Steering Committee for Informatics Education (SCIE)

Meeting Notes
(Members Only)

Terms of Reference

Mandate:

The Steering Committee for Informatics Education (SCIE) is a subcommittee of the Health Science Information Consortium of Toronto with dual accountability to the Consortium’s Management Committee and to the Reference and Research Unit of the Gerstein Science Information Centre. Information professionals from the University of Toronto Libraries (primarily from Gerstein and also from the UTM Library) and the ten fully affiliated teaching hospital libraries collaborate to provide curriculum-integrated informatics education to all health science faculties of the University of Toronto with the aim of fostering the development of skills needed to support evidence-based practice.

Role:

The Steering Committee for Informatics Education will:

• Coordinate and provide curriculum-integrated informatics education to the health science faculties of Medicine and Nursing and share information as appropriate with informatics instructors in Dentistry, Pharmacy and Social Work.
• Recruit and support course directors and instructors from the membership of the Consortium and from the University of Toronto Libraries.
• Liaise with the health science faculties regarding the optimum placement of informatics education in their respective curricula.
• Investigate and, where appropriate, develop alternative methods of delivery of informatics education. Develop goal-oriented course content and assignments.
• Grade assignments.
• Conduct regular assessment of the effectiveness of student learning and delivery methods.
• Provide annual feedback about each informatics course offered to its faculty Course Coordinator. Report to be written by course directors.
• Provide an annual written report to appropriate deans about curriculum integrated informatics education under their direction e.g. Vice Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education. Report to be written by SCIE Co-chairs.
• Monitor and assess developments in informatics education outside of the University of Toronto.

Structure and Reporting:

SCIE members coordinate the overall activities of the Steering Committee, which jointly reports to the Consortium’s Management Committee and to Gerstein’s Reference and Research Unit.  SCIE is co-chaired by a representative from the fully affiliated teaching hospitals and the Gerstein Science Information Centre.  The Steering Committee appoints Course Directors to manage the delivery of informatics education to individual courses.  Course Directors report to the Steering Committee.  Instructors may be recruited from any member library, and they report to their Course Directors.

Membership:

• A designated representative from each of the ten fully affiliated teaching hospital libraries.
• Designated representatives from Credit Valley Hospital and Trillium Health Centre – Mississauga.
• Designated representatives from the Gerstein Science Information Centre and UTM Library.
• Course director(s) for each course for which SCIE has responsibility. These members may include some of the same individuals from the categories above.
• A designated representative from the Faculty of Medicine’s Academic Computing Department (ex officio).
• Co-chairs (one from the hospitals and one from Gerstein) will be appointed from among the membership and may serve for a maximum of three years with a possibility of a second term.