Operations Update July 2013

• The Master of Public Health Program is scheduled to start in September. Please join me in welcoming all of the new students, faculty and staff who will be part of this new program.

• The Western Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine is on schedule to open at the end of August. Watch for Grand Opening information from Facilities and Communications in the near future.

• Changes are coming to the look and distribution of the Operations Report. In an effort to ensure all staff has access to the information, the Report will be distributed in a format which is much easier to forward by email, as well beginning in September it will begin to be featured as a section in the School's faculty/staff newsletter - The Pulse.

Project Management Office/Strategic Technology Commons
Dale Shelley

• The PMO worked with the Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) Years 1 & 2 staff to finalize the process mapping work that was started earlier this year. The workshops were very productive. The PMO want to thank both the London and Windsor UME staff for their active participation and involvement in this initiative.

• The PMO will be undergoing intensive Rummler-Brache Train-the-Trainer training the last week of August. This industry-recognized certification will allow us to offer in-depth process methodology training at Western. Stay tuned for further information on how you can enroll in a course in 2014.

• STC has been busy getting ready for September classes.

• STC is now licensed to use the VIC (Virtual Interactive Case) software system to construct web-based clinical reasoning cases. The system is template-driven and provides feedback to learners on completion of the case. Find out more here: http://pie.med.utoronto.ca/vic/VIC_content/VIC_template.html

• We are pleased to welcome Dr. Candace Gibson, the recently-appointed Assistant Dean, Basic Medical Sciences Undergraduate Education (BMSUE). She will welcome the incoming first-year students at the "Welcome and Information Session for Medical Sciences First Entry" during Orientation Week. Using Twitter and interactive activities, representatives from all the Basic Medical Science Departments will provide a brief introduction to their discipline.
• Approximately 800 students have been admitted to the new "Medical Sciences First Entry" program for 2013-2014, many of whom will pursue modules leading to a BMSc degree or the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience. More students have been admitted to Medical Sciences First Entry than originally predicted.
• Enrollment in basic medical science courses will be discussed in the near future in preparation for 2014-2015. Items to be reviewed include time-tabling issues, enrollment demand (high and low demand for basic medical science courses), and access to courses.

• Welcome back to Crystal Mackay who returned from maternity leave a few weeks ago. We are thrilled to have Crystal come back to the team. During the next few weeks, Crystal's focus will be on video planning and production, as she develops two new videos one on Orientation for the UME program and one on the summer research program for Schulich Dentistry. She is also getting her work underway to continue with the Dean's video newsletters and our Profiles of Excellence Research video series.

• The website redevelopment is continuing to move forward as we have begun creating preliminary website maps and have scheduled our second stakeholder engagement sessions for the end of August/early September.

• Several community outreach activities are being planned and implemented. These include See the Line on August 14, Cafe Scientifique on September 23, featuring Drs. Glen Bauman, Joe Chin and Aaron Fenster; and Mini Medical School which kicks off on October 3. Watch online for more details about the event.

• Other activities underway include the renewal of admissions and recruitment materials for all our education programs, the development of new signage for the new building, work on Rapport Magazine and the support of marketing materials for the Dean's Gala and the Leaders in Innovation Dinner.

• Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) of the top 100 Internationally Trained Dentist Applicants will take place August 12-16.

• Preparations for White Coat Ceremony are underway. The 2013 ceremony will take place on Friday, August 30.

• An Accreditation Progress Report will be sent in August to CDAC to respond to the progress made on the recommendations.

• A draft of the Periodic Review of the Graduate Orthodontic program is being prepared.

• Schulich Medicine & Dentistry's Continuing Dental Education (CDE) Program will merge with Continuing Professional Development (CPD). CPD will now be home to Continuing Medical Education (CME), CDE and Faculty & Staff Development. Efforts to relocate the CDE team closer to the CPD team are in progress and an announcement will follow when relocation plans are known.

• Schulich Medicine & Dentistry's Master of Public Health Program has 40 confirmed students set to begin class in September. A current labour dispute at Citizenship & Immigration Canada appears to be delaying study permit applications for international students but the program remains hopeful that this will be resolved in time for the start of the program.

• Construction is complete on the Windsor Program's Medical Arts Building and the building welcomed its first occupants as of July 27, 2013. This is a significant addition to the Windsor Program for resident accommodations and we look forward to housing all residents in this new "home".

Facilities
Kevin Inchley

• The General Anesthesia Suite is nearly complete and ready for fit out of equipment.

• The Western Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine is still tracking towards an occupancy date of August 26.

• Information Services is excited to launch a Virtual Desktop pilot leveraging Western ITS' infrastructure for the upcoming academic year. The pilot will entail the replacement of 10 conventional desktop computers in the Valberg Educational Resource Centre (VERC) with 10 "zero client" devices running virtual desktops. This solution provides a more flexible and secure desktop environment, consumes much less energy, and potentially, a much better total cost of ownership than conventional desktops with similar, if not better, user experience. If the pilot is successful, all computers in the VERC would be moved to this environment in the summer of 2014.

• IS Staff have been busy working with stakeholders in preparation for the move of Family Medicine and the Master of Public Health Program to the new Western Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine in late August. This entails the coordination and support for all technology going into the new building including the deployment of a new Personal Telepresence system named Vidyo that allows for state of the art conferencing including mobile, desktop, and web.

• Programmers in IS have undertaken a review and analysis of code involved in the processing of records that are used heavily in the information management piece of our business on behalf of the School. We are happy to report that the excellent work of this group has resulted in major efficiency gains in key processes that should result in the faster and more accurate processing of critical data for our organization.

• Dr. Greg Vilk has joined the Research Office as a Research Officer. He will have a focus on developing linkages with industry.