Amanda Binns PhD is a clinician, researcher, and Education Development Lead (Clinical Education) at the Centre for Faculty Development. Drawing from her interprofessional clinical experiences working with autistic individuals; her program of research aims to create more compassionate, individualized, and evidence-informed care experiences for neurodivergent clients and their families ( https://www.slpmaps.ca). She hones a partnership-focused, co-creation approach to her work and incorporates a combination of practice-based research and implementation science methodologies. Her work has taken her across the globe, with over 45 invited presentations across 5 continents. Dr. Binns is Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, and Adjunct Research Professor at Western University. She is clinical-lead of an innovative and award winning, interprofessional Autism Focused Education Program that is building capacity in the next generation of clinicians, and supporting autistic children and families in Ontario.

Karen Leslie is a staff paediatrician in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at SickKids and a Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto.  Dr. Leslie is a clinician-educator, involved in teaching and learning activities across many different contexts and learner groups. She is past director of the Centre for Faculty Development, and continues to be involved in faculty development work with national and international organizations, including a role as co-chair of the Association of Medical Education of Europe’s (AMEE) Faculty Development Committee. Her scholarly interests are in the areas of faculty development, career development and mentoring, as well as systems of care and outcomes for adolescents with substance use.

Nathan Cupido is a PhD candidate in the Health Professions Education Research concentration offered by the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto in collaboration with the Wilson Centre. He is also a research fellow at the Wilson Centre. Prior to this, Nathan completed a Master of Science in Health Science Education and an Honours Bachelor of Arts & Science in Arts & Science and Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, both at McMaster University. Under the supervision of Dr. Nikki Woods and Dr. Maria Mylopoulos, his research uses models of expert development and expert performance to explore how family physicians are prepared to work and learn through novel, complex, and ambiguous problems in their daily practice.

Robyn Davies is the Education Practice Leader for Physiotherapy services at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario and a lecturer and the co-coordinator of the Advanced Neuromuskuloskeletal Physical Therapy Unit at the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto. She received her physiotherapy degree from McMaster University and in 1998 completed a Masters of Applied Science in Manipulative Physiotherapy at the University of South Australia. Her interests lie in the areas of manual therapy and education. Robyn is a Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Manual Therapy and a recent graduate of the Education Scholars Program at the Centre for Faculty Development in the University of Toronto.

 Kools, F. R. W., & van Ravenswaaij, H. (2023). Practical tips for organizing challenge-based learning in biomedical education. MedEdPublish (2016), 13, 271. https://doi.org/10.12688/mep.19755.1

Championed by: Amanda Binns

Design and delivery of education within health professions involves both art and science. I chose the article by Kools & van Ravenswaaij because it effectively captures this dual nature of education in the health professions. Capturing the complexity of educational design and delivery in writing can be challenging, especially in a way that promotes real-world application. This article excels in clearly articulating intricate ideas while offering practical tips and examples, making it accessible and likely to have a meaningful impact on educators and researchers in our community.

Sternszus, R., Steinert, Y., Razack, S., Boudreau, J. D., Snell, L., & Cruess, R. L. (2024). Being, becoming, and belonging: reconceptualizing professional identity formation in medicine. Frontiers in medicine, 11, 1438082. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2024.1438082

Championed by: Karen Leslie

Physician/health care professional identity underpins much of what transpires in healthcare and health professions contexts and culture.  The roles and practices in the health care and health professions education are influenced by each and every individual in them.

This paper describes a ‘reworked’ framework on how professional identity develops for physicians (and can be extended to all health professionals). The authors describe the limitations of the previous framework and the deliberate changes made in this newer version. These changes recognize longstanding structural inequalities within society and the profession (s) and how these have threatened the identities of those entering into these spaces. They also aim to de-emphasize the preferences of culturally dominant groups. Noted in this new model is the recognition of the importance of belonging or exclusion on an individual’s sense of professional self and the importance of critical reflexivity.

Consideration of this model, and the elements and process it includes has relevance for clinicans, learners, teachers, educators, faculty developers, leaders and scholars in both the health care and health professions education contexts as these spaces encompass the ‘communities of practice’ in which we all work, learn, teach and lead.

Olson, A., Kämmer, J. E., Taher, A., Johnston, R., Yang, Q., Mondoux, S., & Monteiro, S. (2024). The inseparability of context and clinical reasoning. Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 30(4), 533–538. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.13969

Championed by Nathan Cupido

Context is everything—just by writing this blurb, I’m providing some context as to why this is my favourite paper of the year. How this context might influence whether you agree with my position, however, can be a complicated and overlooked process. Similarly, within health professions education literature, the relationship between context and clinical reasoning has long been implicated; however, what exactly is meant by “context” in this literature is often vague, undefined, or oversimplified. In their paper, Olson et al. help to better delineate how we discuss context in relation to clinical reasoning and—consequently—what this relationship means for how we structure our research and training. This latter aim is crucial to helping bring a consideration of context to the forefront of our education practices. Yes, context is everything—and as Olson et al. highlight, accounting for context is essential in preparing health professionals to deliver safe and effective care.

Kassam, A., & Martimianakis, M. A. (2024). When I say … wellness. Medical education, 58(4), 380–381. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.15297

Championed by Robyn Davies

We are hearing more and more about wellness.  We see our healthcare and academic institutions putting resources into wellness, including hiring wellness coordinators, providing wellness apps, creating wellness space etc.  In healthcare education, we are concerned about the wellness of our learners and of the workforce, into which they will soon be venturing.  But what does wellness mean?

When I say….wellness is part of the “When I say…” series published in Medical Education.  True to the journals intention, the authors, Kassam and Martimianakis, offer the reader a short and pithy exploration of the meanings of wellness.  This seemingly simple concept is exposed as a complex, intersectional construct that should have educators considering their approaches to their own and their learners’ wellness.  When I say …wellness is a ‘must read’ for anyone who is considering wellness in their curriculum.

Haraldseid-Driftland, C., Bø Lyng, H., Guise, V., Valen Wæhle, H., Schibevaag, L., Dombestein, H., Ree, E., Fagerdal, B., Billett, S., & Wiig, S. (2024). Designing a learning tool for translating resilience in healthcare into practice: A qualitative mixed methods study. Applied ergonomics, 119, 104314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2024.104314

Championed by: Joanne Goldman

My chosen paper ‘Designing a learning tool for translating resilience in healthcare into practice: A qualitative mixed methods study’ focuses on ‘resilience in healthcare’, defined as a “system’s ability to adapt to challenges and changes at different system levels to enable continuous provision of high quality care”. While there have been many efforts over the past two decades to bring safety concepts from other fields into healthcare, the ‘learning’ aspects can be underdeveloped and undertheorized. This paper reports on a rigorous, extensive and iterative research process to developing a learning tool that involved a literature review, interviews and focus groups, workshops, and observations, as well as researcher and design team meetings. The resilience learning tool was designed as a webpage where groups of healthcare professionals can interact with different aspects that can facilitate gaining a better understanding of the resilience performance of their workplace by assessing and discussing everyday practice. I was intrigued by the explicit details provided to how 8 learning principles identified (e.g., create collaboration across levels, stakeholders and contexts; descriptions of resilience capacities) were operationalized to develop all the elements of the learning tool as well as the attention to the underpinning learning theory of social constructivism and the pedagogic quality to promote interaction between the tool and the users. This paper is innovative in highlighting the way that education theory, research and safety science can come together in designing collaborative workplace-based learning to optimize quality and safety within and across healthcare contexts.

Kumagai, A. Discomfort, Doubt, and the Edge of Learning. Academic Medicine, Vol. 97, No. 5 / May 2022 

Championed by: Beck McNeil (Finalist)

LeBlanc, V. R., & Posner, G. D. (2022). Emotions in simulation based education: Friends or foes of learning? Advances in Simulation, 7(1), 3. 

Championed by Jordan Holmes (Finalist)

Ginsburg S, Stroud L. Necessary but insufficient and possibly counterproductive: the complex problem of teaching evaluations. Acad Med. 2023;98:300–303.

Championed by John Teshima

Sy, M., Siongco, K.L., Pineda, R.C. et al. Sociomaterial perspective as applied in interprofessional education and collaborative practice: a scoping review. Adv in Health Sci Educ (2023)

Championed by Farah Friesen

Harris, H, Clarkin, C, Rovet, J, et al. Meaningful engagement through critical reflexivity: engaging people with lived experience in continuing mental health professional development. Health Expect. 2023; 26: 1793-1798.

Championed by Morag Paton & David Wiljer

Klasen, JM, Lingard LA. The Butterfly Effect in Clinical Supervision. Perspect Med Educ. 2021 Jun; 10(3): 145–147.

Championed by Ivan Silver (Finalist)

Samuriwo, R., Bullock, A., Webb, K., & Monrouxe, L. V. (2021). ‘Nurses whisper.’ Identities in nurses’ patient safety narratives of nurse-trainee doctors’ interactions. Medical Education, 55(12), 1394-1406.

Championed by Paula Rowland (Finalist)

Brown, A., Auguste, E., Omobhude, F., Bakana, N., Sukhera, J. (2022). Symbolic Solidarity or Virtue Signaling? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Public Statements Released by Academic Medical Organizations in the Wake of the Killing of George Floyd. Academic Medicine 97(6):p 867-875.

Championed by Malika Sharma

Hemming K, Javid I, Taljaard M. A review of high impact journals found that misinterpretation of non-statistically significant results from randomized trials was common. J Clin Epidemiol. 2022 May;145:112-120.

Championed by Adam Gavarkovs

Kjær, L.B., Strand, P. & Christensen, M.K. ‘Making room for student autonomy’ – an ethnographic study of student participation in clinical work. Adv in Health Sci Educ (2022).

Championed by Kathryn Parker