SWOMEN’s Strategic Planning Retreat: An Evolving Network of Medical Education

What does it means to be the pre-eminent distributed medical education (DME) program provincially, nationally, and internationally?

That's the question Murray Bryant, professor, Richard Ivey School of Business posed to an energetic group of participants at the strategic planning retreat hosted by the Southwestern Ontario Medical Education Network (SWOMEN).

Dr. Shamim Tejpar, assistant dean, Rural and Regional Medicine welcomed more than 65 people from across the region to the retreat. Serving as the keynote speaker, Dr. Michael J. Strong, dean, shared what he believed to be the challenges and opportunities ahead for DME at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. He appealed to participants to be creative in their thinking throughout the retreat and consider how we will measure success as we integrate the needs of Family Medicine, SWOMEN and the Windsor Program into a streamlined DME platform.

As the retreat got underway, Dr. Bertha Garcia, vice-dean, Education thanked participants for the contributions they would be making, sharing that this was the first time such a broad group of stakeholders had come together to discuss DME.

The room was bursting at the seams as department chair/chiefs, decanal team members, managers and directors from across the School, as well as SWOMEN academic directors and staff joined their colleagues from the region including preceptors, medical affairs directors, and hospital chiefs of staff, CEO's and COO's.

Together they engaged in large and small group discussions focussing on a variety of different elements related to the support, implementation, sustainability and brand of DME. Observations and recommendations were put forth at the end of the sessions. This feedback will guide the development of SWOMEN's strategic plan, which will be available in the spring. For more information, please contact SWOMEN manager Patricia Potter at patricia.potter@schulich.uwo.ca.