Good morning, TeamUHN!

It is a pleasure to connect with you across care, research, and education through this weekly CEO update – all in service of A Healthier World.

Key reminders and updates

  • Continued masking: I've heard from a number of you with concerns about the potential for removing mandatory masking – and a few patients advocating for the lifting of masking requirements – and what that might mean for our patients and those TeamUHN members who are immunocompromised. I want to assure you that we are working hand in glove with our excellent IPAC team, as well as the regional, provincial, and national bodies for infection prevention and control related to COVID. At this time, mandatory masking remains our policy. Thank you for continuing to protect our patients and each other.
  • Deputy Premier and Health Minister Sylvia Jones visited the Ajmera Transplant Centre (ATC) last Tuesday to mark #BeADonorMonth. TeamUHN was proud to showcase the largest and most prolific organ transplant centre in Canada – and give the minister the chance to touch a human kidney! As Minister Jones later said on Twitter, "The Ajmera Transplant Centre and its team are doing incredible work, and I was grateful for the opportunity to hear first-hand from patients about how this centre is saving and improving lives." In Ontario, roughly 1,400 people are waiting for an organ transplant and, every three days, someone will die because they did not get a transplant in time. Check out BeADonor.ca to learn more about how you can register to donate and how best to spread the word about the importance of organ and tissue donation.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Lucas Chartier, UHN's new Vice President of Quality & Safety, after a national search. Lucas is a strong and energetic healthcare leader who has dedicated his academic work to the collaborative pursuit of better quality and safer care for all patients. In his most recent roles as interim Chief Patient Safety Officer and inaugural UHN Medical Director of Quality & Safety, he led the creation of the Physician Council on Quality & Safety and spearheaded important education initiatives. On top of all of that, he is a practicing emergency physician. I proudly welcome him to the Executive Leadership Forum and look forward to working closely with him on the next leg of UHN's quality and safety journey.
  • Last Wednesday, Toronto Western became the first hospital in the Greater Toronto Area to perform PET-CT rubidium scans on cardiac patients – a kind of stress test to measure blood flow to the heart. With the use of a cutting-edge PET/CT scanner delivered last month, patients can be examined in 45 minutes compared to some cardiac studies that can take five hours. During the process, a radioactive tracer is administered into the body intravenously and taken up by the heart muscle. The positron emission tomography (PET) scan uses the tracer to highlight abnormal blood flow to the heart muscle, and a computed tomography (CT) scan uses X-rays to create 3D pictures of organs and tissue. “Getting a PET stress test means a shorter exam and less overall radiation exposure for our patients," says UHN cardiologist Dr. Robert Mark Iwanochko. "It's more comfortable for the patient and provides a more accurate diagnosis." Learn more at UHN News.
  • Join Pam Hubley, UHN's Chief Nursing Executive, for a live virtual event from 3-4 p.m. today – "The Future of Oncology Nursing: Leadership, Scholarship, and Clinical Innovation." Pam will be joined in the discussion by Dr. Lindsay Carlsson, Clinical Nurse Specialist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Claire Kelly, Registered Nurse (RN) at the Princess Margaret, and Mehr Gilan, RN in General Internal Medicine and Oncology at the Toronto General. The UHN Nursing Speaker Series is for nurses by nurses. Register for the virtual event here and click on this MS Teams link to join live.
  • If you've not yet completed our Strategic Plan refresh survey, please find a few minutes to do so! This quick exercise asks TeamUHN to help us envision the next three to five years at UHN. All individual responses are confidential and there will be a draw for awesome prizes for those who participate early. Visit this website or scan the QR code below to have your say today. Questions? Strategy@uhn.ca.

Closing Notes

UHN's first-of-its-kind Professional Development strategy is offering learning opportunities and leadership education across TeamUHN. Launched in 2022, this partnership between Education, Collaborative Academic Practice, Medical Affairs, and People & Culture is helping to ensure TeamUHN members have access to education options and learning tools. "We're working to create a menu of professional development offerings like workshops, lunch and learns, and shadowing opportunities for staff's personal and professional growth," says Belinda Vilhena, Director of Operations and Business Development at the Centre of Advancing Collaborative Healthcare and Education. "And this needs to be delivered in a variety of ways – in-person, e-learning, or virtual sessions. Ideally, all of these offerings will be housed in one accessible website or platform." Learn more at UHN News.

Don't miss this story about how Madeleine Auclair, a nurse coordinator on the Pre-Liver Transplant Team at ATC, honours liver transplant recipients by creating origami cranes. As she explained to UHN News, the cranes include the patient's initials and the date of the transplant, and as she folds the paper, she reflects on the patient's experience and the work behind the operation. "Doing this slows me down and lets me think about the patient as they leave my care and move on in their journey," Madeleine says. "It makes me a little more present and intentional to acknowledge that we did this transplant." These beautiful, colourful creations all tell a story of the exceptional care patients receive from the entire team. Learn more.

And now… our video of the week. In this clip, we look at the five foods that Registered Dietitians keep in their kitchen for healthy and balanced meals.

Feedback?

Your feedback is welcome and valued. Please reply directly to me or leave anonymous feedback here.

Have a good week,

Kevin


Quicklinks
Back to Top