Please see below for the following updates:

• Leadership Changes in the DOM as of September 1
• Reminders and instructions for Epic Systems Training registration
• Provide your CV and consent to the Elements curation team to transfer your data from WebCV
• Awards & Honours
• REMINDER: Submit your 2023/2024 Annual Activity Reports – Active Staff Members
• REMINDER: 2023/2024 Annual Activity Reports – Courtesy Staff - Please fill out the online survey

From Dr. Ori Rotstein, Interim Chief Medical Officer

As has been recently announced, Dr. Sharon Straus will be stepping down as Physician-In-Chief at St. Michael’s in order to accept the appointment as Executive Vice President, Clinical and Chief Medical Officer, Unity Health Toronto effective Sept. 1, 2024. With expertise in health care, research, education, leadership, mentorship and equity, Dr. Straus will help our network continue to create the best care experiences, and strengthen our academic mission while upholding Unity Health’s focus on populations experiencing marginalization.

As we embark upon the process of looking for a new Physician-In-Chief for St. Michael’s, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Natalie Wong as Interim Chief of the Department of Medicine, effective Sept. 1, 2024, until a permanent replacement is in place. An external review of the Department will be undertaken, followed by a comprehensive search process.

Dr. Wong is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine and in the Department of Critical Care. While being an exceptional clinician who is committed to providing high quality patient care, she is also an outstanding and well-recognised clinician teacher. She has received multiple postgraduate and undergraduate teaching awards including the Teacher of the Year Award from the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto. Previously, she was Postgraduate Site Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program at St. Michael’s where she implemented many initiatives to ensure the residents received an outstanding education experience. In particular, she is recognised for her fantastic work on Code Blue simulations that have been adopted elsewhere and for her thoughtful debriefs after Code Blues occur.

We are grateful that Dr. Wong has agreed to serve the Department of Medicine in this capacity. Please join us in congratulating her and welcoming her to this role.

From Dr. Sharon Straus, PIC:

Please join me in congratulating Natalie Wong who will be interim PIC, effective Sept 1, 2024.  She will be amazing in this role and I am grateful to her for her leadership.  She has been a terrific Deputy PIC and will bring her tremendous skills and expertise as a clinician, educator and leader to this role.

I am also happy to announce that Andrew Advani has agreed to be interim Deputy PIC, effective Sept 1.  He will bring fantastic expertise as a clinician, scientist and leader.  Please join me in congratulating Andrew.

Natalie and Andrew will be a stellar leadership team for the Department!

Please be reminded that all Unity Health staff and physicians who will use the new Epic EPR system once it launches on Nov. 30 are required to complete Epic Systems training ahead of go-live. Physicians are responsible for registering themselves once the training registration window opens at 7 a.m. on June 24. Please see below for important reminders and step-by-step instructions on how to register. 

Registration instructions 

Training has been preassigned in Elevate, Unity Health’s Learning Management System (LMS). To enrol in a classroom training session, please see this tip sheet, this how-to video or follow the steps below. You can also find an introduction to Elevate in this short overview video.

1. Sign into Elevate (https://elevate.unityhealth.to) using your Unity Health credentials. This is the same network username and password that you use to log into other Unity Health systems. 
   • Note: You can access Elevate through any browser and on any device. You do not need to be logged into Citrix or FortiPortal, or on a Unity Health device. 
2. Once logged in, you’ll see a My Learning Progress widget on the right-hand side of the home page, below the Elevate banner. In that widget, find the course you want to enrol in. 
   • Note: You won’t be able to see your Epic Systems training courses until 7 a.m. on June 24. If you still don’t see your courses after that time, click on “View All” at the bottom right-hand side of the widget. 
3. Click on the course title you want to enrol in. 
4. In the Enrolment Options box, click on the “Choose Session” button. 
5. From the available list of sessions, select the one you want to enrol in. 
6. Click the “Confirm” button to enrol in the chosen session. 

If you encounter any issues trying to register once the training registration window opens, please log a ticket with the HelpDesk using the ServiceNow portal (NOT via phone or email). A member of the EPR Education team will review your ticket and get back to you as soon as possible. 

Reminders 

• Training courses have been pre-assigned in Elevate. Physicians are only responsible for selecting the date, time and location that they want to attend training.  
• ALL Unity Health physicians are required to register for training. A training exemption will be made available for physicians who have recent and related Epic experience but until the exemption process opens in August, all physicians should still secure a spot for training. 
• Physicians will have to dedicate one day for Epic training, to be done in-person. 
• Physicians do not need to register immediately on June 24 but please note that classroom training sessions will be available on a first come, first served basis.  
  • Each track has a collection of date/time options that are fixed and cross the three sites.  
  • Based on information provided by clinical groups, some tracks include Saturday options. 
  • There are enough classes for everyone, and everyone will have to choose one. 
  • Epic requires that all physicians at Unity Health be registered by Aug. 30. 
• Registration is NOT restricted to your home site. It's recommended that you choose the date/time that works for you, and do not restrict yourself by only looking at one site. 

Thank you in advance for your attention to this. If you have any questions, please see the resources available on the EPR System Training page on UnityNet or email [email protected]. 

Dear DoM faculty members,  

Elements was recently highlighted in the Chair’s Column in the March edition of the DoM Matters Newsletter. Further details, including training materials, can be found on the VPRI website and the Community Support Site. The goal of this project is to populate Elements with faculty CV data and help DoM faculty transition away from WebCV, which we are aiming to decommission by the end of 2024.

To help populate fields in Elements that require manual entry, we are requesting faculty provide their CV and consent to the curation team to use their CV to populate their profile. Over the summer of 2024, there will be a team of work study students updating profiles. Curated profiles will remain marked as private, and faculty will receive an email once their profile has been curated asking them to login and review it.  

To take advantage of the curation service, please complete the following steps:

1. Complete the consent form. Completing the form will prompt an email message to the address provided.
2. Reply to the prompted email and attach your CV and a profile picture.

Once your profile is curated, you will receive an email and be invited to log in and review. It is also possible to request delegate access so someone else can edit your profile on your behalf. Please email [email protected] and share the name and email address of the requested delegate. 
 
Additional plans for Elements over the summer of 2024:

• Additional training materials specific to Temerty Medicine will be generated and shared via the MedIT website  
• Launch of a workflow for requesting guest UTORid’s so staff outside UofT can be granted delegate access/edit Elements profiles  
• Release of multiple other extraction reports, such as Activity Report, Teaching & Education report, and CPA report
• Development of regular communication channel for Elements updates

If you have any questions, please message [email protected].   

Best,  

Joanna King, Manager, Business & Research Administration  
&   
Kate Park, Elements Client Support Coordinator  

Congratulations to Dr. Victoria Korley who received the University of Toronto Division of Cardiology’s E. Douglas Wigle Teaching Award

Due date:  September 1, 2024

Dear Colleagues,

The Department of Medicine is committed to ensuring your career satisfaction and success. With this goal in mind, and due to our size, all full time DoM members are requested to participate in a biennial Faculty Review, at a minimum. This meeting provides you the opportunity for formal discussion about what is and may not be working to achieve your goals, to ensure you are meeting the expectations of your job description from the point of view of your division, department and university, and to facilitate your continued career success.  Faculty members who are in their first 5 years of a faculty appointment will be met with annually. If you have a pressing need to meet or would like to meet annually, please reach out to the PIC office so that we can accommodate this. The priority is to ensure your needs are met and we will do whatever we can in the PIC office to help you achieve your career goals.  You are also encouraged to meet annually with your Division Head to review your career goals and activities, including a discussion of your annual activity report.

If you are considering academic promotion to Associate or Full Professor, please reach out to the PIC office by June 1.  The university will hold a workshop this summer for faculty interested in going forward for promotion on eligibility and preparing a candidate statement. Many factors go into this decision, which is highly individualized; important considerations include your scholarly activities and impact, teaching effectiveness or excellence, and time since last promotion.  You may also wish to discuss this with your Division Head and your DDD before June 1.  Videos and slides on the promotion process can be found at https://deptmedicine.utoronto.ca/promotion-resources

Please use the WebCV program to generate your annual activity report covering the period July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 and forward it to both your Division Head and my office (email to Jessica Comilang) by September 1^st, 2024.  Your Division Head and I will review this report. Dr. Gillian Hawker also asks you to forward your report to your DDD and, for those of you within five years of your initial appointment, to your mentor as well.

The following are items that could be covered in our annual meeting:

1. Review of prior year highlights, challenges and goals for next year – anything more we can do to help you succeed (e.g., leadership training, continuing professional development)?
2. Wellbeing and work-life integration
3. Academic Position Description (APD): alignment with career goals; alignment of APD expectations re teaching (quantity, quality and levels of teaching), scholarship, clinical and administrative activities with your current activities
4. Mentorship:  quality of relationship; frequency of meetings; need for additional mentorship
5. Career milestones (CFAR and junior or senior promotion); your 5 year goals
6. Professionalism & Citizenship, participation in hospital, divisional, departmental activities
7. Finances, Hospital policies
8. Hospital / University policies re conflict of interest, relationships with industry
9. Planned changes in clinical or academic activities (leaves, breaks and retirement plans)
10. Eligibility for awards & honours

The above list is long and not everything is relevant at every review. Please take some time to prepare for your review by reflecting on your achievements and your goals as well as thinking about your priorities for discussion and how I can help you with your goals and priorities.

As a reminder, you can access WebCV at: https://www.torontocv.ca/Default.aspx?pg=Login Information on using webcv can be found at https://deptmedicine.utoronto.ca/webcv The UT Department of Medicine has committed to continue to use and support webCV until a viable alternative is implemented. It will continue to be used for continuing faculty appointment review and promotion as well as annual activity reporting. There is an alternative CV in development but its launch timelines are not clear.

I am looking forward to our meeting to discuss your reports and any other issues of importance to you. Thanks for all of your contributions to our Department, the learners and patients.

With best regards,

Sharon

Sharon Straus, CM MD MSc FRCPC
Physician-in-Chief

Due date:  September 1^st, 2024

Dear Colleagues,  

This year, we are circulating a revised online form for your 2023/24 activity report as we would like to ensure we have a full understanding of your clinical and scholarly contributions to St. Michael’s Hospital.  All medical staff holding a courtesy appointment in the St. Michael’s Department of Medicine are requested to complete this online report by September 1, 2024, which will be reviewed by myself and your Division Head.  This information will be used to inform re-appointment to St. Michael’s Hospital next year.   For those of you who hold a faculty appointment, please note that this report is separate and distinct from the reporting you provide to the University of Toronto. Your time to complete this report is appreciated.

https://knowledgetranslation.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1TCV3Bpxbgn1sGi

If you are considering academic promotion to Associate or Full Professor, please reach out to your DDD and your PIC and Division Head at your primary site by June 1.  Many factors go into this decision which is highly individualized; important considerations include your academic productivity, teaching effectiveness or excellence, and time since last promotion. 

Thank you in advance for adhering to the instructions and timelines. If you have any questions, please contact Julia Stratta or Jessica Comilang in my office.

With best regards,

Sharon

Sharon Straus, CM MD MSc FRCPC

Physician-in-Chief, St. Michael’s Hospital