Ana Hategan
Clinical Professor, Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences

Dr. Ana Hategan is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. She completed her psychiatry residency at University of Ottawa and obtained her subspecialty certification in geriatric psychiatry. Among other medical education leadership positions, she has been an innovator in her role as the curriculum developer for the geriatric psychiatry subspecialty training program since its inception at McMaster University. She is the recipient of several teaching awards for medical education, including the 2018 Certificate of Merit Award from the Canadian Association of Medical Education. She has been a chief editor at Medscape Psychiatry, a member of the editorial board at Journal of Psychiatry Reform, and a peer reviewer for multiple medical journals world-wide. She has published six medical books, among which her “Geriatric Psychiatry: A Case-Based Textbook” (released in April 2018) was one of the top 10 publications globally in both psychiatry and neurology for Springer Science in 2018. She has published over 75 journal articles and book chapters.

Two of her main scholarly interests have been research in medical education, with an emphasis on the integration of models of early fostering and enhancing scholarly activities during residency training, as well as curriculum development and novel approaches for resident wellness in the era of sustainable medicine.

Much of her work has focused on reducing the gender imbalance in academic writing for publication during residency training. For this, she implemented a novel writing mentorship program for female psychiatry residents at McMaster University to assist in creating and publishing their academic work. Over a period of three years, there was a shifting trend toward increasing numbers of publications by female residents, particularly female first authors, compared to their male peers. Nonetheless, this type of academic writing mentorship could benefit the scholarly productivity of all residents regardless of gender.

Since 2018, she has led and developed an international project initiative entitled RESPITE (Resilience in the Era of Sustainable Physicians: An International Training Endeavour; available at https://respite.machealth.ca). This is a voluntary online curriculum that combines lectures, reflection, and simulated skill building exercises that work to lead a cultural shift of promoting well-being in postgraduate medical education by filling an often neglected area in medical trainees’ formal education. The RESPITE initiative has continued to grow from a meaningful collaboration between medical trainees and physicians in all stages of their careers. While RESPITE began with online curriculum modules, Dr. Hategan has continued to lead the development locally to include “RESPITE Rounds,” a quarterly resident peer-support rounds event, and “Concordia,” a quarterly wellness newsletter for residents. This initiative has the potential to improve the quality of life for the resident physician and cultivate a systematic training model that is more attuned to the well-being and sustainability of its physicians