Dear SCI and CCTO teams,
I am pleased to congratulate two dynamic improvement projects and eleven staff members who have been selected as recipients of the first annual Becky Adams SCI Excellence Award. Nominations were evaluated and our winners were selected by a multidisciplinary review committee including leadership from the SOM Departments of Medicine, Radiation Oncology and Radiology; the SHC Cancer Service Line, and the SCI.
For their winning projects each team member below will receive $500, will be invited to an awardee recognition lunch with me in February, and will be recognized as our inaugural winners of this new annual SCI staff award showcasing value-added improvements supporting our core value of excellence in all that we do.
Our 2020 winning teams and their improvement projects are:
· SCI Social Media Channels, Dian Le and Sarah Pelta (SCI Communications Team)
Three new SCI social media channels – Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram – were launched with the goal of providing cost-effective visibility both nationally and internationally. Specifically, the SCI Director Twitter account is designed to position Director Artandi as a national scientific thought-leader; the LinkedIn account is intended to enhance employee recruitment, and the Instagram account will provide a space to engage and unite all groups within the SCI (e.g., Core Staff, Labs, CCTO). Print marketing in the SCI such as the SCI News cost on average $9000/issue to produce, and with 3 mailings annually over $27,000 annually. SCI’s new online/social media initiative costs less than 1% of that total.
· CCTO Regulatory Service Continuous Improvement – Turnaround Time Reduction
Christine Gontarczyk, Madhulika Dayal, Nancy Mori, Neal Birkett, Shweta Tamboli, Soulaima Houcheime, Swetha Dintakurthi, Virginia Kalogeraki, Yoriko Imae (CCTO Regulatory Team)
The goal of this project was to improve service completion turnaround time by 20% and facilitate quicker IRB approval thus making trials available to our patients and enhancing customer (PI and clinical research group) satisfaction. The team selected an A3 approach and established best practices, standardized workloads, standard operating procedures, streamlined processes and improved internal training. The team surpassed the goal of 20% reduction and the overall turnaround time was reduced by 55%!!
In FY20 the School of Medicine has targeted the SCI and CCTO to generate 160 improvement ideas. I know many of you are already sharing your improvement efforts – both small and large – that you and your teams are engaged in within your area of expertise. Remember as you engage in improvements and help us meet our goal of 160, that these are exactly the types of efforts to consider submitting for the next cycle of the Becky Adams SCI Excellence Award.
Going forward, nominations for the award are accepted at any time with the window for the next award closing on 10/31/20. The nomination form is attached, and we can’t wait to see what exciting work you’ll be submitting!
Congratulations to our first recipients of the Becky Adams SCI Excellence Award. This unique award was started by family honoring the memory of a loved one lost to the devastating disease of cancer. Your individual and team efforts that help any of our operations improve ultimately help the patients and families we all serve.
With appreciation,
Steve