Leadership

Executive Training for Research Application (EXTRA)

2006 Fellow Profiles

EXTRA Fellow, 2007: Tracy Wasylak, BN, MSc

Current position: Vice President, South Health Campus, Alberta Health Services

Current job role:

I am responsible for overseeing the development and operations of a tertiary academic medical centre due to open in 2011 in southeast Calgary, Alberta. When completed, the campus will include 640 in-patient beds, accommodate 800,000 ambulatory visits and act as a research and teaching venue in Calgary.

Intervention project: Evidence-based Decision-making to Promote Clinical Innovation

Alberta Health Services is building a new academic tertiary health campus (with 640 in-patient beds, a large ambulatory component and research and education facilities) to open in 2011. The vision for the South Health Campus is to "create the future of health care," and in doing so to address current challenges to our system. These include significant workforce shortages, the need to improve safety within the system and enhance the patient experience and the need to find improved ways to measure clinical outcomes to ensure that the health system is sustainable. Success will require the development and adoption of substantial organizational, technological, process and facility design changes to address these challenges.

The goal of the intervention project is to build an effective engagement strategy with the public and with clinicians to design, build and operate a campus that inspires opportunities for health and healing. The aim of these efforts is for citizens to receive the right care with the right provider at the right time.

EXTRA benefits:

The program was very useful in enhancing my skills in using evidence to improve my decision-making approach with a variety of clinical and operational applications. It also gave me the skills to improve my ability to acquire evidence to inform decisions and helped to focus my inquiry around solving complex issues within clinical operations.

Most significant skills acquired through EXTRA:

With EXTRA, I acquired better analytical skills in decision-making related to managing scarce resources. In addition, the desktop tools provided with EXTRA have significantly enhanced my ability to acquire information in a timely manner to support evidence-informed decision-making. My ongoing ability to use these tools after I completed the program is of invaluable benefit to me in my work.