Mario Sergio Archives | Research & Innovation

Premier marks Nursing Week with a visit to 91��ɫ

fmaquito — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was at 91��ɫ on Monday to mark the start of National Nursing Week, and chaired a round-table discussion that included undergraduate nursing students and graduate students in the nurse practitioner program.

McGuinty, accompanied by 91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and 91��ɫ West MPP Mario Sergio, began his visit with a tour of the University’s state-of-the-art Nursing Resource Centre and watched as nursing students practised inserting intravenous lines into patient mannequins. Dressed casually, the premier was openly animated as he chatted with students and spoke about his own undergraduate degree in biology and his youthful dream of entering medicine.

Left: McGuinty (left) is greeted by 91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and 91��ɫ West MPP Mario Sergio

As he toured the facility, McGuinty met and spoke with students enrolled in 91��ɫ’s bachelor of science in nursing (BScN), the second entry BScN program, the BScN for internationally educated nurses and the master of science in nursing program for nurse practitioners.

The premier’s visit coincided with this week’s announcement by the provincial government that it was seeking applications to create 14 more nurse practitioner-led clinics, with a goal of having 25 nurse practitioner-led clinics by 2012. (The first cluster of 11 nurse practitioner-led clinics is set to open later this month.) In Ontario, nurse practitioners are able to treat common illnesses and injuries, and order X-rays, lab tests and other diagnostic tests. They can also refer patients to specialists.

Right: The premier chats with nursing students as they practise on a mannequin

Sitting down to begin the round table, McGuinty was greeted by Lesley Beagrie, associate dean of professional & global programs in the School of Nursing in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health. Beagrie thanked the premier for the funding that has made both the Nursing Resource Centre and programs such as the second-year entry and internationally educated BScN programs possible.

Following Beagrie's welcoming remarks, the premier opened the round-table discussion. “I want to take this opportunity to thank the students for pursuing, with passion, a career in nursing as it is a calling,” he said. He described nursing as a profession that cares just not for patients but for mothers, fathers, children, siblings, neighbours and friends. "These aren't just any people, they are really important to all of us," he said.

McGuinty spoke with reverence of the knowledge and skill required by nursing professionals and how far nursing has come since 1949, when his mother was a nurse, eliciting a laugh as he recounted a story about a colleague of his mother's who forgot to cut up a patient's grapefruit and was required, as punishment, to write out 500 times how she would not forget to cut up a grapefruit in the future.

The Ontario premier then talked about his government's vision for health care and the important role nursing professionals would play in bringing that vision to reality. "The first thing our government did was to make sure that there are more of you. As of today, we are up to 10,700 more nursing positions in Ontario," he said.

The government, said McGuinty, through a program based on best practices, is now allowing nursing professionals to conduct tests, including those to detect colorectal cancer. Nurses will also be able to work as surgical first assistants and in long-term care emergency mobile teams. He reiterated his enthusiasm for nurse practitioner-led clinics: “Ontario has the first nurse practitioner-led clinics in North America,” said McGuinty, “with 11 at various stages in terms of being phased in and today the government issued an announcement for the next 14 clinics. So there will be a total of 25 such clinics in Ontario.”

Above: McGuinty, centre, addresses nursing students gathered for a round-table discussion

"Nurse practitioners in Ontario will now be able to communicate a diagnosis, order diagnostic tests such as an MRI or CT scan, cast a fracture and prescribe medications," he said. "We are also talking about permitting our nurse practitioners to admit and discharge patients into and from a hospital, and introduced a new package of reforms that will be important to nurse practitioners. Up to now, hospitals have been required to seek advice on health issues exclusively from an all-physician advisory committee. Now we are going to ensure that nurses and other health professionals can provide that advice on health as well."

The innovations are required, said the premier, to help combat the rising cost of health care in Ontario. The cost has moved from a figure of 32 cents for every program dollar spent by the government 20 years ago, to a current cost of 46 cents per dollar, and is estimated to reach 70 cents of every program dollar spent in 12 years if action is not taken, diverting money from other critically needed areas including infrastructure, schools, environmental protection and services. The nurse practitioner-led clinics and reforms to reduce costs of prescription drugs in the province are two such measures aimed at reducing exploding health-care costs. "Such clinics and nursing education programs form an integral part of the province’s Open Ontario Plan created to strengthen public health care," said the premier.

Left: Student Thomas McCormick talks about why he decided to become a nurse and of his plan to travel to a remote community in northern Ontario to work in a community clinic

Following his comments, McGuinty opened the discussion to students, hearing more about why they had chosen the profession. For master's student Deana Ruddell-Thomson, the experience of watching family and friends cope with illness caused by tainted water during the Walkerton tragedy more than 10 years ago solidified her desire to study nursing.

Fourth-year BScN student Crystal Van Leeuwen said, "Nursing chose me. The moment when I knew when I was going to enrol in nursing came when I was volunteering in northeastern Thailand working with children with HIV and I held an eight-year-old girl who was the size of an average three-year-old Canadian child. She was going to die because she did not have equal access to affordable medications and I knew I needed to join a profession that would advocate for patient rights as well as health."

Another student, Thomas McCormick, spoke about his plans to travel to a remote community in northern Ontario to work in a clinic, while another talked about coming to Canada from Russia where she had worked as a nurse and how she was delighted to be able to continue her profession through her enrolment in the BScN for internationally educated nurses.

At the end of the round-table discussion, Shoukri thanked McGuinty for visiting 91��ɫ and presented him with a copy of 91��ɫ: The Way Must be Tried by 91��ɫ Professor Emeritus and University historian Michiel Horn. "Thank you very much for choosing 91��ɫ to kick-start Nursing Week," said Shoukri. "We see you as the champion of postsecondary education and the champion of health care. We thank you for being that champion and we are committed to working with you to improve both postsecondary education and health care in Ontario."

Right: The premier is presented with a commemorative copy of 91��ɫ: The Way Must be Tried by 91��ɫ President Mamdouh Shoukri

The premier responded that while he had spoken to everyone, "there is one group I would like to give special thanks to and that group is the teachers who are here today. It is not just the substantive subject matter that you transmit to your students, it is also how you do it and how you conduct yourselves. Your patience, understanding and commitment transcends time. Thank you all."

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Researchers developing next generation of data analysis and visualization tools

fmaquito — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

$11.5 million interdisciplinary project includes computer scientists, vision scientists, designers, artists and social scientists at 91��ɫ, OCAD and U of T, with 14 industry partners

How do you look at millions of genomic patterns and see the diagnostic implications? How do you assimilate satellite data to better predict and visualize the effects of global warming, pollution, and weather patterns? How can you chart the global migration of millions of people under slavery? How do you assess the impact millions of blog entries have had on the print media economy? How do you sift global intelligence reports to identify the real threats?

Each day, humanity poses thousands of similar questions as we produce massive data sets in every field − but as the data grows, the challenge becomes translating this data for the human senses and delivering the best analysis to solve real-world problems.

The Centre for Innovation in Information Visualization and Data-Driven Design (CIV-DDD), led by 91��ɫ in partnership with the (OCAD), promises to develop the next generation of data discovery, design, and visualization techniques by developing new computational tools, representational strategies, and interfaces.

The $11.5 million five-year project brings together a unique multidisciplinary team of over 50 researchers from 91��ɫ, OCAD, the University of Toronto, 14 industry partners, and significant international collaborators.

(left), Canada Research Chair in Computational Vision and Distinguished Research Professor of Vision Science at 91��ɫ, is the project’s principal investigator. , professor of artificial intelligence and data mining in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, will co-lead 91��ɫ’s team of 14 researchers, who include , professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, and , Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture and associate professor of film in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Sara Diamond, visualization design researcher and president of the Ontario College of Art & Design, will lead OCAD’s team of 12 researchers, who include Vladimir Spicanovic, dean of the Faculty of Art, and Greg van Alstyne, professor in the Faculty of Design and director of Research, Strategic Innovation Lab.

has provided over $3.8 million in funding through the Ontario Research Fund-Research Excellence Program; industry partners will contribute over $3.6 million, with the remaining $4.1 million coming from the project’s institutional partners.

“Humans’ capacity to interpret sensory stimuli is limited, which is why the human processing strategy is to attend to the relevant and ignore the irrelevant,” says Tsotsos. “Determining what’s relevant is a key task. Equally important is discovering how best to present such data in a form that is quickly and effectively understood. By combining our team’s expertise in computer science, design, digital media, visual perceptual science, fine arts, and the social sciences, CIV-DDD will discover and provide new visualizations for underlying patterns, processes, and relationships within data sets. These in turn will suggest new research directions and applications, laying the foundation for a new wave of knowledge creation and technological products.”

CIV-DDD formalizes many existing research collaborations, both within 91��ɫ’s faculties and departments and among researchers at 91��ɫ, OCAD, and U of T. “In the new paradigm of data-driven discovery, art and design researchers have a profound role to play in partnership with scientists, making the invisible visible, heralding a new era of knowledge, cultural creation, and technological products,” said Diamond. “This preeminent research hub for the development of next-generation data visualization techniques is unique in its level of interdisciplinary fire power, strong collaboration with end-users and international links. It aggregates and extends much successful collaboration amongst the researchers, and between OCAD and 91��ɫ.”

Many techniques and technologies developed by research groups associated with CIV-DDD will become resources for the entire team as they focus on new data-driven design and information visualization solutions in four thematic areas:

bioinformatics and medicine
fine and performing arts
engineering and physical sciences
humanities and social sciences

Collaboration between industry and academia is crucial to the project’s success. “Platform Computing is honoured to support the CIV-DDD project and provide the students and researchers at 91��ɫ and the OCAD with cutting-edge technologies to explore and create the next generation of visualization solutions and services and help them tackle scientific, social and human challenges,” said Jingwen Wang, vice-president, products, at . “Collaboration and information sharing are fundamental to academic research and Platform products enable researchers and students to easily collaborate and manage data and resources to capture, simulate and analyze their results.”

CIV-DDD’s industry partners highlight its wide applicability across sectors, including:

Mass media and communications studies, ethnography, and cultural studies −
Enterprise and knowledge management businesses −
Technology service providers − , , and
Physics −
Sustainable, intelligent systems, and green technology −
Computer and communication technologies − , , and
Entertainment and Web-related industries − , , and
Research and innovative presentation −
Business intelligence work − and
Mobile technology and applications developers − Zameen
Medicine and bioinformatics − U of T’s , the , and McMaster University’s

“CIV-DDD responds both to a dramatic paradigm shift in the health, social and economic challenges facing Canadians and the need for more research capacity and state-of-the-art infrastructure in this region,” said Stan Shapson, 91��ɫ’s vice-president Research & Innovation. “It also builds on the existing strengths of 91��ɫ’s , the Institute for Research on Learning Technologies in the Faculty of Education, and in the Faculty of Fine Arts, among others.

“By leading the Consortium on New Media, Creative, and Entertainment R&D in the Toronto Region (CONCERT), 91��ɫ and its partner universities and industries identified the preconditions necessary to develop a high-end visualization industry in Ontario. This unique collaboration will help fulfill one of CONCERT’s long-term objectives, which was to grow the region’s entertainment, screen-based and other innovation-driven creative industries into a globally competitive cluster.”

CIV-DDD will also support Ontario’s economy by producing innovative technology for commercialization, such as new:

data-mining algorithms
3D-vision and 3D-modeling technologies
data-display tools and protocols
visualization-design methods and techniques
data-inquiry paradigms
user-friendly interfaces that can be scaled to a variety of screen displays
new aesthetics and research practices

“We’re proud of the cutting-edge work that our researchers do at 91��ɫ and the wealth and jobs they create in 91��ɫ West and across Ontario,” said , MPP for 91��ɫ West. “New discoveries will continue to be made and we want those people, those ideas and those jobs right here in our community.”

CIV-DDD is one of 21 projects funded by the Ontario Research Fund–Research Excellence program, which has provided almost $69.5 million to support more than 214 researchers in seven cities across Ontario. The Ontario Research Fund is a key part of the province’s Innovation Agenda, a $3.2 million strategy designed to move world-class research from the lab to the global marketplace in key areas such as life sciences, digital media, and green energy to ensure Ontario will be among the 21^st Century’s winning economies. The Research Excellence program helps develop Ontario’s research talent while ensuring Ontario researchers have the operating funding they need to undertake world-leading projects.

For a full list of funded projects, visit MRI’s .

91��ɫ’s researchers:

John Tsotsos, Canada Research Chair in Computational Vision, distinguished research professor of vision science, Faculty of Science & Engineering, and member of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR)
Nick Cercone, professor of artificial intelligence and data mining, Faculty of Science & Engineering
Amir Asif, associate professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering
Caitlin Fisher, Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture and assistant professor of film, Faculty of Fine Arts
Robert Allison, associate professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering
Melanie Baljko, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering
James Elder, associate professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and a member of CVR
Jimmy Huang, associate professor of information technology, Faculty of Science & Engineering
Michael Jenkin, professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering and a member of CVR
Jennifer Jenson, associate professor of pedagogy and technology, Faculty of Education
Paul E. Lovejoy, distinguished research professor in the Department of History and Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History
Don Sinclair, professor and coordinator of Fine Arts Cultural Studies, Faculty of Fine Arts
Wolfgang Stuerzlinger, associate professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering, and a member of CVR
Nell Tenhaaf, associate professor, Department of Visual Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, and associate dean, Graduate Studies, Research, Planning, in the Faculty of Fine Arts.
Laurie Wilcox, associate professor of psychology and biology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and associate director of CVR
Richard Wildes, associate professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering

OCAD’s researchers:

Sara Diamond, visualization design researcher and president of the Ontario College of Art & Design
Vladimir Spicanovic, dean, Faculty of Art
Greg van Alstyne, professor, Faculty of Design and director of research, Strategic Innovation Lab
Patricio Davila, assistant professor, Faculty of Design
Paula Gardner, associate professor, Faculty of Liberal Studies
Julian Goss, professor, Faculty of Design, and chair of Industrial Design
Anda Kubis, associate professor, Faculty of Art, and chair of Drawing and Painting
Martha Ladly, associate professor and director of the Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design Program
Francis LeBouthillier, sculpture and installation artist and chair of Sculpture and Installation
Laura Millard, associate professor, Faculty of Art
Luke Painter, assistant professor, Faculty of Art
Barbara Rauch, assistant professor, Digital Futures Initiative, Faculty of Design
Suzanne Stein, associate professor, Digital Futures Initiative, Faculty of Design

U of T’s researchers:

Ravin Balakrishnan, associate professor of Computer Science and Canada Research Chair in Human-Centred Interfaces in the Department of Computer Science
Karan Singh, associate professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer. Photos courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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