Faculty & Student News
F A C U L T Y
Ross Baker Edits Patient Safety Issue of Healthcare Quarterly
Healthcare Quarterly is currently accepting submissions for a special issue on patient safety edited by Dr. G. Ross Baker. This issue is a collaboration of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, the Ontario Hospital Association Patient Safety Initiative and Longwoods Publishing Corporation. It will be published October 10, 2005 . For more information, or to submit a manuscript, see the Call for Papers (Adobe PDF).
David Juurlink Receives William B Abrams Young Investigator's Award
Dr. David Juurlink [need to do faculty profile] (Department of Medicine) won the William B. Abrams Award in Geriatric Clinical Pharmacology of the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the society's annual meeting in Orlando in March 2005. The award is given to a young investigator in the field of Geriatric Clinical Pharmacology for outstanding contributions to the field.
Ed Etchells Receives Patient Safety Project Award
The UofT Council of Health Science and Social Work Deans declared Dr. Ed Etchells and colleagues as recipients of the 2005 Inter-professional Education (IPE) Patient Safety Project Award, for their proposal, "Inter-professional Simulation and Patient Safety Education Module". This project will be conducted over the next year. Dr. Etchells is Associate Professor in the department of Medicine and HPME.
Dave Davis to be the Petersdorf Scholar-in-Residence
Dr. Dave Davis, Professor in HPME, will be the Petersdorf Scholar-in-Residence at the Association of American Medical Colleges from December 2005 to May 2006. During his stay, Dr. Davis will focus on CME delivery and accreditation in the United States and Canada.
Donald Wasylenki Re-appointed Chair of Psychiatry
Dr. Donald Wasylenki, Professor in the department of Psychiatry and HPME, has been appointed to a second five-year term as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and as Psychiatrist-in-Chief at St. Michael's Hospital. Both appointments are effective as of July 1, 2005.
David Zakus Appointed President of (former) IHMEC
Dr. David Zakus, Associate Professor in HPME was installed for a two-year term as the next President of the International Health Medical Education Consortium (IHMEC) at the Consortium's Annual Conference in San Francisco, California in April 2005. As one of his first duties, he chaired the Annual General Meeting at which the IHMEC changed its name to the Global Health Education Consortium (GHEC) (see website: www.gheco.org). Although the membership of 86 institutions involves mostly US medical schools, membership is now being encouraged from other health professions.
Allan Detsky Receives 2005 Career Achievement Award
Dr. Allan Detsky, Professor in HPME and the Department of Medicine, has been recognized for lifetime achievement by the US Society for Medical Decision-Making with the 2005 Career Achievement Award. The award will by presented at the Society's annual meeting in San Francisco in October, at which Dr. Detsky will speak.
Murray Krahn Named F. Norman Hughes Chair in Pharmacoeconomics
The first F. Norman Hughes Chair in Pharmacoeconomics at the UofT Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy has been awarded to Dr. Murray Krahn, Associate Professor in HPME. The chair, named in honour of the first dean of UofT's Faculty of Pharmacy, will measure the economic benefits of pharmacists and pharamceuticals to the health of patients. Dr. Krahn's research will focus on the evaluation of alternative reimbursement methods for pharmacy services and cost-effective use of medicine in the treatment of disease.
Susan Jaglal Named Chair in Rehabilitation Research
Dr. Susan Jaglal, Associate Professor in the departments of HPME and Physical Therapy and Senior Scientist at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (Toronto Rehab), has been named the first joint Chair in Rehabilitation Research by Toronto Rehab and UofT. The new Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Chair at the University of Toronto is one of five endowed research chairs totaling $10M created to support Toronto Rehab's growing rehabilitation research enterprise. Dr. Jaglal's research interests include hip fracture, osteoporosis, fall prevention, orthopaedic treatments, and women and heart disease.
S T U D E N T S
First HPME Grad Student Research Conference a Success!
On Wednesday May 4, 2005, the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (HPME) Graduate Students' Union sponsored its first ever Research Conference, as a pre-event to the annual department Research Day. The conference, From Silos to Integration , was an opportunity to showcase student research and provide a forum for students, faculty, alumni and guests to exchange ideas on health policy and economics, epidemiology and performance measurement.
A selection of dynamic student oral presentations opened the day, followed by an expert panel discussion entitled, “Can We Reform Primary Care in Ontario ?” moderated by our own Department Chair, Dr. Louise Lemieux-Charles . The lively debate featured a blue ribbon panel of experts in the field, namely Dr. Ruth Wilson (Action Group on Family Health Teams), Dr. Ted Boadway (OMA), Doris Grinspun (RNAO), and Dr. James Mclean (MOHLTC Health Results Team).
The inaugural conference was well-attended, attracting 35 pre-registered attendees and a number of same-day registrants, providing an excellent platform from which to launch next year's conference. The conference was “well run…..and should be done twice a year…” according to some attendees (actual testimonial from conference evaluations!!)
The HPME Graduate Students' Union would like to express their gratitude and appreciation to the University of Toronto GSU and the HPME department for their financial support, to the faculty for their attendance and collaboration, and to all presenters, guests and attendees. Planning for next year's conference is already underway, with an anticipated date of Wednesday, May 3, 2006 , and a venue in the NEW HPME building ( 155 College Street ). To join the planning committee, email Catherine Mah at catherine.mah@utoronto.ca.
Lynn Guerriero Named 2005 Robert Wood Johnson Award Winner
The Robert Wood Johnson Award (www.cchse.org/AwardsProgram.htm) is given annually to graduating class students of the six Canadian post-graduate programs of health administration. The award is a collaboration between Johnson and Johnson, the Canadian College of Health Services Executives and post-graduate programs to recognize students that are most likely to contribute valuable service to the field of health services administration. HPME is pleased to announce that this year's winner is Lynn Guerriero.
In addition to completing her Master's Degree in Health Administration, Lynn recently obtained the CHE designation from the CCHSE. She was the 2003 Recipient of the Harold Livergant Scholarship, awarded by HPME faculty to the MHSc Health Administration student who demonstrates dedication, commitment and promise in complex continuing care management and/or policy. Lynn also holds a Bachelor's Degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Western Ontario.
Professionally, Lynn works as a Program Manager within the Neuro Rehabilitation Program at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, a University of Toronto teaching hospital; she has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed publications, posters and presentations on the subject of rehabilitation from acquired brain injury. Her professional interests lie in the areas of quality/performance improvement, operational planning and strategy. In the future, Lynn hopes to advance to more senior executive positions within acute care and/or rehabilitation, allowing her to have a broader impact on health services within the province of Ontario .
Lynn is also the proud mother of three very athletic, busy children. She is also committed to maintaining her own health and wellness, and recently achieved a personal goal of completing a half-marathon (which, for you non-runners, is more than 21 kilometres).
Lynn received the Robert Wood Johnson Award at the National Healthcare Leadership Conference held on June 6 and 4, 2005 in Saint John, New Brunswick . Her comments are available here: acceptance speech (Adobe PDF).
Vardy and Borkhoff Receive Peterborough K.M. Hunter Graduate Studentships
Clinical Epidemiology PhD candidates, Janette Vardy (Supervisor: Dr. Ian Tannock) and Cory Borkhoff (Supervisor: Dr. James Wright ) are two of eight PhD students in the Faculty of Medicine awarded the 2005 Peterborough K.M. Hunter Graduate Studentships. These awards are given to students with research interests in one of the following areas: Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, cancer, heart and stroke, schizophrenia, glaucoma, cerebral palsy or lung disease.
Hillmner Publishes Findings on Nursing Home Quality of Care
Michael Hillmner, a PhD student in the Clinical Epidemiology program in HPME, is lead author of a study published in the April 2005 Medical Care Research and Review (Vol 62:139-166). Co-authors of “ Nursing Home Profit Status and Quality of Care: Is There Any Evidence of an Association?” include Walter Wodchis, Sudeep Gill, Geoffrey Anderson and Paula Rochon (supervisor).
I N T H E N E W S
Deber, Flood Comment on June 9 Supreme Court Decision
In the June 13 Globe and Mail and June 14 Edmonton Sun, Dr. Raisa Deber (Professor in HPME) expressed her skepticism about the Supreme Court decision striking down the Quebec law that bans private insurance for services covered under Medicare. According to Deber, the Supreme Court based its decision on an assumption that is unworkable: private insurance will not eliminate waiting times for the sick because profit-motivated insurance companies will not provide coverage for people who are already ill. In an article in the June 10 Globe and Mail, Dr. Colleen Flood (Professor in HPME and the Faculty of Law) suggested that Canada's healthcare system is likely to become more like Britain's two-tier system as a result of the Supreme Court's ruling. This could result in a diversion of resources from the public to the private sector, making the situation worse for most patients.
David Urbach Encourages Patients to Demand Best Care
In the June 9 Globe and Mail Article, “Survival rates higher at hospitals where some operations done more often”, Dr. David Urbach (Associate Professor in HPME) encourages patients to seek out care in hospitals which perform high volumes of complex surgeries. Findings reported in the Canadian Institute of Health Information's annual report, “Health Care in Canada 2005” indicate that mortality rates are lower in high-volume hospitals, particularly for angioplasty to clear blocked cardiac arteries and operations for pancreatic and esophageal cancer.
Wilson Warns of Entrenching Opposition to Vaccinations
In a study published in the medical journal Vaccine, Dr. Kumanen Wilson (Associate Professor in HPME) reported that confronting parents about vaccinations when they are already opposed can simply entrench their opposition and damage the physician-patient relationship. The findings were reported in the May 23, 2005 Globe and Mail.