Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
Sharing our September News & Notes with information about the LeadUp program and Gilliland Award (nominations for both closing soon), PDDS, the fertility benefits survey, the new bike cage at UWMC-NW and a host of other information and opportunities.
I also want to recognize that Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, which started on September 15, celebrates the history, diverse cultures, achievements and contributions of Hispanic Americans. September is also National Suicide Prevention Month, a chance to raise awareness of risk factors, provide help for those who may be struggling, and support those affected by the suicide of a loved one. Please see resources from Forefront Suicide Prevention at UW and a reminder that the GME Wellness Service offers free and confidential counseling for our trainees (including non-ACGME fellows).
Thanks,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- Get Ready for Respiratory Virus Season: Masking and Vaccine Information
- UW Medicine plans to require universal masking in patient care areas during respiratory virus season based on metrics that are being developed with regional health systems.
- The Employee Health flu vaccine campaign will begin on Sept. 25.
- Employees should stay home when they have respiratory virus symptoms and also test for COVID-19. If you test positive, you should also complete the UW Medicine Employee Health COVID-19 Contact Tracing Survey. Once you report a positive test, you will immediately receive an email with details about isolation during your illness.
- For more information about the respiratory virus season, see COVID-19 and the flu this fall (with Dr. John Lynch).
- UWSOM has decided to continue to exclude the class rank/quartile ranking and summary word in the MSPE. Please see 8/25 email sent on behalf of Gabriel Sarah and the Office of Academic Affairs for more information.
- Effective July 1, 2023, the GME Meals Policy and SCH Meals Policy have been updated to reflect an increase in meal reimbursement prices.
- The GME Office and GME Wellness are pleased to announce that as of July 1, 2023, the GME Wellness Service will support our non-ACGME fellows without faculty titles or with an existing counseling relationship. For those non-ACGME fellows with faculty titles, there are a number of support resources available via UWSOM Faculty Affairs. Please direct any questions to GME Director of Wellness, Dipti Chrastka.
- Residents and fellows who wish to moonlight must renew existing outside work activity requests for AY24. All requests for outside work must be reapproved each academic year. Please review the GME Outside Work webpage for the Moonlighting and Outside Work Policy and Outside Work Request Forms. Please email Angela James with any questions.
- Individuals who would like to request a disability accommodation should reach out to the GME Office (Bre Smith) as soon as possible so that we can work with the Disability Services Office to support the program and trainee through the process.
- The UW Medicine Bias Reporting Tool is for sharing incidents of bias including racism, sexism, ableism, discrimination of any form or other behaviors that do not reflect the prioritization of inclusion and equity expected in all areas of our community. Please feel free to share this flyer and postcard within your programs and workspaces.
- The GME Concern Reporting tool is available to any members of the GME community to report concerns about the learning environment.
Program Information
- Welcome New Program Administrators:
- Daniel Willems, Diagnostic Radiology
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; ACGME appointments require Review Committee (RC) confirmation:
- Matthew Kogut, Interventional Radiology Independent & Interventional Radiology Integrated
- Pamela Valentino, Pediatric Transplant Hepatology (interim)
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- Registration for our Fall Program Director Development Series on Wednesday, September 27 from 12:00 PM – 2:00PM (PST) is now open. Registration will close the evening of September 22. This season we are excited to invite Dr. Chrissy Babcock, Associate Dean and DIO for Graduate Medical Education, and Dr. Vineet Arora, Dean of Medical Education, join us from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine to present on “Embedding Residents & Fellows into Institutional Learning Environment Initiatives.” Each program is required to have a PD or APD (or, if necessary, a member of the core faculty) attend these virtual events. We also welcome all other faculty and administrators seeking faculty development.
- Make sure to save the date for our Spring sessions on March 19 and April 8
- For a variety of upcoming events and resources, please see the NURF newsletter emailed out by Tammy Ramirez on September 13.
- GME Outreach Event for trainees at SCH on October 5 from 11am to 1 pm. We encourage trainees to stop by to say hello, meet our GME team members and take a packed lunch. Please look for an email closer to the event with specific room details.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar.
Projects and Resources
Please review the GME Annual Program Timeline for important dates for the months of September and October, including: Annual Program Evaluation deadline, AAMC/GME Track National GME Census, ERAS opening (Sept Cycle), NRMP and SF Match timelines, and October eLearning launch.- Have questions about managing your schedule in MedHub? Don’t forget about the resources and recordings available on our GME MedHub website.
- We are distributing a needs assessment survey to understand better UWSOM learners’ potential utilization of fertility benefits in light of proposed legislation that may impact such coverage. Please access the survey here: UW SOM Trainee Fertility Survey. The survey will remain open through October 1, 2023.
- The GME Office is accepting nominations for the Bruce C. Gilliland Award for Excellence in Teaching of Residents and Fellows. The Gilliland Award is awarded annually to a faculty member who is actively engaged in clinical and didactic training or in the implementation of a graduate medical education curriculum. Candidates should have demonstrated excellence in teaching over time and must have served for at least three years within UW Medicine or an affiliated training site as a teacher of residents and/or fellows. The Nomination deadline has been extended to Sept. 29.
- Faculty, residents and fellows who use Epic at UW Medicine are strongly encouraged to complete the UW Medicine Epic EHR Satisfaction survey and provide feedback on the Epic application. If you are a clinician that uses Epic regularly, please take 10-12 minutes to provide your feedback on the Epic application by end of day Monday, Sept. 25. To begin the survey, please visit uwehrsurvey.com. You will be asked to enter your name and email to ensure survey responses are valid. At the end of the survey, you can choose to allow your identity to be connected to your responses, which will enable UW Medicine IT Services to link your survey to your actual Epic usage data. Your responses will be kept strictly confidential. While participation is voluntary, your insights and candid feedback on the efficiency of the Epic application, quality of Epic training, and how Epic use is impacting your daily work/life balance will play a pivotal role in shaping the future improvements to our EHR system.
- Last October, the GME Office launched a Post-Recruitment Survey for residency and fellowship programs to send to interviewed applicants. The Survey was designed to be followed longitudinally over subsequent recruitments cycles. As a reminder, we ask programs to include the following message in post-recruitment survey communications to interviewed applicants: The Graduate Medical Education Office at the University of Washington School of Medicine is conducting a survey of residency and fellowship applicants interviewed during the current recruitment season to assess factors that contributed to ranking decisions. Results of the survey will help improve the quality of our learning environment. Please take 1-2 minutes to complete this brief and anonymous survey – https://forms.microsoft.com/r/9WhQckPbZb.
- The UWMC Department of Public Safety is happy to announce the highly anticipated bike cage on the Northwest campus is ready for use. This secured bicycle storage area is located on the 1st floor, Southeast corner of the parking garage. The bike locker is complete with racks and simple tools for most of your bicycle needs. To have access to this bike locker added to your Husky Card, please email either Joshua Kinman at jkinman9@uw.edu or Deborah Wheat at dwheat3@uw.edu.
- The GME Office is proud to partner with the Office of Healthcare Equity to sponsor Leadership Education to Advance Diversity among Underrepresented Populations in Medicine (LEAD-UP). Applications are due 9/27. Please see 8/24 email from Dr. Joyner for more information.
- Every year, the UW School of Medicine Alumni Association recognizes exceptional alumni with a series of awards. We encourage UW School of Medicine alumni, faculty, staff and other professional colleagues to nominate alumni for one or more of our awards. All alumni who received a degree from, or completed residency or fellowship training in, a program administered by the UW School of Medicine or one of our academic departments are eligible. Visit the website for full descriptions of the Distinguished Alumni Award, the Alumni Humanitarian Award, the Alumni Service Award and the Alumni Early Achievement Award. Nominations for the 2024 awards are open; you may submit nominations until December 31, 2023 here.
- UW Medicine Announces Results from Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Survey are available.
- The GME Office has posted an updated letter from Dr. Joyner for prospective residents and fellows to our GME Prospective Residents & Fellows
- Based on feedback from our community, in AY23 the GME Office developed Total Compensation sample statements for trainees at the R1 and R4 levels, meant to reflect incoming residents and incoming fellows, respectively. The R1 & R4 Total Compensation sample statements have been updated for AY24. These resources are posted to the GME Prospective Residents and Fellows page under Compensation.
- Trainees are encouraged to subscribe to UW Medicine STAT|INFO ADVISORY which has been designed to disseminate official information via text message to keep the UW Medicine workforce informed during emergencies and situations that might disrupt normal operations.
- Our new Leave of Absence webpage is now live on the GME website. Here you will find LOA planning information and resources along with an intake form to contact GME for leave planning assistance: Leave Planning Submission Form. This form can be completed by trainees or program leadership. The December 2022 Lunch & Learn on ‘Leave Policy and Guidelines’ provides an overview of both these new resources; please see the recording and slides.
People
- Sally Baker, fellow, Allergy and Infectious Disease, is quoted in “Seal bit swimmer through wetsuit in Washington. Then she needed special medicine” in the Bellingham Herald.
- Katherine Bennett, Geriatric Medicine Program Director, and May Reed, Geriatric Medicine Associate Program Director, are featured in “Two Geriatricians Give 6 Tips for Healthy Aging” from The Huddle.
- Debra Cherry, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program Director, provides tips for teens and their families on navigating workplace safety issues in Teen Workers ‘Need to Know They Have Rights’ from the UW Newsroom.
- John Choe, Internal Medicine Associate Program Director, is senior author of “Exploring Competency-Based Medical Education Through the Lens of the UME-GME Transition: A Qualitative Study” in Academic Medicine.
- Christopher Sanford, Global Health Program Director, is quoted in “Vaccinating people from airplanes is not feasible, contrary to Instagram post” from US Today.
- The Department of Surgery Newsletter ‘Surgery Synopsis’ features many voices of the GME community, including Program Directors, trainees, and program staff. Check out the Summer 2023 issue.
- Ian Maloney, Anesthesiology Resident, is featured in “What Our Patients are Saying” with the following quote, “Special shout out to Dr. Ian Maloney! He was the kindest, warmest, most wonderful member of the team that I met that day. His demeanor and presence made me feel so at ease… He’s the kind of person that ABSOLUTELY should be in healthcare.”
- May Reed, Geriatric Medicine Associate Program Director, is quoted in “The Future of Human Longevity” in Health News.
- Ginny Ryan, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Program Director, is quoted in “Congress makes fresh push to cover fertility treatments for military veterans” from Axios.
- Doug Wood, Department of Surgery Chair, is featured in “How To Catch Lung Cancer Early and Why It’s Important” from Right as Rain by UW Medicine.