February 2014 - Operations Update
Chief Operating Officer
- Thank you to everyone who is currently working on spring budget submissions. I appreciate your efforts to submit everything against a tight time line of March 20.
- During the two recent Town Halls, we had our highest number of viewers on our livestream channel yet. Thank you for your feedback on the livestream function. Currently, livestream is still in pilot mode at the School, and as such, there may be a few technical challenges from time to time. We are gathering all feedback and working to improve things where possible. The dates for the next Operations Town Hall is June 4, 2014 from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. in DSB 1002. The Dean will also hold a Town Hall on May 9 at 12:00 - 12:00 in DSB 1002. These events will be livestreamed and videoconferenced to our colleagues in Windsor in MEB1115.
- Please remember to prepare for summer vacation requests early this spring.
Media Relations
- Some of our media hits this past month include:
- Dr. Michael Reider in the Globe and Mail, and on ‘The Todd Veinotte Show’ in Atlantic Canada talking about children and medication safety.
- The Dean and Dr. Stephen Wetmore, on CTVtwo and CBC radio discussing a new report showing 1900 additional family doctors have come out of Ontario medical schools in the last decade, easing the shortage for patients.
- A new COPD device developed and manufactured by Trudell Medical and tested at Robarts Research Institute by Grace Parraga, PhD, was featured in the London Free Press, CTVtwo and Western Revealed on Rogers.
Dentistry
- As part of Dentistry’s Operational Review, interviews are underway with the Project Management and Business Support Office (PMO) to understand in greater depth, the administrative work activities at all levels. Many thanks to each of you for your commitment as we continue to strive to be world class.
- Applications continue to be accepted for three (3) dentistry positions either as a Dental Clinician (Limited Term) or as a Clinician Scientist (probationary/tenure-track) appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor in Schulich Dentistry.
Facilities
- Joint occupational health and safety annual inspections will take place in March.
- Capital projects to renovate the MSB small teaching rooms (MSB 016 through MSB 029) and to replace the ventilation system in MSB 384 were approved from our fall budget submission.
Research
- Applications have been reviewed for several student summer research programs: Summer Research Training Program (SRTP), Schulich Research Opportunities Program (SROP) and NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA). Award notifications will be made within the next month.
- The new Schulich Medicine & Dentistry – Windsor Program and University of Windsor Opportunities for Research Excellence Program (SWORP) has been initiated. SWORP is a joint effort between the two organizations. The program will enable Windsor Program students to conduct research under the supervision of a University of Windsor faculty member.
- The application processes are underway for the Clinician Scientist, Clinical Investigator Program (CIP), and Resident Research Career Development (RRCD) programs.
- Research outreach sessions were held in February with CERI and with the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology.
Human Resources
- Schulich Medicine & Dentistry Human Resources has distributed all 2013 T4s. If you have not received a T4, please contact your Departmental Office and/or your supervisor.
Finance
- We are currently working on consolidating the spring budget and want to thank everyone for meeting the tight time lines. Also, with a year of many changes in all budget areas, Basic, Clinical and Dean's Office, we appreciate your help and patience in working through these new models. We will continue to review and reassess the process before the fall budget.
- A reminder to all departments that a copy of all travel claims need to be maintained by each Department for at least two years. Copies are not kept in the Dean's Office for claims originating outside of Finance, and Corporate Travel may ask for back-up for audit purposes during this time period. For all other original financial documentation (i.e. invoices) that you keep in your Department, retention is 7 years for audit purposes. Any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Basic Medical Sciences
Dr. Doug Jones
Basic Medical Sciences Undergraduate Education (BMSUE)
Dr. Candace Gibson
- Intent to Register is in full swing. Several information sessions will be held in March for students interested in applying to Year 3 BMSc for 2014/15. An OWL site for Med Sci First Entry students (Year 1) has been launched containing podcasts, videos, information about Intent to Register (ITR), etc. The BMSUE Office will set up a table in the lobby of MSB for the latter half of March to answer ITR queries. Representatives from the basic medical science departments will join us in the lobby as “Departments on Display” in the latter half of March. An information fair, hosted by the Science Students’ Council, will be held on March 20 to provide students with the opportunity to meet faculty and students from the Science and Basic Medical Science departments.
- March Break Open House was held on Saturday, March 8. This campus-wide outreach event attracted over 6000 high school students and their families to Western to speak with faculty and students about the programs, courses and campus life. The basic medical science departments, Neuroscience and the BMSc Program had displays set up in the MSB lobby and the Drimmer Laboratory Facility.
- Dr. Sarah McLean is part of the Teaching in Education Symposium (TIES) II organization committee. The symposium is scheduled for March 27 - 28, 2014. Sarah is organizing and moderating the student panel, an interactive session where faculty/staff can ask students about their experiences with technology-enhanced learning.
Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Dr. Andrew Watson
- London Health Research Day is fast approaching. We have more than 600 people registered to attend and participate in the event. With more than 375 graduate students presenting research, engaging workshops and a lunchtime keynote speaker, the day is packed full of interesting things to see and do.
- We are currently developing an overall graduate recruitment strategy in collaboration with the communications team who are working on communication tools. The recruitment strategy is being designed to support and ensure that we meet our recruitment targets for 2014.
Communications
- We had a busy month for video, adding three new videos to our YouTube playlist including a promotional video for our MedLincs program and the next installment in our Profiles of Excellence series focusing on the work of Alison Allan, PhD. We also wrapped up production of a core video profiling our robust Dental Research program.
- The Discover Robarts presentation series which will take place over the course of three evenings this coming spring, has been launched. If you’re interested in attending, click here to learn more.
- We have developed a new Curriculum Committee Report eNewsletter for Undergraduate Medical Education that launched at the start of the month. It has been very well received and we look forward to continued and increased readership.
- All Phase One websites met a March 1 deadline for content migration completion. All sites have now completed this large component of the project and the sites have moved into testing. For the entirety of March, all websites will be tested for accuracy, accessibility, branding, etc. by the Communications web team.
- We hosted a "Name our Hashtag Contest" that resulted in more than 100 hashtag submissions from faculty, staff and students who were then invited to vote for their favourite hashtag on our Facebook page. The winning submission will be announced the week of March 10.
- Social media naming conventions and guidelines have been established for the School. Meetings will take place in March and April with all current School social media account holders providing more information. Guidelines will then be available online to the wider School audience.
- As part of some operational changes, the events portfolio joined the Communications and Marketing Team. We look forward to sharing news of exciting events in future reports.
Information Services
- The Educational Technology & Media Services team is working with Schulich Medicine & Dentistry facilities to put together a plan to upgrade the technology in HSA 101 in the summer. We are currently finalizing design details before going to tender.
- The board-room CSB3706 will have upgraded technology installed on March 5-7. The new tech design will allow for greater flexibility in using different conferencing technologies and address some performance issues with the current technology.
- Schulich Medicine & Dentistry IS, Research and Finance is working with Western ITS and other stakeholders to move forward with a campus licensing agreement for the software Matlab, which is used for numerical computation, visualization and programming.
- Support for Windows XP is ending in April 2014. The server and desktop support team is working with Basic Science Administrative Officers to ensure that wherever possible, Windows XP is removed from our environment prior to the end of support date. If you have any questions or concerns about this issue, please contact the Helpdesk at helpdesk@schulich.uwo.ca or 519.661.2111, x81377.
Project Management Office/Strategic Technology Commons
- Registration is open for the Two-Day 'Focus' workshop (Process Improvement & Management Methodology& Tools) for April 23 & 24. The March workshop is full. To register, email pmo.inquiry@schulich.uwo.ca.
- Deb Tieszer is leaving STC for a short while and is taking a secondment with Western Procurement. We wish her well in her new venture.
- STC will be actively involved in the Western TIES Conference being held March 27-28 with a poster presentation on myPortfolio.
- As always, STC is available for consultation through stc@schulich.uwo.ca.
Education
- Ms. Stacy Miller joined the Undergraduate Medical Education Program on February 3, 2014 in the role of Assessment Specialist. Stacy brings both a wealth of experience and assessment knowledge to UME. Within her role, Stacy will support the planning and implementation of the methodologies behind the delivery of activities associated with student assessment across the curriculum within UME.
- The first upload of the UME curriculum to AAMC’s Curriculum Inventory Reporting (CIR) portal was successful. This is a new tool being piloted by AAMC to collect data on MD program curriculums, which will provide schools with an aggregate report on curricular structure, teaching and assessment modalities, hours and curricular objectives.
- MPH students learned their practicum placement opportunities last week – students will participate in 47 projects, at 30 different organizations, in 9 different countries, across 20 different cities. Locations include: London, Winnipeg, Regina, Yellowknife, Washington, Barbados, Uganda, Colombia and India, amongst others.
- CaRMS R1 Match Rank Order List (ROL) deadline to the PGME office was February 12th. A total of 1,748 applications were processed/approved for submission to CaRMS.
- Dr. Chris Watling (Associate Dean, PGME) successfully defended his PhD in Medical Education on January 23rd at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
