Left to Right: Jill Tinmouth, Amal Ga’al, Mireille Norris, Sophie Weiss, Nick Daneman
By
Mireille Norris
Let me tell you the story of how SPARK (Sunnybrook Program to Access Research Knowledge for Black and Indigenous Medical Students) came to be. It started with a medical student who reached out to me in the winter of 2021. I wanted to provide an opportunity for this learner to do research, but I felt this could only be achieved if a) I could obtain funds to support her while she focused on the project and b) I could collaborate with experts who could help me provide her with a rigorous research experience.
After a failed attempt to obtain funding to support a summer student, I was invited to present to the Sunnybrook Department of Medicine executive as the newly minted Faculty Lead for Black and Indigenous learners. I shared with the executive team my experience reviewing learner files as faculty lead for the Black and Indigenous CaRMS pathway. Among other barriers faced by Black and Indigenous learners, there is a distinct lack of opportunity for comprehensive research under strong mentors, and I felt that this was a problem that we had the means to address.
The reception to my presentation was very warm and supportive. My colleagues and our Physician-in-Chief, Dr. Michelle Hladunewich, vowed to support me, such that before I left the meeting, proposals for targeted funding directed to Black and Indigenous learners were already being suggested.
Drs. Jill Tinmouth and Nick Daneman reached out directly and offered to help me put the program together. I came up with the acronym SPARK – it “popped” in my mind. I felt “access” to be an important focus of the program: I had personally experienced the challenge of accessing this knowledge and accessing mentors. I also felt passionately about the need for fair market funding and a longitudinal experience that would last a full year to ensure delivery of substantive research.
I am most grateful for the support of Jill and Nick, both experienced mentors in clinical research, who assisted in putting together the program and continue to support its execution. For my part, I provided my perspective as a member of an underrepresented group in medicine. This collaboration led to innovative program elements such as requesting the research supervisor to provide a personal statement describing their motivation for wanting to participate. Because I felt that it was important that learners be empowered, the trainees – rather than the supervisors - select their research project by reviewing the project description and the research supervisor’s personal statement. Recognizing that Black and Indigenous learners often struggle to find supportive relationships in medicine, we felt it was particularly important in this case that trust be allowed to flourish between mentor and mentee. In addition, the program adopts a multifaceted mentorship model where selected students are provided mentorship by career and community mentors as well as their research supervisors. Students in the program work full-time (12 weeks) on their projects in the summer after the completion of their first year in medical school, and part-time (5-10 hours a week) during their second academic year.
In order to operationalize the program in short order (from the first “spark” in March 2021 to rollout in June 2021), we were supported by the President Anti-Racist Task Force, the Faculty Lead, Equity, Dr. Umberin Najeeb, our Department of Medicine Research Committee and residents in Medicine identifying as Black and Indigenous who reviewed candidates for the program. Sunnybrook leaders including CEO Dr. Andy Smith and VP Research, Dr. Kullervo Hynynen, played key roles and the program received generous financial support from the Sunnybrook organization, the Sunnybrook Department of Medicine and the Sunnybrook Research Institute.
The first iteration of SPARK offered funding and mentorship to four learners: three identify as Black and one is Métis. 75% reported little research experience prior to their participation and now, four months before the end of the program, all have achieved important research milestones such as abstract submission to national meetings, manuscript collaboration, and submission to REB. The supervisors of the program were Nick Daneman, Sander Hitzig, Matthew Godleski, Barbara Liu, Harindra Wijeysundera, and myself, Mireille Norris. The Black Physician Association of Ontario has funded a study, led by Dr. Csilla Kaloscai, which will follow those students over two years to track how the program has impacted their identity as clinical researchers and their choice of residency.
The future of SPARK is bright: Since our launch last year, many departments have expressed interest in offering a similar research mentorship experience as SPARK. We were successful in securing the AFP innovation funds to study (also led by Csilla) the scalability of SPARK beyond the Sunnybrook Department of Medicine. For next year, the Sunnybrook Departments of Psychiatry, Trauma, Surgery, Medicine and the Novo Nordisk Network will fund the expansion of the program to eight learners who will have the opportunity to work with researchers across the hospital. We are in discussions with other academic hospitals about partnering to assist in the development of similar programs outside of Sunnybrook, and we look forward to seeing our “SPARKies”’ continued achievements.
