Laurence Biro, Joyce-Nyhof Young and Team

Biography

Dr. Laurence Biro is an Assistant Professor with DFCM. As a clinician educator, he has spent a decade advancing undergraduate medical education at the Mississauga Academy of Medicine. His academic areas of interest include undergraduate clinical skill development, LGBTQ health education and student mentorship.  He provides broad scope primary care in the rural community of Chesley and works as a surgical assistant at St. Michael’s Hospital and Trillium Health Partners.  As a clinician educator, he has spent a decade advancing undergraduate medical education at the Mississauga Academy of Medicine. His academic areas of interest include undergraduate clinical skill development, LGBTQ health education and student mentorship. 

Dr. Nyhof-Young is a Professor with the DFCM. As an education scientist, she has spent over two decades building profile and capacity in education scholarship and research. Her interdisciplinary MD trainee, clinician teacher, and community teams have built and evaluated numerous novel educational programs and resources in the MD Program, clinics, and local communities. 

Drs. Biro and Nyhof-Young are prior recipients of the W. T. Aikins Award for Excellence in Individual Teaching Performance: Foundations. 

Our project exemplifies the strengths of student, faculty, and community partnerships and provides a model for future resource development. Our success was dependent the contributions, both large and small, of a team of stakeholders, including:

Student collaborators: Brian Kim (1T7), Herman Tang (1T8), Groonie Tang (1T8), Vincent Valdrez (1T8), Alex Coutin (1T9), Navneet Natt (1T9), Muskaan Gurnani (1T9), Alon Coret (1T9), Laura Wong (2T0) and Kaiwen Song (2T0).

Standardized Patients: Maxx Griffen and the UofT Standardized Patient Program

Faculty Collaborators: Drs. Ed Kucharski and Amy Bourns (former LGBTQ2S theme leads) and Dr. David Wong (former Director of ICE: Clinical Skills)

Summary of Award Work

Despite clear healthcare needs, sexual and gender minority (SGM) communities are underserved. Patients from these communities face major barriers to comprehensive, socially competent, and equitable healthcare. Utilizing an anti-oppression philosophy, we developed a four hour clinical skills seminar to give first year medical students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to provide equitable care.  The seminar includes a manual based on the Calgary-Cambridge guide, a novel infographic explaining SGM concepts and communications skills, and standardized patient cases for deliberate practise.  Seminar components have been adopted by several medical schools and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.  The seminar evaluation resulted in peer reviewed publications in the Canadian Medical Education Journal (https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.70496) and the American Journal of Sexuality Education (https://doi.org/10.1080/15546128.2021.1902891). This work has been previously recognized by a Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) Award of Excellence.

About the Award

These awards are named after William Thomas Aikins, the first Dean of the Faculty of Medicine after its reorganization in1887. They are the Faculty’s most prestigious awards in the MD Program. They were established to recognize and formally reward outstanding teachers in the areas of Individual Teaching Performance (Foundations and Clerkship), Development and Use of Educational Innovations, and Course / Program Development and Coordination. Recipients of these awards have significantly contributed to high-quality undergraduate teaching by establishing and integrating new and effective methods of instruction into the curriculum.