Training for Better Care
Serious illness communication helps clinicians navigate emotionally complex conversations, align treatment with patient values, and support more compassionate, patient-centered care. Clinicians often face difficult
Interprofessional pediatric specialists gathered from across Canada to become skilled communicators. Picture used with permission from all participants. On March 11 2026, The Conversation Lab partnered with Naomi Goloff—Director of Pediatric Palliative Medicine at McGill University—to deliver Canada’s first VitalTalk communication skills workshop for pediatric specialists. This initiative brought together an interprofessional group of 11 […]
Serious illness communication helps clinicians navigate emotionally complex conversations, align treatment with patient values, and support more compassionate, patient-centered care. Clinicians often face difficult discussions about serious illness, prognosis, and care preferences, yet many lack formal training in the communication skills needed to navigate these conversations. This gap can lead to challenges in care […]
Dr Max Charles leads a group at TRI-UC The Conversation Lab continues to further the call to put communication skills training at the forefront of the agenda within UHN. Palliative Care has been on site routinely at TRI-UC since July 2024 as part of a new initiative to address the increasing patient complexity for their […]
Dr Karen Okrainec Dr Richard Dunbar-Yaffe Karen Okrainec, MD is a General Internal Medicine physician and clinician scientist at UHN, and VitalTalk faculty partnering with The Conversation Lab research team to advance serious illness communication implementation work across UHN sites. Richard Dunbar-Yaffe, MD is a General Internal Medicine physician and Assistant Professor in Clinician Quality and Innovation […]
The Conversation Lab enjoyed the rare opportunity to bring a small group of our community of facilitators together in-person. On November 20, 2024 we held our first facilitator retreat at the Cancer Education Library at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. Over lunch, 11 local facilitators celebrated their teaching accomplishments, were introduced to the Lab’s post-doctoral […]
Serious illness communication helps clinicians navigate emotionally complex conversations, align treatment with patient values, and support more compassionate, patient-centered care. Clinicians often face difficult
Dr Karen Okrainec Dr Richard Dunbar-Yaffe Karen Okrainec, MD is a General Internal Medicine physician and clinician scientist at UHN, and VitalTalk faculty partnering with The
The Conversation Lab’s Dr. Warren Lewin was recently awarded a 2023 Award of Excellence from the College of Family Physicians of Canada recognizing his leadership in
Dr. Mary Elliott speaks with Dr. Warren Lewin, Founding Director of The Conversation Lab. Together, they discuss Warren’s work teaching and learning from clinical trainees
We’re growing! We were just two faculty when we launched and now have 20 certified faculty to help deliver our programming. Our faculty come from
One of our faculty received an Art of the Possible grant from the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto
Serious illness communication helps clinicians navigate emotionally complex conversations, align treatment with patient values, and support more compassionate, patient-centered care. Clinicians often face difficult
Dr Karen Okrainec Dr Richard Dunbar-Yaffe Karen Okrainec, MD is a General Internal Medicine physician and clinician scientist at UHN, and VitalTalk faculty partnering with The
The Conversation Lab’s Dr. Warren Lewin was recently awarded a 2023 Award of Excellence from the College of Family Physicians of Canada recognizing his leadership in
Dr. Mary Elliott speaks with Dr. Warren Lewin, Founding Director of The Conversation Lab. Together, they discuss Warren’s work teaching and learning from clinical trainees
We’re growing! We were just two faculty when we launched and now have 20 certified faculty to help deliver our programming. Our faculty come from
One of our faculty received an Art of the Possible grant from the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto