Dear Colleagues,
This month, I’d like to provide you with some important information about the progress that the Royal College made in 2012 to support Fellows and residents as well as share some thoughts about where we are headed in 2013.
Annual Meeting of the Members
On February 22, our annual members meeting provided Fellows with an opportunity to discuss Royal College activities. The meeting presented a positive picture of a healthy, vibrant organization that has grown to 43,000 members in 84 countries. We presented to members our financial statements as well as approved a modest three per cent increase in our 2013-14 membership fee that will offset operating expenses and bolster budget reserves.
We also welcomed new leadership to the Royal College. Cecil Rorabeck, OC, MD, FRCSC, became our 42nd President, replacing Louis Hugo Francescutti, MD, PhD, MPH, FRCPC, FACPM, CCFP, FACP (Hon), ICD.D. Dr. Rorabeck is an orthopedic surgeon and educator with a passion for humanitarian aid. He is the former chief surgeon at the London Health Sciences Centre and was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012 for his advances in orthopedic care and prosthetics. Please join me in welcoming this eminent physician to our leadership team.
Release of our online 2012 Annual Review
Today we are pleased to release our online Annual Review titled, Fellowship: Value for Society. Each year, I invite Fellows to read it with care and this year I’d like to point to some impressive results we achieved in 2012 against our new strategic plan. As you’ll recall, we released the strategic plan in November 2011, which set an ambitious agenda over three years to move the Royal College forward as a health system leader. For those of you who prefer a guided tour, I’ve provided some brief thoughts below about last year’s most significant achievements under our five Key Result Areas (KRAs), based on our long term strategic plan:
Competent physicians
Under this KRA, we prepared a series of white papers in 2012 as input to the Future of Medical Education in Canada Postgraduate Project. Called Competence by Design, the series provides recommendations that will be put into practice by Royal College staff and volunteers as well as our partners in medical education. We also continued our efforts to simplify the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Program and to make MAINPORT more accessible and easier for members to use. In fact, over 36, 500 unique users logged into MAINPORT in 2012.
Health, health care and health systems
Last year, the Royal College took on an advocacy role on the challenging issue of specialist employment. We continued to work on our Employability Study — first started in April 2011, and which continued throughout last year, examining the impact of specialist unemployment on patients, the health system and physicians. We expect a full report on the study shortly. We also engaged in extensive public debate on the issue and will convene a national forum later this year.
Innovation, research and scholarship
Among our activities last year under this important KRA were the accreditation of two new simulation programs, one at the University of Ottawa and another at the University of British Columbia. Our approval followed a rigorous peer-review process in which we confirmed each centre’s commitment to high-quality, patient-safety driven, simulation-based learning. We also released two new bioethics modules for self-study and self-assessment: Organ Donation and Demands for Inappropriate Treatment.
Value of Fellowship
Last year, we launched an evaluation to identify areas for future enhancements to our MOC Program and MAINPORT. More than 5,000 Fellows responded, giving us valuable feedback about the new program framework, credit system and revised online system. We also developed MAINPORT apps for iPhone and iPad that complement MAINPORT Mobile for Blackberry and Android.
International outreach
To further our international efforts, we expanded our reach, signing collaborating centre agreements with Peking University First Hospital, the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and the Kuwait Institute for Medical Specialization. We were active in Oman, Libya, Qatar, Italy and a host of other countries, participating in workshops and courses, all in the spirit of promoting global standards for medical education and increasing the capacity of countries to enhance their medical educational standards.
Once again, I encourage you to read the 2012 Annual Review, which provides more detail regarding our achievements and efforts on your behalf.
2013-14: The year ahead…
What do you value? A key initiative of 2013-14, will be working to better understand the needs of our Fellows, using a combination of surveys and focus groups. Your input will help to shape current and future services, programs and opportunities offered to our members.
We will continue to increase the visibility of the Royal College as a strong voice for Fellows, in areas such as physician employment, resident duty hours and the future of General Surgery.
We will be conducting a scoping review that will summarize the peer-reviewed and grey literature on what frameworks, theoretical models, policy structures, systems, contextual factors or evidence that would contribute to affirming the continued competence of Fellows in practice. This work will inform recommendations that will be presented to Royal College Council in October 2013.
We will also complete some long-awaited programming to support and recognize our volunteers, who are integral to our organization’s work. The new volunteer management program will provide a standardized orientation, enhanced support to new and veteran volunteers, as well as strategies to recognize the outstanding contributions of all of our volunteers!
Competency-based medical education (CBME) is an educational approach that is no longer an ideal on the horizon. CBME asks the question “Is there a better way to ensure competence other than the current time-based approach?” The Royal College expects to take a leadership role in conversations around CBME and how it will impact medical education across the continuum, for both residents and Fellows alike.
In terms of international outreach, we expect to engage more deeply with our international partners — and establish new partnerships — expanding our reach globally and helping to drive changes both around the world and at home.
Add your voice to the debate
As always, I am interested in your views about our milestones of success and our plans for the upcoming year. How would you respond to the following question?
What is the most important thing that the Royal College could do to enhance the value of your Fellowship?
Please share your ideas with us and read other Fellows’ perspectives by using the comment function below.
Sincerely,
Andrew Padmos, BA, MD, FRCPC, FACP
Chief Executive Officer
Andy, re CBME I see a question not a definition there. Unfortunately people are looking for a definition so they default to a presumed definition.I hope we can agree on a definition and some ways to evaluate it before we begin to impose it at any level. Evaluation of all kinds must precede .Hope to see you in Toronto April 30 to further discuss this important topic. N Schachar Calgary.
Sent from my iPad
In the age of The Corporation I can understand why every leader is called a CEO, but I think for our professional organization I’d rather see a title such as President, and leave the CEOs and CFOs with the MBAs. M.Dettman, Vancouver.
I thought it was spelled, orthopaedic, not ped!!!!!!
As a retired psychiatrist, I would like to recommend that our Royal College provide more focus on the specialty of psychiatry, and its vital role in the health care of Canadians. There have been major advances in psychotherapy and psychopharmacology in the recent years, which remain unknown to many of our non-psychiatrist colleagues.
I personally don’t see any support from the Royal College at all! As a resident I have 25 published papers in PubMed and once (last year) for the first time I applied for an award from the Royal College (I think was 1000$ not a big money) and filled a lot of forms and didn’t get any thing back even a rejection e-mail!! I am sure there are not many residents and fellows who have this number of publications and I am sure there are not even too many applicants but I am sure that it is not profetional not to send even a rejection e-mail !
We are very sorry to hear that you did not hear back following your submission of a grant application, and want to assure you that it is most certainly not reflective of our standard process. Indeed, while not all award applications involve receiving specific feedback on the application, all applicants are acknowledged, and, where applicable, are advised of the outcome of the competition.
If you wish to further discuss this process or your application, we encourage you to please contact Christine James, Assistant Director, Membership Services & Programs, at cjames@royalcollege.ca, so that we may follow up. Thank you for your comment.
Thank you for leaving a comment and empathy.
I am not sure how much it would change if I discuss the issue NOW with Ms. James.
But I copied the last e-mail that I got in the following: (back to late August *****)
Dear Dr. ******,
Thank you for your application. The results will be communicated via email by late December.
Regards,
Mélanie Blackburn
Grant Administrator, Office of Professional Affairs |
I am actually drifting through the annual review, and I have downloaded some patient safety / QI resources that I had not been aware of. So thank you for yesterday’s email and this blog post.
Page 20: “Key Literature in Medical Education (KeyLIME) podcast series
provides a simpler way for members to diversify their learning. The twice-per-month, 10-minute podcasts discuss and critique important, innovative and impactful articles relevant to members’ general practice.” Great way to do something useful with my brain on the commuter train. So I find KeyLIME in Podcasts. This “bi-weekly” podcast has “Episode 1″ from January 16, and… nothing else. Is there a problem?
Hello Dr. Barnes. All the KeyLIME podcasts to date can be found here: http://www.royalcollege.ca/portal/page/portal/rc/canmeds/keylime/podcasts.
Thank you sincerely for your interest. We hope you find this resource valuable.
The competency by design is a great idea on paper. I have some wonderings:
1. How do we “operationalize” CBME for each individual specialist. In the field of Psychiatry, the competency for someone in the area of addictions is very different than one who has a career in Geriatrics or Child Psychiatry. I agree with Norman Schachar’s comment in a previous blog.( definitions are important)
2. Given the very reasons driving this CBME ( ie changing technology etc) are we not always going to be playing catch up and if so, how far behind does someone need to be before they are deemed ” incompetent” ?
I am not opposed to this idea, just weary of really important ideas that need to be looked at. The road to hell is paved with good intentions…….
In terms of an interest of mine, both professionally and personally, I wonder if MIndfulness should be a core competency practice for specialists. The work in this area of being has grown and is now mainstream at every level. The research is there, demonstrating all sorts of benefits in Medical schools, residency training and even a scholarly peer reviewed journal titled “Mindfulness” (Springer publications)
I couldn’t agree more that all physicians need to keep abreast of new developments. However, I believe that specialists in particular will make it their business to educate themselves in updates and new technology / information in their field, without supervision needed by “Big Brother”.
I agree entirely. I now only work in chronic pelvic pain, and am fascinated by the study. The CEO tells us there is evidence that senior physicians are not maintaining competency. I would like to see that evidence.. The MOC program has been ‘window dressing’ from the start.
I agree that there is no “meat” to this announcement. No definitions. I have no idea what we are being asked to approve of, apart from a concept. How will this affect my specific practice ? The Royal College must come to EACH jurisdiction (hundreds across the country) and give detailed, concrete explanations/examples of what is proposed . This has not happened regularly in my area. You must actively involve the grassroots of the organization. Sending out emails does not fulfill this criteria. Neither does expecting me to commute hundreds of kms to an information session that begins at 1730h on a weekday.
Perhaps Dr. Padmore could explain his comment, ” The evidence shows that this is not happening nearly to the extent that it should, in particular for aging physicians.” I suspect the competency suspicion relates to declining enrollment in national meetings, but i do not know, because Dr. Padmore does not tell us what he means. I have previously emailed Dr. Padmore an outline as to how I remains competent, but he did not respond. As far as I know the only way to determine competency is with a fair exam, or an expression from our patients as to how well we are doing. I understand the latter would be difficult, but the bottom line is patient care, not necessarily how an academic physician views our competency. Show us the evidence that we older specialists are not competent. As a few of us have stated above, there is a great value in experience. Most of us older specialists feel we are much better clinicians than we were when we finished our fellowship exams and thought we knew everything. Bob Conklin