This story was featured in the OHA’s Health System News publication on Thursday, January 9.
Find it HERE.
Network bringing together diverse medical training and world-class infrastructure to achieve more equitable health outcomes for Scarborough
Sasha Singh is Scarborough to the core. Born at Centenary Hospital, she was raised in the community and did her undergrad at the University of Toronto (U of T) Scarborough. Last spring, Sasha became the new Director of Education for Scarborough Health Network (SHN), a role she is assuming at a critical time. U of T is preparing to launch the new Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH), and SHN is on a transformative journey as their clinical partner.
Working with Dr. Samir Grover, SHN’s first Executive Vice President of Education, Sasha is tasked with helping SHN to become Canada’s leading community teaching health network.
“We’re transforming at SHN in so many ways through our expansion of education. From growing our infrastructure for medical education operations to redevelopment of education spaces across our network, we’re ramping up how we deliver world-class care in a community setting,” said Sasha.
“Medical education is not new to SHN—we’ve been training medical learners for more than 40 years and have hundreds of faculty physicians who are passionate about teaching. What’s new is how we’re delivering the core components of the MD Program and Scarborough’s upcoming medical school that will accommodate around 160 students needing in-hospital training in areas like Internal Medicine, Paediatrics, and Anaesthesia. And that’s where we come in. We know the value of learning in the community, and we’re very excited to be expanding medical education training at SHN and creating a culture where education is at the heart of everything we do.”
For Dr. Rikin Patel, the bold steps that SHN is taking are long overdue, and extremely welcome. Dr. Patel is a Paediatrician and Physician Education Lead for Paediatrics at Centenary Hospital. He believes that community hospitals have an extremely important role to play in medical education—one that bigger academic teaching institutions are often unable to fulfill.
“When you’re learning at a community hospital, you’re being steeped in the bread and butter, day-to-day issues of medicine,” commented Dr. Patel. “Here at SHN, we’re meeting patients where they’re at, in terms of where they live, of course, but also in terms of the challenges they are facing.”
And there is another, extremely important way that a hospital in a community like Scarborough can meet patients where they’re at, which Dr. Patel went on to explain.
“Scarborough is a place where cultures, ethnicities, genders, faiths, and life experiences all come together. And so is SHN. We reflect the people in our community. That is what we mean when we talk about the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion. If you are a new doctor who believes in those things, learning in our hospitals and then staying to work in our community will be very attractive.”
Linda Johnston is the Vice-President of U of T and Principal of U of T Scarborough. She is well aware of the fact that as one of the most diverse communities in Canada, the Scarborough catchment area offers healthcare workers an opportunity like no other. She is equally aware of how very much Scarborough needs these new providers.
“Communities like Scarborough in the eastern GTA are facing a historic lack of adequate care coverage. The Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health will educate physicians, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare professionals in the community to provide equitable, timely, and accessible care to those who need it the most.” For Sasha, the future for SHN is a bright one. But getting there is going to take a huge amount of work over the next three years. One of the biggest pieces of this work is creating more dedicated spaces necessary for the growing scope of teaching activities, which includes redesigning existing infrastructure across SHN’s three hospitals, and building a new Scarborough Health Centre of Excellence at Centenary Hospital. These developments will transform SHN’s culture by fostering collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning. At SHN, teaching will be more than an activity, it’ll become an integral part of patient care and institutional excellence.
“We will be building a state-of-the-art facility to serve as the heart of our education program, where our learners will have access to cutting-edge simulation labs, flexible classrooms designed for interprofessional
collaboration, and innovative clinical exam rooms for training the next generation of healthcare professionals,” explained Dr. Grover. “Beyond classrooms, the centre will host a Family Medicine Teaching Unit, combining education, research, and clinical care to foster ground-breaking advancements in primary care.”
As planning continues for the new centre, SHN is moving forward with adapting its existing infrastructure to accommodate modular, flex spaces for teaching and learning. The new spaces will include learner lounges, teaching and seminar spaces, on-call rooms, locker rooms, and wellness spaces, as well as clinical exam rooms, classrooms, and increased spaces for education administration.
“It’s a lot, for sure, but it’s definitely a challenge we can meet,” Sasha asserted. “We have consulted extensively with our physicians, including people like Dr. Patel, who have championed medical education here for so long. Right now, we’re working with our various departments to identify dedicated spaces to enable us to actively treat and teach on the wards. We will be procuring an architect to design, modernize, and redevelop these spaces. We’re in great shape.”
Sasha says there is a culture change underway at SHN as people anticipate the Network’s critical role in training the next generation of doctors and other health professionals. This is a great thing for SHN, she says, and a great thing for Scarborough.
“When I was growing up here, I always felt that our community had so much to offer. Today, we have an opportunity to showcase all of the potential that Scarborough has. We have such amazing scholars, practitioners, and individuals at SHN who give 110% every day to advance and transform our community. Expanding our medical education programs will shine a light on our community’s exceptional talent, elevating our reputation and positioning us to become a leading academic centre and training ground.”