As part of our pledge to keep you informed and engaged during the Informatics and Information Technology Collaborative, we encourage you to ask questions and come to us with comments and feedback.
The lists below contains our answers to some common questions we have heard.
Your IT lead can also serve as a resource for specific questions unique to your situation.
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The Informatics and IT Collaborative will bring all IT staff together into cutting-edge core service lines so we can create a thriving informatics and IT community who can accomplish more and serve more of our users better. For example, as HIPAA- and security-related regulations only increase in volume and complexity, we will be better able to stay up-to-date and abide by them appropriately. That is why this transition is taking place now, so that we can strengthen our efforts by working together. Dean Golden has made it one of his goals to arm the school with an efficient and secure informatics and IT infrastructure and the Informatics and IT Collaborative is an important component of his goal.
Becoming a unified team will allow us to begin working together as a team on shared projects and priorities. Since June 2022, planning has been ongoing for how we can start to work together toward shared goals. Between now and July 1, a lot is going to occur in further preparation for this. We will have ongoing conversations with department leadership, including IT Directors, Chief Administrative Officers, and Chairs. This includes formal validation meetings where they will help ensure that the services their groups provide the departments today could be covered in a service line as we move forward. We will also be sharing regular updates, getting feedback, and taking questions from informatics and IT staff via an email newsletter and town halls or similar venues.
We also selected the July 1 date because it is the first in many essential steps that must occur on an important timeline. For example, while relationships in HRS will change on July 1, they will not change in PMDP. This allows departments to review employee performance for their work since last year. Relationships in PMDP will change on September 1. We plan to have all HRS and PMDP changes wrapped up by September 1.
The school’s senior leader has agreed on this path forward. Our goal is an organizational structure that aligns with best practices in the higher ed and academic health center space. We reached this conclusion based on our own experience and researched and analyzed the structure and functions of other academic medical centers. Dean Golden has identified this as a high priority for the school and has charged us with moving this forward. He is excited about the possibilities this holds for the school’s users and informatics and IT community.
Informatics and IT staff providing services to a department via its central informatics and IT team are in scope at this stage.
There are many reasons that a department or individual cannot opt-out of this effort. In order for the Informatics and IT Collaborative to be successful, all departments must be included. The primary reason is really that we need all of you: departments and individual staff and teams have specialized skill sets and having all departments included means critical expertise is not missing in the unified team. Unifying how we work from a technical perspective — such as the use of Active Directory Services — is easier with all departments included.
Also, our colleagues in HR advised us that working with everyone at the same time was more efficient from a logistical standpoint, and it will not introduce equity issues surrounding which groups move and when. Lastly, Dean Golden has identified this as a high priority for the school and has charged us with moving this forward. He is excited about the possibilities this holds for the school’s users and informatics and IT community.
We are committed to collaborating with informatics and IT staff in a good faith effort to ensure everyone remains part of our team. If they occur, any involuntary reductions would be as limited as possible. In the Project’s Charter, there is a section titled “What does success look like?” In that section, we specifically state that “The total number of informatics and IT staff will not be reduced.” This means that the total number of individuals going through this change is equal to the number of individuals who will be part of the Office of Informatics and IT team.
Due to other factors, such as grant funding from former units coming to an end, it is possible some positions will be eliminated. This follows a normal process and cycle for grant funding/soft money at the university, unrelated to IITC.
First, the core parts of your job and overall day-to-day will not change substantially on July 1. Our goal is to introduce change gradually in a way that causes the least disruption for staff and services we provide. On July 1, we will gain new capacity and avenues for working together on new shared efforts and projects for the Office of Informatics and IT, while maintaining consistent levels of support. Over the next year or more after that, your role will likely change as we undergo a thoughtful process to place informatics and IT staff into our innovative core service lines. For example, if you provide desktop support for the department, you may continue to do so for this department, as well as for new ones. As another example, you may be asked to further specialize in a specific facet of your work that interests you and provide that vital skill to multiple departments. These are just two examples of many.
On July 1, your supervisor is not changing, unless you are your department’s IT leader. Over the next year or more after that, your supervisor is likely to change as we undergo a thoughtful process to place informatics and IT staff into our innovative core service lines. New manager roles in the services lines — which are new leadership opportunities for this group — will result in changes to the organizational and reporting structure in 2024 and beyond.
The July 1 changes are designed to allow for minimal change that results in minimal disruption for staff and our services. However, we want to be clear that they do facilitate further change in the future. For staff specifically, this includes a collaborative and thoughtful process where we assess the skills, interests, and ambitions of each of you using personal conversations and other means. The end result is that starting in 2024 and over a gradual timeline, service lines will begin to come on board and informatics and IT staff will be part of these service lines.
Since June 2022, planning has been ongoing for how we can start to work together toward shared goals. Between now and July 1, a lot is going to occur in further preparation for this. We will have ongoing conversations with department leadership, including IT Directors, Chief Administrative Officers, and Chairs. This includes formal validation meetings where they will help ensure that the services their groups provide the departments today could be covered in a service line as we move forward. We will also be sharing regular updates, getting feedback, and taking questions from informatics and IT staff via an email newsletter and at least one event similar to today’s.
The Informatics and IT Collaborative will not be reducing and removing any current services provided to our researchers. There are a few ways that we will know and understand the needs of researchers. The first is a robust assessment platform where we are in active engagement with researchers to learn and understand their needs and ensure they are being met in an effective and efficient way. In addition, this highlights why we need all of you here today. You have the expertise of working with your researchers and we are looking forward to having your experience as part of our collaborative team.
During consultations with our HR colleagues we learned it is easier to move everyone at once and less confusing for everyone involved. In addition, we did not want to introduce an equity issue around which departments were selected to move when.
Department informatics and IT priorities will be set together by department leadership and the Office of Informatics and IT. CAOs and Chairs will be able to share the priorities of the department and make sure they are met. The individuals performing the work may shift but the same services will be provided. There will also be feedback and opportunities for input from faculty and staff in the SMPH community.
We are very sorry if this was your experience. Our intention has been to undergo careful planning before sharing information with informatics and IT staff. And that information about the Informatics and IT Collaborative would make it to each employee before the calendar invite for the Feb. 28 Town Hall was sent, and that the calendar invite would serve as only a kind of brief reminder. This did not happen for all of you, and we apologize. We have learned from the preparations for this Town Hall and will do better in the future.
Relationships in PMDP will not change until Sept. 1 for IT leads who have a change in supervisor on July 1. This means that the supervisor in the department is able to lead the evaluation of the IT lead’s work across the whole evaluation period. Their new supervisor in the Office of Informatics and IT will be involved in the review, and it will serve as a handoff in direct supervision between the department and Office of Informatics and IT. However, there will still be a robust pathway for the department to influence priorities and give feedback on specific employees and functions going forward.
Broadly speaking, purchasing will be approved by a current supervisor. However, be sure to stay in contact with your supervisor about upcoming purchases so they can inquire with the appropriate individuals as needed. Large purchases will be reviewed with leadership in the Office of Informatics and IT.
Yes, there will be a training budget for informatics and IT staff interested in or needing to grow their skills.
Staff with informatics and IT titles who report to principal investigators are out of scope at this stage of the Informatics and IT Collaborative. These individuals are generally paid by research grants.
Necessary changes in equipment would occur over time as staff move to service lines that come on board and/or need to replace equipment.
Not for most positions. Some positions, such as certain leadership or manager roles, will need to be posted, at least internally.
In most cases, the department can continue to use this application and it will continue to be supported. There will also be a process of application rationalization if the application could be useful for others outside the department. The developer responsible for this app would be part of the Informatics and IT Collaborative.