Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
I’m writing to share the October News & Notes.
As October ends, programs are busy with recruitment activities, and I want to give kudos to the Network of Underrepresented Residents & Fellows (NURF), which hosted the fourth annual diversity town hall. Dr. Ivonne Beltran Lara, president of NURF, also authored the October DIO Blog. A reminder to programs of GME’s Recruitment Resources page as well. GME has created a new Welcome Video, which is posted to our Prospective Residents & Fellows page. Thanks to our extremely talented Lead eLearning User Experience Designer, Joe Wilson!
Yesterday, the GME Lunch & Learn highlighted safety and support resources for trainees. The recording is posted to our L&L page, and I wanted to remind you of our Workplace Health & Safety page as well as Information by Training Site. Please also remember that concerns can be reported to GME via the Report a Concern form.
Local and international news are difficult to watch right now, and the days are getting shorter. Many members of our community are affected by these challenging events, and I encourage you to offer compassion and support. Our wonderful GME Wellness counselors are available to support residents and fellows and OFA has a robust list of UW Supports and Mental Health Resources.
Thank you,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- Please see the information from UW Medicine Employee Health and Infection Prevention & Control Teams on ‘When Will Masking in Clinical Spaces Be Required?’
- Remember that trainees who are members of the RFPU-NW 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. If before the end of the calendar year the employee requests the use of their personal holiday in accordance with the employer’s time off or leave procedures and the employer denies the request, the employee is entitled to carry over the personal holiday to the next calendar year. Please see complete information in Article 12 of the RFPU-NW Contract.
- Explore benefits options at UW Benefits & Resource Fairs
Learn about your benefits options in advance of open enrollment (November 1 – December 15) at one of the UW onsite benefits fairs, or an ongoing virtual fair. - A reminder that residents and fellows are considered essential personnel who are expected to report for duty; please see guidance from Residency and Fellowship Position Appointment (RFPA) Agreement 2023-2024 and Executive Order 27: Suspended Operations Policy.
Program Information
- Welcome New Program Administrators:
- Esben Kincaid, Family Medicine Sports Medicine and Global Health
- Tony Trejo, Clinical Neurophysiology, Epilepsy, Neurocritical Care, Neuromuscular Medicine, and Vascular Neurology
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; ACGME appointments require Review Committee (RC) confirmation:
- Sarah Wahlster, Neurocritical Care fellowship program (ACGME application pending)
- Elizabeth Harrington, Obstetrics and Gynecology Global and Rural Health fellowship (non-ACGME)
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- Family Building During Residency & Fellowship Monday, October 30th from 6-7:45pm PST. Dr. Rachel Whynott, a reproductive endocrinologist, and infertility specialist, will answer questions and educate trainees about defining future family goals, how fertility changes with age, and options for delaying fertility and/or addressing infertility. Dr. Whynott may also be joined by a physician panel representing diverse families. Register today. Registration will close on October 26th.
- Please save the date for the 2024 University of Washington Center for Surgical Ethics Seminar! This will be held hybrid & in-person on Thursday and Friday, August 1st and 2nd 2024. Details of the event are still being finalized, but please stay tuned for more information! In the meantime, check out our Surgical Ethics Website.
- 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 October and November, including: October eLearning launch deadline, NRMP Match deadlines, fall Milestones reporting, ERAS preseason setup (Dec Cycle).- New SafeCampus videos aim to foster resilient, inclusive spaces: Two new videos for faculty, supervisors and managers were created to promote a safe, equitable workplace culture by teaching evidence-based prevention principles that address identity-based conflicts and build skills within the UW community.
- The GME Office has an open recruitment for a second Float Administrator on our team (see posting, req. 210821). In addition to ensuring continuity of key operations of ACGME and non-ACGME programs residency and clinical fellowship programs during periods of program administrator transition or leave, the Float Administrator also works on special projects in the GME Office with the operations/administration and accreditation teams.
- 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. See flyer for complete information and consider sharing.
- UW Medicine launched the Bias Reporting Tool in early 2021 to provide our community with a new way to report incidents of bias. Since then, over 1,000 events have been reported. The Second Annual Community Report provides information about 372 events reported in the past year for the purpose of raising awareness about what our community is experiencing. This information helps us see patterns of biased behavior and identify areas needing more investment, training, policy, practice and process changes.
- 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.
- Have questions about managing your schedule in MedHub? Don’t forget about the resources and recordings available on our GME MedHub website.
- 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 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.
- 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
- UW Medicine, University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center leaders have been highlighted among other “movers and shakers” in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 2023 Power 100.The fifth annual list recognizes UW Medicine Interim CEO Tim Dellit, Harborview CEO Sommer Kleweno Walley, UW President Ana Mari Cauce and Fred Hutch President and Director Thomas Lynch for their contributions to our community. Read more in a recent article from The Huddle.
- The new Alaska Internal Medicine Rural Residency Program has released a fantastic recruitment video!.
- Jessica Barsano, Medical Genetics Resident, was nominated and selected to serve as the resident representative on the ACGME Review and Recognition Committee (RRC).
- Sayuli Bhide, Internal Medicine R3, received funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation Resident Research Preceptorship to study “Sex differences in frailty and mortality in Veterans with Rheumatoid Arthritis.” She will be working on this proposal with Katie Wysham (Rheumatology) and Joshua Baker (UPenn).
- John Choe, Internal Medicine Associate Program Director, is senior author of “Evaluation of an Individualized Learning Plan Template for the Transition to Residency” in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education.
- Dipti Chrastka, Director of the GME Wellness Service, is quoted in Prioritizing Mental Health for Healthcare Workers in the UW Medicine Huddle.
- Başak Çoruh, Pulmonary and Critical Care Program Director, is the inaugural Medical Educator Scholar Diversity Fellowship Mentor for the Association of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Program Directors (APCCMPD) and CHEST Medical Educator Scholar Diversity Fellowship Award. Established in 2023, the CHEST and APCCMPD Medical Educator Diversity Scholarship Fellowship Award recognizes the value of a diverse community in improving medical education in pulmonary and critical care medicine.
- Thomas Dodson, Chair of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in the School of Dentistry, is featured in UW scientists use stem cells to regenerate tooth enamel from KING 5.
- Richard Ellenbogen, Professor and Chair of Neurological Surgery and Program Director for the Neurosurgery Residency Program, was elected as Chair of the ACGME Neurological Surgery Review Committee.
- Barbara Goff, Professor and Chair of Obstetrics & Gynecology, was honored with the 2023 Dr. Saul E. Rivkin Award from the Rivkin Center. Her research interests include early detection of ovarian cancer, novel therapeutic drugs for ovarian and other gynecologic malignancies, and surgical training and education. She also helped develop the Ovarian Cancer Symptoms Questionnaire to help people experiencing key ovarian cancer symptoms communicate that information to their physician.
- Ganesh Raghu, Intersitial Lung Disease Program Director, is lead author of “Treatment of Systemic Sclerosis-associated Interstitial Lung Disease: Evidence-based Recommendations. An Official American Thoracic Society Clinical Practice Guideline” in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Department of Medicine co-author is Gregory Gardner. Dr. Raghu is also co-author of “De novo design of highly selective miniprotein inhibitors of integrins αvβ6 and αvβ8” in Nature Communication.
- James Kirkpatrick, Advanced Cardiac Imaging Program Director, is co-author of “Expanding the Paradigm for Cardiovascular Palliative Care” in Circulation.
- Somnath Mookherjee, Academic Hospitalist Fellowship Program Director, is the new director of the Center for Learning and Innovation in Medicine Education (CLIME). The mission of CLIME is to create a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community that works together to optimize teaching skills, foster educator career development, and support educational scholarship.
- Leo Morales, Assistant Dean for Healthcare Equity and Quality, is quoted in “COVID Tests Are Available to Anyone in the Country with a US Address, Regardless of Legal Status” in Latin Times. He is featured in “‘You’re my queen.’ A Latina wife with dementia and the loving husband who cares for her” from KUOW.
- The 2023 recipients and nominees for the Inaugural Department of Medicine Outstanding Staff Awards were recognized and celebrated at a recent ceremony. The Outstanding Staff Award recognizes and celebrates exceptional staff members who are dedicated to supporting our missions of teaching, healing, discovery, and diversity, and upholding core values. Shinetra Pryor (Program Operations Specialist for the Geriatrics and Palliative Care Fellowship Programs) was among the winners.
- Nahid Rashid, fellow, is lead author and Marco Mielcarek, professor (Hematology and Oncology) is senior author of “Impact of Donor Statin Treatment on Graft-versus-Host Disease after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation” in Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. Department of Medicine co-authors are Stephanie Lee, Paul Martin and Rainer Storb.
- Namrata Singh, Rheumatology Associate Program Director, has been selected to receive a 2023 UCLA MSTAR Best Research Mentor Award. MSTAR (Medical Student Training in Aging Research) is a combined program (UCLA, UCSF and UW) that provides medical students short-term research training in aging and geriatrics with successful mentors in the field, with the goal of encouraging medical students to consider careers as physician scientists in aging research.
- Alyssa Stephenson-Famy, Obstetrics and Gynecology Associate Program Director, is an author on “Does the Degree Matter? MD and DO Students Who Match Into OB/GYN Report Different Experiences in US Undergraduate Medical Education” from the Journal of Graduate Medical Education.
- Tracy Tylee, Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition Program Director, is quoted in “Nonsurgical Option for More Large Thyroid Nodule Patients?” in Medscape.
- Andrew Wescott, fellow, Cardiology, is the recipient of a 2024 Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Washington Research Foundation. The foundation supports 12 postdocs annually from institutions across Washington state, with the goal to promote innovative discoveries and technologies that lead to the delivery of a new project, service or practice to the public. Dr. Wescott’s project is “Mechanisms of Arrhythmogenic Calcium Release in Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy.”