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Quality assurance in the Institute of Medical Technology
Proficiency, skills and motivation of the staff lay
the foundation for the good quality of work in IMT. The quality assurance
work in IMT is a continuous and active process in everyday life.
All work done in IMT is a target of some sort of international,
national or internal evaluation, which means that high quality of work
has been a crystal clear goal from the first days of the existence
of the institute. Results of the evaluations are used to design
future strategies and to develop the operation and activities in the
institute. To support the quality work a collection of documents was
created. Those documents are meant to be, both background material
to the staff, and a signal to our collaborators, customers and the
surrounding society about the quality work done in IMT.
All comments and suggestions about these web pages
as well as about the quality book can be sent to the IMT laboratory
manager (anja.rovio[at]uta.fi).
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Strategy, mission and vision
IMT strategy for years 2006 – 2010 sees
the Institute as a modern, internationally competitive research
and teaching institute in the University of Tampere. The main
focuses are medical technology and biotechnology. The Institutes
role as a developer of the above mentioned focus areas is the
leading theme of our strategy.
Development of high quality biomedical and biotechnology research
and teaching is our mission. We see our institute as a dynamic
research and education institute, where synergistic research
and teaching areas lay the basis for modern multidisciplinary
research projects and commercial applications. The main focus
is to integrate education, research and development into a tight
unity where the three different aspects support each other.
Goals of the quality assurance work in the Institute of Medical
Technology
• support the realization of our mission,
vision and strategies, development of the institute operation
and achievement of ever better results in research and education
• make the quality of our work visible to staff members,
students and whole academic community, to our collaborators and
supporters as well as to the new students planning to enrol our
curriculum
• develop the culture of quality and increase the knowledge
about quality assurance
• ensure a safe, productive and inspiring environment for
our motivated staff
Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)
Based on the founding principles of the Institute,
we have our own Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) with three internationally
well-known scientists which evaluate the whole institute regularly.
The latest evaluation was done year 2006.
Rolling Tenure Track -system
In the rolling tenure track -system
SAB evaluates the group leaders and give, based on the evaluation,
a statement about their competence and proficiency. Based on
the statement of the SAB, the Institute Board can recommend another
tenure term for the professor in question. This system also enables
the non-professor status group leaders to get one step higher
on their career and to be nominated as professors if the SAB
recommends so.
Evaluations by outside professionals and the time-limited tenure
positions enable to refocus the institute strategies in changing
situations. Only special academic merits like Finnish Academy
professorship or main responsibility for the curriculum are reasons
to hold a permanent tenure position.
Basic elements of the quality work in IMT
- successful recruitment, professional and motivated staff
- initiation of new staff
- documentation of missions, processes, instructions, rules and
regulations
- availability of the documents and instructions
- efficient internal information
- regular meetings within different professional groups and research
groups, and the developing ideas born in those meetings
- publishing of research results in international periodicals
where all articles go through peer review
- high proportion of funding based on competition and review
of the quality of work
- feedback received from the national and international evaluations
is used to develop the institute
- members of the quality work group come from different professions
and occupations
- documents supporting the quality work are updated when needed,
minimum ones per year
Development idea
At the same time with the Allianssi –collaboration
initiation the quality systems and good laboratory practices
of each partner university (UTA, TUT, UJY) should be harmonized
where applicable, on the area of joint projects.
Documents to support the quality work
1. Quality book (English version coming soon)
The quality book describes
the current ways of operation, visions the future and brings
public several ideas for continuous development and improvement
of the quality of our work.
The start point of the IMT quality book is the research and education
of high standard already done in the institute and the goal of
ever lasting culture of improvement. The text is based on spelling
out the good practices, continuous self evaluation and written
development ideas. The statements and comments received from
outside evaluators are in high value in all development and improvement
of our functions.
2. Appendixes of the quality book 1
A collection of
descriptions of main processes are produced. The main work
phases, people involved, responsibilities, supporting literature,
instrumentation used etc are described in these documents.
The process descriptions are used in developing work processes.
Documents concerning IMT work, function, staff or students
are found either as separate appendixes or as internet links.
NOTE:
1 About symbols in the collection of appendixes:
|| Freely
available on the Internet.
|| The
basic account of the University of Tampere is needed.
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