We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024-2025 Learner Awards for Teaching Innovation.
Seven innovative, learner-led projects – including both individuals and teams – were selected by the Office of the Vice-Dean, Education and Community Engagement. The awards recognize innovative teaching strategies that have been shown to have a positive impact on learners and learning.
“Congratulations to the winners!” said Beth-Ann Cummings, MDCM, Vice-Dean, Education and Community Engagement. “These awards give us an opportunity to highlight just some of the many amazing educational innovations spearheaded by learners in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.”
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Encouraging collaboration across the MDCM-PhD program
Recipients: MDCM-PhD students Daniel Mendelson and Liam Wilson (second year); Aline Atallah (third year); Nikita Kalashnikov, Anna-Maria Lazaratos, Michael Luo and Jamie Magrill (fourth year); Tarek Taifour (fifth year); Owen Chen, Joan Miguel Romero and Mark Sorin (sixth year); Matthew Dankner, MDCM, PhD, a second-year internal medicine resident; Jeremy Levett, MDCM, a second-year cardiac surgery resident; and Shriya Deshmukh, MDCM, PhD, an internal medicine resident at Ohio State University.
Project: A systematic review team in the MDCM-PhD program to encourage collaboration across students, areas of research and cohorts. This has led to increased contact between alumni and new students, and across components of the program.
Quote: “When we started this project, weĚýset out to answer an important research question, but while doing soĚýended upĚýbuilding a network for students in our program to collaborate across research disciplines and mentor one another. It has been inspiring to watch the individual growth ofĚýeveryone involved in this project from the beginning up to this point. We are nearing theĚýend of this project, but I hope to be involved inĚýsimilar initiativesĚýin the future with thisĚýnewĚýmodel for community building, teaching and mentoring, allĚýwhile accomplishing a concrete aim.” – Matthew Dankner
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A neurosurgical VR experience for pre-clinical students
Recipients: Ali Fazlollahi, a fourth-year medical student
Project: A one-day immersive neurosurgical virtual reality (VR) experience for pre-clinical students, providing early exposure to the subspecialty in a safe and adaptive environment and the chance to learn technical skills from residents and intelligent tutoring systems.
Quote: “With medical students unable to engage in hands-on learning due to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, we identified a widening gap in early technical skills training and subspecialty exposure. This curriculum reimagined how medical education could be delivered – leveraging VR, AI-powered feedback systems, and a layered learning model involving both students and residents. I am immensely grateful to my collaborators at the Neurosurgical Simulation and Artificial Intelligence Learning Centre, especially to Dr. Rolando Del Maestro, whose visionary leadership and unwavering support were instrumental to the project’s success. I also extend my heartfelt thanks to Dr. Recai Yilmaz, Dr. Alexander Winkler-Schwartz, Dr. Mohamad Bakhaidar, and Dr. Ahmad Alsayegh for their insights and dedication to this initiative. I hope this work will encourage others to innovate and prioritize accessible, inclusive and impactful education in all its forms.”
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ş«ąúÂăÎč Emergency Medicine Conference
Recipients: Medical students Gabriel Berberi and Angela Magri (second year); Julia Parreira Pinto, Ryszard Kubinski, Laury Gueyie, Arielle Grossman and Arianne Racine (third year); and Saad Razzaq (fourth year).
Project: The , a nine-hour educational program comprised of unique lectures, discussions and hands-on workshops designed specifically for medical learners. MEMC’s mission was to ignite emergency medicine-related curiosity and passion among students by providing opportunities to explore the diverse realms of the field, improve learners’ hands-on clinical skills through workshops, and network for mentorship and growth.
Quote: “Although emergency medicine is an indispensable part of any country’s healthcare system, students tend to be exposed to emergency medicine later in their UGME curricula compared to other specialties, and this inspired the creation of MEMC. We are incredibly proud to have won the Learner Award for Teaching Innovation! MEMC has demonstrated the potential and impact of student-led initiatives in shaping medical education in fields where exposure may be limited. We hope to inspire other students to do the same by taking initiative, fostering innovation and creating meaningful opportunities for learning and growth in their respective areas of interest!”
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MSS Academic Peer Support (MAPS) Program
Recipients:
MAPS co-founders: Medical students Sarah Moussa, Lily Fakhouri and Layo Alaga (fourth year); Taylor Morganstein, Arjun Gupta, Jacob Nicodemo, Arielle Grossman and Adam Hassan (third year).
Current MAPS executives: Medical students Naomie Gamondele, Linda Ma, Sophie Vinet, Sharmin Zahin (second year).
Project: A offered through the Medical Students’ Society of ş«ąúÂăÎč (MSS) that provides support to students in academic difficulty or remediation. MAPS comprises 50 peer tutors, covers the first 18 months of the undergraduate medical education curriculum and serves students in Montreal and Outaouais.
Quote: “We are deeply honoured to receive a Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Learner Award for Teaching Innovation. Peer-to-peer teaching and mentorship are cornerstones of medical education, and MAPS embodies the commitment to supporting learners as they build their medical foundations. This would not be possible without the dedication and generosity of our volunteer tutors, to whom we extend our heartfelt gratitude.”
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Nursing Peer Mentorship Program (NPMP)
Recipients: BSc in Nursing students Honoah Xu, Hasna Qiabi, Khoa Nguyen, and Marieta Petrosyan (U3); Jane Soh (U1).
NPMP Director
Lia Sanzone, RN, MSc.A, M.Sc.Adm (Cert.), Associate Professor and Associate Director (Education), Ingram School of Nursing (ISoN).
Project: The Nursing Peer Mentorship Program (NPMP) fosters connections between junior and senior nursing students, and was originally designed to support their transition into professional programs. Over time, the program has expanded its focus to also promote resilience, offer ongoing support, and assist both current nursing students and new graduate nurses as they navigate their careers.
Quote: “Winning this award is deeply meaningful to the NPMP organizing committee, whose members work tirelessly to provide dedicated support to their peers. They help students not only navigate the challenges of university studies but also successfully transition into a professional program and the nursing profession. This recognition underscores the vital importance of the work they do. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Director of ISoN for believing in and supporting the NPMP over the years. We are also incredibly thankful to all the mentors who have played, and continue to play, a crucial role in the growth and development of nursing – beginning with our U0 nursing students and continuing through to their graduation and beyond.”
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Vascular Access Student Club – ş«ąúÂăÎč
Recipients: BSc in Nursing students Marnie O’Brien, Vie Kupovics, Emma Lockett, Victoria Kirby, and Alexandra Babakhanova (U3); recent graduate Daniel Callahan, RN, BNI.
Faculty Advisors:
Caroline Marchionni, RN, MScA, Assistant Professor, ISoN; Maria Damian, BSc, MScA (N), Faculty Lecturer, ISoN, Assistant Program Director BNI Online; William Landry, RN, MN, Faculty Lecturer, ISoNĚý
Project: The student-led chapter of the national (VASC) in ISoN, which organizes events that help new nursing students hone their vascular access skills.
Quote: “We are incredibly grateful to be receiving this award, which for us, symbolizes the importance of nursing leadership in vascular access research and in developing innovative vascular access educational opportunities. We would like to thank the Faculty for granting us this award, our faculty advisors at ISoN, who work tirelessly alongside us to ensure that our events are a success, and our student volunteers and participants who are just as passionate about vascular access as we are! This award is an important milestone for our VASC chapter, and we look forward to further contributing to the future of vascular access education.”
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A point-of-care ultrasound course mobilizing peer teaching
Recipient: Laura Yan, MDCM, a general internal medicine fellow.
Project: The creation of a longitudinal and sustainable point of care ultrasound (PoCUS) course in internal medicine, which mobilizes peer teachers, and centers around learning of pathologies on patients, rather than healthy volunteers. The course has been incorporated in the internal medicine residency program as of July 2024.
Quote: “The creation of this PoCUS curriculum started off as a vision and a passion project. Seeing it come to life has been the most gratifying thing. I am honoured for the recognition that this award has given to my work, which would not have been possible without the support of my amazing team. I’d like to thank Dr. Ning-Zi Sun, Dr. Jeffrey Wiseman and Dr. Jonathan Houle for believing in this project since day one and supporting me along the way, as well as my fellow co-residents Stefka Dzieciolowska and Alex Calderone and the entire ş«ąúÂăÎč IM PoCUS committee, members who have helped tremendously.”
Caption: Pictured above is Ali Fazlollahi (centre), winner of a Learner Award for Teaching Innovation, with Sabrina Deraiche, Abicumaran Uthamacumaran, Dr. Rolando Del Maestro, Vanja Davidovic, Bianca Giglio and Neevya Balasubramaniam.
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See photos of all the winners on . Learn more about this year’s winners of the