CHAIR'S COLUMN
Reflections on the First 5 Years
James Rutka
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Some of you may know that I
have completed my first 5-year
term in April. I am very grateful
that following a successful
external review by Dr. Carlos A.
Pellegrini from the University of
Washington Seattle, and Dr. John
Kortbeek University of Calgary,
Dean Trevor Young has now
appointed me for the next 5 years.
I want to take this opportunity
to reflect on our many successes and achievements
these past 5 years. At a glance, we have nearly 250 full
time faculty members, 250 residents and 200 clinical
fellows. We received approximately $40 - 45 million
in annual research funding annually, we have a total
of $150 million in terms of endowed chair funding
$22 million held in trust funds, and $3 million annually
in advancement funding. Over the past 5 years, the
Department of Surgery has published over 7,000 peerreviewed
manuscripts with an overall citation impact
of 1.54. We have 10 Canada Research Chairs, and 63
endowed University Hospital Chairs.
Some of the highlights from these past 5 years include
the establishment of the Surgery Exploration and Discovery
(SEAD) Course, the creation of a Faculty Development
Day, the establishment of the Department of Surgery
Prep Camp for all PGY1 residents, the establishment of
the Best Practices in Surgery Work Group, writing of
the late career transitioning guidelines, establishment of
Surgeon - Global Surgery Academic Job Description, harmonization
of departmental academic salaries, initiation
of the Competency - Based Curriculum in the Division
of Orthopaedics, establishment of University of Toronto
City Wide Brain Tumor Bank initiative, establishment of
3 departmental lectureships, hiring of the departmental
strategic planning implementation coordinator; hiring of
a departmental communications coordinator, and hiring
of a medical illustrator.
While I am very proud of these statistics and numbers
in particular, the one I am most proud of is the prodigious academic output by our faculty members, residents
and fellows.
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We have been exceedingly fortunate in the numbers
of promotees who have gone forward at the Decanal
Committee in the Department of Surgery. There have
been more than 77 successful applications over the past
5 years. We have had 63 new faculty recruits in the past
5 years, and 62 full time surgeons and 8 scientists passed
their Continuing Appointment Reviews.
I have been exceedingly pleased with the Department
of Surgery medical student curriculum, which included
new Breakfast Seminars with the Chairman, SEAD
Course, Suture Tying workshops, and Life in Surgery
series among other things. Barry Rubin hosted the
first Practice Management Financial Planning Seminar
for senior residents, Faculty Development Day has
been established, and is now run conjointly with the
Department of Anesthesiology. We established the Ben
Alman Lectureship in Surgical Science, the Robin
McLeod Lectureship in clinical epidemiology, and the
Balfour Lectureship in Surgical Ethics.
Our Strategic plan, Transforming Surgery: Beyond the
Cutting Edge runs from 2012 -2017. We are almost at
the end of this plan, but in actuality, there is no end
point. Rather, there are frequent adjustments along the
way. My plan in 2017 is to run a “refresh” of the strategic
planning document process with a goal in mind of finetuning
those areas that still need additional attention in
the Department of Surgery.
As I was assembling the self- study survey for the
Dean and external reviewers, this 300 hundred page
document paled in comparison to the more than 800
pages that were required to publish all of the citations for
the Department of Surgery. The external reviewers were
indeed impressed with this phenomenal output and, at
the end of the review, acknowledged the positioning of
the Department of Surgery within the top five programs
in the world.
It has been my great honor to steer the Department of
Surgery on a course which has taken us to greater heights
these past five years. Needless to say, I look forward to
working with all of you over the next five years to see all
that we can accomplish together.
James T Rutka,
RS McLaughlin Professor and Chair,
Department of Surgery
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