The Canadian Association for Medical Education (CAME) has announced Dr. Gary Viner as a recipient of the 2017 CAME/ACÉM Certificate of Merit Award.
The Certificate of Merit promotes medical education in Canadian medical schools and recognizes and rewards faculty’s commitment to medical education.
Dr. Viner is an Associate Professor with the Department of Family Medicine, and is cross-appointed to the Department of Innovation in Medical Education. As part of a team of leaders from Family Medicine, Dr. Viner has played a key role in the development of a series of effective approaches to postgraduate competency-based medical education.
The team has designed and implemented an electronic field note system that facilitates short, narrative documents describing what a trainee has done well, what could be improved, and suggestions for attaining their goals. Each also includes the innovation of a quantitative “micro-assessment”. Since 2013, over 17,000 field notes have been logged.
“This electronic system has helped set effective expectations for competency and allow us to measure them,” Dr. Viner explains. The team continues to develop and enhance the system, and aims to one day share it with other postgraduate environments.
The team has also implemented a new approach to resident evaluations via their new ITER (In-Training Evaluation of Resident) forms. Shifting from traditional assessment scales, the forms encourage teachers to rate whether a trainee has attained specific observable competencies. If not, the scale indicates the on- or off-track trajectory of the trainee in achieving the competency, with explanations for the rating.
Certificate winners are nominated by peers as deserving of recognition. Dr. Heather Lochnan is the University of Ottawa Board Member for Canadian Association of Medical Education and played a role in Dr. Viner’s nomination.
“I was happy to be involved in Dr. Viner’s nomination for a Certificate of Merit,” says Dr. Lochnan. “This national recognition for his contributions to medical education in our Faculty of Medicine is very much deserved.”
Dr. Viner maintains that the work is not his alone, but a team effort.
“I feel very honoured and privileged to have been given this recognition,” he says. “However, it really belongs to the Family Medicine team with whom I worked closely – especially Alison Eyre, our program director and then-Director of Curriculum, Eric Wooltorton.”
“This work is certainly not solely my work, but rather work I have done as a part of a fantastic team,” he concludes.
The awards will be presented at the CAME Annual General Meeting on Saturday, April 29, 2017 during the Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME) 2017 in Winnipeg.