Good Monday morning,
1. Highlights on UHN's Essentials
UHN's Essentials are essential to the work we do as a leading academic health sciences centre – hence the name!
Read here to learn more. Below, you'll find highlights on UHN's Essentials from last week.
People and Culture TeamUHN springs into action for our Open Forum: Due to some bad luck and traffic, I was late for last week's Open Forum. So in place of our usual format, Gillian Howard (Vice President, Public Affairs & Communications) embraced her title as UHN's very own Oprah and called down our many experts to answer your questions. Thank you to everyone who took the "hot seat" and provided such insightful, clear answers with no warning. In my view, this is a testament to the caliber of people we have here. We will be incorporating parts of this new, unexpected and dynamic format moving forward.
People and Culture Welcoming new residents and fellows to UHN, Canada's largest medical training ground: Last week was July 1, meaning we welcomed a new cohort of trainees. They're launching their careers in a world we only dreamed of years ago – one that's being transformed by big data, remarkable technologies and an increased commitment to a healthier, more inclusive society. I hope you'll take a moment to think about how you felt early on in your career and how your initial experiences shaped the professional you are now. Your interactions with our trainees will shape their attitudes in the road ahead so I trust you'll all show them what TeamUHN is about: respect, integrity, collegiality and compassion!
2. Simpler, faster decision-making: Combining UHN's Executive Leadership Forum with our Operations Group and more
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Executive Leadership Forum (Intranet page to be updated): In our continued pursuit of simplicity, we are combining UHN's Executive Leadership Forum with our Operations Group. This essentially means that UHN's Site Vice Presidents – Sue Jewell (Toronto Rehab), Janet Newton (Toronto Western), Fayez Quereshy (Toronto General) – will now be joining the table. Marnie Escaf (Princess Margaret) was already attending as Chair of the Site Practice & Operations Council. Three cheers for getting more done more efficiently at UHN!
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Senior Management Forum: UHN's Senior Management Forum – which includes senior leadership across care, research and education – will now be meeting on a monthly basis instead of a quarterly basis. UHN is a large organization and a lot happens every day, let alone every quarter. Important we meet regularly to stay on the same page and equally important we use this dedicated time in an effective, meaningful way. It'll come as no surprise that we are reviewing the literature on best meeting practices as we prepare for this change.
3. Managing conflict of interest in an innovative organization
When there is a potential conflict of interest, it means we're collaborating and partnering with others. This is a very good thing so long as we transparently and actively managing the relationships. Last week, I presented on conflict of interest at the Radiation Medicine Program Summer Series Rounds. Most codes of conduct say "don't be influenced by conflicts of interest!" but that's not a realistic approach, especially when conflicts of interest can be so nuanced and invisible. In fact, the literature suggests we are ready to acknowledge the effects of bias in others but often don't see our own. And even if you can, how do you convince the public you're looking out for them when looking out for yourself is still perceived to be an option? Human nature!
To help protect the integrity of TeamUHN, we've created an arm's length process and a unified approach to managing industry relationships across TAHSN (Toronto Academic Health Science Network). UHN is full of inventors and innovators – our goal is to unleash their potential in service of patients and families, not hamper it.
To learn more and see the recorded session,
go here and register for a free Princess Margaret Cancer Campus account.
Have a good week,
Kevin
