CORE Network Goals & Objectives

The CORE Network exists for the mutual support of its members, the Ethicists and Fellows who work in JCB healthcare organizations. We have recently established an Advisory Committee, which provides invaluable advice to me as Director of the CORE Network. The 2008-09 CORE Network Advisory Committee members are Kyle Anstey, Jonathan Breslin, Shane Green, Christine Harrison, Brenda Knowles, Hazel Markwell, Marcia Sokolowski, Randi Zlotnik-Shaul.

In addition to these Advisory Committee members, the CORE Network consists of: our practicing Bioethicists--Steve Abdool, Sally Bean, Kerry Bowman, Joseph Chandrakanthan, Eoin Connolly, Karen Faith, Dianne Godkin, Michael Gordon, Philip Hébert, Blair Henry, Hannah Kaufman, Maria McDonald, Doreen Ouellet, Bob Parke, Barbara Russell, Giles Scofield, Marleen Van Laethem, Frank Wagner, Shawn Winsor, and Linda Wright; our JCB Fellows in Clinical and Organizational Ethics--Rebecca Bruni, Thomas Foreman, and Kevin Reel; and JCB Management Team members--Jennifer Gibson, Brenda Knowles, Ross Upshur and myself. And we are all the beneficiaries of Beth Wood's excellent administrative support.

A vital part of the CORE Network is its Academic Fellowship in Clinical and Organizational Ethics. The Fellowship is a University of Toronto mentored training program meant to bridge the gap between graduate education in bioethics, which usually comes with minimal practical experience, and the time when a graduate becomes a practicing bioethicist in a health care organization. The JCB Fellowship Program is the largest of its kind in Canada, and has graduated over 30 fellows with a high placement rate upon completion. JCB Ethics Fellows spend one year supporting ethics programs in JCB healthcare partner organizations, and contributing to the intellectual/scholarly activities of the JCB and UofT, thereby enhancing their skills in clinical, organizational and research ethics activities. This year we are piloting a "research float days" strategy to further enhance the scholarly component of the Fellowship.

Since September 2008, we have been trialing a new format for CORE Network meetings. Rather than continuing with weekly full group sessions, we have these larger sessions on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month and have launched smaller working group sessions on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month.

The CORE Network full group sessions continue to serve as opportunities for shared learning, group consultation, and quality peer review of cases and projects. These sessions help keep us up-to-date with the bioethics literature and current issues, expose us to guests invited because of their interest and relevance to Network priorities, allow us to share current issues and projects we're facing and explore opportunities for collaboration and/or information sharing, enhance our leadership skills, and allow for real-time or retrospective group consultation/peer review.

In addition to planning sessions and roundtables, some recent topics discussed in these CORE Network sessions include: leading the ethics component of pandemic planning in a healthcare organization; documentation of ethics consultations; the nature of ethics expertise; living organ donor guidelines; the nature and role of frameworks in health policy and ethical decision making; the private/public distinction in Canadian health care, and revenue generation in healthcare organizations. Senior graduate students from our Collaborative Program in Bioethics and MHSc in Bioethics Program participate in some of these sessions as invited guests. These sessions are also enriched though active participation of affiliated faculty members such as Angus Dawson, Solly Benatar and Vida Panitch.

CORE Network Activities