Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
November is Native American Heritage month, a time to celebrate and honor our Native and Indigenous communities. UW Medicine has a dedicated Huddle page with more information about Native American Heritage Month. November 8 was National First-Generation Day and two trainees were featured in this Huddle article sharing what being first generation means to them.
Two other opportunities to celebrate this month – Dr. Joyner’s November blog highlights UWSOM’s many ACGME award winners. Additionally, the University of Washington rose from No. 7 to No. 6 on the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities rankings. The UW maintained its No. 2 ranking among U.S. public institutions and placed in the top 10 in clinical medicine (No. 6).
Many thanks to those who shared information; please continue to do so by sending to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Thank you,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- The GMEC approved revisions to the following policies at the November meeting. All are posted on the Policies and Procedures page of the GME website:
- Leave Policy
- Emergency Safe Ride Home Policy
- Meals Policy
- Medical Volunteer Activities Policy (changes specifically address restrictions on participation in medical volunteer activities for residents and fellows under visa sponsorship)
- End of WA COVID-19 State of Emergency: the end of the State of Emergency indicates the end of COVID-19 paid administrative leave for workplace exposures. If a resident/fellow is sick for any reason, they can use their sick time off.
- The Staff Quarantine and Isolation Policy has been posted to reflect the following changes:
- Change in conventional status recs to require two negative Ag tests if early return to work, per new CDC guidance
- Changed surveillance testing- Following a higher-risk exposure, HCP should have a series of three viral tests for SARS-CoV-2 infection, day 1, 3, and 5
- Added in option for Ag testing x 2 for symptomatic employees in the FAQ
- For exposed HCP, no longer requiring a PCR in the serial testing
- The second / final GMEPAC application for academic year 2023 – 2024 (AY24) is now open. Programs that want to make changes in rotations or expansions that result in an increase in training time at any site for academic year 2023-2024 must go through the GMEPAC process (excludes VA FTE requests). Information is posted to the GME website under Committees; select “GME Position Allocation Committee (GMEPAC).” AY24 applications are due December 2, 2022.
- RFPU-NW members are entitled to one (1) paid personal holiday per calendar year. If unused in the calendar year, the personal holiday is forfeit, and it is not paid at separation. It is the employee’s responsibility to schedule the personal holiday before December 31st. See complete information in Article 12 of the RFPU-NW Contract.
Program Information
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; ACGME appointments require Review Committee (RC) confirmation:
- Laura Romecevich, Global and Rural Health (Department of Medicine)
- Welcome New Program Administrators:
- Danielle Long, Nephrology
- Karina Martinez, Plastic Surgery
- Tiffany Wallace, Medical Genetics and Rheumatology
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- Upcoming GME Lunch & Learns
- December 15: Leave Policy and Guidelines
- January 19: ACGME Surveys
- Residents, program directors, coordinators, and designated institutional officials are invited to hear and discuss provocative and inspiring stories of diversity, equity, inclusion, activism, and social justice from winners of the prestigious Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare. The event will take place virtually, November 4. Register to Participate.
- UW Medicine has opportunities for medical and administrative volunteers for the Seattle Marathon, Nov. 26. If you are interested, please complete the 2022 Seattle Marathon Medical Team Volunteer Registration. For more information, contact rmsports@uw.edu. Residents and Fellows will need to comply with the Medical Volunteer Activities Policy (please note the 2 week advance deadline).
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar.
Projects and Resources
The GME Annual Program Timeline has been updated and is now organized by activity type, eg ACGME Accreditation, Appointments and Onboarding, Program Activities, Recruitment. Please review the updated document and note the important dates for November and December.- The ACGME has added an Equity Practice Toolkit to the ACGME Equity Matters online educational materials. The toolkit is available in the ACGME’s online learning portal, Access the Equity Practice Toolkit.
- Harborview Medical Center Emergency Alert Messages Subscription: HMC is reintroducing the UW Medicine STAT|INFO Advisory notification system to disseminate official information via text message to keep the UW Medicine workforce informed during emergencies and situations that might disrupt normal operations. Trainees are encouraged to subscribe to UW Medicine STAT|INFO ADVISORY.
- Please see the IT Governance: Tier 2 Clinical Education Committee presentation from Mike Leu (Professor, Fellowship Director, Head of Division of Clinical Informatics). Please contact Mike Leu with any questions or input.
- Support Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) medical students at the UW School of Medicine. Help Healthcare Equity develop the UWSOM BIPOC Physicians Directory and add your name to the UWSOM BIPOC Physicians Directory, a directory where BIPOC students can easily talk to residents and physicians with identities similar to their own to find advice and answers to their questions.
- The UW Medicine Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality and Safety is proud to announce the (re)-launch of QI Match, an online web platform to match collaborators to quality improvement and patient safety initiatives across UW Medicine. Get started today.
- The GME Office is currently recruiting for three roles:
People
- In recognition of their substantial contributions to local healthcare quality and safety, James Araujo (Gastroenterology), Bernard Ng (Rheumatology), and Karly Williams Silva (chief resident) have been awarded the title of Practitioner Lead in Quality & Safety (PLQS) within the Hospital & Specialty Medicine service line at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System.
- Congratulations to Julie Cheng (Pediatric Urology Fellow) whose abstract “Impact of Youtube Videos and Health Literacy on Postoperative Healthcare Utilization Following Pediatric Urologic Surgery” won Best Clinical Abstract Prize at the Societies for Pediatric Urology Fall Congress.
- A study recently published in Harm Reduction Journal examined a Seattle-based organization’s efforts to introduce heroin pipes as a means to diminish harms associated with injection drug use. Thomas Fitzpatrick, (fellow, Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is the study’s lead author. Read more from UW Medicine Newsroom.
- A recent study examined how markers of inflammation and angiogenesis in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension were related to clinical outcomes across disease subtypes. Kellen Hirsch (R3, Internal Medicine) is lead author on the paper, published in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplant. Learn more on the DOM news site.
- The Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education recently launched a new Division of Clinical Informatics; and at the same time in conjunction with the Department of Pediatrics, launched a new section of Pediatric Clinical Informatics. Michael Leu, (Program Director, Clinical Informatics) is the inaugural division head and section chief. Get to know Michael Leu.
- Study sifts potential factors of device-implant complication. Machine learning identified preoperative conditions associated with poor outcomes of left-ventricle assist device surgery. Song Li, heart failure cardiologist at the UW Medicine Heart Institute is the paper’s senior author. Lead author is Arjun Bahl (R3,Internal Medicine). Read the full story from UW Medicine Newsroom.
- Despoina Michailidou, fellow, is lead author, and Bernard Ng, associate professor (Rheumatology) is senior author of “Predictive models for thromboembolic events in giant cell arteritis: A US veterans health administration population-based study” in Frontiers in Immunology. DOM co-author is Gary Lyman.
- Andrew Portuguese (fellow, Hematology) is lead author, and Hans Joachim Deeg (professor, Medical Oncology) is senior author of “Transplantation for myeloid neoplasms with antecedent solid tumor” in Cancer. DOM co-author is Aya Albittar.
- The Fall 2022 DOS Surgery Synopsis is focused on education and has lots of great features!
- Chenwei Wu, (clinical assistant professor, General Internal Medicine) was awarded the 2022 Gene Peterson Award on behalf of the UW Housestaff Quality and Safety Committee (HQSC). The award is named after Dr. Gene Peterson, who had a great appreciation for the involvement of trainees in the fields of quality improvement and patient safety, and for the unique perspective they bring to the UW.