by amande | May 20, 2022 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Assistant Dean, GME
This week we reflect on our collective sadness and horror over the deaths of Black shoppers in Buffalo last weekend. Please remember that our GME Wellness Service can be a source of support for trainees and UW Medicine’s Employee Mental Health resources includes support for members of the broader community.
In her blog, President Cauce reflects, “ [a]s we grieve for the victims in Buffalo, we must examine our own responsibilities and capacity for reversing what has become a public health crisis.” Here at UW Medicine, the Office of Healthcare Equity has launched a new blueprint and website. More information is available in this Huddle article, 6 Goals to Improve Health Equity.
May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month and we want to acknowledge contributions by members of the AAPI community here at UW. I enjoyed reading about the meaning of the flowers in the Flowers of the AAPI Solidarity Email Signature. The Huddle feature also features Voices of Our Asian American Colleagues.
The May 2022 issue of GME News & Notes includes information about newly proposed ACGME common program requirements, Pride Events, language/interpreter services resources, QI match, a UW safe ride home program and many other valuable resources. As usual, if there’s anything you’d like to see included in next month’s News & Notes, please let me know.
Finally, a reminder that if you are uncertain about new or updated GME policies, please check the GME Policies and Procedures page, where each policy has a parenthetical indicating when it was last revised, and follow News & Notes, where any policy updates will be listed with a brief description.
Thank you,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- The ACGME Task Force on Burden Reduction recently completed its work on the revision of the Common Program Requirements. The revised proposed Common Program Requirements are now posted on the ACGME website for public review and comment. Visit the Review and Comment page for details on the revisions. Please fill out this survey with your comments by June 10. Our GME Accreditation Team will compile and submit feedback on behalf of the institution by the deadline.
- During resident/fellow onboarding, programs should remain mindful of the COVID Vaccine requirement and disability accommodation requests. The COVID vaccine requirement remains a condition of employment for all incoming residents and fellows. During onboarding, trainees may also notify you of a disability or request specific accommodation. If you have an incoming resident/fellow seeking a COVID vaccine medical or religious exemption or a resident/fellow requesting a disability accommodation, please notify GME as soon as possible.
- UW Medicine residents and fellows who will conduct their own human subjects research are required to take a one-time, 60 minute, on-demand, e-learning tutorial. The UW Human Subjects Division: IRB 101 Online Tutorial covers the basics of human subjects research and provides important practical information about navigating the approval process through the Human Subjects Division, a unit of the UW Office of Research. The learner needs to provide their Certificate of Completion with their IRB application in order to receive approval to do human subjects research.
- The ACGME has made revisions to supervision related requirements over the last few years (CPR VI.A.2) to allow for direct supervision through telecommunications technology for some specialties in recognition of the wide adoption of telemedicine as a result of the pandemic. The GME office has updated the Institutional Supervision & Accountability Policy as well as the program policy template to reflect the CPR revisions.
- Welcome New Program Administrators:
- Lynda Schumacher, Pediatric Rheumatology
- Becca Smith, Pediatric Pulmonology
- The GMEC approved the following policy at the May meeting:
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- GME Session on ACGME Non-Standard Training (NST) Recognition: Wednesday, May 25, 3:00 to 4:00 pm
- GME Program Administrators Meeting: Tuesday, June 14, 8:30 to 10:30 am
- UW Medicine Pride Flag Raising: Wednesday, June 1, noon, at all UW Medicine hospital campuses.
- Pride in the Park: Saturday, June 4, noon to 7 pm, Volunteer Park, Seattle This free-to-attend event will feature a can’t-miss lineup of local LGBTQIA+ performances co-curated in partnership with Taking B(l)ack Pride, activities, food trucks, an alcohol garden, non-profit booths and much more.
- Trauma Stewardship Institute Workshops: UW Medicine and the School of Medicine are partnering with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky and the Trauma Stewardship Institute to address the accumulative toll of the pandemic on UW Medicine healthcare staff and providers through a 2-hour system-wide workshop. June 21, 4 to 6 pm, Register for the June Trauma Stewardship Training.
- Seattle Pride Parade: Sunday, June 26, 11 am to 3 pm, Fourth Avenue, Downtown Seattle Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year we are limited to 200 participants, and we will fill the spots on a first-come, first-served basis. Please RSVP to let us know that you’re interested in volunteering and/or participating. All participants will receive a UW Medicine Pride t-shirt (while supplies last).
- The Life After Residency Seminar is on Saturday, August 27 (registration will open in July). This event is intended to educate and support graduating trainees on their transition to independent practice. Featured speakers typically discuss topics such as writing cover letters, negotiating salary and benefits, how to read your employment contract and more. Trainees of all levels are invited to attend.
- Other GME Events including AY23 can be found on our calendar.
Projects and Resources
- The GME Office is now recruiting for a Learning Environment Specialist. This position provides accreditation and learning environment project management, website improvements and support, event planning and management, and administrative support to the Associate Dean, the Director of Accreditation, the Clinical Learning Environment Review Subcommittee, and the Learning Gateway team. Please feel free to share and ask interested parties to apply.
- The Language Access module from Learning Gateway offers training regarding interpreter/language services in the hospitals and also highlights health equity and delivering high quality care for patients who are non/low English proficient. The Huddle recently highlighted the amazing work of the Harborview Interpreter Services Team.
- UW Medicine is now accepting applications for a third round of Patients Are First Innovation Pilots. This program awards up to $50,000 in funding to UW Medicine faculty and staff with an innovative idea to improve patient care or address issues in our care delivery process. They intend to award up to four pilot grants. The recorded webinar on the PAFIP website covers the application and approval process, implementation timeline for approved projects and Q&A.
- The AAMC’s Organization of Resident Representatives is now accepting resident nominations for the Community Service Recognition Award. The purpose of the award is to foster a service ethic among resident physicians by recognizing those who have made contributions above and beyond the rigors of residency training to improve the local communities surrounding their training institution. Learn More. Submission deadline is June 12.
- The UW Medicine Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality and Safety is proud to announce the (re)-launch of QI Match. QI Match is an online web platform to match collaborators to quality improvement and patient safety initiatives across UW Medicine. Projects get posted to the site and any faculty, student, staff, or trainee can notify the project lead of their interest. Projects that are posted to QI Match may be a single event (such as a patient safety root cause analysis or a QI focus group) or longer term QI projects. Get started today.
- Ride Home reimbursement is a benefit for those in the Faculty/Staff U-PASS program, and Bike Locker or House permit holders at the Seattle Campus. This benefit is in addition to the GME Emergency / Safe Ride Home program. For more information, please visit the Emergency Ride Home page.
- Please see a recent highlight of ACGME Resources:
- Webcast for Program Directors and Coordinators on the 2022-2023 Annual Update Changes: This webcast will provide information about the Accreditation Data System (ADS) Annual Update timelines and changes for Academic Year 2022-2023 to help designated institutional officials, program directors, and coordinators better prepare for and effectively complete the Annual Update. Register for the Thursday, May 26, 2022 event (11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Central). The recorded webcast will be available in Learn at ACGME within a week of the live presentation.
- Burden Reduction – Faculty Board Certification Update: As part of the ACGME’s commitment to and continued efforts toward improving the user experience, beginning July 1, 2022, the ACGME will default to using data obtained from the American Board of Medical Specialties and American Osteopathic Association for faculty certification. These data will be populated into the Faculty Roster in the Accreditation Data System (ADS) and used during program review and in accreditation and recognition site visit materials. This change is intended to reduce programs’ data entry burden. Programs will no longer be required to manually enter faculty members’ ABMS/AOA board certification data in ADS. Physician faculty members will be matched to the datasets based on National Provider Identifier (NPI) number, as well as name, date of birth, and medical school graduation year. NPI numbers entered in ADS must be accurate and complete ASAP.
- Resident/Fellow and Faculty Survey reports are now available: Additional ACGME Resident/Fellow and Faculty Survey reports are now available in ADS for programs that participated in the 2021-2022 surveys but had fewer than four survey takers scheduled to participate. These reports aggregate survey data across multiple reporting years, allowing the ACGME to provide feedback to programs that would otherwise not receive a report due to a smaller cohort of survey takers. Programs will receive this multi-year report if they had at least four total survey takers complete the survey over the past few academic years.
- Transitions in Medical Education Toolkits: The ACGME, in collaboration with several other medical education organizations, has released three toolkits to aid programs and learners as they progress through the medical education continuum from medical school to practice. The toolkits are meant to help guide programs and learners as they deal with disrupted years of education due to the pandemic. See Transitions in Medical Education on the ACGME website.
- Revised Milestones Available: Updated versions of more than 20 Milestones are now available. Programs will officially start using the new Milestones in July 2022, with the first reporting in January 2023. See the Milestones page of the ACGME website.
- Meeting and Agenda Closing Dates Posted: Meeting dates are listed on the overview page of each specialty section on the ACGME website. While many specialties have already updated their information, updates may continue until July 1, 2022.
- Milestones Year End Reporting: The Milestones reporting window is now open and closes Friday, June 24, 2022. Milestones assessments can be submitted via ADS.
- Please remember to check the GME website where many current forms, policies, processes, and educational resources are posted. We also appreciate your feedback about what else we can add to make it more useful. The GME Report a Concern form is a way for community members to report concerns to the GME Office (including the opportunity to report confidentially).
- Resources for parents:
- UW WorkLife recently hosted a panel discussion about your childcare benefits through Bright Horizons, UW CareLink, and KinderCare, including information about new reimbursable out-of-network backup care program. The recording is now available.
- The National Institute of Health (NIH) now provides eligible NRSA and Institutional Training Grant trainees (such as postdoctoral trainees appointed on T32 awards) an NIH Childcare Allowance. This allowance is up to $2,500 per year, per trainee and goes towards assisting with childcare costs. To see if you qualify, please contact your grant administrator.
People
- Geoff Baird, (Chair, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology) was celebrated for his outstanding leadership during the pandemic in Celebration of Heroes.
- Staff members from the Internal Medicine Residency Program presented two posters at the AAIM conference last week, showcasing innovations in education.
- John Choe, associate professor (General Internal Medicine) has been selected to co-chair the Learner Handoffs Standards Task Force, one of several AAIM task forces charged with addressing some of the 2021 UME to GME transition recommendations from the Coalition for Physician Accountability (COPA).
- Taylor Coston, fellow, and his mentor, Eoin West, professor (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) have received funding from the Firland Foundation for their project: “Clinical and biological subgrouping of patients with lower respiratory tract infections in rural Thailand.”
- Congratulations to China S. Hardison, PA (Surgery) who won the 2022 Together We Will Award as part of the UW 2022 Awards of Excellence!
- Kellen Hirsch, R2, is lead author, and Larry Dean, professor (Cardiology) is senior author of “Spontaneous coronary artery dissection and exogenous estrogen in a transgender female” in CCI . DOM co-author is Vidhushei Yogeswaran.
- Mack Holmberg, R2, is lead author of “Supporting sexual and gender minority health-care workers” in Nature Reviews Nephrology.
- Mira John, fellow (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) was appointed to the Fellows’ Workgroup of the Association of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Program Directors (APCCMPD). The Fellow’s Workgroup provides a unique perspective to the APCCMPD Board of Directors and helps advance the field of medical education and fellowship training.
- Barbara Jung, professor and chair, wrote “My path: Challenges and decisions along the way” in MDedge GI & Hepatology News.
- Christopher Knight, associate professor (General Internal Medicine) is the new Governor of the Washington Chapter of the American College of Physicians. The Washington Chapter of ACP is comprised of approximately 2,700 members promoting professionalism and education in internal medicine. ACP is a national organization of internists, the largest medical-specialty organization, and second-largest physician group in the United States.
- Rayan Najjar, fellow, is lead author and Namrata Singh, assistant professor (Rheumatology) is senior author of “Predictors of Thirty-Day Hospital Readmissions in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in the US: A Nationwide Study” in Arthritis Care and Research. DOM co-author is Grant Hughes.
- Congratulations to Busola Oluwole, fellow (Hematology), the 2022 recipient of the Diversity Academic Development Scholar Award. Established in 2020, the Department of Medicine Diversity Academic Development Scholar Awards (DADSA) were developed to promote and foster the transition of meritorious trainees to the roles of junior faculty and principal investigator. Dr. Oluwole will present her research at the Department of Medicine Grand Rounds in the fall.
- Evelyn Qin, resident (Physiatry) is quoted in Fortune “Can I earn my master’s in public health during residency?” sharing her own experience and offering guidance for those considering pursuing an MPH.
- Anna Ratzliff, professor (Psychiatry) is noted in Fortune “23% of workers say employers are offering new mental health benefits. But is it enough?”
- Lisa Tachiki, fellow, and Shailender Bhatia, associate professor (Medical Oncology) are co-authors of “Clinical activity of PD-1 inhibition in the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic basal cell carcinoma” in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.
- Lucas Zarling, R2, is lead author, and Roland Walter, professor (Hematology) is senior author of “Utility of the Treatment-Related Mortality (TRM) score to predict outcomes of adults with acute myeloid leukemia undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation” in Leukemia. DOM co-authors are Brenda Sandmaier, Filippo Milano, H. Joachim Deeg, Frederick Appelbaum, and Rainer Storb.
by amande | May 6, 2022 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Nearly a quarter of a Century ago, the Institute of Medicine’s, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System was a call to action that shook the medical community into the realization that we needed to educate our residents and fellows in how to better safeguard patients from harm. Medicine, once a cottage industry, could no longer deny the age of big data and incredible innovation. We needed to learn from commercial aviation and other highly reliable industries, which for years had been delivering faultless services in the face of immense operational complexity. There were standards of quality in these businesses that we could apply to our own business of care.
The UW Housestaff Quality & Safety Committee (HQSC) is a group of residents and fellows which has, for more than 10 years, been learning about the business of delivering care more consistently and safely to our patients at UW Medicine. The HQSC learns about quality not just in theory but in practice. For example, HQSC members have studied the triumphs and more recent missteps of the Boeing Co., including taking a field trip to its Flight Safety Center, to learn about the indivisible relationship between an organization’s Culture of Safety, the quality of its products, and its financial bottom line.
I am so proud of the Housestaff Quality & Safety Committee, which began more than 10 years ago as a nod to the ACGME’s requirement that all housestaff learn more about—and actually participate in—patient safety and quality improvement experiences during their training. Although a brilliant idea, actualization of this concept has been challenging because the generations of physicians before had not learned the fine skills of quality improvement, the culture of safety.
This month, I’ve invited Drs. Chen Wu, Vickie Hau, and Vince Raikhel, faculty sponsor and co-chairs of HQSC, respectively, to share the incredible work of the HQSC.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
In spring 2015, after traveling four billion miles across deep space, the New Horizons spacecraft approached the planetoid Pluto at the outer fringes of our solar system for a cosmic rendezvous 10 years in the making.
In spring 2022, Dr. Bonnie Buratti, senior planetary scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a key figure behind the New Horizons mission—who has a bona fide asteroid 90502 Buratti named after her—spoke to members of the UW Housestaff Quality and Safety Committee (HQSC) about the extraordinary lengths to which NASA engineers go to ensure the safe transit of these extremely fragile, highly complex, astronomically expensive spacecraft. It was a topical lesson in proactive risk assessment and mitigation, one of the cornerstones of High Reliability Organizations which are distinguished by their complicated operations and failure rate far below statistical expectations (think commercial aviation, not the present state of U.S. healthcare).
Dr. Buratti’s talk was just one of many activities organized and curated by the HQSC to introduce core patient safety and quality improvement (QI) concepts to the GME community, inclusive of residents, fellows, and program faculty. Having recently notched its own 10-year milestone, the HQSC is busy at work improving existing offerings and gestating novel pathways for trainees to engage in this important domain. Current noteworthy programs include:
- The annual HOUSE journal meant to serve as a portable showcase of trainee-involved improvement projects; check out the latest edition and archived volumes here
- A generous project grant funding mechanism supported by Dr. Aalap Shah, an HQSC alumnus now practicing in southern California, that you can check out here alongside a portfolio of earlier projects involving HQSC members
- The SQuIRREL (Subcommittee on QI Event Reporting & Resident-Engaged Learning) program where trainee-submitted patient safety reports are reviewed in front of Harborview and UW Medical Center patient safety officers
Keep an eye out for monthly announcements and join a session to gain insights and get closure on a patient safety incident that you reported. You might even earn free coffee along the way. 😉
In addition to constantly tweaking these programs in response to feedback and measured performance (hey, we walk the QI walk as much as we talk the QI talk!), the HQSC hopes to expand its portfolio of experiences to better serve training programs, large and small, in teaching QI concepts and surpassing important accreditation requirements. We also recognize the immense wealth of talent, creativity, and entrepreneurial drive that resides within our GME community and hope to both nurture and harness these instincts for system improvement.
Ideas that we’re actively exploring include a streamlined, standardized pathway for QI manuscripts married to coaching support from project inception through publication; resumption of field trips to non-healthcare role models such as Alaska Airlines and the U.S. Army; and investigation of public-private coalitions to tackle health outcome determinants that reside outside the walls of our training hospitals.
A few of these ideas are in early prototype stages while others remain only conceptual. Propelled by the excitement of our residents and fellows and the support of their sponsoring programs, however, we’re confident that these ambitions can be realized. Big opportunities require bold vision, and as President Kennedy once reminded us at the start of the Space Age, bold visions are worth pursuing.
If this vision is one that you share, then please consider joining the HQSC if you are a resident or fellow or contacting us at uwhqsc@uw.edu if you are a faculty member, program director, or departmental leader interested in collaboration. HQSC is proud to have worked with UW Orthopaedics in the past to co-develop QI Match, a unique site meant to connect QI project leads to enthusiastic trainees, that recently went live with backing from the UW Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality & Safety.
Check out QI Match if you’re interested in posting or joining a project! And reach out to us if you’re at all curious about how HQSC could fit into your training program’s educational strategy. Let’s start a conversation about how we, together, can seek out our own New Horizons.
.
Vickie Hau, MD
(Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine)
Co-chair
UW Housestaff Quality & Safety Committee
Vince Raikhel, MD
(Internal Medicine)
Co-chair
UW Housestaff Quality & Safety Committee
Chen Wu, MD
Faculty Director
UW Housestaff Quality & Safety Committee
by amande | Apr 20, 2022 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Assistant Dean, GME
Most of you have probably seen Dr. Paul Ramsey’s announcement that he will be retiring as CEO of UW Medicine and Dean of the School of Medicine in June of this year. On behalf of the GME Office, we are grateful to Dr. Ramsey for his support and leadership and wish him the best in this next phase. We’re also looking forward to working with Dr. Tim Dellit, who will serve in an interim capacity for the next two years during the transition.
I want to open by highlighting a few resources – first, we want to remind our trainees who are observing Ramadan that our Information by Training site page includes information about prayer and meditation rooms for many training sites.
Second, we are often asked how program leadership can know when a policy has been added or updated. Two easy ways to keep up are to check the GME Policies and Procedures page, where each policy has a parenthetical indicating when it was last revised, and to follow News & Notes, where any policy updates will be listed each month with a brief description.
We’ve begun the process of onboarding the new residents and fellows who will join us this summer to begin training. Please see Dr. Joyner’s April blog post regarding Match results and the onboarding resources for information about how get started.
The April 2022 issue of GME News & Notes includes a reminder about the COVID vaccine and booster requirements, information about a UW safe ride home program, resources for parents, and information about upcoming events. As usual, if there’s anything you’d like to see included in next month’s News & Notes, please let me know.
Thank you,
Cindy
Policies and Processes
- Booster Requirement: Please remember that UW Medicine clinical employees are required to be boosted. UW Medicine Employee Health has asked GME to reach out to programs with trainees who are not yet in compliance. Please let us know if you have questions.
- UW Medicine is now providing second booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to all individuals 50 years and older who received their first booster shot at least four months prior. Under the new CDC and FDA guidance, certain immunocompromised individuals ages 12 and older also are eligible for a second Pfizer or Moderna booster shot at least four months after their first booster dose, as are individuals ages 18 and older who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for both their primary series and first booster.
- During the incoming resident/fellow onboarding process, programs should remain mindful of the COVID Vaccine requirement and disability accommodation requests. The COVID vaccine requirement remains a condition of employment for all incoming residents and fellows. During the onboarding process, trainees may also notify you of a disability or request specific accommodation. If you have an incoming resident/fellow seeking a COVID vaccine medical or religious exemption or a resident/fellow requesting a disability accommodation, please notify GME as soon as possible.
- Programs can plan to host in-person graduation ceremonies, orientation activities, and recruitment interviews. Please see Dr. Joyner’s April 1 email for more information.
- Starting mid-November, UW Medicine residents and fellows who will conduct their own human subjects research will be required to take a one-time, 60 minute, on-demand, e-learning tutorial. The UW Human Subjects Division: IRB 101 Online Tutorial covers the basics of human subjects research and provides important practical information about navigating the approval process through the Human Subjects Division, a unit of the UW Office of Research. The learner will need to provide their Certificate of Completion with their IRB application in order to receive approval to do human subjects research.
- The GME Office is seeking nominations for membership on GME committees for the 2022-2023 academic year (AY23). Descriptions of each committee are provided on the Committees page of the GME website. Members of these committees should have an interest in serving as representatives of their peers, knowledge of UW GME activities, and a desire to serve as an advocate for housestaff. Committee members are expected to regularly attend scheduled committee meetings (70% expectation). Please submit self- or peer-nominations by Friday April 30 by filing out the following form. We will follow up with nominees and new members in early June.
- The ACGME has made revisions to supervision related requirements over the last few years (CPR VI.A.2) to allow for direct supervision through telecommunications technology for some specialties in recognition of the wide adoption of telemedicine as a result of the pandemic. The GME office has updated the Institutional Supervision & Accountability Policy as well as the program policy template to reflect the CPR revisions.
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; all appointments await ACGME confirmation:
- Jennifer Bauer, Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery
- Chris Ingraham, Interventional Radiology – Independent & Integrated
- Richard Sheu, Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns
- The recording from the April 7 MedHub Scheduling workshop is now available. Other helpful scheduling resources can be found on the GME Finance and GME MedHub sites.
- The recording from the April 19 Program Administrator Meeting is now available. For those of you interested in reviewing the resource site for the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, the link to the site is on the PA Toolkit under Handbooks.
- Trauma Stewardship Institute Workshops: UW Medicine and the School of Medicine are partnering with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky and the Trauma Stewardship Institute to address the accumulative toll of the pandemic on UW Medicine healthcare staff and providers through a 2-hour system-wide workshop. Recordings will be posted online for those unable to attend live.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar
Projects and Resources
- Since our October 2020 update on Call Rooms, Lactation Rooms, and Parental Support, the GME Office has continued to work on improvements for parent trainees, in partnership with the hospitals. Updates over the last year were captured in GME Updates: Lactation Rooms and Parental Support. Our team continues to work to improve amenities and experiences for our parent trainees.
- Please complete the 2022 UW Medicine Annual Workforce Survey All individual responses to this survey are confidential. Read FAQ for more information.
- On April 1, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and UW Medicine completed the restructure of their longtime relationship and the formation of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, a unified adult cancer research and care center. A summary of changes, benefits of the restructure, and other helpful information are available at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center: The Future of Cancer Research and Care.
- UW Transportation Services offers reimbursement for one-way trips, up to 60 miles. This Emergency Ride Home reimbursement is a benefit for those in the Faculty/Staff U-PASS program, and Bike Locker or House permit holders at the Seattle Campus. This benefit is in addition to the GME Emergency / Safe Ride Home program. For more information please visit the Emergency Ride Home page.
- Please see a recent highlight of ACGME Resources:
- Transitions in Medical Education Toolkits: The ACGME, in collaboration with several other medical education organizations, has released three toolkits to aid programs and learners as they progress through the medical education continuum from medical school to practice. The toolkits are meant to help guide programs and learners as they deal with disrupted years of education due to the pandemic. See Transitions in Medical Education on the ACGME website.
- Revised Milestones Available: Updated versions of more than 20 Milestones are now available. Programs will officially start using the new Milestones in July 2022, with the first reporting in January 2023. See the Milestones page of the ACGME website.
- Milestones Year End Reporting: The Milestones reporting window is now open and closes Friday, June 24, 2022. Milestones assessments can be submitted via ADS.
- Please remember to check the GME website where many current forms, policies, processes, and educational resources are posted. We also appreciate your feedback about what else we can add to make it more useful. The GME Report a Concern form is a way for community members to report concerns to the GME Office (including the opportunity to report confidentially).
- Thanks to UW Medicine Advancement for designing a new tool to support GME programs via the Graduate Medical Education Endowed Fund, which provides central support through the GME Office for resident and trainee research, diversity recruitment, community engagement and wellness activities.
- UW Benefits has partnered with TIAA to bring a new resource for Public Student Loan Forgiveness program! To get started, go to the TIAA/Savi webpage. It will take around 15 or 20 minutes to answer the questions and get results. The results will show the optimal repayment plan and estimated monthly savings, as well as whether the employee qualifies for a forgiveness plan, how much could be forgiven, and when. For more information, please visit Public Student Loan Forgiveness webpage. If you have any questions, please contact UW Benefits at 206-543-4444.
- Resources for parents:
- New Bright Horizons backup care benefit: out-of-network backup care. From April 1 – June 30, you will have the option to secure care from within your own personal network (a neighbor, friend, or babysitter) and receive reimbursement of $100 per day. Each use will count towards your 5-use limit per calendar year and can be requested on the Bright Horizons backup care webpage. To access this benefit, select “Request Reimbursement” during the backup care reservation process and elect to use out-of-network care. Bright Horizons has also provided a step-by-step guide on how to submit an out-of-network care reservation request.
- Child care openings for ages 3-5 available now at Harborview. Apply now for immediate child care availability by submitting your application to the UW Children’s Center Harborview location.
- The National Institute of Health (NIH) now provides eligible NRSA and Institutional Training Grant trainees (such as postdoctoral trainees appointed on T32 awards) an NIH Childcare Allowance. This allowance is up to $2,500 per year, per trainee and goes towards assisting with childcare costs. To see if you qualify, please contact your grant administrator.
People
- UW medical school ranked No. 1 for primary care training. The University of Washington School of Medicine has received the No. 1 ranking for primary care education in the 2022 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools” for the 27th time since the category was introduced in 1995. We ranked No. 16 among the top 25 medical schools in the country for internal medicine, and are second in the nation in federal grant funding with $996 million of federal grants in 2020.
- New chief residents for Department of Medicine AY23-24
- UWMC
- Shiv Bhandari (Inpatient)
- Celia Haering (Inpatient)
- Nikki Zarling (Outpatient – Roosevelt)
- HMC
- Mack Holmberg (Inpatient)
- Karen Rico (Outpatient)
- Nick Wang (Quality and Safety)
- Seattle VAPS
- Maria Cassera (Inpatient)
- Juri de Jong (Quality and Safety)
- Thomas Hollowed (Clinician-Teacher fellow, outpatient chief)
- Rebecca Stephens (Clinician-Teacher fellow, outpatient chief)
- Erica Storm (Inpatient)
- Belltown Clinic
- Jocelyn Cooper, R2 (Medicine), is quoted in “Cefazolin may be safe option before surgery for patients with penicillin allergy labels” in Healio Asthma/Allergy.
- In their research, “Uncovering relationships between body composition and outcomes from immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy,” Duncan Hussey and collaborators retrospectively used radiographic measures of pre-treatment lean muscle mass and levels of blood albumin in effort to better predict which renal cancer patients will have greater mortality after dual checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Read more about this and other resident work at Spotlight on Resident Scholarship.
- Nicole Kim, fellow (Gastroenterology) is lead author and George Ioannou professor (Gastroenterology) is senior author of “The COVID-19 Pandemic Highlights Opportunities to Improve Hepatocellular Carcinoma Screening and Diagnosis in a National Health System” in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
- Julia Kocian, GME Wellness Mental Health Counselor, is quoted in “Taking Breaks Is Good for Your Brain — Here’s Why” from Right as Rain by UW Medicine.
- Denise J McCulloch, fellow (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is co-author of “Multiple early factors anticipate post-acute COVID-19 sequelae” in Cell.
- Heather McPhillips has a new role as the associate dean for Curriculum at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In her new position, McPhillips partners with faculty in Seattle and the WWAMI region to oversee the UW School of Medicine curriculum.
- Asa Tapley, fellow (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is co-author of “High Asymptomatic Carriage with the Omicron Variant in South Africa” in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
- Andrew Portuguese, fellow, is lead author and Evan Hall, assistant professor (Medical Oncology) is senior author of “Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Use in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: A Systematic Review” in JNCCN. DOM co-authors are Scott Tykodi, Christopher Blosser, and John Thompson.
- James Wykowski, R3 (Medicine), is lead author of “Re-imagining death certification education” in Medical Education. DOM co-authors are Gabrielle Burger and Andrew Luks.
by nybrady | Apr 18, 2022 | Announcements, Events, PA Events, PD Events, Resident & Fellow Events
Please save the dates for upcoming 2022 – 2023 GME events! See PDF list, and be sure to check the Resident & Fellows and PDs & PAs event pages for the most up-to-date information.
If applicable, registration for events will open one month prior to the event date. Timely save the dates and registration reminders will be released via email.
We hope to see you at a GME event soon!
by amande | Apr 8, 2022 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
This month, we celebrate our incoming class of 2022-2023! Our National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) was a success, again this year, for University of Washington GME programs. The 83 residency and fellowship programs that participated in the NRMP matched physicians from around the country at percentages above the national average. We also matched many of our own medical students and residents into UWSOM residency and fellowship programs. We did this by working together, being innovative and believing in our great community.
- In the Main Match, the 26 participating UW residency programs had a match rate of 97% compared to 94% nationally.
- For the Specialties Match, the 57 participating UW fellowship programs had a match rate of 94% compared to the national average of 88%.
- UWSOM fellowship programs offered 173 spots, 40 of which were filled by UW residents, continuing an encouraging 3-year trend.
- Once again, this year the Main Residency Match was the “largest Match on record,” with over 39,000 positions available. But, for the first time in years, there was a slight decrease in the number of registered applicants (47,675; down 2.1%) and a very slight increase in those who submitted rank order lists (0.1%).
- Though the total number of allopathic and osteopathic medical school seniors increased from last year, the total number of US and non-US citizen international medical graduates (IMGs) decreased in both the Main and Specialties Matches.
In this year’s Match, based on self-reported data, UWSOM saw an increase in both Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) as well as Underrepresented in Medicine (URM) candidates who matched in both our medical and dental programs. In fact, the last three years has seen an encouraging upward trend in Black and African American matriculants to our programs. As we work together to increase and, more importantly, sustain inclusivity and diversity in our workforce, we can continue to provide better equity of patient care in our community.
I want to congratulate our program leadership, the residents and fellows, as well as the Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows (NURF) for their tremendous efforts in our journey to diversify our learning community. Below is this year’s representation of BIPOC, URM and women who have historically been minoritized in Medicine, as reported by our clinical department chairs.
These past two years have been difficult, but the University of Washington continues to have strong match results and we remain a competitive training institution, as reflected by the 5-year trend below:
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many things, one of which is we do well when we work together. In 2021, we worked together to recruit the next group of trainees who will be a part of our learning communities in Seattle and the WWAMI region. For the second year, the GME Office and NURF hosted Town Halls to help our programs attract underrepresented and vulnerable minority candidates. This year, one of our NURF Town Halls had more than 600 participants, curious to know what it is like to train in the UW community.
All members of our community, including the clinical chairs, residents and fellows, program directors and administrators, faculty and staff, worked together to produce these excellent results. Especially during these challenging times, it is critical that we cultivate an environment where everyone feels safe and as though they belong, an environment in which everyone can be successful.
Congratulations and thank you!
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by nathangl | Mar 23, 2022 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Assistant Dean, GME
First, I want to express our concern and support for the members of our community with connections to Ukraine. If you can benefit from support, please look to UW Medicine Employee Mental Health Resources.
It’s the start of spring, warmer weather, and longer days. In addition, there are exciting signs of change and progress, like the hopeful decline of COVID in our community, and Match day results. The GME Office is excited to start the process of welcoming and onboarding the residents and fellows who will join us this summer. Dr. Joyner will share more information about Match results in his April DIO Blog.
We’re also excited to welcome two new members to our GME Team: Amanda Easton joins GME as Program Manager for Operations and Administration, and Karyn Crow joins us as a second Float Administrator! We’re thrilled to continue to strengthen the GME Team and our capacity to support trainees, programs and departments.
A rite of spring is the blooming of the UW Quad cherry blossoms. UW arborist Sara Shores put together this interactive graphic to explain how different parts of the tree work.
The March 2022 issue of GME News & Notes includes a reminder about the COVID vaccine and booster requirements, information about new and updated policies, resources for parents, and information about upcoming events. As usual, if there’s anything you’d like to see included in next month’s News & Notes, please let me know.
Policies and Processes
- The Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) approved revisions to several policies at the March meeting. All are posted on the Policies and Procedures page of the GME website.
- GMEC Approved (Non-ACGME Accredited) Programs Policy: Revisions include adding language on restrictions on creating parallel non-ACGME programs if ACGME-accredited programs currently exist at the institution, restrictions on creating non-ACGME positions in ACGME programs, guidelines on appointments for non-ACGME programs seeking to apply for ACGME accreditation once available, and a requirement for non-ACGME programs to develop a program-specific eligibility and selection policy.
- Institutional Supervision and Accountability Policy: Revisions include updated supervision requirements addressed in the ACGME Common Program Requirements, specialty-specific requirements for direct and indirect supervision via telecommunication technology, reference to procedure certifications outlined in the Case and Procedure Management Policy, and program requirements for supervision of handoffs. The Supervision Policy template for programs was also updated and programs will be contacted soon to revise their program policies.
- The COVID Vaccine requirement remains a condition of employment for all incoming residents and fellows. Programs, please see email from Hayley Fisher outlining the verification process (“COVID-19 Vaccine Verification Requirements for Incoming Residents and Fellows” dated 3/11/2022). If you have an incoming resident/fellow seeking a medical or religious exemption, please notify GME as soon as possible.
- COVID Booster requirement: All UW Medicine employees (except for those in non-clinical roles in the School of Medicine) are required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot or complete a declination process by March 31, 2022. There is still time to get your booster or to fulfill the other requirements for compliance. More information is available at the COVID-19 Booster Campaign.
- UW Medicine has updated the Policy on Professional Conduct
- ACGME Emergency Categorization: Emergency Categorization for the UWSOM was granted on February 1, 2022, and expired March 2, 2022. The GME Office did not request an extension of Emergency Categorization. All previously suspended ACGME activities resume, and programs are subject to all Common and Specialty-Specific Program Requirements.
- The GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors; all appointments await ACGME confirmation:
- Kenneth Steinberg, Alaska Internal Medicine Rural Residency Program
- Cary Paine, Nephrology
- Amanda Maskovyak, Forensic Pathology
Events of Interest
- We welcome new Program Directors and Program Administrators (<1 year) to join us for our April GME Meet & Greet on Monday, April 4 from 12 – 12:45pm (no registration is required). This is intended to be an informal introductory event for our newest colleagues to meet each other and GME office staff.
- GME Lunch & Learns
- GME Program Administrators Meeting: Tuesday, April 19, 8:30-10:30am
- Trauma Stewardship Institute Workshops: UW Medicine and the School of Medicine are partnering with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky and the Trauma Stewardship Institute to address the accumulative toll of the pandemic on UW Medicine healthcare staff and providers through a 2-hour system-wide workshop. Recordings will be posted online for those unable to attend live.
- Register now for the GME Spring Program Director Development Series (PDDS) sessions! See agenda. Registration closes at 8am on March 25. Topics are:
- Morning: Interdisciplinary Teamwork in the Clinical Learning Environment
- Afternoon: Harmonizing the Milestones
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar
Projects and Resources
- Please remember to check the GME website where many current forms, policies, processes, and educational resources are posted. We also appreciate your feedback about what else we can add to make it more useful. The GME Report a Concern form is a way for community members to report concerns to the GME Office (including the opportunity to report confidentially).
- Thanks to UW Medicine Advancement for designing a new tool to support GME programs via the Graduate Medical Education Endowed Fund, which provides central support through the GME Office for resident and trainee research, diversity recruitment, community engagement and wellness activities.
- Resources for parents:
- New resource page containing useful activity search engines, tips and advice for Planning for Your Children’s Summer Activities!
- Registration is now open for UW Youth and Teen Programs. A variety of in-person and online enrichment courses are available for youth entering 4th through 12th grade. Classes begin June 27.
- Two upcoming parent and caregiver events hosted by UW Center for Child & Family Well-Being:
- UW Benefits has partnered with TIAA to bring a new resource for Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program! To get started, go to the TIAA/Savi webpage. It will take around 15 or 20 minutes to answer the questions and get results. The results will show the optimal repayment plan and estimated monthly savings, as well as whether the employee qualifies for a forgiveness plan, how much could be forgiven, and when. For more information about this service, please visit our Public Student Loan Forgiveness If you have any questions about this new service, please contact UW Benefits at 206-543-4444.
People
- Jennifer Best, associate dean, GME, is senior author of “Men and Women Pursue Nonlinear Career Paths, but Impacts Differ: a Cross-Sectional Study of Academic Hospitalists” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
- Lee Bockus, fellow, Cardiology, is lead author and Michael Chen, associate professor is senior author of “Heart of Gold: A Scintillating Pericardial Effusion” in Circulation.
- The GME Office is excited to welcome Karyn Crow as our new GME Float Administrator. This is our second of two Float positions, and in this role Karyn’s primary responsibility will be to ensure continuity of key operations of UW GME residency and fellowship programs when a program administrator vacates the position or takes an extended leave from the program. Karyn joins GME from the Department of Surgery where she spent the last four years as program administrator for the Plastic Surgery residency program. Her first day in GME is April 4. If your department has current or anticipating upcoming coverage needs, please contact Gabrielle Pett at nathangl@uw.edu.
- Alyssa Castillo, fellow, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is lead author and Chloe Bryson-Cahn, assistant professor, is senior author of “Rapid Molecular SARS-CoV-2 Testing in Hospital Employees with Mild Non-specific Respiratory Symptoms Facilitates Expedient Return to Work” in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
- Madeleine Heldman, fellow, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is lead author and Joshua Hill, assistant professor, is senior author of “Assessing and restoring adaptive immunity to HSV, VZV and HHV-6 in solid organ and hematopoietic cell transplant recipients” in Clinical Microbiology and Infection.
- Danelle Hidano, fellow, Cardiology, is lead author of “US Food and Drug Administration–Mandated Postmarketing Studies for High-risk Cardiovascular Devices Approved 2015-2019” in JAMA Internal Medicine.
- Danny Miller, resident, Pediatrics, co-authored “Curated variation benchmarks for challenging medically relevant autosomal genes” in Nature Biotechnology.
- Blake Murphy, resident, Vascular Surgery-Integrated, was selected to the Society for Vascular Surgery Patient Safety Organization Quality Fellowship in Training Program. This is a flagship program offered by The Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Quality Initiative will focus on quality processes and data utilization among vascular surgery residents.
- Andreea Reilly, fellow, Hematology, is lead author, and Sergei Doulatov, associate professor, is senior author of “Lamin B1 deletion in myeloid neoplasms causes nuclear anomaly and altered hematopoietic stem cell function” in Cell Stem Cell.
- Internal Medicine Chief Residents Ryan Johnson, Oyinkansola Osobamiro, Anna Morenz, Nancy Mugisha, and Linda Liu are authors of “Chief Residency Selection in Internal Medicine: Who Is Left Out?”
by nathangl | Mar 9, 2022 | Announcements, News
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
In Seattle, the sun is beginning shine and the number of people getting sick from COVID-19 is declining. As spring approaches, I want to thank the many heroes in our community: all of the residents and fellows; the faculty and nurses; the staff and leaders – all of you who worked countless hours on behalf of our patients and their families.
In the long shadow of COVID-19, we learned a lot of things. We learned that the unknown can be daunting, especially in the face of social conflagration. We learned that teamwork makes the work easier. We also learned the magic – and the monotony – of Zoom, and how it accelerated the care of our patients and of each other.
Our residents and fellows play an important role in caring for our patients at UW Medicine and they continue to be vital in all that we do. We value their work and their commitment to our community. In spite of the unknown that the pandemic wrought and the challenges of communicating hardships of death, we learned that we are resilient. You did that.
I am conscious of the sacrifices you have made during the last two years with your education and your patients. Our hope is to continue to find ways to support and partner with you in building a healthy work environment that continues to support you in the best way possible.
While showing appreciation for each other is something we can all do year round, I want to especially acknowledge all of you now. I am proud to recognize your efforts and your patience.
The mask mandate will be relaxed earlier than we had anticipated. We will be able to face each other and see the faces of others. It will be a welcomed relief for many and a sign that we are trying to get back to normal – albeit a new normal.
On behalf of the entire GME Team, I would like to thank you for your care of our patients and acknowledge how challenging the last two years have been for you as healthcare professionals. Thank you.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by nathangl | Feb 25, 2022 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Cindy Hamra Assistant Dean, GME
First, I want to express our concern and support for the members of our community with connections to Ukraine. If you can benefit from support, please look to UW Medicine Employee Mental Health Resources.
Today, Friday, February 25, is Thank a Resident Day, sponsored by the Gold Foundation! Please join the GME Office, and over 500 Institutions and programs in thanking our residents and fellows for their incredible mentorship, tireless hours of care, and for caring for patients with the deepest compassion!
As Black History Month comes to a close, I want to highlight blog posts by Dr. Daniel Cabrera on the work of the GME EDI Subcommittee and Dr. Joey Nelson, featuring a poem he recently published in the Family Medicine Journal.
We also want to say thank you – the GME Team enjoyed meeting many of you on February 3 at UWMC-ML. We handed out 75 lunches and about 300 antigen tests. Big thanks to our colleagues in UW Medicine Advancement and Faculty Affairs for the antigen tests. We also enjoyed meeting with our Boise-based residents and fellows on January 27 following the annual Academic Affiliations Partnership Council meeting with the Boise VA.
The February 2022 issue of GME News & Notes includes a reminder about the COVID booster requirement, resources for parents, and many, many awards and publications. As usual, if there’s anything you’d like to see included in next month’s News & Notes, please let me know.
February 2022 marks one year since the GME Office launched our DIO and News & Notes blogs. Our goal was to provide information to our community in a clear and consistent way. In the last year, we’ve had over 4000 unique views of blog posts, and Dr. Joyner’s April 2021 post regarding recruitment and match results has been the most read so far. Thank you for reading and sharing and please let me know if you have feedback on how to make this better.
Policies and Processes
- COVID booster requirement: All UW Medicine employees (except for those in non-clinical roles in the School of Medicine) are required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot or complete a declination process by Friday, March 4, 2022. If you haven’t received your booster, please go to the UW Medicine Employee Website for COVID-19 Vaccine Scheduling site to schedule your appointment.
- UW Medicine has updated the Policy on Professional Conduct
- UW Medicine Employee Assistance Fund: The University of Washington launched the COVID-19 Employee Emergency Fund (EEF) in June 2020 to support employees who have experienced a financial hardship due to the COVID-19. The EEF is still accepting applications. In addition, employees who have already received the maximum amount available to EEF recipients may now reapply if they experience a new financial hardship due to COVID-19 at least three months after last receiving EEF support. Details are available on the UW COVID-19 Employee Emergency Fund.
- GMEC has approved appointment of the following new program directors. ACGME approval is still required.
- Ginny Ryan, Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility
- Hannah Tully, Child Neurology
- Welcome new GME Program Administrators:
- Anthony Crookes, Clinical Neurophysiology, Epilepsy, Neuromuscular Medicine, and Vascular Neurology
- Margot DuBois, Surgical Critical Care
Events of Interest
- Join the Program Administrator Advisory Council (PAAC) from noon-1pm on Thursday, March 3 for an Onboarding Workshop to discuss onboarding requirements and timelines for the 2022-23 onboarding season.
- Registration for the Spring Program Director Development Series (PDDS) is now open. This season we are excited to be bringing you information about Interdisciplinary Teamwork in the Clinical Learning Environment and Harmonizing the Milestones. Sessions will be offered Tuesday, March 29 and Thursday, April 28. Please see the agenda for additional details on these important topics. All sessions will be held on Zoom. Visit the PDDS Registration page to register.
- A recording of the February GME Lunch & Learn on GME Finance and Funding is posted to the GME Lunch & Learn page. Please join us on Thursday, March 17 from noon-1:30 to discuss Annual Program Evaluations.
- Join the Friday yoga series with Zem Yoga Studio. Ease into your Fridays with this eight-week, Friday morning yoga series beginning February 18. Classes are instructed by Amity Neumeister, resident director of the UW Rome Center.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar
Projects and Resources
- Please remember to check the GME website where many current forms, policies, processes, and educational resources are posted. We also appreciate your feedback about what else we can add to make it more useful. The GME Report a Concern form is a way for community members to report concerns to the GME Office (including the opportunity to report confidentially).
- The GME Office is hiring a fourth Wellness Counselor! Please share with anyone who you think might be interested.
- Thanks to UW Medicine Advancement for designing a new tool to support GME programs via the Graduate Medical Education Endowed Fund, which provides central support through the GME Office for resident and trainee research, diversity recruitment, community engagement and wellness activities.
- Check out these discounts for winter adventures from the WholeU.
- UW Medicine Office of Healthcare Equity Launches New Website: The new site includes information about the Healthcare Equity Blueprint, resources for employees, and information about OHCE programs.
- Access TurboTax for free or receive a discount through UW CareLink: Use TurboTax for free or save up to $15 on TurboTax products. Log into your CareLink account, go to “Finances,” “Tax” and click “Save on TurboTax” to find out more.
- Resources for parents:
- Looking for a nanny? Through Bright Horizons, UW employees receive discounted rates for nanny services from College Nannies and free background checks for care providers through Sittercity.
- Did you know that UW CareLink can research summer camps for your kids? UW CareLink’s family specialists will ask about your family’s needs and identify options to keep your child safe, engaged and growing all summer long. The service is confidential and no-cost.
- $0 co-pay for Bright Horizons in-center backup care: During March and April, Bright Horizons is waiving co-pays for all in-center backup care. Reserve your spot now.
- Child care openings for ages 3 to 5, available now at Harborview: Apply now for immediate child care availability at Harborview by submitting your application to the UW Children’s Center Harborview location.
People
- Ryan (Johnson) Abe, acting instructor and chief resident, Internal Medicine, is lead author, and Tyler Albert, assistant professor (General Internal Medicine) is senior author of “Chief Residency Selection in Internal Medicine: Who Is Left Out?” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. DOM co-authors are Oyinkansola Osobamiro, Anna Morenz, Nancy Mugisha, and Linda Liu.
- Anne Browning, UW Medicine Assistant Dean for Wellbeing, is featured in this article about the UW Resilience Lab.
- Eric Chow, fellow, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is lead author of “SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Children” in Infectious Disease Clinics of North America.
- Andre Dick, associate program director, Abdominal Transplant Surgery, has been appointed Seattle Children’s senior vice president (SVP) and surgeon-in-chief. Dr. Dick also had a presentation at the American College of Surgeons annual meeting October 2019 and a publication entitled, “Does the Funding Source Influence the Long-term Patient Survival in Pediatric Liver Transplantation” in Pediatric Transplantation, March 2021.
- The GME Office is thrilled to welcome Amanda Easton as Program Manager for Operations and Administration! In this newly created GME role, Amanda will help knit together the complex functions of the operations and administration team, providing program and project management. Amanda joins us from the Department of Radiology where she is has served as Education Manager for almost 2 years, responsible for administration of education programs including 100+ full time trainees and 200+ other individuals rotating through the 10+ training programs. Her first day with GME will be Monday March 14.
- Melissa (Moe) Hagman receives 2022 Laureate Award. Dr. Hagman, associate professor (General Internal Medicine) and program director for the Boise Internal Medicine Residency Program was selected for the 2022 Laureate Award by the Idaho American College of Physicians. The Laureate Award honors those Fellows and Masters of the College who have demonstrated by their example and conduct, an abiding commitment to excellence in medical care, education, or research and in service to their community, their Chapter, and the American College of Physicians. She was selected for her track record of hard work in supporting and role modelling in medical education, professionalism and academic leadership in the state of Idaho and nationally.
- Madeleine Heldman, fellow, is lead author and Joshua Hill, assistant professor, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is senior author of “Assessing and restoring adaptive immunity to HSV, VZV and HHV-6 in solid organ and hematopoietic cell transplant recipients” in Clinical Microbiology and Infection.
- Aris Karatasakis, senior fellow, is lead author and Kelley Branch, professor, Cardiology, is senior author of “Prevalence and Patterns of Resuscitation-Associated Injury Detected by Head-to-Pelvis Computed Tomography After Successful Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation” in the Journal of the American Heart Association. DOM co-authors are Linda Liu, Peter Kudenchuk, and David Carlbom.
- Michael Leu, program director, Clinical Informatics fellowship, is the new Chair of the American Medical Informatics Association Community of Informatics Program Directors.
- Michael Linenberger, program director, Hematology-Oncology fellowship, has been awarded the American Society for Apheresis Presidential Award for 2022. This is the apheresis society’s most prestigious annual award and is bestowed upon a member of the Society who has consistently made major contributions to, and performed outstanding service for the Society over a number of years.
- Tanya Meyer, program director, Otolaryngology – HNS, reports new findings on the benefits to work productivity of ongoing botulinum neurotoxin injections for those experiencing spasmodic dysphonia, a rare disorder that makes the voice sound strangled and hoarse. The findings will help many patients receive the treatment they need in order to be able to function at work, where communication is so critical. Read the full article in the UW Medicine Newsroom.
- Dr. Meyer is also working on Project West, a multi-institutional research project with Emory, Vanderbilt, and Michigan. Grace Wandell, resident, Otolaryngology – HNS, is serving as UW’s resident liaison. The project is a longitudinal perspective survey of surgical trainees from multiple fields including otolaryngology. It investigates work satisfaction, such as how certain workplace experiences relate to URM and gender status, and explores factors associated with well-being and burnout.
- Anisha Noble, R5, Otolaryngology – HNS, has been named the 2021 WIO Exemplary Senior Trainee. This award, from the Women in Otolaryngology section at AAO-HNS, “recognizes an outstanding female senior resident or fellow in an otolaryngology – head and neck surgery training program who demonstrates excellence in leadership, research, education, and mentoring.”
- Henry Ou, program director, Pediatric Otolaryngology fellowship, received a 2021 Family Choice Award from Seattle Children’s. This is the only award exclusively nominated by patients and their families and voted on by the Family Advisory Council. Oh created a Minecraft World of Seattle Children’s Hospital.
- The UW Medicine Office of Student Affairs joined with the career advising team to host its inaugural First-Generation advising session on November 9, 2021, the day after National First-Generation College Day. The AAMC defines first-generation students as those whose parents have not earned an associate’s degree or higher. The goal was to create a sense of community among all UW medical students from across the WWAMI region by acknowledging their paths to medical school, providing an opportunity to network, and providing holistic advising and support for students for successful progression through medical school. Ricky Pulido, resident, Otolaryngology – HNS and Jessica Pinto, resident, Internal Medicine, co-hosted the event.
- Vince Raikhel, acting instructor and chief resident for Quality and Safety at the VA Puget Sound and Kevin Blau, inpatient chief resident at the VA Puget Sound, are co-first authors, and Jeff Redinger, clinical assistant professor (General Internal Medicine), is senior author of “From Panic to Promise: Harnessing Medical Student Leadership in COVID-19” in the American Journal of Medicine.
- Tara Reid, fellow, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been awarded the Sexually Transmitted Infections Cooperative Research Centers (STI CRC) Developmental Research Project (DRP) award for her work in Syphilis vaccine strategies.
- Doug Wood, Chair, Department of Surgery, is featured in this article in the UW Newsroom regarding screening to prevent cancer deaths.
- David Yun and Matt Wolter, residents, Boise Internal Medicine residency program, won Best Clinical Vignette for their poster “A Seasonal Case of Encephalitis: Neuroinvasive West Nile” at the recent Northwest Chapter of the Society for General Internal Medicine conference.
- Two UW Otolaryngology – HNS residents have been awarded prestigious CORE grants from two of the member societies of the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery: ARS and AAO-HNSF.
- Eve Champaloux was awarded an ARS Resident Research Grant for her project, “Olfactory Stimulation of Dopaminergic Reward Pathways in the Rat Brain.”
- Allison Ikeda was awarded an AAO-HNSF Resident Research Grant for her project, “Decision Making Among Adults Considering Sleep Surgery.”
- The American College of Surgeons 2021 Clinical Congress “Resilience in the Pursuit of Excellence” was held virtually in October 2021. Department of Surgery faculty and residents were well represented at the event, notably participating in the following lectures and panels:
- Nina Clark, resident, was nominated for the 2021 Emergency Medicine Consultant of the Year Award. This award recognizes the exceptional work of those who assist in the care of patients within the Emergency Departments at the UWMC-ML and Harborview Medical Center.
- Lindsay Dickerson, resident, general surgery, was awarded a postdoctoral training fellowship from the Cancer Research Institute. This is a prestigious research fellowship that “furthers career development and supports laboratory research for promising young scientists working under the mentorship of leading immunologists.”
- David Droullard, resident, general surgery, “Assessing the Impact of Diverticulitis on Quality of Life Over Time
- Alex Lois, resident, general surgery, “The Use and Safety of POEM and Other Definitive Management Strategies for Achalasia”
- Amit Pujari, resident, vascular surgery, “How I Do It: Left Renal Vein Transposition”
- Joshua Rosen, resident, general surgery, “Treatment Risk Perceptions Vary Based on How Risk Information is Communicated” and “Unrealistic Optimism About Surgical Treatment Risk”
- Abra Shen, resident, plastic surgery, “Medical Student Program–Resident Panel: Transitioning into Residency”
- Denzel Woode, resident, general surgery, was awarded second prize for his presentation, “DEI in the Department of Surgery: Exploring Our Present and Building Our Future,” at the 2021 WA/OR ACS Annual Meeting
- Irene Zhang, resident, general surgery, “Perspectives on Opioid Minimization After Surgery and The Impact of Surgeon Messaging”
- Congratulations to members of the GME community nominated for the Together We Will Awards. Temporarily replacing the Distinguished Staff Awards, the Together We Will Awards were created to celebrate outstanding staff contributions made during extraordinary challenges. The nominees include:
- Gwen Credit, Associate Director, Family Medicine Residency Program
- Sonya Fukeda, Program Operations Specialist, School of Medicine Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Stephanie Timm, Education & Training Programs Manager, Dermatology
by nathangl | Jan 24, 2022 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
First, our sincere thanks to our colleagues in UWMC and Health Sciences Building facilities, who replaced all mattresses and box springs in the Crow’s Nest on Friday, January 21. We advocated for this change based on information received via the GME Report a Concern form. Remember to check the GME website for Information by Training Site: Sleep/Rest Facilities, Food, Quiet Spaces.
The January issue of GME News & Notes includes information about the updated return to work policy, a reminder that the COVID vaccine is a condition of employment, and information about three updated policies. We also share information about the new GME Endowed Fund, and many individual awards and recognition. If there’s anything you’d like to see included in next month’s News & Notes, please let me know.
Please remember to check the GME website where many current forms, policies, processes, and educational resources are posted. We also appreciate your feedback about what else we can add to make website more useful.
Finally, we were excited to see that The Huddle article from June 2021 welcoming our new residents and fellows was one of the 10 most read last year! 2021 Year in Review | UW Medicine Huddle.
Happy New Year,
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean, GME
Policies and Processes
- UW Medicine Staffing During COVID Surge: Please read the Staffing During COVID-19 Surge; Updating Our Return-to-Work Policy announcement sent on January 19 from UW Medicine leadership.
- The Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) approved revisions to several policies at the January meeting. All are posted on the Policies and Procedures page of the GME website.
- Case and Procedures Management Policy: Revisions includes updates to guidelines for safeguarding protected health information (PHI), case and procedure log management and tracking guidelines for trainees and programs, and the addition of a new section on procedures certification management in MedHub.
- Immunization and Health Screening Policy: Includes the addition of full vaccination against COVID-19 as a requirement prior to first day of training.
- Residency and Fellowship Position Appointment (RFPA) Agreement (2022-2023): A communication about revisions to the RFPA for AY23 was sent to programs, residents and fellows on January 14. Programs currently interviewing for next academic year must share the updated agreement with applicants invited to interview.
- COVID Vaccines, Boosters and Attestations
- COVID Vaccine Requirement: Programs must continue to communicate to applicants that the COVID-19 vaccine is required as a condition of employment. This requirement is on the Prospective Resident and Fellows page of the GME website and included in the Immunization and Health Screening Policy.
- COVID Booster Signup and Documentation: Due to the rapidly increasing prevalence of the Omicron variant in our community, it is more important than ever to get a COVID-19 booster if you are eligible. Sign up on the UW Medicine Employee Website for COVID-19 Vaccine Scheduling site. If you received your booster outside of UW Medicine, please submit documentation of your booster to Employee Health so that your record can be updated. Information about boosters and how to provide documentation can be found on the GME COVID-19 Updates page under Vaccine Compliance.
- UW and UW Medicine COVID symptom daily attestations: For trainees engaged in any clinical activity during a given day, they need to complete the UW Medicine attestation, NOT the UW Workday attestation. Link to the attestation: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Response Program (uwmedicine.org). QR codes linking to this attestation are also all over clinical sites.
- Vaccine Requirements & Attestation for non-UW Medicine Training sites: GME has received information about vaccine requirements for non-UW Medicine training sites. See the COVID-19 Updates page of this website for details. If you know of others, please share them with us so we can distribute broadly.
- Please make sure that you’re wearing a mask when you’re in a UW Medicine or UW space! Employees are required comply with the COVID-19 Face Covering Policy on campus or the UW Medicine face covering policy at the medical centers as a condition of employment or will be subject to corrective or disciplinary action including dismissal from University employment.
- UW Medicine Employee Assistance Fund: The University of Washington launched the COVID-19 Employee Emergency Fund (EEF) in June 2020 to support employees who have experienced a financial hardship due to the COVID-19. The pandemic continues to take a financial toll and the EEF is still accepting applications. In addition, employees who have already received the maximum amount available to EEF recipients may now reapply if they experience a new financial hardship due to COVID-19 at least three months after last receiving EEF support.
- Please continue to check the Travel Restrictions section of our COVID-19 Updates page for updated travel guidelines from the GME Office, UW Medicine, and the UW Office of Global Affairs, including updated restrictions on international travel.
- The GMEC approved the appointment of Lianne Hirano, as the new program director for the Palliative Medicine fellowship at the January meeting. ACGME approval is still required.
- Welcome new GME Program Administrators:
- Erin Greenfield, Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Amanda Jamieson, Pediatric Pulmonology
- Megan Osika-Dass, Neurological Surgery
- The National Resident Matching Program announced the transition to a new combined Medicine and Pediatric Subspecialties Match beginning in 2022 for the 2023 appointment year. This change will benefit both programs as well as partners from each specialty who can now apply to the Match as a couple.
- The ACGME released a Letter to the Community on January 13 addressing Changes in Response to GME Community’s Concerns which describes the changes being implemented by the ACGME to respond to the current environment, balanced with their accreditation responsibilities to programs, residents, fellows and patient care.
- The ACGME is still accepting applications and letters of interest for the next round of Back to Bedside projects. The ACGME seeks proposals for awards for resident- and fellow-developed, innovative, grassroots strategies to improve, foster, or cultivate meaning in clinical learning environments by increasing opportunities to build connections with patients and improving the physician-patient relationship. Proposals are due February 21, 2022.
- Updated ACGME Program Directors’ Guide Available: An update to the residency version of the Program Directors’ Guide to the Common Program Requirements has been completed. This focused revision addresses changes in the requirements since the Guide was first published. The eBook is now available on the ACGME website and in Learn at ACGME. The updated fellowship version of the Guide will be available soon.
- Milestones Mid-Year Reporting Window Open Until February 11: In response to the recent COVID-19 surge and its impact on Sponsoring Institutions and programs, the reporting window has been extended by one month until Friday, February 11, 2022. This change is reflected in the Accreditation Data System (ADS). Milestones assessments can be submitted via ADS at any point before this date.
- Annual ACGME Awards: The ACGME is now accepting nominations for the 2023 Awards Cycle. Deadline is Wednesday, April 6, 2022, 5:00 p.m. Central time.
Events of Interest
- GME Lunch & Learns: The Recording and Materials from our January Lunch & Learn are now available on the GME website. Topics covered include ACGME Surveys and Disability Accommodations for Applicants and Trainees. The next Lunch & Learn on February 17 will cover GME Financing and Funding.
- Navigating Parental Leave for Resident Physicians: Thursday, February 3, from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. All residents, fellows and guests are encouraged to attend via Zoom. See agenda. For those unable to attend, the event recording will be posted on the Resident & Fellow Seminars page of the GME website. If you are looking for information on Leave prior to February, please explore our Growing Your Family webpage.
- Mindful Resilience: Managing and Thriving with Stress and Challenges: This 6-week course draws from the empirically validated approaches of both Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) curricula, as well as some of the latest neuroscience and research work around trauma and resilience. Sessions run Tuesdays, January 11 through February 15, 2022, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. For more information, please visit the UW Center for Child and Family Well-Being website.
- Coping with Uncertainty & Effects of Chronic and Acute Stress on Well-Being: Wednesday, February 9, from 12 -1 p.m. This session of the UW Medicine Well-Being and Resilience Curriculum will look at models of post disaster recovery and emotional well-being.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar
Projects and Resources
- The GME Office is currently hiring for two new positions: Float Administrator (Req #199360) and Program Manager, Operations & Administration (Req # 201458).
- Thanks to UW Medicine Advancement for designing a new tool to support GME programs via the Graduate Medical Education Endowed Fund, which provides central support through the GME Office for resident and trainee research, diversity recruitment, community engagement and wellness activities.
- Congratulations to the Housestaff Quality and Safety Committee (HQSC) on the recent publication of HOUSE. This edition coincides with HQSC’s 10 year anniversary.
- Bright Horizon’s Backup Care: Effective January 1, 2022, all Bright Horizons backup care can be reserved up to 60 days in advance, with a cancellation notice of 48 hours. Additionally, for those needing care for mid-winter break or spring break, please note that in March and April of 2022, Bright Horizons will offer $0 co-pays for in-center backup care.
- Looking for discounts to on winter activities in the region? Check out the list of Winter Discounts offered from the WholeU.
People
- Cammie Bullock, program administrator for Pediatric Cardiology, Congenital Cardiac Surgery, and the Pediatric Cardiology subspecialties, is the new co-Chair for the Program Administrator Advisory Council (PAAC).
- Daniel Cabrera, chair of the GMEC EDI Subcommittee is featured in The Huddle: “Building Equity Within Graduate Medical Education”
- Congratulations to Cameron Chalker, resident, Internal Medicine, who has been selected as a recipient of the Fall 2021 UW Medicine Cares Awards. UW Medicine established the UW Medicine Cares Award in 2013, a program to formally recognize and celebrate the accomplishments and excellence of those in the UW Medicine community who consistently exemplify the UW Medicine Service Culture Guidelines.
- Başak Çoruh, associate professor and fellowship program director, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, will serve as Vice Chair of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Education Committee, effective May 2022.
- Jedediah Doane, resident, Internal Medicine, is lead author and Eoin West, professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, is senior author of “Progressive Pulmonary Fibrosis After Non-Critical COVID-19: A Case Report” in the American Journal of Case Reports. DOM co-authors are Mark Wurfel and Kellen Hirsch.
- Kat McGhee Drummond, program administrator, Rheumatology fellowship, is the subject of the Department of Medicine Staff Spotlight for December.
- Lauren Feld, fellow, Gastroenterology, co-wrote “Progress still needed for pregnant and postpartum gastroenterologists” in GI & Hepatology News.
- Vickie Hau, resident, Anesthesiology, has been selected for the 2022 HQSC co-chair position. Dr. Hau is completing her residency in Anesthesiology this year and will continue at UW as a fellow next year in Obstetric Anesthesiology. She has expressed a passion for increasing housestaff engagement in patient safety and quality improvement and has been involved in efforts to standardize operating room procedures to decrease variance and waste.
- Cooper Kersey, resident, Internal Medicine, is lead author, and Younghoon Kwon, associate professor, Cardiology, is senior author of “Cardiac Arrest during Transesophageal Echocardiogram (TEE) due to Acute Right Ventricular Failure” in Case Reports in Cardiology. DOM co-authors are Fitsumberhan Medhane, Andrew Pattock, Linda Liu, and Gary Huang.
- Amy Law, GME learning gateway lead instructional designer, is co-author of A Brief Online Implicit Bias Intervention for School Mental Health Clinicians
- Olubusola Oluwole, fellow, Hematology and Oncology, is the inaugural recipient of the National Hemophilia Foundation Diversity Jeanne Marie Lush (JML) Diversity Fellowship.
- Gabrielle Paras, resident, Internal Medicine, is lead author, and Roland Walter, professor, Hematology, is senior author of “Conditioning Intensity and Peri-Transplant Flow Cytometric MRD Dynamics in Adult AML” in Blood. DOM co-authors are Filippo Milano, Brenda Sandmaier, Lucas Zarling, Mary Flowers, H. Joachim Deeg, Frederick Appelbaum, and Rainer Storb.
- Shobha Stack, fellow, Palliative Medicine, is lead author and Jennifer Best, associate dean, GME, is senior author of “Parental Leave Policies in Residency: A National Survey of Internal Medicine Program Directors” in Academic Medicine.
- Congratulations to the following recipients of Idaho American College of Physicians Awards:
- Clinical Vignette by Resident: Pramod Chavali and Rick LeCheminant, residents, Internal Medicine-Boise
- Quality Improvement Project: James Yan, resident, Internal Medicine-Boise and a group of interprofessional colleagues
by nathangl | Jan 6, 2022 | Announcements, News
Dear Residents, Fellows and GME Community,
Happy New Year!
As we enter 2022, the Resident & Fellow Physician Union – Northwest (RFPU-NW) and the University of Washington begin bargaining for the third collective bargaining agreement. The last two negotiations were both lengthy and challenging. We hope that the next six months will be different with each side coming to the table with goodwill and shared commitment towards collegial, productive discussions.
The UW GME Office looks forward to celebrating housestaff wins. Our role in negotiations is to advocate for the housestaff to UW Medicine leadership, serve as subject matter experts regarding matters of policy, accreditation, and finances, and to connect with other subject matter experts whose scope affects residents and fellows.
Accordingly, the GME Office commits to the following values as we enter negotiations in 2022:
- Be at the table regarding decisions that affect our residents and fellows
- Articulate clear common goals in support of the work that residents and fellows do and to secure resources for them
- Serve as an expert in accreditation and education, bridging UW Medicine and the housestaff during and after negotiations
- Appreciate and enculturate a healthy, diverse and inclusive learning environment
- Promote well-being so that our community can grow and thrive
- Consistently interact in a professional and collegial manner with all parties involved in negotiations
All contract negotiations are challenging, and the reality is that compromises are necessary to arrive at any agreement. We expect difficult conversations but look forward to a process that is collegial and ultimately elevates us all.
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
by nathangl | Dec 17, 2021 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Our team enjoyed meeting so many residents and fellows at Harborview last week to hand out lunches. Thanks to UW Medicine Advancement for providing the Peet’s coffee as well. There’s lots to share in the December 2021 issue of News & Notes including a how to submit documentation of your COVID booster, updated information about the UW Medicine Employee Assistance Fund, Holiday Gift Guidelines and an update to UW’s Bereavement Policy, in addition to events, resources and publications.
As the end of 2021 approaches, we want to make sure you’re aware that the GME website is the first place to go to find current forms, policies, processes, and educational resources. We also appreciate your feedback about what else we can add to the website to make it more useful.
Finally, we want to (re) share A Message From Dr. Paul Ramsey, CEO: Holiday Greetings and Thank You to Our UW Medicine Community.
If you have anything you would like included in future News & Notes posts, please send to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season,
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean, GME
Policies and Processes
- Industry Interactions Policy: The GMEC approved revisions to the Industry Interactions Policy (formerly known as the Vendor Interactions Policy) at the December meeting. Changes include closer alignment with the UW School of Medicine Policy on Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest for Commercial and Non-Profit Entities; new sections on speeches/presentations at meetings and consulting; and updates to the FAQs.
- COVID Boosters and Attestations
- COVID Booster Signup and Documentation: Due to the rapidly increasing prevalence of the Omicron variant in our community, it is more important than ever to get a COVID-19 booster if you are eligible. Sign up on the UW Medicine Employee Website for COVID-19 Vaccine Scheduling site. If you received your booster outside of UW Medicine, please submit documentation of your booster to Employee Health so that your record can be updated. Information about boosters and how to provide documentation can be found on the GME COVID-19 Updates page under Vaccine Compliance.
- UW and UW Medicine COVID symptom daily attestations: For trainees engaged in any clinical activity during a given day, they need to complete the UW Medicine attestation, NOT the UW Workday attestation. Link to the attestation: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Response Program (uwmedicine.org). QR codes linking to this attestation are also all over clinical sites.
- Vaccine Requirements & Attestation for non-UW Medicine Training sites: GME has received information about vaccine requirements for non-UW Medicine training sites. See the COVID-19 Updates page of this website for details. If you know of others, please share them with us so we can distribute broadly.
- UW Medicine Employee Assistance Fund: The University of Washington launched the COVID-19 Employee Emergency Fund (EEF) in June 2020 to support employees who have experienced a financial hardship due to the COVID-19. The pandemic continues to take a financial toll and the EEF is still accepting applications. In addition, employees who have already received the maximum amount available to EEF recipients may now reapply if they experience a new financial hardship due to COVID-19 at least three months after last receiving EEF support.
- Update to Bereavement Policy to support staff impacted by miscarriage or stillbirth: UWHR has updated the Bereavement time off webpage to note that the policy applies to miscarriage or stillbirth of the employee’s child. In accordance with collective bargaining agreements, eligible employees may take up to three days of paid bereavement time off. Managers may approve sick time off to extend an absence when a staff member needs more time to grieve, heal, make arrangements and cope with a loss.
- Holiday Gift Guidelines: 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 Ethics in Public Service Act with regard to the gifts they may accept and how they may redirect gifts they cannot accept. Read the Gifts, Food, and Meals from External Sources – FAQs on the UW Medicine Compliance website. Additional information is available on the Internal Audit website. Contact UW Medicine Compliance at 206.543.3098 / comply@uw.edu or UW Internal Audit at 206.543.4028 / iaudit@uw.edu if you have any questions.
- Please continue to check the Travel Restrictions section of our COVID-19 Updates page for updated travel guidelines from the GME Office, UW Medicine, and the UW Office of Global Affairs, including updated restrictions on international travel.
- Please make sure that you’re wearing a mask when you’re in a UW Medicine or UW space! The University has published a corrective action process for violations of the Face covering policies. The process can be found on the HR website. Employees are required comply with the COVID-19 Face Covering Policy on campus or the UW Medicine face covering policy at the medical centers as a condition of employment or will be subject to corrective or disciplinary action including dismissal from University employment.
- Welcome new GME Program Administrators:
- Kay Burke, Thoracic Surgery and Thoracic Surgery-Integrated, Department of Surgery
- Arielle Miles, Addiction Medicine, Department of Medicine
- Meryl Yang, Allergy and Immunology; Global and Rural Health, Department of Medicine
- The ACGME is currently accepting applications and letters of interest for the next round of Back to Bedside projects. The ACGME seeks proposals for awards for resident- and fellow-developed, innovative, grassroots strategies to improve, foster, or cultivate meaning in clinical learning environments by increasing opportunities to build connections with patients and improving the physician-patient relationship. Proposals are due February 21, 2022.
-
Events of Interest
- “Got Burnout?”: Monday, December 20, 4-5pm Zoom Link, Meeting ID: 9990929 Passcode: 371555
- Exploring Gratitude: Positive Emotions and Expansive Thinking: The next session of the UW Medicine Well-Being and Resilience Curriculum is on exploring gratitude. Practicing gratitude is one of the keys to experiencing resilience and to mitigating risks of burnout. Wednesday, January 12, 12-1pm.
- Free drop-in mindfulness meditation: Reflect with gratitude on compassion given and received this past year, and learn ways to cultivate and recommit to a compassionate new year with the Center for Child & Family Well-Being.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar
People
- Sarah Baker, fellow, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is lead author, and. Conrad Liles, professor and associate chair, is senior author of “Clinical presentation, complications, and outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in an academic center with a centralized palliative care consult service” in Heath Science Reports. DOM co-authors are Doug Leedy, Jesse Abbott Klafter, Yilin Zhang, Tristan Osborn, Richard Cheng, Seth Judson, Susan Merel, Carmen Mikacenic, and Pavan Bhatraju.
- Jennifer Best, associate dean, GME, Weston Powell, fellow, Pediatric Pulmonary, and Heather McPhillips, program director, Pediatrics residency, were recently featured on the AAP podcast for their research on parenting during pediatric residency.
- Workplace discrimination common among liver doctors: Hepatologists say they experience workplace discrimination, especially if they are women or BIPOC, results from a new survey reveal. Lauren Feld, fellow, Gastroenterology, presented her results at the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease this month. The study was conducted through the AASLD Women’s Initiatives Committee. Read the story from UW Medicine Newsroom.
- Lauren Feld, fellow, Gastroenterology, is quoted in “Workplace Discrimination Common in Hepatology” in Medscape and “’Concerning’ Opioid Prescribing in Patients With Cirrhosis— PCPs more than twice as likely as gastroenterologists to prescribe opioids” in MedPage Today.
- Christine Johnston, associate program director, Infectious Diseases fellowship, talked to KUOW for “Seattle Now: Your booster questions, answered.”
- Heather McPhillips is the new Associate Dean for Curriculum for the University of Washington School of Medicine. She will officially begin the position on December 1, 2021 and will transition to the full scope of responsibilities on March 16, 2022. Heather will transition out of her current role as Program Director, Pediatrics.
- Ryan Murphy, senior fellow, is lead author and Teal Hallstrand, professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) is senior author of “Selecting the Optimal Therapy for Mild Asthma” in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. DOM co-authors are Garbo Mak and Laura Feemster.
- The VA Puget Sound welcomes new Deputy Associate Chief of Staff for Education, Aaron Norr, who will primarily be responsible for Staff Development. Norr also holds an appointment as an Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
- Please join GME in welcoming Branden Phanmaha as Business Analyst in GME Finance starting December 15th. The Business Analyst role will support billing and accounts receivable as well as lead several continuous improvement projects.
- Paul Pottinger, Program Director, Infectious Diseases Fellowship, is quoted in “Healthy Living: Staying safe while traveling for the holidays” from Q13 Fox.
- Evelyn Qin, resident, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, is primary author of Patient-reported functional outcomes 30 days after hospitalization for COVID-19 – PubMed (nih.gov) Mentors include James Andrews, assistant professor, Division of Rheumatology.
- Vax the Max: Over the summer of 2021 it was noted that there were tens of admitted patients at the VA Puget Sound who had no documented COVID-19 immunization. In response The Chief Residents at the VA implemented the Vax the Max This is a gamification of COVID-19 tasks where internal medicine ward teams are awarded points for COVID-19 vaccine engagement. Points are awarded for vaccine administration, scheduling vaccination after discharge, and for counselling vaccine hesitant patients. The competition has been paired with a vaccine hesitancy workshop that is offered monthly to all medical students and residents rotating on medicine services at the VA. Team points are tallied weekly, and a trophy rotates to the team with the most points. At the end of the block a certificate, signed by VA and Internal Medicine Residency leadership, is awarded to the team with the most points accumulated over the 4-week block. Since implementation, we have observed an increase in our hospitals rate of COVID-19 immunization, and recently passed the milestone of 100 vaccines being administered since implementation of Vax the Max. Thanks to Chief Resident for Quality and Patient Safety VA Puget Sound, Vincent Raikhel for sharing.
- Lauren Samples, Hematology Oncology fellow, was awarded the title of Practitioner Lead in Quality & Safety within the Hospital & Specialty Medicine service line at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. This new, annual award recognizes and celebrates providers involved in quality improvement and patient safety endeavors. Lauren was specifically acknowledged for her participation in the “Medicine call cycle restructuring” project.
- Neha Sathe, fellow, is lead author and Mark Wurfel, professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, is senior author of “Relationships Between Age, Soluble Triggering Receptor Expressed On Myeloid Cells-1 (Strem-1), And Mortality Among Critically Ill Adults: A Cohort Study” in Shock. DOM co-authors are Pavan Bhatraju, Carmen Mikacenic, Eric Morrell, F. Linzee Mabrey, and W. Conrad Liles.
by nathangl | Dec 10, 2021 | Announcements, News
The hustle of this holiday season can be a welcome change from daily routines. The season can also bring extra pressure – extra commitments, in-person gatherings and the unpredictability of COVID-19 and the newly identified Omicron variant. Yet there is also much to celebrate, including Washington State’s high vaccination rate, which is our community’s best path toward health.
As we near the end of 2021, we wish to share some of the year’s good things from the GME perspective. Throughout 2021, the GME Office has consistently held to our strategic plan to advocate for our residents and fellows, and provide expertise, quality and value.
Wellness has been a top priority this year, with the pandemic’s ebb and flow leaving many feeling isolated and anxious. In response to trainee distress, the GME Office expanded Wellness counseling access for residents and fellows by hiring a third wellness counselor, Patty Long-Brohm, LICSW. Patty’s addition has already significantly improved the availability of appointments. We are also thrilled to announce that we will be hiring a fourth Wellness Counselor soon! Stay tuned for details.
The GME Office has taken advantage of Washington State’s successful vaccination campaign and resumed hosting select in-person events. This fall we enjoyed pumpkin patch and movie events in Seattle and look forward to a botanical garden visit in Boise.
Since June, we’ve also enjoyed hosting GME Outreach Events at our hospitals, inviting residents and fellows to pick up free lunch and GME swag. Our team has enjoyed saying hello to so many of you! This fall GME Leadership hosted what we hope is the first of many Chief Resident/Fellow Listening Sessions – another opportunity to hear directly from trainees about how we can better support housestaff.
We’ve also worked closely with our partner hospitals to review sleep/call rooms and food access. This year we launched the Information by Training Site web page which lists Sleep/Rest Facilities, Food, and Quiet Spaces. We also have documented and posted Lactation Rooms by Hospital to better support our new parents.
In our ongoing efforts to improve the learning environment, we have significantly revised the GME Concern Reporting Form, which allows concerns to be submitted anonymously or not. We review all concerns and attempt to act on each one, working with various leaders in our hospitals and community to make positive change. GME also has an active presence in the UW Medicine Bias Reporting Tool response team.
The GME Office is also heavily invested in efforts to enhance equity, diversity and inclusion. We were part of the Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows’ (NURF) Diversity Recruitment events, which reached over 500 individuals applying to our programs. We also launched a GMEC EDI Subcommittee chaired by Dr. Dan Cabrera, which is working to develop curriculum and tools regarding implicit bias and other relevant topics for our community.
We welcome every opportunity to support our residents and fellows and to improve the clinical learning environment. If you have questions, concerns or suggestions, we always want to hear from you.
Best for the holiday 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
Assistant Dean, Operations and Administration
by nathangl | Nov 18, 2021 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
November is Native American Heritage Month. In the November issue of GME News & Notes, we include updated information about the new Training Site Information Page, Holiday Gift Guidelines, the Husky Prevention Response Course, the UW Medicine Influenza Vaccine requirement and the ACGME Back to Bedside initiative.
Additionally, and as in past months, this issue of GME News & Notes has lots of information about awards, publications, new program leadership, etc.
If you have information you would like included, please send to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean, GME
Policies and Processes
- Holiday Gift Guidelines: 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 Ethics in Public Service Act with regard to the gifts they may accept and how they may redirect gifts they cannot accept. Read the Gifts, Food, and Meals from External Sources – FAQs on the UW Medicine Compliance website. Additional information is available on the Internal Audit website. Contact UW Medicine Compliance at 206.543.3098 / comply@uw.edu or UW Internal Audit at 206.543.4028 / iaudit@uw.edu if you have any questions.
- The UW now requires all incoming students and new employees to complete the Husky Prevention & Response course — a foundational training that is tailored differently for students and employees to help them seek resources as well as recognize, interrupt, prevent and report sex- and gender-based violence and harassment. Over the coming year, all UW employees will be expected to complete the 60- to 90-minute online course. More information will be shared in winter quarter. In the meantime, any employee can complete Husky Prevention & Response employee course now. Please see UW President Ana Mari Cauce’s November 15 email for more information.
- Healthcare Helpers Initiative: Employees interested in participating can register at Healthcare Helpers and sign up for an available shift. Please note that roles may require additional training or qualifications. You can review these items and detailed role descriptions on the Volunteer Resource Page by selecting the quick link for “Hospital Volunteers.” Please note that residents are not considered classified staff and so may volunteer but are not eligible to be paid
- The UW Office of Global Affairs has updated the UW International Travel Rules and Restrictions Policy
- New Program Director Appointment Policy: The GMEC approved revisions to the New Program Director Appointment Policy at the November meeting. Revisions reflect changes to the ACGME Institutional Requirements and Common Program requirements, as well as clarification and updates to the existing appointment process.
- The deadline for UW Medicine Influenza Vaccination is November 30. Information about compliance is as follows:
- How can I get a flu shot? Please swing by your local UWMC Employee Health Clinic, a local provider, or pharmacy
- What should a resident or fellow do if they were vaccinated elsewhere? Bring a copy of the documentation to UWMC-Employee Health or email emhealth@uw.edu (Montlake) or employeehealthnw@uw.edu (Northwest) from a UW email account. Individuals can send a photo or a scan of documentation or provide their name, Employee ID number, date of vaccine and where the flu shot was received (Rite Aid, Costco, etc.).
- What if a resident or fellow wants to decline the vaccine? Immunization is what will protect our patients, fellow staff, and providers and public. But if a trainee chooses to decline, there are three required steps:
- Complete the on-line education Flu vaccine declination module available on the Employee Health page of the UW Medicine intranet and print a copy or screenshot with confirmation of module completion.
- Meet with Employee Health RN or ARNP to have one-on-one education about declination.
- Formally decline by signing the written declination. This must be done annually!
- Employee COVID booster eligibility: Currently, UW Medicine is scheduling booster appointments for the following individuals who completed their initial vaccine series at least six months previously for Moderna or Pfizer, and at least two months previously for Johnson & Johnson.
- Moderna or Pfizer: Ages 18-64 with underlying medical conditions or who are at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional setting, including healthcare workers
- Johnson & Johnson: Age 18 and older
- Review the COVID-19 Vaccine Updates & Information page for additional information
- Please make sure that you’re wearing a mask when you’re in a UW Medicine or UW space! The University has published a corrective action process for violations of the Face covering policies. The process can be found on the HR website. Employees are required comply with the COVID-19 Face Covering Policy on campus or the UW Medicine face covering policy at the medical centers as a condition of employment or will be subject to corrective or disciplinary action including dismissal from University employment.
- UW and UW Medicine COVID symptom daily attestations: for trainees engaged in any clinical activity during a given day, they need to complete the UW Medicine attestation, NOT the UW Workday attestation. Link to the attestation: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Response Program (uwmedicine.org). QR codes linking to this attestation are also all over clinical sites.
- Vaccine Requirements & Attestation for non-UW Medicine Training sites: GME has received information about vaccine requirements for non-UW Medicine training sites. See the COVID-19 Updates page of this website for details. If you know of others, please share them with us so we can distribute broadly.
- Open Enrollment is here: For benefits-eligible employees, Open Enrollment is a once-a-year opportunity to make changes to health plan elections or enroll in a Flexible Spending Arrangement (FSA) or the Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP). Employees make changes in Workday, and changes must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. PST on Nov. 30. Open Enrollment elections go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022
- The ACGME is currently accepting applications and letters of interest for the next round of Back to Bedside projects. The ACGME seeks proposals for awards for resident- and fellow-developed, innovative, grassroots strategies to improve, foster, or cultivate meaning in clinical learning environments by increasing opportunities to build connections with patients and improving the physician-patient relationship. Proposals are due February 21, 2022.
Events of Interest
- The next GME Outreach event will be on Friday, December 10, at Harborview Medical Center. We will share more information closer to the event date.
- Science Says Lecture Series: Trevor Noah, comedian and host of The Daily Show, will chat with Fred Hutch researchers – including Department of Medicine members Drs. Philip Greenberg and Rachel Issaka – who are boldly working to end cancer and COVID-19 during the event Trevor Noah Talks with Fearless Scientists Tackling Cancer and COVID-19 on Tuesday, November 30, from 2-3:15 p.m. Register for the event on the Fred Hutch website.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar
People
- The Pediatrics Residency has won the ACGME Barbara Ross Lee Diversity Award! The renamed Barbara Ross-Lee, DO Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award honors ACGME-accredited Sponsoring Institutions and programs, as well as specialty organizations, working to diversify the underrepresented physician workforce and create inclusive workplaces that foster humane, civil, and equitable environments.
- Lauren Feld, fellow, Gastroenterology, received an Advanced/Transplant Hepatology Award from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Foundation. The purpose of this award is to encourage the academic career of exceptional hepatology trainees.
- Fuki M. Hisama, program director, Medical Genetics and Genomics residency, is the senior author of “Exome and Genome Sequencing for Pediatric Patients with Congenital Anomalies or Intellectual Disability: an Evidence-Based Clinical Guideline of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics” published in Genetics in Medicine (2021;23:2029-2037). This high-impact manuscript has been viewed >10,000 times in the first month following publication and has been reported in multiple national news outlets. Below are social media links regarding this publication. See ACMGE News Release and National News Release
- Barbara Jung, professor and chair, Department of Medicine, has been elected to the American Clinical and Climatological Association (ACCA). ACCA was organized in 1884 to improve medical education, research and practice in the U.S.
- Cooper Kersey, resident, Internal Medicine was the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) hospital medicine oral presentation winner at the Washington American College of Physicians annual meeting for “Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Myocarditis: Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself.”
- Whitney Kiker, fellow, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and J. Randall Curtis, professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, are co-authors of “Goal-Concordant Care After Severe Acute Brain Injury” in Frontiers in Neurology.
- Joe Merrill, program director, Addiction Medicine, received an Outstanding Research Mentor Award. Nominated by students throughout WWAMI, 17 mentors were selected by the School of Medicine Scholarship Committee to receive Outstanding Research Mentor Awards
- Danny Miller, resident, Combined Pediatrics and Medical Genetics and Genomics, received an Outstanding Presentation Award at the 2021 Seattle Children’s Hospital Fellow and Resident Research Day, and the Best Presentation Award at the 42nd Annual David W. Smith Workshop on Malformations and Morphogenesis. His mentors include Evan Eichler PhD (Genome Sciences) and Junko Oshima, MD, PhD (Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine).
- Joey Nelson, resident, Family Medicine, was featured in the recent article What Being First Generation Means to These Students in The Huddle
- Olubusola Oluwole, fellow, Hematology Oncology, was selected as the 2021 National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) Jeanne Marie Lusher Diversity Fellowship Award recipient. She was awarded $52,000/year for up to three years for her research project “A prospective study of clinical and imaging assessment of cognitive function and its association with anemia in adults with sickle cell disease at the University of Washington.”
- Alex Stoller, program administrator, Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, is featured in the Department of Medicine Staff Spotlight for November.
by nathangl | Nov 8, 2021 | Announcements, News
Dear GME Community,
We hear from many of you that one of the UW GME learning environment’s greatest attractions and strengths is our diverse range of clinical settings across Seattle, the region and the world.
With that comes the need for UW residents and fellows to adapt to navigate many settings and systems, which can add a cognitive and logistic load when time is limited. In today’s edition of the GME Blog, we wish to highlight a new resident-friendly resource on the GME Website: the Information by Training Site: Sleep/Rest Facilities, Food, Quiet Spaces resource page
Our team’s hope is that this will become the “one-stop shop” for information on resident and fellow resources located at each of our major training sites: UWMC-Montlake, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital, VA Puget Sound, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and UWMC-Northwest. The page offers links for essential information on sleep and rest facilities, food, lounges, and in response to resident and fellow feedback, information on prayer and meditation rooms. This information has been added to existing information on our website that summarizes lactation facilities and parking information by training site.
Though this long-term project reflects effort involving many in the GME Office, we especially wish to thank Natalie Brady, our Learning Environment Specialist, for her detailed work and persistence in compiling this information from our training sites and formatting it so nicely for use.
Please take a look! Our office welcomes feedback from anyone in our community on additions or corrections, as we look to improve and maintain this as a high-quality and reliable tool. Please send any feedback about this new page to uwgme@uw.edu.
Wishing you a wonderful week,
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
Cindy Hamra, JD
Assistant Dean, Operations and Administration
by nathangl | Oct 21, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
The October issue of GME News & Notes has important information about the UW Mask Mandate, the Washington Cares Fund, the upcoming NURF Diversity Recruitment Event and DEI resources.
Additionally, and as in past months, this issue of GME News & Notes has lots of information about awards, publications, new program leadership, etc.
If you have information you would like included, please send to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean of GME
Policies and Processes
- Please make sure that you’re wearing a mask when you’re in a UW Medicine or UW space! The University of Washington has published a corrective action process for violations of the Face Covering Policy. The process can be found on the HR website. Employees are required comply with the COVID-19 Face Covering Policy on campus or the UW Medicine Required and Extended-Use Masking Policy at the medical centers as a condition of employment or will be subject to corrective or disciplinary action including dismissal from University employment.
- The WA Cares Fund, the mandatory long-term care insurance benefit established by state law, is to be funded by a premium paid by employees beginning January 1, 2022. The Employment Security Department (ESD) has provided new information about how qualifying individuals can apply for a premium exemption. ESD is now accepting applications for WA Cares Fund exemption: Starting October 1, 2021, you may apply to ESD for an individual exemption to the WA Cares Fund if you have purchased a long-term care plan prior to November 1, 2021. If approved, you are required to notify the UW of your exemption and provide a copy of the premium exemption approval letter from ESD. For more information, visit the ESD’s WA Cares Fund Exemptions webpage as well as UWHR’s WA Cares Fund overview and FAQs.
- UW and UW Medicine COVID symptom daily attestations: Residents and fellows engaged in any clinical activity during a given day need to complete the UW Medicine attestation, NOT the UW Workday attestation. Link to the attestation: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Response Program (uwmedicine.org). QR codes linking to this attestation are also all over clinical sites.
- Vaccine Requirements & Attestation for non-UW Medicine Training sites: GME has received information about vaccine requirements for non-UW Medicine training sites. See the COVID-19 Updates page of this website for details. If you know of others, please share them with us so we can distribute broadly.
- The Washington Medical Commission (WMC) has posted a position statement about the spread of COVID misinformation by healthcare professionals. The WMC may discipline practitioners who are found offering treatments and recommendations regarding COVID-19 that fall below standard of care as established by medical experts, federal authorities and legitimate medical research.
- Open Enrollment is November 1-30, 2021. This is your once-a-year opportunity to enroll in or make changes to your health plan elections in Workday.
Program Information
- GMEC approved the following new Program Directors at the October 14 meeting. All are awaiting ACGME confirmation:
- Heather Brandling-Bennett, Pediatric Dermatology
- Jimmy Beck, Pediatric Hospital Medicine
- Monique Mogensen, Neuroradiology
- Please join us in welcoming the following new program administrators:
- Jeanine Hughes, Infectious Diseases
- Miranda Skillin, Pain Medicine and Critical Care Anesthesiology
- Paid personal holiday: A reminder that residents and fellows are entitled to one (1) paid personal holiday each calendar year (see Article 12 of the CBA).
- For programs that submitted GMEPAC applications for AY23, the committee met on September 13, and we will be communicating decisions as the hospitals make funding decisions. Please reach out to Cindy Hamra with any questions.
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Events of Interest
- New Program Directors and Program Administrators, please join us for our next quarterly GME Meet & Greet, Friday, October 29, from 10 – 10:45am. More information is here.
- NURF Diversity Town Hall for Candidates: The Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows (NURF) will be holding a Diversity Recruitment event on Tuesday, November 2, from 6 – 8pm. The event is intended to answer questions for potential applicants from underrepresented and/or disadvantaged backgrounds who are currently applying to residency or fellowship at UW. Find more information and the registration link here.
- UW Center for Child & Family Well-Being Courses: The UW Center for Child & Family Well-Being has several upcoming courses in September that are open to all: Mindful Self-Compassion, Finding Calm – Strengthening Bonds Through Self-Kindness, RAIN, and Tools for Teens: Stress Management and Emotional Resilience. For more information, please visit their website.
- Volunteer for the Seattle Marathon: UW Medicine has opportunities for medical and administrative volunteers at the Seattle Marathon over Thanksgiving weekend, Sunday, November 28. Led by Mark Harrast, MD, a sports medicine physician at UW Medical Center, Sports Medicine fellowship director, and the Seattle Marathon medical director, medical teams will manage three stations along the course and one at the finish line. If you are interested, please complete the Seattle Marathon Medical Team Volunteer Registration form. Residents and fellows who want to participate also need to submit a Medical Volunteer Activity Request Form consistent with the Medical Volunteer Activities Policy. For more information, contact Dalika Ung at rmsports@uw.edu.
- The presentations and recording from the October Program Administrator meeting are now available here.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar.
Projects and Resources
- If you have a concern that you would like to share with GME, please use our recently updated Report a Concern form.
- GME has recently revised our GME Annual Program Timeline, which includes program activities and GME dates of note by month for the academic year. The timeline is posted here.
- Sign up to receive parenting and childcare emails from UW Work-Life. Emails include regular updates on childcare-related caregiving, local and virtual family activities, webinar lectures, access to a biweekly parenting newsletter and more.
- Did you know that the GME Office has extensive equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) resources for programs, residents and fellows, and recruitment resources for programs on our GME website? Check them out and please let us know if you have additional suggestions.
- Do you use the GME Website? We’re collecting feedback! Please take this short survey and help us improve the website for you.
- Find child care, pet care, housekeeping and more. Benefits-eligible UW employees and students can find sitters, nannies, housekeepers, pet sitters and dog walkers by registering for a free premium membership to Sittercity.
- The GME Finance Team is hiring a Budget Analyst (Req 196582). Please share with anyone who might be interested!
People
- The Department of Surgery David Tapper Teaching & Leadership Award was awarded to Oluwatobi Afolayan. This award is presented to a General Surgery Chief Resident who exemplifies the teaching and leadership qualities that others seek to emulate.
- Katharine Bennett, Program Director, Geriatric Medicine, is featured in the DOM Faculty Spotlight.
- Kathleen Berfield, Program Director, Cardiothoracic Surgery, was named Chair of the inaugural National Surgery Office Thoracic Surgical Advisory Board (SAB). A s Chair, she will lead other Thoracic surgeons within the Veterans Health Administration and serve as subject matter expert to the National Surgery Office and Veterans Health Administration leadership. Dr. Berfield, previously served on the Cardiothoracic Surgery SAB, and started her 3 -year term as Chair for Thoracic Surgery on June 1st.
- Jehan Budak, Assistant Professor, Medicine, was voted by her peers as the winner of the 2021 Bruce C. Gilliland Award for Excellence in Teaching of Residents and Fellows. The Gilliland Award is awarded annually to the faculty member who is actively engaged in clinical and didactic training or in the implementation of a graduate medical education curriculum. Read more.
- Chris Bundy, Executive Director, Washington Physicians Health Program (WPHP), has received WSMA’s Unsung Hero Award
- Lauren Feld, Gastroenterology fellow, talked about Pregnancy During Medical Training on the Explore the Space Podcast.
- Jeff Friedrich, Program Director, Plastic Surgery, has been selected to join the ACGME Review Committee for Plastic Surgery.
- Anisha Ganguly, Internal Medicine resident, is the recipient of the Lisa A. Cooper – David M. Levine Award for her abstract: “Race and Satisfaction with Pain Management among Patients with HIV Receiving Long-Term Opioid Therapy,” published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
- Supaksh Gupta, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellow, is quoted in “COPD Exacerbations Up After Ambient Temperature Increase” in HealthDay.
- Department of Surgery Resident Award for Medical Student Teaching was awarded to Alison Haruta. This award is presented to a Department of Surgery resident at any level who made a positive impact on medical students through teaching and mentoring.
- Madeleine Heldman, Infectious Diseases fellow, is lead author of “Changing Trends in Mortality Among Solid Organ Transplant Recipients Hospitalized for Covid-19 During the Course of the Pandemic” in the American Journal of Transplantation, and lead author of “Association of Inherited Chromosomally Integrated Human Herpesvirus 6 with Neurologic Symptoms and Management after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation” in Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. DOM co-author is Michael Boeckh.
- Cooper Kersey, Internal Medicine resident, is lead author of the case report “Anti-MDA5 Antibody-Associated Clinically Amyopathic Dermatomyositis: Case Report and Literature Review” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
- Christine Limonte, Nephrology fellow, was featured in Authority Magazine’s Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech
- Anna Morenz, Internal Medicine resident and Joshua Liao, Associate Professor, General Internal Medicine, wrote “Using Area-Level Measures To Account For Social Risk In Health Care Payment” for the Health Affairs Blog.
- Henry Ou, Program Director, Pediatric Otolaryngology, is featured in this SCH story!
- Anna Ratzliff, Program Director, Psychiatry, and Jurgen Unutzer, Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, authored an article in the Seattle Times on addressing the mental-health crisis in Washington State. Additionally, this article in the UW Magazine on the mental-health crisis features Jurgen Unutzer, Anna Ratzliff and Psychiatry resident James Lee.
- Shinetra Pryor, Program Administrator for Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine fellowship programs is the subject of the DOM Staff spotlight.
- Neha Sathe, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellow, is lead author of “Identification of persistent and resolving subphenotypes of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure in two independent cohorts” in Critical Care.
- Kathryn Stadeli, current Surgical Critical Care fellow and 2021 General Surgery program graduate, is recipient of the Annual Harborview Housestaff Achievement Award. This award is presented annually to a UW resident from amongst a pool of over 1,300 residents and fellows. This incredibly prestigious award recognizes nominees for their “extraordinary clinical ability and humanitarian concern,” as best shown through their exemplary care provided to Harborview Medical Center’s patients.
by nathangl | Oct 7, 2021 | Announcements, News
Concern Reporting
Dear GME Community,
Two of GME’s strategic focus areas, Advocacy and Integration, highlight our office’s commitment to our residents, fellows, programs and the clinical learning environment. These values manifest every day.
One that we would like to describe here is how you can report a concern. Residents, fellows, faculty and program leadership raise concerns to the GME team in many ways, including calls, emails, hallway conversations, Special Reviews and survey results. Within GME, we view each report as an opportunity to support members of our community.
We would like all of you to be aware of GME’s newly revised Report a Concern Form. This web-based tool allows anyone in our community to raise a concern – even anonymously – directly to the GME Office. Past concerns have included clinical and educational work hours, hostile work environment, quality of sleep rooms, challenging faculty interactions and parking safety.
When the GME Office receives a concern via the Report a Concern Form, we first seek to understand what was submitted. We’ll reach out to get more information if the individual has shared contact information. Our goal is to mitigate any immediate safety issues, identify a long-term solution and find the safest path to that solution. Next steps may include reaching out to hospital leadership, program directors, department chairs or others who influence the clinical learning environment. Most solutions will arise from partnerships between these groups and GME.
We want to work with you to find solutions. We know that it can be uncomfortable to report a concern, but feedback from members of our community allows us to actively make improvements. Reporting can also support other residents, fellows, faculty or staff by ensuring that their learning and working environment is the best it can be.
We especially want to hear from our residents and fellows, understand their concerns and advance trainee-centered solutions. We encourage you to use the Report a Concern Form.
Help us help you!
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Cindy Hamra, JD
Assistant Dean, Operations and Administration
by nathangl | Oct 5, 2021 | Announcements, Awards, News
Dr. Jehan Budak was voted by her peers as the winner of the 2021 Bruce C. Gilliland Award for Excellence in Teaching of Residents and Fellows.
The Gilliland Award is awarded annually to the faculty member who is actively engaged in clinical and didactic training or in the implementation of a graduate medical education curriculum. The winner must have shown evidence of excellence over time and must have served for at least 3 years within the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) as a teacher of residents/fellows.
Dr. Budak is originally from Long Beach, California, where she was a substitute teacher before going to medical school. She has won nearly every teaching award there is while completing her Internal Medicine residency in the UWSOM and during her Infectious Diseases fellowship at UCSF. She is well known for her intellectual rigor and clinical judgement and for her ability to synthesize the literature with her own experience when rendering care or teaching a room of learners. This degree of expertise is usually attained after many years of practice but Dr. Budak arrived at this point in only a couple of years.
Currently, Dr. Budak is the director of the UW IM Residency HIV Pathway as well as the Director of Clinic Education at Madison Clinic for the Infectious Disease Fellows. Over her very short career, she has developed a local and national reputation in her field by creating the clinical curriculum for teaching HIV and HIV primary care and has formally published a curricula as the Associate Editor of the National HIV Curriculum developed at UW, a CDC supported project used by clinicians nationwide to learn HIV care.
Congratulations to Dr. Budak who has worked tirelessly to engage all of those with whom she interacts to be better teachers and caregivers, not through just what she says but through her actions. We should all aspire to his unparalleled commitment to teaching, innovation, mentoring, and patient care.
by nathangl | Sep 17, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
We have posted the September issue of GME News & Notes. Please read for important information about vaccine requirements and attestations (UW Medicine and other), HSB building access, and moonlighting opportunities.
Additionally, and as in past months, this issue of GME News & Notes has lots of information about awards, publications, new program leadership, GME team members, etc.
If you have information you would like included, please send to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean of GME
Policies and Processes
- UW and UW Medicine COVID Vaccine Requirement and Attestations: A reminder that UW Medicine requires all employees (including residents and fellows) to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or receive an approved exemption no later than Monday, Oct. 18, 2021, as a condition of employment.
- The UW Medicine attestation is located on the UW Medicine Employee Website for COVID-19 Vaccine Compliance. Note: If you were already vaccinated with UW Medicine through the employee process, no action is needed. Thank you to everyone who has been working to get the outstanding 30 attestations resolved.
- Additionally, UW is requiring employees (including residents and fellows) to complete the Workday attestation. At this time, we are partnering with UW Medicine, the Integrated Service Center (ISC) and other central offices to streamline the vaccine verification process for SoM employees (including residents and fellows) who are engaged in clinical duties with UW Medicine. Faculty and other academic personnel (including Housestaff), whose vaccination status has been verified through the UW Medicine process, will not need to go through a separate visual verification process within the department. Instead, for current employees, information will be provided by UW Medicine to the ISC and vaccine verification status will be uploaded to Workday through a mass upload. Additional information to follow. .
- UW and UW Medicine COVID symptom daily attestations: For trainees engaged in any clinical activity during a given day, they need to complete the UW Medicine attestation, NOT the UW Workday attestation. Link to the attestation: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Response Program (uwmedicine.org). QR codes linking to this attestation are also all over clinical sites.
- Vaccine Requirements & Attestation for non-UW Medicine Training sites: GME has received information about vaccine requirements for non-UW Medicine training sites. See the COVID-19 Updates page of this website for details. If you know of others, please share them with us so we can distribute broadly.
- Access to Magnuson Health Sciences Building: The Board of Health Sciences Deans has determined that Magnuson Health Sciences building, the Foege Building, and South Campus Center will remain locked on a permanent basis. This means:
- You will need to use your Husky Card to access these buildings.
- To provide access for clinic patients and events, two Magnuson Health Sciences entrances (HS Lobby and F-wing S1) will be unlocked Monday-Friday, 8:00am-5:00pm, effective September 27, 2021.
- Licensure Examination Policy: The GMEC approved revisions to the Licensure Examination Policy at the September 2021 meeting. Key changes include removal of the USMLE Step 2 (CS), COMLEX Level 2 PE, and MCCQE Part II exam requirements (exams were all discontinued/suspended indefinitely this year) and the addition of completion of USMLE Step 3 for candidates who require an eligibility exception review under the ACGME’s eligibility exception requirements.
- Reminder that the updated UW Medicine Patient Rights and Responsibilities Policy is available on the intranets for Harborview and for UW Medical Center. If you experience any type of discrimination by a patient or visitor or another staff member, you can report using the UW Medicine Bias Reporting Tool.
Program Information
- For programs that submitted GMEPAC applications for AY23, the committee met on September 13 and we will be communicating decisions as the hospitals make funding decisions. Please reach out to Cindy Hamra at hamrac@u.edu with any questions.
- The GMEC approved the following new program directors at the September meeting. Both appointments are awaiting ACGME approval:
- Lisa Koch, Gynecologic/Breast Pathology
- David C. Mauchley, Congenital Cardiac Surgery
- Please join us in welcoming the following new program administrators:
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- Jenelle Kirschner, Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology
- Lauren Stoll, Child Neurology
Events of Interest
- Due to high census in UW Medicine Hospitals, many of our clinical services are offering moonlighting opportunities. If you are interested, please complete the Moonlighting Interest Survey and make sure you get approval from your program director, consistent with the Policy on Working Outside of the Training Program (including Moonlighting). Use the Outside Work Request Forms to request approval. Please send completed forms to Angela James (ang226@uw.edu) in the GME Office. GME will share the list of interested moonlighters with each service. At this time, the services will reach out to share opportunities.
- GME’s Family Planning & Fertility for Resident Physicians event is Thursday, September 30, from 6:00 – 7:45pm. All residents, fellows and guests are encouraged to attend. Register here.
- Registration for our Fall Program Director Development Series (PDDS) is now open. Please register here. This season we are excited to be bringing you information about Standing up to Microaggressions, the Washington Physicians Health Program (WPHP), and the Peer Support Program. Please see the agenda for additional details on these important topics.
- UW Center for Child & Family Well-Being Courses: The UW Center for Child & Family Well-Being has several upcoming courses in September that are open to all: Mindful Self-Compassion, Finding Calm – Strengthening Bonds Through Self-Kindness, RAIN, and Tools for Teens: Stress Management and Emotional Resilience. For more information, please visit their website.
- The next GME Outreach Event will be on Tuesday, October 12, at Seattle Children’s Hospital. More information to come.
Projects and Resources
- Recruitment Resources for Programs and Applicants: Check out the GME website for helpful recruitment resources for programs and applicants, including:
- Prospective Residents & Fellows: Videos for prospective applicants, letter to applicants from Dr. Joyner, eligibility and recruitment policies, resources on appointments, salary and benefits including links to the RFPU-NW contract, RFPA, salary schedule, and benefits at a glance guide.
- Recruitment Resources: Required notifications to applicants, eligibility requirements, application and interview tools, EDI resources, resources and best practices for virtual recruitment.
- Recordings of Fall 2020 events:
- NIH Loan Repayment Program: NIH will help repay student loan debt to encourage outstanding health professionals in the pursuit of research careers in biomedical or biobehavioral research careers. Loan repayment benefits are in addition to the institutional salary received for research. The LRP online application is open this year from September 1 to November 18. More details are available on UW applicants to NIH: Loan Repayment Programs
- We are sharing the following (excerpted) guidance from Academic Affairs to UWSOM Medical Students pursuant to the recent the Coalition for Physician Accountability (CoPA) recommendations:
- Earlier this year, CoPA recommended that medical students should do only one away rotation in a specialty to which they are applying, and the UWSOM, like other schools in the country, has adhered to this recommendation.
- CoPA has also announced their recommendation that all interviews for residency and fellowship during the 2021-2022 application cycle again be conducted virtually. This decision was made because of concerns regarding the delta variant of Covid, and future variants that may pose risks and cause inequity and disruptions. They have also recommended that the medical education community assess the value of virtual interviews along with concerns to make recommendations for future interview seasons. You can read more information here.
- UWSOM graduating students did very well during the 2021 Match and were well-prepared for virtual interviews. Our career advising team, including Sarah Thomson, Linh Ngo, Tonja Brown and the specialty career advisors, are ready to help you prepare for virtual interviews for this year. Each of you will have a mock interview with a faculty member as a core part of your preparation. Please review the resources for preparing for virtual interviews here.
- Child Care Resources
- The Fall 2021 Well-Being Index (WBI) survey window is from September 1 – October 15. All residents and fellows are encouraged to participate in this 7-question survey. Participation can help you understand your overall well-being compared to other residents/fellows across UW and the nation and provides access to resources. All data is completely anonymous and your personal information and individual scores are private and will not be shared with UW GME, UW Medicine, or your program. More information available on the GME website.
- GME Website Feedback: Please take a few minutes to tell us about your experience using the GME website, good or bad, so we can better understand what is important to you, what we are doing well, and where there are areas where we need to make improvements. You can access the Feedback link here or on any of the page footers on our website.
People
- Nashwa Abdulsalam, Cardiology fellow, is lead author of “Gender Differences in the Pursuit of Cardiac Electrophysiology Training in North America” in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
- Omeed Alipour, Gastroenterology fellow, is lead author of “Systematic review and meta-analysis: real-world data rates of deep remission with anti-TNFα in inflammatory bowel disease” in BMC Gastroenterology and “The assessment of sarcopenia using psoas muscle thickness per height is not predictive of post-operative complications in IBD” in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology.
- Jennifer Best, Associate Dean, GME, was interviewed for “Meeting Your Match in the Virtual Space: Tips and Advice for Interviewing for the 2022 Residency Match” by the Macy Foundation.
- GME is excited to welcome our new wellness counselor, Patty Long-Brohm to the team! Information about how to schedule counseling with Patty is on our GME Wellness Service page.
- Frederick Chen, Director, Family Medicine Residency Network (FMRN), and Judith Pauwels, Associate Director, FMRN, authored “Rural Residency Training as a Strategy to Address Rural Health Disparities: Barriers to Expansion and Possible Solutions” in JGME.
- Dipti Chrastka, GME Wellness Director, has joined the board of directors for Sound Health.
- GME is excited to welcome Jasmine Duong, who started on September 13 as an Accreditation Specialist. Jasmine recently graduated from UW School of Public Health where she completed her master’s in public administration. She will be supporting GME accreditation in the management of affiliation agreements, and in the coordination and monitoring of various accreditation requirements.
- Erik Kimble, Hematology-Oncology fellow, is lead author and Ryan Cassaday, associate professor, Hematology, is senior author of “Antibody and cellular immunotherapies for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults” in Leukemia & Lymphoma.
- Michelle Pengshung, Nephrology fellow, is lead author of “Arterial Stiffness is Independently Associated with Acute Kidney Injury in SPRINT” in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
- Perrin Romine, Hematology-Oncology fellow, is lead author and Hannah Linden, Medical Oncology professor, is senior author of “18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET or 18F-fluorothymidine (FLT) PET to assess early response to aromatase inhibitors (AI) in women with ER+ operable breast cancer in a window-of-opportunity study” in Breast Cancer Research. DOM co-authors are Lanell Peterson and Jennifer Specht.
- Lisa Vande Vusse, APD, Internal Medicine is the author of “Ninety-six Paces of Privilege” in JAMA.
Do you have a concern to report to GME? This QR code will take you to our Report A Concern form!
by nathangl | Sep 7, 2021 | Announcements, News
Please join us in welcoming Patty Long-Brohm, our new GME Wellness Counselor!! Patty starts with us today, September 7, and will be based at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She comes with more than two decades of experience and training and will be a wonderful addition to our counseling staff. Look for Patty’s schedule to open on Schedulicity soon – more details to follow.
Below is Patty’s welcome message to the GME community:
Hello! I’m thrilled to be joining the GME Wellness team! I’m grateful for the opportunity to help support the UW medical residents, fellows, and their partners during this challenging and rewarding time in their careers.
To share a bit about myself, I am first and foremost shaped by my early experiences growing up the youngest of four in a small town in the Midwest. My early experiences, some of which included adversity and loss, helped to shape my concern and compassion for others and for the suffering in the world. These early experiences also planted the seeds for core values of integrity, equity, and social justice, which together with my psychological interests led me to the field of clinical social work.
My graduate education at Smith College School for Social Work provided a strong clinical foundation of psychological and developmental theories – while also providing a critique of these theories and a broadening of their application from the lenses of diversity, equity, and social justice. Moving to New England for graduate school and other parts of the country for training has also been a significant part of my development as it allowed me to experience new perspectives and more diversity than my early life afforded, and fostered internal strength and courage as I adjusted to different settings.
During my career over the past 20+ years I have had the privilege to work with children, youth, families, and adults from diverse backgrounds in a variety of clinical settings including residential, school-based settings, community mental health clinics, an eating disorder clinic, a hospital emergency department, and most recently a community health clinic. My clients have been important teachers and my years of practice have strengthened my clinical interests in trauma, attachment, grief and loss, mindfulness-based therapies, and holistic health and wellness. Furthermore, my work is guided by my personal mindfulness meditation training and practice.
I am so grateful to be living in the Pacific Northwest – having moved to Seattle seven years ago from Minneapolis. I appreciate the more temperate climate, the incredible beauty of the many bodies of water and mountain ranges, and the diversity and cultural experiences that Seattle offers. I enjoy the natural beauty we live in as much as possible through hiking and kayaking. I am also sustained by gardening, meditation, music, the arts, and spending time with friends, my spouse and our pup, Biela.
I look forward to working with you and the GME Wellness team!
by nathangl | Aug 20, 2021 | Announcements, News
The Association of Hospital Medical Education (AHME) has designated August 20, 2021 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 who staff their programs and central GME offices. As defined in the ACGME Common Program Requirements, program administrators manage the day-to-day operations of the program and serve as an important liaison with learners, faculty, other staff members, and 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.
We in the UW GME Office would like to take this time to recognize the immense dedication of each of you who make up the 110+ ACGME program administrators, dental residency program administrators, non-ACGME program administrators, and numerous additional program staff that support our 200+ training programs. You are key to their success. Every year brings new requirements and challenges to navigate, and the last 18 months during COVID-19 have been particularly challenging. In spite of this, you have found new opportunities to improve management of your programs, have flipped the structure of recruitment to a virtual environment, shared best practices with your colleagues, and done this while supporting the mission of this institution and the education and wellness of your trainees. Your work does not go unnoticed, and we want to thank you for being such an important part of our GME community.
The UW Graduate Medical Education Office Team
by nathangl | Aug 18, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
This Friday, August 20, is GME Professionals Day! Please thank the program managers, administrators and coordinators who work tirelessly on behalf of residents and fellows.
The August GME News and Notes contains some important information and deadlines including a reminder about UW’s vaccine requirement and information about Washington’s new long term care premiums. Additionally, and as with past months, this issue of GME News & Notes has lots of great information about awards, publications, opportunities, new leadership, team members, etc.
Many thanks to those who reached out to me with information to share here. Please continue to do so by sending to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean of GME
Policies and Processes
- Vaccine Attestation Requirement: Residents and fellows, along with SOM faculty who are clinically active, should complete the UW Medicine attestation at UW Medicine | COVID-19 Vaccine. The revised deadline is October 18, 2021.
- Long-Term Care Insurance Premium: Effective January 1, 2022 the University of Washington will begin to deduct from employees’ paychecks a long-term care premium and remit the funds deducted to the Employment Security Department as required in the Long-Term Services and Supports Trust Act under RCW 50B.04.080. This premium collection from the employee supports the Long-Term Services and Supports Trust Program, designated as the WA Cares Fund. More information on the WA Cares Fund is on the UW HR website.
Program Information
- New Program Directors: GMEC approved the following new program directors. All are awaiting ACGME Review Committee approval:
- Rebecca Wiester, Child Abuse Fellowship
- Julie Hodapp, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Residency program
- ACGME Common Program Requirements FAQs Updated: The FAQs related to the ACGME Common Program Requirements have been updated, effective July 1, 2021. The FAQs can be found on the ACGME Common Program Requirements page under “Additional Resources”.
Events of Interest
- AHME’s Council of Program Administrators and Coordinators (COPAC) has designated Friday, August 20 as GME Professionals Day! More information is here.
- GME Drop In: GME team members will be at UWMC-Montlake on Thursday, August 26 from 11am – 1pm in the AA wing. Drop by to pick up lunch and say hello. We will share more information via email the morning of the 26th.
- Life After Residency & Fellowship Seminar: The annual seminar is coming up on Saturday, August 28 from 9am – noon. Register now. Event topics include: avoiding job search pitfalls, how to negotiate and what to look for before you sign a contact.
- NURF Diversity Recruitment Town Hall: The Network of Underrepresented Residents and Fellows (NURF) is hosting a Diversity Recruitment Town Hall for prospective residents and fellows on Tuesday, August 31, from 6 – 8pm. More details here.
- Our Family Planning & Fertility for Resident Physicians event is Thursday, September 30, from 6:00 – 7:45pm. All residents, fellows and guests are encouraged to attend. Agenda and registration information here.
- Registration for our Fall Program Director Development Series is now open. Please register here. This season we are excited to be bringing you information about Standing up to Microaggressions, the Washington Physicians Health Program (WPHP), and the Peer Support Program. Please see the agenda for additional details on these important topics.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar.
Projects and Resources
-
We recognize that the
recent crises in Afghanistan and Haiti may be very difficult for members of our GME community. Please know that you are not alone and that resources are available to you if you need support. Talk to your friends, colleagues, review the resources for foreign national physicians and US Veterans on the
Wellness page under General Wellness and Self Care, or reach out to one of our
Wellness Service counselors for support.
- The updated UW Medicine Patient Rights and Responsibilities Policy is available on the intranets for Harborview and for UW Medical Center. The Patient Rights and Responsibilities handbook is currently being revised to include this anti-discrimination language. If you experience any type of discrimination by a patient or visitor or another staff member, please reach out to your manager, supervisor or lead. You can also report an incident using the UW Medicine Bias Reporting Tool.
- Recruitment Resources for Programs and Applicants: Check out the GME website for helpful recruitment resources for programs and applicants, including:
- Prospective Residents & Fellows: Videos for prospective applicants, letter to applicants from Dr. Joyner, eligibility and recruitment policies, resources on appointments, salary and benefits including links to the RFPU-NW contract, RFPA, salary schedule, and benefits at a glance guide.
- Recruitment Resources: Required notifications to applicants, eligibility requirements, application and interview tools, EDI resources, resources and best practices for virtual recruitment.
- Recordings of Fall 2020 events:
- The WWAMI Rural Residency Training Opportunities page has resources and information regarding rural training opportunities, including ACGME’s focus on Medically Underserved Areas and Populations.
- The GME Office is accepting nominations for the 2021 Bruce C. Gilliland Award for Excellence in Teaching of Residents and Fellows. The award recognizes outstanding teaching in graduate medical education in any specialty and at any UW Medicine or affiliated training site. Send your nominations tp Tammy Ramirez by 5 p.m. on August 20, 2021.
- The GME Office is hiring a temporary/project Accreditation Specialist (Req #193053). See posting here.
- The Program Administrator Advisory Council (PAAC) is looking for new members! If you are interested in joining or would like to nominate a colleague, please email Gabrielle Pett.
People
- Omeed Alipour, Gastroenterology fellow, is lead author of “Systematic review and meta-analysis: real-world data rates of deep remission with anti-TNFα in inflammatory bowel disease” in BMC Gastroenterology and “The assessment of sarcopenia using psoas muscle thickness per height is not predictive of post-operative complications in IBD” in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology.
- Check out the Huddle article on Geoff Baird, who has been named chair of the combined Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology: Meet Geoffrey Baird: Pathologist and Musician. Geoff is also the Program Director for the Clinical Chemistry fellowship program.
- Sarah Benbow, Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine fellow, received funding from the NIA for a K99 Career Development Award entitled “Mutant tubulins confer resistance to pathological tau,” aimed to study the role of the microtubule cytoskeleton in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and uncover novel therapeutic approaches. She will be working with her mentor Dr. Brian Kraemer.
- The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) has named Başak Çoruh, Program Director, Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship, as 2021 Distinguished CHEST Educator (DCE). The DCE designation places her well within the top 4% of CHEST faculty worldwide and provides national-level recognition of excellence in continuing medical education.
- GME is excited to announce that Casey Dalluge is our new GME Finance Director effective August 16, 2021. Casey is a UW graduate and has been the Finance Manager in the GME office since April 2020. Prior to joining the UW, he worked in the private sector for Liberty Mutual, Univar, and Washington Mutual. Casey has over 15 years of experience with financial planning and analysis, financial modeling, and accounting. He will continue to bring his experience, enthusiasm and dedication to the GME Office.
- Lauren Feld, Transplant Hepatology fellow, is lead author and Rachel Issaka, assistant professor (Gastroenterology) is senior author of “Analysis of Speaker Introduction Formality by Gender at the American College of Gastroenterology 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting” in Digestive Diseases and Sciences. DOM co-author is Erin Cleveland.
- Madeleine Heldman, Infectious Diseases fellow, is lead author and Joshua Hill, assistant professor, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is senior author of “CMV and HSV Pneumonia After Immunosuppressive Agents for Treatment of Cytokine Release Syndrome Due to Chimeric Antigen Receptor–modified T (CAR-T)-Cell Immunotherapy” in the Journal of Immunotherapy. DOM co-authors are Jimmy Ma, Jordan Gauthier, Andrew Cowan, Leah Yoke, Elizabeth Gulleen, Elizabeth Duke, Catherine Liu, and Cameron Turtle.
- Seth Judson, Internal Medicine resident, is lead author of “Zoonoses and global epidemics” in Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases.
- Olivia Kates, Infectious Diseases senior fellow, is lead author, and Catherine Liu, associate professor, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is senior author of “Association of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) with Inpatient Antimicrobial Use at End of Life in Patients with Cancer” in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. DOM co-authors are Elizabeth Loggers and Steven Pergam.
- GME is excited to welcome our new wellness counselor, Patty Long-Brohm to the team! Patty starts in September and you can read more about her in the August 17 Wellness Corner.
- Nicholas Meo, Associate Medical Director for Quality and Patient Safety at Harborview Medical Center and assistant professor, General Internal Medicine is lead author of “Prevalence and Characteristics of House Staff Quality and Safety Councils Within Clinical Learning Environments: Results of a National Survey” in the American Journal of Medical Quality.
- Ryan Murphy, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine fellow, is lead author and Matthew Altman, associate professor, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is senior author of “Management Strategies to Reduce Exacerbations in non-T2 Asthma” in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
- Paul Pottinger, Program Director, Infectious Diseases fellowship, is co-author of “Evaluation of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Core Antimicrobial Stewardship Curriculum for Infectious Diseases Fellows” in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
- Lisa Vande Vusse, John Choe & Jennifer Best (Internal Medicine APDs) published “Reading—and Reconnecting—Between the Lines” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
- Welcome new HQSC Leadership for 2021-2022
- Co-chairs: Madeleine Jackson (Orthopedics resident), and Vince Raikhel (Internal Medicine resident)
- Chair of Development: Ena Nielsen (Orthopedics resident)
- Chair of Diversity and Inclusion: Amanda Cai (Adult Congenital Heart Disease fellow)
- Chair of Publications: Erin Fredrickson (Family Medicine resident)
- Chairs of SQuIRREL: Castrenze Fricano (Emergency Medicine resident), and Lauren Onofrey (Internal Medicine resident)
- University of Washington Medical Center ranked No. 1 : For the tenth consecutive year, the University of Washington Medical Center was named the No. 1 hospital in Washington state and in the Seattle metropolitan area by S. News & World Report in its annual “Best Hospitals” rankings.
by joewilso | Jul 22, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Welcome to beautiful Seattle summer and the new academic year! In June we held our New Resident & Fellow Orientation, welcoming nearly 500 new residents and fellows, the biggest incoming group ever! The July issue of GME News & Notes introduces new leadership, includes information about ACGME Milestones, new policies and more.
Many thanks to those who reached out to me with information to share here. Please continue to do so by sending to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean of GME
People
- The UW Medicine Huddle recently published an article welcoming new residents and fellows: https://huddle.uwmedicine.org/welcome-housestaff-2021/
- Jennifer Best, Associate Dean, GME, has been named a 2021 Macy Faculty Scholar. The Macy Faculty Scholars Program is designed to identify and nurture the careers of promising educational innovators in medicine and nursing.
- Fuki Hisama, Program Director, Medical Genetics, is senior author on the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics first Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guideline (EBG), “Exome and genome sequencing for pediatric patients with congenital anomalies or intellectual disability: an evidence-based clinical guideline of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics.”
- Helen Jack, Internal Medicine R3, is the recipient of the Harborview Medial Center’s Annual Housestaff Achievement Award. Helen is recognized for her exceptional clinical ability, humanitarianism, and dedication to Harborview’s mission population.
- Julia Kocian, GME Wellness Counselor, offers wise words in this Right as Rain article: 4 Ways to Set and Keep Boundaries
- Welcome new NURF Leadership for AY22
- President: Joseph Nelson (FM, PGY3)
- Vice President: Gabriel Mendoza (Peds, PGY3)
- Secretary/Treasurer: James Abe (PM&R, PGY3) and Eric Robles (Peds, PGY1)
- Community Outreach Chair: Kelly Shontell (Peds, PGY3)
- Resident/Fellow Outreach Chair: Ricardo Pullido (OTO, PGY3)
- Medical Student Outreach Chair: Kilia Shanklin (Peds, PGY1)
- Education Chair: Sherise Epstein (OTO, PGY4) and Baer Karrington (Peds, PGY1)
- Social Media Chair: Jessica Pinto (IM, PGY1)
- HQSC-Liaison: To be filled
Policies and Processes
- The following policy updates were approved at the July GMEC meeting. All are posted to the GME Policies and Procedures website:
- Transfer Policy
- GMEC Approved (Non-ACGME Accredited) Programs Policy:
- Special Review Policy
Program Information
- Some local press welcoming our residents in the Montana Psychiatry track to Billings!
- ACGME Milestones Webcasts Now Available: These presentations review the major differences between the original Milestones 1.0 and the revised Milestones 2.0, and cover detailed information regarding construction, content changes, and the new Supplemental Guides created to enhance understanding of the Milestones. Webcasts are currently available for the following:
Events of Interest
- ACGME Annual Educational Conference and Coordinator Forum Pre-Conference: The Call for Sessions for the 2022 Annual Educational Conference is now open! Session proposals are being accepted for the Conference itself and the Coordinator Forum Pre-Conference to be held February 24-26, 2022. All accepted sessions will be presented on site at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida. Submit proposals by Monday, August 2, 2021 11:59 p.m. Central. Click here to learn more and submit a proposal!
- Montlake (Seattle) Bridge Closure: the Montlake Bridge summer closure will now be from August 9 to September 3, not September 2 as previously communicated. WSDOT crews will have up until 5 a.m. on September 3 to complete their work. Please see UWMC’s Montlake Bridge Closure webpage and Montlake Bridge Closure FAQ for more information. WSDOT will post regular Twitter updates during the closure
- AHME’s Council of Program Administrators and Coordinators (COPAC) has designated Friday, August 20, 2021as GME Professionals Day. More information is here.
- We will host another GME Drop In session at UWMC-Montlake on Thursday August 26 from 11am to 1pm. Stop by, say hello and pick up lunch and other goodies. More information including location will be shared soon. We look forward to meeting you!
- Register now for Life After Residency & Fellowship Seminar on Saturday August 28th. Register now. Event topics include: avoiding job search pitfalls, how to negotiate and what to look for before you sign a contact. You will leave the event with strategies, valuable insights and advice to support your transition into independent practice.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar.
COVID Updates
- Vaccine Requirement Update: UW Medicine is requiring all employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or claim an exemption no later than Friday, September 10. This requirement aligns with UW’s broader campus policy for faculty, other academic personnel, staff, trainees and student employees.
- We continue to update our guidance for residents/fellows and programs on the GME COVID page: https://sites.uw.edu/uwgme/covid-19-updates-gme-community/
Projects and Resources
- UW CareLink Financial Connect is a free service that can support your family’s financial well-being. Make a confidential call to receive help on topics like these:
- Making the most of the increased and expanded Child Tax Credit.
- Planning for commute, food and child care costs that may change with the return to onsite work and/or in-person schooling.
- Assessing your financial well-being as the COVID-19 economic impact payments expire.
- UW CareLink consultants are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They will ask questions to understand your needs and schedule free appointments for you to meet with UW CareLink experts who can help.
- Whole U Discounts: Save money and time this summer with The Whole U discount network
- This recent article highlights a generous donation from Curt and Libba Anderson, which will support a new non-ACGME Sarcoma Fellowship and other Sarcoma research.
by nathangl | Jul 7, 2021 | Announcements, News
This year we are welcoming the largest incoming group of residents and fellows to UW Medicine. Incoming, current and outgoing trainees share their experiences and top advice.
Read more >
by nathangl | Jul 2, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
First, welcome to the almost 500 residents and fellows who are joining us for 2021-22! We also want to say congratulations and good luck to those graduating at the end of June and July.
Dr. Joyner and Dipti Chrastka and I really enjoyed meeting those of you who dropped by to pick up lunch on Thursday at Harborview Medical Center. We’ll continue to host these GME Drop In sessions through the year and our next will be at UWMC in August. More information to come!
The June/July academic year transition is always a very busy time of year in the GME world. This issue of GME News & Notes is packed with information – awards, publications, opportunities, new leadership and team members, etc.
Many thanks to those who reached out to me with information to share here. Please continue to do so by sending to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean of GME
People
2020-2021 GME Committee Transitions: Thank you to the following individuals for their service on our GME committees during AY21:
- Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC): Robin Berger, Resident, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; Hugo Carmona, Fellow, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; Arjune Dhanekula, Resident, Thoracic Surgery- Integrated; Ekamjeet Dhillon, Resident, Orthopaedic Surgery; Ashley Eaves, Resident, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation; James Fink, Program Director, Neuroradiology; Jon Ilgen, Faculty, Emergency Medicine; Katie Johnson, Fellow, Child Abuse Pediatrics; Natasha Kwendakwema, Resident, Internal Medicine; Kat McGhee, Program Administrator, Rheumatology; James Owens, Program Director, Child Neurology; Brandon Peplinski, Resident, Internal Medicine; Katie Smolinski, Resident, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation; Grace Wandell, Resident, Otolaryngology; Matthew Wise, Resident, Family Medicine; Athena Wong, Program Administrator, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; Nicole Zern, Surgery
- GME Position Allocation Committee (GMEPAC): Jorg Dziersk, Program Director, Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology; Bill Freeberg, Program Administrator, Radiology; Katie Nowlin, Program Administrator, Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Subcommittee: Lola Mudgistratova, Resident, Emergency Medicine
- Policy Subcommittee: Sagar Chawla, Resident, Orthopaedic Surgery; Nick Freedman, Faculty, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation; Giana O’Hara, Fellow, Geriatric Medicine; Brandon Peplinski, Resident, Internal Medicine
Publications, Awards, and Staffing Updates
- Edward Briercheck, Fellow, Hematology, is senior author of “Low-cost transcriptional diagnostic to accurately categorize lymphomas in low- and middle-income countries” in Blood Advances.
- Daniel Cabrera, Assistant Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency, received a grant to focus on skill development for responding to bias and mistreatment from the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, the American Board of Internal Medicine, the ABIM Foundation, the American College of Physicians and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, which together have awarded a total of $287,500, split among 32 projects at medical schools and training programs. More information is here.
- Eric J. Chow, Fellow, Infectious Diseases, is author on the following:
- Kevin Duan, Fellow, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, has been selected as a 2021 Doris Duke Physician Scientist Fellow. His research project: “Assessing the Value of Post-Discharge Home Oxygen After a COPD Exacerbation.”
- Sherise Epstein, Resident, Otolaryngology, is a recipient of an AAO-HNSF Rande H. Lazar Health Services Research Grant. Dr. Epstein will be working with Dr. David Horn to evaluate special education outcomes among children with severe to profound hearing loss during her T32 research fellowship this year.
- Olivia Frederiksen has joined the GME office as our Accreditation and Regulatory Specialist. Olivia is taking on the monumental task of getting our Program Letters of Agreement in order and launching our PLA Generator.
- Congratulations to the 2021 Department of Medicine Evans Award recipient Cody Gehring, Resident, Internal Medicine. This award is presented every year to one (or more) graduating medical student and 2nd year resident. The Evans award recognizes the special qualities of warmth, understanding, compassion and concern for the needs of others as exemplified by and expressed throughout the life of Dr. Robert S. Evans, who served as Chief of Medicine for many years at the Seattle VA Medical Center.
- Courtney Gilliam, Fellow, Pediatric Hospital Medicine, published Grounded in Justice: An Equity Framework for Chief Residents in Academic Medicine
- Fuki Hisama, Program Director, Medical Genetics & Genomics Residency and Associate Program Director, Combined Pediatrics & Medical Genetics/Genomics Residency, is co-author on the ACGME Milestones 2.0 for Medical Genetics.
- Manny Jauregui, Resident, Otolaryngology, was first author of an article published in the December 2020 issue of Current Opinion in Otolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery. The article, titled “Current management of type III and IV laryngotracheoesophageal clefts: the case for a revised cleft classification,” summarizes the pediatric laryngotracheoesophageal cleft (LTEC) literature and proposes a revised cleft classification system that more accurately reflects our current understanding of these anomalies.
- Juliet Meggs has joined GME’s Learning Gateway team as a new instructional designer. She’ll be supporting (and helping us evolve) our learner-centered design process for asynchronous programs similar to Physician Well-Being and Bystander Intervention trainings. Among her many qualifications, Juliet holds a masters in education, doctorate in counseling psychology, and has more than a decade of experience teaching online and in-person college courses. She brings a creative and thoughtful approach to course design that builds a culture of community where everyone feels like they can participate meaningfully.
- Kelly Ness, Fellow, Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, is the 2021 recipient of the Brunzell Award. Dr. Ness received the award for her research on the role of microglia in central regulation of blood glucose.
- Susan K. Peterson, director of academic appointments and compensation at the University of Washington School of Medicine, is the 2021 recipient of the John R. Pettit Endowed Leadership Award. The Pettit Award is named after John Pettit, UW Medicine’s former associate vice president for business and legal affairs, a person known for his leadership, integrity and positivity — all characteristics shared by Susan.
- Elisabeth Poorman, Fellow, Addiction Medicine, is author of “The Number Needed to Prescribe – What Would It Take to Expand Access to Buprenorphine?” in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- Clare Richardson, Fellow, Pediatric Otolaryngology, was awarded the 1st Place William Potsic Basic Science award for her presentation, “Cross-sectional and Volumetric Assessment After Slide Tracheoplasty in 3D Printed Infant Tracheal Models,” at the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology (ASPO) Annual Meeting. Dr. Richardson was also elected to present at the “Sim Tank” event at the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery Annual Meeting (Top 3 simulation submissions) for her project: “A 3D Printed Laryngeal Suturing Simulator for Endoscopic Laryngeal Cleft Repair.”
- Nina Tan, resident, Internal Medicine, is co-author of “Faith-Based and Federal Government-Affiliated Training Sites for Primary Care: Implications for the Provision of Women’s Health Services” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine
- Congratulations to our many PD and APD colleagues who were recognized as Seattle Magazine’s Top Doctors for 2021!
- Congratulations to the new members of AOA UW Chapter: Anne Erickson, Resident, OB/GYN; Mackenzie Holmberg, Resident, Internal Medicine; Allison K. Ikeda, Resident, Otolaryngology-HNS; Molly Kelly, Resident, Internal Medicine; Neeraja Konuthula, Resident, Otolaryngology; Austin S. Lam, Resident, Otolaryngology; Vanessa Leonhard, Resident, Plastic Surgery; Suzanne Seo, Fellow, Pediatric Emergency Medicine; Christopher Sorensen, Resident, Internal Medicine; Jonathan Staloff, Resident, Family Medicine; Grace Wandell, Resident, Otolaryngology; Matt Wise, Resident, Family Medicine
Policies and Processes
- COVID Vaccine Requirement: On June 2, UW President Ana Marie Cauce and Provost Mark Richards sent out notification that the UW will require faculty and other academic personnel, staff, student employees, and trainees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by autumn quarter in order to work on our campuses or within our facilities. This requirement does include medical and dental residents and fellows, most of whom have already received their vaccines. We will share additional information as we have it.
- Change to UW’s International Travel Restrictions: On June 3 the Provost approved revised rules for official UW international travel.
- USMLE to limit test attempts as of July 1, 2021: As of July 2, 2021 an examinee’s total number of allowable attempts will be reduced from six (6) attempts to four (4) attempts per Step exam, including incomplete attempts. To learn more about this change, please review the FAQs on the USMLE website.
GME Policy Updates
The GMEC approved changes to several policies at the June Committee meeting. Updated policies are on the Policies and Procedures page of the GME website.
- Program Reduction and Closure Policy: Reflects changes in the ACGME Institutional Requirements (IRs) effective July 2021. Includes categories of program reductions and closures (voluntary, ACGME, training site, or Sponsoring Institution initiated) and actions taken by the UWSOM, program, and ACGME to continue to support resident and fellow training, education, salary and benefits.
- Substantial Disruptions in Patient Care or Education Policy: Previously known as Continuity of UW Graduate Medical Education and Administration in the Event of a Disaster Policy. Reflects changes in the ACGME IRs effective July 2021, including changing term “disaster” to “substantial disruptions in patient care and education”. Policy also revised to incorporate our institutional responses to disruptions in patient care and education over past year (COVID, SCH OR closures).
- The following policies were approved on the Consent Agenda. Changes to the policies are very minor, and/or edits only.
- Policy and Procedure Policy: New ACGME institutional requirement addressing adherence to institutional GME policies
- Appointment Policy, Credentialing Policy, DEA Registration Policy, Immunization Policy, Licensure Examination Policy, Medical Volunteer Activities Policy, Outside Work Policy, State Licensing Policy, and Telehealth Policy: Updated with new academic titles that take effect July 2021 (Fellow Non-ACGME and Fellow Non-ACGME Stipend)
COVID Updates
- We continue to update our guidance for residents/fellows and programs on the COVID-19 Updates page.
Progress, Activities and Resources
- GME is excited to share our new Mission Statement: The mission of UW GME is to improve the health of the public by fostering the professional growth of physician-leaders within a supportive and dynamic culture of learning, building the foundation for a workforce that represents and enhances the communities we serve.
- VAPS transition to Cerner: The VAPS EHR transition to Cerner is delayed, as is the training. We currently expect the transition to take effect in 2022 and will share more information when available.
- Marriott Rooms for first responders: This initiative provides significantly discounted rates for first responders and health-care professionals at hotels near the hospitals where they’re working. Valid medical, government, military or relief organization ID is required for check-in.
- Childcare resources:
- Child care openings and tuition savings at KinderCare
Plan now for care at KinderCare this fall. UW employees receive a 10% tuition discount and enrollment priority at select centers.
- Backup child care is available to PEBB-eligible UW employees and UW students for when your regular care falls through. Eligible employees can access 10 days of in-center backup care annually through KinderCare, and 5 days of care annually through Bright Horizons that can be provided in-home (for adults or children) or in a local child care center. You must be registered before you request care, so plan ahead for Fall, and sign-up today!
- In case you missed it, this recent article highlights UW resources to help your family plan for summer.
by nathangl | Jun 11, 2021 | Announcements
Dear Graduating Residents and Fellows,
This year has been unusually challenging, with enormous loss of human life, social and economic disruption, and dramatic disparities in public health. You have completed your training amidst the crisis of a lifetime.
We want to thank each of you for your help during this past year and a half. Thank you for your commitment to learning and teaching. Thank you for trusting UW Medicine with your development. In spite of the chaos and the unknown, we hope that your learning environment has been safe and your education, one that is memorable.
This time of the academic year is joyful and bittersweet, as we say goodbye to those completing training programs. We recognize that the University’s decision to prohibit UW-sanctioned in person graduation events is difficult as it limits your ability to celebrate your successes. Some of you have been with us just a short time, some much longer. Thanks to each of you for your efforts in supporting the UW Medicine mission: “to improve the health of the public.”
Our hope is that you have become better physicians because of being here. Our community is certainly better for having had you with us. We are proud of you and look forward to the contributions you will make to the field of medicine as a representative of the University of Washington.
Congratulations and best of luck!
Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Cindy Hamra, JD
Assistant Dean, Operations and Administration
by nathangl | May 20, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News
Our May News and Notes includes recent publications from members of the GME community, several program director changes, the new process for new rotation and PLA requests, new ACGME Survey resources, the AY22 GME event calendar, and open positions in the GME Office.
If you have feedback, and/or information or events that you would like us to include in future posts, please send them to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean of GME
People
- Katherine Bennett, Assistant Professor Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and Program Director for the Geriatric Medicine fellowship, is one of the authors of the ACGME Geriatric Medicine Milestones.
- Chase Cannon, Acting Instructor in Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is the recipient of the Sexually Transmitted Infections Cooperative Research Centers (STI CRC) 2021-2022 Developmental Research Project (DRP) award. Project title: “Predictive Value of Serologic Tests for Syphilis Diagnosis in Asymptomatic Persons with a History of Syphilis.”
- Basak Coruh, Program Director for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship, will co-lead the UW Cystic Fibrosis Outpatient Integration program (UW CT OPTIN) which has been selected to receive funding from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
- Anisha Ganguly, Internal Medicine resident, is lead author of Race and satisfaction with pain management among patients with HIV receiving long-term opioid therapy in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
- Cindy Hamra, Assistant Dean for GME, is corresponding author of A Critical Reflection on the Experience of Non-Physician (“Public”) Members in Milestones 2.0 Work Groups in JGME.
- Incho Lee, (former Director of Education for GME) and Jennifer Best, Associate Dean for GME, authored Call for Collaboration: The Role of Accreditation in the Transformation, Accountability, and Sustainability of Education in Social Determinants of Health published in JGME.
- Marisa Osorio, Program Director for Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Fellowship, will begin a new role as Division Chief of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital
- Lindee Strizich, Director, GME Quality and Safety, has been invited to sit on a panel at the AAMC’s Integrating Quality Conference
- Matthew Thau, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellow, was selected to receive an American Thoracic Society International Conference scholarship for his abstract “Serial Markers of Endothelial Dysfunction are associated with Acute Kidney Injury in a Population of Severe Trauma Patients.”
Program Information
- The GMEC has approved the following new Program Director appointments. All must be approved by the ACGME:
- Andrew McCoy, Emergency Medical Services fellowship program, replacing Michael Sayre
- Mark Kilgore, Anatomical and Clinical Pathology residency program, replacing Kelly Smith
- The GME Accreditation team has revised the PLAs and Rotation Requests page to include the new process for new rotation and PLA requests.
- To facilitate review of the Resident/Fellow and Faculty Survey reports, crosswalk documents listing the applicable Common Program Requirement(s) corresponding with each item on the survey reports are available on the ACGME website in the Common Resources section for each specialty, on the DIO page, and on the Surveys resource page, as well as in the Accreditation Data System (ADS) Help Center.
COVID Updates
- We continue to update our guidance for residents/fellows and programs on the COVID-19 Updates page.
Progress, Activities and Resources
- ACGME Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, William McDade, is featured on Black Men in White Coats podcast: “From The Southside of Chicago to Top Doctor! – Dr. William McDade”
- UW Medicine is now accepting applications for a second round of Patients Are First Innovation Pilots. This program awards up to $50,000 in project funds to UW Medicine faculty and staff with an innovative idea to improve patient care or address issues in our care delivery process.
- The Organization of Resident Representatives (ORR) is now accepting resident nominations for the Community Service Recognition Award. The purpose of the award is to foster a service ethic among resident physicians by recognizing those who have made contributions above and beyond the rigors of residency training to improve the local communities surrounding their training institution. The award includes funded registration to attend Learn Serve Lead 2021: The AAMC Annual Meeting, a virtual recognition award ceremony, and a contribution to a community non-profit. Learn More. Submission deadline: May 31, 2021.
- The GME Office is currently hiring for two roles:
- The UW Housestaff Quality and Safety Committee (HQSC) is excited to announce the 2021 Gene Peterson Faculty Award nomination process. This annual resident-nominated award is given to a faculty member who demonstrates commitment to resident learning in the areas of quality improvement and patient safety. Please nominate a deserving faculty member here. The deadline is June 1, 2021.
- Seattle Children’s Center for Diversity and Health Equity Releases Grant RFA: The Mentored Scholars grant has been expanded to include post-docs this year.
by nybrady | Apr 29, 2021 | Announcements, Events, PA Events, PD Events, Resident & Fellow Events
Please save the dates for upcoming 2021 – 2022 GME events! See PDF list, and be sure to check the Resident & Fellows and PDs & PAs event pages for the most up-to-date information.
If applicable, registration for events will open one month prior to the event date. Timely save the dates and registration reminders will continue to be released via email and the GME website.
We hope to see you at a GME event soon!
by nathangl | Apr 26, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
This is our third monthly “News and Notes” post, including updates about members of our community, policy updates, program changes, events of interest, and other updates. If you have feedback, and/or information or events that you would like us to include in future posts, please send them to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Cindy
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean of GME
People
- The Department of Medicine’s recent Staff Spotlight focused on Steph Timm, residency and fellowship programs administrator in the Division of Dermatology, and co-chair of the Department of Medicine Gender Equity Council. Read her story on the DOM website.
- UWSOM Psychiatry resident James Lee, recently published “Combating Anti-Asian Sentiment — A Practical Guide for Clinicians” as a perspective piece in the NEJM, and was featured on CNN, These Asian Americans faced racism growing up, but they won’t let it define them
- Jennifer Best, associate professor (General Internal Medicine) and associate dean, GME, is senior author of “Call for Collaboration: The Role of Accreditation in the Transformation, Accountability, and Sustainability of Education in Social Determinants of Health” in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education (JGME).
- Congratulations to Betsy Buswell, New Vice Chair of Finance and Administration in the Department of Medicine!
- Matthew Thau, fellow (Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine), was selected to receive an American Thoracic Society International Conference scholarship for his abstract “Serial Markers of Endothelial Dysfunction are associated with Acute Kidney Injury in a Population of Severe Trauma Patients.”
- Matt LaCourse, PM&R resident, received the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) Foundation Resident Scholarship Award.
- Mack Holmberg, Molly Kelly, Christopher Sorensen and Mindy Zeitz-Chua have been inducted to the UW Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
Policies
- Attention ACGME- and CODA-accredited programs, the GMEPAC process for AY23 (2022-2023) is now open. Information on the process and the application are posted on the Commitees page under “GMEPAC”.
- Revisions to the Eligibility, Recruitment and Selection Policy were approved at the April GMEC meeting. The policy reflects changes to the ACGME Institutional Requirements, effective July 2021 and includes guidelines and resources addressing diversity in recruitment.
- Updated Verification of Graduate Medical Education Training (VGMET) Form Now Available. The ACGME, National Association of Medical Staff Services (NAMSS), American Hospital Association (AHA), Organization of Program Director Associations (OPDA), and others created the VGMET form to standardize the training verification process and alleviate the burdens placed on hospitals, medical services professionals, and program directors. Form is available here: https://www.aha.org/resources/2016-04-12-verification-graduate-medical-education.
Program Information
- The GMEC has approved Shani Delaney as the new program director the Maternal Fetal Medicine fellowship, replacing Jane Hitti.
- The GME Office has partnered with colleagues in the UWSOM to develop a resource on our webpage regarding WWAMI Rural Residency Training Opportunities for programs interested in this area. Please review and reach out if you have questions. Thanks to Judy Pauwels, Suzanne Allen and Freddy Chen, Dwane Liuska, Hadar Duman and Gabrielle Pett for their help building this resource!
Events of Interest
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: The UW Center for Child & Family Well-Being is offering an 8-week course in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Research on MBSR consistently demonstrates positive outcomes for a wide variety of challenges including highly stressful work or family circumstances, sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression and chronic pain. Wednesdays, April 28 – June 16, 6-8:30pm. For more information and to register, please visit their website.
- You can still watch “Picture a Scientist” via the UW Medicine Libraries website. Access using your UW NetID.
Other GME Events can be found on our calendar: https://sites.uw.edu/uwgme/calendar/
COVID Updates
- We continue to update our guidance for residents/fellows and programs on the COVID-19 Updates page.
Progress, Activities and Resources
- AACOM, AAMC, ACGME, and ECFMG Release Transition to Residency Toolkit. The American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, Association of American Medical Colleges, ACGME, and Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates | Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research created a toolkit to help learners transition from medical school to residency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The toolkit is designed to aid both programs preparing for incoming residents, as well as students entering residency after a challenging and potentially disrupted final year of medical school. Email questions and comments to umegmetoolkit@acgme.org
- An updated MOU between the School of Medicine and School of Public Health allows for the continuation of tuition waivers for Masters Programs (fee-based Masters not included). Please see Dr. Joyner’s March 29, 2021 email.
by nybrady | Apr 1, 2021 | Announcements, Wellness
After a long winter – in more ways than one – Spring is here! With that comes the GME Office’s
Spring campaign for the Resident / Fellow Well-Being Index (WBI). We hope you will consider participating.
The WBI, a 7-question tool, can help you understand your overall well-being compared to other residents/fellows across UW and the nation and provides access to resources. The information we collect 2x/year through the WBI is helping us to prioritize and target our well-being efforts to the groups that need them most. You can see the Fall 2020 data and current plans on our Well-Being Index page.
Some important points about the WBI, which was developed by Mayo Clinic researchers and is managed by an outside vendor:
- The WBI is 100% anonymous: your personal information and individual scores are private and will not be shared with UW GME, UW Medicine, or your program.
- Due to this anonymity, the tool does not trigger an outreach from anyone in your program or in GME, regardless of your score, which you should know in advance. This does not mean that the tool is not working, or that no one is paying attention. The tool is configured this way so you feel safe.
- UW GME will report only group level data (5 or more participants) back to this community and stakeholders.
- We know that the WBI doesn’t do anything by itself to improve your wellness. It is important for taking our community’s “temperature” but is not an answer in and of itself. It is only one piece of larger efforts. See our FAQs to learn more about other initiatives.
- We’re hoping for as much participation as possible between April 1, 2021 and May 15, 2021, although the WBI is available 24/7 and can be used weekly. We’ll send a few email reminders during the Spring 2021 period.
Setting up an account is easy and completing the Index takes less than one minute. More information and a short introductory video are on the WBI page.
Thank you for your participation!
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Graduate Medical Education, UW Medicine
by nathangl | Mar 19, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community,
Happy Match Day! This is our second “News and Notes” post, including bi-monthly updates about members of our community, policy updates, program changes, events of interest, and other updates. If you have feedback, and/or information or events that you would like us to include in future posts, please send them to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
Cindy
Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean of GME
People
- Barbara Jung, Chair of the Department of Medicine, joins the presidential line up for the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA). She will serve as vice president, president-elect and will become president in 2023. She will be the 4th woman holding this office.
- Jennifer Best, Associate Dean for GME and Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, and Hadar Duman, GME Director of Accreditation, joined colleagues from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and University of New Mexico School of Medicine to present “Special Reviews: When You Still Haven’t Found What You’re Looking For” at the 2021 ACGME Conference in February
- Estell J. Williams, Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, and General Surgery Residency Program alum, received the 2021 Distinguished Service Award for Community Service and Volunteerism, in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy. The award is sponsored by the UW Health Sciences Administration & University of Washington Medical Center.
- John Choe, Associate Professor, General Internal Medicine, and Associate Program Director in the Internal Medicine Residency Program, has been elected to the governing council for the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM), part of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM).
- Judy Pauwels, Associate Director of Program Development in the UW Family Medicine Residency Network, is the recipient of the Senior Women Faculty Mentor Awardee from the Dean’s Standing Committee on Women in Medicine.
Policies
- The Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) approved a new Chief Resident/Fellow Policy at the March meeting, which is posted on the Policies and Procedures page.
- The New Program Application for GMEC Approved Non-Accredited Fellowship Programs was revised by the GMEC-Approved Non-ACGME Fellowship (GAF) Programs Committee in February and is available for new programs on the Non-ACGME Programs Resources page on the GME website. In addition to the revised application, the GAF Committee also developed a new Department Chair Letter of Support letter template for new non-ACGME program directors. Questions about the application can be directed to Gabrielle Pett at nathangl@uw.edu.
- The Residency and Fellowship Position Appointment (RFPA) Agreement 2021-2022 is now posted to the Policies and Procedures page.
- A friendly reminder that pursuant to the MedHub User Access Controls Policy, requests for MedHub accounts must now be requested via forms posted to the MedHub page of the GME website.
- The ACGME has released new Institutional Requirements, which will take effect July 2021.
Program Information
- Today is Match Day for the NRMP Main Residency Match. Please join us in congratulating our residency programs that filled all 285 available positions offered in this year’s Match. You can read the NRMP’s Press Release here. We will share a larger update on UW’s Match results in the coming weeks.
- The GMEC has approved the following new ACGME program director appointments. All are awaiting ACGME approval:
- Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology: Dr. Nazem Akoum, replacing Dr. Kristen Patton
- Epilepsy, Dr. Jeffrey Tsai, replacing Dr. Norman So
- Hematopathology: Dr. Dan Sabath, replacing Dr. David Li
- Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Dr. Emily Myers, replacing Dr. Samuel Zinner
- The GMEC also approved Dr. Travis Nelson, as the new Program Director for Pediatric Dentistry, replacing Dr. Zheng Xu
Events of Interest
- Registration for the Spring Program Director Development Series is now open. If you haven’t yet signed up to join us, please register before noon on March 29.
- Join us for our Program Administrator Meeting, on Tuesday, April 13. Topics include Annual Program Evaluation (APE) best practices and presentations from the Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) contest. Event details can be found here.
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar: https://sites.uw.edu/uwgme/calendar/
COVID Updates
- Reopening Vaccine First-Dose Appointments to Eligible 1A and 1B1 Employees: With a third COVID-19 vaccine now approved and vaccine supply increasing nationwide over the next few months, we are pleased to begin scheduling first-dose vaccinations for employees who meet the Washington State Department of Health eligibility criteria. Eligible employees are those in Phase 1A or 1B tier 1. This includes healthcare workers at high risk for COVID-19 infection, first responders, people who live or work in long-term care facilities, anyone 65 and older, people 50 and older who also live in a multigenerational household, and educators, staff and child care workers in pre-K, K-12 or daycare settings. If you are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, please visit the UW Medicine employee COVID-19 vaccine site to schedule your appointment.
- Travel restrictions for UW Medicine employees remain in place, even for those who have already received the vaccine. This includes work-related travel for conferences and meetings. Non-essential personal travel also is strongly discouraged until further notice.
- Scheduling for COVID Moonlighting shifts is transitioning from the GME Office back to the services effective shifts starting 3/22/2021. Residents with questions can still contact Cindy Hamra (hamrac@uw.edu) for help navigating.
- UW COVID-19 Employee Emergency Fund: The roll-out of the coronavirus vaccine has brought new hope to all of us. At the same time, members of our community continue to feel a variety of impacts on their lives. For many, the financial strain of this time is significant. We want to remind everyone that the UW COVID-19 Employee Emergency Fund (EEF) remains available to employees most in need. In addition, we know that changes in the availability of child care resources and the addition of remote learning have at times felt overwhelming. To help ease some of these challenges, we are excited to announce that the Employee Emergency Fund is now offering an additional child care supplement.
- We continue to update our guidance for residents/fellows and programs on the GME COVID page: https://sites.uw.edu/uwgme/covid-19-updates-gme-community
Progress, Activities and Resources
- Bias Incident Reporting Tool Our commitment to a culture of inclusivity is shaped by the actions we take to recognize injustice and address and correct it where it occurs. One such measure, now available for the UW Medicine community, is the Bias Incident Reporting Tool, created and maintained by the UW Medicine Bias Response Team. This tool offers a mechanism for all community members to safely report incidences of bias and misconduct, and to receive a clear and streamlined response.
- 2021 PAAC Continuous Process Improvement Contest: Do you have the perfect tracking sheet for leave or trainee publications? The perfect CCC process or excellent MedHub evaluations? A great idea for how to innovate GME through program improvement? Send in a submission to the 2021 PAAC Continuous Improvement Contest! Send a brief summary (250 words) of what tool you’re submitting, the issue it addresses, and any examples to the PAAC at paac@uw.edu by March 26.
- 2022 ACGME Awards Nominations Open The ACGME recognizes notable designated institutional officials, program directors, residents and fellows, and institutional and program coordinators for their outstanding work and contributions to graduate medical education through its Awards Program. Nomination materials are available in the Awards section of the ACGME website. The deadline for nominations is March 24, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. Central.
- UW Human Resources is launching an Advisory Committee on Work-Life. Formed at the recommendation of the COVID-19 Caregiver Task Force, this group will help guide the University’s continued response to COVID-19 caregiving challenges and shape post-pandemic work-life initiatives. UW Medicine will be represented in the committee by Anne Browning, School of Medicine Assistant Dean for Well-Being and Aimee Buckius, UW Medicine Human Resources. To help us understand the unique and nuanced needs of our community, please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us.
- The American Hospital Association, in partnership with ACGME, the National Association of Medical Staff Services, and the Organization of Program Director Associations and others, recently released an updated version of the Verification of Graduate Medical Education Training (VGMET) Designed to streamline and standardize the residency verification process and meet hospital credentialing needs, the template letter and form provide the necessary information to meet credentialing needs while reducing the need for residency programs to complete multiple requests for information.
by nybrady | Feb 19, 2021 | Announcements, GME News & Notes, News
Dear GME Community –
Many of you may know that the GME Office has been working to improve our communications mechanism, primarily by shifting to a robust website. Our goal is to provide information to our community in a clear and consistent way. Since September 2020, Dr. Joyner has penned a monthly DIO GMEC Update. After careful discussion, we have decided to expand our updates to bi-monthly. Dr. Joyner will continue to share a monthly blog post and we will add a monthly “GME News & Notes” blog post. This post will include updates about members of our community, policy updates, program changes, events of interest, and other updates.
If you have feedback, and/or information or events that you would like us to include in future posts, please send them to me at hamrac@uw.edu.
I enjoyed compiling this information and hope you enjoy reading,
Cindy
Cindy Hamra, JD
Assistant Dean of GME
People
- Check out this interview and article on KOMO featuring Paul Pottinger, who wears many hats, among them Program Director for the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program: Meet Seattle’s pandemic power couple: Julia Quinn and Dr. Paul Pottinger
- Lara Oyetunji, MD, MPH, former UW Thoracic Surgery fellow and current attending in Cardiothoracic Surgery was recently featured in The Huddle
- The Department of Medicine announced the inaugural Diversity Academic Development Scholar Awards, developed to promote and foster the transition of meritorious URM trainees to the roles of junior faculty and principal investigator. Awardees from the GME Community include:
- Chase Cannon, Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program
- Erik Kimble, Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program
- Helen Stankiewicz Karita, Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program
- Kennedy Ukadike, Rheumatology Fellowship Program
- Lisa Vande Vusse, Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program was first author and Dr. Jennifer Best, Associate Dean for GME and Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, was senior author, on a paper in Academic Medicine titled “Maximizing Career Advancement During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Recommendations for Postgraduate Training Programs”
- Melissa (Moe) Hagman, Program Director for the UW Boise Internal Medicine Residency program, received the Idaho American College of Physicians chapter Distinguished Teacher Award at the 2021 Virtual Hindson Winter Conference.
- Chris Knight, Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, and associate professor, General Internal Medicine, has been appointed Governor-elect of the Washington Chapter of the American College of Physicians.
Policies
- In January, GMEC approved a new MedHub User Access Controls Policy, which establishes criteria and processes for requesting MedHub user access.
- In response to an audit by the University of Washington Internal Audit, the GME Office also recently completed an extensive audit of MedHub administrative user accounts, to bring us into compliance with this new Policy. Thank you to programs for all your work on this! User audits will be carried out annually in the future.
- The new policy also specifics that MedHub accounts must now be requested on the MedHub page of the GME website.
- Revisions to the Visa Policy were approved at the February GMEC meeting. The revisions add information and practice that weren’t addressed in the previous version, including:
- Addition of requirements for participation in early orientation and eligibility for compensation
- Addition of restrictions on gaps in visa sponsorship
- Restrictions on eligibility for outside work
Program Information
- Congratulations to the Orthopaedic Sports Medicine fellowship program in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, which received initial ACGME accreditation in January. The program director is Albert Gee.
- Welcome to the following new Program Directors:
- Michael Bamshad is the new program director for the Medical Biochemical Genetics Fellowship program, replacing Dr. Lawrence Merritt.
- Julie Rivers is the new program director for the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship program, replacing Dr. Amy Geddis. Dr. Geddis is transitioning to a role as Division Chief for Hematology at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
- Welcome to the following new Program Administrators:
- Jill Fulmore, Clinical Informatics Fellowship
- Danielle Townsend, Urology and Pediatric Urology programs
Events of Interest
- Programs are encouraged to invite their URM applicants to the Second Look Event, scheduled for Thursday, February 25th, 2021 from 6:30 pm – 8:30pm Pacific Time. This event is intended for applicants from underrepresented and/or disadvantaged backgrounds to ask questions of and get answers from our faculty and housestaff as they make their final rank list. Register online.
- February 26 is 2021 Thank a Resident Day! Residents and fellows make up 1 in 5 physicians at UW Medicine – please make sure to thank your resident/fellow colleagues for their important work!
- Please join GME and campus partners for the documentary film “Black Men in White Coats.”
- The film will be available for viewing anytime between February 27 and March 3, 2021. A unique streaming code will be emailed to attendees. Register Here
- Please join us on March 3rd from 5:00 pm – 6:00 p.m. PST/6:00 pm – 7:00 p.m. MST, for a virtual Q&A and discussion panel with Dr. Dale Okorodudu, founder and executive director of the film, Dr. Paula Houston, Chief Equity Officer, UW SOM Office of Healthcare Equity (facilitator), Dr. Byron Joyner, Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Dr. Ben Danielson, Dr. Chase Cannon (Infectious Diseases Fellow) and Dr. Gregory Walker (Orthopaedic Surgery resident).
- The GME Office held our AY22 Onboarding Kickoff Meeting for programs on February 2, 2021. Onboarding information is posted to the Appointments & Credentialing page of the GME website. Big thanks to Khrystine Buccat and Hayley Fisher for their incredible work in this area!
- Other GME Events can be found on our calendar.
COVID Updates
- Thank you to the 100+ residents and fellows who have participated in moonlighting shifts to help support UW Medicine hospitals address increased service needs driven by COVID. Beginning in early December 2020, these individuals have worked nearly 600 moonlighting shifts. As a result, we have been able to minimize any voluntary redeployments to 19 total shifts (around 3% of the total) and therefore minimize COVID impacts on resident / fellow education.
- Thank you also to the 7 residents from Internal Medicine and Family Medicine who have voluntarily redeployed to cover these 19 shifts.
- Please note that Dr. Joyner sent an email to programs on February 16, with ongoing guidance regarding restrictions for away rotations, recruitment events and interviews. Specifically, the February 16 message stipulated that all graduation activities should be virtual for AY21 graduates. Remember please that in-person interviews will not be allowed at any time during the 2021-2022 recruitment season, including in-person interviews for our own, local UW medical students or residents.
- The GME Guidance for Programs Regarding Medical Students & Residents/Fellows: Rotations & Interviews on the GME website was updated to reflect these changes.
- We continue to update our guidance for residents/fellows and programs on the GME COVID page.
Progress
- UWSOM received continued accreditation status from the ACGME with no citations or Areas for Improvement.
- Call Rooms, Lactation Rooms and Parental Support: Over the last year the GME Office has made a concerted effort to improve resources for our residents and fellows, in particular call rooms and parenting support. Information is posted in our news. Thanks to Natalie Brady for her work in this important area!
by nathangl | Jan 25, 2021 | Announcements, News
This month is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. Celebrate his life and his vision: Belonging! Thank you for taking part in learning more about diversity and inclusion, more about yourself! Enjoy the January 2020 GMEC Update.
People
Congratulations to the following members of our community:
- Bessie Young, Professor of Medicine, Division Chief of Nephrology at the VA resident was selected the 20201 Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award. This award is presented to an individual who or team which promotes and champions the values of DEI in their department of medicine. https://medicine.uw.edu/news/bessie-young-receives-aaim-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-award.
- Susan Merel, Associate Professor and Stephanie Timm, Dermatology Residency & Fellowship Programs Administrator from the Department of Medicine are co-chairs for the Department’s inaugural Gender Equity Council.
- Ken Steinberg, Program Director for Internal Medicine Residency Program and Professor of Medicine, has started a Health Equity pathway for R2s and R3s. The pathway is for residents who are considering careers incorporating health equity in clinical care, research, education and advocacy.
- Heather McPhillips, Program Director for the Pediatrics Residency Program and Professor, Department of Pediatrics, shared that the Pediatrics program has developed a health equity track, offered as a separate track in the NRMP Match.
- Daniel Cabrera, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, and Assistant Program Director for the Internal Medicine residency program, was named by Dr. Joyner as the inaugural Chair of the new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Subcommittee of the GMEC.
- Fiona Gallahue, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine, and Program Director for the Emergency Medicine residency program successfully published an article in JGME entitled: A Critical Disconnect: Residency Selection Factors Lack Correlation With Intern Performance. https://meridian.allenpress.com/jgme/article/12/6/696/448210/A-Critical-Disconnect-Residency-Selection-Factors
- Byron Joyner, Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Designated Institutional Official, and Professor of Urology, received the Mass General/Brigham’s 2020 Alumnus Award for his 25 years of work in medical education.
Programs
- Three new program directors were approved by the GMEC: Yajuan Liu for Laboratory Genetics and Genomics; Fatemeh Behnia for Nuclear Medicine; and Niviann Blondet for Pediatric Transplant Hepatology.
- Jennifer Best, Associate Dean for GME and Hadar Duman, GME Director of Accreditation are working to assist programs on Special Review to reflect on areas where they might consider trying new approaches to areas for improvement.
Progress
- The GMEC-sponsored EDI Subcommittee was approved by the GMEC after a presentation of the EDI Task Force’s work to complete the charter.
Policies
- Gabrielle Pett, GME Senior Director of Business Affairs, presented the revised Resident and Fellow Position Agreement (RFPA) Agreement for 2021-2022. There was a tremendous amount of work that was done to make the changes in the RFPA so that it would be aligned with the 2019 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Thank you to all of the Policy Subcommittee members!
- Cindy Hamra presented the new MedHub User Access Controls policy which was approved by the Committee. The new policy establishes criteria and processes for requesting MedHub user access.
Partnerships
- The GME Office held a second winter Town Hall to discuss COVID-19 updates for the residents, fellows, and programs. Cindy Hamra, Assistant Dean for GME hosted Drs. Tim Dellit, Chris Kim, Nick Meo, Shireesha Dhanireddy and Byron Joyner. We will continue to hold similar Town Halls every month to be sure that our trainees and programs have current information about impacts of COVID-19 and to answer questions.
- Vaccinations for trainees are ahead of schedule. More than 1000 housestaff have already received at least their first of two COVID-19 vaccines
Projects
- Please see the COVID-19 Updates: GME Community section of the GME website for information and updates on the increasing COVID-19 pandemic in our community. Cindy Hamra has been working closely with UW Medicine leadership to include our housestaff thoughtfully and strategically in the COVID-19 response.
“We Delight In The Beauty Of The Butterfly, But Rarely Admit The Changes It Has Gone Through To Achieve That Beauty”. – Maya Angelou
Byron D. Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean and Designated Institutional Official (DIO)
Graduate Medical Education, UW Medicine
by nathangl | Dec 14, 2020 | Announcements, News
Hanukkah and Christmas holiday are upon us this month. The much anticipated COVID-19 vaccine is here too. I hope the DIO Blog will put you in the holiday spirit to read the December 2020 GMEC Update.
People
Congratulations to the following members of our community:
- Dr. Brian Cervoini Rosario (PGY-2) was selected as a resident member of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Review Committee (RC) at the ACGME.
- Drs. Ben Massenburg (PGY-4) and Kajal Mehta (PGY-3) were selected by the Resident and Associate Society of the American College of Surgeons for two Global Surgery Work Group leadership positions. Dr. Massenburg will hold the Subspecialty Engagement Lead position and Dr. Mehta start as secretary and will advance to Vice Chair in 2022 and then to Chair in 2023.
- Gregory Walker (PGY-5) resident in the Department of Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine has published a paper with his department chair, Dr. Howard Chansky and another faculty member Dr. Mario Taylor for the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery entitled What’s Important: Take a Knee: It is our collective responsibility to dismantle systemic racism.
- Dr. Grant Hughes, associate professor of Rheumatology has received a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award from the Arthritis Foundation for $10,000 to support the Rheumatology Fellowship training program.
- Dr. Bessie Young, professor of IM, VA division chief of Nephrology, won the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award.
- The Triple I Outstanding Research Mentor Award was presented to Dr. Fuki Hisama, professor of IM, division of Medical Genetics for her exemplary mentorship of our UW medical students in the conduct of scholarly work.
- The Department of Surgery faculty members, Drs. Lisa Mcintyre and Nicole Zern published an article in JAMA entitled Emergency Restructuring of a General Surgery Program During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: The University of Washington Experience.
- Drs. Nick Meo, Jon Ilgen, Niten Singh and Byron Joyner were involved in the recent article in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education about the University of Washington’s experience in the COVID-19 surge in the spring.
Programs
- Special Reviews continue to make improvements to our learning environment for residents and fellows. Dr. Best and Hadar Duman are working to assist each of the programs to reflect on areas where they might consider trying new approaches.
Progress
- The GMEC-sponsored CLER Subcommittee had its inaugural meeting the month to kick off the many projects to make progress in the areas of Patient Safety, Quality, and especially in Healthcare Equity and Teaming. This committee is chaired by Dr. Lindee Strizich, GME Director of Quality and Patient Safety, UWMC-Montlake.
- The GMEC-sponsored Clinical Learning Environment Review Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Task Force has completed its final meeting and the final draft of its charter which will be presented ot the GMEC for a vote next month.
Policies
There were three new GME policies presented and approved by GMEC:
- GME Appointment Policy
- GME Credentialing Policy
- GME Scheduling and Boarders Policy
Each of these new policies will clarify processes to improve conditions for residents and fellows in our community. Check them out.
Partnerships
- GME held a winter Town Hall to discuss COVID-19 updates for the residents and fellows. Drs. Tim Dellit, Chris Kim and Nick Meo were present to answer questions, as were Cindy Hamra, Dipti Chrastka and Byron Joyner. We will continue to hold similar Town Halls every month to be sure that our trainees understand current COVID-19 information and obtain answers to their questions.
Projects
- Please see the COVID-19 Updates: GME Community for information for updates on the increasing COVID-19 pandemic in our community. We are working closely with UW Medicine leadership to include our housestaff thoughtfully and strategically in our efforts to protect our community.
Byron D. Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean and Designated Institutional Official (DIO)
Graduate Medical Education, UW Medicine
by nybrady | Nov 23, 2020 | Announcements, News
November has a lot of celebrations, in fact 135, according to one source. But, the Thanksgiving holiday is the most popular in the US. While you’re nibbling on turkey, thanks for reading the November 2020 GMEC Update for our community.
People
- Congratulations to the following members of our community:
- Seattle Children’s Hospital in-patient resident team which has included space during their rounds to discuss any concerns around equity, diversity and inclusion that may impact patient care.
- Dr. Joel Kaufman was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
- Dr. Elina Quiroga received the UW Award of Excellence for her outstanding work in mentoring Underrepresented in Medicine members of the community.
- Dr. Kemi Doll published a personal essay in the New England Journal of Medicine about structural solutions for minority faculty in subspecialties in Medicine
- Dr. Fuki Hisama published “Diversity, Inclusion and Equity in Medical Genetics: The time is now” in Medical Genetics
- A former IM resident, Dr. Harvey Alter, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contributions to the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.
Programs
Progress
- The GMEC Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Executive Task Force, chaired by Dr. Byron Joyner and Dr. Barbara Goff (Chair, Obstetrics and Gynecology) had its first meeting this past week. The Task Force voted to approve a long-standing GMEC-sponsored EDI Subcommittee. The GMEC-sponsored Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Task Force will have its last meeting this month, just before presenting its findings and recommendations to the GMEC in January.
- The inchoate GMEC Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Subcommittee has started to organize its committee members to better integrate, elevate and support accountability for efforts toward enhancing the CLER focus area: Patient Safety, Health Care Quality (including Disparities), Teaming and Supervision. If you are interested in contributing to the CLER Subcommittee, please look for the announcements.
Policies
- There is a new, comprehensive GME Leave Policy, which was approved by GMEC at the November meeting. The policy addresses state and federal laws, as well as ACGME and ABMS requirements.
Partnerships
- Dr. Tom Gallagher from the Center for Scholarship in Patient Quality and Safety, called attention to resources about helping to build an anti-racist society. The list included both local and national resources that will help people to have opportunities to become involved in anti-racist issues, concerns and projects.
Projects
- Please see the COVID-19 Updates: GME Community for information for updates on the increasing COVID-19 pandemic in our community. We are working closely with UW Medicine leadership to include our housestaff thoughtfully and strategically in our efforts to protect our community.
Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!
Byron D. Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean and Designated Institutional Official (DIO)
Graduate Medical Education, UW Medicine
by nybrady | Oct 27, 2020 | Announcements, News
Over the last year the GME Office has made a concerted effort to improve resources for our residents and fellows, in particular call rooms and parenting support. We know that the intersection between parenthood and training can be a pinch point for many of our residents and fellows and will continue our improvements around this and other issues.
Recent improvements have included:
We want to thank all of our GME staff who have worked on these initiatives especially Natalie Brady, Hadar Duman, Cindy Hamra, Dr. Jennifer Best and Hayley Fisher. Additionally we sincerely appreciate the hard work of our hospital partners including Dr. Tom Staiger (UWMC-Montlake), Dr. Vivek Jain (VAPS), Seth Hennessey (UWMC-Northwest), Kari Dietrich (SCH), Holly Smith (VAPS), Debbie Colpitts (VAPS), Evelyn Sinsel (HMC), Pam Renna (UWMC-Northwest), Amy Akers (UWMC-Northwest) and Chris Pendergrass (SCH).
The GME Office continues to work on improving support and resources available for all of our residents and fellows. We look forward to continuing to share our work with the community.
by nathangl | Oct 12, 2020 | Announcements, Events, News
It is my pleasure as acting meeting chair, to provide the October 2020 GMEC Update for our community.
People
- Congratulations to Dr. Debra Cherry on her $175K SHIP grant from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries for projects to improve reproductive health for Washington workers
- Congratulations to our newly approved Program Directors:
- Dr. Kathleen Kieran (Pediatric Urology – 1 year interim)
- Dr. Sarah Prager (Complex Family Planning)
Programs
- Complex Family Planning, previously a non-ACGME fellowship program, is applying for ACGME accreditation (see PD approval above).
Progress
- The GMEC Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Executive Task Force, chaired by Dr. Byron Joyner and Dr. Barbara Goff (Chair, Obstetrics and Gynecology) had its first meeting this past week. The Task Force voted to approve a long-standing GMEC-sponsored EDI Subcommittee. They will begin to write the charter for approval by the GMEC next month.
- GMEC approved a charter for a newly formed GMEC Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Subcommittee to better integrate, elevate and support accountability for efforts to enhance the CLER focus area: Patient Safety, Health Care Quality (including Disparities), Teaming and Supervision. Though outside of the current charter, Well-Being and Professionalism efforts, also included in the CLER program, are actively ongoing.
Partnerships
- Dr. John Scott presented an update on Telemedicine programs across UW Medicine.
Projects
- Please see the GME website for information on a slew of upcoming events including:
- “Family Planning and Fertility and Navigating Parental Leave for Resident Physicians” (10/7)
- Dr. Bill McDade, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for the ACGME will be a GMEC-sponsored virtual Visiting Professor (10/8, 3:00-5:00pm).
- The second NURF Diversity Recruitment Open House (10/12).
- Program Director Development Series – Fall Curriculum: Implicit Bias in Candidate Selection and Navigating Vulnerability and Shame in Medical Education) (10/19)
Jennifer Best, MD
Associate Dean, Accreditation and Education
Graduate Medical Education, UW Medicine
