With another year almost in the books, my annual “albums of the year” post is forthcoming (what an awesome year in music it has been!). It seems to be the only thing I blog about (I am, as always, hoping this changes in the upcoming year). Before we get to the heart of that post I would like to provide a quick update regarding some exciting news. Namely being, after 5 interesting years back in the world of industry at eHealth Saskatchewan (eHS), I am embarking on a new work/life adventure back in academia as I have recently accepted a tenure-track Lecturer position at the University of Regina in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science in the department of Software Systems Engineering (SSE).

Since finding out a few weeks ago of the offer from SSE, I have had some time to reflect on the last little while. When I returned to eHS in 2012 as a Knowledgebase Analyst, almost exactly 5 years ago, I was fortunate to be accepted back into the fold, as I had left eHS in 2010 to return back to academia to attempt to finish my doctorate – which I eventually did in 2016. Anyway, I was very fortunate that the leadership at the time (Jacky, Shannon, and Cindy), the same leadership that had to deal with me departing earlier, still believed in this *still* crazy academic-minded dude to come back and try and rock the gig again (I am forever indebted to these three wonderful people). After a couple years back I was provided the opportunity to move up the hierarchy in the company, becoming the Team Lead of Knowledge & Education (Knowledge Management (KM)). In the last 3 years as Team Lead of KM I have grown the KM team from a team of 1 (me) to a team of 8 with my team and I having had many notable successes along the way. A few of these include:

• The continued refinement and evolution of a knowledgebase for the eHS Service Desk (front-line staff that support Healthcare practitioners/related clients throughout Saskatchewan’s healthcare industry)
• The design and development of a successful and user-friendly KM website to aid/enable healthcare practitioners of the Hospira SmartPump technology (medical infusion pumps used throughout Saskatchewan hospitals) to provide more precise/accurate, safe, effective and efficient quality of care
• The design and development of a successful and highly user-friendly KM website (intranet) for the health region formerly known as Five Hills (Moose Jaw and surrounding area)
• The design and development of a Learning Management System (LMS) called LION (Learning Interactively Online Now) for internal (and external) eHS staff and clients
• Our ongoing work toward developing a plan for eHS/Enterprise metadata
• Our ongoing work toward developing plans/solutions for a provincial Service Desk for the Saskatchewan Health Authority
• Among many other activities/accomplishments…

My team and I know how to have fun, think big, get shit done, and to boot, we know how to take care of each other. In my time at eHS I have made many life-long friends and have watched, and helped guide in the development of, many folks. This work has been profoundly satisfying. I will very much miss seeing many of these people on a daily basis as, leaving the work aside, it is/was truly the people that made my experiences at eHS so enjoyable.

The push-pull guiding my way back to the world of academia has always been strong. Since teaching my first class/laboratory in Computer Science (a joint class between Computer Science and Film on the use of multimedia applications, e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut), I have known what I want to be, namely a teacher.

So with that, my first day in the world of SSE is December 1. As I leave eHS to embark on this new adventure I am going through the gamut of emotions – from excitement, to sadness, to happiness, to nervousness, and back to excitement! I’m not 100% sure what I’ll be teaching yet (starting in January – I’ll find out more when I officially start), but I am super excited to embark on this new journey.

So stay tuned. At the very least my 2017 “albums of the year” post will happen sometime in December. As always, I hope to blog more in the coming year. Who knows if that will happen though…ha. Thanks for reading 🙂

-tMac