Robert Silver

Dr. Rob Silver is a Clinician Educator at the Toronto Western Hospital division of the University Health Network and Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His medical school Alma Mater is Dalhousie University. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Toronto and his Endocrinology Fellowship at Harvard University. An educator of great passion and energy, he provides an estimated 700 hours per year of formal and informal teaching in the settings of one on one teaching in the office, seminars, bedside, large group teaching and small group teaching within the specialty of Endocrinology. He facilitates learning at all levels including Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Continuing Education. He has supervised an estimated 2200 students in his 41 years of clinical practice. His favorite teaching activity continues to be a weekly interactive problem-based learning session with his Endocrinology residents and students entitled “Coffee, Crumpets and Questions”. He has a special interest in methods of evaluation and the creation of new and novel approaches to interactive learning.  Throughout his career, he has served on more than 20 different medical education committees, at the hospital, university divisional and faculty-wide levels. His most notable administrative role was that of Education Coordinator for the UHN/MSH Division of Endocrinology for 28 years. For his efforts in teaching and administration, he has been the recipient of 39 career teaching awards. His passion for theater and music forms the basis of his creativity and innovation in medical education. He considers teaching as an in vivo “performance”, requiring great focus, energy and enthusiasm, an emphasis on effective communication and a desire to be creative in the process of “entertaining” his students. He encourages a free exchange of ideas, while maintaining a sense of humor to make the learning more fun, but above all, he maintains a mutual respect for and a willingness to learn from his students and all the while, in a highly energetic and interactive format.