Winter 2020 (Volume 30, Number 4)

Education Committee Report

By Elizabeth M. Hazel, MD, FRCPC; and Raheem B. Kherani, BSc (Pharm), MD, FRCPC, MHPE

“Zooming” towards on-line learning for all!

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The CRA Education Committee is embracing the challenges of delivering high quality education to our membership during a pandemic. In 2017, the committee was restructured, and the subcommittees have continued to improve productivity. The CRA conducted an educational audit this year and identified goals for continuous improvement of our educational offerings. The audit’s recommendations will help to guide the subcommittees in their future projects, along with expanded leadership of the committee.

Undergraduate Subcommittee
This committee has taken on an ambitious project to define important components of the undergraduate medical school curriculum, as they pertain to rheumatology. In developing the National Undergraduate Rheumatology Curriculum (NURC), they have consulted stakeholders from across the country. They are in the midst of conducting Delphi exercises to analyze their data, and their plan is to have a report available for dissemination in 2021.

Postgraduate Subcommittee
With ongoing changes in residency training, including Competence by Design (CBD), the postgraduate subcommittee is developing shared educational resources to supplement university residency programs’ current academic curricula. Peer-reviewed resources will be uploaded onto the CRA website and made available to the target audiences. The first set of resources includes immunology videos, musculoskeletal radiology videos and physical exam resources. They have found a way to appropriately acknowledge the authors. Their longer-term project is to create a national immunology curriculum.

The National Written In-Training Exam (NWRITE) subcommittee has revised their timeline to reflect the advancement of the Royal College Exam to the end of trainees’ R5 year. This practice exam provides trainees and program directors with valuable information on how to best prepare for their final exams.

CanREAL Subcommittee
Our experts in medical education scholarship continue to share their expertise with CRA members of our rheumatology community through collaboration with ongoing projects. CRA members are encouraged to reach out to this advisory subcommittee when there is expertise or consultation required on medical education matters.

Continuing Professional Development Subcommittee
While the CRA used to concentrate educational offerings at our in-person Annual Scientific Meeting, the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Committee is exploring alternative educational offerings. They continue to provide accreditation of Section 1 and 3 activities, as well as assist CRA members and committees in the development of CRA-accredited activities. The over-arching goal is to review input from the membership to respond to their needs. For example, at the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, they helped to coordinate a Webinar series to address the needs of the membership. They are addressing the changing landscape to move to assist the virtual delivery of content through podcasts, webinars, and educational offerings throughout the year. The committee also plans to scan the patient perspective to ensure patient/stakeholder involvement in CPD development and continue to work with other CRA committees. We look forward to post-pandemic education that will build on virtual and in-person collaboration.

BEFORE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Elizabeth M. Hazel, MD, FRCPC
Vice-Chair, CRA Education Committee
Clinical Associate Professor,
Program Director, Adult Rheumatology,
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec

Raheem B. Kherani, BSc (Pharm), MD, FRCPC, MHPE
Chair, CRA Education Committee
Clinical Associate Professor,
Program Director, Adult Rheumatology
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia