Please see below for the following updates:

• Undergraduate Teaching Recruitment (Fitz Academy / GIM Clerkship)
• Message from Jonathan Fetros, VP Clinical: Orla Smith, Senior Clinical Program Director, Medicine Program and Emergency Care Program, has accepted a role at Sunnybrook
• Undergraduate Teaching Recruitment (Fitz Academy / GIM Clerkship)
• A special message from Dr. Walter Montanera
• 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

Thank you to all the divisions who have completed their Undergrad education recruitment for 2024-2025!  For any divisions who still have outstanding undergraduate teaching spots to fill, kindly complete the sign-up sheet sent by James Berlin and Dr James Rassos as soon as possible.  If there are any questions or concerns about filling all your assigned spots, connect with James & James to discuss; Dr Straus or Dr. Wong are also available to discuss any concerns.  These were required to be completed on June 28, 2024.

Thank you,

July 11, 2024

It is with mixed emotions that I share that Orla Smith, Senior Clinical Program Director, Medicine Program and Emergency Care Program, has accepted a new role as Operations Director of the Tory Trauma Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Orla’s last day at Unity Health Toronto will be September 5, 2024. 

Orla has been a valued member of the Unity Health team for nearly 25 years. She started her career in the St. Michael’s Hospital’s Medical and Surgical Intensive Care Unit (MSICU) as a Registered Nurse. Since then, she has taken on leadership roles in critical care, emergency medicine, medicine, research, and professional practice at St. Michael’s and St. Joseph’s. She has also been a respected teacher and mentor, an innovative researcher, and has built meaningful and impactful relationships across the network and sector. She was recognized in 2022 with the Ella Ferris Culture of Leading Award. 

Earlier this year, Orla took on the role of interim Senior Clinical Program Director of the Medicine Program in addition to her role as Senior Clinical Program Director of Emergency Care. During her tenure as a Senior Clinical Program Director, she has been instrumental in driving forward initiatives to improve access and flow across our network to make sure that patients receive the care they need where and when they need it. Under her leadership, St. Joseph’s Emergency Department (ED) was recognized provincially for showing the greatest improvement in length-of-stay, and the site launched the Acute Internal Medicine (AIM) Clinic in partnership with Medicine to expedite specialty assessments for ED patients and divert ED admissions. 

Over the pandemic, Orla co-led various elements of our COVID-19 response, and most recently she has been an active member in our work on the Electronic Patient Record, participating in and leading work groups to inform the design and functionality of the system. With her guidance, Unity Health’s world-class specialty care areas have thrived and earned accolades for their work. In 2018, Orla led the St. Michael’s MSICU team to achieve a Gold Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, recognizing high quality patient and family outcomes through evidence-based practices. 

Orla has made a lasting impact across Unity Health that will continue to strengthen care in the future. It will come as no surprise that when asked, Orla shared she is most proud of the relationships she has made over the course of her career at Unity Health. We are grateful for her contributions and leadership.

Please join me in congratulating Orla on this exciting new chapter. Recruitment for the Senior Clinical Program Director, Medicine is in progress while recruitment for the Senior Clinical Program Director of Emergency Care, Access & Flow will begin next week. Details of a full transition plan will be shared at a later date.

Dear colleagues, please see below a heartfelt message from our friend and esteemed colleague, Dr. Montanera.

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Dear All Colleagues and Friends, Department of Medical Imaging, St. Michael’s Hospital:

Due to a previously unforeseen personal health issue, I have found it necessary to resign from the Department of Medical Imaging, St. Michael’s Hospital effective July 1st.

It has been a tremendous privilege to train as a resident/fellow at SMH in the 80’s, and then return as a staff Neuroradiologist years later.  In a career of over 40 years, it was my great honour and very good fortune to work with, and learn from so many wonderful Radiologists, Resident/Fellowship trainees, Medical Imaging Technologists, Medical Imaging Nurses, and PACS/Administrative/Clerical staff here at St. Mike’s.

Thank you all for your expertise, dedication and tremendous support on behalf of our patients. Thank you for the comradeship and the many, many laughs that we shared together. I will greatly miss St. Mike’s and the Medical Imaging family….. and I know that St. Mike’s patients will continue to receive the best care anywhere.  It has been a sincere pleasure working with you all.

Best Regards, Walt Montanera  

Please note: A celebration of his impact will be organized in future by Radiology, we will share further information once this becomes available.

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