Participants in the mid-July HI Bootcamp, with posters noting some of the firms that helped sponsor the pioneering event. Dominic Covvey, director of WIHIR, is at lower right.

Health informatics bootcamp 'a success'

The inaugural Applied Health Informatics Bootcamp held at UW last month "was a roaring success", says a UW news release, with 80 participants from across Canada and other countries, representing every corner of the health system.

The health professionals, who completed the first week-long program launched by the Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research, included physicians, nurses, healthcare information services professionals, representatives of e-health agencies and professionals from private sector companies in the e-health market. Smart Systems for Health Agency, an Ontario government offshoot, was the primary sponsor.

The Bootcamp program has the goal of introducing 1,000 professionals to the discipline over the next two years -- offering a broad introduction to applied HI and to initiate its participants in a life-long learning process. "It does not replace full academic programs that give the depth of knowledge and experience needed to function as a professional," said Shirley Fenton of WIHIR. "The Bootcamp, instead, helps participants by laying out a 'learning map' that they can now navigate on their own. It gives them the basic knowledge of Health Informatics that they can deepen through self-study and through selected courses at the universities and colleges that already have or are launching comprehensive programs."

Fenton added: "We had to do something. The system cannot gear up rapidly enough and learners cannot dedicate full time for the years required to deliver the thousands of HI professionals we need right now, not a decade from now. This is our 'rapid response' answer."

One Bootcamp graduate -- Peter Nowacki, director of investment program metrics and reporting for Canada Health Infoway Inc. -- saw the Bootcamp as an excellent response to that need. "It is imperative that, as professionals in the health informatics space, we continue to update and refine our knowledge and skills. This course has been an enriching experience and a great opportunity to share thoughts and meet colleagues from across the country."

And Kim Timleck of London Health Sciences Centre summed up her experience: "The information provided really emphasized how important Health Informatics expertise is to facilitate successful integration of care delivery across acute, primary, community and long term care sectors."

WIHIR says it plans to offer versions of the program through other organizations in a type of open-source arrangement. All sessions at the Bootcamp have been videotaped for future use. Other organizations will be solicited to offer "clones" of the program, thereby multiplying WIHIR's ability to reach out and stimulate the production of Health Informatics professionals.

The 94th issue of The New Quarterly, published from St. Jerome's University, links Canadian literature with Canadian sport. It's "Hockey Write in Canada", with prose, poetry and criticism. In one piece, Bill Gaston compares fiction writing to hockey writing and asks whether fiction lovers are snobs when it comes to the hockey novel. In another, the editors promise, "Lorna Jackson flirts with Bobby Orr." Guest editor is Jamie Fitzpatrick.

More profs are on sabbatical

Here's a further list of faculty members who are on sabbatical -- free from teaching and administrative duties -- as of July 1 this year. Descriptions of their sabbatical plans are taken from the agenda of UW's board of governors, which approves all sabbaticals.

Tanya Korovkin of political science has a six-month sabbatical: "This research will address two sets of issues: trade, labour and environment, with the focus on the growth of cut flower exports in Ecuador and Kenya, and cross-border military conflict spillover, with the focus on Ecuador and Colombia. The research will contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the areas of international development and security."

Victoria Lamont of the English department also has a six-month sabbatical, to "conduct research on the complex of forces that brought woman suffrage to the American West in the late nineteenth century. She will focus on the documentary record of the rhetorical and textural excitements of the movement as reflected in woman suffrage periodicals. For the first phase of this project, recommended for funding under the Canada-US Fulbright Program, she will study Mormon women's involvement in the woman suffrage movement in Utah Territory during the 1870s."

Robert Linnen of the earth sciences department is on sabbatical for six months: "July 1 to September 30, fieldwork in Ontario and Manitoba based out of Waterloo. October 1 to December 31, laboratory work as a visiting scientist at the University of Hannover, Germany."

Susan M. Shaw of recreation and leisure studies has a year-long sabbatical: "I will be working on various projects associated with understanding 'life balance' and the intersections of work, leisure and family in people's lives. This involves collaborative research in Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Australlia and the UK, as well as ongoing research in Waterloo on the new electronic workplace."

Raymond Legge of chemical engineering is on sabbatical for six months: "Principal activities during my sabbatical will be devoted to research and extension of collaborations with current research colleagues abroad that include Dr. Alan Werker (Anox Enviromental Biotechnology, Lund, Sweden); Professor Kenji Matsui (Yamaguchi University, Japan); Professor Hideki Aoyagi (University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan); and Dr. Peter Kuschk (Environmental Research Centre, Leipzig, Germany).

Faculty retirements are noted

Human resources sends word that these faculty members will be retiring September 1:

Stanley Kardasz, a faculty member in economics since September 1, 1967.

Ian Williams, a faculty member in kinesiology since September 1, 1967.

Gary Waller (left), a faculty member in psychology since September 1, 1968. He also served as associate provost, academic affairs from May 1, 1996 to June 30, 2003.

Leonard Guelke, a faculty member in geography since September 1, 1975.

Daniel Younger, a faculty member in combinatorics and optimization since September 1, 1967.

 

Notes on endings and closures

Orchestra@uwaterloo, a university-wide orchestra open to students, staff, faculty, and alumni, has been holding an auction to choose a piece to be performed at their December 1 concert. So far, Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 is way ahead. If you would like to see your your favourite piece at the top of the concert bill, visit the orchestra’s website to find out how the auction works and place a bid. But you’ll have to do it soon, because the auction closes this Friday.

The customer service area in the registrar’s office will be closed on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week to have new carpet installed. Students will still be served, however, says Jayne Dean, executive assistant. “Service will be maintained by directing students to use the phone located by the wickets to contact registrar’s office staff.”

A reminder from Bob Hicks in IST client services: The IST computing help and information place (CHIP) in MC 1052 will be closed from noon to 1 p.m. until August 26.

And a correction to a staff retirement noted in the Daily Bulletin on August 10: Duncan Murie, who is to retire September 1 from the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, holds the position of gift processing assistant.

C&PA