Office of the Chair

In September 2001 a Communications Task Force chaired by Tina Smith was created to address the recommendations of the Governance Task Force for the Graduate Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. The following report summarizes the progress of the Communications Task Force in addressing those recommendations pertaining to communications issues.

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Update from the Communications Task Force

1.0  Introduction and Terms of Reference

1. Use the Newsletter to profile work of faculty and highlight seminars and special events.
2. Circulate in electronic form minutes of major departmental meetings.
3. Encourage faculty to set up "virtual" nodes for activities such as student supervision, research projects and/or teaching techniques. A list of these nodes should be made available to all members of the Department.
4. Schedule faculty meetings to accommodate members of the Program in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research.
5. Schedule a full Departmental meeting twice each year with a "social" component.

6. Review and establish guidelines for all materials/activities related to the Departmental web site and bulletin board.
7. Develop an electronic research budget template.

2.0  Task Force Membership

Task Force members include Tina Smith (Chair), Rhonda Cockerill, Anna Gagliardi, Robin Hurst, Kevin Leonard, Murray Krahn, Zita McWhinnie. The Task Force convenes on a monthly basis.

3.0  Progress to Date

Recommendation 1

Faculty associated with the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (HPME) are involved in a broad range of research activities with a variety of organizations. To promote greater internal awareness of the knowledge developed through HPME, faculty research and teaching profiles are now included as a regular feature of the Department's newsletter. Special events, departmental seminars and faculty in the news are also highlighted for general interest. Seminars and special events will also be sent to members through e-mail, and where appropriate, will also be posted on the Department web site and bulletin board.

Action: Commenced October, 2001

Recommendation 2

It was agreed that minutes of the Department's Faculty, Curriculum and Clinical Epidemiology Executive Committee meetings will be posted on the Department server as well as on a password-protected area of the Department's web site. The minutes will be archived onto CD ROMs on an annual basis. It was also suggested that an electronic faculty and staff telephone directory be posted on these sites as well.

Action: Z. McWhinnie to set up sites on both servers. T. Smith to communicate to all faculty the location of posted minutes and the password for the web site when it is ready.

Recommendation 3

A faculty survey is currently underway to ascertain interest in developing virtual nodes of faculty activity, given the resources associated with their maintenance, as well as specific areas of interest e.g. faculty development, on-line learning, programmatic research thrusts such as decision sciences, randomized trials.

Action: Results of the survey to be discussed at the February 2002 Task Force meeting.

Recommendation 4

Departmental faculty meetings are now scheduled on Wednesday afternoons from 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. to accommodate members of the Program in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research.

Recommendation 5

Two full Departmental meeting will be scheduled for December and June of each year with accompanying social events. First meeting to be scheduled for June 2002.

Recommendation 6

It was agreed that the bulletin board located by the Department's reception area will retrospectively feature the faculty profiles, newspaper clippings, honors and awards, and other notables recently featured in the Department's newsletter. The board will be changed every four months. Such an approach will require minimum resources to update and yet will keep the bulletin board relevant while reflecting the diversity of activities within the Department.

Action: A. Gagliardini, to take the lead on this project. Approximate start date - March 2002.

Recommendation 7

A draft e-budget template has been developed and circulated to Task Force members for comment. It was felt that the template provided a good starting point for budget development. Several features were added to the template list, and it was suggested that previously funded research budgets be examined for additional items of interest. The purpose of the e-budget is to give faculty easy access to information as well as provide suggestions and/or prompts when developing budgets for research proposals. Faculty will still need to access the Department's business manager around more complicated items, such as overhead, that often involve negotiation between the university and the funder.

Action: In progress

If you have any suggestions for the Communications Task Forces, please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail at tina.smith@utoronto.ca or via phone at (416) 946-3023.

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