George M. Yousef, MD, PhD, FRCPC

Early Career Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship

Affiliation(s):     Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, St. Michael’s Hospital

Context(s) for Award:     The creation of the first Canadian “virtual” rotation on “Pathology Informatics” for pathology residents, as well as the creation of a graduate course on “the role of genomics in the era of personalized medicine” (LMP1525).

Dr. Yousef is an Associate Professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto and an Anatomical Pathologist at St. Michael’s Hospital. He obtained his MD degree, followed PhD from the University of Toronto. His research focuses on tumor markers in urological cancers through integrated genomic, approaches. He is the author of a book on “molecular testing in cancer”, and has over 200 published research articles, book chapters and editorials. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Pathology. Dr. Yousef is a founding member of the International Society of Kallikreins and was the chair of the 5th international symposium on Kallikreins. He is heavily involved in graduate education at both the clinical and academic frontiers. He is an invited speaker in international conferences and highly ranked academic institutions in Canada, USA, Germany, Greece, France, Belgium, Hungary and others. Dr. Yousef is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards from the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry of the USA, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American Association of Clinical Chemistry, the International Society for Enzymology, and the Canadian Association of Pathologists.

Reflection
I believe that education is a cornerstone towards academic excellence. It involves the transmission of knowledge and expertise to the new generation of scientists and clinicians and also the exchange of new concepts, ideas, approaches that enriches both the teacher and the learner.

In my opinion, a key for successful teaching is to listen carefully to input from listeners and to seriously consider their suggestions and comments. I also believe the teaching style should be dynamic to accommodate the different needs of diverse groups.