Canadian University Collaborative is chosen as one of four in world to lead health education reform

TORONTO, ON – Five Cana­di­an uni­ver­si­ties have been cho­sen in a promi­nent inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion to rep­re­sent North Amer­i­ca as one of 4 glob­al inno­va­tion col­lab­o­ra­tives to work with the pres­ti­gious U.S. Insti­tute of Med­i­cine (IOM) on a project to lead inno­va­tion in health edu­ca­tion across the globe.

“This is an excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty for health pro­fes­sions and med­ical schools across Cana­da to help lead a glob­al con­ver­sa­tion about the ways we can improve health edu­ca­tion,” said David Nay­lor, Pres­i­dent, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, and mem­ber of the Lancet Com­mis­sion.  “This was an excep­tion­al­ly com­pet­i­tive selec­tion process and the strength of our pro­pos­al rest­ed on our abil­i­ty to bring togeth­er a diverse group of Cana­di­an part­ners with expe­ri­ence serv­ing dif­fer­ent regions of Cana­da, as well as Abo­rig­i­nal, Fran­coph­o­ne and inner-city pop­u­la­tions.”

The Cana­di­an part­ner­ship – called the Cana­di­an Inter­pro­fes­sion­al Health Lead­er­ship Col­lab­o­ra­tive (CIHLC) – is being led by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, and con­sists of the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia, North­ern Ontario School of Med­i­cine, Queen’s Uni­ver­si­ty and Uni­ver­sité Laval as region­al leads, as well as their affil­i­at­ed net­works across mul­ti­ple sites in Cana­da, the Unit­ed States and glob­al­ly. The CIHLC is a mul­ti-insti­tu­tion­al and inter­pro­fes­sion­al part­ner­ship that includes the fac­ul­ties and schools of med­i­cine, nurs­ing, pub­lic health and pro­grams of inter­pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion (IPE), rep­re­sent­ing numer­ous health care pro­fes­sions at each of the five uni­ver­si­ties.

The IOM’s Board on Glob­al Health chose the CIHLC as one of 4 inno­va­tion col­lab­o­ra­tives fol­low­ing an inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion among aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions around the world. The col­lab­o­ra­tives are intend­ed to incu­bate and pilot ideas for reform­ing health pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion called for in the sem­i­nal Lancet Com­mis­sion report (2010) and will be a key part of IOM’s new Glob­al Forum on Inno­va­tion in Health Pro­fes­sion­al Edu­ca­tion, to be launched in March 2012.

“Emerg­ing soci­etal trends, such as health dis­par­i­ties, the com­plex­i­ty of chron­ic ill­ness­es, and the move­ment towards com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tred care are chal­leng­ing health pro­fes­sion­als to find new ways of deliv­er­ing care and pro­vid­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive lead­er­ship,” said Dr. Sari­ta Ver­ma, Deputy Dean, Temer­ty Temer­ty Fac­ul­ty of Med­i­cine & Asso­ciate Vice-Provost, Health Pro­fes­sions Edu­ca­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.  “That’s why it’s crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant for us to focus on the types of col­lab­o­ra­tive lead­er­ship skills and com­pe­ten­cies that stu­dents and learn­ers require to effec­tive­ly work in diverse and cul­tur­al­ly sen­si­tive envi­ron­ments.”

Each part­ner with­in the CIHLC brings unique and spe­cif­ic strengths in their exper­tise and expe­ri­ence in health edu­ca­tion and lead­er­ship. They have also worked col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly in sim­i­lar types of ini­tia­tives and pro­grams across Cana­da as well as glob­al­ly. The focus of the CIHLC project is on the theme of col­lab­o­ra­tive lead­er­ship for health sys­tem change, trans­form­ing health and teach­ing across Cana­da and North Amer­i­ca with approach­es that can be trans­fer­able glob­al­ly.

The Leads for the CIHLC are Dr. Ver­ma and Ms. Maria Tas­sone, Direc­tor, Cen­tre for Inter­pro­fes­sion­al Edu­ca­tion Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, and Senior Direc­tor, Health Pro­fes­sions and Inter­pro­fes­sion­al Care & Inte­gra­tion Uni­ver­si­ty Health Net­work, who will be the nom­i­nee and alter­nate to the Glob­al Forum respec­tive­ly.

Join­ing Dr. Ver­ma and Ms. Tas­sone will be the fol­low­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive leads from each part­ner insti­tu­tion:

• Dr. Les­ley Bain­bridge, Direc­tor, Inter­pro­fes­sion­al Edu­ca­tion, Temer­ty Temer­ty Fac­ul­ty of Med­i­cine, Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia
• Dr. Mar­go Pater­son, Pro­fes­sor, Occu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­py Pro­gram and Direc­tor, Office of Inter­pro­fes­sion­al Edu­ca­tion and Prac­tice Queen’s Uni­ver­si­ty
• Ms. Sue Berry, Assis­tant Dean of Inte­grat­ed Clin­i­cal Learn­ing, and Dr. David Marsh, Asso­ciate Dean, Com­mu­ni­ty Engage­ment, North­ern Ontario School of Med­i­cine
• Dr. Serge Dumont, Direc­tor, Office of Inter­pro­fes­sion­al Edu­ca­tion, Pavil­lon Charles De-Kon­inck, Uni­ver­sité Laval

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