First Half of enrichment year: is the second half of PGY3
Second Half of enrichment year: is the first half of PGY4
• Last Half of PGY3 for 6 months from January to June
• First Part of PGY4 for 6 months from July to December
The enrichment year (from January 1st to December 31st) is divided into periods
• 6 months for full time research time
• 3 months of electives including
o 1 month of community rotation at Lakeshore General hospital or other site approved by the program director
o 1 month of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery (Dr Nabil Fanous and Dr Mark Samaha clinic
o 1 month of selective rotation
Goals and objectives
The main objective of this program should be to show residents the principles of good basic research and to provide high quality research in otolaryngology.
In addition to the research involvement, the resident will maintain certain clinical exposure and obligations. This will include mandatory duties as well as elective opportunities. The resident must be present at grand rounds, hospital rounds, academic half and full days, journal clubs and special seminars. The regular on call schedule will be part of the enrichment year.
The resident will avail himself/herself to certain mandatory pedagogical experiences. These will include anatomy (as a demonstrator) during the head and neck portion and epidemiology and biostatistics. This course will be taken for credit and the resident must achieve a passing grade.
The resident may enroll in other elective courses with the approval of the program director.
Program outline
Year-round activities of the enrichment year resident include:
• Research related:
- Research seminars with Dr. Segal
- Biostatistics course at 鶹AV or at the Meakins-Christie Lab
- Head and neck anatomy demonstration for 鶹AV medical students in the spring
- Anatomy preceptorship for the “back to basics” course
• University related:
- University grand rounds
- Thursday academic half days
- Journal clubs
- Weekly hospital rounds (choose between JGH, RVH or MCH sites)
- Monthly Thursday pathology conference at JGH
- Monthly Thursday radiology conference at JGH
- Monthly thyroid conference – JGH
- Weekly Tumor board rounds (choose between JGH, RVH)
- Weekly rounds at the RVH respectively, radiology, pathology otology, laryngology, rhinology and M&M
• Community rotation: one month at the Lakeshore General hospital
• Facial plastic and reconstructive rotation: one month at the clinics of Dr Nabil Fanous and Dr Mark Samaha
• One month of selective rotation in the following rotations:
- Maxillofacial surgery – MGH
- Head and neck radiology
- Head and neck pathology
- Medical oncology
- Radiation oncology
- Voice lab – MGH
- Vestibular laboratory – RVH
- Otology
- Audiology service – JGH, MGH, RVH, MCH
- Facial nerve unit
- Extra month in facial plastics rotation
- Extra month in community rotation
Procedures for research activities
Eight months before the enrichment year, residents will seek advice from faculty, and work out details of the proposed program. A new method to assign residents to projects was implemented in 2011 where each resident completed a questionnaire about their research plans and their interest in ongoing research projects. This permitted matching of student interests with suitable projects for their enrichment year. As a result, there was better matching of residents to strong supervisors and appropriate research projects.
Residents must submit a timetable of their proposed enrichment year activities 3 months before their enrichment year begins. The research committee must approve the proposed timetable.
Exceptional 鶹AV OTL residents may be permitted to enter a double-program Master’s, combining both normal residency and Master of Science activities. Double-program activities must start 6 months before the Enrichment year starts, and normally continue after the end of the Enrichment year. The double master proposal is reviewed by the research committee and highly scrutinized before approval.
Timetable for Enrichment year:
May – August (preceding enrichment year) | Find project and supervisor |
October (preceding enrichment year) | Submit timetable for enrichment year activities |
December (preceding enrichment year) | Complete research proposal form, specifying when epidemiology and demonstrating will be done. Submit to research committee |
January | Literature review and finalize proposal |
February/March/April/May | Research in lab |
June | Progress report |
July | Compiling statistics |
August/September | Starting writing paper |
October/November | Progress report |
December | Final report due |
May (following enrichment year) | Cutoff date for final report |
June (following enrichment year) | Presentation at annual Canadian meeting |
Following year | Keep research committee updated with new publications |