Department of Anesthesia, University of Toronto

Message from the Continuing Education Program Director
Dr. Peter Slinger

 

Peter D. SlingerContinuing Medical Education and Professional Development (CME/PD) in the Department of Anesthesia at the University of Toronto (UofT) is supervised by the CME/PD Committee. This committee consists of members from the seven major teaching hospitals (Toronto General, Toronto Western. Mount Sinai, Women's College, Hospital for Sick Children, St. Michael's and Sunnybrook HSC). In addition, the committee includes representatives from two community hospitals (North York General and Toronto East General) and directors of several of the CME courses and programs. The mandate of the CME/PD Committee is to promote CME/PD both within the UofT and in the anesthesia community.

The UofT Department of Anesthesia currently sponsors 12 annual and biannual accredited CME courses. These include two annual wide-based review programs, the Toronto anesthesia practice meeting in the fall and the Toronto Anesthesia Symposium in the spring. These are designed to provide a focused update to fellowship and general practice clinicians in both academic and community based settings. These courses are comprised of a series of lectures, workshops and problem based learning discussions.

There are also a variety of recurring subspecialty anesthesia courses. These include topics such as regional anesthesia and pain medicine, obstetric anesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, critical care medicine and transesophageal echocardiography. In addition, each year there are new courses dedicated to a specific topic. In the recent past these topics have included hyperbaric medicine, interventional treatment of spinal pain, and ultrasound guided nerve blocks. Dates and contact information for these programs can be found under the Events Calendar on our website.

The Anesthesia CME/PD Committee also is responsible for professional development within the UofT anesthesia faculty. This is currently an area of expansion for the committee. There is an annual program devoted to faculty development which is supervised by Dr. Patricia Houston.

 

The CME/PD Committee currently sponsors two online web-based learning programs:

1) CME Online Anesthesia Rounds

This program has been enlarged to seventeen educational modules:

  1. Laryngeal Mask Anesthesia
  2. Amniotic Fluid Embolus
  3. Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths
  4. Blood Transfusions and the Jehovah's Witnesses Patient
  5. CSE and Mobile Analgesia for Labour
  6. Patient Controlled Epidural Analgesia for Labour
  7. Accidental Subdural Injections
  8. Management of Post Partum Hemorrhage
  9. Peri-Operative Cardiac Risk Reduction
  10. Recent Developments in Supraglottic Airway Devices
  11. Obstructive Sleep Apnea and the Anesthesia Patient
  12. Aseptic Technique and Septic Complications of Regional Anesthesia.
  13. Management of One-Lung Ventilation.
  14. When you Epidural Doesn't Work.
  15. Lessons in Acute Pain Management - A case based approach.
  16. Module 16: Infective Endocarditis; an update for practicing anesthesiologists.
  17. Module 17: Maternal Morbidity and Mortality: Lessons Learned from Accidents, Errors and Unexpected Events.

This program has been developed by Dr. Sharon Davies (MSH). Her work received the 2008 UofT Fred Fallis Award in CME for this work. These modules have been accredited by the University of Toronto for MainCert Category I credits and can be accessed through the links above.

2) Web-based Bronchoscopy Simulator

The thoracic anesthesia group of the Toronto General Hospital has created an online bronchoscopy simulator to improve anesthesiologist’s skills in providing lung isolation for thoracic anesthesia by learning bronchial anatomy. The simulator operates with real-time video and the user navigates through the tracheo-bronchial tree with mouse clicks on the lighted directional arrows.

Prior to using the simulator the user is required to take a 16 question bronchoscopy pre-quiz. After taking the quiz the user has unlimited access to the simulator. After using the simulator the user is asked to take a bronchoscopy post-quiz, following which the user is given the correct answers and can anonymously compare their results to those of others who have taken the quiz.

This simulator was awarded first prize in the Scientific Exhibit competition at the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists Postgraduate Assembly in 2007. The simulator and quiz can be accessed on the website www.ThoracicAnesthesia.com and has been approved for 2.5 Category I credits by the University of Toronto.