Vice Chairs Reports 2017-2018

UTDRO aspires to be the educator of choice internationally for radiation medicine professionals — this vision continues to drive our efforts. The accomplishments of our trainees and faculty provide the many reasons to
celebrate, and demonstrate that we are indeed attaining our vision.

Our MRS BSc students excelled in their research endeavours, and were recognized with three podium presentations at RTi3 2018. International organizations acknowledged the excellence of our trainees through
awards from the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology; the Radiological Society of North America; the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine; the Association for the Study of Lung Cancer; the Canadian Society on
Lymphoproliferative Disorders; and the American Society of Clinical Oncology African Organization for Research and Training (see radonc.utoronto.ca/external-trainee-awards). Our colleagues assumed important education leadership roles, including Dr. Barbara-Ann Millar as the Chair of the Royal College Radiation Oncology Specialty Committee (2017–18), and Dr. Ewa Szumacher as the Vice President of the American Association of Cancer Education (2017–18). Multiple additional external awards continue to highlight our strengths (see radonc.utoronto.ca/externalfaculty-awards).

This year, we celebrated many firsts. Our Fellowship Program received accreditation from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada for an Area of Focused Competency (AFC) Diploma in Brachytherapy; an effort led by Dr. Gerard Morton. A new cross-discipline Fellowship in Radiation and Geriatric Oncology hosted at the Odette Cancer Centre, was spearheaded by Dr. Ewa Szumacher and her colleagues, which graduated its first trainee this year. A new UTDRO CEPD course co-directed by Drs. Charles Catton and Ewa Szumacher, entitled “Technological Innovations in Prostate Cancer Radiotherapy” highlighted inter-activity and interdisciplinary education principles, which received great reviews. RTi3, our conference that is unique in its focus on radiation therapy research and innovation, continues to grow; attracting over 155 delegates and 70 presented abstracts. Our Faculty Development Program took on a new focus under the leadership of Dr. Barbara-Ann Millar. A half-day faculty development event on Competency by Design, comprised of sharing knowledge, experience and imparting skills, was fully subscribed and highly effective in preparing us for the much anticipated changes in medical education. Sadly, after opening its doors in 2009 and having graduated 12 exceptional radiation therapists; past patterns and anticipated trends in our practice environment unfortunately led us to make the difficult decision to close our MHScMRS program after we celebrated the final graduating class of 2018.

This year, we called upon the chiefs of our oncology residency, physics residency, and fellowship programs to help imagine a dynamic alumni engagement strategy. To showcase the successes of our alumni, we created the UTDRO Alumni Award, and will celebrate our inaugural recipient at the ASTRO Alumni Event in 2018. Alumni Profiles is a new feature on the UTDRO website serving to communicate and connect this community. A UTDRO
Alumni Association and a mentorship network is calling for all alumni to contribute, which is rapidly taking shape.

This year, we initiated a number of global educational opportunities with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Drs. Andrea McNiven, Monique van Prooijen and colleagues continue to support physicist training in Kenya.
A radiation medicine seminar series focused on enabling the transition from 2D to 3D radiotherapy was delivered to practicing radiation therapists in Kenya. A second offering of our clinical research mentorship program was delivered this time to Zimbabwe radiation oncology residents. As part of the highly acclaimed Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration (TAAAC), we are working with Ethiopia, and anticipate our first class of radiation therapy students in 2019.

Finally, we would like to thank Dr. David Hodgson, who served as the Radiation Oncology Residency Research Director from July 2013 to June 2017. Dr. Hany Soliman extended his already comprehensive education portfolio
to serve as the Interim Residency Research Director until Dr. Joelle Helou stepped into the role earlier this year. Dr. Derek Tsang served as the Interim Undergraduate Medical Education Program Director, as Dr. Meredith Giuliani welcomed baby Inesa Mary Giuliani to the UTDRO family. Dr. Young Lee, who served as our Physics Registrar (April 2016 – April 2018) passed on her baton this year to Dr. Steven Babic. Finally, a big thank you to all our faculty, whose creativity and dedication are absolutely invaluable as we achieve our vision of being the “educator of choice” for radiation medicine professionals.

The 2017–2018 year marked many outstanding achievements at UTDRO. We completed our five-year external review, and transitioned into a new strategic plan that will guide our department over the next five years.

New appointments included Dr. Gregory Czarnota to the recently-created role of Executive Vice Chair of UTDRO. Drs. Scott Bratman, Kathy Han, Eric Leung all successfully completed their three-year reviews for the continuing annual appointment within the faculty.

Dr. Lisa Barbera accepted a new role as the Head of the Division of Radiation Oncology, Department of Oncology, Cummings School of Medicine, University of Calgary, and Chief, Section of Radiation Oncology, Clinical Department of Oncology, Cancer Control Alberta, Alberta Health Services. She will continue her appointment with UTDRO until the end of 2019.

Many faculty members received outstanding awards and recognition. Dr. David Jaffray was awarded with the ASTRO 2018 Gold Medal, one of ASTRO’s highest honours recognizing his outstanding contribution to the field of radiation oncology. Dr. Ewa Szumacher became the newly elected Vice-President of the American Association for Cancer Education. Dr. Andrew Loblaw was honoured as a Fellow by the American Society of Clinical Oncology in recognition of extraordinary volunteer service, and dedication and commitment to ASCO. Dr. Rebecca Wong joined the International Cancer Expert Corps Board of Directors. Dr. Alex Vitkin was awarded the Michael S. Patterson Publication Impact Prize in Medical Physics for his scientific paper focused on optical coherence tomography.

Dr. Barbara-Ann Millar was the recipient of the Colin Woolf Award for Excellence in Teaching offered through the Faculty of Medicine’s Continuing Professional Development Office. Dr. Millar also became the Chair of the Radiation Oncology Specialty Committee at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

The Annual Sunnybrook Education Advisory Council recognized Dr. Edward Chow with the Allan Knight Lifetime Achievement in Teaching Award, and Dr. Ewa Szumacher with the Educating Beyond Sunnybrook Award. As well, Ms. Lisa Di Prospero was a recipient of the Tenth Annual Leo N. Steven Excellence in Leadership Award at Sunnybrook.

Finally, we offer congratulations to Drs. Marianne Koritzinsky and Stanley Liu for their academic promotions to the rank of Associate Professor. We also recognize and congratulate Drs. Lisa Barbera and Eileen Rakovitch on their academic promotions to the rank of Full Professor.

UTDRO is a world-leader in radiation research aimed at improving the treatment of patients with cancer. Our radiation oncologists, medical physicists, radiation therapists and radiation medicine scientists continue to collaborate and innovate along the entire patient journey from diagnosis through treatment to end-of-life care and survivorship. Many are internationally recognized for their contributions in the fields of fundamental and translational biology, medical physics, clinical trials, health services, quality of life and education research. Key research themes that span the UTDRO community include adaptive radiation oncology to ensure the right treatment at the right time for every patient, MR-guided radiation treatment to target cancer more precisely and the evaluation of patient-reported outcomes to provide more relevant insights regarding the effectiveness of our treatments. UTDRO is disrupting the global radiation treatment landscape through these and many other innovative approaches that integrate clinical care and research to learn from all of our patients, while focusing on the outcomes that matter most.

UTDRO investigators had a productive year in 2017–18, with numerous influential publications and continued growth in the number and breadth of collaborative programs locally, nationally and internationally. The total research funding available to UTDRO investigators last year was $52.6M, about half of which was for research led by a UTDRO principal investigator. Several new peer-reviewed operating and infrastructure grants were awarded despite the highly competitive funding environment, including four grants with radiation therapists as principal investigators. Two UTDRO Collaborative Research Seed Grants were awarded to teams led by Drs. Beibei Zhang and Charles Cho, and by Jennifer Croke, Meredith Giuliani, Sarah Rauth and Julia Skliarenko.

There were a total of 440 peer-reviewed research publications by UTDRO faculty in 2017–18, many in high impact journals. A high proportion of our papers were the products of interdisciplinary research teams of radiation oncologists, medical physicists and radiation therapists, and an increasing proportion included co-authors from more than one UTDRO affiliated hospital or from outside of the UTDRO community. These accomplishments reflect the overall excellence, richness and diversity of research in UTDRO, as well as the importance of collaboration as a key enabler of success.

Several UTDRO faculty members and trainees were recognized in 2017–18 for their exceptional contributions in the field of radiation oncology. Of note, Dr. Mary Gospodarowicz was awarded a University of Toronto Professorship, the highest possible academic rank for exceptional scholarly achievement and pre-eminence, and Dr. Eileen Rakovitch received the Israel Cancer Research Fund Women of Action Award. UTDRO Research Day in April showcased the exceptional research conducted by our trainees, which was also reflected in separate UT awards for research excellence to radiation oncology residents, Drs. Ezra Han, Jennifer Kwan, Peniclla Lang and Srinivas Raman.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone in the UTDRO community who contributed to our research successes in 2017–18, including those who committed time and resources to ensure the academic growth of our trainees and those who served as grant and abstract reviewers. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Marianne Koritzinsky for her continued insights and support as UTDRO Director of Research, and also for her leadership with Dr. Anne Koch of the STARS21 Research Training program. Finally, I am grateful to the members of the newly formed UTDRO Research Committee, including Drs. Jean-Pierre Bissonette, Lee Chin, Tony Fyles, Adam Gladwish, Eric Leung, William Tran and Mike Velec. I look forward to working closely with them to harness the full academic potential of our program and shape the future of collaborative radiation medicine research.

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