Risa Freeman
MD, CCFP, MEd, FCFP
Dr. Risa Freeman is a Professor and the Vice-Chair of Education and Scholarship in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and a Clinician Educator Researcher at The Wilson Centre. She is a staff physician at North York General Hospital, and her community-based clinical practice is affiliated with North York General Hospital.
Dr. Risa Freeman received her MD degree from McMaster University and completed postgraduate training, an academic fellowship in Family Medicine and a Masters of Education at the University of Toronto. She teaches at the undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and continuing professional and interprofessional development levels in her clinical office and at the University of Toronto.
Research Synopsis
Dr. Freeman's academic and scholarly work focuses on medical education curricula and innovation, student and faculty learning strategies, evaluation and assessment, and faculty development and leadership.
Recent Publications
White D, O'Brien MA, Cornacchi S, Freeman R, Grunfeld E. COVID-19: A Qualitative Analysis of Academic Family Physician Leaders’ Crisis Response. Family Medicine. 2023;55(1):38-44. Co-Author.
A, Grundland B, Lass E, Forte M, Murdoch S, Freeman R. A new way forward via innovative integration: A 3-year family medicine and enhanced skills residency program. Canadian Family Physician. Jan 2022. Senior Responsible Author.
Parker K, Karim A, Freeman R. Developmental Evaluation: six ways to get a grip on the potential of education scholarship to serve innovation. Canadian Medical Education Journal. Nov 2021. Senior Responsible Author.
White D, Carroll J, Crann S, Shapiro M, Whitehead C, Freeman R, Glazier R, Martin D, Kidd M. A Master Class in Family Doctor Leadership: Evaluating an innovative program. Family Medicine. 2021. Collaborator.
Forsey J, Ng S, Rowland P, Freeman R, Li C, Woods N. The Basic Science of Patient-Physician Communication: A Critical Scoping Review. Academic Medicine. Aug 2021. Collaborator.
Graves L, Horrey K, Hubinette M, Oandasan I, Freeman R. Creating dialogue on culture and bias in the learner-teacher relationship. Canadian Family Physician. Jul 2021. Collaborator.
Merbaum A, Kulasegaram K, Stoller R, Fernando O, Freeman R. The System, the Resident, and the Preceptor: A Curricular Approach to Continuity of Care Training. Perspectives on Medical Education. Impact factor 4.619. Jun 2021. Senior Responsible Author.
Woods N, Mylopoulos M, Nutik M, Freeman R. Defining the ‘Specialist Generalist’: The imperative for adaptive expertise in Family Medicine. Canadian Family Physician. Impact factor 3.112. May 2021. Senior Responsible Author.
Nutik M, Woods N, Moaveni A, Owen J, Gleberzon J, Alvi R, Freeman R. Assessing Undergraduate Medical Education Through a Generalist Lens. Canadian Family Physician. Impact factor 3.112. Sep 2021. Senior Responsible Author.
Stroud L, Freeman R, Kulasegaram K, Cil T, Ginsburg S. Gender Effects in Assessment of Clinical Teaching: Does concordance matter? Journal of Graduate Medical Education. Impact factor 1.26. Dec 2020. Collaborator.
Nutik M, Woods N, Moaveni A, Alvi R, Owen J, Leberzon JG, Freeman R. Assessing Generalism in Undergraduate Medical Education. Accepted as dedicated poster at 2020 Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME). Due to COVID-19, abstract published: Workshop Abstracts. Canadian Medical Education Journal. 2020, 11(2), e238. https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.70106 Senior Responsible Author.
ch S, Moaveni A, Freeman R. Reflection and Renewal: A critical review of the teaching residents to teach program for family medicine residents at the University of Toronto. Accepted as dedicated poster at 2020 Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME). Due to COVID-19, abstract published: Workshop Abstracts. Canadian Medical Education Journal. 2020, 11(2), e257. https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.70106 Senior Responsible Author.
Kulasegaram K, Bernard C, Onyura B, Knifed E, Abner E, Incardona N, Ying I, Wagner F, Freeman R. Evaluating an Integrated Ethics Curriculum: Evidence of Process and Outcome Changes. Accepted as oral abstract at 2020 Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME). Due to COVID-19, abstract published: Workshop Abstracts. Canadian Medical Education Journal. 2020; 11(2), e129. https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.70081 Senior Responsible Author.
Al-Imari L, Nutik M, Rozmovits L, Alvi R, Freeman R. Family Medicine Journal Club: To Tweet or Not to Tweet? Family Medicine. Impact Factor 0.82. 2020;52(2):127-130. Senior Responsible Author. https://doi.org/10.22454/FamMed.2020.705062.
White D, Glazier R, Martin D, Shapiro M, Whitehead C, Crann S, Carroll J, Freeman R, Kidd M. The masterclass series in family doctor leadership: evaluation of a new approach to leadership development. BMJ Leader 2019;3:A8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/leader-2019-FMLM.20 Collaborator.
Onyura B, Crann S, Freeman R, Whittaker MK, Tannenbaum D. The state-of-play in physician health systems leadership research. Leadership in Health Services. 2019;32(4),620-643. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS-03-2019-0017 Collaborator.
Whittaker MK, Murdoch S, Rozmovits L, Abrahams C, Freeman R. If You Build It They Will Come… and Stay: A Community-Based Family Medicine Program. PRiMER. 2019;3. https://Doi.org/10.22454/PRiMER.2019.635563 Senior Responsible Author.
Onyura B, Crann S, Tannenbaum D, Whittaker MK, Murdoch S, Freeman R. Is postgraduate leadership education a match for the wicked problems of health systems leadership? A critical systematic review. Perspectives on Medical Education. 2019 Jun 3;8(3)133–42.
Parker K, Cartmill C, Freeman R. Integrating programme evaluation and strategy: a promising practice. Medical education. 2018 Mar 2.
Telner D, Carroll J, Regehr G, Tabak D, Semotiuk K, Freeman R. Teaching primary care genetics: A randomized controlled trial comparison. Family Medicine 2017;49(6):443-50.
Whitehead C, Kuper A, Freeman R, Grundland B, Webster F. Compassionate care? A critical discourse analysis of accreditation standards. Medical Education. 2014 Jun;48(6):632-43.
Honours and Awards
Academic Family Physician of the Year Award, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2016
Professional Development Program Mentorship Award 2013-2014, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2014
Canadian Association for Medical Education (CAME/ACEM) Certificate of Merit Award, 2004
Award for Research Excellence, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2002
Grants
2021-2022 Senior Investigator. A Program Evaluation of the Family Medicine and Enhanced Skills (FAMES) Integrated Pilot. Art of the Possible Education Grant Program, Office of Education Scholarship, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Sirianni G (PI), Murdoch S, Grundland B, Wright S, Freedman A, Kawaguchi S, Whittaker MK, Onyura B, Lass E, Freeman R. $4924 CAD.
2021-2022 Senior Investigator. Learning from Learner Data: Data driven quality improvement for Assessment in Family Medicine. Art of the Possible Education Grant Program, Office of Education Scholarship, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Moaveni A (PI), Valin S, Tran P, Maker D, Nutik M, Freeman R, Kulasegaram, $4000 CAD.
2021 Co-PI, Are the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) graduates at the University of Toronto (UoT) ready for the real world? A Pilot Curriculum for Practice Management Training. Scholarly Work in Family Medicine Education Grant, Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine, College of Family Physicians of Canada. Gill N (PI), Weaver J, Murdoch S, Grundland B, Freeman R. $10,000 CAD.
2020 Co-PI. Creating and Sustaining the Pivot to Virtual Primary Care: Implementation and evaluation of the Virtual Care Competency Training Roadmap (ViCCTR). Continuing Professional Development COVID-19 Response Fund, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Freeman R (Co-PI), Woods N (Co-PI), Kulasegaram M, Mylopoulos M, Rowland P, Rojas D, Murdoch S, Grundland B, Papadakos T, Paul R, Moaveni A, Whitehead C. $9,912.79 CAD.
2020 Senior Investigator. Understanding the Exceptional Medical Learner. Art of the Possible Education Grant Program, Office of Education Scholarship, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Mand G (PI), Merbaum A , Nijhawan M, Freeman R. $4,901 CAD.
2019 Co-Senior Investigator. Community of Stories: Integrating ethics into faculty development using the vehicle of narrative. Fall 2019 Medical Humanities Education Grant, Post MD Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto with matched funding from Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Knifed E (PI), Bernard C, Soklaridis S, Freeman R. $5,000 CAD.
2019-2022 Senior Investigator. An exploration of adaptive expertise in Family Medicine. Art of the Possible Education Grant Program, Office of Education Scholarship, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Woods N (PI), Mylopoulos M, Moaveni A, Nutik M, Freeman R. $4,782.56 CAD.
2019-2022 Senior Investigator. Coaching Clinical Faculty New to Education Scholarship: Evaluating an Intervention using the Trans Theoretical Model of Change. Art of the Possible Education Grant Program, Office of Education Scholarship, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Onyura B (PI), Nyhof-Young J, Nutik M, Wright S, Woods N, Freeman R. $4942 CAD.
2019-2022 Senior Investigator. The Office of Education Scholarship Developmental Program Evaluation (Phase 3). Art of the Possible Education Grant Program, Office of Education Scholarship, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Nutik M (PI), Ghavam-Rassoul A, Woods N, Whitehead C, Wright S, Tannenbaum D, Freeman R. $4972 CAD.
2018 Senior Investigator. Multisource Feedback in the Family Medicine Clerkship – a pilot feasibility study. Art of the Possible grant, DFCM Office of Education Scholarship. Valin S (PI), Moaveni A, Nyhof-Young J, Wright S, Young S, Freeman R. $4,705 CAD.
2017 Sep-2019 Sep Senior Investigator. From classroom to clinic: assessing a novel integrated curriculum to teach ethical decision making for future physicians. Physicians’ Services Incorporated Foundation. Bernard C (Co-PI), Kulasegaram K (Co-PI), Freeman R, Knifed E. $79,500 CAD.
2017-2018 Senior investigator: Building education scholarship capacity: concept to application in a hospital-based family medicine teaching unit. Art of the Possible grant, DFCM Office of Education Scholarship. Chen B (PI), Fernando O, Heisey R, Freeman R. $4,883 CAD.
2016-2017 Senior Investigator: Understanding Clinician Teacher’s Self-Perception of their Academic Roles: A pilot study. UTOPIAN Idea to Proposal grant. Chen B (PI), Nyhof-Young J, Heisey R, Freeman R. $7,915 CAD.
2016 Jan-2017 Jan Senior Investigator: Multisource feedback in the Family Medicine clerkship: a pilot evaluation. Art of the Possible Education Scholarship Grant, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Nutik M (PI), Moaveni A, Valin S, Wright S, Young S. Freeman R. $4,750 CAD.
2016 Jan-2017 Jan Collaborator: Department of Family and Community Medicine Global Health Educational Activities & Scholarship: An Environmental Scan. Art of the Possible Education Scholarship Grant, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Rouleau K (PI), Freeman R, Webster F, Krueger P, Pakes B, Sodhi S, Landes M, Butcher R. $1,000 CAD.
2016 Jan-2018 Jul Senior Investigator: Generalism: Looking back to move ahead in curriculum renewal. A critical discourse analysis in undergraduate medical education. Art of the Possible Education Scholarship Grant, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Nutik M (PI), Alvi R, Moaveni A, Whitehead C, Freeman R. $4,650 CAD.
2015 Jul-2017 Jun Collaborator: Pilot Needs Assessment and Usability Testing of an eLearning Mobile Application for Procedural Skill Acquisition and Training for Residents and Teachers. Idea to Proposal (I2P), UTOPIAN, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Rezmovitz J (PI), MacPhee I, Domb S, Wideman A, Freeman R, Maxted J, Biswas T, Kulasegaram M, Brydges R, Tsirigotis D. $14,653.86 CAD.
2012 Jul-2013 Jun Senior Investigator. The Family Medicine Clinical Evaluation Exercise (FM-CEX): How does it compare to the Family Medicine Objective Structured Clinical Examination (FM-OSCE) and other measures of student achievement in the Family Medicine Clerkship? Pilot study. Dr. Harrington Waddington Fellowship, Office of Education Scholarship, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Nutik M (PI), Feldman K, Moaveni A, Elman D, Regehr G, Sacks J, Tran P, Valin S, Freeman R. $4,000 CAD