Academic Affairs * Clinical & Translational Science Institute * Ethics & Compliance * Francis I. Proctor Foundation * Graduate Division * Innovation, Technology, & Alliances * Information Technology * Library & Center for Knowledge Management * Research * Student Academic Affairs *
EVCP Digest—Spring/Summer 2013
Volume #2—Issue 2
May 2013
In this Issue:
- EVCP Immediate Office: Academic Communications
- CTSI: Catalyst Awards
- Graduate Division: Spotlight on PhD
- ITA: Idea-to-IPO, Lean Launchpad, Tech Transfer Summit, Bandwdth Collaboration
- IT: New Voicemail, Lync, APeX (EPIC), ITFS
- Library: LibQUAL
- Ombuds: Wins Grant!
- SAA: CLEAN Campaign, Passport to Wellness
- EVCP Spotlight: Brian Groves
WELCOME
Spring is in the air! Refresh your week by reading about the terric succes stories within the EVCP organization and learn more about colleague Brian Groves from the INternational Students and Scholars Office!
EVCP IMMEDIATE OFFICE
Over the course of the last few months the EVCP immediate office held six focus groups comprising faculty from the four schools to hone in on communications to the academic community at UC San Francisco and the challenges confronting effective communication. The following are a few of the items that will be addressed in collaboration with other campus units:
- Post a topical list of listservs for voluntary subscription
- Leverage communication specialists across all Schools and units to minimize duplicative messaging, working with Departments and their administrative and communication leads
- Continue existing and pursue additional open forum discussions with campus leadership
One of the to-do’s was a revamp of the EVCP website. Please visit our new digs and give us your feedback.
To no one’s surprise—email is still a necessary evil. In order to reduce the number of messages sent to the academic and administrative communities, the EVCP immediate office has moved toward a consolidated monthly distribution of a UCSF Announcements Update comprising events and deadlines applicable to many constituencies.
What can you do to further the EVCP goal of improving internal communications? There’s a saying “Measure twice, cut once.” In the email world this means making the most effective use of the subject field, writing a concise message, and considering consolidation of related topics in a single message.
CLINICAL & TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE INSTITUTE
Learn about CTSI’s recent Catalyst Award winners and how they are innovating the development of devices, diagnostic, therapeutics, and digital health with help from a team of Catalyst Award Advisors from academia, industry, and venture capital; efforts to expand online education courses for a global audience; and, successful connections facilitated by San Francisco Health Improvement Partnerships (SF HIP) bringing together diverse partners to achieve measurable improvements in health in San Francisco. Remember—save the date for CTSI’s 7th Annual Retreat on July 29 at Mission Bay!
Photo Caption: UCSF leaders and special guest Tadataka Yamada, Executive Vice President of Takeda Pharmaceuticals, gather at Byers Hall to see presentations by Catalyst Award finalists on February 8 (from left, June Lee, director of CTSI’s Early Translational Research program; Erik Lium, Director of UCSF’s Office of Innovation, Technology and Alliances; Jeffrey Bluestone, UCSF Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost; Tadataka Yamada; and Keith Yamamoto, UCSF Vice Chancellor of Research).
GRADUATE DIVISION
On April 3, Dr. Elizabeth Watkins reflected back on her first year as graduate dean in a talk for the 2013 EVCP Speaker Series at the Parnassus campus. Over the past year, the Graduate Division has undertaken several initiatives to raise the profile of graduate education at UCSF; to fortify the support network for graduate students; to strengthen the Graduate Division’s partnerships with other campus units to achieve common goals; and to ensure that students are trained for and advance to successful, fulfilling careers.
In August, Dean Watkins initiated a data gathering and data analysis project to examine student demographics, time to degree, completion rates, and career outcomes. This decision was prescient, as recommendations resulting from the NIH’s 2012 Biomedical Workforce Report, released in the fall, called on all institutions that receive NIH funding to collect and publish such data. The findings?
| Median time to degree for PhD students has stayed the same since the 1980s. (see Time to Degree) |  |
| Degree completion rates are significantly higher at UCSF than in comparable programs across the nation. (see Completion Rates) |  |
| UCSF PhD program grads find employment in the same areas as life science PhD grads nationwide, but UCSF boasts a higher proportion of graduates who go on to academic research careers and to science industry careers. Only a very few UCSF grads enter non-science related careers. (see Social Sciences Career Outcomes) |  |
| The National Research Council ranks UCSF’s Graduate programs among the finest in the country (see National Rankings) |  |
For more information contact jeannine.cuevas@ucsf.edu
INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY & ALLIANCES
Completion of 13 annual “Idea-to-IPO” courses
Seventy (70) participants from UCSF, Stanford, Berkeley, and Industry just completed the Entrepreneurship Center’s core entrepreneurship course “Idea-to-IPO.” Professor Charly Craik, directed the course with CEO Steve Burrill of investment firm Burrill & Company, and the class formed seventeen (17) teams to pursue ideas that interested them in diverse areas of life science: devices, diagnostics, digital health and therapeutics: Over the 12-week course tremendous progress was made in understanding the central issues required to commercialize a venture that culminated in the opportunity for the top ten teams to present to a panel of highly respected investors on April 1. The following top teams were awarded monetary prizes by Burrill & Company:
- 1st Cortera, a cortical mapping company that will produce a state-of-the-art device allowing neurosurgeons to perform challenging brain surgeries with less risk and greater efficiency
- 2nd Chemofilter, a team developing an innovative approach to increasing the efficacy of chemotherapeutics while reducing systemic side effects, and Bladder Sense, a team developing a system to help individuals at risk of urinary incontinence better control their bladder function
- 3rd (honorable mention) M3D, a big data analysis venture
Contact stephanie.marrus@ucsf.edu for information.
“Lean Launchpad” NSF Grant Win!
In February, the Entrepreneurship Center was awarded a $900,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corp (I-Corps) grant to enhance entrepreneurship training based upon Steve Blank’s “Lean Launchpad” course by adapting it to encompass the life sciences/health care industry. The NSF awarded the grant to UCSF in partnership with UC Berkeley and Stanford for a total of $3.75 MM: Lean Launchpad’s startup and marketing methodologies reduce startup costs and improve the chances of funding and commercial success, benefitting UCSF and Bay Area entrepreneurs. The new course will be offered by the UCSF Entrepreneurship Center this fall.
Contact kyra.davis@ucsf.edu for information.
HostingTech Transfer Summit July 29 – 30
Co-organized by ITA this year, the TTSNA is one of the leading international meetings for industry-academia partnering and technology transfer with a focus on the biotech sector. An impressive line-up of pharma and biotech executives, venture capitalists and academic technology transfer professionals will participate in two days of interactive discussion.
Contact terry.graham@ucsf.edu for more information on the conference visit the website.
Bandwdth Publishing Collaboration Digital Health Apps
ITA has been creating new partnerships to address the burgeoning digital health field, including our new collaboration successfully negotiated with Bandwdth Publishing. UCSF investigators have the opportunity to partner with Bandwdth Publishing to create elegant and effective learning tools and health apps on mobile platforms. Applications are developed collaboratively, with UCSF investigators providing the content expertise and Bandwdth Publishing coding the app. Examples of projects in progress include an iPad app to teach medical students how to perform the Neuro Exam, a pregnancy weight gain coach, a clinical decision tool to support end of life care, and a prenatal testing information and decision support app.
Contact jill.lezama@ucsf.edu for information on ITA’s digital health activities.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
On April 11, IT began migrating customers from our legacy campus voicemail system to the new Unified Messaging (UM) voicemail system; all users will be migrated by the end of June 2013. With the new system you will receive voicemails by email (listen to messages and read automated transcripts), and the service will be free. The rollout will be conducted alphabetically by department. Refer to the rollout schedule to find your department, name, mailbox number, and cut-over date. The project team will contact each mailbox owner via email one week in advance of the scheduled cut-over date. Important Information to Note: The old voicemail system is not able to transfer messages and recorded greetings to the new voicemail system. Please be sure to re-record any messages that you want to keep from the old system before your cut-over date. Click here to review options
In addition to the new voicemail system, ITS will be deploying Lync as a low-cost alternative to the current campus Centrex phone service. This will begin in the summer of 2013. Benefits of the Lync include:
- Significantly lower monthly phone charges
- Unlimited toll calls (including some international calls)
- Many choices for phone devices, including soft phones (with Lync software)
- Phone mobility (all you need is a Lync client and Internet connection)
Please visit the project website for information about these new services.
APeX (EPIC) Electronic Health Record
The implementation of the APeX (EPIC) Electronic Health Record has brought together more clinical information than UCSF has had before. The Cohort Selection Tool and Integrated Data Repository provides self-service access to de-identified Clinical data. UCSF faculty and staff can count patients that meet particular criteria including demographics, diagnosis, procedures, medication and encounter outcomes. Once identified and with proper CHR approval the Academic Research Systems Staff can provide data. APeX data also is available in the UC-ReX data explorer. UC-ReX, sponsored by the UCOP, is a project of the five UC Medical campuses that allows users to identify cohorts at each campus through a single query. Currently in pilot-release UC-ReX will facilitate cooperation between campuses on clinical research and quality measures.
Contact Academic Research Systems its-arssupport@ucsf.eduif you would like information about the IDR or to participate in the UC-ReX Pilot.
On Monday, February 25, Director of IT Field Services (ITFS) Sian Shumway and the ITS directors announced the official launch of IT Field Services. In an email to customers impacted, Sian said: "My entire team and many dedicated staff across campus have contributed to the preparations for this milestone. We are thrilled to continue providing you with excellent field service support, and improving your support experience to enable the important work you do." The new service delivers standard, comprehensive, reliable, responsive computer support at either the Basic ($44/mo/FTE) or Premium ($75/mo/FTE) level. ITFS covers all UCSF-owned devices for Basic, and all devices for Premium. Subscribers also receive software such as Microsoft Office and Adobe, secure reliable file storage, and backup. Read more about the IT Field Services at IT Field Services.
Contact your area Field Manager,Customer Engagement Managers, itfs-questions@ucsf.edu, or sian.shumway@ucsf.edu
LIBRARY
Give us your feedback! The Library successfully launched the LibQUAL survey on April 22 asking the UCSF campus community for feedback on our services, collections and physical spaces. The LibQUAL instrument was developed by the Association of Research Libraries and has been used by over 1,200 academic libraries worldwide. Analysis of survey data will help us better understand our strengths, identify areas for improvement, and provide comparisons with peer institutions. We look forward to sharing the results of this analysis with you this summer.
OMBUDS
Health Sciences Education Grant Win!
The Office of the Ombuds was recently awarded a grant to address conflict management in health sciences education as part of a multi-institutional collaboration being headed by Dr. Michael Wilkes, professor of medicine and the Director of Global Health in the School of Medicine at UC Davis. Lead individuals on the team from UCSF are: Maureen Brodie, Mediator in the Office of the Ombuds; Kevin Reyes, formerly Curriculum Director in the Center for Health Professions; Scott Reeves, Director of the Center for Interprofessional Education; Kanade Shinkai, Associate Residency Program Director, Department of Dermatology; and, Catherine Lucey, Vice Dean for Medical Education in the School of Medicine. The goal of the collaboration is to create an easily accessible, media-rich, customizable curriculum for training inter-professional teams of nurses, social workers/psychologists, physician assistants, and physicians that focuses on evidence-based approaches to productively managing common conflicts in order to improve patient-centered healthcare, and, in addition to UC Davis and UCSF, the other institutions who are partners on the grant include: UCLA, California State University at Sacramento, and University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law.
STUDENT ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
General use lecture halls and classrooms take a beating, but in the past year or so, you may have noticed how much cleaner and more orderly than in years past. A successful partnership between Educational Technology Services (ETS), responsible for technology and furniture in these rooms, and Facilities Services has had a direct impact on the overall cleanliness now enjoyed by all. When Director of Educational Technology Services John DeAngelo noticed there seemed to be no pattern to the cleaning routine for heavily used classrooms and lecture halls, he immediately enlisted the help of Associate Director Sal Genito and Deputy Director John Giacomi in Facilities Services who were eager to help keep those spaces in good order. In a short six months the team not only established a nightly classroom cleaning routine but increased the frequency of scheduled carpet cleaning.
However, despite best efforts to stay on top of this, many rooms are still subjected to high-use abuse, usually involving displacement of chairs, unsightly coffee spills, and remnants of food and drink, so DeAngelo started a campaign designed to sensitize users to the importance of treating these spaces like their own. After all, faculty, students, and staff spend considerable time in these rooms, and a study at BYU in 2008 showed that classroom cleanliness affects a student's learning ability. Nearly 90 percent of the almost 1,500 students surveyed said the lack of cleanliness becomes a distraction when learning.
Using a campaign developed at the University of Minnesota, ETS printed two posters for use in classrooms, lecture halls and conference rooms. The posters emphasize the importance of picking up after oneself and leaving classroom furniture in good order. The campaign already has had a successful effect, with rooms looking better than they have in some time.
Contact ETS Classroom Concierge patrick.borg@ucsf.edu or 476-1255 if you would like to use these posters in your own conference rooms and learning spaces.
Get Stamps, Win Giveaways, Be Well
The Student Passport to Wellness (P2W) program features eight SAA units and three partners combining their resources and creativity to incentivize UCSF student wellbeing. The successful, nine-year, campuswide program uses the six dimensions of wellness to promote core community values that encourage students to take steps toward health and life balance and offers students sponsor incentives to encourage them to make real-time healthy choices while highlighting the availability and breadth of campus student services.
Students ask for P2W in winter quarter due to high stakes tests, short daylight hours, and demanding schedules. Students are asked to identify their personal wellness goals, and this year they participated in 4,194 actions—as varied as staying hydrated or connecting with friends to sleeping seven hours or taking time for gratitude—to reach those goals. Participation has quadrupled from 52 students in 2005 to over 200 in 2012. The SAA units and their campus partners value this opportunity to communicate their services and support for student success. For more information, visit the Student Passport to Wellness website.
EVCP SPOTLIGHT: a conversation with Brian Groves, Director, International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) 
Can you tell us a little about your background and what brought you to UCSF?
My first job in international education was actually in high school exchange. From there I went on to ESL program administration, after working in college admissions, and then moved on to start my own business specializing in bringing Japanese and Arab students to the USA. Once I realized that I would rather be part of an academic institution than own my own business, I spent the next eleven years at Stanford’s Bechtel International Center where I managed employment-based visa processing and data management. Aside from that work experience, my background in academic immigration training and policy development has come from leadership opportunities I have had through NAFSA: Professional Association of International Educators. All of that prepared me to join the UCSF ISSO team last August and take on what is literally my “dream job”. It was the perfect storm. I always had my eye on UCSF since I knew the caliber of the international education program and team members from NAFSA, so when the position opened up I knew my job skills and industry knowledge were aligned and strong enough to take on the challenge of directing the ISSO enterprise.
What is your role as Director?
My role is primarily to manage immigration functions and set immigration policies for the University with the main focus being to successfully manage compliance in terms of in-bound immigration rather than folks going abroad. Secondarily, I and the ISSO team are responsible for establishing a cultural as well as academic community for the international students, scholars, and researchers coming to UCSF. We are actively improving collaboration and communication with stakeholders that enhance the quality of life for international students, scholars, researchers, and their families in order to make their experience at UCSF as fulfilling as possible.
How much does interpretation play into the immigration functions your office needs to manage? Are the rules black and white?
No, they are not. They require a lot of policy interpretation for the University which is accomplished by working with people. It is about partnering and collaborating with various departments and stakeholders (e.g., legal affairs, Postdoc Office, HR) to come up with effective UCSF policies that are compliant with federal laws and regulations and easy to navigate. Regarding the federal immigration laws and regulations, they are often not black and white which is sometimes frustrating for faculty wanting to bring someone in on a simple tourist visa when, to be compliant, they need to come in on the appropriate visa type that supports their primary reason for coming to the USA which is more complex but something the ISSO can easily manage.
What is the most common visa type used at UCSF?
The J-1 visa is the most commonly used visa type at UCSF but the appropriateness of the visa is related to appointment type. For appointments at UCSF, that’s the J-1 Visa. J visas were established by the Fulbright-Hays Act as part of the Fulbright Program in the 50’s which established and characterized what an academic foreign exchange program should be. It was originally instituted as a foreign policy program following the thought to bring the best and brightest from around the world to the USA to train them academically but also to teach them culturally about American culture and American values with the goal that they would take both back to their home countries and spread American ideals globally. It also included sending American students and scholars abroad to spread American, as well. Obviously there were, and still are, high ideals attached to that visa type, which continue to demand accurate interpretation to respond to current times. The good thing is that international educators have a strong professional organization in NAFSA to which our office is well connected. NAFSA works with schools across the country and pushes for clarification and specificity with such federal agencies as Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State regarding rules and regulations affecting these interpretation issues so that the schools are compliant in doing what the agencies need them to do.
Given your role at UCSF and your volunteer work with NAFSA, are you in a position to create or influence national immigration policy?
Our office sets immigration policy for UCSF and only advocates nationally for specific cases or individuals but not on behalf of the University as a whole. However, through my time at NAFSA, I have had the opportunity to set policy through chairing a national task force on the REAL ID Act. The purpose of the task force was to make advocacy recommendations. I also serve on an employment visa task force which makes recommendations on employment issues for advocacy with the Department of Labor and I am a NAFSA liaison to the Department of Homeland Security concerning policy and practice on processing employment visas. I believe the reason I am asked to hold these positions is due to the respect the field has for UCSF in Health Sciences and a desire to have our representation in policy development.
How does the function of the ISSO impact UCSF and benefit the science being done here?
There is a quote that asks, “Do you [UCSF] want the best academics in America or in the World?” American higher education is one of our dominant “exports” so it has to play on a global scale and to be able to draw and recruit from the best from labs around the world is the true-definition of “world-class.” International students and scholars bring a lot to the table from their own labs, research, and industries world-wide and, since we attract and get a lot of such highly trained people coming to UCSF with fresh perspectives and ways of conducting research, our approach to science is broadened and the UCSF scientific enterprise is ultimately enhanced and expanded.
You came to UCSF eight months ago, what has been your immediate priority?
Organizing our menu of services which includes:
Providing visa services
Reaching out to faculty and asking, “Who do you want to bring to UCSF and let’s see if we can do it”
Conducting orientations which educate internationals on everything from how to stay in status to how to live in San Francisco
Organizing and hosting monthly community events and activities
Being a resource for problem solving
Offering immigration training to Departments and HR
What has been your biggest challenge?
The ISSO fits into and services the needs of the entire UCSF enterprise just as HR does but our biggest challenge has been getting the word out about our services and being seen as the enterprise-wide resource we are for all things international. That said we will soon be hiring an Outreach Advisor to facilitate and push our communication to and collaboration with the schools, departments, and the faculty.
What successes have you seen in your unit?
The gelling of ISSO team is our greatest success to date. The team is highly professional and knowledgeable, and their cumulative desire to reach out to their clients beyond the day-to-day business of doing their immediate jobs is just great. Cultural engagement is a mandate of the J visa program and the ISSO has to formally demonstrate and report back cultural as well as educational outcomes so the team members have not only collectively added more enrichment activities but have individually initiated classes and events that involve the students and scholars beyond the classroom (e.g., a photography class and an SF bike tour), and are always open to receiving activity and event suggestions from our stakeholders to help satisfy the cultural mandate. Even the new federal Assistant Secretary of Educational and Cultural Affairs, when asked for event examples that would satisfy the cultural mandate, suggested a BBQ, so we are definitely planning to host a BBQ this summer.
What is life like outside of work?
My wife and I live in the Richmond district and are avid an outdoor enthusiasts. We enjoy camping, hiking, cross-country skiing, and rafting. I even worked a season as a raft guide for Outdoors Unlimited in 2003 (renamed Outdoor Programs in 2004). We take every opportunity we can to get out of the City and our favorite destination is anywhere in the eastern Sierras with Lassen Volcanic National Park being a one of the best places to really get away.
What is your vision for the ISSO?
The 1-year vision is to focus on client needs, improve transparency, and establish the ISSO as an indispensable partner with everyone who needs to bring international talent to UCSF as well as for that talent and their families. The 5-year vision is to create and perpetuate meaningful ISSO traditions, engage ISSO alumni to volunteer with current ISSO clients, and establish a strong interactive community between international students, scholars, researchers and the faculty, staff, and trainees at UCSF.