Our work group was constituted of the the following individuals throughout the AHC who volunteered or were recommended and recruited.
Stuart Speedie, Ph.D. -- Medical School - Health Informatics (co-chair)
Larry Kushi, Sc.D. -- School of Public Health - Epidemiology (co-chair)
William Hoffman -- AHC/Med School - Communicatons Technology & Biomedical Engineering (staff)
Alan Hirsch, M.D. -- Medical School - Medicine - Cardiology
Coleen Southwell -- Cancer Center - Director of Communications
Marilyn Johnson -- Sr. VP for Health Sciences Office - Principal User Specialist
Bob Copeland -- AHC Human Resources
Kate Hanson -- School of Nursing - Student Recruiter
Andrea Szalay -- Medical School - RPAP - Student Support Associate
Bashar Bakdash, DDS -- School of Dentistry - Preventive Sciences
Kristin Hansen -- Medical School - Computational Biology Centers
Ernie Retzel, Ph.D. -- Medical School - Computational Biology Centers
Mary Krick -- School of Nursing - Executive Assistant
Clint Hartman -- Medical School - Pediatrics, System Software Programmer
Marshall Hertz, M.D. -- Medical School - Medicine
Jim Waddell, Ph.D. -- Veterinary Medicine - Clinical and Population Sciences
Skeeter Burroughs -- Med School - Family Practice & Comm. Health - Off. Specialist
Michael Armstrong -- Medical School - Graduate Student
Crystal Heublein -- Veterinary Medicine - Director of Info. Services
Paul Yakshe, M.D. -- Medical School - Medicine
Jason Knauss -- Medical School - Obstetrics & Gynecology
Jim Carey -- Medical School - Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
We held three 90-minute meetings in the 6th floor conference room of BSBE: July 3, July 14, and July 21. This report reflects the consensus view of our group on some of the current issues, needs, and opportunities for the Academic Health Center posed by the revolution in communications technology and what we recommend to address these issues/needs and exploit these opportunities. Individual participants may have differing points of view concerning specific issues and recommendations.
Needs Analysis
For a needs analysis of information technology and networking in the Academic Health Center, we refer to the AHC Information Technology Team report "Information Technology at the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center: Assessments and Recommendations," September 14, 1996. This is a comprehensive analysis of the current state of computer and associated technologies in the AHC. It is described as a "starting point for continuing discussion about how information technology can best be employed to accomplish the mission of the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center." Assessments and recommendations are made in the following arenas:
Specific communications technologies
Specific communications technologies were identified as follows:
Communications technology hardware, networks and interfaces
Hardware, networks and interfaces were identified as follows:
Skills development and use
We regard development of skills in using different communications technologies as a critically important factor for expediting the move of AHC personnel into the new communications arena. Table 1: AHC Communications Technologies: Recommendations for Skills Development and Use represents a consensus view of the skills expectations of faculty, staff and students in the not-too-distant future. The analysis presumes a significant upgrade in the overall availability and use of communications technologies.
Table 2: AHC Communications Technologies: Reaching Target Audiences represents a consensus view of which communications technologies may be most effective in reaching different AHC target audiences. This matrix presumes a significant upgrade in the overall availability and use of communications technologies.
as illustrated below:
One of the key goals of the AHC CommTech Virtual Center would be to coordinate and integrate existing service, training, and outreach programs -- from the AHC department/division level to University-wide activities and programs. Local or college/school programs, such the departmental initiatives described in the Appendix, could be monitored and emulated in total or in part if they prove successful. The Center could also serve to advocate University-wide programs (OIT) and the appropriate and efficient use of specific communications technologies for specific tasks within the AHC.
In its capacity of coordinating and promoting training, the AHC CommTech Virtual Center would focus on the aspects of communication that are principally the domain of the Communications Office - e.g. training people in the use of these technologies for communicating with the public. In its service capacity, it would develop online public information and public service resources as well as coordinating internal help resources.
The AHC CommTech Virtual Center would also play a role in
2. Emphasize open communication and the free flow of information throughout the AHC consistent with University policies.
3. Emphasize and invest in communications technology as a critical strategic activity throughout the AHC. As a first step, create an AHC CommTech Virtual Center that would coordinate and integrate existing services, programs and initiatives from the AHC department/division level to University-wide activities. The Center would:
4. Emphasize the use of communications technologies to connect AHC colleges and schools with strategic partners, clinics and other affiliate sites, alumni, prospective students and faculty, and the wider community.
5. Address infrastructure needs as articulated in previous IT task force reports.
Our recommendations in the broad AHC communications arena represent an acknowledgement of the rapidly changing information landscape and an attempt to provide impetus and guidelines consistent with current University-wide initiatives. The need to endorse communications technology as a strategic resource and move forward expeditiously is fully consistent with, and indeed essential to, our goal of becoming one of the top 10 academic health and medical centers in the U.S.
The recommendations we offer presume that the pace of change in communications technology, unsettling as it is, will continue to increase. Yet our most valuable assets are not our networks, computers and other communications tools, valuable as they are, but our faculty, staff, and students. As William Wulf, President of the National Academy of Engineering, wrote recently, "Thinking about the current [technologies], in fact, can be misleading; it's all too easy to assume that something won't change just because today's technology doesn't support that change. It's almost better to hypothesize a change and then ask how soon the technology will support it." ["Warning: Information Technology Will Transform the University," 1995].
Our personnel at work in classrooms, laboratories, offices, clinics, and in community settings are in the best position to imagine how new technologies can be used to improve the work they do and save time in an era of rapid change. They should be encouraged and supported in their efforts to find creative uses for new communications tools. These tools will play an ever-larger role in teaching, training, patient care, administration, and the discovery, dissemination, and application of knowledge. The challenge is to bring specialized knowledge, general knowledge, and communications tools together. "To make knowledge productive, we will have to learn to see both forest and tree. We will have to learn to connect." [Peter Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society, 1994].
Council on Competitiveness, "Highway to Health: Transforming U.S. Health Care in the Information Age," March 26, 1996. [http://nii.nist.gov/pubs/coc_hghwy_to_hlth/title_page.html]
Drucker, Peter. Post-Capitalist Society, New York: HarperBusiness, 1994.
Institute for the Future, "Managing Corporate Communications in the Information Age: Executive Summary," June 1997. [http://www.iftf.org/media_choice/]
Minnesota Office of Technology, "Achieving Minnesota's Vision for Information and Communications Technology," October 8, 1996. [http://www.ot.state.mn.us/strategy/esummary.html]
Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.
Wulf, William A. "Warning: Information Technology will Transform the University," Issues in Science and Technology, Vol. XI, No. 4 (Summer 1995), pp. 46-52. [http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/library/Wulf.html]
Coleen Southwell, recommendations, July 18
My main recommendations would be for AHC communications to play a coordinating role in helping people most effectively use communications technology to achieve their communication objectives and to bring everyone up to a certain base level -- people must have personal access to email and voicemail, not rely on secretaries. Also, I've noticed that email has a whole different aura to it when it is printed out and given to faculty vs. having them read it on the screen.(I've worked with people who didn't have email and then did. Unless you see it on a computer screen, it loses the informality that makes this such a great medium.)
Skeeter Burroughs, Family Practice initiatives, July 18
Here is a brief summary of what we have done in FP with e-mail.
Facts in Brief
GroupWise
To encourage faculty members to become familiar with and utilize GroupWise, our department head informed them that official electronic correspondence from his office would be sent via GroupWise only.
There was concern from faculty members, especially from those not very familiar with computers, as to how feasible it would be to require all faculty members to utilitze GroupWise. Faculty who were familiar with computers were discouraged by the fact that they were initially only able to access their GroupWise mail and calendar from a computer at their home location. Several faculty members precept at more than one clinic, or spend frequent amounts of time away from their home location, preventing them from checking their e-mail. Approximately eight months after we had been using GroupWise we completed the installation of a GroupWise web server allowing all department faculty, residents, and staff the ability to access their e-mail and calendar from any computer with Internet access and a web browser.
The installation of GroupWise has also facilitated document and file transfer between servers. Users can now more easily attach and detach enclosures than via the other several different e-mail packages which were in use. Our Help Desk frequently fielded calls about file conversion formats from users trying to send or receive enclosures. Often times our network administrator was required to transfer larger files between servers.
By requiring everyone to use GroupWise, our Information Services division was required to hold numerous training courses over the first several months of implementation. Most courses were taught centrally, but in some instances our instructor needed to go on location. Many people have also had one-on-one training by various members of our staff. Although most faculty, residents, and staff have now had training, GroupWise and PC Basics courses are still occassionally offered when needed to train new department personnel.
Jason Knauss, OB-GYN initiatives, July 18
In an attempt to improve inter-Departmental communication, as well as prepare our Department for increasing technological developments, a strategic plan/vision was first established and instituted. We chose Meeting Maker, the Medical School-mandated Scheduling software package, as our means of communicating schedules. We also polled the faculty electronically to observe how many of them access their accounts daily. We have, since the plan's inception, also offered instructional topics/items of interest.
It is our goal that all of our faculty, fellows, residents and staff have access to e-mail and to use their accounts daily. Once having accomplished this, we will ease them into receipt of Departmental memos via e-mail entirely. Individual calendars, as well as Departmental/Divisional events are kept on Meeting Maker and updated frequently.
In the beginning we took an inventory of our machines (mostly Macintosh) and the available network connections/etherjacks. Once all of the machines had been upgraded to the point that they could support Meeting Maker and POPmail, we installed the software. Several instructional courses covered the basic knowledge to access the schedule and e-mail, and each user was provided a manual.
I would estimate that 75% of our faculty use Meeting Maker, whereas less than 50% access their e-mail accounts frequently.
Crystal Heublein , general comments, July 18
I have reviewed the web page changes looks like you have put some good thought into these issues. After reading I have just a couple of thoughts that passed over me and would like to share these with you. In the area of communications technology I have in the past implemented programs where in each division a resource person is available and well trained to handle the first line of questions on a specific topic. For example email. If you were the resource person for this topic you would field all questions, problems and issues that deal with email from your desginated area. This type of peer-to-peer assistance seems to go over fairly well.
In the skills list I see Electronic/Automated Calendar, I would recommend that this be identified as Electronic/Automated Calendar systems for Groups. We want to promote group communications and this is a great way to achieve this result.
From our last meeting I reviewed the list of audience and I am not sure if by Business Community you mean supporters of the college or if this includes Partners and Alliances. If not, I feel that we should add to this list "Partners and Alliances".