Dr. Rayfel Schneider

2020 Distinguished Teacher – Educator Award

Dr. Rayfel Schneider is an outstanding educator and highly sought-after teacher who has had a huge influence on the practice of paediatric rheumatology across Canada and, indeed, world-wide.

Over his entire career, Dr. Schneider has been devoted to education—first as the Undergraduate Education Director for the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto, then as the Program Director for Rheumatology at SickKids, and for the last many years as the Associate Chair of Education for the Department. He has been widely recognized as a superb and highly influential teacher.

As a Program Director, Dr. Schneider built the SickKids paediatric rheumatology training program into one of the largest and most successful in the world. He has attracted rheumatology trainees from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, the United States, and of course, from all over Canada. His trainees are now the paediatric rheumatologists in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Mississauga, Edmonton and Calgary, and he helped to train the paediatric rheumatologists in St John’s, London, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Saskatoon. Dr. Schneider’s reputation as an excellent teacher has brought many young people into the field of rheumatology.

He developed and formalized the paediatric rheumatology curriculum at the University of Toronto (U of T), the U of T academic half day program, introduced the CanMEDS objectives and was instrumental in changing the Royal College paediatric rheumatology examinations to their current format. Dr. Schneider has been recognized many times for his excellence in education, including winning the Dafna Gladman Award in 2007, the 2013 Pediatric Chairs of Canada Clinician Educator Award, the U of T 2014 Charles Mickle Fellowship Award for long-term contributions to postgraduate education, and most recently, The College of Physicians and Surgeons Council Award.