Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Assistant Dean, GME
First, I want to express our concern and support for the members of our community with connections to Ukraine. If you can benefit from support, please look to UW Medicine Employee Mental Health Resources.
It’s the start of spring, warmer weather, and longer days. In addition, there are exciting signs of change and progress, like the hopeful decline of COVID in our community, and Match day results. The GME Office is excited to start the process of welcoming and onboarding the residents and fellows who will join us this summer. Dr. Joyner will share more information about Match results in his April DIO Blog.
We’re also excited to welcome two new members to our GME Team: Amanda Easton joins GME as Program Manager for Operations and Administration, and Karyn Crow joins us as a second Float Administrator! We’re thrilled to continue to strengthen the GME Team and our capacity to support trainees, programs and departments.
A rite of spring is the blooming of the UW Quad cherry blossoms. UW arborist Sara Shores put together this interactive graphic to explain how different parts of the tree work.
The March 2022 issue of GME News & Notes includes a reminder about the COVID vaccine and booster requirements, information about new and updated policies, resources for parents, and information about upcoming events. As usual, if there’s anything you’d like to see included in next month’s News & Notes, please let me know.
Policies and Processes
- The Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) approved revisions to several policies at the March meeting. All are posted on the Policies and Procedures page of the GME website.
- GMEC Approved (Non-ACGME Accredited) Programs Policy: Revisions include adding language on restrictions on creating parallel non-ACGME programs if ACGME-accredited programs currently exist at the institution, restrictions on creating non-ACGME positions in ACGME programs, guidelines on appointments for non-ACGME programs seeking to apply for ACGME accreditation once available, and a requirement for non-ACGME programs to develop a program-specific eligibility and selection policy.
- Institutional Supervision and Accountability Policy: Revisions include updated supervision requirements addressed in the ACGME Common Program Requirements, specialty-specific requirements for direct and indirect supervision via telecommunication technology, reference to procedure certifications outlined in the Case and Procedure Management Policy, and program requirements for supervision of handoffs. The Supervision Policy template for programs was also updated and programs will be contacted soon to revise their program policies.
- The COVID Vaccine requirement remains a condition of employment for all incoming residents and fellows. Programs, please see email from Hayley Fisher outlining the verification process (“COVID-19 Vaccine Verification Requirements for Incoming Residents and Fellows” dated 3/11/2022). If you have an incoming resident/fellow seeking a medical or religious exemption, please notify GME as soon as possible.
- COVID Booster requirement: All UW Medicine employees (except for those in non-clinical roles in the School of Medicine) are required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot or complete a declination process by March 31, 2022. There is still time to get your booster or to fulfill the other requirements for compliance. More information is available at the COVID-19 Booster Campaign.
- UW Medicine has updated the Policy on Professional Conduct
Program Information
- ACGME Emergency Categorization: Emergency Categorization for the UWSOM was granted on February 1, 2022, and expired March 2, 2022. The GME Office did not request an extension of Emergency Categorization. All previously suspended ACGME activities resume, and programs are subject to all Common and Specialty-Specific Program Requirements.
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; all appointments await ACGME confirmation:
- Kenneth Steinberg, Alaska Internal Medicine Rural Residency Program
- Cary Paine, Nephrology
- Amanda Maskovyak, Forensic Pathology
Events of Interest
- We welcome new Program Directors and Program Administrators (<1 year) to join us for our April GME Meet & Greet on Monday, April 4 from 12 – 12:45pm (no registration is required). This is intended to be an informal introductory event for our newest colleagues to meet each other and GME office staff.
- GME Lunch & Learns
- March: Annual Program Evaluations (APEs); recording available
- April 21: GME Lunch & Learn: GMEPAC Process for AY24
- GME Program Administrators Meeting: Tuesday, April 19, 8:30-10:30am
- Trauma Stewardship Institute Workshops: UW Medicine and the School of Medicine are partnering with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky and the Trauma Stewardship Institute to address the accumulative toll of the pandemic on UW Medicine healthcare staff and providers through a 2-hour system-wide workshop. Recordings will be posted online for those unable to attend live.
- June 21, 4-6pm: June Trauma Stewardship Training Registration
- Register now for the GME Spring Program Director Development Series (PDDS) sessions! See agenda. Registration closes at 8am on March 25. Topics are:
- Morning: Interdisciplinary Teamwork in the Clinical Learning Environment
- Afternoon: Harmonizing the Milestones
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar
Projects and Resources
- Please remember to check the GME website where many current forms, policies, processes, and educational resources are posted. We also appreciate your feedback about what else we can add to make it more useful. The GME Report a Concern form is a way for community members to report concerns to the GME Office (including the opportunity to report confidentially).
- Thanks to UW Medicine Advancement for designing a new tool to support GME programs via the Graduate Medical Education Endowed Fund, which provides central support through the GME Office for resident and trainee research, diversity recruitment, community engagement and wellness activities.
- Resources for parents:
- New resource page containing useful activity search engines, tips and advice for Planning for Your Children’s Summer Activities!
- Registration is now open for UW Youth and Teen Programs. A variety of in-person and online enrichment courses are available for youth entering 4th through 12th grade. Classes begin June 27.
- Two upcoming parent and caregiver events hosted by UW Center for Child & Family Well-Being:
- Nature & Nurturing: Parenting with Your Child’s Temperament in Mind; Saturday, April 30, 2022 from 9:00am-12:00pm
- Finding Calm: Strengthening Bonds Through Self-Kindness(6-week course); Tuesdays, May 10 – June 14, 2022 from 6:00pm-7:30pm
- UW Benefits has partnered with TIAA to bring a new resource for Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program! To get started, go to the TIAA/Savi webpage. It will take around 15 or 20 minutes to answer the questions and get results. The results will show the optimal repayment plan and estimated monthly savings, as well as whether the employee qualifies for a forgiveness plan, how much could be forgiven, and when. For more information about this service, please visit our Public Student Loan Forgiveness If you have any questions about this new service, please contact UW Benefits at 206-543-4444.
People
- Jennifer Best, associate dean, GME, is senior author of “Men and Women Pursue Nonlinear Career Paths, but Impacts Differ: a Cross-Sectional Study of Academic Hospitalists” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
- Lee Bockus, fellow, Cardiology, is lead author and Michael Chen, associate professor is senior author of “Heart of Gold: A Scintillating Pericardial Effusion” in Circulation.
- The GME Office is excited to welcome Karyn Crow as our new GME Float Administrator. This is our second of two Float positions, and in this role Karyn’s primary responsibility will be to ensure continuity of key operations of UW GME residency and fellowship programs when a program administrator vacates the position or takes an extended leave from the program. Karyn joins GME from the Department of Surgery where she spent the last four years as program administrator for the Plastic Surgery residency program. Her first day in GME is April 4. If your department has current or anticipating upcoming coverage needs, please contact Gabrielle Pett at nathangl@uw.edu.
- Alyssa Castillo, fellow, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is lead author and Chloe Bryson-Cahn, assistant professor, is senior author of “Rapid Molecular SARS-CoV-2 Testing in Hospital Employees with Mild Non-specific Respiratory Symptoms Facilitates Expedient Return to Work” in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
- Madeleine Heldman, fellow, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is lead author and Joshua Hill, assistant professor, is senior author of “Assessing and restoring adaptive immunity to HSV, VZV and HHV-6 in solid organ and hematopoietic cell transplant recipients” in Clinical Microbiology and Infection.
- Danelle Hidano, fellow, Cardiology, is lead author of “US Food and Drug Administration–Mandated Postmarketing Studies for High-risk Cardiovascular Devices Approved 2015-2019” in JAMA Internal Medicine.
- Danny Miller, resident, Pediatrics, co-authored “Curated variation benchmarks for challenging medically relevant autosomal genes” in Nature Biotechnology.
- Blake Murphy, resident, Vascular Surgery-Integrated, was selected to the Society for Vascular Surgery Patient Safety Organization Quality Fellowship in Training Program. This is a flagship program offered by The Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Quality Initiative will focus on quality processes and data utilization among vascular surgery residents.
- Andreea Reilly, fellow, Hematology, is lead author, and Sergei Doulatov, associate professor, is senior author of “Lamin B1 deletion in myeloid neoplasms causes nuclear anomaly and altered hematopoietic stem cell function” in Cell Stem Cell.
- Internal Medicine Chief Residents Ryan Johnson, Oyinkansola Osobamiro, Anna Morenz, Nancy Mugisha, and Linda Liu are authors of “Chief Residency Selection in Internal Medicine: Who Is Left Out?”