March FacDev Madness 2026

March 2 - 6, 2026

What is it?

March Madness: Faculty Development Edition

From March 2 to 6, 2026, the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine invites you to join us for a week of faculty development activities ranging from civility discussions, learning resources, and much more!

This is a pilot Faculty Development initiative focused on nurturing civility, wellness, and communication (and more) within our community. It is an opportunity for all members of the department to share, learn, and engage in crucial discussions while continuing to improve the work environment for learners, our colleagues and ourselves.

Day 1:

The Winning Warm-Up: MD Wellness

Preventing burnout through self-care and professional boundaries.

Day 2:

The Playbook: Effective Communication

Reducing errors through "clean speech" and closed-loop communication.

Day 3:

Team Dynamics: The Full Court Press

Psychological safety, workplace culture, collaborative care models, anesthesia leadership.

Disagreeing Respectfully: The Principles of Civil Discourse

Join Dr. Ariel Lefkowitz for an engaging virtual discussion on "Disagreeing Respectfully: The Principles of Civil Discourse," on Wednesday, March 4, at 5:00 pm (ET).

Dr. Lefkowitz is a staff physician and education lead in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a scholar at The Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University Health Network/University of Toronto, and an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the session, attendees will be able to:

Identify factors that exacerbate incivility and make civil discourse challenging
Explore common challenges to civil discourse in contemporary medicine
Understand how the principles of civil discourse offer guidelines for navigating these challenges
Examine how the principles of civil discourse can be implemented for individual health care providers, in health professions education, and as institutions and leaders

You can also read his article in Maclean's, "A Doctor’s Plea for Civil Discourse"