Department of Family Medicine: Dr. Daphne Williams
f Postgraduate Site Director: Dr. Dana Newman
f Undergraduate Site Directors: Drs. Sofia Khan & Kasy
Soare
f Faculty: ~70 DFCM faculty, 63 credentialed at SJHC (21 Academic Family Health Team (FHT), 42 communitybased)
SITE DESCRIPTION
f 426-bed community teaching hospital in West Toronto serving ~500,000 population.
f Diverse patient population includes long-standing Polish, Ukrainian, Portuguese communities, newcomers, refugees, young families, and patients with mental health and addiction needs.
f Academic Family Health Team (FHT) provides primary care to ~7,000 patients, 40% high-needs, staffed by an
interprofessional team including physicians, Nurse Practitioner (NP), pharmacist, social worker, mental health worker, dietitian, nurses, and Healthcare Aid (HCA).
f Our Academic FHT’s strategic vision is to be ‘Leaders in collaborative, integrated, community-based academic primary care in Toronto’s west end.’
CURRICULAR AND SITE INNOVATIONS:
Division-Based Educational Highlights:
f Home Visits: Residents follow homebound patients; Care of the Elderly MD provides supervision.
f Palliative Care: All-FM-staffed; provides core and elective learner training.
f Addiction Medicine: Mandatory rotation, integrated research within this rotation.
f Family Medicine Obstetrics: 13–16 Family Medicine physicians, strong low-risk delivery teaching, and fellowship opportunities.
Site Strengths:
f Strong learner support: small site size, close departmental relationships, and an effective Competence Committee enable early identification and assistance for learners in difficulty.
f Resident teaching opportunities: Residents gain experience supervising clerks, supported by structured resident-as-teacher guidelines.
f Balanced training: Well-designed rotations ensure strong exposure to core family medicine with minimal competition from other learners on specialty services.
f Excellent learning environment: A welcoming community teaching hospital serving a diverse patient population, affiliated with a leading university.
f Efficient administration: A modern online scheduling platform streamlines academic seminar coordination and time-off requests.
POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION:
f Broad-based, community-oriented family medicine training; strengths in:
Z Addiction medicine (mandatory rotations)
Z Palliative care (hospital and community)
Z Home-based primary care
Z Low-risk family medicine obstetrics
f Residents maintain continuity “mini practice” with a dedicated preceptor for 2 years, allowing for longitudinal care.
f Dedicated Residency Research Coordinator and our newly created Q&I Education Coordinator ensure scholarly activity and practice improvement are integral.
f Structured academic curriculum with seminars, resident input, robust evaluation.
f Electives offered: PGY1 – one 4-week elective; PGY2 –three 4-week electives plus flexible rotations.
f Resident voices are central: Monthly meetings with the Site Director, biannual 1:1s, and active participation in the Site Education Committee.
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION:
f Hosts 14 third-year clerks annually for core family medicine rotation.
f Learning opportunities in community/hospital-based clinics, palliative care, addictions medicine, lowrisk Obstetrics, and home visits. (Including new site, Sherburne Health Centre, focusing on newcomer and trans health.)
f Structured interprofessional involvement with nurses, dieticians, and social workers, as well as mentorship programs (Clerk–Resident mentorship).
f Expanded Undergraduate Medical Education teaching: Clinical Skills (Year 1), Family Medicine Longitudinal Experience (FMLE), Family Medicine Week (Year 2), as well as electives in palliative and addiction care.
f Achievements: Consistently above-average clerkship evaluations, multiple teaching excellence awards, and many clerks have returned as SJHC residents.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION:
f Faculty Development needs are determined through residency program meetings, the Competency Committee, and staff meetings.
f Quarterly faculty development sessions are tailored to site needs, with the help of U of T DFCM Continuing Professional Development programming.
f Support for career growth: 7 junior promotions, 34 new faculty appointments (19 community-based) over 2020–2025.
f Recognition and support for scholarly activity and teaching awards with an active awards committee.
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT (QI) EDUCATION & SCHOLARSHIP:
f Mandatory longitudinal Q&I curriculum for PGY1 residents. Resulting practicum projects are presented at annual Q&I Fest.
f New Quality Improvement (QI) Education Coordinator (2024) provides resident coaching.
f Resident-led patient safety analyses of patient safety incidents.
f Quality Improvement (QI) Pitch Party where PGY1 present their proposals with Family Health Team.
f Some resident presentations have been given at the
Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO) and DFCM Conference, as well as other venues.
Social Accountability & Health Equity:
f Social Accountability/Health Equity Committee with resident participation drives equity-focused programming.
f Learners contribute to health equity questionnaires, literacy programs, gender/sexual diversity initiatives, green clinic (accessibility work) projects, and Black History Month programming.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
f Resident/faculty research supported by the Residency Research Coordinator and the University of Toronto Practice- and Community-based LEarning and Research Network (UPLEARN) representative.
f New Research Interest Group (RIG) to promote faculty collaboration and mentorship.
f Research strengths: Addiction Medicine, Health Systems Research.
f Resident/faculty peer-reviewed publications in addiction medicine, health equity, and public health.
Digital Health:
f Training with AI Scribe, PrescribeIT, eReferrals, eConsults, and OCEAN patient communications.
LOOKING FORWARD:
f Addressing space constraints and faculty burnout due to hospital deficits.
f Major hospital redevelopment project in developing a state-of-the-art patient tower (~10 years) requiring relocation of the academic Family Health Team (FHT).
f Goal: Consolidate two sites (Hospital and Roncesvalles site) into one renovated location to accommodate learners, faculty, and an expanded patient population.
f Expand patient attachment (1,000–1,200 new patients) and interprofessional hires.
f Future focus on research growth (possible Primary Care Research Chair in Addiction Medicine), digital health, equity-focused education, and wellness initiatives.
UNITY HEALTH TORONTO - ST. MICHAEL’S HOSPITAL
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Program Leadership & Learners:
f Residents: 33
f Clerks: 30
f Chief: Dr. Karen Weyman
f Deputy Chief: Dr. Curtis Handford
f Postgraduate Co-Site Directors: Drs. Melanie Beswick & Shelby Olesovsky
f Undergraduate Site Director: Dr. Caroline Jeon
f Faculty Development Lead: Dr. Abbas Ghavam-Rassoul
f Interprofessional Education Lead: Dr. Chadwick Chung
f Quality Improvement (QI) Site Director: Dr. Noor Ramji
f Digital Health Lead: Dr. Rajesh Girdhari
f Equity & Social Interventions Lead: Dr. Gary Bloch
f Research Director: Dr. Ann Burchell
f Academic Project Lead: Dr. Nav Persaud
f Wellness Representative: Dr. Yuliya Rackal
SITE DESCRIPTION
St. Michael’s Hospital (SMH) DFCM delivers exemplary clinical care, education, research, and innovation in urban primary care. SMH is recognized as a leader in the areas of cardiovascular disease, trauma, and inner-city health.
f Equity-focused care and social determinants integration are central to all activities.
f Faculty, staff, residents, and patients collaborate to achieve excellence in teaching, quality improvement, research, and community engagement.
f SMH remains a national and international leader in interprofessional education, primary care research, and socially accountable clinical programs.
f Tertiary care teaching hospital in downtown Toronto serving high- and low-income populations.
f Part of the Unity Health Toronto network (with St. Joseph’s & Providence Healthcare).
f Largest Academic Family Health Team (AFHT) in Ontario: 270 staff, including 83 physicians, 7 Nurse Practitioners, serving >50,000 patients (~50% in lowest income quintiles).
f Expertise in the following areas in response to local community needs: HIV care, addiction medicine, LGBTQ2S health, as well as specific care of homeless and under-housed individuals, care for those with significant mental health issues, homebound older adults, youth, and newcomer populations.
f Five distinct clinics (residents assigned to one for their 2-year training):
Z Family Practice Unit (61 Queen St.): Downtown core, diverse and complex patients such as newcomers, those experiencing homelessness, and those with severe and persistent mental illnesses.
Z WeST Clinic: Known for its HIV care (one of the largest in North America) and addiction medicine. Patients include the LGBTQ2S community, newcomers, homebound older adults, and those with severe mental illness. The site also houses the AFFIRM clinic, a gender affirming consultation service, and supports
the Home Visit Team, an interdisciplinary group supporting homebound older adults.
Z St. Lawrence Health Centre: Patients include older adults, homebound older seniors, newcomers, those with severe and persistent mental illnesses, as well as those with intellectual and developmental disabilities from local group homes.
Z Health Centre at 80 Bond St.: Patients from a highly diverse population and including newcomers, urban professionals, newcomers, underprivileged patients, as well as those with mental and physical health problems.
Z Sumac Creek Health Centre (Regent Park): The Newest clinic that serves Low-income newcomers, patients with severe substance abuse disorders. Also home to the SUM Clinic Team, which provides substance use management using a variety of therapies for patients.
f Patient Advisory Council (PFAC): 8 patient members; advises on communications, clinic flow, and social determinants advocacy. Three goals;
Z Developing patient-informed and patient-generated communications materials, such as a patient newsletter.
Z Contributing to improvements in clinic flow and space, including standardized accommodations for patients with disabilities and inclusive visual materials in waiting areas.
Z Collaborating with AFHT staff on advocacy initiatives related to social determinants of health and creating roles for lived experience advisors on the team’s Social Determinants of Health Committee.
f Additional councils: Youth Council (12) and Older Adults Council (8) – co-govern social prescribing programs.
f Patient Partner Network: 136 members supporting strategic initiatives, policies, and committees.
POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION
f Comprehensive care across all ages, life stages, and conditions.
f Residents maintain longitudinal patient practices and rotate in hospital and community clinics, working collaboratively with their staff preceptors and the St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team (SMHAFHT).
f Graduates of the program work in academic family practices, community practices (urban/suburban/ rural), urgent care facilities, long-term care facilities, specialized clinical care (HIV, addictions, sports medicine, emergency medicine), as well as administrative and leadership.
f Strong academic support from internationally renowned faculty for their academic achievements.
f Program Enhancements: clinic-based surgical selective rotation, monthly procedural skills clinics led by our family physicians, shifting from a block to a horizontal model to improve the relational and management continuity experience for the resident, and a month-long orientation block (Foundations Block-now at all DFCM training sites).
f Emphasis on resident wellness through resident wellness representatives, regular check-ins, mentorship, exam preparation (Simulated Office Orals practice sessions, mock Objective Structured Clinical Examinations), and career support from department members in the form of fireside chats with the Site Chief in PGY2.
f Core site for the University of Toronto clerkship program; 5–6 clerks per block.
f Residents supervise and teach clerks.
f Seminars and interprofessional teaching sessions run routinely with contributions from site faculty. Topics include chronic disease, low back pain, motivational interviewing, addiction medicine, sexually transmitted infections, and intimate partner violence.
f FitzGerald Academy-core location for pre-clerkship undergraduate medical learning and provides opportunities for residents to teach lectures and seminars and demonstrate skills.
f Elective opportunities for learning about social determinants of health, equity, and inclusive care.
f Quarterly mandatory Teacher’s Meetings are overseen by the Integrated Education Committee (IEC). Topics cover interprofessional development.
f Site Faculty Development Lead offers individual mentorship, plans Teacher’s Meetings, and provides learning resources to faculty.
f The Integrated Education Committee (IEC) generates a yearly needs assessment via faculty surveys and utilizes these findings, as well as resident/student feedback, to identify faculty development needs.
f Emphasis on advancing interprofessional teaching skills and DFCM education standards.
Interprofessional Education (IPE)
f Established the Interprofessional Education Committee in 2005 to focus on enhancing collaborative competencies for health professionals and improving understanding of different health professionals.
f Curriculum embedded in clinical, case-based learning with key principles being;
Z Absence of hierarchical structures between health professions.
Z Development of initiatives through group consensus and cooperation.
Z Program content is driven by learners’ needs and the identification of curricular gaps suitable for interprofessional teaching.
Z Embedding education on collaborative competencies within clinical, case-based content.
Z Faculty support through education, development, and awareness of current evidence on IPE.
Z A formal and evolving evaluative structure to continuously improve programs based on feedback from learners and instructors.
f The Quality Improvement Program at the St. Michael’s Hospital site is nationally/internationally renowned and embedded into everyday practice, resulting in an exceptional learning experience in this area.
f We offer a Longitudinal Quality Improvement (QI) curriculum for PGY1 residents with a mandatory practicum.
f Team-based, interprofessional QI projects address patient-centered outcomes, equity, safety, and efficiency guided by the Quality Steering Committee.
f Key initiatives of our Quality Improvement Plan: increasing cervical cancer screening, expanding collection of health equity data, diabetes management, dietitian support for children, safe hospital-to-home transitions, smoking cessation, and environmentally sustainable practices.
f We have integrated digital health initiatives with the digital health committee, whose projects focus on online booking, AI-assisted scribing, eReferrals, and an asthma decision-support.
f National and global leader in integrating social determinants of health (SDOH) into primary care; serving Toronto’s downtown east, the team focuses on addressing health inequities through patient care, teaching, research, and community engagement.
f During the COVID-19 pandemic, the team rapidly implemented wellness checks, community resource mapping, and financial support for vulnerable patients.
f SEED for Seniors program in 2023—an innovative, donorfunded social prescribing initiative connecting isolated older adults to community supports, guided by a Community Advisory Council and Indigenous Wellness specialists.
f Maintains unique partnerships with Canadian Medical Chiropractic College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Legal Aid Ontario, and Toronto Public Health, enhancing access to interdisciplinary and equitable care.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
f Largest primary care research program among Ontario family medicine sites.
f The department’s mission is reflected in the research conducted by its members to improve health through advocacy, equity, and world-leading primary healthcare, teaching, and research
f Areas: global health, social determinants, Indigenous health, HIV, chronic diseases, and medical education.
f 2020–2024 achievements:
Z $141M in new research funding across 163 grants.
Z 623 peer-reviewed publications, 1,039 presentations.
Z 706 media appearances.
f Research informs policy and practice locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally.
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW
(NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Program Leadership & Learners
f Residents: 39 (including 7 PGY3)
f Department Head: Dr. Benjamin Kaasa
f Postgraduate Site Director: Dr. Francesco Leanza
f Undergraduate Site Director: Dr. Natasha Mirchandani
f Faculty Development Lead: Dr. Amita Singwi
f Quality Improvement Lead: Dr. Nitai Gelber
f QI Resident Projects Lead: Dr David Kepecs
f Research/Academic Project Lead: Dr. Catherine Ji
SITE DESCRIPTION
f Two Family Health Team (FHT) sites:
Z Bathurst (West Downtown Toronto)
Z Garrison Creek (St. Clair & Oakwood)
f Serve collectively ~32,000 patients.
f Neighbourhoods include Kensington-Chinatown, Little Italy, Trinity-Bellwoods, Little Portugal, Annex, St. Clair West, and Oakwood.
f Diverse population: higher than average amount of seniors, immigrants (Mediterranean, Eastern European, East Asian), newcomers, and non-English speakers.
f Academic focus: Pre-clerkship, clerkship, postgraduate, and enhanced skills; competency-based, CanMEDS-FM & Triple C aligned.
f Team trains up to 24 family medicine residents and 7 enhanced skills family medicine residents at the
Bathurst site. As of July 1, 2025, the Garrison Creek site is training 8 family medicine residents a year.
SITE
f Modern exam rooms with AV technology.
f Multidisciplinary team made up of nurses, social workers, pharmacists, dietitians, chiropodists, health promoters, an Occupational Therapist, an RT, and a physiotherapist.
f Services are primarily in English; interpreters are available.
f Strong continuity of care and education via longitudinal resident patient rosters.
f Flexibility for elective educational experiences tailored to resident learning goals.
f Highly experienced, multidisciplinary faculty with research expertise.
f Emphasis on communication, professionalism, reflective practice through Partners in Care (direct observation through live video recording) and Resident Reflection Rounds (skill discussion and development).
f Dedicated research and quality improvement (QI) infrastructure supporting internal and external studies with rich research opportunities for residents.
f Residents benefit from comprehensive mentorship, high-caliber teaching, and exposure to diverse patient populations.
POSTGRADUATE
f Horizontal (longitudinal) curriculum: Residents maintain their own roster of ~150–200 patients over 2 years.
f 34 clinician teachers, 5 clinician investigators/scientists, 13 health professions educators.
f Exposure to interprofessional Family Health Team (FHT) members, including a respiratory therapist, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, social worker, dieticians, pharmacists, nurses, and nurse practitioners.
f Educational program supported by a UHN-based Psychiatrist & Pediatrician involved in patient care.
f Diverse patient population: professionals, young families, individuals facing mental health issues, addiction issues, chronic disease, low socio-economic status, and resettlement challenges.
f Additional FM experiences: Family Inpatient Service, Home-Based Care, Family Medicine Obstetrics, Sports Medicine, Procedures Clinic, with an Addiction Medicine clinic to come in 2026.
f Off-service rotations supported by specialists and family medicine teachers: General Internal Medicine, Palliative Care, Psychiatry, Emergency Medicine, Orthopedics, Rheumatology.
f Faculty teach pre-clerkship courses at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine on a rotational basis.
f 2024–25: hosted 24 third-year core rotation students, 21 fourth-year electives students.
f Residents actively participate in Family Medicine Longitudinal Experience (FMLE)-working with students in the Family Medicine Clinics.
f One of the pilot sites of Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LiNC) participates in summer student programs, which introduce undergraduate medical students to the specialty of family medicine early in their undergraduate experience.
f Leadership in undergraduate education through faculty leads in courses and student engagement.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION:
f Joint effort between the site Faculty Development Lead, Site Department Head, and Site Directors for postgraduate and undergraduate education.
f Teachers are surveyed annually at Teacher’s Meeting to identify priority learning objectives for the year
f Faculty development ideas brought from the Faculty Development representative, Department Head, or PG Site Director based on needs identified by residents (e.g., based on rotation and teaching evaluations, or feedback provided at Progress Reviews, by Lead Residents or other meetings involving the Site Director and resident group).
f Teacher’s Meetings (~6/year) for all faculty for formal learning, mentorship, teambuilding and professional development.
f Faculty encouraged to engage in Continuing Medical Education (CME) and recognized during Merit Reviews (granted 2 weeks to participate in professional development every year).
f The Scholarship Committee supports faculty research and educational scholarship.
QUALITY & INNOVATION
f Longitudinal Quality Improvement (QI) curriculum for first-year residents (mandatory, with practicum).
f Residents receive dedicated QI project support (research associates, data access, supervision).
f QI projects often develop into publications or receive national awards.
f Collaborative initiatives with Toronto Western FHT in quality and safety.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
f Well-established research program with 5 core clinician scientists/investigators.
f Formal research program established in 2020 with a designated funded research lead. Supports physicianled research beyond clinical sites.
f Focus areas: using data to support population health, vaccine effectiveness and safety, Indigenous health with a focus on chronic disease and tuberculosis, COVID impact on primary care, AI in primary care, health informatics, long COVID, and routine care (childhood immunizations, mental health, diabetes, hypertension).
f Provides residents with rich opportunities for research projects, and there is a hope to expand the research program going forward.
Scholarly Activities (2024–2025)
f Core researchers: 5
f Active research/Quality Improvement (QI) projects: 6
f Resident QI projects: 4
f Resident research projects: 4
f Active grants: 26
f Conference presentations: 15
f Peer-reviewed publications: 50
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Program Leadership & Learners
f Residents: 27 (including PGY3s)
f Clerks: 20–25 clinical clerks/year
f Department Head: Dr. Dominik Nowak (2025–), formerly Dr. Ruth Heisey (2014–2025)
f Associate Department Head & Medical Director: Dr. Dara Maker
f Postgraduate Site Directors: Drs. Melinda Wu & Bradley Lichtblau
f Undergraduate Site Director: Dr. Nikita Patel
f Faculty/Professional Development Lead: Dr. Carrie Schram
f Maternity Care Lead: Dr. Diana Hsiang
f Digital Quality Leads: Drs. Jonah Schermbrucker & Vanessa Rambihar
f Quality Improvement (QI) Lead: Dr. Susie Kim
f Research Director: Dr. Noah Ivers
f Resident Research Lead: Dr. Sheryl Spithoff
f Wellness Lead: Dr. Bradley Lichtblau
f Safety Lead: Dr. Carol Kitai
SITE DESCRIPTION
f Leading Canadian academic ambulatory hospital, globally recognized for women’s health.
f Primary care population: >80,000 patient visits/year, diverse urban population.
f Emphasis on academic integration, combining clinical care, education, and research.
f Focus on ambulatory care and community-based comprehensive care, minimizing hospital stays.
f The department embodies academic excellence by seamlessly weaving together clinical practice, education, and research to improve health outcomes for all.
f Integrated education for Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) & Post Graduate Medical Education (PGME) learners.
f Strong focus on equity, cultural safety, and wellness.
f Leading research program with high impact and resident involvement.
f Innovative clinical programs addressing diverse and underserved populations.
f Collaborative, supportive faculty culture fostering professional growth and mentorship.
f Family Practice Maternity Care (“The Family Way” Obstetrical Group):
Z Comprehensive multidisciplinary maternity care provided to low-risk pregnant patients provides hands-on Obstetrical skills training for residents at multiple antenatal clinics in collaboration with Mount Sinai and University Health Network.
f Crossroads Clinic (Refugee Health):
Z Provides essential primary care for newly arrived refugees; >7,000 patients served since 2011. A robust teaching and research program with over 41 publications, 560 presentations, training over 250 learners, and a biennial educational initiative. The Refugee Primer, brings leading faculty to share best practices.
f Bay Centre for Birth Control:
Z One of Canada’s leading sexual and reproductive clinics since 1973. The clinician team provides patient care and learner teaching in reproductive health, contraception, STI care, and abortion care.
f Gender Affirming Care Clinic (2025):
Z Provides vital, inclusive, comprehensive care and an essential educational resource for learners and the community.
f Culture of collaboration and mentorship among physicians
f Leaders in teaching, research, innovation, advocacy, and health system change.
f Commitment to equity and inclusion, e.g., first Ontario Hospital to launch formalized Black Health Plan (2025).
f Specialists provide primarily ambulatory care, aligning with family medicine training.
EDUCATION (UNDEGRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE)
f A Cohesive and Integrated Training Environment: Residents have a “home base” at WCH, fostering a sense of belonging and enabling mentorship and continuity.
f Learning Across Stages of Training: integrated postgraduate and undergraduate medical programs, medical students and residents learn together, and learners have the opportunity to further develop their pedagogical skills through the Teaching Residents to Teach program.
f Prioritizing Resident Support: Weekly SOS (“Second Opinion & Support”) Rounds, which foster peer support.
f Advancing Equity & Cultural Safety: Structured sessions for residents using Expect Respect and a Safe Education (ERASE) framework training to prepare residents to navigate challenging situations in clinical settings.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION:
f Faculty development is a strategic priority, ensuring that clinician teachers and scholars are supported throughout their careers.
f Annual needs assessment guides faculty development initiatives.
f Accredited rounds are held to improve teaching, evaluation, and reflective practice.
f Interdepartmental collaboration through joint rounds (e.g., Hidden Curriculum).
f Tailored support for academic promotion and career development.
WCH DFCM Faculty Serving at the University of Toronto and Systems Leadership Roles:
f Dr. Danielle Martin: Chair, DFCM, University of Toronto
f Dr. Batya Grundland: Associate Postgraduate Program Director, Curriculum and Remediation, DFCM, University of Toronto
f Dr. Noah Iver: Canada Research Chair in the Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice; Interim Vice-Chair Quality and Innovation (2023-2024), DFCM, University of Toronto
f Dr. Aisha Lofters: Chair in Implementation Science, Peter Gilgan Centre for Women’s Cancers, Women’s College Hospital; Provincial Primary Care Lead, Cancer Screening, Ontario Health
f Dr. Lynn Wilson: Vice Dean, Clinical and Faculty Affairs, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
f Dr. Dominik Nowak: President (2024-2025), Ontario Medical Association
f Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya: Frigon Blau Chair in Family Medicine Research, Women’s College Hospital
f Dr. Cynthia Whitehead: BMO Financial Group Chair in Health Professions Education Research, University
Health Network; Director, Wilson Centre for Education Research
f Dr. Dara Maker: Board Director, Mid-West Toronto Family Practice Network
f Dr. Kieran Moore: Chief Medical Officer of Health, Ontario
f Dr. Viola Antao: Mentorship Lead, DFCM
f Dr. Nicholas Pimlott: Scientific Editor, Canadian Family Physician
f Dr. Hemen Shukla: PGME Faculty Lead, Internal Reviews, DFCM, University of Toronto
QUALITY & INNOVATION
f Quality Improvement (QI) curriculum: Mandatory for first-year residents with practicum.
f Patient & Family Advisory Committee (PFAC): established and has been integrated into clinic leadership to guide clinic policies and co-design care experiences and collect Patient Experience Surveys.
f Patient Experience Surveys collected social determinants of health data to improve equity and better understand and serve patients.
f Led COVID-19 vaccine clinics for patients and the community, providing residents with invaluable experience in public health and advocacy.
f Implemented online appointment booking and same/ next-day appointments to better serve patients based on feedback.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
f Internationally recognized primary care research program renowned for its applied work in partnership with health system decision-makers, including most recently supporting Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team led by Dr. Jane Philpott.
f 4 endowed research chairs, 5 clinician-scientists.
f Nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications in 2024.
f Second-year resident academic projects contribute to a culture of inquiry, receiving mentorship from faculty.
f Key research areas: advancing preventive cancer care, advance access for primary care patients to cancer screening (collaboration with Princess Margaret Cancer Centre), evaluating AI to reduce physician burnout, primary care supporting strong public health system, fostering clinician wellness (Peers for Joy in Work; a peer coaching model now being adapted for province-wide use), privacy in Electronic Medical Records (EMR), improving primary care metrics (CareCanvas; a prototype).
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
The Hospital Medicine Division at CAMH has cultivated a robust academic partnership with the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto. This affiliation has enabled CAMH to become a key teaching site, now supporting the education and training of more than fifty learners each year. These include undergraduate medical students and postgraduate residents from both first-year Psychiatry and Family Medicine residency programs at U of T, who gain valuable, hands-on experience in delivering collaborative, integrated care to medically and psychiatrically complex patient populations.
f Chief Health Information Officer and Chief of Hospital Medicine: Dr. Tania Tajirian
f Mission: Integrate physical and mental healthcare for inpatients with severe mental illness (SMI) to improve health equity and clinical outcomes.
f Scope: Supports emergency department and inpatient care for over 550 patients, including long-stay psychiatric inpatients.
f The Hospital Medicine Division Team: 17 family medicinetrained hospitalists, 1 Nurse Practitioner, interdisciplinary collaboration across all psychiatric units.
f ~50 learners/year (medical students, psychiatry, and family medicine residents).
SITE INNOVATIONS SUMMARY:
f Cancer Screening & Preventive Care:
Z Improved access for long-stay psychiatric inpatients; colorectal screening rose from 4.9% → 33%, cervical from 35% → 63%.
Z Recognition: 2025 Canadian College of Health Leaders Award of Excellence in Mental Health and Addictions Quality Improvement given to The Division of Hospital Medicine’s Innovation Hub (DHM-IH) Team.
f Operational & Academic Excellence:
Z Experienced continuous academic growth in clinical, research, and creative professional activities.
Z Achieved zero vacancies for the first time, reflecting strong leadership and team stability.
Z Gained recognition for advancing integration of mental and physical health.
Z Expanded collaborations and quality improvement initiatives to attract top-tier talent.
Z Built a cohesive, sustainable academic environment at the forefront of health system innovation.
f Quality Improvement & Digital Innovation:
Z Advanced data-driven quality improvement through the Hospital Medicine Innovation Hub (DHM-IH).
Z Integrated digital tools to streamline workflows.
Z Standardized protocols for Clozapine, DVT, COVID-19, and palliative care.
Z Developed informatics for falls, seizures, delirium, and chest pain monitoring.
Z Collaborated across departments on population health initiatives.
f Equity-focused care: Reverse integration ensures severe mental illness (SMI) patients receive preventive physical healthcare.
f Operational and academic excellence: Stable team, enhanced hospitalist wellness, and strong research output.
f System-level influence: Models and protocols inform regional and potentially national best practices for integrating physical and mental health.
f Patient-centered outcomes: Improved preventive care adherence, reduced avoidable transfers, enhanced interdisciplinary collaboration.
f Division has cultivated a robust academic partnership with the DFCM.
f Division takes ~50 learners annually (psychiatry residents, family medicine residents, fellows, and medical students).
f Learners are supported through simulation-based training, accredited Hospitalist Medicine Academic Rounds, and monthly case reviews.
f Highly rated electives and simulation-based learning programs.
PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS:
Development of Partnerships and Collaborations – CAMH
f Internal collaborations:
Z Partnered with operational leadership, Professional Practice Office (PPO), pharmacy, laboratory and diagnostics, and education and simulation teams to advance reverse integration of physical healthcare within CAMH.
f External partnerships:
Z Collaborated with UHN, Sinai, Women’s College Hospital (WCH), and Joint Department of Medical Imaging (JDMI) to strengthen support for inpatients’ physical health needs.
Z Advocacy and stakeholder engagement over five years led to a formal CAMH–UHN partnership, enabling continued innovation in integrated care and clinical pathways.
f Impact and significance:
Z Work supports the development of national practice guidelines for integrating physical and mental healthcare.
Z Demonstrated evidence-based improvements in physical health outcomes among individuals with severe mental illness (SMI).
Z Contributes to a growing body of Canadian evidence supporting proactive physical healthcare in psychiatric settings.
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS AND OUTCOMES:
Publication Highlights:
f Recommendations to Enhance Physical Health for Individuals with Severe Mental Illness in Canadian Healthcare Organizations. Healthcare Quarterly 26(1) April 2023: 38-44
f Strengthening the Delivery of Physical Healthcare for Adults Living With Serious Mental Illness – A Qualitative Description of Patient and Family Member Perspectives. Health Expect. 2025.
f Strengthening the Delivery of Integrated Care for Individuals Experiencing Serious Mental Illness- A qualitative description of health provider perspectives. BMC Psychiatry. 2025.
f Increasing Resuscitation Status-Related Goals of Care Discussions for Older Adults with Severe Mental Illness in a Canadian Mental Health Setting: A Retrospective Study. BMJ Open Quality. 2024.
Grant Highlights:
f 2023: Catalyst CIHR Grant (Co-Investigator) –Strengthening the Delivery of Integrated Care in Specialized Mental Health Settings. Canadian Institutes of Health Research. ($148,733)
f 2022: DFCM Faculty Development Initiative Fund (PI) –Enhancing Colorectal Cancer Screening for Patients with Severe Mental Illness. ($2,500)
f 2022-2023: CIHR Planning and Dissemination Grant (CoPI) – Building a Plan for Embedding Preventative Cancer Screening. ($10,000)
f 2023-2024: Cancer Screening QIP. Delivering Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening to Long-Stay Inpatients with Severe Mental Illness at CAMH. ($2,000)
f 2021-2022: Cancer Screening QIP. Improving Colorectal Cancer Screening Amongst Chronic Stay Patients at CAMH. ($1,000)
Award Highlights:
f 2025 Canadian College of Health Leaders Award
f 2020 College of Family Physicians Canada (CFPC)/ Canadian Psychiatry Association (CPA) Collaborative Mental Healthcare Award, multiple nominations for innovation and population health
The DFCM also partners with community-affiliated sites that, while outside the TAHSN network, offer outstanding learning opportunities for our learners.
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Residents: 4 (2 PGY1, 2 PGY2)
f Faculty: 23
f Postgraduate Site Director: Dr. Jeff Golisky
f Quality Improvement Lead: Dr. Jennifer Johnson
SITE DESCRIPTION
Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH), located in Midland, Ontario, is a key rural training site within the University of Toronto’s Department of Family & Community Medicine (DFCM). The site provides residents with comprehensive clinical experience in a community hospital setting, emphasizing continuity, versatility, and interprofessional collaboration across all aspects of family medicine.
Georgian Bay General Hospital remains a vital and dynamic site within the DFCM. Its combination of comprehensive rural clinical experience, dedicated mentorship, and community integration equips residents to provide high-quality, patient-centred care across diverse practice settings— rural or urban.
CURRICULAR AND SITE INNOVATIONS:
Site Strengths:
f Comprehensive Scope of Practice: Broad clinical exposure across Emergency Rooms, Obstetrics, Hospitalist care, Palliative care, and Procedures.
f Longitudinal Mentorship: Two-year continuity with core preceptors enhances confidence and skill development.
f Community-Based Learning: Strong integration with patients, healthcare teams, and community organizations.
The GBGH residency offers a two-year longitudinal program, allowing residents to complete both PGY1 and PGY2 training at the same site under consistent mentorship. Residents are paired with one or two core preceptors to foster close supervision and professional growth. Training includes:
f Longitudinal Family Medicine Clinic (3 half-days per week, PGY1–2)
f Emergency Medicine shifts in GBGH’s Emergency Department
f Inpatient/Hospitalist Care for acute and chronic conditions
f Obstetrics with antenatal, perinatal, and intrapartum care
f Procedures and minor surgery opportunities
f Palliative Care community and inpatient
f Indigenous Health experiences with local communities
The program’s structure promotes continuity of care, progressive responsibility, and clinical independence in a supportive rural context.
GBGH also serves as a teaching site for University of Toronto family medicine clerks, Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) students, and learners from other institutions through the Rural Ontario Medical Program (ROMP). These placements allow residents to develop their own teaching and mentorship skills while supporting early exposure to rural family medicine for these future trainees.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION:
Faculty at GBGH are actively supported through DFCM’s faculty development resources, including workshops, mentorship, and academic training. A key focus is on encouraging U of T faculty appointments for local physicians to formally recognize teaching roles and strengthen academic engagement. Faculty are also involved in quality improvement, scholarship, and teaching skill enhancement, ensuring alignment with DFCM educational standards.
PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS:
f Academic Connectivity: Ongoing linkage to U of T’s curriculum and academic supports despite geographic distance.
f Interprofessional Collaboration: Embedded teamwork with allied health professionals and specialists in a small-hospital environment.
LOOKING AHEAD:
f Strengthen partnerships with Indigenous communities and expand cultural safety training.
f Increase faculty participation in research, scholarship, and quality improvement related to rural medicine.
f Broaden exposure to virtual care and telemedicine as part of rural health transformation.
f Expand leadership and mentorship opportunities for residents.
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW
(NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Residents: 18 (Markham) 2 (Uxbridge)
f Clerks: 8-10
f Academic Chief: Dr. Donatus Mutasingwa
f Postgraduate Site Co-Directors (Markham): Drs. Nadine Al-Aswad & Nathasha Dias
f Postgraduate Site Co-Director (Uxbridge): Dr. Aisha Hussain
f Undergraduate Site Co-Director: Dr. Megan Tan
f Faculty Development Director: Dr. Gina Yip
f Quality Improvement (QI) & Patient Safety (PS) Directors: Drs. Karuna Gupta & Kelly Forse
f Research Director: Dr. Tiffany Tang
f Global Health Director: Dr. Jessica Wong
SITE DESCRIPTION
f Two-site community hospital with acute care, surgery, addictions & mental health, maternal & child health, rehab, transitional & palliative care.
f Serves a catchment of 400,000+ residents across Markham, Stouffville, and Uxbridge, and is proud that many graduates remain in the community as faculty, clinical leaders, and hospital contributors.
f The Health for All Family Health Team (FHT), established in 2010 as the Markham Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU), anchors family medicine education at the site through a robust interprofessional team including physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and psychiatry support.
f Uxbridge expansion (since July 2025) allows residents to establish a mini practice, providing rural medicine exposure while maintaining links with Markham.
f Hybrid model: two years, hospital-based rotations, weekly Academic Half-Days, and Central Core Days.
CURRICULAR AND SITE INNOVATIONS:
INNOVATIVE CLINICAL AND ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
f The Awards Committee recognizes faculty and resident achievements twice yearly.
f Clear leadership structures and quarterly Executive Committee meetings support a stable teaching culture.
f Global Health Curriculum emphasizes Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and advocacy:
Z First-year residents develop expertise in one SDOH area.
Z Monthly Lunch ‘n Learns with experts and organizations for residents.
Z Optional final-year four-week health equity or international elective.
f Community-based Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) emphasizing longitudinal, comprehensive family medicine.
f Residents supervised by academic and community physicians with interprofessional support.
f Residents manage their own patient panels 3 half-days/ week for continuity of care.
f 18 residents at Markham, 2 at Uxbridge, including international medical graduates.
f Uxbridge stream provides rural medicine exposure with selectives in women’s health, dermatology, psychotherapy, musculoskeletal (MSK), and pre-travel consultations.
f Core site for University of Toronto medical students since January 2013.
f Supervises ~6 students/year for core rotations; electives also accepted.
f Students work with faculty, residents, and an interprofessional team; attend Academic Half-Days and seminars led by residents.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION:
f Needs are assessed through regular committee meetings and annual reviews by Site Chiefs, Site Directors, and the Professional Development Director.
f The Professional Development Plan identifies career goals, support needs, and interest in DFCM programs by newly appointed faculty and is reviewed every three years.
f Faculty must attend DFCM BASICS and are encouraged to attend other central programs.
f Supports academic advancement and scholarship.
f Conforming Academic Practice Plan (CAPP) supports faculty academic commitments with protected time for academic pursuits, research support, and operational funding. The goal is to enhance continuing education and promote excellence in education and scholarly activities.
QUALITY AND INNOVATION
f Mandatory Quality Improvement (QI) curriculum for first-year residents; includes theoretical learning and practical projects.
f Residents lead QI projects with interdisciplinary teams, supervised by faculty.
f Focus on patient safety: incident management, infection prevention, medication reconciliation, and reducing unnecessary tests.
f Integration through the QI Committee, board responsibilities, and interprofessional meetings.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES Scholarly Activities (2021–2024)
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
The new Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) at Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH) officially launched in July 2025, marking a major expansion of postgraduate family medicine training in Ontario. In its inaugural year, the site welcomed six residents: four first-year residents starting their training in Orillia and two second-year residents who completed PGY-1 at North York General Hospital. This initiative reflects a strong partnership between OSMH and the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), aimed at addressing physician shortages and improving access to primary care in the region.
f Launch: July 2025
f Inaugural Cohort: 6 residents (4 PGY-1 residents starting in Orillia; 2 PGY-2 residents who completed PGY-1 at North York General Hospital)
f Objective: Expand postgraduate family medicine training, address physician shortages, and improve primary care access in the region
Leadership Team
f Co-Site Director, Dr. Erika Catford
f Co-Site Director, Dr. Heather Laakso
f Chief of Staff, Dr. Kim McIntosh
SITE DESCRIPTION
The Orillia FMTU is headquartered at the Friden Health and Wellness Centre and focuses on delivering comprehensive family medicine training in a community setting. Residents will work closely with local family physicians and participate in patient care that emphasizes continuity, accessibility, and community engagement. By training residents in Orillia and attaching patients through the Couchiching Ontario Health Team, the program aims to improve access to care and encourage graduates to establish permanent practices in the community.
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Residents: 18
f Clerks: 9
f Faculty: 50
f Chief: Dr. Stuart Murdoch
f Postgraduate Site Director: Dr. Melissa Witty
f Undergraduate Site Director: Dr. Chung Kit “Jacky” Lai
f Faculty/Professional Development Lead: Dr. Jessie Weaver
f Quality Improvement (QI) Leads: Drs. Lauren Fruchter & Lynda Ekeh
f Research/Academic Project Leads: Drs. Anwar Parbtani & Matthew Orava
SITE DESCRIPTION
f Location: Barrie, Ontario; suburban city north of Toronto (~157,000 population)
f Hospital: 460-bed acute care regional centre serving Simcoe County & Muskoka (~500,000 population)
f Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU): Part of Barrie Community Family Health Team (BCFHT) with 90 physicians and 140,000 patients
f Clinical Model: Horizontal family medicine training; residents manage their own patient panels in a multidisciplinary environment, with some of the teaching done by allied health team members, which include, but are not limited to, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, diabetes educators, and lung health educators; a group of 26 supervisors, who supervise up to 4 residents during a shift.
f Facility: 10,000 sq. ft. custom-built “Rotary Place” adjacent to hospital, with fully equipped exam rooms
Summary
The Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) Family Medicine program features a dedicated and enthusiastic faculty with diverse clinical backgrounds, offering residents broad learning experiences across varied patient settings. With 26 supervising physicians focused solely on resident teaching, learners receive continuous observation and immediate feedback. The Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) model mirrors real-world family practice, with residents managing their own patient panels and serving as Most-Responsible-Physicians for obstetrical and palliative patients under full supervision. The absence of other core residency programs ensures maximal teaching opportunities during specialty rotations. RVH’s supportive learning culture emphasizes coaching over judgment, fostering professional identity formation, reflective learning, and strong preceptor mentorship.
CURRICULAR AND SITE INNOVATIONS
Site Strengths
f Committed faculty; residents supervised without concurrently seeing their own patients
f Residents act as Most-Responsible-Physician (MRP) for their obstetrical and palliative care patients
f Focus on professional identity formation, coaching, and patient safety
f Maximum teaching and consultation during specialty rotations
f SIM Labs for hands-on procedural training across multiple specialties, including Paediatrics, Cardiology, Trauma, Respiratory, Addictions, Toxicology, Neurology, Palliative Care, Sports Medicine, Casting, Lumbar Puncture & Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS), Resuscitation
f On-site primary care for marginalized youth at Youth Haven shelter
f Integrated Ethics Curriculum addressing societal and clinical needs
POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION
f Curriculum: Horizontal training with oversight from DFCM for curriculum delivery and assessment; mapped to CanMEDS-FM roles
f Clinical Opportunities:
Z Residents are responsible for obstetrical and homebound patients under the supervision of specific Family Physicians with expertise in either Obstetrics or Palliative Care.
Z Opportunities to build on clinical skills, time management skills, continuity of care, resource management, advocacy for patient resource needs, and to work with clinical teams, including IHP (e.g., Pharmacists, Dieticians, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, registered nurses, Nurse Practitioners, and sub-specialists)
Z Intensive Care Unit rotation provides training on multi-system management, end-of-life care, and enhanced procedural skills.
Z Public Health rotation: population health and infectious disease exposure
Z Specialized clinics: Skin Cancer Biopsy, Suspicion of Cancer-Diagnostic Assessment Program (SOC-DAP)
Z Simulation (SIM) Labs for procedural skills integrated into Academic Half Days
Z On-site Mental Health Counsellor for real-time feedback on patient encounters
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
f Core clerkship: 3 blocks/year (3 clerks per block)
f Undergraduates work directly with Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) faculty, allied health professionals, and residents
f Residents participate in teaching clerks through the “Teach the Resident to Teach” program
f Academic projects presented by clerks during Academic Half Days
f The Undergraduate Site Director works closely with the Site Director and the Program Administrator to develop balanced rotation experiences for all undergraduates.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION
f Led by Professional Development Representative (Dr. Jessie Weaver)
f The RVH Professional Development Representatives report monthly at the Site Residency Program Committee sRPC meeting to discuss programming, and to poll teachers for input into areas of specific interest for faculty development
f Biannual offsite faculty retreats and ongoing professional development sessions (e.g., Teaching 101, Teaching and Learning Centre-TLC Modules)
f The RVH department of Academic & Medical Affairs offered the following learning modules from U of T’s Centre for Faculty Development delivered as four evening seminars. Preceptors from all departments were invited to attend. All sessions were well attended and at full capacity. Modules included:
Z TLC Module 1: Identify Learner Needs and Setting Objectives
Z TLC Module 2: Making Learning Stick
Z TLC Module 3: Managing the Teaching Session and Small Group Facilitation
Z TLC Module 4: Feedback
QUALITY AND INNOVATION
f Longitudinal Quality Improvement (QI) curriculum with mandatory practicum for first-year residents
f Multi-disciplinary patient safety group was established; Significant Event Analysis (SEA) was integrated into practice to identify and analyze patient safety incidents
f Annual “Do IT Better Rounds” to review SEAs with the entire FMTU staff and residents
f Patient Experience Surveys implemented
f Multidisciplinary team project on Deprescribing PIP (potentially inappropriate prescribed) medications in the Elderly.
f Development of a practice website for informed patient care and education by our FMTU
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
Scholarly Activity (2020–2025)
f 7 publications
f 13 presentations (provincial)
f 9 presentations (national)
f 2 presentations (international)
f 27 other presentations
f 4 research (funded)
f 3 research (non-funded)
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
f Learners: 18
f Faculty: 16
f Site Chief: Dr. Mina Moussa
f Faculty Development Lead: Dr. Milena Markovski
f Undergraduate Site Director: Dr. Taylor Sedran
f Program Director: Dr. Julian Manzone
f Research/Academic Project Lead: Dr. Sean Haber
f Quality Improvement Lead: Dr. Alis Xu
f Clinical Pharmacist: Zoe Wong
Site Overview:
f Founded in 1924, now a 500+ bed regional hospital serving northern York Region and southern Simcoe County.
f Offers tertiary care, regional cancer and cardiac programs, a Level III Trauma ED, Maternal Child Program (2C NICU), and Maternal Fetal Medicine clinic.
f Southlake Academic Family Health Team (SAFHT) serves 24,000 rostered patients, including complex, vulnerable, and underserved populations.
f Residents often continue careers at Southlake or surrounding communities.
CURRICULAR AND SITE INNOVATIONS:
Site Strengths:
f Strong learning environment with broad clinical exposure and a collaborative relationship with different specialties.
f The competency committee meets regularly to assess resident progress, and resident evaluations incorporate the input of multiple teachers and healthcare providers to capitalize on the collective strengths of the teachers’ group as well as to minimize any potential learner/ teacher mismatches.
f Residents have continuity of care experiences and are first in line for educational opportunities.
f Faculty with diverse expertise, including ER, hospitalist, surgical assists, dermatology, gynecology, sexual health, and shelter care.
f Prioritizes resident wellness through structured support, and the “Resident-of-the-Day” program allows residents to cross-cover for each other and builds collegiality among residents.
f Minor Procedures Clinic allows residents to develop hands-on experience
f Dermatology curriculum developed, expanded home visit program.
f Emphasis on care for vulnerable populations and interprofessional collaboration.
POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION:
f Horizontal, 2-year Family Medicine residency; only postgraduate program at the site.
f Residents are assigned a primary preceptor and a minipractice of 150–200 patients for continuity.
f Collaborates with Southlake Academic Family Health Team and allied health team, exposure to dermatology, gynecology, sexual health, minor procedures, and home visits.
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION:
f 8–9 clerks/year rotate through Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) for core family medicine and Transition to Residency rotations.
f Undergraduate Lead coordinates with the central program.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION:
f Led by a dedicated Faculty Development Lead who reports on central initiatives during on-site meetings.
f Works with the Site Chief to coordinate Faculty Development events to address faculty needs.
f Faculty Development Lead oversees Family Medicine Rounds for hospital and community physicians.
f Conducts annual needs assessments and uses feedback surveys to decide on local Faculty Development events and supports interprofessional education initiatives such as promotion applications.
QUALITY AND INNOVATION:
f Residents engage in a longitudinal Quality Improvement (QI) project, or can choose to integrate their work with SAFHT initiatives’ Quality Improvement Plan
f Regular check-ins with the Quality Improvement Lead physician preceptor to support resident projects.
f Adopted technologies to use as tools for advanced QI analytics, including Electronic Medical Records (EMR), online booking, an asynchronous messaging system (OCEAN), and AI scribe tools.
f “Doing it Better” Rounds bring together physicians, IHPs, residents, and administrative staff to collaboratively identify and analyze significant patient safety events or near misses within our clinic.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
f Residents and faculty engage in clinical and educational research.
f 2020–2025: 2 faculty journal publications, 7 poster presentations.
SITE LEADERSHIP AND OVERVIEW (NUMBERS ARE PER YEAR)
Leadership:
f Faculty: 14 core family physicians actively engaged in teaching and clinical care.
f Clerks: 30 clerks (though not a core site)
f Residents: 6–8 per year (PGY3 Hospitalist and Care of the Elderly)
f Chief of Division of Hospitalist Medicine: Dr. Sabrina Lim Reinders
f Academic Lead: Dr. Cary Fan
f Quality Improvement (QI) Lead: Dr. Nancy Xi
f Practice Plan Chair: Dr. Anjali Bhayana
SITE DESCRIPTION
Toronto Rehab is a multi-site, internationally recognized postacute care hospital providing specialized inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, complex continuing care, transitional care, and long-term care. The Family Medicine Hospitalist group works to provide inpatient care across the post-acute care sites, including rehabilitation, transitional care, reactivation, complex care, and long-term care. They work with a large multi-disciplinary team that includes physiatrists, nurse practitioners, behavioral specialists, geriatricians, psychiatrists, wound clinicians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, respiratory therapists, dieticians, pharmacists, and nurses.
Sites and Key Programs:
f University Centre (550 University Ave):
Z 148 beds
Z Specialized inpatient rehab: stroke, acute brain injury, multi-trauma, musculoskeletal, and geriatric functional enhancement, cancer, and transplant
Z Specialized Dementia Unit for long-term care patients who require medical and behavioural management.
Z Outpatient clinics: Comprehensive Integrated Pain Program, complex musculoskeletal (MSK) care
f Rumsey (345 Rumsey Rd)
Z Provides outpatient cardiac prevention and rehabilitation as well as outpatient neuro-rehab clinics.
f Lyndhurst (520 Sutherland Drive):
Z 60-bed post-acute site dedicated to spinal cord rehabilitation.
Z Spinal Cord Rehab is the largest program in Canada for traumatic/non-traumatic spinal cord injuries
Z Provides inpatient, outpatient, follow-up care, adaptive technology, and specialized clinics
f Bickle (Parkdale):
Z 228 beds
Z Provides inpatient rehabilitation services for patients requiring Light intensity/progressive rehab for patient conditions, including geriatric dialysis, frail elderly enhancement, transplant, and neurological rehab.
Z Complex continuing care for patients, including tracheostomy, gastric tube, dialysis, and persistent cognitive states.
Z 2 units devoted to transitional care units, and offers palliative care
f Buttonwood & Hillcrest:
Z Transitional Care Program (up to 100 beds) for longer-stay patients needing reactivation, awaiting housing, or long-term care
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION:
Toronto Rehab Hospitalist Division takes an active role in pre-clerkship teaching, such as supplying tutors for pre-clerkship courses, such as the Integrated Clinical Experience (ICE), Case-Based Learning (CBL), Health in Communities, and Portfolio.
f Bickle hosts full year Integrated Clinical Experience (ICE) students.
f Bickle, Lakeside, and Toronto Rehab University are the main sites for Transition to Practice and geriatric/care of the elderly rotations.
f Elective clerkship opportunities across all inpatient sites.
POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION:
f Active in Hospitalist PGY3 and Care of the Elderly PGY3 rotations.
f Residents are hosted for elective and geriatric rotations-Lyndhurst specifically hosts residents from the Scarborough program for inpatient medicine rotations.
f Opportunities for longitudinal family medicine care in long-term, complex, and rehab programs
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND RECOGNITION:
f The Academic Lead ensures that faculty receive University of Toronto onboarding and ongoing faculty development needs are assessed through formal and informal needs assessments.
f Faculty participate in city-wide DFCM Division of Hospitalist rounds.
f Engagement in the Toronto Rehab Balint Group for emotional reflection and wellness.
f Collaborative wellness initiatives with physiatrist colleagues.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:
f Quality Lead and core staff have developed Divisionwide CPD-certified rounds and case studies for faculty
f Active involvement in research and quality improvement
f Several publications and presentations by faculty over the last five years
LOOKING AHEAD:
f Recent expansion and program changes:
Z Buttonwood & Hillcrest Transitional Care Program opened/reopened
Z Bickle Progressive Rehab Program launched
Z Low Tolerance Program expanded to include Guillain-Barré Syndrome rehab stream
Z Post-acute care sites merged with Westpark
f Opportunities: Onboarding new faculty, realignment of workflows, integration with DFCM strategic plans, and growth in comprehensive family medicine services.
In 2023, the Department of Family and Community Medicine transitioned from its former Rural Program to the Integrated Communities Stream (ICS), introducing a new model that combines urban and rural experiences in a longitudinal format. Sites provide a unique opportunity to live and work in smaller communities while continuing a comprehensive horizontal curriculum.
f Program Model: Integrated Communities Stream (ICS), combining urban PGY-1 experiences with immersive rural/urban PGY-2 training
f PGY-2 Locations:
Z Alliston (Stevenson Memorial Hospital)
Z Orangeville (Headwaters Healthcare Centre)
Z Port Perry (Lakeridge Health – Port Perry Hospital)
f Training Structure: Residents spend 4–5 half-days per week in family medicine and rotate through geriatrics, psychiatry, obstetrics, and internal medicine
f Learning Environment: Close-knit, learner-centered, emphasizes broad clinical exposure, continuity of care, and community health engagement
f Goal: Prepare residents for independent practice in diverse Ontario settings