Dr Simon Kitto recently arrived from the Department of Surgery, Monash University, Australia and is a medical sociologist specializing in qualitative and mixed methods research methodologies. In his previous position he (co)-lead education research projects at undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education levels. His research was informed by a knowledge translation and interprofessionalism focus operationalised through by a medical sociology theoretical lens. Some specific projects that he was actively involved in the Australian context include: EBM adoption issues in general surgery; experiences of learning to be a doctor at the intern level; challenges to effective interprofessional OR communication; the development of non-technical competencies in the areas of Natural Disaster Response for surgeons and in multi-source feedback systems for anesthesia, both of which were geared towards interprofessional relevance and competence.
Currently, he is the Director of Research at the Office of Continuing Education and Professional Development; an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, University of Toronto; a Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St Michael’s Hospital and at the Wilson Centre for Research in Education. Dr Kitto was recently appointed as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Interprofessional Care and is the lead editor of a new book entitled: Sociology of Interprofessional Healthcare practice: Critical Reflections and Concrete Solutions, due for publication in 2010 by Nova Science Publishers. He is interested in conducting research on, and building research capacity within, the intersections between Continuing Education, Knowledge Translation, Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. Dr Kitto would like to extend a warm invitation to anyone interested in his previous work or his current research interests to contact him at the following email address: Simon.kitto@utronto.ca