Ewa Szumacher recognized for Interprofessional Education

Congratulations to Dr. Ewa Szumacher on receiving the Ivy Oandasan Leadership Award for Outstanding Contributions in Advancing Interprofessional Education from the Centre for Interprofessional Education. This award recognizes excellence in teaching over two years by a U of T faculty member. Recipients demonstrate enthusiasm, commitment and knowledge to interprofessional education in their fields, and take on mentorship roles to enhance interprofessional collaboration.

Dr. Szumacher has been applying practice-based patient education in her research. She advocates educating patients using various tools and helping them to reach an educated decision about their treatment. In 2015, she worked with a team to launch the Interprofessional Senior Women's Breast Cancer Clinic, a clinic with a team of interprofessional medical staff who help older women with breast cancer with targeted care and education.

At the Odette Cancer Centre, Dr. Szumacher has been working on several interprofessional education programs for medical staff working in radiation oncology, radiation therapy, radiation nursing and medical physics. She is supportive of students as well, which is visible in her experience training students to conduct research in interprofessional domains. "I have found that immersing students in supportive academic pursuits pushes them to recognize areas of possibility and to pursue action," she commented about her role as an educator.