Tim Lougheed
The Gazette features an occasional series of articles of what's new and on the horizon for the University's 10 faculties. For previous articles, see Related Links.
At first glance, the Faculty of Medicine’s mandate might appear to be straightforward — conduct leading research in the health sciences and graduate a promising new crop of doctors each year. But as Dean Jacques Bradwejn explains, the administrative reality is considerably more complicated.
He points out that all but a handful of the roughly 1,500 faculty members in medicine are, in fact, employed directly by one of the institutions that make up the backbone of the region’s health care network.
“It’s the equivalent of having a Faculty of Law where you would have 50 lawyers at the faculty and 1,400 who are with different firms,” he says.
And the situation is growing even more complex, now that various academic chairs are being given joint positions as clinical chiefs. That means someone like Dr. Bradwejn — who headed the Department of Psychiatry until becoming acting dean last summer — oversaw not only education and research duties for the University, but also services provided by the Royal Ottawa Hospital and The Ottawa Hospital.
But as challenging as this integration of responsibilities has become, he insists that it is a necessary and worthwhile step toward identifying the University with the medical services provided to the larger Ottawa community by academic health sciences centres like The Ottawa Hospital.
“Here that sense is only recently occurring,” he says, comparing such an identity with the high profile of university hospitals in places like Toronto and Montreal.
Nurturing that sense is a top priority for Dean Bradwejn, who would like to establish his faculty’s reputation for outstanding accomplishments and activities in key areas that will be nationally recognized and become the University’s trademarks. Toward that end, he is dedicated to promoting a clear appreciation of excellence in everyone’s mind, not simply as a goal that encourages individuals to do their best, but as a well-defined benchmark.
People may know they are doing well, for example, but Dr. Bradwejn wants them to understand just how well by presenting a context of the most outstanding work, the kind of efforts that win awards or result in major publications.
He finds this desire for a specific definition of excellence reflected in Vision 2010, along with some of his other aims for the faculty. That document suggests that international liaisons should become more prominent, and Dr. Bradwejn is likewise examining the possibility of offering students elective placements at medical facilities in Europe, where they could discover some of the fundamental, underlying aspects of practice, as well as those that vary from country to country.
Similarly, the faculty is broadening its relationship with other parts of the University, such as the Faculty of Health Sciences. Together they are planning an integrated University clinic, which would be located on campus, offering a continuum of services ranging from simple diagnoses to sophisticated therapies by multidisciplinary teams, and operating in both English and French.
Overall, Dr. Bradwejn, who was appointed dean in March 2007, concludes that the challenge of managing a complex faculty is not that complex: “You manage well, and you lead well in specific directions. For the University, the direction is toward specific areas of strength, a clear notion of excellence and exemplary professionalism of all faculty members.”
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