Office of the Chair

HPME Year in Review

In the past few years, HPME has undergone tremendous growth and change. We have witnessed an upsurge in the scope of research and educational programs, the degree of interdisciplinary collaboration and the impact of knowledge produced on policy and practice. In 2004, HPME faculty played a leading role in debates over the public-private mix of national health care funding, patient safety, the development of provincial Local Health Integration Networks, and the organization of home and community care. Our clinician scientists are building the evidence base that is needed to improve the quality of care and to shape the future delivery of health services.

Growth in Health Services Research

HPME brings together research and educational initiatives that span clinical, health services and social science perspectives in five key areas: health policy, health services organization and management, health services outcomes and evaluation, clinical evaluative sciences, and e-health and informatics. Research grants have steadily increased over the past 3 years, from $2.7M in 2002 to $4.8M in 2004 (68% growth). Research collaborations have also steadily increased in performance measurement and evaluation (Hospital Report) and home and community care (M-THAC and HCTP) programs.

New Building, New Image

As a result of this spectacular growth, every bit of office space in HPME's current facility (the McMurrich building) has been filled to capacity. Work is currently underway to renovate new office and classroom space at 155 College Street (formerly occupied by the Toronto Board of Education). HPME will share the building with the department of Public Health Sciences, Family and Community Medicine and the Faculty of Nursing. Everyone is looking forward to occupying the new space in the Fall of 2005.

Along with the physical makeover, HPME is working to improve its communications strategy to improve the profile of the research and educational activities undertaken by Faculty associated with the department. Some tangible things to look for in the next year include the development of a departmental brochure and website redesign. More important, however, is the role of faculty, staff and students in representing the department to affiliated organizations, whether these are research, policy or practice-oriented. One important lesson we have learned about knowledge transfer is that sustained, interactive relationships are more important than print documents in transferring knowledge into practice. Our knowledge transfer strategy will continue to emphasize sharing knowledge within the department and affiliated organizations and with all stakeholders in health services research, policy and care delivery. You can contribute to this effort by forwarding new research results, projects, grants and publications to our Knowledge Transfer Officer and editor of NewsBytes, Wendy McGuire, at wendy.mcguire@utoronto.ca.

Key Priorities in 2005

Key priorities in the 2005 HPME academic plan are to increase our capacity as a leading health services research centre, become a world renowned training centre for clinician scientists and a model of excellence in graduate education through the development of innovative programs, and continue our collaborations with policymakers and health service executives. HPME is committed to the realization of the University's Academic Plan to be a leader among the world's best public teaching and research universities in the discovery, preservation and sharing of knowledge through its commitment to excellence and quality in teaching and research.

Research Day - May 4, 2005

If you haven't already – mark your calendar for the 2005 Research Day! This year's keynote speaker is Dr. John Birkmeyer M.D., the George D. Zuidema Professor of Surgery, University of Michigan . He will present his talk, "Measuring the Quality of Hospitals and Physicians", at 4 p.m. in MSB Room 3154 . See Dr. Birkmeyer's biography and the full agenda on the HPME website.

Poster submissions are now being accepted! Send a 75 word abstract and a "sketch" of your proposed poster to Professor Rhonda Cockerill ( rhonda.cockerill@utoronto.ca), no later than April 22, 2005. Poster guidelines are available on the HPME website.

This year for the first time, HPME students will be holding a student research conference, "From Silos to Integration", on the morning of Research Day. Details of the conference, which includes oral student presentations, a panel discussion and luncheon, are presented in the Student section of this newsletter.

Clinical Faculty Policy

On December 16, 2004, the Governing Council of the University of Toronto ended more than a quarter-century of ambiguity about the status of clinical faculty, passing a new clinical faculty policy that sets out a taxonomy for academic appointments of clinical faculty, clarifies access to perquisites and dispute resolution mechanisms for clinical colleagues, and delineates a mechanism for the University to be engaged in resolving disputes involving allegations of a breach of academic freedom in the clinical setting.  The policy, manual and cover memorandum outlining the background to the policy are available at: http://www.utoronto.ca/govcncl/bac/details/ab/2004-05/aba20041111.pdf (Adobe PDF). The new policy takes effect on July 1, 2005.

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