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GME News & Notes: October

Oct 21, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News

Dear GME Community,

The October issue of GME News & Notes has important information about the UW Mask Mandate, the Washington Cares Fund, the upcoming NURF Diversity Recruitment Event and DEI resources.

Additionally, and as in past months, this issue of GME News & Notes has lots of information about awards, publications, new program leadership, etc.

If you have information you would like included, please send to me at hamrac@uw.edu.

 

Cindy Hamra

Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean of GME

Policies and Processes

  • Please make sure that you’re wearing a mask when you’re in a UW Medicine or UW space! The University of Washington has published a corrective action process for violations of the Face Covering Policy. The process can be found on the HR website.  Employees are required comply with the COVID-19 Face Covering Policy on campus or the UW Medicine Required and Extended-Use Masking Policy at the medical centers as a condition of employment or will be subject to corrective or disciplinary action including dismissal from University employment.
  • The WA Cares Fund, the mandatory long-term care insurance benefit established by state law, is to be funded by a premium paid by employees beginning January 1, 2022. The Employment Security Department (ESD) has provided new information about how qualifying individuals can apply for a premium exemption. ESD is now accepting applications for WA Cares Fund exemption: Starting October 1, 2021, you may apply to ESD for an individual exemption to the WA Cares Fund if you have purchased a long-term care plan prior to November 1, 2021. If approved, you are required to notify the UW of your exemption and provide a copy of the premium exemption approval letter from ESD. For more information, visit the ESD’s WA Cares Fund Exemptions webpage as well as UWHR’s WA Cares Fund overview and FAQs.
  • UW and UW Medicine COVID symptom daily attestations: Residents and fellows engaged in any clinical activity during a given day need to complete the UW Medicine attestation, NOT the UW Workday attestation. Link to the attestation: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Response Program (uwmedicine.org). QR codes linking to this attestation are also all over clinical sites.
  • Vaccine Requirements & Attestation for non-UW Medicine Training sites:  GME has received information about vaccine requirements for non-UW Medicine training sites.  See the COVID-19 Updates page of this website for details.  If you know of others, please share them with us so we can distribute broadly.
  • The Washington Medical Commission (WMC) has posted a position statement about the spread of COVID misinformation by healthcare professionals.  The WMC may discipline practitioners who are found offering treatments and recommendations regarding COVID-19 that fall below standard of care as established by medical experts, federal authorities and legitimate medical research.
  • Open Enrollment is November 1-30, 2021. This is your once-a-year opportunity to enroll in or make changes to your health plan elections in Workday.

Program Information

  • GMEC approved the following new Program Directors at the October 14 meeting. All are awaiting ACGME confirmation:
    • Heather Brandling-Bennett, Pediatric Dermatology
    • Jimmy Beck, Pediatric Hospital Medicine
    • Monique Mogensen, Neuroradiology
  • Please join us in welcoming the following new program administrators:
    • Jeanine Hughes, Infectious Diseases
    • Miranda Skillin, Pain Medicine and Critical Care Anesthesiology
  • Paid personal holiday: A reminder that residents and fellows are entitled to one (1) paid personal holiday each calendar year (see Article 12 of the CBA).
  • For programs that submitted GMEPAC applications for AY23, the committee met on September 13, and we will be communicating decisions as the hospitals make funding decisions. Please reach out to Cindy Hamra with any questions.
  •  

Events of Interest

  • New Program Directors and Program Administrators, please join us for our next quarterly GME Meet & Greet, Friday, October 29, from 10 – 10:45am. More information is here.
  • NURF Diversity Town Hall for Candidates:  The Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows (NURF) will be holding a Diversity Recruitment event on Tuesday, November 2, from 6 – 8pm. The event is intended to answer questions for potential applicants from underrepresented and/or disadvantaged backgrounds who are currently applying to residency or fellowship at UW.  Find more information and the registration link here.
  • UW Center for Child & Family Well-Being Courses: The UW Center for Child & Family Well-Being has several upcoming courses in September that are open to all: Mindful Self-Compassion, Finding Calm – Strengthening Bonds Through Self-Kindness, RAIN, and Tools for Teens: Stress Management and Emotional Resilience. For more information, please visit their website.
  • Volunteer for the Seattle Marathon: UW Medicine has opportunities for medical and administrative volunteers at the Seattle Marathon over  Thanksgiving weekend, Sunday, November 28.  Led by Mark Harrast, MD, a sports medicine physician at UW Medical Center, Sports Medicine fellowship director, and the Seattle Marathon medical director, medical teams will manage three stations along the course and one at the finish line.  If you are interested, please complete the Seattle Marathon Medical Team Volunteer Registration form.  Residents and fellows who want to participate also need to submit a Medical Volunteer Activity Request Form consistent with the Medical Volunteer Activities Policy.  For more information, contact Dalika Ung at rmsports@uw.edu.
  • The presentations and recording from the October Program Administrator meeting are now available here.
  • Other GME Events can be found on our calendar.

Projects and Resources

  • If you have a concern that you would like to share with GME, please use our recently updated Report a Concern form.
  • GME has recently revised our GME Annual Program Timeline, which includes program activities and GME dates of note by month for the academic year.  The timeline is posted here.
  • Sign up to receive parenting and childcare emails from UW Work-Life.  Emails include regular updates on childcare-related caregiving, local and virtual family activities, webinar lectures, access to a biweekly parenting newsletter and more.
  • Did you know that the GME Office has extensive equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) resources for programs, residents and fellows, and recruitment resources for programs on our GME website?  Check them out and please let us know if you have additional suggestions.
  • Do you use the GME Website? We’re collecting feedback!  Please take this short survey and help us improve the website for you.
  • Find child care, pet care, housekeeping and more. Benefits-eligible UW employees and students can find sitters, nannies, housekeepers, pet sitters and dog walkers by registering for a free premium membership to Sittercity.
  • The GME Finance Team is hiring a Budget Analyst (Req 196582). Please share with anyone who might be interested!

People

  • The Department of Surgery David Tapper Teaching & Leadership Award was awarded to Oluwatobi Afolayan. This award is presented to a General Surgery Chief Resident who exemplifies the teaching and leadership qualities that others seek to emulate.
  • Katharine Bennett, Program Director, Geriatric Medicine, is featured in the DOM Faculty Spotlight.
  • Kathleen Berfield, Program Director, Cardiothoracic Surgery, was named Chair of the inaugural National Surgery Office Thoracic Surgical Advisory Board (SAB). A s Chair, she will lead other Thoracic surgeons within the Veterans Health Administration and serve as subject matter expert to the National Surgery Office and Veterans Health Administration leadership. Dr. Berfield, previously served on the Cardiothoracic Surgery SAB, and started her 3 -year term as Chair for Thoracic Surgery on June 1st.
  • Jehan Budak, Assistant Professor, Medicine, was voted by her peers as the winner of the 2021 Bruce C. Gilliland Award for Excellence in Teaching of Residents and Fellows. The Gilliland Award is awarded annually to the faculty member who is actively engaged in clinical and didactic training or in the implementation of a graduate medical education curriculum. Read more.
  • Chris Bundy, Executive Director, Washington Physicians Health Program (WPHP), has received WSMA’s Unsung Hero Award
  • Lauren Feld, Gastroenterology fellow, talked about Pregnancy During Medical Training on the Explore the Space Podcast.
  • Jeff Friedrich, Program Director, Plastic Surgery, has been selected to join the ACGME Review Committee for Plastic Surgery.
  • Anisha Ganguly, Internal Medicine resident, is the recipient of the Lisa A. Cooper – David M. Levine Award for her abstract: “Race and Satisfaction with Pain Management among Patients with HIV Receiving Long-Term Opioid Therapy,” published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
  • Supaksh Gupta, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellow, is quoted in “COPD Exacerbations Up After Ambient Temperature Increase” in HealthDay.
  • Department of Surgery Resident Award for Medical Student Teaching was awarded to Alison Haruta. This award is presented to a Department of Surgery resident at any level who made a positive impact on medical students through teaching and mentoring.
  • Madeleine Heldman, Infectious Diseases fellow, is lead author of “Changing Trends in Mortality Among Solid Organ Transplant Recipients Hospitalized for Covid-19 During the Course of the Pandemic” in the American Journal of Transplantation, and lead author of “Association of Inherited Chromosomally Integrated Human Herpesvirus 6 with Neurologic Symptoms and Management after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation” in Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. DOM co-author is Michael Boeckh.
  • Cooper Kersey, Internal Medicine resident, is lead author of the case report “Anti-MDA5 Antibody-Associated Clinically Amyopathic Dermatomyositis: Case Report and Literature Review” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
  • Christine Limonte, Nephrology fellow, was featured in Authority Magazine’s Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech
  • Anna Morenz, Internal Medicine resident and Joshua Liao, Associate Professor, General Internal Medicine, wrote “Using Area-Level Measures To Account For Social Risk In Health Care Payment” for the Health Affairs Blog.
  • Henry Ou, Program Director, Pediatric Otolaryngology, is featured in this SCH story!
  • Anna Ratzliff, Program Director, Psychiatry, and Jurgen Unutzer, Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, authored an article in the Seattle Times on addressing the mental-health crisis in Washington State.  Additionally, this article in the UW Magazine on the mental-health crisis features Jurgen Unutzer, Anna Ratzliff and Psychiatry resident James Lee.
  • Shinetra Pryor, Program Administrator for Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine fellowship programs is the subject of the DOM Staff spotlight.
  • Neha Sathe, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellow, is lead author of “Identification of persistent and resolving subphenotypes of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure in two independent cohorts” in Critical Care.
  • Kathryn Stadeli, current Surgical Critical Care fellow and 2021 General Surgery program graduate, is recipient of the Annual Harborview Housestaff Achievement Award. This award is presented annually to a UW resident from amongst a pool of over 1,300 residents and fellows. This incredibly prestigious award recognizes nominees for their “extraordinary clinical ability and humanitarian concern,” as best shown through their exemplary care provided to Harborview Medical Center’s patients.