In this Issue:

Dr. Ron Burkes

Mentorship Facilitator

Mentorship is defined by the dictionary as “the guidance provided by a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company or educational institution”.  Wikipedia defines mentorship as “a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person”.  The mentor may be older or younger than the person being mentored but he or she must have a certain area of expertise.  In November of 2015, the Department of Medicine established the Mentorship, Equity and Diversity portfolio to support the recruitment and retention of our faculty.  Under the guidance of the Vice-Chair, Dr. Sharon Straus, the role for a divisional mentorship facilitator was established within each division whose role it is to establish new mentor/mentee pairings.  Recently Dr. Monika Krzyzanowska, the Division Head for Medical Oncology, asked me to represent the Division of Medical Oncology as our mentorship facilitator.
 
If one reviews the literature and some of the definitions of mentors, one will see that this often refers to “older”, or as I would like to think of it, more “mature” individuals.  Being in my 35th year on staff at the University of Toronto, Department of Medicine, I certainly would qualify as a “more mature individual”. Having been involved in the Medical Oncology Training Program for well over 20 years and program director for 10 of those years,  I have had the opportunity to mentor many of the senior trainees and see these individuals go on to extremely successful careers.  However, mentoring does not end when ones training is completed and is just as important if not more so when one becomes a faculty member.
 
Mentoring is important as it provides personal support of the mentee to facilitate success, improve one's ability for career advancement and is critical for faculty career development hopefully leading to promotion. In fact a number of us have already had some discussions related to this issue led by Dr. Geoffrey Liu, who sits on the Department of Medicine promotions committee, and is very interested in promotions mentorship. There is also the inherent personal and professional satisfaction in mentoring relationships. In May of 2018, in the Chair's Column from the Department of Medicine, Dr. Gillian Hawker reported on the results from the 2017 faculty survey.  The survey identified a number of issues.  At that time, only 47% of people reported having a formal mentor with 66% and 55% of faculty respondents indicating that they were somewhat or strongly satisfied with the quality and quantity respectively of mentorship provided by the department.  From this survey, Dr. Hawker identified a number of areas to target including mentorship skill development, ensuring mentors have access to the resources required, enhancing the clarity about the expectations and responsibility of mentor and mentee amongst others.
 
Dr. Straus has published extensively on mentorship including a number of systematic reviews where she showed that mentoring has an important influence on personal development, career guidance, career choice and research productivity. In a recent study from the University of South Africa, a pilot study was undertaken to assess the experience of both mentors and mentees of a formal mentoring program.  Their findings indicated that the formal mentoring program made a positive contribution to professional development and knowledge and skills transfer.  However, they did note a number of challenges with a formalized mentorship program and recognized that an informal mentoring experience, which I suspect the majority of us have been exposed to, has a role. There are many barriers to a mentorship program and in a recent study from UC Davis, these issues included insufficient time and time management as well as funding limitations and issues related to work-life balance. 
 
Moving forward within the Division of Medical Oncology my plan will be to ensure that appropriate mentorship is available where needed. Certainly all junior faculty will be required to have a mentor and my role will be to facilitate these pairings and ensure that regular, agreed upon meetings are taking place. At the moment I have no idea to what extent mentorship is taking place within our division and so a good place to start will be to find this out. I look forward to representing the Division of Medical Oncology as the mentorship facilitator and look forward to working with Dr. Krzyzanowska and others to improve mentorship in our division.

Dr. Ron Burkes
Division of Medical Oncology Mentorship Facilitator
Department of Medicine, University of Toronto

Director's Message

Medical Oncology Trainee Project Fund

The University of Toronto, Medical Oncology Program is a warm and close-knit community.  When I started as a trainee in 1999, Dr. Ron Burkes was the MOTP Director. Under his guidance, I learned what it meant to be a medical oncologist and his mentorship was a key factor in my decision to pursue this specialty.  As a trainee, I was also very fortunate to access research opportunities with Ian Tannock and Lillian Siu. These first research projects were transformational experiences for me, providing confirmation that academic medicine was indeed my path. Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege of mentoring numerous trainees spanning from undergrads to those completing the last year of their fellowship. These remarkably driven and compassionate individuals are truly compelled to serve in the field of medicine. While I enter the mentor relationship with the goal of shaping the next generation of physicians, I am also enriched by the experience as I learn about new topics and grow my medical oncology family.

As you know from my recent emails, the Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and Chair of Medicine 100th anniversary fundraising campaign is in full swing.  In a climate of limited funding, this campaign is especially important in that all the monies raised will stay in our division. The University of Toronto, Division of Medical Oncology Executive Committee, consisting of representation from all sites, identified trainee support as an area of need. As such, our goal is to support the development of medical students and physicians interested in advancing the field of medical oncology. We have set up the Medical Oncology Trainee Project Fund to support trainees who are pursuing medical oncology as a career and their development as future academic and community leaders. This fund will support the creation of oncology-focused projects that trainees across several levels can undertake with guidance from our faculty.

Please take a moment to read the impact of your investment in our trainees below as shared by Dr. Lawson Eng.  With the end of 2019 approaching, I kindly ask that you consider a gift of $1,000 to the Medical Oncology Trainee Project Fund, although a gift of any amount would be greatly appreciated. To make a donation, please visit our online donation page or contact donations.management@utoronto.ca or 416-978-0811.

A Trainee's Perspective

I became interested in pursuing a career in medical oncology during my undergraduate studies when my father was first diagnosed with cancer. After a few short summer oncology research experiences during my undergraduate studies, I enrolled in the CREMS Research Scholar Program during medical school at the University of Toronto. This program provided me with support from both the Faculty of Medicine and Division of Medical Oncology in carrying out longitudinal research during medical school. Here I had the opportunity to work with a Medical Oncologist, Clinician-Scientist and mentor, Dr. Geoffrey Liu at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in carrying out multiple different research projects during medical school and into my internal medicine and medical oncology residency training at the University of Toronto. These projects range from systematic reviews and meta-analyses, evaluating genetic markers to predict outcomes in cancer patients and now focusing on cancer survivorship and in particular, health behaviours of cancer survivors (i.e., tobacco cessation, physical activity and alcohol moderation) and survivorship outcomes.
 
This program allowed me to experience the wealth of expertise, resources, skills, knowledge, opportunities available not only within the Department of Medicine but both across the Faculty of Medicine and University of Toronto, helped me to both gain important research skills to complement the outstanding clinical training and network with leaders in their respective areas. These projects have cumulated in over 35 publications and 110 presentations at international oncology meetings with multiple national and international honors and recognition to date including 7 ASCO Merit Awards, 3 Novartis Oncology Young Canadian Investigator Awards and a CIHR Publication Prize. Through support from the Divisional, Departmental and Faculty levels, I have had the chance to attend many of these meetings to not only present my research work but learn about new discoveries and innovations in cancer care and to network with other leaders in the field.
 
On a local level, these projects have allowed me to lead the development of our local tobacco cessation program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in collaboration with Cancer Care Ontario and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. I have had the chance to mentor many junior trainees working with our research group funded through divisional support, many of whom have gone on to pursue careers in medicine and had the opportunity to also both present and publish their work. Furthermore, I serve on multiple committees and task forces including the Cancer Care Ontario – Tobacco Cessation Research and Knowledge Translation Committee, and the Canadian Partnerships Against Cancer Pan-Canadian Tobacco Cessation + Cancer Care Network where I help shape tobacco control efforts on a broader scale along with serving on the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer: Survivorship Working Group focusing on general cancer survivorship care issues and have served as an invited speaker and faculty on tobacco control at multiple international meetings.
 
I am currently pursuing my fellowship supported through the Royal College Clinician Investigator Program, the Canadian Association of Medical Oncologist Fellowship Award and Hold’em for Life Clinician Scientist Award where I am receiving concurrent training between the Harvard School of Public Health, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in epidemiology and health services research focusing on integrating and analyzing real-world population level data with patient-reported outcomes to help answer questions related to cancer survivorship, supportive care and health outcomes. My ultimate career goal is to become an academic medical oncologist and scientist focusing on supportive care, survivorship and health outcomes and improving cancer care delivery in these areas. Much of this would not have been possible without the training and support from the Divisional, Departmental and Faculty levels at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Lawson Eng
Clinical Research Fellow, Division of Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine, University of Toronto

Medical Oncology Training Program

Program Director's Message

ASCO Quality Training Program Workshop

Distinctions & Awards

2019-2020 Strategic Innovation Fund Recipients