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We were happy to see many of our faculty members gather at our Annual Faculty Retreat last month to connect, learn and celebrate at the Chateau Fairmont in Montebello, Québec. Our keynote this year was Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, who shared his journey as a physician, leader and advocate for solving systemic problems within our healthcare system. He called upon us, as family physicians and educators, to take action to reform, with compassion and deliberation, the racial inequities within our health care system. This inspiring interdisciplinary collaboration with Dr. Kyeremanteng reinforces our department's commitment to advance our social accountability mandate within Family Medicine.

The retreat was a wonderful opportunity to review our upcoming initiatives and have key discussions on the direction of the department, including the outcomes of training project (OTP), curriculum and accreditation. We also received a financial update, and an educational overview of our innovative projects. Faculty were then encouraged to select their area of interest and participate in small group discussions focused on advancing EDI, addressing gaps in long-term care, and learning the ways in which our department is helping to match our DFM resources to our people. We will be providing further updates, along with actionable items that arose from these discussions, as we enter the new year. Our members also participated in a scholarly poster session, as well as faculty development sessions that supported this year’s theme – Family Medicine is Diversity – facilitated by our medical educators, teachers and researchers.

It was also an important opportunity to foster engagement by spending time with one another, enjoying some free time, and celebrating our faculty members’ achievements. We were delighted to have a Halloween party full of surprises and are pleased to share some of the photos from the event. Through popular demand, we are happy to announce that we will be returning to Montebello in April of 2025 and hope those who could not join us this year will be able to join us then. 

We have received the first round of applications for the rejuvenated Family Medicine Scholarship Fund (FMSF) (deadline November 1st). Do you have a research or innovation initiative? Are you seeking protected time/a locum to pursue scholarly work? Would you like to further your technical skills or pursue higher learning? If you are looking for support, consider applying (next deadline is February 1, 2024). Review our website for information about the types of funding support offered and who to contact with questions. 

Faculty members who are interested in applying for academic promotion to the rank of Associate and Full professor in the upcoming 2024 cycle are asked to submit their letter of intent and updated CV to the attention of our Departmental Teaching Personnel Committee by December 1, 2023. Please submit to fadfm@uottawa.ca. 

We also welcome all interested applicants to new opportunities at the DFM in Director roles. We invite you to read the detailed job descriptions and application deadlines for the Faculty Development Director and the Global Health Director.

Thank you again for your ongoing contributions to our department. We look forward to the next opportunity to connect and invite you to review the list of our activities for 2024. 

Congratulations to our Faculty Award Winners

We would like to congratulate the following recent Department of Family Medicine faculty award winners:

Award: The Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) Regional Family Physician of the Year Award for Region 3 – East

• The Regional Family Physician of the Year Award recognizes seven physicians – one from each region of the province – who provide exemplary care to their patients and are passionately involved in activities that contribute to excellence in family medicine.

Award: Ontario recipient of the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) Reg L. Perkin Family Physician of the Year Award

• The Family Physician of the Year Award recognizes an outstanding CFPC family physician member from Ontario who exemplifies the best of what being a family doctor is all about, including exceptional care of patients combined with a significant contribution to the health and wellbeing of communities and society in general.

To learn more about Dr. Brown-Shreves’ work, please follow this link.

We are pleased to highlight that Dr. Michelle Anawati, Assistant Professor, was the recipient of the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) Fellowship in the College of Family Physicians of Canada (FCFP), which was also announced during the awards ceremony at FMF on Friday, November 10th.

Congratulations to our Faculty of Medicine Faculty Members Awards of Excellence award winners:

• Dr. Daniel Myran, Assistant Professor, was the recipient of the Early-career Researcher of the Year – Public Health and Epidemiology

• Dr. Isabelle Burnier, Assistant Professor, was the recipient of the Award for the Promotion of la Francophonie

• Dr. Eric Wooltorton, Associate Professor, was the recipient of the Francophile Award

Congratulations to the following 2 faculty members for winning "best poster" at the Annual Faculty Retreat:

• Dr. Anna Wilkinson, Associate Professor, for her poster titled, “To Screen or Not? Breast Cancer Screening for Women 40-49 – impacts on stage distribution and net survival”

• Dr. Jolanda Turley, Assistant Professor, for her poster titled, “Post-Pandemic Team Reflection by means of Graphic Facilitation”

Congratulations to our Staff Award Winners

Congratulations to Kim Rozon, Education Manager, who was the recipient of the national award, Family Medicine National Education Administrators Award of Excellence, which was also announced at FMF.

We are pleased to highlight our Faculty of Medicine Support Staff Awards of Excellence award winners:

• Oksana Sasovska was the recipient of the Innovation Award

• Maddie Venables was the recipient of the Promotion of the Francophonie and Francophilie Award



Ontario Health welcomes Dr. Clare Liddy to the new role of Digital Clinic Lead

Dr. Clare Liddy, Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Full Professor, has joined Ontario Health as a Digital Clinical Lead and will be co-leading the ‘Patients Before Paperwork’ (Pb4P) initiative. Pb4P is focused on leveraging digital health solutions to modernize inter-system communications, reducing the administrative burden felt by health care providers and enhancing health system coordination across the province. 

To inform planning efforts, Dr. Liddy will also be spearheading engagement activities with clinicians to ensure their needs are understood and incorporated into the initiative. Read the full announcement from Ontario Health.



Hosted by the CFPC, Family Medicine Forum (FMF) took place from November 8th to November 11th at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, in Montréal. We had a strong DFM presence, with a number of our leadership team in attendance, as attendees, presenters and award winners. Many of our faculty members contributed to FMF, as follows: 

Showcasing our Department at FMF

FMF was an opportunity to promote our department and the discipline of Family Medicine. DFM faculty, management and staff members highlighted our residency program and departmental innovation portal, and shared the release of several DFM eLearning initiatives. Our presence at the booth drew medical students who met with the Education team and Program Director to learn more about what our Family Medicine program has to offer. It also facilitated making new connections through networking with several Canadian universities during which important discussions about potential future collaborations took place.

Kheira Jolin-Dahel, Assistant Professor, held a session, “Escape the Office: The use of virtual reality escape room as an alternative teaching strategy for QI principles in medical education,” highlighting the DFM’s VR Escape room that tests Quality Improvement principles. Attendees participated in testing the application via VR headsets, while others collaborated with the players to complete the 10 challenges presented throughout the VR experience.

We are happy to announce that on Friday, November 17^th, our first cohort of residents will begin to use the Escape Room as it is officially rolled into our curriculum. Follow this link to learn more about our DMF innovation projects.

This year’s Family Medicine job fair took place at the Ottawa Conference Centre on Friday, October 27th. This new venue can accommodate more participants, which enabled us to welcome in excess of 50 communities across Ontario who are actively recruiting family physicians to their area. The job fair was attended by all PGY1s and PGY2s as part of their academic half day, and is an important opportunity for our communities and residents to make impactful connections that will help in our department’s efforts to increase access to family physicians in our area.

AI Workshop

Dr. William Hogg, a Full Professor, Clinician Investigator and Director of Faculty Affairs, and his colleagues from l’Institut du Savoir Montfort, delivered a hands-on interactive workshop to DFM faculty on Friday, October 27th, at Montebello, in which they shared practical tips on how best to incorporate AI into their scholarly and research activities, and presented what AI has to offer as well as its limitations. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and specific tools or techniques to access it, such as natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML) and generative pre-trained transformers (GPT), have the potential to transform primary care research and scholarly activities. As technology continues to advance, residents and faculty are encouraged to explore how generative Artificial Intelligence (“generative AI”) tools may create, analyze, and evaluate new concepts and ideas that inspire them to generate their own academic work.

Family Medicine Grand Rounds

Join the upcoming Department of Family Medicine’s MainPro+ Certified Family Medicine Grand Rounds, via Zoom, on Thursday, November 23^rd, for presentations from Dr. Courtney Maskerine, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Lise Bjerre, Associate Professor. For more information, view the poster or contact Miya Ismayilova: Mismayil@uOttawa.ca.



The DFM is proud to announce the launch of My Patient is a Veteran, a series of Veteran’s health e-learning modules and podcasts designed to support family physicians in caring for Veterans. This innovative e-learning series can be accessed via the Innovation Portal, YouTube and Spotify. View the My Patient is a Veteran trailer for a glimpse of what this series offers.

Transdisciplinary Understanding and Training on Research – Primary Health Care (TUTOR-PHC)

TUTOR-PHC is calling for applications from graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, mid-career clinicians, and decision makers in primary health care. TUTOR-PHC is a pan-Canadian interdisciplinary research capacity building program that offers mentorship, networking and interdisciplinary team experience. Primary health care researchers, clinicians and decision makers worldwide are welcome to apply. For more information, click here.



DFM Open Mic Night

On Thursday, November 30^th, at 7:30 p.m. at the Lowertown Brewery, The Department of Family Medicine is hosting an Open Mic Night for all faculty, residents and staff! All acts – from singing, to playing music, comedy, poetry and karaoke – are welcome. Doors are open for spectators. Sign up here!

Dean's Welcome Orientation for New Faculty Members

On Thursday, November 30^th, at 5:00 p.m., the Faculty of Medicine will be hosting a New Faculty Intro Session and Wine & Cheese in the Foyer at Roger Guindon. Special guests: The DFM’s uO Medical Choir (GAD7s) will be singing!

The Practising Well Community of Practice 

On Wednesday, December 13th, the Practising Well Community of Practice is offering an intentional conversation for shared learning hosted by the Ontario College of Family Physicians and the DFCM Division of Mental Health and Addiction titled "Improving burnout with time management". Register here!

2023 National Skills Day for Family Physicians

Last chance to register for the 2023 National Skills Day for Family Physicians course on Friday, November 24^th. This is an in-person accredited group learning activity that offers hands-on practice of skills using models and/or simulated patients. This is a great opportunity to refresh key procedural and communication skills. Register here.