Family Medicine develops innovative educational resources for broader good

As Canada continues to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of primary care, the University of Ottawa’s Department of Family Medicine (DFM) has joined a national movement to band together in sharing resources.

The department’s latest endeavour involves developing a slew of innovative educational resources, paired with an enthusiasm to share them broadly.

Navigating change through sharing

Dr. Clare Liddy, chair of the department at the Faculty of Medicine, says the medical field needs unity to overcome challenges in primary care.

“These issues touch us all, whether members of the public or health care professionals,” she says. “We can’t afford to be proprietary—we need to work together.”

The department is using technical innovations to make ongoing learning more accessible for faculty, easing burdens on their time. These innovations also enhance the appeal of family medicine for students considering the specialty.

“We’re creating digital opportunities to address real issues,” says Dr. Liddy. “We see real value in sharing these tools across the country.”

DFM is hoping to distribute these tools to other family medicine programs across the nation.

In response to a need to free up time for family physicians, the department recently launched an open access portal—uodfm.ca—containing a wide selection of e-learning modules, all for free and accessible by any practitioner, learner or member of the public.

Dr. Liddy says the modules capitalize on the advantages of individualized learning.

“Physicians can access the material they want to learn on their own time, freeing them up to see more patients,” she says. “The numerous topics available allow them to treat a wider variety of patients, and to take on more of them by referring out less. Learners too can expand their learning and develop into more multi-faceted doctors.”

Modules cover topics like anti-racism, gynecologic procedures, and MSK (musculoskeletal), one of the most common complaints arising in a doctor’s office. Five modules on long-term care have been recently released, tackling a big topic with currently little material to pull from.

All modules are developed in house and peer reviewed. The thoroughness and academic rigour of the modules come from the department’s work with content experts and provincial partners across the nation to curate relevant, Canadian-based information.

“My Patient is a Veteran” is a project jointly developed by uOttawa's Department of Family Medicine, Queen’s University and the City of Ottawa’s Veterans Task Force, with the primary objective of developing content that addresses socially accountable educational gaps. The tool is generating national attention, with content being used by the Canadian Forces Transition Unit and the Canadian Armed Forces Health Services Group staff and having been reported on by Sage magazine, the premier publication of the National Association of Federal Retirees.

“There is so much to cover that is not a requirement of the College of Family Physicians of Canada,” explains Jeffrey Puncher, director of business operations at the DFM. “Some material doesn’t have to be in the medical curriculum but is worthy of coverage, such as the health of specialized populations.”

Innovation backed by data

Innovating is undeniably important, says Puncher. He says every one of the department’s innovations started with a research project, with each tool’s benefits backed by the resulting data.

“We start by identifying a specific challenge within the primary health field, be it saving time for a physician, highlighting family medicine’s rewards to learners, and so on,” he says. “We then shape research projects around how to go about solving those challenges.”

It was Puncher’s vision to gather a roster of experts within the department’s Project Management Office to execute solutions through unique learning methods. The resulting tools have brought demonstrable benefits to professionals and learners alike.

“Whether saving time, improving learning, infusing play into learning—all of our digital innovations have been thoroughly researched and carefully designed,” he says.

The department aims to reach a 50% level of gamification or digitization of its curriculum by 2026, as outlined in DFM’s latest five-year strategic plan.

Gamification and AI as solutions

Research also shows the usefulness of the gamification of learning like virtual reality (VR), sparking the department to acquire VR headsets. The interactive learning method is effective in teaching concepts and brings an element of play to learning—something the department hopes will appeal to prospective family medicine students.

Cross-disciplinary collaborations are key to developing the VR learning exercises; the department partners with engineers, programmers, VR companies, co-op students, doctors, and content experts such as psychologists to shape these interactive learning opportunities.

One escape room–style VR activity teaches quality improvement principles as multiple players work together to solve puzzles. Another imparts principles of contamination spread and control as participants maneuver through virtual hallways.

A VR scuba experience teaches concepts related to stress and anxiety that practitioners can apply as they practise medicine. DFM is collaborating with the University of Alberta to perfect the tool, which is undergoing testing by first responders for its application to post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI), with results due this month. With contributions from York University’s Department of Nursing, the scuba experience is now a multi-player format.

Partnering with the DFM, a team comprised of a uOttawa medical student and a software engineering student from the University of Waterloo has developed an application intended to make AI scribe multilingual. AI scribe, an artificial intelligence speech-to-text tool, holds much promise for lessening physicians’ burden of paperwork, frequently identified as a time-consuming issue that limits their availability to see more patients. As a department within Canada’s largest bilingual medical school, DFM is uniquely positioned to lead innovations surrounding the AI tool, enhancing its usability by French learners and practitioners and benefiting francophone communities served by the Faculty of Medicine and across the country.

Funding for new ideas

The department’s investment in innovation is also opening up new grant opportunities. The more ideas that can be funded, Puncher explains, the more tools that can be added to DFM’s growing library of widely shareable resources.

“This means more solutions we’ll strive to share broadly,” he says, “in addition to attracting more learners to this exciting field.”

View highlights of the projects housed on DFM’s Innovation Portal.

Access the DFM’s Innovation Portal here by creating a free account.

Watch a YouTube trailer for “My Patient is a Veteran."