Alumni

Message from the President

As this fiscal year and my term as President draw to a close, I would like to thank members of our Executive for their enthusiasm and commitment to the work of the Society of Graduates in HPME. It is truly remarkable that a group of “volunteers” with very busy careers have been able to accomplish what we have.

The past two years have brought us closer to our goal of keeping our 1,400+ alumni connected to their past, present and future in healthcare management.

• Participation at our Annual Education Day reached a record high in 2005 with its focus on Transformation, Lessons Learned .
• Our newly renamed AGM, now the Annual Alumni Recognition Dinner, promises to build on the success of last year, recognizing the achievements of graduates and in particular the Literary and Leadership Award recipients and the Silver Anniversary class.
• In partnership with CCHSE (Toronto Chapter), we have launched a new annual event that has been met with tremendous success.
• The content of our Newsletter has improved dramatically.
• The profile of the Leadership Award has been raised. A Selection Committee comprised of your peers will identify an award recipient. The prize has been enhanced as well with an effort to more broadly communicate the recipient along with the magnitude of this award.
• We have identified class representatives for the past 25 years who have agreed to keep their classmates connected to SOG activities.

Our success would not have been possible without the support of our Business Manager, Malak Sidky and the on-going support of the Department of HPME through Tina Smith, Program Director, Wendy McGuire, Knowledge Transfer Coordinator, and Zita McWhinnie, Website/IT Support. Thank you for helping us to raise the bar!

Coming soon …On-line payments. We are striving to simplify the process for our annual events' registration and SOG dues payments. You will soon be able to make on-line payments at the SOG-HPME website.

The following slate of Executive members and leadership positions will be put forward for ratification at the Alumni Recognition Dinner for 2005-06. As always, we will also rely on non-Executive Member alumni to participate in our committee work. Please e-mail your interest to Susan Tremblay at susan.tremblay@sympatico.ca.

Alumni Recognition Event (former AGM) – Mark Your Calendars

The Society of Graduates is planning an exciting event this fall:

We are celebrating our twenty-five year silver anniversary class, the Class of 1980, which is also the first MHSc class.

On the agenda: awards to recognize the outstanding work of our colleagues, our annual general meeting and an outstanding speaker, Dr. Ian McKillop , speaking on “Funding Acute Care in Canada”.

Dr. Ian McKillop holds the JW Graham Research Chair in Health Information Systems at the University of Waterloo where he helps lead UW's ideas for health informatics cluster, a group dedicated to promoting electronic innovations in data, evidence and application systems in medical and health settings. Dr. McKillop is the Principal Investigator for the financial components in Ontario's Hospital Report series and is affiliated with the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

Come out and celebrate the accomplishments of your colleagues, meet new and old colleagues and learn about exciting trends in health care management.

SOG Education Day a Big Success

Over 150 attendees at the SOG May 18th Education Day on Transformation in Health Care - Lessons Learned were pleased to hear:

• Dr. Ken Kizer of the National Quality Forum address the transformation of the US Veterans Healthcare system
• Dr. Graham Sher of Canadian Blood Services discuss the impact of technology and culture on transformation
• Dr. Nizar Mahomed of UHN report on progress with transforming joint replacement care in the GTA
• Leslee Thompson of Cancer Care Ontario address the importance of leadership in major change
• Dr. Adalsteinn Brown provide an overview of Ontario 's Transformation progress

Pictures are available in the Alumni News - May/June 2005 issue.

Presentations are posted on the SOG website:  www.utoronto.ca/hpme/alumni/alumni_4.htm

Thanks to:

• Dr. Adalsteinn Brown for moderating the session.
• Our many sponsors for the supporting our event:
  • Gold sponsor: Borden Ladner Gervais
  • Silver sponsors:  Agnew Peckham and Bearing Point
  • Bronze sponsors:  Baxter, Courtyard Group, Hay Group, HIROC, Johnson & Johnson, and Ray & Berndston, Lovas Stanley
• Our hardworking volunteer Planning Committee:
  • Feria Bacchus
  • Rob Crawford
  • Pat Debrusk
  • Cheryl Harrison
  • David Longley
  • Lisa Newman
  • Meg Sheehan
  • Susan Tremblay, Chair
  • Ken Tremblay
  • Anne Wojtak

See you at Education Day 2006!

Jennifer Clarke ('92), President

Leadership and Innovation

Tribute to Jennifer Clarke

Jennifer Clarke has never been one to shy away from opportunity. Two years ago she stepped in as President of the Society of Graduates and led us through a productive period that included many accomplishments for our committee such as re-vamping the Society's committee structure, initiating a successful program partnership with CCHSE, changing the focus of the Annual Dinner Meeting to alumni recognition, implementing a recruitment and retention strategy to improve connections with HPME grads, elevating the profile of the leadership and literary awards, strengthening the relationship with the Department of HPME, moving toward an electronic newsletter and hiring a new business manager. Under her leadership, the organization had a solid period of organizational and financial stability.

Currently Director, Planning & Capital Redevelopment at the Rouge Valley Health System, in fact Jennifer has actually worked at the same organization for almost 13 years as it changed, merged and grew around her. By her count she has “had eight different jobs at the same place” in addition to a one-year secondment to the Ministry's HRIT. She is proudest of her success in moving Rouge Valley 's large capital redevelopment projects forward in conjunction with over 200 diverse stakeholders, from end users, to consultants, Ministry and Board of Directors. An previous achievement was serving as general manager of the women's health program for three years, the first non-clinical person to hold that role. She gained the trust of staff by her ability to listen and to get things done; she reciprocates their respect, appreciating the opportunity to learn about health care ‘in the trenches.

A Pickering native, she completed her BArt.Sc. at McMaster, an innovative program in which she was able to combine business and science courses. A summer student job at OHIP piqued her interest in health administration, and having selected HPME out of the available postgraduate programs, she worked determinedly to convince the department to admit her despite her very brief work experience. She achieved her MHSc in 1992.

The next opportunity awaiting Jennifer is a ‘reverse brain drain' move this summer with her husband Mike (a property development company CFO) and their two small children to Boynton Beach, in Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale. She intends to explore the whole range of opportunities available there, maybe even transferring her health administration skills to another sector, and promises to keep in touch electronically, via this newsletter. Good luck, Jennifer!

Alumni Profile

Alumni of the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (HPME) are involved in a broad range of leadership activities across the health care sector. To promote greater awareness of the many accomplishments and innovations of this diverse group, we are pleased to include alumni profiles as a regular feature of the NewsBytes.

This issue features Elisabeth Ross, Executive Director of the National Ovarian Cancer Association, Class of 1999 (MHSc).

Elisabeth Ross– “If you really want something, you have to make it happen.”

And that is exactly what Elisabeth Ross does: first, successfully creating the organization AboutFace, where she remains an honorary Board member and supporter, and in the past 7 years taking the National Ovarian Cancer Association (NOCA) from a two-person initiative to a national organization employing nine part-time and full-time staff and operating programs in every province. Under her leadership as Executive Director, NOCA has not only grown, it has broken ground in its information dissemination strategies, its regional program development, its award-winning website (www.ovariancanada.org) and its CME courses in ovarian cancer, set up in collaboration with medical associations and teaching hospitals. Elisabeth says the strong Board of Directors and the champions she has developed are key to NOCA's success: the overall effect has been to “turn up the volume” on ovarian cancer from a whisper to a roar.

Discussing her organization with Elisabeth, one is struck by her enthusiasm and profound commitment to her work, her deep satisfaction at “making things happen”. Though not herself a survivor of ovarian cancer, she finds the cause of ovarian cancer, a very insidious, silent killer, quite compelling and is excited at the impact her small, focused organization continues to have. She has a deep understanding of the information needs of patients and families afflicted by such serious illness who are unprepared for the huge amount of information they must assimilate and manage; she speaks only half jokingly of the need for a “patient school” to prepare patients and families.

From the beginning Elisabeth envisioned a strategy of enhancing information, treatment and prevention of ovarian cancer, a disease largely unknown because of the relatively small numbers afflicted and because of the lethality of the disease itself. Convening a wide-ranging group of stakeholders (patients, caregivers, health care professionals policy makers, researchers) in 1999, NOCA led the creation of a comprehensive strategic plan regarding ovarian cancer in Canada , which continues to serve the organization well over all these years.

Elisabeth has been particularly successful in generating and managing funding for NOCA. After the initial startup grant from the Ministry of Health, the nonprofit organization is sustained by foundation and corporate grants, by individual donors and by the proceeds from special events. Recent highlights: teal jelly bracelets (“Think Ovarian/Pensez Ovaires”) designed to help “turn up the volume” on ovarian cancer, and the unusually charming, informative book “Bearing Up With Cancer” by Dr. Annie Smith. Elisabeth relishes the ongoing challenge of balancing expansion and funding, and of partnering with creative colleagues: “collaboration is the secret to success”.

Elisabeth graduated with her MHSc from the HPME in 1999, one of the first to be admitted from a community-based, nonprofit setting, and is thankful that the Program Director and Admissions Committee at that time were “thinking outside the box” to include her in a class where almost all her colleagues came from clinical, institutional settings. The degree gave her many perspectives and skills useful in building up an organization, and she continues to draw on her Health Admin studies in people management, strategic planning and advocacy.

She is passionately concerned at the lack of both adequate funding and an implemented national strategy for cancer care in Canada . Due to population growth and aging, the incidence of cancer may increase by as much as 70% over the next 15 years. Canada is one of the few countries in the developed world which does not have a cancer control strategy in place. The one which was developed by 700 experts three years ago has yet to receive federal funding. Cancer cannot be lumped in with chronic diseases; special attention is needed to improve and standardize cancer care across Canada.

Born in Montreal , Elisabeth has considerable fluency in French and puts a high value on bilingualism in the organization, including in her hiring. In fact, Quebec 's incidence of ovarian cancer being the second highest among the provinces, it is also key to the organization's mission that the ovarian cancer message be available in our second official language. Always seeking to improve, Elisabeth is currently seeking a teacher of business French, to equip herself for the task of setting up the planned Montreal office of the organization.

On the Move

Darlene Barnes Appointed Integrated VP at St. Jo's and HHSC

Darlene Barnes (Class of '80 MHSc) has been appointed the Integrated Vice President of Emergency Services, St. Joseph ' s Healthcare and Hamilton Health Sciences effective March 1, 2005 . The integration of senior executive teams at both hospitals represents a new and innovative approach to care delivery. The integrated vice presidents will oversee patient care in the areas of emergency services, cardiac care, pediatrics, cancer care and mental health.

Darlene Barnes is an experienced Executive who has worked more than 30 years in the healthcare field, first as a registered nurse and patient care manager, and then through progressively senior roles in both community and teaching hospitals.

Her experience includes four years as a hospital CEO at York-Finch General Hospital and three years as the first President of merged Humber River Regional Hospital . Currently Darlene is at St. Joseph 's Healthcare Hamilton where she has had responsibility for the divestment of the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital , and more recently as the Vice President, Acute Services and Integrated Vice President with Hamilton Health Sciences for Emergency Services. In 1999, Darlene, at the request of the Ministry of Health, was the independent Chair of an Operational Review Steering Committee reviewing Cambridge Memorial Hospital .

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