Chair's Message

Transforming Healthcare

I am pleased and excited to release the finalized version of the Department of Family Medicine new mission, vision, and strategic plan in this month’s newsletter. “Passion and Purpose 2027” is the culmination of almost six months of work and consultation.

In October 2022, the Department held a strategic retreat, our first in-person event since March 2020, to spend an afternoon reflecting on the work that we do, and the work we want to do moving into the future. Under the guidance of Anne Becker (https://climbconsulting.ca/), our full-time faculty took the first steps to define our goals for the upcoming five years. Over the next several months, a smaller group of faculty refined the ideas and concepts we captured at the retreat, engaged the Department for further input and developed a draft of our strategic map. Then, turning outward, we consulted our Department staff, our adjunct faculty, our medical students, our residents, and other key-stakeholders. I want to thank everyone who participated in the process. Earlier in the year, I solicited feedback via the chair’s newsletter, and we had a good response. Trying to include as many perspectives as we could was a goal when developing this plan. My estimate is that well over 100 people made specific suggestions and contributions that can be seen in the final result.

Our Vision:

Transforming Healthcare… Optimizing the health and well-being of patients and communities.

Our new vision statement represents our shared purpose and our future-state impact. It captures that all members of our Department contribute to transforming healthcare through our teaching, research, and clinical care. The difference we make day in and day out is so very significant. The vision recognizes we focus on individuals, managing both health and well-being, across a patient’s lifespan. In addition, we acknowledge our role as a resource to communities and the importance of recognizing population health within the scope of primary care.

Our Mission:

We train and inspire the next generation of Family Physician clinicians, researchers, educators, and leaders. We deliver the highest quality clinical care, produce impactful research, advance inter-disciplinary care models, and strengthen community partnerships.

Our mission describes what we do and who we serve as a Department. It is the declaration of our purpose. We proudly train our undergraduate, postgraduate, and graduate learners to excel in areas including clinical care, research, and teaching. We produce the family physician leaders of tomorrow. We recognize the importance of team-based care and work across professions and in our communities promoting innovative care models, both through clinical work and research. 

Our Guiding Values:

One of the more difficult steps in developing our strategic plan, was articulating our guiding values. It was clear there are so many important values that our Department members hold and embed in the work they do, whether it be education, research, or clinical care. The values below are the four that emerged from our consultations.

We value Excellence. Consistently in the conversations and consultations, it was clear that being the best educators, researchers, clinicians, and leaders was a top priority for staff and faculty. Individually we strive to be excellent at all we do and collectively we expect that from each other.

We value Equity and Inclusion. It has never been clearer that diverse voices and perspectives make us better. Within our daily work, all members of our Department want anyone to feel welcome, included, accepted, and valued.

We value Teamwork and Collaboration. We know we cannot do it alone. To meet the challenges we currently face, and will face in the future, working with each other, across silos and sectors, as well as with our communities will be our path to mutual success and transforming our healthcare system.

We value Patient-Centeredness. As the birthplace of the patient-centred clinical method, we have deep knowledge of the patient-centred model of medicine as understood through both the provision of clinical care and through our research.  

Our Strategic Outcomes:

With our vision and mission as a guide, we developed aligned outcomes describing the value we create for the people we serve. At the highest level, the outcomes we will aim to achieve in the next 5 years are:

  • Learners are confident and prepared for independent, comprehensive clinical practice
  • Learners are ready to address emerging and complex societal health needs across diverse and under-served communities
  • More undergraduate medical students choose a residency in Family Medicine
  • MClSc and PhD Graduates in Family Medicine are national and international leaders in education, research, and capacity building in primary care health systems
  • Our research addresses the most pressing family medicine issues by answering questions that are important to our patients, and that are embedded in patient-centred and health equity principles and solutions
  • Our research and quality improvement positively influences clinical practice, healthcare system processes, policy, and health equity
  • Our research is inclusive and reflects the diversity of our communities
  • Patients receive high quality, inclusive care that respects and reflects their individual needs, preferences, and values
  • Patients and communities have access to equitable, integrated care, when and where they need it
  • Comprehensive care and focused practice physicians, researchers, and hospital and community partners work collaboratively to build healthier communities

 

The complete strategic plan can be found here. The linked document includes more details including strategies to reach our outcomes, and principles and plans to support our department faculty and staff. I look forward to reviewing, discussing, and soliciting feedback on some of our strategies in future newsletters.

During the pandemic, I completed a so-called “mini” MBA through the Schulich School of Business Executive Education Centre at York University. A key message I remember from one of my professors was “Nothing happens without a vision.” This was a recurring theme that resonated with me. Just over a year into my term as the Chair of the Department of Family Medicine, we have a vision.

Now, let’s make it happen.

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome: smckay28@uwo.ca or @FMChairChief on Twitter.