MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Colleagues:
Peeter Poldre, MD
College President
I had the opportunity
to meet with many of
you at our strategic
plan focus group
meetings
T
he word communica-
tion derives from
the Latin word for
sharing. Most of us
imagine good communication
to mean an effective way of de-
livering content. Yet an equally
important element of sharing is
listening. As the Greek philoso-
pher Epictetus noted more than
2000 years ago, “We were born
with two ears and one mouth for
a reason, so that we can listen
twice as much as we speak.”
In our clinical practice, we are
taught to listen to our patients’
concerns without early inter-
ruptions. We do this so that
we can understand the way in
which concerns are presented
including, the sense of urgency,
the number of issues, the words
that are used and the emotions
expressed by the patient. As
leaders of a regulatory authority,
our approach to communica-
tions with our members and the
public should follow a similar
approach.
During the last few months,
I have had the privilege of
engaging in two very impor-
tant listening processes. In the
development of our strategic
plan, we have consulted widely
with our physician members as
well as with the public. More
than 5000 physicians responded
to a survey about our future
directions. And in my first few
months as President, I had the
opportunity to meet with many
of you at our strategic plan focus
group meetings held in Ottawa,
London, Hamilton, Kingston,
Toronto and Thunder Bay.
At each focus group session,
Dr. Nancy Whitmore, the Col-
lege Registrar/CEO, and I each
discussed medical regulation and
the different initiatives under-
way. After some discussion
with the participants, we would
then leave the room so that they
could frankly share their views
with our independent consul-
tants. The issues and themes that
came from those meetings were
ISSUE 1, 2019 DIALOGUE
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