Physician researches ways to improve clinical care

HAMILTON, Ont. – A McMaster University doctor is receiving $300,000 in funding to research improvements to clinical practice and enhance the healthcare experience for patients and clinicians alike. Dr. Shawn Mondoux (pictured), an assistant professor of medicine, is receiving the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellowship to support his mission of improving peer exchange experiences, educational intervention and coaching for trainee physicians.

Mondoux’s project will extract data on physician practice from electronic medical records, using it to help doctors improve their performance through data sharing, coaching and education. His mentor is Teresa Chan, associate dean for Continuing Professional Development at the Faculty of Health Sciences.

“The PSI Foundation KT Fellowship is the first award of my career that directly supports my time, providing me with the opportunity to dedicate more of my energies towards research and development,” said Mondoux, who is also an emergency physician at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.

“This award is truly remarkable in that it directly supports the researcher, their career and their research ambitions in a way that is largely unmatched by other grant pools. I look forward to developing functional practice feedback tools for clinicians which change the quality of care we provide and the joy we have in work.”

Mondoux said that trainees’ performance is constantly evaluated to help foster better working habits and improved practice. This focus is heightened even more with the competency-based medical education offered to current health sciences learners.

But this formative, intensive feedback comes to a sudden end once physicians are fully qualified and enter practice, something Mondoux wants to change.

“Providing clinicians with their individual practice data is an essential beginning, yet falls short of meaningful and sustained practice change,” said Mondoux.

Mondoux completed his medical training at the University of Ottawa, before earning his MSc in quality improvement and patient safety at the University of Toronto. He also obtained a degree in aerospace engineering before he entered health sciences.