uOMedTalks: Quarterly Summary from the Executive Leadership Team

Dear colleagues,

I’m happy to share with you the latest quarterly highlights from your Executive Leadership Team (ELT).

ELT Highlights: January – March 2018

• ELT Tour: After having visited with our departments in the fall, the ELT is scheduling visits to our partner hospitals. On January 29, we went to Montfort to speak about our strategic directions and gather feedback from our members. I congratulated the roughly 90 physicians in attendance for their hard work teaching our future doctors and for their contributions to our research excellence. The event was well received and we look forward to visiting the other hospitals.
• ELT Retreat: At the end of February your ELT and department chairs held a retreat focused on three important and timely topics: i) strategic directions; ii) advancement; and iii) budget constraints/revenue generation. Numerous excellent ideas and suggestions emerged during the evening which will soon be transformed into a concrete action plan with several facets, including engagement and innovation. The discussions were felt to be a good use of your vice-deans’ time, and the group expressed an interest in repeating the exercise bi-annually.
• Seeking Your Feedback: In order to collectively define strategic directions, on March 21 we shared with you via email the FoM’s Status Report and Identifying Strategic Directions. We are soliciting your feedback not only through those emails but also via an upcoming town hall – there are three dates to choose from: May 9, 15 and 17.
• Student Social: On January 11, I encouraged students to “Ask Me Anything” over beer and appetizers. Over 100 FoM learners, faculty members and staff came out to Dooly’s to shoot some pool and mingle. The event aimed to encourage dialogue between students from different programs, and with professors. Stay tuned for more such events.
• Strategic Portfolio Review: As part of the budgetary and strategic directions process, the ELT continues to review FoM office portfolios. 
• Shanghai: Our refocused partnership with our Shanghai colleagues continues with our next visit to Shanghai planned for the latter half of May. We will be participating in their admissions process as well as continuing discussions on bringing our projects to maturity. The first medical student cohort is entering clerkship shortly. We are being greatly assisted by our Department of Family Medicine in creating training programs for primary care physicians and specialists to develop a consultation-oriented primary-specialist dyad demonstration project at Tongren Hospital in Shanghai.
• Task Force on Internationalization: In the meantime, our recently created Task Force on Internationalization, led by Dr. Mark Walker, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, will feed into the development of our strategic plan regarding international collaborations as well as expanding our global health impact.
• Leadership Announcement: I am pleased to announce the Interim appointment by the Research Office of Dr. Chris Kennedy to the role of Director of Awards and Prizes for Excellence in Teaching and Research.
• Budget: As uOttawa works to balance its budget and end the annual instability experienced over the past several years, a reset process is now underway. While central Financial Resources will now cover such prior faculty-based expenses such as PTR (progression through the ranks) and new researcher start-up costs, most faculties have also experienced a further budget cut for fiscal year 2018–19. For the FoM, this is a further $3 million from our annual operating budget. This cut will necessitate further actions in collaboration with our Senior Leaders Budget Committee to re-balance our budget. We anticipate communicating our changes in late May.
• The ELT voted in favour of keeping the Ottawa Muscle & Nerve Initiative (OMNI) CFI grant and to use $3.5 million from the reserves to cover the amount that the Ontario Ministry is not disbursing.
• Translational Research Grant Competition: The deadline to submit applications to the Translational Research Grant Competition was April 15; we are now conducting the peer review process and the successful applications will be announced in June.
• Faculty Affairs: To help our members get the information they need quickly, we have launched a Faculty Affairs Guidebook app, intended as a one-stop shop for useful resources at the FoM.
• Temporary academic appointments for faculty members: For faculty members who are unable to have their appointment process completed before they start at the Faculty of Medicine, Faculty Council has agreed that individuals seeking an academic appointment with the Faculty may submit a request for a temporary appointment, applicable only to those seeking the rank of lecturer. The initial appointment is for a period of three months. Please contact Faculty Affairs for an application form.
• TMM Dean’s Honour List: At our request, uOttawa’s Senate has approved the creation of a Dean’s Honour List for students in the Translational and Molecular Medicine program, to take effect this spring.

We’re Listening…

Do you have feedback to help improve your Faculty of Medicine? You can reach me and the Executive Leadership Team anytime by emailing us at [email protected].

Bernard Jasmin, PhD
Interim Dean, Faculty of Medicine
University of Ottawa