Welcome

Our primary vision has been the delivery of knowledge, skills and scholarship to the next generation of Respirologists, who are committed to upholding the highest ethical and professional standards of medicine. Our primary mission has been to train physicians from diverse backgrounds to become leaders and agents of change in Respirology in whatever setting they choose for their career. Residents learn to provide expert, patient-centred, and evidence-based care in a variety of academic and community environments, which involves a comprehensive combination of structured clinical rotations and elective opportunities tailored to residents’ individual interests.

Education

Our Program is structured as per the Royal College’s standard where a resident assumes an increase in graded responsibilities throughout his or her training period. Early in the PGY4 year, the resident will act as Junior Consultant on the acute care service where he or she will do both consultations and oversee the junior house staff. There will be the opportunity to supervise rotating Internal Medicine residents in the ambulatory setting during the PGY5 year.

Competency frameworks such as CanMEDS form the basis of training for our medical learners. With a Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) approach to curriculum planning that is focused on outcomes, inherently tied to the needs of patients, and involves explicit definitions of all essential domains of competence to be acquired, the rationale for CBME includes a focus on curricular outcomes, an emphasis on abilities or competencies, and a de-emphasis of time-based training. The primary instructional strategy in our current Residency Program is experiential learning, which occurs through the residents’ meaningful patient care responsibility and graduated autonomy. In preparation for the implementation of CBD, our Program developed an innovative CBME evaluation tool in order to evaluate each resident along the continuum of learning in the ambulatory clinic setting, ensuring that progression to the next level occurs at an appropriate time. Direct observation, indirect observation, chart and case reviews are some of the methods that can be used to determine if the resident has met the milestones of “learner, manager, and teacher” as they pertain to CanMEDS competencies, all of which should be mastered by the end of the two-year Program.

We have adopted a more collaborative approach to academic half-day sessions with the involvement of other specialties sharing common interests, and the inclusion of case-based learning as a strategy for expert learning would highlight some of the non-medical expert CanMEDS competencies. We have developed combined academic half-day sessions with our colleagues in Rheumatology which allows for meaningful interactions between our faculty and residents from different Medicine subspecialties. Bi-annual, combined journal club efforts with Thoracic Surgery have created a collaborative approach to learning, in addition to increasing the network of faculty involved in resident medical education. Furthermore, we developed a separate CanMEDS half-day curriculum that occurs throughout the year and involves residents from all of the Medicine Subspecialties.  This has allowed for the collective instruction of non-intrinsic CanMEDS roles, which has added to our mission of creating a collaborative learning environment for our trainees.

With the introduction of CBD in 2021, it is critical that we not rest on the achievements of our current academic curriculum, but continue to scrutinize all aspects of the Program to ensure its unremitting excellence. We must, therefore, develop a strategic plan for our Program and its trainees, in line with the combined vision of our Division and McMaster University, which is the “commitment to creativity, innovation and excellence in our teaching, research and scholarship.” This plan should include a focus on resident career development and recruitment, increasing access and opportunity to engage in meaningful clinical and education-based research, improving faculty development, and introducing innovative educational tools to accommodate CBD, in line with the objectives of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Research

The Division of Respirology boasts a solid base of clinician-investigators who are actively engaged in clinical, physiological, and health outcomes research involving the specific research themes of structure and function, immunology and environmental influence on lung health. Translational research is an exciting modality of research in the Division, often having a global impact on health care delivery for patients with both acute and chronic respiratory diseases. Our faculty has had considerable success in obtaining peer-reviewed funding, has published influential research in high-impact journals, and is recognized by leadership on national and international Respirology committees.

Developing opportunities for future and current Respirology trainees to engage in meaningful research activity is another important part of strengthening the Respirology Program moving into the future. The first step in this process would be to recognize and encourage champions within each research theme to incorporate training and education in the overall research mandate of the Division. There should be mandatory completion of a research project during the two-year fellowship program, which currently includes two months of scholarly activity in the first year of training and additional time in the second year for research activity.   Research projects are rooted in the basic sciences or involve other avenues of research including clinical, quality assurance or medical education initiatives. Our Resident Research Director currently supervises all resident-related research activities, assisting residents in finding projects, aligning them with research supervisors, and helping to facilitate new funding opportunities.  This helps to ensure that a high level of quality research is maintained in order to assist residents in doing research of publishable quality within the framework of their fellowship training.

Entry Requirements

Applicants would apply through the CaRMS Medicine Subspecialty Match (MSM). Full requirements can be found on their website.

Application Deadline

Please refer to the CaRMS website.