Chair’s Column December 2025: Guest Column on Quality & Innovation
The Quality & Innovation (Q&I) portfolio, along with the Clinician Q&I (CQ&I) career pathway, was created in 2012 under the leadership of then Chair, Dr. Wendy Levinson, and inaugural Vice-Chair, Dr. Kaveh Shojania. Since then, the number of full-time faculty has grown exponentially from 3 to over 100, with many more faculty in part-time and adjunct appointments. The successes of the first decade are well-described and created a robust foundation for accelerating improvements in health care, as well as establishing a cadre of faculty practising and leading quality improvements.
Over the past eight months, I have had the privilege of meeting many in the Department of Medicine (DoM) – from learners interested in an academic QI career, to CQ&I faculty, to physician leaders both within the DoM and beyond. Through these conversations and in reviewing the findings of the 2022 Q&I Independent Review, it is clear the Q&I portfolio has accomplished a great deal and that the future holds exciting new possibilities and challenges. These include continuing to increase recruitment of CQ&I faculty, particularly in divisions where they are under-represented, supporting scholarship (especially for faculty looking to establish international reputations), continuing to refine and better define scholarly success (especially for innovators), and facilitating collaborations and multi-site improvement.
To support these aims, we have launched Quality & Innovation Scholarship Support Awards to help offset the costs of publication fees and statistical analyses. In December, we will be introducing a virtual Visiting Professor exchange series where we partner with other universities to virtually host a speaker, and they in turn invite one of our Q&I faculty to present virtually to their group. Registration is open to all for our first virtual rounds on December 11 presented by Dr. Katie Raffel from the University of Colorado on the topic of Diagnostic Error. We hope these rounds will provide opportunities for knowledge sharing, collaboration and professional development.
Additionally, we have refreshed our website, Q&I Committee membership and DoM Q&I Award criteria. Our annual fall retreat took place on November 1 and was well attended by CQ&Is from across the city. We enjoyed heartfelt tributes to our leaders: Kaveh Shojania as inaugural Vice-Chair of Q&I and Brian Wong as inaugural Co-Learning Director.
Finally, I have been getting to know more of the Q&I faculty through 1:1 meetings and am struck by the breadth and depth of the quality of work happening in the portfolio. I am grateful for the opportunity to support this impressive, dedicated and talented group of academics. I would be thrilled to schedule time with anyone interested in meeting and discussing ways to support quality work happening in our department. Please feel free to connect with me via email at christine.soong@utoronto.ca.
