FoMD Education Newsletter - May 2020

No. 19, May 2020

Last November, when the world seemed more at ease, my partner and I had the good fortune to travel to the Galápagos. The wonders of natural selection and the theory of evolution potentially foreshadowed the events ahead. A virus evolved and is causing widespread harm to all aspects of our lives. But, as medical educators, we have evolved too, at a pace that would have made Darwin dizzy. I am so amazed and proud of the adaptations that have been made by so many of you. We are continuing to learn together about what is working, and what needs to improve.

To understand this better, I invite you to complete a very brief survey on remote learning needs. Your input on this survey will help us shape the needed faculty development with ongoing and future remote teaching and assessment. This survey will be closing on Friday, May 15, 2020.

While the Galápagos is made up of many different islands, as John Donne stated, no man is an island. Let us evolve (and learn) together.

Dr. Mia Lang, MD, PhD
Co-Vice Dean, Education

U of A medical students play key role in COVID-19 hospital surge planning

A group of 10 medical students at the University of Alberta are helping Alberta Health Services (AHS) prepare for a potential surge of COVID-19 cases in Edmonton hospitals by supporting the Edmonton Zone Emergency Operations Centre (ZEOC). Read more

Cell biology PhD student goes with the flow in the lab and in life

Meghan Ferguson's PhD research focuses on the interaction between bacteria and intestinal cells and how that process influences intestinal growth. Read more

A journey into clinical education in dentistry leads to an epiphany

Stemming from discussions including questions like: "What does patient-centred care and person-centred care really mean, and is it inclusive of other aspects of dental school operations?" Dr. Arnaldo Perez, Jacqueline Green, Dr. Sharon Compton, Dr. Steven Patterson, and Dr. Anthea Senior published a manuscript titled, "Thinking Ecologically about Clinical Education in Dentistry," collecting thoughts and perspectives on Clinic Education (CE) approaches in dentistry. Read more

U of A “Med Student Army” receives gift cards to local restaurants thanks to generous donor

ROHIT Group and Covenant Foundation team up to say thanks to MD students helping stop the spread of COVID-19 in Alberta. Read more

Behind the scenes at Alberta’s COVID-19 testing laboratories

Alberta laboratories had two advantages when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, allowing them to ramp up early and perform more tests per capita than almost any other jurisdiction in Canada. Read more

U of A virology lab finds drug originally meant for Ebola is effective against a key enzyme of coronavirus that causes COVID-19

Matthias Götte (left) and Egor Tchesnikov are part of a research team that found remdesivir, a drug created to treat Ebola infection, is effective in stopping a key enzyme of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Read more
(Photo: Melissa Fabrizio)

We are all thinking about how to support our learners as COVID-19 continues to cast its shadow over our plans. If you do not yet have an eClass course or are thinking of developing a new eClass course, the information below from the IST eClass Support Team will get you started.

As well, if you are interested in video recording the lectures for your course, FoMD Academic Technologies can help. Send an email to actechmd-support@ualberta.ca.

IST eClass Support Team Announcement:

With the Spring term rapidly approaching and classes set to continue with fully remote delivery, we recommend that instructors:

- Review the tools and services available for Moving Courses Online.
- Select and test a mechanism for meeting synchronously with students.
- Consider pre-recording their lectures.
- Determine how previous assessments may need to be altered for remote delivery.
- Check the available training options.

If you have a question about something not covered here, please search the eClass knowledge base or contact the IST eClass team at eclass@ualberta.ca or by phone at 780-492-9372. If needed, please also consider scheduling a training consultation.

Online Library Services During Facility Closures

Even though we can’t meet in person, library staff are still available to help. You can connect with us through email or chat reference and make an appointment to meet with one of our librarians virtually for help with searches and other research questions.

If you are just getting started with your research, be sure to visit our health sciences subject guides to find resource recommendations, information on systematic and comprehensive literature reviews, identifying journals for publication and more!

For more information and updates on library services during this closure, please visit our Library Services During COVID-19 guide.

The Office of Postgraduate Medical Education continues to provide leadership and support to help guide residency and fellowship programs through the numerous changes and challenges the COVID-19 Pandemic has presented to our community.

Program personnel, PGME trainees, and stakeholders can visit our COVID-19 Google site to view past communications, recent updates, and FAQs.

Congratulations to Martha Ruiz on winning this year’s Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Three Minute Thesis competition! Ruiz, a master’s student in the Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, won for her entry: “Doppler Ultrasound to Predict Complications in Pediatric Liver Recipients.” Finalists Ruiz, Fraser Osiowy, Justine Kniert, Douglas Brown, David Roszko, Sharanya Balachandran and Kim Ho all represented the FoMD in this year’s competition. Find Ruiz’s winning Three Minute Thesis presentation video here.

Congratulations to our FoMD award winners:

2020 Winners of the FGSR Great Supervisor Award:

Biochemistry - David Stuart

Dentistry - Daniel Graf

Laboratory Medicine & Pathology - Jelena Holovati

Medical Genetics - Michael Walter

Pediatrics - Alvaro Osornio Vargas

2020 FGSR Graduate Student Teaching Award Winner

Physiology - Stepheny Zani

PGME Faculty Sponsored Awards - Call for Nominations, Deadline Extended:

The nomination deadline for the Alberta Jenkinson & Stephan Buhl Award, the Gordon Denchfield Scholarship, and the Dr. and Mrs Pak-Sek Chung Bursary has been extended to May 31, 2020. Information about the awards and nomination procedure is available here.

Applications/Nominations should be submitted to pgtmld@ualberta.ca

2020 Health Professions Education Summer Studentships

The IDEAS Office is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 Health Professions Education Summer Studentship grants.

This is the largest number of HPE Summer Studentships ever awarded!

Each of these projects is in compliance with the research restrictions put in place by the University in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We appreciate the willingness of these teams to make adjustments to their project designs where needed.

This year’s HPE Summer Studentship projects are:

Uncertainty tolerance and prospective specialty choice among 3rd year medical students
· Student: Ms. Kalee Lodewyk
· Supervisors: Drs. Oksana Babenko & Ann Lee

The Current Status of Canadian and US Radiation Oncology and Radiation Therapy Training Programs in Preparing Learners for On-Call Emergencies
·   Student: Ms. Jade Patrick
· Supervisors:  Dr. Brock Debenham & Ms. Susan Fawcett
·   Resident Supervisors:  Drs. Mustafa Al Balushi & Fan Yang
· Study Mentor: Dr. Carol Hodgson

Program Evaluation in Dental Education: A Scoping Review
· Student: Dr. Mohammad Moharrami
· Supervisor: Dr. Arnaldo Perez
· Co-Investigator: Ms. Jacqueline Green

Examining the type and quality of feedback collected in a competency-based residency program
· Student: Mr. Jonathon Lee
· Supervisor: Dr. Shelley Ross

Learning Complex Healthcare Procedures Using Augmented Reality
· Student: Ms. Shirley Zhang
· Supervisor: Dr. Bin Zheng

Virtual Resident Run Clinic (vRRC), a curricular innovation to facilitate transition to independent practice during the COVID-19 pandemic: Exploring the perspectives of residents and faculty
· Student: Ms. Ines Zuna
· Supervisor: Dr. Deena Hamza
· Co-Investigators: Drs. Carrie Ye and Anna Oswald

Virtual Heart Tours: A Solution to Communicating with Families of Children Admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care after Congenital Heart Surgery during the COVID-19 Pandemic
· Student: Ms. Jessalyn Rohs
· Supervisor: Dr. Charles Larson
· Co-Investigator: Mr. Patrick von Hauff
· Study Mentor: Dr. Carol Hodgson

Patterns of performance in clerkship assessment of students
· Student: Mr. Avik Sharma
· Supervisor: Dr. Hollis Lai
· Co-Supervisor: Dr. Chaitanya Gandhi

It’s all about that trach!
· Student: Mr. Patrick Hicks
· Principal Investigator: Dr. Anne Hicks
· Co-Investigator/Student Supervisor:
Dr. Tamizan Kherani
· Co-Investigators: Drs. Trina Uwiera & Laleh Behjat

Virtual Workshop - Covidence: Streamline workflows to save time in Systematic Reviews

Covidence helps with removing duplicates, citation screening, full-text review and more! Learn how to use Covidence to help you save time. This workshop is ideal for researchers who are planning to work on, or are in the early stages of, a systematic review project.

Date: Thursday, June 11, 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Register here
Registered participants will receive a link to connect remotely.

Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME) 2020 - UPDATE

The CCME Virtual Conference sessions will be available from May 15 to August 14, 2020. All plenary sessions can be viewed asynchronously. If you are already registered, you will receive an email with information on how to access the sessions. These plenaries will continue to be an Accredited Group Learning Activity as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada as well as meeting the certification criteria of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Not registered? You can still do so here.
Find the CCME 2020 Virtual Program here.

Did you know?
Abstracts for all posters, workshops and orals accepted to CCME 2020 are published in the Canadian Medical Education Journal.

Contact us at fomdvde@ualberta.ca

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