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
Sylvia, Caregiver Sylvia was a caregiver to her father who was in and out of the hospital for years related to complications from living with type 1 diabetes and heart disease. He had several amputations, the biggest being a below-the-knee amputation that resulted in a prolonged hospital stay where he eventually became unable to make […]
Irene, Caregiver to Aging Parents Irene is a caregiver to both of her elderly parents. She recently navigated the healthcare system with her 88-year-old father who was partially paralyzed from two strokes and had just experienced a hip fracture. He had a brief stint in a rehabilitation facility after strong advocacy from family to transfer […]
Spotlight on: Arielle Berger, MD Dr. Berger is a stellar facilitator who has taught six workshops since our program began in 2022 Speciality: Geriatrics Favourite Movie: Girls Just Want to Have Fun Over the past three years, The Conversation Lab has sent twenty clinicians to complete VitalTalk faculty development training to standardize and scale communication skills […]
Meet Helen James, MBBS, FAChPM Our first Clinical Research Fellow reflects on her time in the Lab. Helen writes: I applied for this fellowship because I trusted it would allow me to work within a team aiming to improve communication skills for healthcare workers across an entire system, and the experience has certainly exceeded my […]
(L to R) Dr. Jillian Gustin (OH), Dr. Warren Lewin (ON), Dr. Tiffany Lee (BC) The Conversation Lab celebrated our first national workshop as part of the Advanced Learning in Palliative Medicine (ALPM) conference at the Westin Harbor Castle Hotel in Toronto on May 29, 2024. Certified VitalTalk facilitators Dr. Jillian Gustin from Ohio State […]
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 creating The Conversation Lab to address system-level gaps in education and that will ultimately lead to higher quality care for patients and families living with serious illness. More locally, he […]
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