Dr. Anthony Lott is a medical oncologist and clinician-teacher at Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre. As a recent recipient of the Student Experience Award, he takes some time to explain the work that led to the accolades.
Tell me about your role at Sunnybrook.
I work in the Odette Cancer Centre and the Louise Temerty Breast Centre, seeing patients diagnosed with gastrointestinal and breast cancers. I started on staff in 2020, and my purpose and passion has been to teach trainees the art and science of being a medical oncologist. As physicians, we go through a lot of training. It’s important to give back through teaching, to stay current and to challenge ourselves with fresh ideas.
I teach medical trainees in the clinical and non-clinical settings. A full spectrum of learners come through my clinic, and my goal is to translate textbook knowledge into real-world practice. I also lecture for the residency program and really anyone who is interested to learn more about oncology, and am involved in various education-based projects.
One of those projects is called “Notion”. Tell me more.
Every trainee who comes through the University of Toronto’s internal medicine residency program will complete a rotation in medical oncology. The biggest challenge is to quickly acclimatize to the language of oncology, understand the multi-disciplinary nature of our work and appreciate the complexity of care. It can be overwhelming to be dropped into a subspecialty oncology clinic and understand what is going on.
After connecting with a former senior education leader at our centre, we brainstormed how to tackle this problem. We leveraged an existing free online platform called NOTION. This is a website-building tool for non-coders. The NOTION that we built gives trainees access to a huge number of educational resources, including many handouts on the diagnosis and treatment of different types of cancer.
Many residents have also contributed to the website. They have worked with my colleagues and I to map out algorithms to approach different types of cancer. Because knowledge in the field of oncology changes fast, we create documents that are easy to digest and provide a Canadian context to treatment.
Has the use of this tool moved beyond Sunnybrook?
I can confidently say that this tool has been accessed by hundreds of trainees across the country. I’m often approached by trainees from other institutions asking to develop their own handouts along with our oncologists. It’s grown organically and it’s exciting to see how it’s taken off.
When I started building this, I didn’t know where it would get to. But I built a few algorithms gradually, and it became a passion project in collaboration with my students. As a teacher, it reaffirms my own knowledge and loops current trainees into exploring new data and studies.
Do you have a memorable student experience?
We learn the most from our mistakes. I’ve had some senior residents point out outdated knowledge present on our handouts. It was a chance for us to review evolving treatments in the field, and how quickly our knowledge has shifted. It was also a reminder that I’m also learning from my students.
What does winning the student experience award mean to you?
I was touched that almost a dozen students wrote letters of support for this award. It was a privilege to be recognized for the work, and affirmed the value of being a teacher.
