At the TRP our goal is not to teach. Our goal is not to lecture or have you memorize some datum likely to change before you finish your degree, or that a search engine can find faster than you can formulate the question.

The TRP is a community and a mindset of people who are resources, facilitators, mentors, peers, guides and catalysts whose aim is to help those, who are looking to learn, to explore, to push the boundaries of their experience to seek knowledge.

The TRP is not intended to be divided as a degree of teacher-task-masters and students–those who know one truth and those hoping to memorize that truth. Instead, the program strives to be a community of people motivated to learn, to seek knowledge, to help others to be more and do more. In this community, the focus is not on the content but on understanding the processes, the mechanisms of creative problem-solving and innovation.

Students learn alongside the faculty–we learn together and from each other. We learn from real-world contexts and from failure–not from arbitrary grades or standardized testing–because our collective goals are not to pass a test or earn a grade but to improve lives, to learn to champion change that will improve the lives of others.

Now, we are starting to seek people join our 2021 cohort. Those motivated to learn, those seeking to move beyond their comfort zones, to challenge ambiguity, who want to focus on the processes of innovating of generating new ideas and championing change for positive impact are the kindred spirits we seek–these are the people we seek to join our ranks.

If you, or someone you know, is interested in a different kind of graduate program, who is motivated to learn by doing and is seeking a transformative education, then we need to talk. Come to an information session, read the website, arrange a consultation with someone from our team.

One day soon, we, trainees, mentors, facilitators, students, residents, PI’s, researchers, clinicians, healthcare professionals, and many others, will form a global network of professional translators, who think globally but work locally to improve the health and well-being of people in our communities. And together we will transform health, care and medicine.

Join us.

#UofTMed TRP Student Reflection by Ankita

“How can I reinvent myself?”
“How do I understand and navigate the complexity of the health care system in Canada?”
“How can I learn to speak the language?”

These were the questions that plagued Ankita when she first moved to Toronto. An internationally trained physician with over seven years of clinical experience under her belt, she began her quest for graduate programs that would allow her to grow both personally and professionally by providing the right mix of exposure and hands-on learning. Her forage ended at the Translational Research Program offered by the University of Toronto. To her, the TRP provided the best amalgamation of innovation and tradition in the realm of research. As she approaches the end of her first year in this distinct program, she candidly shares her experience with us.

“A Journey of Transformation”

People talk about reinventing themselves. The Translational Research Program has been an integral part of my journey to do just that, reinvent myself. The journey has been challenging as all changes are meant to be – disheartening at times and exciting at others, but most importantly, refreshing all the same. So let me start from the very beginning.
As a physician trained abroad, I have considerable experience in speaking with patients. Clinical research questions usually arise from problems faced in practice by healthcare providers. I have conducted traditional research studies in order to answer these clinical questions, but, unfortunately, the results have lacked impact. The TRP was instrumental in making me aware of the need to validate any such inquiry to explore the desired effect. The crux of this program for me can be summarized as – “Explore, Understand, and Talk to people before defining your need”, which will lead to drafting the research question. Enlisting a need from the perspective of end-users is the only way to design a project to ensure that it translates into real life to demonstrate an impact. The end goal of all research is to help improve human life, therefore, thinking of how we can make an impact on someone’s health should direct the journey.
My experience through various projects in this program has changed my approach towards problems. I now pursue issues with various tools and guides to navigate a challenge. The beauty of the TRP and the framework we employ is its versatility. I have applied this knowledge in the challenges I face in my day-to-day life, as well as the scientific challenges presented to us during the course of last year. TRP has been instrumental in my professional and personal growth. I have had a chance to interact with influencers from various sectors of health care; policymakers, clinicians, financers, and innovators to name a few. I have also had the opportunity of contributing towards student-led organizations such as the Pillars of Health and Geo-health Network. The message of these communities has resonated with me and inspired me to explore health in broad contexts including geographical, political, social, financial, and policy in addition to service delivery. The coalescence of policy, science, geography, and society is extraordinary in its complexity and fascinating as a field of study. TRP has provided me with an environment conducive to explore the health landscape in this exciting era of health innovation.
In my second year, I am excited to work on my capstone project which is an interdisciplinary project that will address a real need of real people with a demonstrable impact at the end. The support of our mentors throughout the program allows for a guided journey to implement my learnings in the real world. Translational researchers would have an integral part to play in the near future to ascertain that the benefit of research reaches the masses in two ways – health care research and health system navigation to address current gaps by understanding and bringing multiple lenses to the table.
For my future endeavours, I aspire to be a physician in Canada to integrate my role as a translational researcher to the clinic with the ultimate aim to improve health care in Canada.

Editor: Zoya Retiwalla for the TRP