by amande | Aug 2, 2024 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
I am thrilled to announce that Karen Segerson, MD has accepted the position of GME Director of Quality and Safety at the University of Washington Medical Center-Montlake (UWMC-ML). This role represents an exciting opportunity to enhance resident and fellow engagement in hospital quality and safety goals and activities. Dr. Segerson brings twenty years of experience in medical education to this critical area of our institution’s mission. Her work embodies the fundamental concept that we can change and improve our future with effort and optimism.
In this position, Dr. Segerson plans to build upon the solid foundation already in place at UWMC-ML. She is looking forward to collaborating with UWMC-ML leaders, in partnership with GME, to strengthen that hospital’s quality improvement and patient safety initiatives. And, by doing so, she hopes to raise the quality of care in all of the other hospitals.
Dr. Segerson is starting her new role just as UWMC-ML has completed its 4th Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Site Visit. New recommendations from the CLER Executive Report will assist her during the critical review of the report. In the meantime, her immediate plans include familiarizing herself with the leaders of UWMC-ML, such as Dr. Santiago Neme, Medical Director and Adam Parcher, Chief Quality Officer. During the first several months in her new role, Dr. Segerson also plans to conduct a comprehensive assessment of current resident and fellow involvement in quality improvement initiatives with the goal of identifying areas for enhanced engagement. She also intends to work closely with the UW Center for Scholarship in Patient Care, Quality and Safety to incorporate cutting-edge educational approaches to Graduate Medical Education (GME)-level programming. Additionally, as ACGME stresses, she aims to strengthen the connection between GME quality initiatives and institutional priorities, ensuring that our efforts contribute meaningfully to the overall quality improvement goals of our hospitals.
Karen Segerson, MD
Above all, she will strive to focus improvement and innovation efforts on issues that are patient-focused, prioritizing equity in their healthcare needs. In this era of technological change and “big” (but not necessarily inclusive) data, Dr. Segerson believes that we need not only to mitigate harm (including technological harm) but to proactively use technological advances to address to improve quality gaps and health disparities.
Dr. Segerson envisions developing a robust system for sharing best practices in quality improvement across GME programs, connecting residents and fellows to our larger health system. This will involve creating platforms for interdepartmental collaboration and knowledge exchange. To this end, she plans to leverage the advancing knowledge in artificial intelligence (AI) to explore innovative ways of integrating this exciting new technology into our quality improvement processes and educational work. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and leveraging data-driven approaches, Dr. Segerson believes we can significantly enhance the quality of care provided at UWMC-ML while simultaneously enriching the educational experiences in all of our hospitals.
As we move forward, Dr. Segerson is committed to fostering a culture of safety, improvement, and innovation. She looks forward to meeting members of our housestaff and hopes that they will reach out to her with ideas, questions or opportunities for collaboration. Together, she thinks that we can make significant strides in advancing UW Medicine’s commitment to excellence in medical education and patient care.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by amande | Jul 23, 2024 | Announcements, News
Safe delivery of consistent, high-quality patient care can only be sustained when the clinical learning environment ensures the support and well-being of its physicians and patient care providers. Promoting well-being and equity are part of the guiding principles of Mission Forward, which ensures a healthy future for UW Medicine.
This message addresses Well-Being CLER domain activities UW Medicine and the University of Washington Medical Center, Montlake (UWMC-ML) have achieved since the last CLER site visit in 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic front-lined our GME workforce, creating a lockdown that began earlier –
and lasted longer in Seattle than in other place in the country. It is difficult to overstate the impact that the pandemic had on the healthcare landscape, especially the well-being of the workforce at the individual level (e.g., illness, leave) and the institutional level (e.g., finance). Mission Forward has helped us recover from the pandemic by focusing on achieving “system-ness” and promoting wellbeing in our community. UWMC-ML, in partnership with GME, has made notable progress in the well-being space to deliver safe, quality care to every patient, every time.
2019 CLER Feedback
During our last CLER visit at UWMC-ML, the Executive Report we received from the ACGME CLER team explored several domains related to Well-Being.
Promoting the Well-Being of the Clinical Care Team
During conversations with the senior leadership team, it was unclear if the UWMC-ML has a comprehensive strategy to support the well-being of the clinical care team.
System Responses
- New Associate Dean for Well Being – Anne Browning, PhD chairs the School of Medicine (SOM) Well Being Steering Committee and has established multiple well-being resources to support our faculty.
- Participation in the “Healthcare Professional Well Being Academic Consortium” – UW Medicine has joined other academic institutions in this Consortium for data collection and sharing of best practices. We have had two UW Medicine Well-being surveys. The first survey encouraged department leaders to triangulate the data in context of their department and GME experiences and then to develop a practical action plan to promote wellbeing for their unique department. Data from the second survey is still under analysis.
- UW Medicine Well Being Grant Program – provided grants to several GME applicants for use at the program and department level. Many grant-awarded initiatives focused on (re)building community after the pandemic.
- Through a Well Being Grant, the GME Wellness Service piloted lightboxes to enhance mood, improve disrupted sleep and increase well-being during the winter months.
Workload and Work-Life Balance
In the group meetings, CLER site visitors reported:
- 39% of the faculty members and 40% of the program directors agreed or strongly agreed that the medical center creates an environment that promotes balance between faculty workload and their well-being.
- 52% of the faculty members and 67% of the program directors agreed or strongly agreed that the volume and intensity of faculty member’s clinical workload adversely impacts their ability to teach residents and fellows.
- Residents and fellows mentioned that back-up call may be viable for larger services but may not be an option for smaller services.
System Responses
- Expanded Moonlighting – As of November 2020, more moonlighting shifts were made available over many services, offering opportunities for clinical coverage and additional compensation for residents, fellows, and faculty.
- The GME Office tracks “Program or Department Advocacy for Enhanced Staffing in Response to High Workloads or Acuity” in the Annual Program Evaluation. (APE). Over the last few years, we have seen a steady decrease in the program needs for advocacy, which is currently at 60% for AY23.
- Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) – these key roles have been hired for services in which work hours posed persistent challenges for housestaff. Although this may have created some financial challenges, the overall effect on their well-being seems to have improved.
- Exit Interviews – All Program Directors are offered an exit interview so that the GME Office can better understand their experiences and continue to keep abreast of how best to support individuals in these leadership roles.
- ACGME Faculty & Resident/Fellow Surveys – GME has been following trending data on these surveys to predict trends on faculty supervision and teaching of trainees in the learning environment.
Fatigue / Burnout / Risk of Self-Harm
- Residents, fellows, nurses, and other health care professionals indicated that they were not aware of UWMC-MLs’ efforts to proactively recognize and address fatigue among the clinical care team.
- The residents and fellows” in the group interviews were presented with a scenario in which they are maximally fatigued, yet 55% of the residents and fellows indicated that they would power through to hand-off.
- The GME Office tracks “Programs or Initiatives in Place Intended to Mitigate Resident and Faculty Burnout” on the APEs. 91% of programs have initiatives in place.
- When asked about the UWMC-ML’s process to identify residents, fellows, and faculty members at risk of or demonstrating self-harm, the well-being representatives did not identify a consistent process for identifying these individuals.
- In the group sessions, 49% of the residents and fellows, 48% of the faculty members, and 77% of the program directors reported that they are moderately or very prepared to recognize members of the clinical care team at risk of or demonstrating self-harm.
System Responses
- Report a Concern and UW Medicine Bias Reporting Tools: Any UW Medicine system-level personnel can advocate for resident and fellow wellness using these tools described in Professionalism.
- Peer to Peer Support Program – This UW Medicine program is available to and has supported GME PDs and trainees.
- Program Director Development Series, now Educator Development for GME Excellence (EDGE) – For the last 16 years, the GME Office has offered faculty development events addressing such issues as “Peer Support” and “Supporting Trainees in Crisis.” Topics change depending upon the need of our learning community.
- Chief Resident Listening and Support Sessions facilitated by the GME Wellness Team to share best practices for new resident leaders, understand the stress continuum, discover ways to support residents and fellows who are struggling, and determine other possibilities of connecting.
- GME Wellness Service works with programs (Program Directors, APD’s, Chiefs) to normalize help seeking behaviors, destigmatize mental health struggles and encourage support from the larger system. The service was expanded by 1.0 FTE in June 2022 and its counselors navigated an effective pivot to virtual appointments, which increased access. Several programs have benefited from the “opt out” Wellness session model that can identify risk factors and connect trainees with resources.
- E-Learning Modules
- Physician Well Being – this practical training embeds self-screening is given to all incoming trainees.
- AY23 completion rate was 83%.
- Prioritizing Ourselves when Fatigued – this standardized training is an opt-in training for residents and fellows focused on practical strategies for fatigue mitigation and the system’s role in addressing fatigue.
- UWMC-ML Schwartz Rounds and Circle of Support – two interdisciplinary venues for humanizing the work we do as a caring community are held at UWMC-ML.
Being well is a part of all healthy work environments. UW GME and UWMC-ML are committed to supporting all individuals in our community and advocating for systems that enable them to thrive. Our partnership with UW Medicine, including UWMC-ML, is essential and ongoing!
For additional details, please see the CLER Website.
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by amande | Jul 19, 2024 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra
Associate Dean, GME
Many of our 520+ new residents and fellows are settling into their new roles at UW Medicine. We’re joined by an excellent new group and we hope you’ll join us in welcoming them!
July News and Notes is the first of the 2024-2025 academic year. This is a monthly newsletter that highlights policy changes, resources, events and opportunities and celebrates accomplishments for members of the GME community. This month includes information about AY26 recruitment, a community commitment and several educational events and resources.
July is Disability Pride Month. Information about GME support for trainees seeking accommodations is here.
Feel free to share any information you’d like to see included in future News & Notes.
Thanks,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- Please review the July 8 ‘Update for AY26 Recruitment and Interview Season’ email from Dr. Byron Joyner for important information regarding interview formats, second looks, sub-internships and observerships. Information is also available on our Recruitment Resources webpage.
- Please review the June 20 ‘UW GME Community Commitment’ email from Dr. Jennifer Best regarding individual practices of inclusion and care, selected from and vetted by residents, that foster a culture of belonging.
- Welcome New Program Administrators:
- Ally Haviland, Infectious Diseases
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; ACGME appointments require Review Committee confirmation:
- Eileen Rhee, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
- Basavaraj Ghodke, Neurointerventional Radiology (Interim)
- Hanna Hunter, Cancer Rehabilitation
- Amar Iravani, Theranostics
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- July 18: ADS Annual Update and Program Oversight; recording and slides now available
- August 15: Cancelled
- September 19: IMGs and Visa Sponsorship
- AY25 Lunch & Learn schedule is posted to the GME website.
- We are thrilled to invite you to an important and informative GME-sponsored Community Lecture: “ Things I Didn’t Learn in Training About Firearms” presented by Dr. Mark Shapiro on Wednesday, August 21st, 2024 from 5:00 – 6:00 pm PST (Zoom). This event is open to the entire GME community, our partners in the WWAMI region, medical students, and all faculty. The event will be available to stream after the event. All participants will have the option to be anonymous and off-camera, with anonymous Q&A available. Registration is now open through Friday, August 16th.
- The AAMC Group on Educational Affairs announced that registration is now open for the 2024 Staff Track Virtual Conference! This annual event brings together staff professionals, specialists, educators, managers, and academic trainers from across the medical education continuum to share knowledge and foster collaboration. The event is Friday, September 13, 2024 at 8:00 AM PT / 11:00 AM ET via Zoom. Please register for this free event.
- As a reminder, PDDS is now EDGE! In an effort to enhance inclusivity and because we welcome individuals other than program directors to our events, we are rebranding PDDS as Educator Development for GME Excellence (EDGE). Specific times for Spring 2025 sessions will be shared in advance of the 90-day UW Medicine clinical schedule deadline.
- Thursday, September 19, 2024; 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: “Coaching to Consequences: Support and Remediation of Challenging Trainee and Physician Behaviors”: Dr. Eva Aagaard, Washington University
- Tuesday, October 22, 2024; 9:00 am – 10:30 am: “Entrustable Professional Activities: Dr. Brenessa Lindeman, University of Alabama-Birmingham
- Tuesday, March 25, 2025; TBD between 9:00 am and 12:00pm: “Supporting Trainee Disability Accommodations”, Hayley Fisher, UW GME
- Thursday, April 24, 2025; TBD between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm: “How Our Program Does It” Session: Individualized Learning Plans OR Trainee Professional Development Curricula (concurrent)
- 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 July and August.- A web page dedicated to coordinators, centralizing essential resources in one location, is now available on the ACGME website. ACGME also has two new resources available for Program Coordinators: a Program Coordinator Handbook and a Program Coordinator Handbook Companion: Paving Your Path to Success. Review the Handbook and access the Learning Path. The Handbook has also been added to the UWGME Program Administrators webpage.
- Parent trainees are encouraged to join our Parenthood Peer Mentorship Program as either a mentor or mentee. This program is designed to support parent trainees by matching them with peers to share knowledge and support each other. Additional information can be found on the Parenthood Peer Mentorship Program webpage.
- The GME Office would like to update our collection of trainee photos for use on our website, promotional materials, and articles for The Huddle/other in-house publications. We would very much appreciate programs submitting photos of trainees engaged in training, wellness, learning, or volunteering activities. Please use our GME Photos Request form to upload any available photos. Please note that for compliance purposes there must be a photo waiver on file for any individual in the photo.
- In February, UW GME launched the new UW GME WhatsApp group exclusively for residents and fellows. Since its launch, we’ve welcomed over 220+ trainees to the community, and we have Expanded our Opportunities to include interest groups like “GME Parents” and “Quick Meals on the go!” Additionally, some other WhatsApp groups, such as “UW IMG Residents & Fellows” and “UW Surgery,” have linked up with the UW GME community, further enhancing connectivity and collaboration.
- The GME Office has put together a resource regarding information about legal matters for trainees. This document was created with input from Risk Management and Claims Services and is designed to be used by both trainees and programs. The resource is posted to the GME Website and can be found on the Current Residents and Fellows page under UW Resources.
- Physicians Anonymous is a peer based nonprofit organization which offers free anonymous support groups with med students, residents/fellows and MD/DOs who are suffering from burnout/mental health/suicidal ideation and substance use. There are a couple of groups during the week (free) and they also offer coaching (nominal fees). The group is fully anonymous so there is no mechanism for documentation or mandating referrals.
- Get legal services through the WA EAP: If you or your family are facing a legal issue, the Washington State Employee Assistance Program can help with free expert advice from a qualified attorney, plus online support with legal forms, simple wills and a library of legal articles.
- Use your backup care benefit at select summer camps: Your backup care benefit through Bright Horizons applies to discounts at Steve & Kate’s Camps around the Puget Sound, where your child can design their own day of activities.
- Keep moving with Fitness Day partner discounts: Feeling energized by UW Fitness Day and want to keep moving? The Whole U’s community fitness partners offer great discounts to UW employees on classes and memberships.
People
- Anne Browning, associate dean for Well-Being at the UW School of Medicine, is featured in “One Fun Thing: Seize Summer” from The Huddle.
- Nina Clark, General Surgery resident, Cindy Hamra, Associate Dean, GME, and Lisa Hammel, Senior Director of Clinical Risk Management, discussed trainee involvement in lawsuits in an episode of the Behind the Knife podcast.
- Başak Çoruh, Pulmonary and Critical Care Program Director, has been recognized by the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) as a 2024 Distinguished CHEST Educator. This designation provides national-level recognition of excellence in continuing medical education through commitment, involvement, and leadership in CHEST education programs and activities.
- Taylor Coston, fellow, is lead author and T. Eoin West, professor (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) is co-senior author of “Severity of inhalation injury and risk of nosocomial pneumonia: a retrospective cohort study” in Chest.
- Jeremy Hess, Population Health Research Program Director, is featured in “Heat-related emergencies are soaring in the US — can hospitals keep up?” from the New York Times.
- Austin Johnson, fellow, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, is featured in “LGBTQ+ UW Medicine Employees On Being Our Authentic Selves” from The Huddle.
- Nitin Kondamudi, fellow, Cardiology, is co-author of “Effects of an Intervention to Improve Evidence-Based Care for People With Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Across Sex, Race, and Ethnicity Subgroups: Insights From the COORDINATE-Diabetes Trial” in Circulation.
- Oliver McElvaney, fellow, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, received the LeRoy Matthews Physician-Scientist Award. This is a highly prestigious 5-year career development award from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation totaling $570,000. The title of his award is “Clustering and immunophenotyping of acute pulmonary exacerbations of cystic fibrosis.”
- Congratulations to Internal Medicine residents Gena Lenti and Hallen Pham, this year’s recipients of the Tina Juul-Dam Primary Care Award, voted on by the medicine residents. The award memorializes Dr. Juul-Dam, a third-year resident who died in 2004 while on rotation in Alaska, and celebrates her spirit, dedication to patients, passion for primary care, and motivation of others.
- Congratulations to the following Department of Medicine members who received grants from the Kuni Foundation to propel adult oncology and cancer vaccine research. Shailender Bhatia, professor (Hematology and Oncology) and collaborators Lisa Tachiki, assistant professor, and Manoj Menon, Hematology and Oncology Program Director, are testing a markedly lower-dose plus reduced-frequency strategy of the immunotherapy drug nivolumab, to potentially make the drug available to patients who would otherwise not have access to the drug. Learn more from Hutch News.
- Colt Merges and Maggie Wilkins, R1 Boise Internal Medicine, are featured in Sweethearts match in medicine: Two newlywed doctors to serve Idaho’s healthcare needs.
- Christina McMullen, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Associate Program Director, is featured in “Are the Claims About Cold Plunge Health Benefits True?” from Right as Rain.
- Natalia Murinova, Headache Program Director, is featured in “Worst head pain ever? It could be a cluster headache” from Right as Rain.
- Congratulations to Claire Murphy, recent alum, Emergency Medicine, who was awarded the 2024 Harborview Medical Center Humanitarian Housestaff Award (pictured below with Edie Shen).
by amande | Jul 16, 2024 | Announcements, News
During the 2019 visit, the CLER site visitors explored a selected set of topics related to Professionalism, including honesty in reporting, integrity, and mistreatment.
Honesty in Reporting and Integrity
- Forty-six percent of the residents and fellows and 15% of the faculty members indicated that they have documented a history or physical finding in a patient medical record that they did not personally elicit without documenting the original source.
- The EHR Integrity eLearning Module completion rate was 88% for AY23. Our goal is a 100% completion rate for the EHR Integrity eLearning Module by residents and fellows (see graph on the CLER webpage.)
- The CLER site visitors presented a scenario to the residents and fellows in the group interviews in which a colleague stays 30 minutes beyond his/her duty hours limit to address a nonurgent clinical task. When asked whether the colleague would report the time, 65% responded that it was somewhat or very unlikely that the colleague would do so.
- Nine percent of the residents and fellows reported that there had been at least one occasion where they felt pressured to compromise their integrity to satisfy an authority figure while at the University of Washington Medical Center.
Interventions
- GME Report a Concern Process – The GME Office is deeply invested in more visibly disseminating and demystifying the concerns reporting process, including providing all incoming trainees with a linked QR code “badge buddy.” All reports, which can be made anonymously, are reviewed, and tracked by a group of GME staff to determine appropriate follow-up and next steps. We have seen an increase in utilization from year to year.
- We track programs that received reports or concerns about professionalism and/or bias in the Annual Program Evaluation (APE), with 25% of programs reporting that they received concerns in AY23.
- Supportive Leadership Behaviors Assessment – All Program Directors Program directors are evaluated annually by trainees and faculty in their departments. Program directors are also assessed regarding leadership behaviors within the UW Medicine Well-Being Survey Supportive Leadership Behaviors subitems.
Respectful Treatment of Others
Individuals across several areas of the medical center described the behavior of some attending physicians, residents, fellows, and nurses as dismissive, disrespectful or, in rare cases, disruptive. Several individuals noted that, although reported, these behaviors were sometimes recurrent or persistent in nature.
Interventions
Much of the improvement in this domain can be attributed to the rapid expansion of the Office of Healthcare Equity (OHCE) and the GME Office, including:
- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Survey: Residents and fellows were represented in the first system-wide EDI Survey.
- Bias Incident Reporting Tool and Team Response – GME is represented in the review of and follow up for every reported bias incident involving a member of the GME community.
- Restorative Justice Training and Facilitation – GME leadership was included in the development of the UW Center for Restorative Practices. In addition, all Program Directors were invited to participate in a faculty development session introducing Restorative Practices, which are now being used in training programs and departments to build community and remedy harm.
- GME Respect Scores: GME continues to collect data on personal and witnessed treatment with respect for all residents and faculty members on all evaluation forms. These data are tracked on the UW GME Accreditation Dashboard and used as a criterion for Special Reviews.
- Special Review Process – Allows trainees and faculty to raise concerns to the Accreditation Team. All concerns are de-identified and escalated to the Department Chair and DIO to determine appropriate resources or required solutions.
- Sexual Harassment in Patient Encounters eLearning Module – had a completion rate of 97% for AY23.
- Leadership curricula for residents and/or fellows – only 25% of programs offer a formal leadership curriculum. A four-session GME Leadership Series for Residents and Fellows was piloted this year.
We aspire to create a community in which all members hold to the highest of ideals and treat each member with honor, respect, and kindness.
For more information on CLER, please check out our GME CLER website.
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by amande | Jul 9, 2024 | Announcements, News
The 3-day Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Site Visit at UWMC-ML is only weeks away, 30 July – 1 August 2024. It is important for you to be familiar with the 6 CLER domains. Previous messages have reviewed our progress in the first 2 CLER domains: Patient Safety and Health Care Quality, including Health Care Equity. This message concerns the two cross-cutting CLER domains: Supervision and Teaming.
SUPERVISION:
Residents and fellows are on the front line of all our hospital patient-care activities/procedures. Since they are all learners in our system, residents and fellows require progressive supervision throughout their educational program. In this way, learners can feel supported in their work to provide the safest quality patient care.
There is more to supervision than just providing oversight of trainees in the hospital. According to the CLER Pathways to Excellence 2.0, the Supervision rubric ensures that faculty provide trainees individualized, progressive autonomy while educating them about expectations for patient care. Like other hospitals, UWMC-ML is responsible for maintaining a supportive culture of safety through high-fidelity systems that can 1) verify which residents/fellows can perform which procedures and 2) detect and monitor workload vulnerabilities.
2019 CLER Feedback:
- Perceptions of Adequate Supervision
- 70% of resident/fellows (R/F) responded that they were adequately supervised;
- 19% R/F responded that they are occasionally over supervised;
- 52% of program directors (PD) responded that residents are adequately supervised;
- 32% of PD responded that residents are occasionally over supervised;
- Perceptions of Asking for Attending Assistance
- 35% of R/F occasionally felt uncomfortable asking an attending for assistance;
- 5% of R/F frequently felt uncomfortable asking an attending for assistance;
- 49% PD responded that R/F occasionally encountered an attending who made them feel uncomfortable asking for assistance;
- Perceptions of Knowledge of Direct Supervision
- 88% of R/F indicated that they knew of what they were allowed to do without direct supervision;
- 67% of faculty indicated that they had an objective way to know procedures a particular R/F is allowed to perform without direct supervision;
- Few PD knew of an online intranet available for nonphysicians to access information about R/F procedural supervision requirements;
Four-year survey demonstrating that UW trainees believe they have appropriate levels of supervision
Goals:
- Improve adequate supervision.
- Educate faculty about levels of supervision and monitoring systems.
- Reduce clinical burden on faculty so that they can better train residents/fellows and supervise them.
Status: In progress. We continue to work on ways for residents and fellows to raise concerns about supervision.
Monitoring:
The GME Institutional Supervision and Accountability Policy defines levels of supervision for residents, including supervision of procedures. Clinical staff must verify trainees’ required supervision levels per Joint Commission and ACGME requirements to ensure patient safety.
We use Annual Program Evaluations (APEs) to monitor supervision concerns reported by programs. The graph below shows the percentage of programs that indicated concerns about inadequate supervision over the past four academic years.
While most programs report no issues, we continually work on improving supervision to address the concerns raised.
We monitor the use of the GME Supervision Policy Template through the Annual Program Evaluations. The graph below illustrates the percentage of programs utilizing this template across different academic years.
This upward trend demonstrates our progress in standardizing supervision practices across programs.
To support the process of monitoring procedures that trainees can do, we revamped our Resident/Fellow Procedure Certifications lookup tool within MedHub (the Residency Management Tool) and enhanced program accessibility by building a resource page on how to maintain it. This tool was re-launched in August 2022 and is available for all program staff to maintain supervision levels accurately. More details can be found on our Procedure Certifications page.
Additionally, all program-level supervision policies are publicly available on our UW GME website.
TEAMING:
UW School of Medicine (SOM) is in the top 3% of sponsoring institutions by size in the country. UW GME has close to 1600 residents and fellows in 126 ACGME-accredited programs and 80+ non-accredited fellowships. One in every three UW Medicine physicians is a trainee in our health system and we train 65% of Washington state’s residents and fellows.
At some point in their training, nearly all of our trainees rotate through UWMC-Montlake (UWMC-ML) – the largest hospital in our consortium – where they work and interact with more than 5000 employees. Faculty and nurses at UWMC-ML have a constant role in supervising teams of care for the best patient outcomes.
The CLER Pathways to Excellence, version 2.0 emphasizes the multi-generational, multi-racial, interdisciplinary and interprofessional space which includes critical partnering with patients and their families to provide the best possible patient outcomes. CLER has identified a new focus area called Teaming which has replaced Transitions of Care. Teaming highlights the dynamic nature of the clinical care team and their interactions in providing patient care. The four focus areas of Teaming are:
- Interprofessional collaboration – Encourages teamwork among all members for efficient and effective patient care and best outcomes.
- Communication skills – Clear communication, active listening and mutual respect are skills that enhance coordination of safe patient care.
- Leadership development – Fostering leadership skill among trainees and faculty ensures effective team management.
- Conflict resolution – Addressing behaviors leading to conflict is critical. Teams should learn best ways to resolve disagreements and maintain positive work environments.
CLER Site Visits hope to encourage partnerships, stimulate dialogue to recognize successes and deficiencies in the system and, ultimately, change behaviors to sustain a safe, collaborative working environment.
2019 CLER Feedback: none – new category since our last site visit
Initial Goal: 50% of programs have activities that promote interprofessional teamwork.
Intervention(s):
GME education, including:
- Annual UW GME New Resident and Fellow Orientation – stressed the importance of “teaming” during GME Patient Safety presentation to all incoming residents/fellows. Includes introduction to TeamSTEPPS communication skills.
- GME Foundations Course in Quality Improvement & Patient Safety – includes an interactive TeamSTEPPs training session.
- GME Leadership Skills Series for Residents and Fellows – a new offering this year for residents and fellows across programs, with session topics including team communication, difficult conversations, upstander training and supporting and empowering junior learners.
- Annual fall e-Learning module on Patient Safety.
UWMC-ML Initiatives:
- Structured Interdisciplinary Bedside Rounds on the Medicine services deliver coordinated, interdisciplinary care by doctors, pharmacists, residents, and nurses rounding together and answering questions regarding patient plans from each other and the patient.
- Improving patient flow and transfers has allowed nursing and healthcare teams to work together to disposition patients to the right unit and correct clinical service, thus improving efficiency and acceleration of care.
- TeamSTEPPS, used by certain teams, enhances teamwork and communication on the Labor & Delivery (L&D) unit through educational modules and protocols, setting expectations for huddles to improve safe patient care.
- Morning Huddles – These include the attending surgeon, anesthesiology provider, OR nursing staff in the morning at 7:05 am or before the first case in the morning. This team huddle connects the key clinical team members for safe delivery of patient care.
Revised Goal: Increase the percentage of programs reporting implementing activities to promote interprofessional team work to 75%. Specific goals for Teaming will be identified based on CLER visit feedback.
Monitoring: GME required that all Annual Program Evaluations (APEs) for AY23 include information regarding activities that promote interprofessional teamwork. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of programs reported that they had at least one activity that promoted interprofessional teamwork.
For more information on CLER, please check out our GME CLER website.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by amande | Jul 5, 2024 | Announcements, News
-
 Byron Joyner, MD, MPA |
 Jennifer Best, MD |
 Cindy Hamra, JD, MA |
Welcome!
We are thrilled that you are here to begin the next phase of your medical or dental education with us. Many of you have traveled from around the country – and from around the world – to train at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
We have all faced challenges and uncertainty, especially the last 4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic and the social and racial unrest. Many of you have never been to Seattle and might have questions as to whether this will be the right home for you. As you start your new journey, we want you to know that we are here for you. A world-class faculty and staff are committed to teaching you, providing you skills and feedback along the way. We want you to gain all the experience you can and have all the learning opportunities you need to do your work. We want you to feel that you are working in a diverse learning environment, one that is inclusive, equitable, and fair.
There will be uncertainty during your training, not only because you will be learning new things about your chosen specialty but because uncertainty challenges you to discover new things about your community and the world. You will meet your colleagues and make new friends. You will encounter new interdisciplinary teams with whom you will care for patients, and, along the way, you will learn more about yourself.
Starting your new residency or fellowship program should be an adventure – even for those of you who are UW alumni. Our top priority is to offer you the best and safest clinical learning environment so that you can develop the skills, behaviors, and attitudes you will need to be a successful, independent doctor.
You are one of the amazing, high-caliber physicians/dentists training in one of our 200+ residency and fellowship programs. This sets UW apart from other institutions. The new wave of 520+ residents and fellows is our largest entering class ever! You represent an exceptional, diverse, and exceedingly qualified class filled with colleagues who will enrich each other’s lives and learning experiences. Best of luck to you!
Who you are
Exceptional.
- In total, you are 520+ incoming residents and fellows
- Over 300 of you are first year residents
- You join trainees pursuing 125 ACGME accredited specialties, over 85 non-ACGME specialties and 4 dental specialties
Many US medical school graduates going into your specialty have applied to UW training programs, and you are among the select few to be admitted to our very competitive programs.
Diverse.
Altogether, you are global citizens who have studied around the world, with an increase in countries represented since last academic year:
You show diversity in gender identity, representing an increase in female trainees:
This is no accident. Diversity and inclusion are core values of UW Graduate Medical Education.
Qualified.
Where you are:
Graduate Medical Education (GME). GME programs sponsored by the UW School of Medicine are designed to train skillful physicians with ingrained habits of life-long learning and well-formed ethical and professional modes of practice.
UW Medicine. Among over 875 institutions, UW Medicine ranks eighth in the number of programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and ninth in the number of trainees.
Looking at the number for the 2023-2024 academic year:
Although trainees most commonly rotate at Harborview Medical Center, the University of Washington Medical Center-Montlake & Northwest, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and the Veteran’s Administration, we partner with over 500 training sites throughout the WWAMI region – and around the world – so you can have the best training.
Who we are
GME Office. In partnership with many members of the learning community, we are responsible for the administrative oversight and academic quality of UW’s residency and clinical fellowship programs. Most importantly, we are here for you. Please contact any of us with questions, comments, or concerns. (http://gme.washington.edu/).
Congratulations and thank you!
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Cindy Hamra, JD
Associate Dean, Administration and Finance
by amande | Jul 2, 2024 | Announcements, News
Health Care Quality is the focus of this report for our Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) site visit scheduled for July 30th through August 1st.
According to the ACGME, all programs have a duty to train residents in “patient – and family-centered, compassionate, equitable and appropriate care” (Common Program Requirement: IV.B.1.b).(1)) for all patients. We can achieve our ambitious mission of “improving the health of the public” through UW Medicine’s initiative, Mission Forward, which centers our learners, staff, and faculty on providing high-quality, equitable patient care to every patient, every time. “Mission Forward is a system-wide initiative to ensure a future for UW Medicine that is financially stable, operationally efficient, and promotes the well-being of our staff, faculty, and trainees so we can continue providing high-quality, equitable patient care to our community.”
The UWMC-Montlake (UWMC-ML) Quality Improvement Goals are based on Mission Forward guiding principles. Using these principles, decisions are made about trainee education in patient safety, QI engagement, data sharing and priority-setting to mitigate health care disparities.
2019 CLER Feedback: Inconsistent understanding of QI terminology and methodology amongst trainees
Goal: Improve access to QI training for both trainees and faculty
Status: In progress.
Interventions:
Housestaff Quality & Safety Committee (HQSC)
Housestaff Quality & Safety Committee (HQSC) facilitates intentional education in QI through IHI training, QI projects and
½-day QI boot camps. These activities were more successful in the past with scholarly activity, abstract presentations at local, regional, and national meetings and regularly published newsletters, like
BRICK,
HOUSE and
The Safety Nut.
QI Match
QI Match – A keystone project funded by GME, The UW Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality & Safety and the Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine as an online project repository matching project leads with trainees, nurses, and others across UW Medicine.
Program Level QI Training
Many trainees have participated in individual and group QI projects for their program and the hospital. Training in QI terminology and monitoring of this education has been variable in our programs.
GME Foundations Course in Quality and Patient Safety
UW Medicine recently funded a 5-hour central, standardized QI course through the Center for Scholarship in Care Quality and Safety for all housestaff and faculty. This has tremendous potential to increase quality of care and patient safety in our system of care. Twenty-three programs enrolled for AY23-24, serving approximately 200 trainees and 23 faculty members.
2019 CLER Feedback: Limited number of residents/fellows had engaged in efforts to eliminate health care disparities.
Goal: Improve education in and opportunities to engage in eliminating disparities
Status: Continued progress.
Interventions:
Office of Healthcare Equity (OHCE)
- UW Medicine Healthcare Equity Blueprint 2.0 An inaugural document was released in 2017 and updated in 2021. This document includes various aspects of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) within UW Medicine.
- Bystander Intervention Training – Group training to empower bystanders to avert racism, discrimination, and bias.
- Bias Incident Reporting Tool (BRT) – OHCE and a multi-unit response team (including GME representation) reviews all bias reports and addresses acute and chronic bias incidents at UWMC-ML and our other medical centers.
- Center for Restorative Practices – The School of Medicine (with GME representation) has established this Center which hopes to integrate restorative practices to reduce conflict and strengthen our community.
UW GME Initiatives
- Learning Gateway – is building asynchronous training modules for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) to be released in AY25 to the UW Medicine community.
- Equity Matters – UW GME is involved in this ACGME initiative to improve accountability and reporting of diversity recruitment and retention efforts.
- GMEC EDI Subcommittee – In AY23, the DIO charged the subcommittee with producing a central resource for programs to educate trainees in EDI concepts and practical skills (e.g., cultural humility training)
- GME Program Monitoring – Annual Program Evaluation (APE) review allows the Accreditation team to assess and monitor programs’ compliance with ACGME requirements, including trainee participation in QI projects focused on eliminating health care disparities. In AY23, 74% of programs reported trainees were involved with ongoing QI projects aligned with UW Medicine priorities in eliminating health care disparities.
UW Medicine’s Key Initiatives for EDI
- Accountability – Earn leadership trust through addressing all bias reports.
- Belonging & Safety – Address psychological safety.
- Mitigating bias – Develop and sustain long-term solutions to reduce bias and discrimination.
- Increasing diversity – Increase leadership diversity through intentional outreach.
REAL Data
UW Medicine’s
Patients Are First Dashboard shares aggregated, de-identified demographic data inclusive of race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and zip code with all faculty and housestaff. This is foundational to eliminating disparities.
Resident Initiatives
- Housestaff Quality and Safety Committee – HQSC has partnered with Network of Underrepresented Residents & Fellows (NURF) and Resident & Fellow Physician Union –Northwest (RFPU-NW) to complete QI projects that improve care for underserved populations with UW Medicine. One project, Patients Experiencing Incarceration, aimed to improve treatment of incarcerated patients in the Emergency Department at our hospitals.
- Network of Underrepresented Residents & Fellows (NURF) hosts Diversity Lecture Series, offering opportunities for residents/fellow and faculty to learn about diversity and disparities. For the last 4 years, NURF has hosted annual Diversity Townhalls for all GME programs and UME conferences. Other offerings include funding to attend affinity-based conferences, collaboration with CMFA to celebrate various cultural observances and build community.
- NURF-HQSC Joint Conference – For the last 6 years, this combined resident-run session has focused on Health Care Disparities. Topics have included end of life care, women in medicine and LGBTQIA healthcare concerns.
Department Initiatives
- Diversity Sub internships – 14 departments have resident/fellow recruitment committees which attempt to build diverse training teams.
- EDI Committees – 67% of our clinical departments have committees that include faculty, residents, and staff.
Revised Goal: same
Dr. Paula Houston, Chief Diversity Officer, and her team in OHCE and working to share data on healthcare disparities, decrease implicit bias, and improve diversity in our medical workforce. Still, we all have work to do to build knowledge and critically evaluate our internal practices to combat racism and create greater equity, including our continued efforts to expand allocated resources.
For more information about CLER, please check out our UW GME website.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by amande | Jun 25, 2024 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
UWMC-ML is scheduled for a 3-day Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) site visit from 30 July to 1 August. Over the next few weeks, I will outline the progress we have made at UW Medicine and UWMC-Montlake (UWMC-ML), specifically in the 6 CLER domains following our last CLER site visit.
The CLER program consists of 6 domains that have evolved to reflect the current state of GME and the world of health care. All 6 domains are closely related and define how the hospital system functions. By performing CLER site visits, the ACGME hopes to provide feedback to enhance physician education and improve patient care quality in these organizations. This report focuses on Patient Safety, the first and most scrutinized CLER domain.
During our last (2019) CLER site visit, CLER site visitors explored several areas of Patient Safety, including 1) Patient Safety Education 2) participation in the patient safety event reporting system, 3) feedback on patient safety event reports, 4) participation of trainees in patient safety event investigations, and 5) the clinical learning environment’s role in monitoring patient safety. We have made the following progress in these areas.
Patient Safety Education
The CLER Pathways to Excellence, version 2.0 provides a framework for hospital leadership, in partnership with GME, to optimize the clinical learning environment by creating and integrating better education and opportunities for better patient care. As such, in addition to training provided by individual programs, GME ensures that all trainees have multiple exposures to patient safety education throughout their time at UW Medicine. There are many examples:
- Patient Safety Orientation – In June of every year, the UW GME Orientation provides introductory educational sessions in Patient Safety.
- A Patient Safety e-Learning module is delivered in the fall of every academic year.
- Housestaff Quality and Safety Committee (HQSC) hosts a boot camp for trainees desiring in-depth training in special topical areas of patient safety and quality.
- Program Level QI Training – The ACGME Common Program Requirements (CPRs) set expectations for all program directors (PD) to train their residents/fellows in QI practices and provide practical experience in patient safety activities. This training has been variable in our system. We have high hopes for the new GME Foundations course.
- GME Foundations in Quality and Patient Safety – At its inception, this two half-day intensive course enrolled 23 programs and over 200 trainees. In AY24, GME and the Center for Scholarship in Care Quality and Safety received funding to expand this 5-hour, standardized training to all trainees and faculty. This should increase quality of care and patient safety.
Patient Safety Event Reporting
2019 CLER Feedback: Low rate of participation in PSN (now Safety Net) reporting.
Goal to Achieve: 50% increase in the number of Safety Net reports submitted by trainees.
Intervention(s): Over the last 3 years:
- Improved feedback to faculty and trainees through the medical director’s office
- Education during UW GME Orientation and the fall Patient Safety E-learning
- Trainee inclusion in adverse event reviews
- Safety Event Classification (SEC), a new addition to Safety Net (formally PSN), has made it easier for UWMC-ML leaders to detect patterns of events and filter by frequency and seriousness which helps to prioritize efforts of prevention
Current Status: Met 1.8% baseline reporting rate for trainees (trainee reports/total reports), 3.6% for Q2 of AY 24
Data collected from UWMC-ML Patient Safety Net. Note, data does not include staff injury events. Events categorized as “Harm” denote that harm actually reached the patient, as opposed to only posing a risk to a patient.
Revised Goal: 5% rate of reporting for trainees (trainee reports/total reports) and faculty (faculty reports/total reports)
Overall, trainees feel that hospital leadership promotes a culture of patient safety and makes every effort to deliver safe and error-free care to patients. Trainees reported that error prevention is discussed and that positive change results from acknowledging and acting upon safety concerns.
Patient Safety Intensive Review (Event Investigation/Adverse Event) Participation
2019 CLER Feedback: Low rate of participation in Patient Safety Intensive Reviews (Event Investigations).
Goal to Achieve: 50% of Intensive Reviews (Adverse Event Reviews) each quarter should include trainee participation.
Intervention(s): Over the last 3 years, we devised an elegant solution:
- In partnership with GME and Patient Safety Leadership team at UWMC-ML, trainees have been invited to attend intensive (event) reviews.
- Copies of the invitations were sent to trainees’ PDs who could remove barriers to attending the Intensive Review (Event Investigations).
Current Status: 100% of Patient Safety Intensive Reviews (Event Investigations) Q1 – Q3 of AY24 had trainees in attendance. Q2* data is not yet complete.
Monitoring of the numbers of individuals participating in patient safety event investigations and Safety Net report submissions is done monthly by UMWC-ML’s Center for Clinical Excellence (CCE). Additionally, this data is reported to the GMEC.
Conclusion:
This work has had a notable impact on our trainees’ perception of our institution’s culture of safety. On our most recent culture of safety survey by Press Ganey, our trainees rated UWMC-ML’s patient safety culture well above the national average at 4.18 (+0.21 above the national average for other academic medical centers) and the faculty rating was also better than the national average (4.01).
There is more work to do. Supporting this work requires multidisciplinary collaboration between our GME leadership, hospital leadership, quality improvement and patient safety leaders, and our nursing colleagues. Dr. Strizich, Director of Quality & Patient Safety for CLER, has chaired our GMEC CLER Subcommittee for the past three years. This committee has representation from our GME team, PDs, program administrators, trainees, our medical director’s office, patient safety leadership, risk management, as well as from our nursing colleagues and is tasked with monitoring and supporting our efforts to improve our clinical learning environment.
We are excited to continue to expand this work and find new ways to enhance the culture of safety within our clinical learning environments.
Be on the lookout for more updates on CLER in the following weeks. Meanwhile, check out our UW GME CLER website.
by amande | Jun 20, 2024 | Announcements, News, Sticky
This June, our office is set to welcome 521 new trainees. Each year, UW Medicine sponsors over 1,600 residents and fellows, which means that about one in three physicians practicing at UW Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center is a resident or fellow — making up a substantial and important part of our physician population.
Under the supervision of an attending physician, UW Medicine residents and fellows learn and work primarily in UW Medicine hospitals and clinics, Seattle Children’s Hospital and the VA Puget Sound Health Care System.
These trainees are excited to dive deeper into their chosen specialty or subspecialty at UW Medicine. This year, we asked five incoming residents and fellows to share their goals and desires for their upcoming time as trainees and future in medicine.
Read more >
by amande | Jun 21, 2024 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra
Associate Dean, GME
Yesterday the GME Office hosted New Resident & Fellow Orientation with nearly 400 of the over 500 incoming residents and fellows in attendance! GME Orientation takes months of planning by many members of the GME Team and I’m thankful to this great group for an excellent event! The Huddle also featured an article on our incoming residents and fellows: Welcome, 2024 UW Medicine Trainees.
In addition to Orientation, June is graduation month for many of our trainees. We also celebrate Juneteenth, Pride and the first cohort of UW Medicine LeadUp graduates!
June News & Notes includes new policies regarding non-ACGME programs and Physician Impairment, several upcoming events and reminders. Please reach out with questions or suggestions.
Thanks,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- The GME Office is currently hiring for a second Float Administrator (Req #233223). If you have questions about the position, please contact Gabrielle Pett.
- The GMEC approved revisions to the following policies at the June meeting. All are posted on the Policies and Procedures page of the GME website.
- Non-ACGME Accredited Programs Policy: Minor revisions, specifically updating name of the GMEC subcommittee charged with oversight of these programs (now the Non-ACGME Program Oversight Subcommittee).
- Physician Impairment Policy: The GMEC approved significant changes to the GME Physician Impairment Policy, which outlines the protocol for UWSOM clinical training program leadership and residents when there are concerns about a resident’s ability to practice safely due to an impairing health condition. Please direct questions to Cindy Hamra.
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; ACGME appointments require Review Committee confirmation:
- Brian Liem, Sports Medicine (PMR)
- Gail Pokorney, Internal Medicine Alaska
- Robyn Reed, Pediatric Pathology
- Russell Ettinger, Plastic Surgery – Integrated
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new non-ACGME program directors for three newly approved non-ACGME clinical fellowships.
- Andrew Chen, Glaucoma
- Coutney Francis, Neuro-Ophthalmology
- Hanna Hunter, Cancer Rehabilitation
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- Join us on July 18 for ADS Annual Update and Program Oversight.
- AY25 Lunch & Learn schedule is posted to the GME website.
- Save the Date: The fifth session of our Cultivating Skills in Feedback and Critical Conversations Education Series is August 6 from 12:30pm to 2:00pm (Zoom). The topic is: Supporting BIPOC and URiM trainees. Program directors, associate program directors, program administrators and faculty are welcome. An RSVP email will be sent out closer to the event.
- Residents & Fellows are encouraged to register for our June 25, 2024 lecture on ‘Bystander Intervention’ with Jonathan Kanter, PhD and Lee Davis from the Office of Healthcare Equity. Register using this link.
- Thalamus Demo (Date Change): Program Directors and Program Administrators are invited to join a Thalamus Demo on Tuesday, July 16 from noon-1pm. A calendar invite has separately been sent to programs via email from Gabrielle Pett. The July Program Administrator has been cancelled as the Thalamus meeting noted above was previously set to take place the same day.
- We’re pleased to invite training programs to enroll in the 2024-2025 GME Quality and Safety Foundations Course. Developed by the UW Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality and Safety, this course provides high-quality, efficient instruction in Quality Improvement (QI) and Patient Safety (PS) for residents and fellows. Detailed information on fees and the curriculum is available on the GME Quality and Safety Foundations Course. Enrollment is at the program level, based on total program size. We’re excited to share that the Dean’s office and GME have provided substantial funding to reduce course costs.
- As a reminder, PDDS is now EDGE! In an effort to enhance inclusivity and because we welcome individuals other than program directors to our events, we are rebranding PDDS as Educator Development for GME Excellence (EDGE). Specific times for Spring 2025 sessions will be shared in advance of the 90-day UW Medicine clinical schedule deadline.
- Thursday, September 19, 2024; 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: “Coaching to Consequences: Support and Remediation of Challenging Trainee and Physician Behaviors”: Dr. Eva Aagaard, Washington University
- Tuesday, October 22, 2024; 9:00 am – 10:30 am: “Entrustable Professional Activities: Dr. Brenessa Lindeman, University of Alabama-Birmingham
- Tuesday, March 18, 2025; TBD between 9:00 am and 12:00pm: “Supporting Trainee Disability Accommodations”, Hayley Fisher, UW GME
- Thursday, April 24, 2025; TBD between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm: “How Our Program Does It” Session: Individualized Learning Plans OR Trainee Professional Development Curricula (concurrent)
- 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 June and July.
- The GME Track Annual update opened on May 15th. To assist you with this process, we have updated the GME webpage with valuable information and resources, including the GME Census timeline, steps for completing the program and resident surveys, and FAQs. Please note that the deadline for the August FREIDA Online Listing is July 12, 2024, with the final deadline being December 13, 2024.
- The UW GME Office has updated our Recruitment Resources for 2024-2025. There are no substantive changes regarding interview formats from last academic year.
- The GME Office would like to update our collection of trainee photos for use on our website, promotional materials, and articles for The Huddle/other in-house publications. We would very much appreciate programs submitting photos of trainees engaged in training, wellness, learning, or volunteering activities. Please use our GME Photos Request form to upload any available photos. Please note that for compliance purposes there must be a photo waiver on file for any individual in the photo.
- The 2024-2025 SCH QI Scholars Program Request for Applications (RFA) has been released. Applications are due on June 28, 2024. More information is available here: How to Apply | Seattle Children’s (seattlechildrens.org). Please contact Dr. Lori Rutman, Program Director, with questions.
- In February, UW GME launched the new UW GME WhatsApp group exclusively for residents and fellows. Since its launch, we’ve welcomed over 220+ trainees to the community, and we have Expanded our Opportunities to include interest groups like “GME Parents” and “Quick Meals on the go!” Additionally, some other WhatsApp groups, such as “UW IMG Residents & Fellows” and “UW Surgery,” have linked up with the UW GME community, further enhancing connectivity and collaboration.
- The GME Office has put together a resource regarding information about legal matters for trainees. This document was created with input from Risk Management and Claims Services and is designed to be used by both trainees and programs. The resource is posted to the GME Website and can be found on the Current Residents and Fellows page under UW Resources.
- Physicians Anonymous is a peer based nonprofit organization which offers free anonymous support groups with med students, residents/fellows and MD/DOs who are suffering from burnout/mental health/suicidal ideation and substance use. There are a couple of groups during the week (free) and they also offer coaching (nominal fees). The group is fully anonymous so there is no mechanism for documentation or mandating referrals.
- Get legal services through the WA EAP: If you or your family are facing a legal issue, the Washington State Employee Assistance Program can help with free expert advice from a qualified attorney, plus online support with legal forms, simple wills and a library of legal articles.
- Use your backup care benefit at select summer camps: Your backup care benefit through Bright Horizons applies to discounts at Steve & Kate’s Camps around the Puget Sound, where your child can design their own day of activities.
- Keep moving with Fitness Day partner discounts: Feeling energized by UW Fitness Day and want to keep moving? The Whole U’s community fitness partners offer great discounts to UW employees on classes and memberships.
People
- The University of Washington Population Health Initiative has awarded 13 Tier 1 pilot grants to teams of interdisciplinary researchers representing 11 UW schools and colleges as well as several community-based partners. Funded projects that include Department of Medicine members:
- “Identity safety in medicine: a qualitative study to elicit patient perspectives and develop a framework to apply in clinical settings and research” [Crystal Brown, Justin Bullock (fellow), Brian Wood]
- “Individual and community-level effects from climate change driven heat and wildfire smoke co-exposures among a Washington state agricultural community” [Coralynn Sack (Occupational and Environmental Medicine Associate Program Director)]
- Congratulations to the following Hematology and Oncology members who received 2024 Conquer Cancer grants and awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO):
- Young Investigator Awards: First awarded in 1984, the Young Investigator Award provides research funding to promising young physicians during the final years of training to support the transition to a faculty appointment and to encourage quality research in clinical oncology.
- Steve Blinka, fellow
- Natasha Kwendakwema, fellow
- Emily Liang, fellow
- Annual meeting merit awards: Merit Awards recognize oncology trainees and students whose research is addressed in high-quality abstracts submitted to the ASCO Annual Meeting and recognized for their scientific merit.
- Jennifer Huang, fellow
- Emily Liang, fellow
- Lauren Shih, fellow
- Ahmad Kassar, postdoctoral scholar, is lead author and Nazem Akoum, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Program Director, is senior author of “Performance of Large Language Models as a Resource for Atrial Fibrillation Patients and Providers” in Heart Rhythm. Department of Medicine co-authors are Fima Macheret, Nitin Kondamudi, Yaacoub Chahine, Nadia Chamoun, and Hala Al Yasiri.
- Bradley Anawalt, Chief of Medicine, UWMC, is quoted in “Low Testosterone Associated With Elevated Death Risk” in Cardiology Advisor. He is also quoted in “Science alone can’t solve fairness debate on transgender athletes, says expert endocrinologist and UW professor” in the Spokesman-Review.
- Katherine Bennett, Geriatric Medicine Program Director, is co-author of “Agents of Change: Geriatrics Workforce Programs Addressing Systemic Racism and Health Equity” in the Gerontologist. She is also senior author of “Growth and impact of Project ECHO for workforce development in age-friendly care” in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
- Kelley Branch, Cardiovascular Disease Program Director, and Jeffrey Probstfield, professor (Cardiology) are co-authors of “The Cost-Effectiveness of Rivaroxaban Plus Aspirin Compared with Aspirin Alone in the COMPASS Trial: A US Perspective” in The American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs. Dr. Branch is also co-author of “Computed tomographic angiography measures of coronary plaque in clinical trials: opportunities and considerations to accelerate drug translation” in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine.
- Anne Browning, Associate Dean for Well-Being at the UW School of Medicine, has been named the 2024 recipient of the John R. Pettit Endowed Leadership Award a recognition of her administrative excellence and outstanding leadership. She is also featured in “One Fun Thing: Proactive Ways to Stay in a Healthy Mindset” from The Huddle.
- Chris Buresh, Emergency Medicine Associate Program Director, is featured in “WA health officials turn to emergency rooms in fight against opioid epidemic” from Washington State Standard. He is also featured in “Helping Emergency Clinicians Treat Opioid-Use Disorder” from UW Newsroom.
- Rosemary Adamson, associate professor (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) is senior author of “Discussing and Teaching About Race and Health Inequities” in Chest. Co-author is Hugo Carmona (Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Associate Program Director).
- The latest Department of Medicine staff spotlight is on Andréa Campbell, assist to the directors for the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Learn more about her on the Department of Medicine news site.
- Başak Çoruh, Pulmonary and Critical Care Program Director, is senior author of “Effective Behaviors of Leaders During Clinical Emergencies: A Qualitative Study of Followers’ Perspectives” in CHEST. Department of Medicine co-author is Ann Jennerich.
- Jeffrey Friedrich, Plastic Surgery-Integrated Program Director is first author of “Transparency in Plastic Surgery Program Accreditation” from Journal of Graduate Medical Education.
- Austin Gaal, alumnus of and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the UW Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) residency, is featured in “Austin Gaal spreads cleft care expertise, treatment at home and abroad” from UW School of Dentistry. The story spotlights his outreach trips to Bolivia, and beyond, to treat children with cleft lip and palate. OMS residents, including Aparna Bhat and Leena Zurayk, have participated in these trips and speak about their experience.
- Carrie Ho, fellow (Hematology and Oncology) is co-author of “Anti-CD19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy for Richter Transformation: An International, Multicenter, Retrospective Study” in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
- Amanda Casto, acting assistant professor, is lead author, and Christine Johnston, Infectious Diseases Associate Program Director, is senior author of “Viral genomic variation and the severity of genital HSV-2 infection as quantified by shedding rate: a viral genome-wide association study” in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Department of Medicine co-author is Anna Wald.
- Byron Joyner, Vice Dean of GME and DIO, received the Frank Jones Excellence in Urology (Lifetime) Award and the Presidential Citation from the American Urological Association (AUA) for contributions to Graduate Medical Education.
- Visesh Kapur, Sleep Medicine Program Director, is featured in “How to get back to sleep after waking up at night” from Time.
- Annika Kohlmeier, R3, Boise IM Residency Program, is this year’s recipient of the Hindson Award. Named in honor of Dr. David Hindson, this award is given to the resident who embodies excellence in leadership, teaching and clinical care at the Boise VAMC.
- Ila Nimgaonkar, R2, Internal Medicine residency program, is lead author, and Joshua Hill, associate professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is senior author of “Acute Endothelial Complications Post-Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplant in Patients with Pre-Cellular Therapy SARS-CoV-2 Infection” in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Department of Medicine co-author is Masumi Ueda Oshima.
- Ganesh Raghu, Interstitial Lung Disease Program Director, is lead author of “Pamrevlumab for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: The ZEPHYRUS-1 Randomized Clinical Trial” in JAMA.
- May Reed, Geriatric Medicine Associate Program Director, is PI and has been awarded a $2.6 million NIH/NIA R01 titled: “Collagen IV and Amyloid Beta Interactions in Alzheimer’s Disease.” DOM members on the grant include William Banks (Co-I) and Michelle Erickson (VA PI subaward). She has also been appointed MPI for the TRIAD R01 (Test of Rapamycin in Aging Dogs) as well as PI for Core A and Project 1 of the overall Dog Aging Project U19. Resubmission Grants to NIA are presently under review for both the TRIAD R01 and The DAP U19, but in the meantime the projects have garnered nearly 4 million in private donations.
- The Department of Surgery Newsletter ‘Surgery Synopsis’ features many voices of the GME community, including Program Directors, trainees, and program staff. Check out the Spring 2024 issue.
- Emily Godfrey and Ying Zhang (Reproductive Healthcare and Advocacy Fellowship Program Director) authored a journal commentary about the FDA restrictions on commercial pharmacies for mifepristone.
by amande | Jun 13, 2024 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
The ACGME Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) team has invited us to participate in a 3-day CLER Site Visit between July 30th and August 1st. This is a wonderful opportunity for UW Medicine, and UWMC-ML, specifically, to learn more about developing and sustaining an optimal clinical learning environment.
In this rapidly evolving health care environment, it is critical that hospitals support training of residents and fellows in communication, systems-based practices and interprofessional teamwork. Residents and fellows are the front line of patient care in our hospitals, and they should have opportunities to learn about diversity, disparities, social determinants of health and participate in quality care and patient safety.
The ACGME CLER program, created in 2012, was established to encourage hospitals to focus on continuous quality improvement. To this end, CLER site visits provide GME leaders, hospital executives and the local medical community feedback in 6 critical and cross-cutting areas:
- Patient Safety
- Health Care Quality
- Teaming
- Supervision
- Professionalism
- Well-being
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In addition to the general CLER Site Visit, we have volunteered for the new Patient Perspective Subprotocol. Through this subprotocol, the ACGME hopes to learn more about the patient voice. To do so, a separate set of site visitors will visit simultaneously the in-patient wards at UWMC-ML to ask 14 standard questions regarding their satisfaction with our health system. Examples of questions will be:
- Please tell me who is the doctor in charge of your care.
- Do doctors and nurses go over your plan of care so that you understand it?
- Do you feel that doctors encourage you to ask questions?
- Did you feel when there was lack of coordination in planning your care?
- Did you receive conflicting information from doctors and nurses?
- Do doctors and nurses seem to treat each other with respect?
- Do nurses and residents treat each other with respect?
All of the questions can be found on the ACGME site. These questions are substantive and remind us of how teamwork can affect patient expectations.
Although CLER site visits are not graded, there is a requirement that each institution sponsoring graduate medical education has a periodic CLER site visit. These site visits allow a sponsoring institution to qualify for an accreditation status. There are two expectations. First, each sponsoring institution should develop action plans based on the feedback received from the CLER site visitors and implement improvements to address any identified deficiencies. Second, faculty, housestaff, nurses and pharmacists should be invovled in working to improve hospital quality and patient safety. You can learn more about what we are doing in GME by reviewing our CLER website.
During our last 3-day CLER site visit in 2019, CLER field representatives collected information through observations of and interviews from executive leadership, program directors, residents, fellows, nurses, and faculty about the six CLER domains. In the weeks ahead, I will be sharing with you changes and improvements that UW Medicine has made based on the feedback from the last CLER site visit, priorities set by feedback from you and securing resources to make improvements.
Before our CLER site visit, Hadar Duman, Director of GME Accreditation will send requests to many of you to participate in interviews with members of the CLER Site Visit team. Thank you for responding promptly to her requests. And, thank you for cooperating in this exciting opportunity to be better!
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME &
Designated Institutional Official
University of Washington
School of Medicine
by amande | Jun 7, 2024 | Announcements, News
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Byron Joyner, MD, MPA |
Jennifer Best, MD |
 Cindy Hamra JD, MA |
Dear Resident and Fellow Graduates,
As you embark on the next chapter of your journey, we want to extend our warm gratitude and deep admiration for your dedication, perseverance, and unwavering commitment to your profession – and to your patients. Your time at UW School of Medicine has been marked by both challenges and successes, and through it all, you have demonstrated remarkable resilience and passion.
Throughout your training, you have faced countless obstacles, from demanding schedules to complex cases, yet you have met each challenge with determination and grace. Your tireless efforts have not only expanded your knowledge and skills but have also touched the lives of countless patients and their families. Thank you.
In celebration of your successes, we recognize the many hours of hard work, sacrifice and selflessness that have brought you to this moment. Your achievements stand as a testament to your dedication to excellence and your commitment to providing the highest quality care to those in need. You did that.
As you transition to the next phase of your career, may you carry with you the lessons learned, the relationships forged and the memories shared during your time here, remembering that your journey does not end here. Rather, your time with us has provided you stepping stones to a future filled with endless possibilities and opportunities for you to make a profound impact on the world of medicine.
On behalf of all of those whose lives you have touched, thank you for your service, your compassion and your dedication to healing. Congratulations on this remarkable achievement and, may your future be filled with continued success, fulfillment and joy. You deserve it.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Cindy Hamra, JD
Associate Dean, Operations and Administration
by amande | May 24, 2024 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
It’s time to share May’s GME News & Notes. First, as we approach the Memorial Day weekend, I want to express our gratitude to the members of our GME community who have served. May is also Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The Huddle’s ANHPI Heritage Month page contains digital assets and learning resources.
In addition to the multiple events, resources and other items below, a few additional celebrations:
Envisioning a Better Future for Residents and Fellows: Dr. Joyner has created the Vision Fund in Graduate Medical Education to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in our residency and fellowship programs.
Forbes Recognizes UW Medicine as a Best Employer for Diversity: UW Medicine is proud to be among the 41 hospitals and health systems listed by Forbes for prioritizing equity, diversity, and inclusion.
It’s a busy time of year for everyone, and I want to take the time to call out the fantastic GME Team, which always inspires me with their tireless commitment to and work on behalf of our trainees and programs.
Feel free to share anything you’d like to see in future News & Notes.
Thanks,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- GME Float Administrator: The GME Office is currently hiring for a second Float Administrator (Req #233223). If you have any questions about the position, please feel free to contact Gabrielle Pett (nathangl@uw.edu).
- The GMEC approved revisions to the following policies at the May meeting. All are posted on the Policies and Procedures page of the GME website.
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; ACGME appointments require Review Committee confirmation:
- Alissa Darden, Pediatrics and Pediatric Medical Genetics and Genomics
- Sarah Greenberger, Emergency Medicine
- Borah Hong, Pediatric Cardiology
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- May 16: Final Evaluations + Training Verifications; Moonlighting Update; Workplace Safety – recording and slides now available
- June L&L: cancelled
- AY25 Lunch & Learn schedule is posted to the GME website
- The fourth session of our Cultivating Skills in Feedback and Critical Conversations Education Series is Tuesday May 28 from 11:30am to 1:00pm (Zoom). The topic is: Eval-Palooza: Optimizing Your Evaluation System for Effective Outcomes. Program directors, associate program directors, program administrators and faculty are welcome. For planning purposes, please RSVP. Please reach out to Amanda Easton if you have questions.
- We are excited to announce a comprehensive Four-Part Leadership Lecture Series designed specifically for residents and fellows! Each month, we will delve into crucial areas that shape effective leadership in the medical profession, presented by experts in the field. Mark your calendars and join us! Please see the January 18 email from Jennifer Best for more information.
- Program Directors and Program Administrators are invited to join a Thalamus Demo on Tuesday, July 9 from noon-1pm. A calendar invite has separately been sent to programs via email from Gabrielle Pett.
- The recording and slides from the May 14 Program Administrator Meeting “ACGME Annual Educational Conference Recap” presentations are now posted. The July Program Administrator has been cancelled as the Thalamus meeting noted above will take place same day.
- We’re pleased to invite training programs to enroll in the 2024-2025 GME Quality and Safety Foundations Course. Developed by the UW Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality and Safety, this course provides high-quality, efficient instruction in Quality Improvement (QI) and Patient Safety (PS) for residents and fellows. Through two interactive 5-hour sessions, it equips trainees with the skills to improve quality and engage with safety systems at UW and Seattle Children’s, helping programs meet crucial ACGME common program requirements. Detailed information on fees and the curriculum is available on the GME Quality and Safety Foundations Course Website. Enrollment is at the program level, based on total program size. We’re excited to share that the Dean’s office and GME have provided substantial funding to reduce course costs. In the 2024-2025 academic year, the course will host seminars six times per year, including four sessions at South Campus Center (Room 316) and two at Seattle Children’s Sand Point Learning Center (Auditorium).
- As a reminder, PDDS is now EDGE! In an effort to enhance inclusivity and because we welcome individuals other than program directors to our events, we are rebranding PDDS as Educator Development for GME Excellence (EDGE). Please keep an eye out for new messaging and program description. SAVE THE DATES! AY25 Fall EDGE will be held on September 19th and October 22nd, 2024. NOTE: Each of these dates will feature distinct content.
- Thank you again to those who attended the Scheduling Workshop Series! A lot of content was covered, and we appreciate your attendance and engagement. If you haven’t already shared, we would welcome your feedback on the series and/or thoughts for future training in this short, anonymous survey. Each of the workshop recordings are now available on the GME MedHub site under “Scheduling Resources” along with other helpful resources below:
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- 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 May and June.
- The UW GME Office has updated our Recruitment Resources for 2024-2025. There are no substantive changes regarding interview formats from last academic year.
- The GME Office would like to update our collection of trainee photos for use on our website, promotional materials, and articles for The Huddle/other in-house publications. We would very much appreciate programs submitting photos of trainees engaged in training, wellness, learning, or volunteering activities. Please use our GME Photos Request form to upload any available photos. Please note that for compliance purposes there must be a photo waiver on file for any individual in the photo.
- Learn about UW Medicine initiatives that support gender-diverse staff and patient: Fostering Belonging in Gender Diverse People
- The 2024-2025 SCH QI Scholars Program Request for Applications (RFA) has been released. Applications are due on June 28, 2024. The Quality Improvement (QI) Scholars Program is a year-long training program designed to support physicians and quality leaders seeking advanced training in QI methods. Please read more online at: How to Apply | Seattle Children’s (seattlechildrens.org). Please contact Dr. Lori Rutman, Program Director, with questions rutman@seattlechildrens.org
- The recent post ‘Inside UW Alert and UW Advisory messages’ features helpful information and a deeper dive into both safety resources.
- In February, UW GME launched the new UW GME WhatsApp group exclusively for residents and fellows. Since its launch, we’ve welcomed over 70+ trainees to the community, and we have Expanded our Opportunities to include interest groups like “GME Parents” and “Quick Meals on the go!” Additionally, some other WhatsApp groups, such as “UW IMG Residents & Fellows” and “UW Surgery,” have linked up with the UW GME community, further enhancing connectivity and collaboration.
- The GME Office has put together a resource regarding information about legal matters for trainees. This document was created with input from Risk Management and Claims Services and is designed to be used by both trainees and programs. The resource is posted to the GME Website and can be found on the Current Residents and Fellows page under UW Resources.
- Physicians Anonymous is a peer based nonprofit organization which offers free anonymous support groups with med students, residents/fellows and MD/DOs who are suffering from burnout/mental health/suicidal ideation and substance use. There are a couple of groups during the week (free) and they also offer coaching (nominal fees). The group is fully anonymous so there is no mechanism for documentation or mandating referrals.
- Get legal services through the WA EAP: If you or your family are facing a legal issue, the Washington State Employee Assistance Program can help with free expert advice from a qualified attorney, plus online support with legal forms, simple wills and a library of legal articles.
- Use your backup care benefit at select summer camps: Your backup care benefit through Bright Horizons applies to discounts at Steve & Kate’s Camps around the Puget Sound, where your child can design their own day of activities.
- Keep moving with Fitness Day partner discounts: Feeling energized by UW Fitness Day and want to keep moving? The Whole U’s community fitness partners offer great discounts to UW employees on classes and memberships.
People
- Brad Anawalt, Chief of Medicine, UWMC, is featured in “Low testosterone in men linked to premature death” from Everyday Health.
- Check out the Department of Medicine staff spotlight on Leila Armas-Valencia, program operations specialist and fellowship administrator for sleep medicine (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) and Department of Medicine Bias Navigator. Learn more about her on the Department of Medicine news site.
- Jennifer Best, Associate Dean for GME, is featured in “Macy Catalyst Awards: Supporting Change Agents in the Clinical Learning Environment” from the Macy Foundation.
- Yaacoub Chahine, R1, is lead author, and Nazem Akoum, professor (Cardiology) is senior author of “Machine learning identifies esophageal luminal temperature patterns associated with thermal injury in catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation” in the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology.
- Richard Cheng, Advanced Heart Failure/Transplant Cardiology Program Director, is co-author of “Cardiovascular Burden of the V142I Transthyretin Variant” in JAMA.
- Richard Ellenbogen, Neurological Surgery Chair and Program Director, is mentioned in “Rapping about brain cancer: One survivor’s journey” from Right as Rain.
- Check out the Department of Medicine staff spotlight on Monica Fawthrop, administrator for the Divisions of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. Learn more about her on the Department of Medicine news site.
- Mira John, fellow, is lead author, and Başak Çoruh, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Program Director, is senior author of “Variable Practice, Variable Results: Impact of Postinterview Communication Practices Among Critical Care Medicine/Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Applicants and Program Directors” in Chest.
- Vishesh Kapur, Sleep Medicine Program Director, is quoted in “This Extremely Common Sleeping Behavior Is Never Normal” in Inverse.
- Internal Medicine – Boise Associate Program Directors, Michael Krug and Andrea Christopher, are published in “The Impact of Changing From a 6+2 to a 3+1 Residency Block Schedule on Patient Access and Other Outcomes” from Journal fo Graduate Medical Education.”
- Ari Leonhard, fellow (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) has been selected by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) for the 2024 Academic Sleep Pulmonary Integrated Research/Clinical Fellowship (ASPIRE) fellowship. The ATS ASPIRE fellowship is a novel training program to develop the next generation of pulmonary and sleep physician-scientists and leaders.
- Congratulations to Benjamin Lidgard, acting assistant professor (Nephrology) who has joined the 2024 cohort of scholars for the ITHS KL2 Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Program. His research focuses on lipid molecule metabolism as a cardiovascular risk factor in patients with kidney disease. The support of the KL2 program will allow him to further develop the essential skills in translational science required for his career goal of investigating cardiovascular disease in patients with kidney disease as an independent physician-scientist.
- Emily Liang, fellow, is lead author, and Jordan Gauthier, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) is senior author of “Development and validation of an automated computational approach to grade immune effector cell-associated hematotoxicity” in Bone Marrow Transplantation. She has also received the Hartwell Innovation Fund award (funding for this award cycle provided by Swim Across America) for her project, “Characterization of the biological effects of prophylactic anakinra in patients undergoing CD19-targeted CAR T-cell therapy with lisocabtagene maraleucel.”
- Joshua Hill, associate professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is senior author of “Human Herpesvirus-6 Reactivation and Disease Are Infrequent in Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell Therapy Recipients” in Blood. Department of Medicine co-authors are Mandeep Sekhon, Emily Liang (Hematology and Oncology Chief Fellow), Andrew Cowan, Andrew Portuguese, Jennifer Huang (Hematology and Oncology Chief Fellow), Jordan Gauthier, and Michael Boeckh.
- James McCabe, Structural Heart Program Director, is co-author of “Transcatheter aortic valve implantation in patients with high-risk symptomatic native aortic regurgitation (ALIGN-AR): a prospective, multicentre, single-arm study” in The Lancet.
- Hayato Mitaka, fellow, is lead author, and Paul Pottinger, professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is senior author of “Characterizing Ertapenem Neurotoxicity: A Systematic Review and Experience at a Tertiary Medical Center” in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Department of Medicine co-authors are Kristine Lan, Rupali Jain, and Robert Rakita.
- Ganesh Raghu, Interstitial Lung Disease Program Director, is co-author of “Zinpentraxin Alfa for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis : The Randomized Phase III STARSCAPE Trial” in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
- Namrata Singh, Rheumatology Associate Program Director, is co-senior author of “Notes from the field: irAE consortium ‘organizing’ providers across specialties” in Healio Rheumatology. She is also co-author of “The Need for Classification Criteria of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-induced inflammatory Arthritis: A Scoping Review” and lead author of “Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-induced Inflammatory Arthritis: Current Approaches to Management” in Rheumatic Diseases Clinics of North America.
- Congratulations to Monica Soni, R2, who won a Spring 2024 CARE Award.
- Congratulations to Vidhushei Yogeswaran, fellow (Cardiology), one of the 2024 recipients of the Department of Medicine Diversity Academic Development Scholarship Award. Learn more about the DADSA award winners.
by amande | May 10, 2024 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
One of the joys of this DIO blog is that we can celebrate the accomplishments and amazing work of our residents and fellows. This month, I’ve invited Drs. Mariam Alam, R4 Dermatology, and Caitlin Crimp, Acting Instructor, Department of Dermatology (and 2023 graduate of the Dermatology residency program) to reflect on their ACGME Back to Bedside project, “Mitigating Bias and Burnout Through Patient-Centered Narrative Medicine.” In June 2022, Drs. Alam and Crimp received a Back to Bedside grant to develop a narrative medicine curriculum for dermatology residents, with the goal of improving residents’ understanding and connection to patients and mitigating both bias and burnout.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Designated Institutional Official
Drs. Mariam Alam and Caitlin Crimp, in front of their Back to Bedside poster with Steph Timm (Manager, Education and Training Programs, Department of Dermatology) at the Annual ACGME Conference
Every person has a story. But often, as doctors, we miss that story. Our days get filled with frenetic clinic schedules, heaps of notes, endless computer clicks, prior authorizations, prescription refills…our patients themselves get lost. Busy, tired, overworked, we stop seeing our patients. A vicious cycle starts. Losing human connection contributes to burn out. Not understanding our patients reinforces biases. The gap between the doctor and the patient widens.
What if we had time and space to just hear our patient’s story? And, could stories in art and literature help us to understand and connect with our patients? With each other? With ourselves?
We received funding and mentorship through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Back to Bedside program to develop, implement and evaluate the impact of a narrative medicine curriculum for the dermatology residency program at the University of Washington.
Our curriculum centers around four narrative sessions per academic year, each of which focuses on an identity or disease group relevant to dermatology. Some of the topics we have focused on include hidradenitis suppurativa, skin of color, hair loss, psoriasis and gender identity. During each session, a patient is invited to come and talk with residents and share their story and answer questions informally.
Following this conversation, residents are asked to read a piece of literature or poetry, look at a piece of art or listen to spoken word relevant to the session topic, and then complete a journal entry in response to a written prompt. For example, following our psoriasis session, residents read an excerpt from “From the Journal of a Leper” by John Updike and responded to the prompt “Write about a patient’s suffering who moved you.” This writing exercise is followed by discussion among the residents, reflecting on their conversation with the patient and the associated narrative medicine exercise.
We hypothesized that bias and burnout would decrease through implementation of this curriculum, and asked resident participants to complete a survey, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Harvard Implicit Association (IAT) tests at baseline, midpoint and following completion of the curriculum, and we have data for our first half of the two-year curriculum. Although Harvard IAT scores remained stable, self-reported bias and experienced bias increased, perhaps suggesting increased awareness of bias and self-reflection. Self-reported burnout increased over the course of the academic year, however more residents reported using writing and self-reflection as tools for coping with burnout and combatting bias.
Residents also provided overwhelmingly positive feedback for the curriculum. As one resident wrote, “This was an incredible experience. I felt I was able to ask questions during the panel that I wouldn’t necessarily ask in the constraints of a patient visit. It has prompted me to ask more questions to patients regarding the impact of their condition on their daily lives.”
As we develop year three of the curriculum, we aim to create a sustainable, long-standing narrative medicine curriculum for dermatology residents. Our long-term goals include expansion of the curriculum to UW dermatology faculty, outside dermatology programs and adaptation of our model for non-dermatology specialties.
Listening to each other, sharing our stories connects us. And, over time, it may chip away at burn out and bias. It’s a simple plan: time, space, someone to tell a story, and someone to listen.
Mariam Alam, MD and Caitlin Crimp, MD
 Mariam Alam, MD |
 Caitlin Crimp, MD |
See other articles on Dr. Alam’s and Crimp’s projects:
Drs. Alam & Crimp Receive Funding for ACGME Patient Engagement Project
Narrative Medicine Patient Panels Combat Bias & Burnout Through Storytelling
Back to Bedside Project Summaries
by amande | Apr 30, 2024 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
There are many things that are changing besides the weather.
With the imminent departure of Dr. Lindee Strizich, the current GME Director of Quality & Patient Safety at UWMC-ML, we are thinking about ways to improve our efforts and efficiency around the Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) site visit. We haven’t had one since January of 2019. Since then – and considering the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACGME has developed better procedures and practices to provide hospitals with feedback in the six CLER domains: patient safety, healthcare quality, teaming, supervision, well-being, and professionalism.
In addition, the ACGME recently introduced the new CLER domain of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (EDI), recognizing that these qualities are essential to improving patient and learner experiences –and achieving equity in healthcare. EDI replaces supervision as a stand-alone domain.
The ACGME CLER program is built upon the concept of continuous quality improvement. The purpose of the CLER site visit is to ensure that GME programs, in partnership with their hospital leadership, are meeting the demands of a rapidly evolving healthcare environment and are collectively aligned with the six cross-cutting domains listed above, including the new EDI domain.
Under Dr. Strizich’ leadership of the CLER committee, we have continued to develop ways to engage residents and fellows in quality and patient safety activities. These activities are critical to our learning environment and are mutually beneficial: housestaff learn from adverse events during intensive reviews and the hospital leadership, including risk management, learns about resources that are central to create safer learning environments for residents, fellows, and patients.
Three years ago, as the chair of the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC), I charged an EDI subcommittee to help improve all aspects of EDI in our learning environment. But EDI is not just a clinical issue; it is a systems issue. As a result, we have been thinking of better ways to align our goals with those of the hospital leadership so that we are not duplicating efforts but working together to boost those efforts.
Nationally, most hospitals have been making improvements in the six CLER domains, as demonstrated by the ACGME’s annual report on CLER. With these positive changes, and given that EDI is now folded under the CLER framework, we have decided to consolidate the work of our EDI subcommittee within the GMEC CLER Subcommittee. This group will consist of trainees and faculty with expertise to address EDI needs for our community. In addition, we will establish an ad hoc EDI workgroup. This new group will collaborate with other individuals and entities in our organization, improving the work we are already doing to deliver care that demonstrates cultural humility for all patients and their families.
Some of our current EDI efforts include support of the Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows (NURF), which is involved with the recruitment of new residents and fellows. We also work collaboratively with the Office of Healthcare Equity (OHCE) to expand awareness of education in, and policies that will create an antiracist environment in the SOM. The GME EDI Workgroup will be engaged in deciding which of the many projects we need to pursue aligned with these and other groups.
There is a lot to do – and GME wants to be involved by partnering with other UW Medicine entities to engage residents, fellow, nurses, staff, and faculty in developing a just culture where everyone is treated better.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by amande | Apr 18, 2024 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
It’s a busy, exciting time as we begin to onboard the approximately 500 new residents and fellows who will join our training programs this summer. Thanks in advance to program and department colleagues who work with the GME team on this big initiative. Please reach out to Shinetra Pryor (pryor@uw.edu) for support or questions. The April DIO blog reported on our great institutional Match results for this year.
The GME Office is offering several educational events for both program leadership and residents and fellows over the next few months. We are also hiring a second GME Float Administrator to join our team. Information about these is in the April GME News & Notes.
Thanks,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- Do you have questions about visa eligibility and requirements for program applicants? Resources for programs are posted on the Visas page on the GME website, including the September 2023 Lunch & Learn presentation on IMGs and Visa Sponsorship. The next Lunch & Learn on this topic is scheduled for September 19.
- GME Float Administrator: The GME Office is currently hiring for a second Float Administrator (Req #233223). If you have any questions about the position, please feel free to contact Gabrielle Pett (nathangl@uw.edu).
- Residency and Fellowship Position Appointment (RFPA) Agreement for 2024-2025: the AY25 RFPA was approved by GMEC on January 11 and is now available on the Policies and Procedures, Current Residents and Fellows, and Prospective Residents and Fellows pages of the GME website.
- Welcome New Program Administrators:
- Nick Cheung, Family Medicine
- Jeanine Hughes, Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Medicine
- Amy Ravenhorst, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Brain Injury Medicine, Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine, and Sports Medicine
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- Please consider supporting the UW SoM Medical Student Association fundraising drive. They have been working with the UW Bookstore to design and put together shirts, sweaters, crewnecks, and zip-hoodies to be marketed and sold to raise money for MSA to support medical student events and initiatives. The drive is scheduled to conclude on April 22nd, but they are working to extend the deadline. Purchase your gear at https://www.ubookstore.com/uwsom
- GME Lunch & Learns
- April 18: GMEPAC AY26; slides and recording now available
- May 16: Final Evaluations + Training Verifications; Moonlighting Update; Workplace Safety
- The third session of our Cultivating Skills in Feedback and Critical Conversations Education Series is Tuesday April 23 from 11:30am to 1:00pm (Zoom). The topic is: Tales from the CCC: Insider Stories on Elevating Trainee Assessment. Program directors, associate program directors, program administrators and faculty are welcome. For planning purposes, please RSVP. Please reach out to Amanda Easton and Jenn Johal if you have questions.
- We are excited to announce a comprehensive Four-Part Leadership Lecture Series designed specifically for residents and fellows! Each month, we will delve into crucial areas that shape effective leadership in the medical profession, presented by experts in the field. Mark your calendars and join us! Please see the January 18 email from Jennifer Best for more information.
- Program Administrator Meeting, May 14 from 8:30 – 9:30 am: ACGME Annual Educational Conference Recap
- Thank you again to those who attended the Scheduling Workshop Series! A lot of content was covered, and we appreciate your attendance and engagement. If you haven’t already shared, we would welcome your feedback on the series and/or thoughts for future training in this short, anonymous survey. Each of the workshop recordings are now available on the GME MedHub site under “Scheduling Resources” along with other helpful resources below:
- 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 April and May.
- In February, UW GME launched the new UW GME WhatsApp group exclusively for residents and fellows. Since its launch, we’ve welcomed over 70+ trainees to the community, and we have Expanded our Opportunities to include interest groups like “GME Parents” and “Quick Meals on the go!” Additionally, some other WhatsApp groups, such as “UW IMG Residents & Fellows” and “UW Surgery,” have linked up with the UW GME community, further enhancing connectivity and collaboration.
- The GME Office has put together a resource regarding information about legal matters for trainees. This document was created with input from Risk Management and Claims Services and is designed to be used by both trainees and programs. The resource is posted to the GME Website and can be found on the Current Residents and Fellows page under UW Resources.
- Physicians Anonymous is a peer based nonprofit organization which offers free anonymous support groups with med students, residents/fellows and MD/DOs who are suffering from burnout/mental health/suicidal ideation and substance use. There are a couple of groups during the week (free) and they also offer coaching (nominal fees). The group is fully anonymous so there is no mechanism for documentation or mandating referrals.
- Housestaff Emerging Academy of Leaders (HEAL) is a networking and professional development program designed for residents, fellows, and supporting faculty. HEAL participants attend virtual monthly sessions designed to provide them with key knowledge and skills that are necessary for their career success. The program is designed to further develop and provide housestaff (residents/fellows) from across the nation with the additional components needed, ideally, for a successful transition into the role of academic faculty. The HEAL-UTSW team is excited to start off HEAL-UTSW2024 next month, May 2024, and would love to see you there! Please complete your HEAL-UTSW application by May 13th.
- Safety Net is the new event reporting tool that replaced Patient Safety Net (PSN); there is now an icon for Safety Net on all UW Medicine desktop computers for easy access and all new reports should be entered using Safety Net. The Safety Net User Resource Page includes training materials, online support and transition plans.
People
- Every year, the UW School of Medicine Alumni Association recognizes exceptional alumni with a series of awards, presented during Reunion Weekend. Eligible alumni are those who received a degree from, or completed residency or fellowship training in, a program administered by the UW School of Medicine or one of its academic departments. The 2024 Award Recipients include:
- Lawrence E. Holland, MD, Orthopaedic Surgery ’86, Distinguished Alumnus Award
- Scott R. Stuart, MD ’01, Internal Medicine Res. ’04, Chief Res. ’05, Alumni Service Award
- Andrew Trister, MD, PhD, Radiation Oncology Res. ’10, Chief Res. ’14, Alumni Early Achievement Award
- Read more about each awardee here.
- The Huddle recently published an article written by Dr. Chen Wu, the faculty advisor for the Housestaff Quality & Safety Committee (HQSC) which took a group of trainees to learn about high reliability industries at a fantastic visit to Horizon Air. 3 Lessons Healthcare Teams Can Learn From Commercial Aviation
- This article in the Huddle features UW Medicine medical student programs and a new graduate medical education alliance that are working to address the shortage and increase community connections: Increasing Access to Physicians for American Indian Communities
- A New Era for Behavioral Health in Washington State UW Medicine announces the opening of the Center for Behavioral Health and Learning.
- National Recognition for UW Medicine Hospital Leaders: Cindy Hecker, Sommer Kleweno Walley and Jeannine Grinnell are included on Becker’s 2024 list of Women Hospital CEOs to Know.
- Ryan Abe, clinical instructor (General Internal Medicine) has been appointed the new Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) for the Division of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Abe will lead the development, implementation, and assessment of DEI initiatives across the division’s various clinical, research, scholarly, and training programs.
- Kelley Branch, Cardiovascular Disease Associate Program Director, authored “Evolution or Revolution?: AI in Coronary CT Evaluation” in the Journal of American College of Cardiology: Advances, and co-authored “Cardiovascular and renal outcomes with varying degrees of kidney disease in high-risk people with type 2 diabetes: An epidemiological analysis of data from the AMPLITUDE-O trial” in Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism.
- Jeffrey Probstfield, professor, and Kelley Branch, Cardiovascular Disease Associate Program Director, are co-authors of “The Cost-Effectiveness of Rivaroxaban Plus Aspirin Compared with Aspirin Alone in the COMPASS Trial: A US Perspective” in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs.
- Rory Cole, resident, was featured as a guest columnist for the Idaho Capital Sun, contributing “Commentary: My hardest decision: Practicing medicine in Idaho.”
- Molie Grow, Pediatrics Associate Program Director, is featured in “Here’s what changes could be coming to school meals in Washington” from KREM Spokane. She is also featured in “Along with cherry blossoms and the budding spring comes seasonal allergies” from KUOW.
- Cindy Hecker, University of Washington Medical Center CEO, is featured in “Opinion: Many patients, not enough beds — here’s how to solve a care crisis” from The Seattle Times.
- Barbara Jung, professor and chair of Medicine, is quoted in “Ozempic-like drugs linked to low, but increased risk of post-endoscopy pneumonia, study finds” in STAT.
- In the latest Department of Medicine resident scholarship spotlight, “Improving preconception & contraceptive counseling for people with rheumatologic diseases,” Leah Karlsen designed a framework providers can use for reviewing medications and ordering lab work during preconception visits. The framework also helps providers determine the safety of various contraceptive options in this patient population. View spotlight.
- Mukta Krane, Colon and Rectal Surgery Program Director, is featured in “Under 50? You need to think about colon cancer, too” from Right as Rain.
- Family Medicine’s Cognition in Primary Care team partnered with Amy Law and Joe Wilson from the GME Learning Gateway Team to create Cognition in Primary Care online, self-guided version of their popular live Zoom training series. This training supports primary care clinicians by providing best practices for diagnosing and treating patients with dementia. They structured content and built engaging interactions to create a 60-minute, CME eligible, learning experience that is being delivered to clinicians across the country through CDC’s learning platform.
- Edwin Lindo, Assistant Dean for Social and Health Justice within the Office of Healthcare Equity, is featured in “Advancing Reproductive Justice in OB-GYN” from The Huddle.
- John Lynch, HMC Associate Medical Director, was interviewed for PBS: The Invisible Shield the documentary series, which highlights the field of public health and the people working to improve health outcomes. He and Chloe Bryson-Cahn, associate professor, are also co-authors of a new study using genetic testing of preoperative patient microbiomes shows that most surgical-site infections that emerge after major spine surgery come from bacteria already on the patients’ bodies before they enter the hospital. Read the full story from UW Medicine Newsroom.
- James McCabe, Structural Heart Program Director, is co-author of “Transcatheter aortic valve implantation in patients with high-risk symptomatic native aortic regurgitation (ALIGN-AR): a prospective, multicentre, single-arm study” in the Lancet.
- Sarah Prager, Complex Family Planning Program Director, is featured in “Opill: The first over-the-counter birth control is here” from Right as Rain.
- Jacqueline Raetz, Family Medicine Associate Program Director, is featured in “Giving Primary Care Docs Training, Tools to Manage Dementia” from the UW Medicine Newsroom.
- Ganesh Raghu, Interstitial Lung Disease Program Director, is lead author, and Robin Bennett, professor (Medical Genetics) is senior author of “Genetic factors for ILD—the path of precision medicine” in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Department of Medicine co-author is Juliet Torres. Dr. Raghu was also co-senior author of “The Role of Inflammation and Fibrosis in ILD Treatment Decisions” in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
- Monica Soni, Internal Medicine resident, is lead author of “Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease” in JAMA. Senior author is Amiko Uchida, a graduate of the program.
- Ken Steinberg, Department of Medicine Vice Chair of Education and Internal Medicine Program Director, is co-author of “Strengthening the Integrity of the Match: A Novel, Comprehensive, Standardized, and Transparent Postinterview Communication Policy” in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
- Jürgen Unützer, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Chair, is featured in “Future cities must prioritize mental health of young people” from UW Medicine Newsroom. He is also featured in “What a decades-long study teaches us about brain health and aging” from UW Medicine.
- Vid Yogeswaran, fellow (Cardiology) has received a Research Fellowship Award from the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) to study atrial myopathy, atrial fibrillation and stroke outcomes. This competitive post-doctoral research fellowship in cardiac electrophysiology encourages and supports research training in basic or clinical electrophysiology and assists awardees in initiating careers in electrophysiology research while obtaining significant research results.
- Annette Wundes, Multiple Sclerosis Program Director, is featured in “Living with multiple sclerosis: HealthLink” from KING-TV.
- James Wykowski (former Internal Medicine Chief Resident) and other Department of Medicine faculty authored “An Embedded Curriculum to Teach Critical Incident Debriefing to Internal Medicine Residents” which was featured as an ACGME Article of the Week.
by amande | Apr 5, 2024 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
This month, we celebrate the incoming class of residents and fellows who will join us this summer! For the fourth year in a row, our residency and fellowship programs virtually recruited the most competitive medical students from around the country – and the world! This year, 91 of our 200+ total ACGME and non-ACGME training programs participated in the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) and 23 participated in the San Francisco Match.
Both the NRMP Main Residency and Specialties (Fellowship) Matches were the largest on record, with 41,503 positions available in the Main Residency Match and 13,365 positions in the Specialties Match. Each year the NRMP publishes comprehensive reports on results of the Main Residency and Specialties Match, drilling down to data on results by state, specialty, individual program and institution. These reports can be found in the Match and Data Analytics section of the NRMP website.
This year, the UWSOM offered, 296 positions in the Main Residency Match and 196 in the Specialties Match.
Main Residency Match
- In the Main Residency Match, the 27 participating UWSOM residency programs had a match rate of 95.5% (and 99.7% after the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program, or SOAP) compared to 93.8% nationally.
- From 2019-2022 we saw small year-to-year decreases in the number of UWSOM graduates matching to our residency programs, followed by an increase in UWSOM graduating residents matching in 2023. We saw a slight drop this year (49 graduates), but this reflected 17% of matched applicants and a higher match percentage than in 2021 and 2022.
Specialties Matching Program
- In the Specialties Match, the 64 participating UWSOM fellowship programs offered 196 positions with a match rate of 86.7% compared to 83.7% nationally.
- The Match outcomes for some of our UW fellowship programs appear reflective of national trends in several specialties that have seen an increase in positions offered in the Match (e.g., Addiction Medicine, Infectious Diseases and many of the Pediatric fellowships), coupled with a decrease in the number of active Match applicants.
- Of the 23 UWSOM positions unfilled in the Match this year, 17 have been filled post-Match.
- 41 of the 170 spots filled in the Match were filled by UWSOM residents, a slight increase over last year.
Increasing Diversity in our Training Programs
UW Medicine is creating a healthcare system that works for everyone. To that end, it is essential that we prioritize diversifying the medical workforce. This is not just a moral imperative. It is a practical one, as diversity can lead to better health outcomes and a more effective healthcare system overall.
This year our programs reported increases in both Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), as well as Underrepresented in Medicine (URM) candidates who matched in our medical and dental programs. As we work together to increase and, more importantly, sustain inclusivity and diversity in our workforce, we can continue to model, teach and actually provide better equity for all patients in our community.
For the third year, the GME Office and NURF hosted Town Halls to help our programs attract underrepresented and vulnerable minority candidates. One of the NURF Town Halls had more than 600 participants. I want to congratulate program and department leadership, residents and fellows, and the Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows (NURF) for their tremendous efforts in our journey to diversify our learning community.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by amande | Apr 4, 2024 | Announcements, News
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Byron Joyner, MD, MPA |
 Cindy Hamra, JD, MA |
Jennifer Best, MD |
|
Huskies do BIG things together on Husky Giving Day! This year we ask that you consider supporting the GME Vision Fund which promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for physicians in training.
We know that patients have better outcomes when they are cared for by physicians with shared lived experience. Our commitment to UW Medicine’s mission of improving the health of the public means training the excellent physicians who will care for our patients. In doing so, we need to recognize the diversity that exists across our patient population and recruit and retain residents and fellows who have diverse social and experiential backgrounds.
The Vision Fund was created with a grant from Dr. Byron Joyner (Vice Dean of Graduate Medical Education) who was motivated by the need to increase the diversity of our residents and fellows and interest in improving the lives patients who have historically had worse healthcare outcomes. The fund received a $10,000 personal donation from Drs. Paul and Bonnie Ramsey, which was matched by a $10,000 grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, where Dr. Paul Ramsey is a Trustee Emeritus. We ask that you follow in the spirit of these leaders and help us to continue to grow this vision by contributing to this endowed fund in Graduate Medical Education.
The Vision Fund advances GME’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and related efforts in this area. The fund is designed to also directly support residents, fellows and faculty who are committed to diversity-related work in our communities, whose record of research, teaching, service, and outreach reflects a commitment to health equity and healthcare disparities, and/or who participate in the UW Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows initiatives.
Join us in supporting the Vision Fund to accelerate first-rate graduate medical education and better patient care.
#HuskyGivingDay
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
Cindy Hamra, JD, MA
Associate Dean, Operations and Administration
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
by amande | Mar 22, 2024 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
We’ve had a lot of great events in the last month: on February 23, the GME Team celebrated Thank a Resident Day by sharing lunches and treats for our residents and fellows. Many members of our community attended the ACGME annual educational conference in Florida in early March, and several gave presentations and Review Committee updates and presented posters. Finally, March 15 was Match Day, and we look forward to welcoming our incoming trainees over the next few months.
March is Women’s History Month, which celebrates women’s contributions to history and their present and future impact on society. Information about this year’s theme and resources can be found on The Huddle.
Husky Giving Day is 4/4! We invite you to contribute to the GME Vision Fund, which advances our diversity and inclusion programs and efforts.
There are several wonderful GME educational events planned in the next few weeks and months as well. These and other resources are captured in the March News and Notes.
Thanks,
Cindy
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- March 21: Annual Program Evaluations (APEs), slides and recording are now available
- April 18: GMEPAC AY26
- May 16: Final Evaluations + Training Verifications & Workplace Safety
- The second session of our Cultivating Skills in Feedback and Critical Conversations Education Series is Tuesday March 26 from 11:30am to 1:00pm (Zoom). The topic is: Supportive Structures for Feedback and Other Conversations That Matter. Program directors, associate program directors, program administrators and faculty are welcome. For planning purposes, please reach out to Amanda Easton and Jenn Johal if you would like to attend and have not yet RSVPd.
- We are excited to announce a comprehensive Four-Part Leadership Lecture Series designed specifically for residents and fellows! Each month, we will delve into crucial areas that shape effective leadership in the medical profession, presented by experts in the field. Mark your calendars and join us! Registration opened in February. Please see the January 18 email from Jennifer Best for more information.
- The time of year has come when we know many of you are beginning to consider and set up your schedules for the upcoming year. Please mark your calendars for our Scheduling Workshop Series on April 2, 3, & 4! Please see the GME Calendar for detailed information including Zoom links for each event.
- Level up your MedHub knowledge with MedHub Ready – a FREE webinar series – available to all MedHub GME Office Users on Wednesday, March 27 at 11:00am PT. This webinar covers GME Evaluations. Registration and agenda information are now available.
- Upcoming Program Director Development Series: This is a reminder to register for our Spring Program Director Development Series on April 8th. Please register at: https://sites.uw.edu/uwgme/pdds-registration/. This season we are excited to offer two transformative sessions dedicated to the advancement of resident and fellow well-being and the refinement of recruitment program strategies. All sessions will be held on Zoom.
- The UWSOM is sponsoring the 2024 Graduate Medical Education (GME) Summit. The focus will be collaborating to address workforce needs within the WWAMI region and beyond. Registration for the Summit is now open! Join us on April 25-26, 2024, in Anchorage, Alaska.
- The Lasker Foundation’s 2024 Essay Contest is open now through April 2, 2024, at 2PM ET. Winning essays will be published in the July 2024 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and on the Lasker Foundation website. The contest is open to medical students, interns, residents, doctoral and postdoctoral fellows in the biomedical sciences and grad students in health – and awards several winners up to $5,000 for educational expenses. This year’s essay contest theme is: Identify a specific unmet need in biomedical knowledge or a scientific question that is insufficiently addressed in biomedical research today. For more information, detailed guidelines, and stories on past winners, please visit the essay contest webpage.
- Space still available for CRISP: CLINICAL RESEARCH INTENSIVE SUMMER PROGRAM: Applications are still being accepted for this new course designed to provide clinical investigators with hands-on experience in key clinical research skills to accelerate their career development. The program runs July 8–26, 2024 at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center campus in Seattle. A draft daily curriculum may now be viewed on the website under “Class Schedule & Draft Daily Topics.” Read more on the CRISP webpage.
- 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 March and April.
- The ACGME’s Back to Bedside initiative is designed to empower residents and fellows to develop transformative projects that foster meaning and joy in work and allow them to engage on a deeper level with what is at the heart of medicine: their patients. This initiative supports resident- and fellow-directed innovations. Proposals are due by April 22, 2024. Learn More.
- 2025 ACGME Awards: Nomination materials are available on each award’s page in the Awards section of the ACGME website. All nominations are due March 27, 2024. Please reach out to the GME office if you plan to submit an application.
- Safety Net is the new event reporting tool that replaced Patient Safety Net (PSN); there is now an icon for Safety Net on all UW Medicine desktop computers for easy access and all new reports should be entered using Safety Net. The Safety Net User Resource Page includes training materials, online support and transition plans.
People
- Congratulations to Internal medicine residents who received Best Poster awards at the recent Northwest Regional Society for General Internal Medicine conference: Jaspreet Bahia (Clinical Vignette: “Large Vessel Vasculitis (LVV): A diagnostic challenge”) and Reema Navalurkar (Scientific Abstract: “Hands-on Teaching to Boost Internal Medicine Interns’ Comfort with Harm Reduction”).
- Dan Cabrera (Internal Medicine Associate Program Director) and Barbara Jung (Department of Medicine Chair) who were elected to Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) councils.
- Christopher Goss, professor (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) and Mark Derleth, Gastroenterology Program Director, are co-authors of “Pancreatic enzyme prescription following ivacaftor licensing: A retrospective analysis of the US and UK cystic fibrosis registries” in the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis.
- Mark Harrast (Sports Medicine PM&R Program Director) is featured in “What happens to your body when you run a marathon?” from Everyday Health.
- Anna Morenz, clinician researcher (General Internal Medicine) is lead author and Sophia Hayes, fellow (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) is senior author of “Area-Level Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Health Care Spending: A Systematic Review” in JAMA Network Open. Department of Medicine co-authors are Joshua Liao and David Au.
- Congratulations to Julie Hodapp on her appointment to the Rehabilitation Medicine Residency Director Endowed Professorship. This professorship was established in 2009 to support the director of the UW Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Residency Program. Read more.
- Barbara Jung, Chair of Medicine, is featured in “Colon cancer blood test shows promise for early detection” from The New York Times. She is also quoted in “A simple blood test can detect colorectal cancer early, study finds” from NPR.
- Mukta Krane, Colon and Rectal Surgery Program Director, is featured in “Colorectal cancer still mostly affects people over 50, but diagnoses in younger people have been climbing” from Right as Rain.
- Ila Nimgaonkar, Internal Medicine resident, is lead author, and Joshua Hill, associate professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is senior author of “Outcomes in Hematopoietic Cell Transplant and Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Therapy Recipients with Pre-Cellular Therapy SARS-CoV-2 Infection” in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Department of Medicine co-authors are Leah Yoke, Masumi Ueda Oshima, Jordan Gauthier, Marco Mielcarek, Michael Boeckh and Catherine Liu.
- Claire Oduwo, Psychiatry resident and RFPU-NW President, was featured in the Macy Foundation Blog post entitled “The Role Advocacy Plays in the Health Professions.”
- Clinical trial results published recently describe a novel medical device that, in a 10-patient pilot, showed remarkable success at rescuing people from multiorgan failure caused by acute-on-chronic liver failure. Suhail Ahmad, professor emeritus (Nephrology) is co-lead developer of the device and lead author on the paper. Department of Medicine co-authors are Iris Liou, Transplant Hepatology Associate Program Director, Robert Carithers, professor emeritus, and Renuka Bhattacharya, Transplant Hepatology Program Director. Read the full story from UW Medicine Newsroom.
- Sarah Prager, Complex Family Planning Program Director, is featured in “First over-the-counter birth control pill heads to stores” from NPR.
- The latest Department of Medicine faculty spotlight is on Meena Ramchandani, Program Director, Infectious Diseases. Learn more about her on the Department of Medicine news site.
- Ganesh Raghu, Interstitial Lung Disease Program Director, is lead author of “Meaningful Endpoints for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) Clinical Trials: Emphasis on ‘Feels, Functions, Survives’” in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
- Ginny Ryan, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Program Director, is featured in “Opinion: IVF treatment builds families — we need to preserve it” from The Seattle Times.
- The latest Department of Medicine staff spotlight is on Stephanie Santos, programs manager, General Internal Medicine, and DEI champion. Learn more about her on the Department of Medicine news site.
- Jürgen Unützer, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Chair, is featured in “Future cities must prioritize mental health of young people” from UW Medicine Newsroom.
by amande | Mar 8, 2024 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
It’s time to celebrate our amazing learning community. I am excited to share the results of a recent survey of our residency and fellowship program alumni. This survey is an initiative included in our new GME Strategic Plan which will enhance our expertise in analyzing data, bridging information systems and delivering better reports. This month, I’ve asked Allison Shults, GME Residency Management System (RMS) and Information Systems Manager, to write about the alumni survey findings. I salute our alumni!
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Designated Institutional Official
Allison Shults
As RMS & Information Systems Manager with the GME Office, I oversee our community’s use of MedHub, which is our Residency Management System (RMS). I work closely with the data it collects from our users. In my role, I have the unique privilege of supporting many GME Strategic Plan initiatives by analyzing and sharing data that reflects our amazing learning community. Whether highlighting GME’s long history (our first accredited training program was 1952!) or the portfolio of programs and trainees we support (200+ programs and 1600+ trainees each year!), there is a myriad of data that tells the story of GME and illustrates how far and deep our community reaches. I would like to share our story with you.
I’m excited to focus here on our incredible resident and fellow alumni. They represent the best in medical education and serve as leaders in their communities. They are engaged during their training and remain engaged – whether through learning in CME courses, staying on as faculty, practicing in the WWAMI region, or being recognized for their contributions to public health and well-being.
But don’t just take my word for it – the data speaks for itself:
Alumni Practice Where They Trained
Studies repeatedly show that trainees are likely to practice in the same state as their residency program, and our alumni are no exception. We recently surveyed our graduates from the last 5 years (2018-2023) and found that 38% of 322 respondents are currently practicing in the WWAMI region (36% specifically in Washington)! In reality, this number is likely much higher considering our vast alumni base.
Reflecting GME’s mission to build physician-leaders that represent and enhance the communities we serve, it is exciting to see that our graduates also practice in diverse settings:
Not only do our alumni show a desire to work locally, but they also show a desire to lead. In our survey, 31% of respondents report holding a leadership position in their current organization. Multiple alumni have been recognized for their leadership in hospitals, research, mentorship, and much more.
Alumni Stay Engaged With GME
GME alumni recognize the impact of their training and continue to stay engaged in the UW community as both fellows and faculty. Over the last ten years, we have seen more than 700+ trainees stay on as UWSOM faculty, and 22% of UWSOM residents matched to UWSOM fellowship programs last academic year.
Our program leadership recognizes the many talents of our trainees and interviewed 82% of alumni who were interested in a further position at UWSOM [FIGURE 2].
GME is proud to have a community dedicated to supporting and enhancing the learning environment for our trainees, and the success of those efforts shined through in the survey. When asked whether our alumni felt their program prepared them for their position, a resounding 96% agreed (68% strongly agree and 28% agree) and 88% agreed that they would recommend their training program to others.
Alumni are Awarded for Their Impact
Given the data on our alumni’s success, it should come as no surprise that they continue to be recognized across the University and their communities. Alumni of UWSOM residency and fellowship programs have been recognized by the UW School of Medicine Alumni Association in each award category, including one Lifetime Achievement Award winner, one Lifetime of Service Award winner, and many more:
It’s clear from the data that UW GME alumni are shining examples of their training who represent their peers and UW School of Medicine well.
The GME Office celebrates the many contributions our alumni make and the successes they share with us. We are looking forward to continuing to receive valuable feedback from sources like our alumni survey. The GME Strategic Plan has created a renewed focus on advocating for our learning community and committing to enhancing the quality of the clinical learning environment, but we can only do this by first understanding the current landscape. We are implementing new initiatives to gain more insight which can help us navigate the future and create long-term successes. Personally, I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
Allison Shults
RMS and Information Systems Manager
by amande | Feb 23, 2024 | Announcements, News
On this Thank A Resident Day, the UW GME team offers its gratitude to every one of our residents and fellows. It is our team’s privilege to support, serve, and advocate for you as you pursue your paths to improving the health of communities across the world!
- Advocating for what your patients need, even when it is hard.
- Being there, even when you are tired.
- Caring for each other, even when it means extra work.
- Discovering solutions after asking hard questions.
- Enriching our community with your life experiences and unique perspectives.
- Forging ahead and speaking up when you see injustices and inequities.
- Getting to know one another and building community
- Helping junior residents and sharing your knowledge with students
- Inspiring others with your courage
We work each day to do the same for you because we know you are the future.
Each one of you is a source of pride for your friends and loved ones, your program directors and faculty, your patients, and this institution. We hope you also pause for a moment today to feel deeply proud of yourselves, where you are now, and where you are heading. So many good things are ahead!
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Cindy Hamra, JD
Associate Dean, Operations and Administration
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by amande | Feb 22, 2024 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
Please join me in welcoming our new Appointment Manager, Shinetra Pryor who joined the GME Team on January 31st! Shinetra is joining us from the UWSOM Geriatric and Palliative Care fellowship programs where she was the Program Administrator. Shinetra has worked within UW Medicine since 2007 and joins GME with a wealth of knowledge. She was also recently awarded the Recipient of the inaugural Department of Medicine Outstanding Staff Award!
Thank a Resident Day is Friday February 23rd. Thank a Resident Day is sponsored by the Gold Humanism Honor Society and takes place each year to collectively show gratitude and appreciation for residents and how integral they are to the healthcare team. We’re planning GME Outreach events and encourage programs and departments to plan to celebrate as well!
Finally, in February, we celebrate Black History Month. Since there are so many wonderful resources, we’ve added a section in the newsletter directing to many of them.
Thanks,
Cindy
Black History Month
- The Office of Healthcare Equity is an excellent resource for talks and training on the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and justice. The Huddle Black History Month page provides digital assets to take part in this month’s celebration, as well as learning resources for all employees and self-care resources for Black employees.
- Black History Month: Celebration, Reflection and Action: Read the message from UW Medicine leadership celebrating the contributions of our Black colleagues and learn how our health system is working to dismantle healthcare inequities.
- We invite you to read this excellent article on the recent history of black physicians in Seattle and on George Counts, the first Black professor in the UW Department of Medicine and an important leader in Public Health and mentor to many.
- Celebrating Black History Month: Honoring Ancestors, Looking Forward from The Huddle explores themes of history, art, equity and community and features Ivana Thompson, Associate Chair of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
- Read more on President Cauce’s blog post and explore ways to engage through The Whole U.
Policies and Processes
- The AAMC, in collaboration with the ACGME, is administering the AAMC Resident Readiness Survey, a process of collecting and sharing information back to medical schools about their graduates’ readiness for GME. Program directors currently training any PGY-1 resident who is a 2023 graduate from any of the 174 participating medical schools have been invited to respond to the Resident Readiness Survey administered via GME Track. We encourage program directors who have not completed entering the information to do so before February 23, 2024. They should log into GME Track, click the Resident Readiness tab at the top of the screen.
- Residency and Fellowship Position Appointment (RFPA) Agreement for 2024-2025: the AY25 RFPA was approved by GMEC on January 11 and is now available on the Policies and Procedures, Current Residents and Fellows, and Prospective Residents and Fellows pages of the GME website.
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new Non-ACGME program directors:
- Brittany Barber, Head and Neck Oncology and Microvascular Reconstruction Fellowship
- Craig Birgfeld, Pediatric Craniofacial Surgery
- Meghan Flanagan, Breast Oncology Surgery
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- February 15: Washington Physicians Health Program (WPHP), slides and recording are now available
- March 21: Annual Program Evaluations (APEs)
- April 18: GMEPAC AY26
- GME Event Follow up: Navigating Parental Leave During Residency and Fellowship – recorded virtual event held on February 6, 2024 has been posted on the GME website, including several resources. Bre Leatherman is available to answer any questions you may have.
- The first session of our Cultivating Skills in Feedback and Critical Conversations Education Series is Tuesday February 27 from 11:30am to 1:00pm. In response to your feedback, we will be offering an in person session with lunch provided and a virtual option. The focus of the 2/27 session will be: Why Feedback Matters – The Impact of Feedback Culture and Remediation on Programs, Learners and Leaders. Program directors, associate program directors, program administrators and faculty are welcome. For planning purposes, please RSVP by Friday, 2/16. Please reach out to Amanda Easton and Jenn Johal if you have questions and we hope to see many of you there.
- We are excited to announce a comprehensive Four-Part Leadership Lecture Series designed specifically for residents and fellows! Each month, we will delve into crucial areas that shape effective leadership in the medical profession, presented by experts in the field. Mark your calendars and join us! Registration will open in February. Please see the January 18 email from Jennifer Best for more information.
- Upcoming Program Director Development Series: This is a reminder to registration for our Spring Program Director Development Series on March 19th or April 8th. Please register at: https://sites.uw.edu/uwgme/pdds-registration/ .This season we are excited to offer two transformative sessions dedicated to the advancement of resident and fellow well-being and the refinement of recruitment program strategies. All sessions will be held on Zoom.
- Registration for the ACGME Meaning in Medicine 2024 Annual Education Conference is open! The conference is in Orlando, FL March 7-9, 2024. Support for meeting attendance is ensured by the clinical chair in every new Program Director Appointment Letter. Several members of the UW GME team will be attending the conference and we would like to know if you’ll be attending and/or presenting. Once we have a sense of UW representation, we are hoping to find time for UWSOM colleagues to get together for an onsite lunch or photo. Please contact Amanda Easton if you or members from your department will be in attendance.
- The UWSOM is sponsoring the 2024 Graduate Medical Education (GME) Summit. The focus will be collaborating to address workforce needs within the WWAMI region and beyond. Registration for the Summit is now open! Join us on April 25-26, 2024, in Anchorage, Alaska.
- Space still available for CRISP: CLINICAL RESEARCH INTENSIVE SUMMER PROGRAM: Applications are still being accepted for this new course designed to provide clinical investigators with hands-on experience in key clinical research skills to accelerate their career development. The program runs July 8–26, 2024 at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center campus in Seattle. A draft daily curriculum may now be viewed on the website under “Class Schedule & Draft Daily Topics.” Read more here.
- 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 February and March.
- On February 14, a new safety event reporting tool called Safety Net will replace Patient Safety Net (PSN), a legacy system that has been in use at UW Medicine for nearly 20 years. There is now an icon for Safety Net on all UW Medicine desktop computers for easy access and all new reports should be entered using Safety Net. Safety Net is an online reporting tool that will help us improve the process of submitting and tracking safety reports so that we can continue to prioritize the safety of our patients, staff, faculty and trainees. For a detailed guide on using the system, please view the instructional video on ‘How to enter an event report in the Safety Net System.’ Safety Net seamlessly integrates reports from Risk Management and Patient Relations thanks to the collaborative effort of teams across UW Medicine. The Safety Net User Resource Page includes training materials, online support and transition plans.
- 2025 ACGME Awards: Nomination materials are available on each award’s page in the Awards section of the ACGME website. All nominations are due March 27, 2024. Please reach out to the GME office if you plan to submit an application.
- Please remember that the UW Medicine Bias Reporting Tool is a place to share 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. The GME Concern Reporting tool is also available to members of the GME community to report concerns about the learning environment.
- The ACGME’s Back to Bedside initiative is designed to empower residents and fellows to develop transformative projects that foster meaning and joy in work and allow them to engage on a deeper level with what is at the heart of medicine: their patients. This initiative supports resident- and fellow-directed innovations. Proposals are due by April 22, 2024. Learn More
- Please review “Access to UW Medicine Care for Employees” from The Huddle for information about help for UW Medicine employees and their families to gain better access to UW Medicine facilities and providers.
- The GME Office is supporting a project called the Names & Pronunciations Initiative, which aims to not only highlight the importance of name pronunciations, but also improve communication by providing physical badges (for those who want one) which include users’ written phonetic name pronunciation. Anyone interested in learning more about the project or who wants to order a pronunciation badge can do so here: https://www.names-pronunciations-initiative.com/. If you have any questions, please email Sudiptho (UW MS4) at sudiptho@uw.edu.
People
- Maheetha Bharadwaj, Urology resident, is featured in “Is it Normal to Wake Up to Pee in the Middle of the Night?” from Parade.
- Katherine Bennett, Geriatric Medicine Program Director, is senior author of “Fumbling the handoff—Exploring the transition experiences of program directors in geriatric medicine” in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
- The UW School of Medicine Colleges Program in the MD program teaches foundational clinical skills, coaches developing physicians, and fosters meaningful relationships and sense of community for UW medical students across the WWAMI region. In July 2024, the Colleges program on the Seattle campus will be expanding from 2 to 4 Colleges and is proud to be welcoming two outstanding leaders from the DOM as new College Heads. This includes Gaby Berger, Internal Medicine Associate Program Director.
- Jennifer Best, Associate Dean for GME (Education and Accreditation), is senior author of “The DIO Needs a Cabinet: Identifying and Supporting Designated Institutional “Others” in Graduate Medical Education” in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education.
- Kelley Branch, Cardiovascular Disease Associate Program Director, and Jeff Probstfield, professor (Cardiology) are co-authors of “The Cost-Effectiveness of Rivaroxaban Plus Aspirin Compared with Aspirin Alone in the COMPASS Trial: A US Perspective” in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs. Dr. Branch is also co-author of “Cardiovascular and renal outcomes with varying degrees of kidney disease in high-risk people with type 2 diabetes: An epidemiological analysis of data from the AMPLITUDE-O trial” in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
- On the latest episode of “Beyond the White Coat,” AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, talks with Justin Bullock, MD, MPH (Nephrology fellow), and Yunyu Xiao, PhD, about the stigmas that surround mental health in the medical profession and how those stigmas trickle down into patient care. The episode is available wherever podcasts are streaming and can also be accessed on YouTube. Listen Now. He has also been selected as the new co-director of Docs with Disabilities Initiative, joining the 2024-26 leadership team. Docs with Disabilities Initiative is a leader for disability inclusion in health professions training globally. Learn more on the Department of Medicine news site.
- Richard Cheng, Advanced Heart Failure/Transplant Cardiology Program Director, is quoted in “Demystifying cardiac sarcoidosis” in Medscape.
- Recognizing outstanding leadership since 2006, the Thorud Leadership Award is the highest leadership honor at the University of Washington. Congratulations to this year’s nominees from the Department of Medicine, Debra Cherry, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program Director (General Internal Medicine), William Lombardi, CHIP – Advanced Hemodynamic Care and Complex Coronary Interventional Program Director (Cardiology) and Susan Wong, associate professor (Nephrology).
- Jason Deen, associate professor of pediatrics and medicine (Cardiology) has been appointed chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Native American Child Health (CONACH). Dr. Deen, a current member of CONACH, is a pediatric cardiologist, vice chair for equity, diversity and inclusion in the Department of Pediatrics and director of the UWSOM Indian Health Pathway.
- Sara Gunby, fellow (Gastroenterology) is referenced in “Smoking and Drinking Up the Risk for Diverticulitis” in Medscape.
- Jonathan Harper, Endourology Program Director, is featured in “Millennials, Listen Up: No. 1 Tip to Prevent Kidney Stones” from Right as Rain.
- Whitney Harper, program operations specialist (Internal Medicine Residency) is co-author of “Optimizing the Internal Medicine Residency Recruitment Process: A National Survey of Program Directors and Next Steps” in the American Journal of Medicine.
- Ramesh Iyer, Radiology Vice Chair of Education, has been appointed as Section Chief of Pediatric Radiology and Site Director for Seattle Children’s Hospital.
- Lily Jeong, incoming fellow (Nephrology) is a 2024 recipient of the American Society of Nephrology Loan Mitigation Pilot Program. This program aims to reduce the loan burden of future nephrology leaders. Dr. Jeong completed medical school and is currently in her last year of residency at UW in the clinician educator track.
- Barbara Jung, Department of Medicine chair, is featured in “’GI is Everything’: An Interview with AGA President Dr. Barbara Jung” from Op-Med Doximity. She is also author of the op-ed “Why Are We Letting Insurers Dictate Patient Care?” from MedPage Today.
- Andrew Ko, Neurological Surgery Program Director, is featured in “Analysis: Several companies are testing brain implants — why is there so much attention swirling around Neuralink? Two professors unpack the ethical issues” from The Conversation.
- Andrew Koth (Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Program Director), Emily Rhee (Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Associate Program Director), and Jessica McDade (fellow) are featured in “A Day in the Life of Employees Fostering Equity, Diversity and Inclusion” from The Huddle.
- Hannah Linden, Hematology and Oncology Associate Program Director, is co-author of “Activity and safety of enobosarm, a novel, oral, selective androgen receptor modulator, in androgen receptor- positive, oestrogen receptor-positive, and HER2-negative advanced breast cancer (Study G200802): a randomised, open-label, multicentre, multinational, parallel design, phase 2 trial” in The Lancet.
- Heather McPhillips, UWSOM Associate Dean for Curriculum, has been elected Chair of the ACGME Pediatric Residency Review Committee to begin serving on July 1, 2024.
- Susan Merel, associate professor, Gabrielle Berger, Internal Medicine Associate Program Director, Amanda Shepherd, Internal Medicine Associate Program Director, Lindsay Gibbon, clinical assistant professor (General Internal Medicine) and Patricia Kritek, SOM Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs, are co-authors of “An Embedded Curriculum to Teach Critical Incident Debriefing to Internal Medicine Residents” in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education. Lead author is former chief resident James Wykowski.
- Leo Morales, Assistant Dean for Healthcare Equity and Quality, is quoted in “More states offer health care coverage for certain immigrants, noncitizens” from San Jose Mercury News.
- Paul Nghiem is the founding chair of the Department of Dermatology as of March 1, 2024.
- Johnnie Orozco, Hematology and Oncology Associate Program Director, and Phuong Vo, associate professor, are co-lead authors, and Brenda Sandmaier, professor (Hematology and Oncology) is senior author of “Targeted Radiation Delivery before Haploidentical HCT for High-risk Leukemia or MDS Patients Yields Long-term Survivors” in Clinical Cancer Research. Department of Medicine co-authors are Ajay Gopal and Damian Green. The paper was also featured in the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Science Highlights.
- Meena Ramchandi, Infectious Diseases Program Director, is featured in “UW Medicine: King County sees ‘great increase’ in syphilis cases following national trend” from My Northwest.com.
- Coralynn Sack, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Associate Program Director, is lead author of “Airway Tree Caliber and Susceptibility to Pollution-associated Emphysema: MESA Air and Lung Studies” in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Department of Medicine co-author is Joel Kaufman.
- The Huddle recently featured an article, New Program Provides Rural Surgery Training for Residents. General Surgery R4 Hannah Wild is the first resident to participate in the track.
- The Department of Surgery Newsletter ‘Surgery Synopsis’ features many voices of the GME community, including Program Directors, trainees, and program staff. Check out the Winter 2024 issue.
- Crystal Brown, assistant professor (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) is lead author and Bessie Young, Vice Dean of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, is senior author of “Physician Perspectives on Addressing Anti-Black Racism” in JAMA Network Open. Department of Medicine co-authors are Arisa Marshall, Kristine Cueva and Erin Kross.
- Michelle Zhang, R3, was an invited presenter at the Best of SWOG research webinar on her research, evaluating the relationship between obesity and survival in patients with acute myeloid leukemia treated on the SWOG 1203 clinical trial. Read more on the Department of Medicine news site.
by amande | Feb 9, 2024 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
I am very excited about our new, 6-year GME strategic plan We’re excited about this plan, which shapes our priorities, guides our work and allows us to request resources. It’s also an important way for GME to communicate to our stakeholders about the breadth and depth of our work on behalf of this community. For the February DIO Blog, I’ve invited Cindy Hamra, Associate Dean for GME to share an update on the GME Strategic Plan. We’ll continue to share updates a few times each year to keep you updated on our progress.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Designated Institutional Official
Cindy Hamra, JD, MA
In August, we introduced the new GME Strategic Plan, which will be effective from July 2023 through June 2029. This is our fourth strategic plan since I have been in the GME Office and it’s by far been our most inclusive and robust process. We learn from each iteration.
The process of developing the final version of our strategic plan took about 11 months and included a SWOT survey to GME stakeholders, data analysis by a group of GME team members, reviewing guiding documents including ACGME requirements, the UW Medicine Strategic Plan, and the Office of Healthcare Equity Blueprint. We identified several themes and framed them according to our strategic values, which have guided our work since 2019. Although contexts may change, our strategic values have not. A snapshot of the resulting plan looks like this:
We’ve shared this resulting plan with many groups since July 2023, including this video. Our team has simultaneously been working on implementation – planning out the projects and work that we want to accomplish. I’m excited to share some of the many projects that are already complete or underway!
| Strategic Value |
Strategic Initiative |
Project / Work |
| Advocacy |
Improve communication to programs and trainees regarding grant funding impacts |
Develop GME Grant Funding Policy – complete |
| Communication |
Leverage collective expertise of senior GME educators and share educational / administrative best practices |
Develop template for new Vice Chair for Education (VCE) roles that can be used by departments in oversight of the educational mission – complete |
| Communication |
Leverage collective expertise of senior GME educators and share educational / administrative best practices |
Engage departmental VCE to inform GME practices and community education and enhance program support – in progress
|
| Communication |
Gather community for relationship building to enhance well-being in the workplace |
GME Office Professional Development Discussion Series – in progress
|
| Expertise |
Strengthen support for and oversight of non-ACGME programs |
Develop Visa Matrix for departments to navigate requirements for fellows in faculty and non-faculty titles – complete |
| Integration |
Proactively align educational structures with UW Medicine’s clinical strategy |
Patients experiencing incarceration eLearning module – in progress
|
| Integration |
Proactively align educational structures with UW Medicine’s clinical strategy |
HealthierHere eLearning module – in progress |
| People |
Build trust / credibility with trainees at-large |
Enhance mechanisms for receiving and responding to trainee feedback (e.g., special reviews, chief residents listening sessions, trainee forum) – in progress |
The table above reflects a fraction of the work that is underway. We welcome input from and participation by our community. If you’re interested in joining this work, feel free to reach out to me.
We’ll continue to share updates with you for the duration of the plan. In the meantime, feel free to reach out if you have questions or feedback. We believe this work will make our GME community stronger and the learning experience better for our residents and fellows.
Cindy A. Hamra, JD, MA
Associate Dean, Operations & Administration
Graduate Medical Education| UW Medicine
by amande | Jan 19, 2024 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
Happy new year! There are lots of reasons to celebrate this month including Dr. Byron Joyner, our Vice Dean and DIO receiving the 2024 Presidential Citation from the American Urological Association, and Dr. Claire Oduwo, Psychiatry resident, receiving the UW Medicine Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award in 2024.
Please plan ahead for Thank a Resident Day, which will be Friday February 23rd. Thank a Resident Day is sponsored by the Gold Humanism Honor Society and takes place each year to collectively show gratitude and appreciation for residents and how integral they are to the healthcare team. We’re planning GME Outreach events and encourage programs and departments to plan to celebrate as well!
Please remember that the UW Medicine Bias Reporting Tool is a place to share 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. The GME Concern Reporting tool is also available to members of the GME community to report concerns about the learning environment.
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- Residency and Fellowship Position Appointment (RFPA) Agreement for 2024-2025: the AY25 RFPA was approved by GMEC on January 11 and is now available on the Policies and Procedures, Current Residents and Fellows, and Prospective Residents and Fellows pages of the GME website. A communication about the updated agreement was sent to current residents, fellows, program directors and program administrators on January 16. Programs currently interviewing candidates for the 2024-2025 academic year must provide candidates with a copy of the updated agreement.
- The GMEC approved revisions to the following policies at the January meeting. All are posted on the Policies and Procedures page of the GME website.
- Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Registration Policy: Minor updates were made to the DEA Registration Policy including adding a Purpose statement and updating the attestation requirement for opioid management training, which was communicated to programs in May 2023.
- Resident and Fellow Evaluation Policy: Has been revised to include non-ACGME fellowships and NST programs. A new Definitions section has been added, and the Policy section reorganized to clarify PD responsibilities and evaluation processes. Significant updates were made to the Semiannual and End of Year Evaluation sections, with a specific focus on NST trainees. The Resident Evaluation Management and Access section was renamed and updated, and outdated guidelines were removed from the attachments.
- A reminder that residents and fellows are 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
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- January 18: ACGME Surveys, slides and recording are now available
- February 15: Washington Physicians Health Program (WPHP)
- March 21: Annual Program Evaluations (APEs)
- We are excited to announce a comprehensive Four-Part Leadership Lecture Series designed specifically for residents and fellows! Each month, we will delve into crucial areas that shape effective leadership in the medical profession, presented by experts in the field. Mark your calendars and join us! Registration will open in February. Please see the January 18 email from Jennifer Best for more information.
- Navigating Parental Leave for Resident & Fellow Physicians will be Tuesday, February 6th from 6:30-7:30pm via Zoom. Please see the agenda. Register at: https://sites.uw.edu/uwgme/event-registration/. Registration closes February 2. If you can’t make it, a recording will be posted to the Housestaff Events webpage.
- Registration for the ACGME Meaning in Medicine 2024 Annual Education Conference is open! The conference is in Orlando, FL March 7-9, 2024. Support for meeting attendance is ensured by the clinical chair in every new Program Director Appointment Letter.
- The UWSOM is sponsoring the 2024 Graduate Medical Education (GME) Summit. The focus will be collaborating to address workforce needs within the WWAMI region and beyond. Registration for the Summit is now open! Join us on April 25-26, 2024, in Anchorage, Alaska.
- Please save the date(s)! The GME Office is pleased to invite program leadership (PDs, APDs, PAs) to participate in GME’s 2024 Educational Series: Cultivating Skills in Feedback and Critical Conversations. See 11/9 email from Cindy Hamra for more information.
- 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 January and February including: Milestones mid-year reporting, semi-annual Procedures Certification entry in MedHub, ACGME Annual Survey preparation, SF Match registration (for applicable programs), and kickoff of activities for the annual onboarding season.
- Washington State Paid Family & Medical Leave (PFML) premium rates will decrease for UW personnel whose work is performed in the state of Washington. More specifically, the premium rate for the PFML program will decrease from 0.8% to 0.74% of your gross wages up to $168,600 of taxable income. This is paired with a change in the employee–employer split for PFML, with the employee’s contribution decreasing to 71.43%. These changes will be reflected in your January 10, 2024, paycheck. To calculate your 2024 PFML premium contribution and to learn more about PFML benefits, please visit wa.gov. More information about the premium update can be found at https://paidleave.wa.gov/updates/.
- 2025 ACGME Awards: Nomination materials are available on each award’s page in the Awards section of the ACGME website. All nominations are due March 27, 2024. Please reach out to the GME office if you plan to submit an application.
- The ACGME’s Back to Bedside initiative is designed to empower residents and fellows to develop transformative projects that foster meaning and joy in work and allow them to engage on a deeper level with what is at the heart of medicine: their patients. This initiative supports resident- and fellow-directed innovations. Proposals are due by April 22, 2024. Learn More
- Our GME PLA team is hoping to make strides in communication and improving the process for our community in several ways:
- We created a new, simplified introduction video for the PLA process as a whole here.
- We want to make sure the barriers to completing a rotation request or PLA are as low as possible. If you could please fill out the linked survey and provide feedback it would be helpful and allow us to improve the process.
- Please review the email from Chris Gibson sent on 12/19 for data on expiring PLAs.
- Please review “Access to UW Medicine Care for Employees” from The Huddle for information about help for UW Medicine employees and their families to gain better access to UW Medicine facilities and providers.
- The UW Office of Global Affairs is excited to announce that effective January 1, 2024, all UW faculty, staff and other academic personnel who are traveling overseas on official UW business will now be covered by an international emergency medical and security insurance policy. This coverage is provided at no cost to the traveler and differs from the current coverage in that it includes emergency medical benefits.
- The GME Office is supporting a new project called the Names & Pronunciations Initiative, which aims to not only highlight the importance of name pronunciations, but also improve communication by providing physical badges (for those who want one) which include users’ written phonetic name pronunciation. Anyone interested in learning more about the project or who wants to order a pronunciation badge can do so here: https://www.names-pronunciations-initiative.com/. If you receive a badge for someone not in your program or if you have any questions, please email the project lead, Sudiptho (UW MS4) at sudiptho@uw.edu.
People
- A team at UW Medicine has created the Multidisciplinary Thoracic Aortic Program (MTAP) to provide holistic, team-based care for complex aortic disease. With a team of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, clinic staff, genetic counselors, medical geneticists and vascular surgeons, the MTAP team discusses 250 to 300 patient cases annually. Team members from the Department of Medicine include Catherine Otto (professor), Yonatan Buber (Adult Congenital Heart Disease Associate Program Director), James Kirkpatrick (Advanced Cardiac Imaging Program Director), and Peter Byers (professor). Read the full story from The Huddle.
- Justin Bullock, fellow, Nephrology, is senior author of “The Next Era of Assessment: Can Ensuring High-Quality, Equitable Patient Care Be the Defining Characteristic?” in Academic Medicine.
- Sarah Gunby, fellow, is lead author, and Lisa Strate, professor, Gastroenterology, is senior author of “Smoking and alcohol consumption and risk of incident diverticulitis in women” in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
- Vishesh Kapur, Sleep Medicine Program Director, is quoted in “No more ‘spring forward’ if new bill passes WA state legislature” from KIRO.
- Leo Morales, Assistant Dean for Healthcare Equity and Quality, is quoted in “What Recovery?” in Palabra. He is also quoted in “Long COVID’s deep impact on Latinos” from The Oregonian.
- Emily Myers, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Program Director, is quoted in “Screen time for kids under 2 linked to sensory differences in toddlerhood” from ABC News.
- Sarah Prager, Complex Family Planning Program Director, is quoted in “Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant Saved Woman From Rare Cancer” from The Huddle.
- Namrata Singh, Rheumatology Associate Program Director, is lead author of “Frailty and risk of serious infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with biologic or targeted-synthetic DMARDs” in Arthritis Care & Research. She is also quoted in “Frailty Worsens Side Effects of Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment” in MedPage Today.
- Crystal Brown, assistant professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, is lead author and Bessie Young, Vice Dean of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, is senior author of “Discriminatory healthcare experiences and medical mistrust in patients with serious illness” in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. Department of Medicine co-author is Kristine Cueva.
- Sharing news about our trainees: two of UW Medicine’s Top 10 Huddle Stories of 2023 were about trainees (Get to Know Our Chief Residents and Fellows & Volunteer-Led Virtual Bedside Concert Program Thrives)!
- Check out the Otolaryngology Head and Neck – Winter 2023 Newsletter for trainee features and faculty highlights.
by amande | Jan 5, 2024 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
The Names & Pronunciations Initiative (NPI) is a community project that aims to help people pronounce each other’s names correctly. All of us are many things. But our names define us. As our community becomes more diverse, NPI will help us correctly pronounce others’ names. NPI does this very simply: it makes physical pronunciation tags that can be layered behind our hospital ID badges.
In partnership with the Office of Healthcare Equity – and many other UW Medicine groups, I am proud to support this project as it helps us to get to know each other better. This month I have invited the NPI project lead, UW 4th year UWSOM medical student Sudiptho (suh-dip-doe) Paul, to share NPIs’ origins. It is my hope that NPI will help everyone feel welcome in our community.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Designated Institutional Official
Sudiptho Paul, MS4
The inspiration behind the Names & Pronunciations Initiative (NPI) stems from a personal journey marked by an awareness of the impact that mispronunciations can have on one’s sense of self and belonging. Having navigated predominantly white spaces in my youth, college, and work as a first-generation Bangladeshi-Thai American, I experienced firsthand both the subtle and significantly negative impacts of name mispronunciations on my educational and professional development and well-being—an “othering” experience common to many people.
This awareness continued during virtual medical school amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic when particularly distressing mispronunciations of my name drove me to address the issue more proactively. Having successfully advocated for the integration of NameCoach—a program facilitating audio recordings of name pronunciations—into the medical school’s online systems, it became apparent during my clinical rotations that something more tangible was needed for the face-to-face clinical settings.
Hence, I started NPI, which involved the creation of physical name pronunciation tags as a simple communication aid. Designed to layer behind UW hospital ID badges, these tags function as a helpful tool to facilitate more accurate name pronunciations in-person. NPI empowers individuals to cultivate stronger interpersonal relationships for communication and collaboration in our community— connections start with our names.
![Example of Names & Pronunciation Initiative Badge. Learn more about the project online [QR Code]. My name is pronounced:](https://sites.uw.edu/uwgme/files/2024/01/Badge-Example-25ed619a14af647a-150x150.jpeg)
Implementing NPI required perseverance and teamwork to translate awareness into action. Despite facing initial setbacks in grant applications, the project eventually secured support through the 2023 UW Resilience & Compassion Seed Grant. The setting was ripe for collaboration, as I came to learn that other students, residents, fellows, attendings, and staff had also had similar conversations about the importance of correct name pronunciations. Coming together, we designed the tags, developed strategies for their distribution across the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho (WWAMI) region, and engaged with various UW Medicine affiliated groups to foster the project’s success in our community. I also built NPI’s website, which serves as an information hub where people can order pronunciation tags and find other resources. Beyond improving name pronunciations, I want these tags to also prompt us all to reflect more about our names’ role on our identities. Who named you and why? How does it feel when it is pronounced correctly versus incorrectly? What does your name mean to you and what does it represent?
NPI can be regarded as a grassroots initiative driven by our community’s collective commitment to inclusivity. I hope this project’s manifestation inspires others to act on other issues, regardless of how minor a problem may seem—it is about encouraging small steps that contribute to a larger improvement in culture within UW Medicine and beyond.
Sudiptho Paul
4th Year Medical Student
University of Washington School of Medicine
by amande | Dec 21, 2023 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
December News & Notes has several useful reminders including information about accessing UW Medicine Care for Employees, accepting gifts from patients, and several great events in the new year.
From the GME Office, we’re excited to celebrate Dr. Itay Bentov, Associate Professor, Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, as winner of the 2023 Bruce C. Gilliland Award. We also congratulate Dr. Tim Dellit on his appointment as CEO of UW Medicine and Dean of the School of Medicine. Dr. Dellit did his fellowship here at UWSOM in infectious diseases!
Dr. Joyner’s December blog shares our reflections on 2023. Happy holidays to those in our community who celebrate and wishing all a happy and healthy 2024!
Thank you,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- The holiday season is often a time of giving by grateful patients, vendors, and other outside organizations. State employees within UW Medicine are governed by the Washington State Ethics in Public Service Act with regard to the gifts they may accept and how they may redirect gifts they cannot accept. Common questions about gifts from patients and other external sources (including food and beverages) and other related topics are answered in the Gifts from External Sources FAQs on the UW Medicine Compliance website. Additional information is available on the Internal Audit website.
- 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.
- 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.
- Welcome New Program Administrators:
- Sydney Anderson, Child Abuse Pediatrics
- The GME Appointment Manager position is now live, and we are accepting applications! You can find the position posted here. Hayley Fisher is happy to answer questions about the position.
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- December 21: Canceled
- January 18: ACGME Surveys
- February 15: Washington Physicians Health Program (WPHP)
- Presentations from the November and December Program Administrator meetings are available on the Program Administrator Meetings page.
- We invite you to two evenings of writing and storytelling supported by the UW Medicine Well-Being Grant. Professor Susan Meyer at Seattle University will guide us to reflect on our personal and professional experiences from the pandemic into the present. You are welcome to join one or both of these free sessions (January 16th and February 6th).
- Navigating Parental Leave for Resident & Fellow Physicians will be Tuesday, February 6th from 6:30-7:30pm via Zoom. Please see the agenda. Register today. Registration closes February 2. If you can’t make it, a recording will be posted to the Housestaff Events webpage.
- Please join us on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, from 8:30am-12pm for the AY25 Onboarding Kickoff Meeting. This virtual event will provide an overview of the onboarding and reappointment processes for the upcoming academic year. Attendance at this meeting is highly encouraged for all program administrators and any department staff involved in the appointment and onboarding process of new residents and fellows, including those of you who are not program administrators but have roles in Workday. Please see the Save the Date email sent on December 21st for more information.
- Registration for the ACGME Meaning in Medicine 2024 Annual Education Conference is open! The conference is scheduled to take place in Orlando, Florida at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort March 7-9, 2024. More information can be found on the conference website. Support for meeting attendance is ensured by the clinical chair in every new Program Director Appointment Letter.
- The University of Washington School of Medicine is sponsoring the 2024 Graduate Medical Education (GME) Summit. The focus will be collaborating to address workforce needs within the WWAMI region and beyond. Early bird registration for the GME Summit 2024 is now open! Join us on April 25-26, 2024, in Anchorage, Alaska at the BP Energy Center. Stay tuned in the coming months as we announce speakers.
- Please save the date(s)! The GME Office is pleased to invite program leadership (PDs, APDs, PAs) to participate in an educational series that we will be offering throughout 2024. We have designed this series in response to cross-program challenges as observed in our ACGME surveys and in our work supporting programs and trainees. See 11/9 email from Cindy Hamra for more information.
- 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 December and January including: Milestones mid-year reporting, semi-annual Procedures Certification entry in MedHub, ACGME Annual Survey preparation, and SF Match registration (for applicable programs).
- Our PLAs team is hoping to make strides in communication and improving the process for our community in several ways:
- We created a new, simplified introduction video for the PLA process as a whole here.
- We want to make sure the barriers to completing a rotation request or PLA are as low as possible. If you could please fill out the linked survey and provide feedback it would be helpful and allow us to improve the process.
- Please review the email from Chris Gibson sent on 12/19 for data on expiring PLAs.
- Please review “Access to UW Medicine Care for Employees” from The Huddle for information about help for UW Medicine employees and their families to gain better access to UW Medicine facilities and providers.
- The WWAMI Institute for Simulation in Healthcare (WISH) is the simulation-based education program serving all of UW Medicine, since 2005. WISH is undergoing some exciting developments and is seeking input from all users (as well as would-be future users) to help inform strategic plans for the next 5 years. By the end of this year, please take a few moments to provide your responses around both current and anticipated future simulation-based utilization, and services that would benefit your training programs in the coming years. For additional comments or questions, please reach out to WISH Associate Director, Megan Sherman or Chief of the Division for Healthcare Simulation Science, Dr. Rob Sweet.
- 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.
- The UW Office of Global Affairs is excited to announce that effective January 1, 2024, all UW faculty, staff and other academic personnel who are traveling overseas on official UW business will now be covered by an international emergency medical and security insurance policy. This coverage is provided at no cost to the traveler and differs from the current coverage in that it includes emergency medical benefits.
- The GME Office is supporting a new project called the Names & Pronunciations Initiative, which aims to not only highlight the importance of name pronunciations, but also improve communication by providing physical badges (for those who want one) which include users’ written phonetic name pronunciation. Anyone interested in learning more about the project or who wants to order a pronunciation badge can do so at: https://www.names-pronunciations-initiative.com/. If you receive a badge for someone not in your program or if you have any questions, please email the project lead, Sudiptho (UW MS4).
- The GME Office has posted an updated letter from Dr. Joyner for prospective residents and fellows to our GME Prospective Residents & Fellows page.
People
- Justin Bullock, fellow, Nephrology, is co-author of “Stereotype Threat and Gender Bias in Internal Medicine Residency: It is Still Hard to be in Charge” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
- Anne Browning, UW Assistant Dean of Well-Being, shares some lessons from rowing on how to cultivate resilience in your own life in “What the 1936 UW Rowing Team Teaches Us About Resilience” from The Huddle.
- In the latest resident scholarship spotlight, “Medical Mistrust Among Black Patients with Serious Illness,” Kristine Cueva designed and led a mixed methods study to better understand patient perspectives. View spotlight.
- In recognition of their substantial contributions to local healthcare quality and safety, Gwen Bernacki, clinical assistant professor (Cardiology), Medhavi Bole, clinical assistant professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases), Jurjen de Jong, Internal Medicine chief resident, Soloman Graf, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology), and Sarah Sanghavi, clinical associate professor (Nephrology) 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 Ksenia Ershova, resident, Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, and Bonica Scholar, for winning the 2023 FAER Resident Scholar Abstract Award at the 2023 ASA meeting.
- The Society of General Internal Medicine is honoring members at the front lines of Social Justice with their member highlight series, “Frontliners: Social Justice.” Rebecca Gold, resident, Internal Medicine, is highlighted this month. She recently presented a poster in collaboration with UW’s Breast Health Equity group on the inequities of breast cancer care along racial lines, particularly for Somali and Ethiopian immigrants living in Seattle. Read the challenges in conducting her research and how she hopes this research will help address inequities in breast cancer care in the future.
- Mark Harrast, Sports Medicine PM&R Program Director, is featured in “Ways to stop muscle cramps from interrupting your run, by Dr. Mark Harrast, medical director of the UW Medicine Seattle Marathon,” “ Mark Harrast demystifies the pre-race meal,” and “Dr. Mark Harrast shares advice about how to manage a pesky hamstring injury” from Right as Rain.
- Nicholas Johnson, Critical Care Medicine Associate Program Director, is co-author of “Vaccine Effectiveness Against Influenza A-Associated Hospitalization, Organ Failure, and Death: United States, 2022-2023” in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
- Department of Medicine Chair Barbara Jung is PI on a new grant from the Department of Defense for her project “Mechanisms of Activin Signaling in Acute Pancreatitis” to test the hypothesis that activin A signaling is an early and targetable component of morbidity/mortality-inducing inflammatory response in severe acute pancreatitis (AP).
- Vishesh Kapur, Sleep Medicine Program Director, is quoted in “UW sleep expert among those pushing federal leaders for permanent standard time” from KIRO News.
- Several Department of Medicine researchers have received additional funding from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) to continue ongoing studies. Among them is who will continue to investigate whether a progesterone tracer known as FFNP-PET can be used as a better predictive marker of endocrine therapy’s efficacy. Read the full story from Hutch News.
- Pediatric Allergy & Immunology fellow Gabriel Mendoza has been appointed to the ACGME Review Committee for Allergy and Immunology.
- Neha Deshpande, Lisa Chew, Jill Watanabe and Somnath Mookherjee (Academic Hospitalist Fellowship Program Director) wrote “A letter to today’s academic generalist mentor” and Jennifer Wright, Helen Starks, Lauren Beste, Jared Klein (Addiction Medicine Associate Program Director) and Somnath Mookherjee wrote “Lessons from a project-based mentorship initiative” in SGIM Forum.
- Leo Morales, Assistant Dean for Healthcare Equity and Quality, is featured in “Washington lacks Spanish-speaking nurses — for an Everett student, it’s personal” from Herald Net. He is also co-author of “Critical Reflections on This Historical Moment for Community-engaged and Participatory Research” in Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action.
- Sarah Prager, Complex Family Planning Program Director, is featured in “How the overturn of ‘Roe’ still impacts Washington abortion care” from Crosscut.
- Russ Van Gelder, chair of Department of Ophthalmology, is featured in “Sleep experts, physicians address effects of increased travel on student-athletes, offer recommendations” from UW News.
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by amande | Dec 8, 2023 | Announcements, News
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Byron Joyner, MD, MPA |
Jennifer Best, MD |
Cindy Hamra JD, MA |
It is startling that we are facing the end of another calendar year, yet here it is: December! What a year! Through our windows, the Seattle afternoons are dark, but in our hearts, there is light, especially as we reflect on what our community has accomplished in 2023.
Over the past year, the GME Office has developed and shared a new strategic plan that will guide our focus over the next six years. We are particularly proud of this ambitious plan which represents input from a broad range of community members. Movement on this plan will bring material improvements to all elements of our already-outstanding learning environment, which we have intentionally centered on advocacy for our trainees. In the New Year, we welcome involvement from community members who are particularly interested in one or more of our initiatives.
The GME team continues to evolve. This year, we said hello to team members Chris Gibson (Affiliations and Agreements Specialist), Ivy Gibson (eLearning Experience Developer), Bethany Griffitts (Fiscal Specialist), Allison Shults (RMS and Information Systems Manager) and Amy Wheat (Wellness Counselor). The team supported the rollout of six new GME programs (Advanced Cardiac Surgery, Colon and Rectal Surgery, FM Medical Student Education, Global and Rural Health, Pediatric Neuro-Oncology), including the first rural residency in internal medicine in the United States – the University of Washington Alaska Internal Medicine Rural Residency Program. And we are excited to welcome the inaugural cohort for the new LEAD-UP leadership program – a partnership between UW GME and the Office of Healthcare Equity (OHCE).
Seattle had the privilege this year of playing host in November to the American Association of Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) Learn Serve Lead Annual Conference, in the brand new and stunning Seattle Convention Center – Summit location. It was wonderful to see so many UW SOM educators representing our School of Medicine and presenting there, and to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the WWAMI program with our new Dean, Dr. Tim Dellit who welcomed more than 100 people at the UW Welcome Event.
The work of GME is dynamic, rich, and essential for the health of our community. This is true regardless of where and how that work is accomplished: at the bedside, in conference rooms, in administrative offices, operating rooms, clinics, or on-line. It simply would not be possible without each of you who has joined us on this collective journey. We look forward to more opportunities in 2024 to come together again in person and to celebrate the shared goals that unite our individual efforts as a beautiful whole.
Our best to each of you this season and Happy New Year!
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Cindy Hamra, JD
Associate Dean, Operations and Administration
by amande | Nov 17, 2023 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
I’m pleased to share several great educational events and opportunities in the November News & Notes, including the excellent Optimizing MedHub Lunch & Learn, 2024 ACGME conference registration, a new 2024 GME educational series and the November PA meeting recording.
This article from the UW Medicine Newsroom focuses on practice in rural areas: Docs trained in rural areas tend to practice in rural areas. Our Department of Family Medicine has a Chelan Rural Training Program that is designed to train physicians for rural practice.
November is Native American Heritage Month! This article in The Huddle has information about the history, cultures and achievements of Native American communities, including articles about Northwest Native Art and Native American contributions to public health as well as a guide to events and heritage sites in Seattle.
Finally, sending off Khrystine Buccat, our amazing GME Appointment Manager, as she transitions to the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology as the new Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division Administrator. Khrystine’s last day in GME is November 22. We wish her all the best and will be posting the opening shortly!
Thank you,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- COVID Vaccination are Required for All Current and Future Trainees at Seattle Children’s – Due by 12/11/2023. All residents, fellows, and medical students rotating or have access to Seattle Children’s after 12/11/2023 are required to have full COVID vaccination, including the new 2023-2024 Monovalent COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine, or have request ed an exception prior to working at Seattle Children’s. The sponsoring program/institution will be responsible for ensuring trainee compliance. For more information, trainees should go to CHILD (Seattle Children’s intranet).
- The holiday season is often a time of giving by grateful patients, vendors, and other outside organizations. State employees within UW Medicine are governed by the Washington State Ethics in Public Service Act with regard to the gifts they may accept and how they may redirect gifts they cannot accept. Common questions about gifts from patients and other external sources (including food and beverages) and other related topics are answered in the Gifts from External Sources FAQs on the UW Medicine Compliance website. Additional information is available on the Internal Audit website.
- Explore benefits options at UW Benefits & Resource Fairs (including virtual option)
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.
- 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.
- Welcome New Program Administrators:
- Ruby Tang, Obstetric Anesthesiology, Liver Transplant Anesthesiology, Regional Anesthesiology
- Serena Wong, Neuromuscular Medicine, Vascular Neurology
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; ACGME appointments require Review Committee (RC) confirmation:
- Chris Burke, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Thoracic Surgery – Integrated (Interim)
- Paige Keasler, Obstetric Anesthesiology
- Matthew Phelps, Breast Imaging (non-ACGME)
- Porshia Underwood, Obstetrics and Gynecology
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- November 16: Optimizing MedHub Settings, slides and recording now available
- December 21: Canceled
- January 18: ACGME Surveys
- Registration for the ACGME Meaning in Medicine 2024 Annual Education Conference is open! The conference is scheduled to take place in Orlando, Florida at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort March 7-9, 2024. More information can be found on the conference website. Support for meeting attendance is ensured by the clinical chair in every new Program Director Appointment Letter.
- Please save the date(s)! The GME Office is pleased to invite program leadership (PDs, APDs, PAs) to participate in an educational series that we will be offering throughout 2024. We have designed this series in response to cross-program challenges as observed in our ACGME surveys and in our work supporting programs and trainees. See 11/9 email from Cindy Hamra for more information.
- The University of Washington School of Medicine is sponsoring the 2024 Graduate Medical Education (GME) Summit. Please Save the Date to join us on April 25-26, 2024, in Anchorage, Alaska. Registration will open in December.
- 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 November and December including: NRMP Match deadlines, fall Milestones reporting, semi-annual Procedures Certification entry in MedHub, ERAS preseason setup (Dec Cycle), and AAMC/GME Track GME Census deadlines.
- Presentation from Nov 14 Program Administrator meeting is now available on the Program Administrator Meetings page.
- The GME Office is supporting a new project called the Names & Pronunciations Initiative, which aims to not only highlight the importance of name pronunciations, but also improve communication by providing physical badges (for those who want one) which include users’ written phonetic name pronunciation. Anyone interested in learning more about the project or who wants to order a pronunciation badge can do so at: https://www.names-pronunciations-initiative.com/. If you receive a badge for someone not in your program or if you have any questions, please email the project lead, Sudiptho (UW MS4).
- The WWAMI Institute for Simulation in Healthcare (WISH) is the simulation-based education program serving all of UW Medicine, since 2005. WISH is undergoing some exciting developments and is seeking input from all users (as well as would-be future users) to help inform strategic plans for the next 5 years. By Friday, December 15th, please take a few moments to provide your responses around both current and anticipated future simulation-based utilization, and services that would benefit your training programs in the coming years. For additional comments or questions, please reach out to WISH Associate Director, Megan Sherman or Chief of the Division for Healthcare Simulation Science, Dr. Rob Sweet.
- 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.
- The GME Office has posted an updated letter from Dr. Joyner for prospective residents and fellows to our GME Prospective Residents & Fellows page.
- 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.
- The Leave of Absence webpage contains LOA planning information and resources along with an intake form to contact GME for leave planning assistance: Leave Planning Submission Form.
People
- Ryan Abe, Internal Medicine Health Equity Pathway Director, is senior author of “Equity M&M — Adaptation of the Morbidity and Mortality Conference to Analyze and Confront Structural Inequity in Internal Medicine” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Department of Medicine co-authors are Hannah Oren and Helen Jack.
- Christopher Alawode, OEM resident, is featured in “How occupational medicine physicians support workers” from the Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences website.
- Joey Chiang, resident, Internal Medicine, is co-author of “Homelessness and Incidence and Causes of Sudden Death: Data From the POST SCD Study” in JAMA Internal Medicine.
- John Choe, Internal Medicine Residency Associate Program Director, is featured in the latest faculty spotlight from the Department of Medicine. Read his faculty spotlight on their news site.
- A cornerstone of the VA’s efforts to strengthen and diversify the VA scientific work force, the Summer Research Program offers research experiences to Veterans, children of Veterans, and underrepresented students. The 3-year pilot program started in June 2022 at 21 VA sites across the country. Co-directed by Lindsey Anderson, acting assistant professor, and Jose Garcia, Geriatric Medicine Research Pathway Program Director, the Seattle site primarily provides students with experience in research related to age/cancer-related declines in muscle mass and function (human, animal, and benchwork) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) related hormone dysfunction (human). Learn more on the Department of Medicine news site.
- Mark Harrast, Sports Medicine PM&R Program Director, is featured in “What Runners Need to Know About the Immune System” and “3 Simple Ways to Help Runner’s Knee” from Right as Rain.
- Carrie Ho, fellow, is lead author, and Stephen Smith, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) is senior author of “Pembrolizumab with R-CHOP in Previously Untreated DLBCL: Sustained, High Efficacy and Safety with Long-Term Follow-Up” in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia. Department of Medicine co-authors are Ajay Gopal, Brian Till, Mazyar Shadman, Ryan Lynch, Andrew Cowan, Heather Rasmussen, Chaitra Ujjani and Ryan Cassaday.
- Vishesh Kapur, Sleep Medicine Program Director, is featured in “UW sleep expert among those pushing federal leaders for permanent standard time” from Kiro 7.
- Ayesha Khader, resident, Internal Medicine is lead author and Pavan Bhatraju, associate professor (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) is senior author of “The Interaction of Acute Kidney Injury with Resuscitation Strategy in Sepsis: A Secondary Analysis of a Multicenter, Phase 3, Randomized Trial (CLOVERS)” in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Department of Medicine co-authors are Leila Zelnick, Neha Sathe, Bryan Kestenbaum, Jonathan Himmelfarb, and Nicholas Johnson
- Emily Liang, fellow, is lead author, and Jordan Gauthier, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) is senior author of “Factors associated with long-term outcomes of CD19 CAR T-cell therapy for relapsed/refractory CLL” in Blood Advances. Department of Medicine co-authors are Aya Albittar, Jennifer Huang, Alexandre Hirayama, Erik Kimble, Andrew Portuguese, Aude Chapuis, Mazyar Shadman, Brian Till, Ryan Cassaday, Filippo Milano, Hans-Peter Kiem, Stanley Riddell, Cameron Turtle and David Maloney.
- Leo Morales, Assistant Dean for Healthcare Equity and Quality, is this year’s recipient of the Secretary’s Award from the Washington state Department of Health. The Award recognizes the strong work occurring around Washington state in the field of public health and links that work with the dedicated people working every single day to protect and promote the health and well-being of everyday Washingtonians. Dr. Morales was honored for his work protecting and promoting the health of Latino communities in Washington state and across the Pacific Northwest. Learn more on the Department of Medicine news site.
- Sarah Prager, Program Director, Complex Family Planning, is featured in “How Telemedicine Makes Abortion More Accessible” from The Huddle.
- Ganesh Raghu, Interstitial Lung Disease Program Director, is senior author of “Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: aligning murine models to clinical trials in humans” in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
- May Reed, Geriatric Medicine Associate Program Director, is PI for the TRIAD study within the Dog Aging Project. TRIAD (Test of Rapamycin in Aging Dogs) is a clinical trial currently underway across the United States that seeks to assess the effects of rapamycin on health and aging in dogs. Learn more about the project.
- Ginny Ryan, Reproductive, Endocrinology and Infertility Program Director, is featured in “Updated ‘infertility’ definition could help more hopeful LGBTQ+ parents in Washington” from Axios Seattle.
- Laura Quinnan, Medical Director for the UWMC – Northwest Campus, received the Hospitalist of the Year award at the recent American College of Physicians Washington state chapter meeting.
by amande | Nov 9, 2023 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Many members of our community are familiar with the GME Wellness Service, a vital part of the GME Team. Our four amazing counselors provide tremendous support for our residents and fellows. This month, Dipti Chrastka, Director of the GME Wellness Service, shares an update about the robust services that create a healthier learning environment for our trainees.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Designated Institutional Official
Our health and well-being have taken a toll over the last few years: the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in social isolation; racial unrest: and the more recent news of war and violence in Ukraine and the Middle East. We may experience feelings of fear, uncertainty, sadness, stress, and overall distress.
This season of shorter, cooler, darker days with less day light can also adversely impact our mood, sleep cycles, sap our energy and daily functioning.
Many of our medical professionals may face many stressors that affect their mental and physical health.
Resident and fellow well-being is a priority for UW GME which has been providing care to our community for over two decades.
Our GME Wellness Team provides a wide spectrum of services to build connection and foster a culture of holistic wellness. The GME Wellness team members are all licensed and skilled clinicians who bring their unique experiences in working with health care professionals.
Some of the many ways the Wellness Service supports you:
- Counseling support: Our services are free, unlimited, and completely confidential. We offer daytime, as well as evening wellness appointments to accommodate our trainees’ busy schedules. We are currently offering virtual sessions, which reduces barriers, and takes away the stress of commuting, parking, and finding time in your already packed day to get support.
In AY23, we supported 249 unique residents, fellows, and partners/spouses with a total of 1,734 visits. We provided individual counseling, couples counseling, and connected many trainees with referrals to in-house specialists (e.g., a psychiatric provider and learning specialist).
- We are proud to share that most of our clients are self-referred and many suggest our services to their colleagues.
- In July 2023, we were very proud to be able to expand our wellness services to non-ACGME We currently serve nearly 1660 residents and fellows as well as their partners and spouses.
- Facilitating presentations and group conferences: We partner with programs to understand the needs of our residents and fellows, facilitate discussion groups, share wellness tips and resources. In AY23, we presented to 12 programs and groups.
- Consultation and Advocacy: Our discussions with individuals and programs help us have a deeper understanding of trends and issues in the larger system so we can advocate for improvements. We brainstorm and dialogue with GME and UW Medicine leadership to provide our residents and fellows avenues to raise concerns. Some examples include: identifying quiet spaces at our hospital sites; reporting microaggressions in a group; advocating for lightboxes in closed, windowless spaces within our hospitals to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD); and generally enhancing well-being around our campuses.
- Community building: We host events for residents and fellows to meet and build social connections which allow networking to enhance well-being. We also publish a monthly newsletter, the Wellness Corner, to share local events, resources, and spotlight Wellness Wonders in our community.
Your input is vital to our success. Qualitative and quantitative data helps us evaluate our impact and make programmatic modifications.
Here’s some valuable feedback we received from our community in July.
- “You value prioritizing mental health, wellness in residency training and our Wellness Services.”
- “Having an unbiased, non-judgmental human being to provide longitudinal support, resources: someone who understands the stresses of residency and fellowship is a strength of our wellness service.”
- “Emphasis on accessibility, removing barriers and offering evening hours for Wellness sessions.”
Connection is key and one antidote to isolation. The Wellness Team is honored to serve you and look forward to connecting with you. To read more about our service, visit our webpage. Visit our scheduling page to schedule a wellness appointment or establish care.
Reach out to us – seeking support is an act of courage! We are here to share in your joys, lighten your burdens, and celebrate you as we build a healthier community together.
GME Wellness Counselors
by amande | Oct 20, 2023 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
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.
- 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
- October 19: Resident/Fellow Safety and Support Resources; slides and recording now available
- November 16: Optimizing MedHub Guidance for Programs!
- 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.”
by amande | Oct 11, 2023 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
The Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows (NURF) began its mission of community outreach, mentorship, recruitment and retention, 14 years ago. This diverse resident-run group has consistently been a safe harbor community for many of our residents and fellows. I am very proud to sponsor this group with Office of Healthcare Equity. This month I have invited Dr. Ivonne Beltran Lara to be the guest writer for the DIO blog.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Designated Institutional Official
Ivonne Beltran Lara, MD
When I was searching for a residency program, I was looking for a program supportive of individuals underrepresented in medicine and with diverse identities and backgrounds – an institution that fosters diversity and values the integrity of hard work, as well as healthcare equity and inclusion of those who are historically disenfranchised. In 2020, deciphering which institution truly upheld this mission was especially difficult as we were faced with Zoom screens and the lack of human connection. It was the first year that residency interviews went virtual, and applicants would have to rank a list of programs based only on virtual encounters.
Humanity was facing a worldwide pandemic that was wreaking havoc in all communities especially in Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) communities. The reality of the atrocious effects of inequities and structural racism in our society was on the forefront of every media outlet and in the conversations of everyone. This made it even more important for me to find a residency that would help me thrive and celebrate the various identities I hold: I am a woman, a person of color, a first-generation physician, an immigrant, and a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient. These identities made me the courageous and tenacious person I am today, and yet they are also vulnerabilities in environments where diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts are not supported or celebrated.
During the process of my residency interviews, I was introduced to the Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows (NURF) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Through NURF, I met residents and fellows who were part of the different training programs and who identified as underrepresented individuals in medicine (URiM).
I attended the first ever NURF Diversity Town Hall led by Drs. Ashley Eaves (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) and Joseph Nelson (Family Medicine), NURF’s 2020-2021 President and Vice President, respectively. I was impacted by the leaders who were at the forefront of DEI work and the community that it brought together. The community I met during this town hall surged my interest in UW. NURF would be the organization and platform through which I could continue DEI work. It would shepherd and strengthen a community I could depend on when presented with challenges that underrepresented physicians experience in a historically exclusionary field.
As a resident, I became an active participant in NURF. For the 2023-2024 academic year, I have the privilege of serving as president of NURF. Dr. Jessica Sher (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, VP of NURF) and I partnered to lead this year’s Diversity Town Hall. We were grateful to have the support of Graduate Medical Education (GME) and the Office of Healthcare Equity (OHCE) once again.
During our town hall, we presented our commitment to anti-racism, healthcare equity, and diversity efforts. We introduced NURF as a community for residency applicants who identify as underrepresented in medicine and their allies. Our purpose is to ensure applicants know that NURF is committed to supporting medical trainees who need a safe space and who are looking for a community they can count on. We are also committed to holding our faculty leaders and the institution accountable to the dire need to recruit and retain diverse trainees and faculty. My hope is that via this Diversity Town Hall, we reassure future URiM residents that we are a network committed to the efforts that allow underrepresented groups in medicine to thrive and will advocate for their success.
Thanks to those who continue their work to support NURF and make this town hall an annual reality. I am continuously proud and inspired by the work my colleagues and past NURF members do to make sure our community continues to be a palpable presence.
Ivonne Beltran Lara, MD
R3, Family Medicine
NURF President 2023-2024
The UW Medicine Huddle recently featured an article on NURF’s 2023 Diversity Town Hall: NURF Hosts Diversity Town Hall.
by amande | Sep 21, 2023 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
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.
- 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
- September 21: IMGs and Visa Sponsorship; slides and recording now available
- October 19: Resident/Fellow Safety and Support Resources
- 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.
by amande | Sep 8, 2023 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Lead donation from Drs. Paul and Bonnie Ramsey fuels excellence in GME Program and healthcare equity across WWAMI region
We are thrilled to share some incredible news that exemplifies the spirit of generosity and dedication to UW Medicine’s mission to improve the health of the public: a $10,000 personal donation from Drs. Paul and Bonnie Ramsey to the Vision Fund for Graduate Medical Education (GME), matched by a $10,000 grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, where Dr. Paul Ramsey is a Trustee Emeritus.
The Vision Fund for GME is an endowed fund at the University of Washington that will distribute annual funding for use across the five-state WWAMI region to advance the programs’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs and related efforts. The mission of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation is to improve health by advancing the education and training of health professionals.
Drs. Paul and Bonnie Ramsey, exemplary healthcare leaders in our community for over 30 years, firmly believe that excellence in the Graduate Medical Education (GME) program is paramount for our institution to progress towards its mission of improving health outcomes for all people. Their vision for the future of medicine has inspired countless physicians, researchers and healthcare professionals throughout their careers, and we are deeply grateful for their commitment and support.
These new funds, combined with gifts from dozens of alumni and friends who have supported the Vision Fund for GME since its inception in 2019, ensure that our GME program will be bolstered, creating a profound ripple effect that will positively impact residency and trainee education. By investing in our trainees’ growth and nurturing the next generation of medical professionals, we can cultivate healthier communities across our region.
Now, we extend an invitation to all members of our community to join in this transformative endeavor. Your contribution, no matter the size, will make a meaningful difference in shaping the future of the University of Washington’s GME programs and improving public health across the WWAMI region. Together, we can strengthen our commitment to excellence and inclusivity, fostering a healthier world for all.
I invite you to join me in making a donation to the Vision Fund for GME online here, or connect with the UW Medicine Advancement Office directly at writemed@uw.edu or 206.543.5686.
Thank you for your continued support and belief in our shared mission to improve the health of the public.
With gratitude,
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by amande | Aug 28, 2023 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Associate Dean, GME
Last Friday 8/18 was GME Professional’s Day and we gathered most of the GME team for an end of season event – it was a great time to be together and strengthen our team, and also to celebrate the UWSOM GME Professionals who support trainees, programs and departments in this crucial part of our mission.
If you haven’t yet seen President Cauce’s blog post regarding the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action in university admissions, it’s posted here: Affirmative action ruling won’t change our values or our mission. A reminder to our programs of the recruitment Town Halls 8/30 and 8/31, which is an opportunity to ask questions and discuss the impact(s) of this decision.
August News and Notes has information about the UWSOM MSPE, LEAD-UP, GME Recruitment Town Halls and lots of other interesting and valuable events.
Thanks,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- 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.
- As many programs starting recruitment and application reviews, we want to share some reminders about acceptable license examinations.
- Under the GME Licensure Examination Policy, residents and fellows must pass one of the following examinations for licensure:
- United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE)
- Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX)
- Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE)
- Each year we receive questions from programs about whether the USMLE is also required for applicants who completed either the MCCQE or COMLEX. The MCCQE is accepted for state licensure. Canadian medical school graduates who have completed the MCCQE do not also require the USMLE (exception for Canadians seeking sponsorship on an H-1B, which requires USMLE Step 3). The COMLEX is required for graduates of osteopathic medical schools. Applicants who have completed the COMLEX do not also require the USMLE.
- The GMEC approved revisions to the following policies at the August meeting. All are posted on the Policies and Procedures page of the GME website.
- Immunization and Health Screening Policy
- Effective July 1, 2023, the GME Meals Policy and SCH Meals Policy have been updated to reflect an increase in meal reimbursement prices.
- Based on feedback from residents and fellows that late and/or conflicting information about grant funding availability and impacts has caused confusion and frustration, the GME Office has developed a new Grant Funding Policy. We welcome your questions.
- The GME Office and GME Wellness are pleased to announce that as of July 1, 2023, the GME Wellness Service will be available to our non-ACGME fellows for those without faculty titles or with an existing counseling relationship. For those non-ACGME fellows with faculty titles (appointed as Acting Instructors), 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.
- Welcome New Program Administrators:
- Michelene Nguyen, Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Krista Wintrode, Occupational and Environmental Medicine
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; ACGME appointments require Review Committee (RC) confirmation:
- Hamid Chalian, Thoracic Imaging (Interim)
- Douglas Franzen, Emergency Medicine (Interim)
- Joshua Fischer, Family Medicine Seattle & Family Medicine Chelan
- Margaret Hsu, Pain Medicine
- Sarah Menashe, Pediatric Radiology
- The ACGME has a weekly e-Communication. If you wish to receive it, email ACGMECommunications@acgme.org.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- July 20: ADS Annual Update + Program Oversight; recording and slides available
- August 17: Canceled
- September 21: IMGs and Visa Sponsorship
- GME Recruitment Town Halls: please join us for a GME Town Hall on one of the dates/times below. Registration is required so we can approximate the number of participants and collect your questions in advance. Zoom links for the webinars will be sent to you upon registration.
- Register for August 30 at 7am
- Register for August 31 at 6pm
- Panelists: Dr. Byron Joyner, Vice Dean and DIO, GME; Dr. Suzanne Allen, Vice Dean for Academic, Rural and Regional Affairs; Paula Houston, Chief Equity Officer, and David Kerwin, Division Chief, Office of the Attorney General of Washington.
- GME Outreach Event for trainees at UWMC-ML on August 31 from 11am to 1 pm. Please stop by to say hello, meet our GME team members and take a packed lunch. Look for an email closer to the event with specific room details.
- Annual Life After Residency & Fellowship Seminar on Saturday, September 16: At this event we will share strategies, valuable insights and advice to support your transition into independent practice. Topics include avoiding job search pitfalls, how to negotiate, what to look for before you sign a contact and a panel of physicians from a variety of career tracks. The event will run via Zoom from 9am – 12:00pm. Attendance at this event is mandatory for some programs and others will block time for you to attend. Please check with your PA for details. Please mark your calendar – Register now. The event will be recorded and posted for streaming after the event.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar.
Projects and Resources
- 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.
- The GME Annual Program Timeline: Please review for important dates for August and September.
- UW Medicine Announces Results from Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Survey are available.
- The Macy Foundation is accepting applications for the Catalyst Awards. Six projects will be selected to receive up to $50K each over a 12-month period. Applications are due September 15!
- 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. Nominations are due September 8.
- The GME Office has posted an updated letter from Dr. Joyner for prospective residents and fellows to our GME Prospective Residents & Fellows page.
- As of July, UW employees will have access to a new benefit with the Washington State Employee Assistance Program (WA EAP)—a free health and well-being program that is just for Washington state employees. The WA EAP replaces CareLink.
- 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.
- Residents & Fellows – We want to hear from you! We hope to learn more about your current engagement with the UW GME Community and to understand opportunities for further connection and communication among trainees. Please take a moment to complete this survey and share your ideas about current and future GME education and community engagement events and tools.
- Residents and fellows are eligible to apply for a Housestaff Emergency Loan through the GME Office. The purpose of the loan fund is to provide emergency financial assistance to residents and fellows. The total amount of this loan has been increased from $1000 to $2500. Please see the loan form for complete details.
- 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.
- A new opt-in module, Prioritizing Ourselves When Fatigued is a 5 minute training intended as a brief reminder on the important issue of fatigue. Learning Gateway is happy to answer any questions about the module.
- 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
- Christopher Blosser, Transplant Nephrology Associate Program Director, is quoted in “Cancer & organ transplant clinic” from WGEM.
- Markus Boos, Dermatology Program Director, is featured in Q&A: Pediatric dermatologist discusses impacts of climate change on patients from the UW Newsroom.
- Kelley Branch, Cardiovascular Disease Associate Program Director, is lead author and Nick Johnson, Critical Care Medicine Associate Program Director, is senior author of “Head-to-Pelvis CT Imaging after Sudden Cardiac Arrest: Current Status and Future Directions” in Resuscitation. Department of Medicine co-author is Peter Kudenchuk. Dr. Branch is also co-author of “Scientific document development standards for the society of cardiovascular computed tomography (SCCT): A statement from the SCCT Guidelines Committee” in the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.
- Justin Bullock, fellow, Nephrology, is lead author of “‘Yourself in all your forms’: A grounded theory exploration of identity safety in medical students” in Medical Education. He is also co-author of “The Problem and Power of Professionalism: A Critical Analysis of Medical Students’ and Residents’ Perspectives and Experiences of Professionalism” and “From Eggshells to Action: A Qualitative Study of Faculty Experience Responding to Microaggressions Targeting Medical Students” in Academic Medicine.
- In the latest Thrivecast, “Transitioning from Trainee to Faculty,” Hugo Carmona, assistant professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, shares learnings and strategies in his own transition from fellow to faculty at UW. Hosted by Trish Kritek, Thrivecast provides tips to help clinicians, educators, and researchers thrive professionally in their careers, covering topics from time management and organization to leadership and self-advocacy.
- Başak Çoruh, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Program Director, Amy Morris, and James Town were recognized by the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) as 2023 Distinguished CHEST Educators. This designation provides national-level recognition of excellence in continuing medical education through their commitment, involvement, and leadership in CHEST education programs and activities. CHEST is the global leader in advancing best patient outcomes through innovative chest medicine education, clinical research, and team-based care.
- Nicholas Johnson, Critical Care Medicine Associate Program Director, is co-author of “Total and Subgenomic RNA Viral Load in Patients Infected With SARS-CoV-2 Alpha, Delta, and Omicron Variants” in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
- Department of Medicine Chair, Barbara Jung and her husband, Assistant Dean, Gerald Tolbert, have established the Barbara Jung and Gerald Tolbert – AGA Equity Focused Future Leaders Program Scholarship. This scholarship will support four scholarships for the Future Leaders Program for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds that are American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Future Leaders or those that come from institutions that cannot support participation of an emerging leader into the AGA Future Leaders Program. The scholarship will start in 2024 and run for 20 years.
- Barbara Jung, professor and Department of Medicine Chair, wrote “Prior authorization, by any other name, threatens Washingtonians’ health” in The Olympian.
- Vishesh Kapur, Sleep Medicine Program Director, is quoted in “Jet Lag: Get Back in the Rhythm” in the New York Times.
- Natasha Kwendakwema, fellow, Hematology and Oncology, talked to OncLive about the “Effects of Financial Toxicity on Treatment Costs in Patients With Cancer.”
- Earlier this year, Blaine Menon and Kara Fitzgerald, Interventional Radiology Integrated Residents, had the unique opportunity to travel to Tanzania with Road2IR. Blaine participated in the department’s Global Health elective, and Kara joined him for a week as a volunteer. UW Radiology IR Program and Associate Program Directors, Jeff Chick and Matthew Abad-Santos also volunteered with them. Read about their experience in “Radiology Doctors Volunteer For Global Health Experience In Tanzania.”
- Adlai Grayson, Interventional Radiology resident, is featured in In their own words: Radiology physician advances diversity, equity and inclusion goals at conference.
- Hannah Linden, Hematology and Oncology Associate Program Director, discusses “FES PET for ER-Positive Breast Cancer: How Can It Help?” in Medscape. She also joined the Susan Komen Real Pink podcast to discuss “Understanding the Role of Diagnostic Imaging in Breast Care.”
- The Department of Otolaryngology Summer Newsletter features the work of trainees, Program Directors, and other department leaders.
- Shinetra Pryor, Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Medicine Program Administrator, received the inaugural Outstanding Staff Award from the Department of Medicine.
- Lucia Ramirez, Internal Medicine resident, is featured in this story in The Huddle.
- Bonnie Ronish, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Associate Program Director, is featured in “How ‘forever chemicals’ impact your health” from King 5 and in “How PFAS impact your health” in US Times Post. She is also featured in UW pulmonologist provides information on what smoke does to your body from KNDO and “Seattle air quality among worst in world due to wildfire smoke” from KIRO News.
- Dushyant Sahani, Department of Radiology Chair, is a recipient of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Lifetime Honored Educator Award. This achievement recognizes his dedication to furthering the profession by delivering high-quality educational content.
- Namrata Singh, Rheumatology Associate Program Director, is lead author of “Immune-related adverse events after immune check point inhibitors: Understanding the intersection with autoimmunity” in Immunological Reviews and co-author of “Hydroxychloroquine use is associated with reduced mortality risk in older adults with rheumatoid arthritis” in Clinical Rheumatology.
- Joshua Thaler, Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition Associate Program Director, is senior author of “Obesity-associated microglial inflammatory activation paradoxically improves glucose tolerance” in Cell Metabolism. Department of Medicine co-authors are Kelly Ness, Mauricio Dorfman, Jeremy Frey and Olivia Santiago. This article was featured as a Research Highlight in Nature Reviews Endocrinology.
- Bessie Young, Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, is the 2023 recipient of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility Paul Beeson Award. This award is given annually to an activist in the field of health care or health advocacy who has made a substantial contribution to peace, justice, and health in Washington state.
- Forbes ranked UW Medicine No. 14 in the nation in its annual ranking of America’s Best Employers for Women. They highlighted success in promoting women to top leadership positions across the organization and in providing other benefits such as childcare and eldercare services at a reduced cost.
- Congrats to the 17 trainee-led Wellbeing Grant winners! Please visit Well-Being Grants to see the list and descriptions of all funded grants for each entity.
by amande | Aug 18, 2023 | Announcements, News
The Association of Hospital Medical Education (AHME) has designated August 18, 2023 as GME Professionals Day.
GME Professionals Day is an opportunity for ACGME Sponsoring Institutions and Residency and Fellowship programs to celebrate the important contributions made by the GME professionals staffing their programs and central GME offices. As defined in the ACGME Common Program Requirements (CPRs), program administrators manage the day-to-day operations of the program and serve as an important liaison with learners, faculty, other staff members, as well as the ACGME. They serve as members of the leadership team, are critical to the success of the program, must possess skills in leadership and personnel management, and are expected to develop unique knowledge of the ACGME and Program Requirements, policies, and procedures. Sponsoring Institutions and programs are highly dependent on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes GME professionals possess and the dedication they exhibit in supporting the learning environment of the institution, their programs, and the success of their trainees.
And that’s just what the ACGME says.
We see you. We see your partnership with your faculty. We see you at educational sessions within our community – learning, growing, and challenging us with great questions. We hear your ideas. We know that you often serve as a safe and trusted confidante for residents and fellows and support them through the twists and turns of life and training. We see your commitment to planning events to bring people together to repair the disconnection of the pandemic years. We see your attention to deadlines and details, and there are oh-so-many of both in GME. And we know that your work may not be as visible or as visibly celebrated as that of the clinicians in your department.
We see you as experts. You are extraordinary. You truly make it all possible.
Today, we celebrate and thank each one of you. We look forward to being together in person this coming year.
The UW Graduate Medical Education Office Team
by amande | Aug 11, 2023 | Announcements, News
This month, we’re excited to share our new GME Strategic Plan. Work on this plan has been underway for over a year, and many members of our community have contributed, resulting in what we believe is a robust, trainee-focused, and comprehensive plan.
First, many thanks to our colleagues from across GME, the School of Medicine, and UW Medicine whose feedback and input helped shape this plan. On behalf of the GME Office, we’re excited to introduce our new Strategic Plan, for academic years 2024-29.
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We have been working for over a year collecting input from our community, surveying our local and national landscape, vetting with our team, and requesting feedback from colleagues. This resulting GME Strategic Plan is intended to integrate with forthcoming UW School of Medicine and UW Medicine strategic plans, once finalized. |
| The overarching structure of the Plan is shaped by six Strategic Values: Advocacy, Communication, Expertise, Integration, People, and Quality & Value. These values shaped our AY 2020-23 Strategic Plan, and, because we believe so strongly that our values have not changed, we decided to keep them to guide our work. |
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GME has a significant footprint in both the School of Medicine, and UW Medicine given that 1 in 6 physicians at UW Medicine is a resident or fellow. |
For each of the six Strategic Values, our team has identified several Strategic Initiatives, to define the work we will do over the next six years to promote our values and improve the learning environment. It’s an ambitious plan.
GME Leadership and team members are currently working on an implementation plan – to prioritize integration of this work into the enormous portfolio of work that we do every day to support residents, fellows, programs and departments. We invite colleagues from our community to join us in this work. In the next few months, we will share opportunities to participate in specific initiatives, but we also welcome your interest. Please reach out to Cindy Hamra (hamrac@uw.edu) if you’re interested in a specific area!
Finally, if you’re interested in learning more about this new GME Strategic Plan, this video featuring Cindy Hamra and Jennifer Best goes into more depth on each of the values, initiatives, and examples of the work to come.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA |
Jennifer Best, MD |
Cindy Hamra JD, MA |
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Cindy Hamra, JD, MA
Associate Dean, Operations and Administration
