Advocacy in Academic Medicine

Today’s blog covers advocacy from a variety of angles, and reflects my thoughts over what I learned from the #AAMC13 meeting over the last 24 hours.

Advocacy within Social Media

The University of Utah is taking a huge presence at this meeting with its Innovations theme.  At a booth set up in the exhibit hall, they were interviewing folks coming through to provide brief reflections.  I was able to spend a few moments reflecting on what the impact that social media can have on medicine and medical education.  What a timely opportunity to focus on what so many great folks have done parlaying the importance of vaccines for communities, as well as providing truthful, succinct messages to society.  See the audio interview here.

Advocacy within Education

Daphne Koller, who started Coursera, spoke to the participants on the power of what MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) can do, not just for the schools or professors who host them, but for society as well.  I was moved by the stories from student learners from sub-saharan Africa and others who became more educated from their use of Coursera.  The potential ramifications of the betterment of the entire planet: wow!

Advocacy within Continuing Education

I attended a workshop on CME in which Don Moore described a tool that integrates the IHI Model for Improvement with PI CME (Performance Improvement CME) to help clinicians better understand the pieces needed to make improvement science and lifelong learning relevant to their day-to-day practice.  Some in the community have questioned how Maintenance of Certification actually “helps” them provide better care for their patients.  This session helped clarify the potential benefits of the Maintenance of Certification program.  We also heard from Mary Turco and George Blike about a concept at Dartmouth called “Value Grand Rounds”, which itself showcases improvements in the health system, but also itself has the opportunity for members of a team to see the fruits of their labor, and also drives them to want to get better.

Advocacy for Research

At the Town Hall meeting, Dr. Darrell Kirch answered questions from the audience about a variety of topics.  One comment hit home: the public is “scientifically illiterate”.  A new initiative by the AAMC entitled “Research Means Hope” focuses on how the public can better understand why research funding is so desparately needed, because the end product of research should be improved patient livelihood. 

Advocacy for Graduate Medical Education

Also at the Town Hall meeting, a question was raised about the “rate limiting step” in producing new physicians in the United States—namely, the shortage of residency positions for graduates of medical schools, who themselves have increased enrollment by 25-30% over the past few years.  Atul Grover discussed bills in Congress that aim to address the “GME crisis”: HR 1180, HR 1201, and Senate 577.  We hope that these campaigns can be successful in providing the resources for the physicians of the future, hoping to achieve the ultimate goal of improved patient outcomes in our communities.

Advocacy for Me

I was honored to have met Dr. Lewis First as well, the editor of the journal Pediatrics, and a giant in the world of pediatrics.  His own career embodies the best of academic medicine, and the best of how physicians can make a difference.

A hearty thanks go out to the AAMC on a fantastic meeting, with so many opportunities for reflection, for networking, and for the opportunity to improve the education of future physicians and leaders in health care.

Mentoring

Today was a very good day for education at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics.  Our institution hosts an annual Pediatric Chief Resident Conference.  I was privileged to be a part of this, giving a discussion on quality improvement.  The chief residents were engaging, had fascinating ideas, and demonstrated wonderful participation, in addition to harboring motivation to make change.  

We were proud to host Dr. Nancy Spector, known in the education world for her impressive work on mentoring within medical education.  She gave a phenomenal Grand Rounds presentation on the topic of “Mentee-Centered Mentoring”, and provided some wonderful pearls on the topic that participants could immediately take back to their home institutions.  She discussed different models for mentoring, including a riveting discussion of “Speed Mentoring” (akin to “speed dating”).  She provided us with 5 steps to successful facilitated mentoring, which I will summarize here:

Step 1: Determine an important project.

Step 2: Find the right leader to facilitate.

Step 3: Communicate effectively (planning regular communication), which may include getting work done during meetings.

Step 4: Manage projects skillfully.

Step 5: Assure benefits to participants.

Some of her final pearls for successful mentoring programs included the importance of cultivating mentoring relationships, consider having a portfolio of mentors, and also that mentees should drive the process.  Her talk provided the audience with a framework for how to create a successful mentoring program.  It provided us with outstanding reflection on how we can improve ourselves and each other!  I highly encourage you to follow our tweets from the Grand Rounds presentation, which can be found at #IUPedsGrRounds.

Medical Conferences: What Are Your Take Home Points?

I attended a local conference today sponsored by our Department of Pediatrics and Riley Hospital for Children.  Many of our residency graduates, especially those who live and work locally, return for this meeting.  It really is great to see our graduates and what they are up to.  I enjoy hearing about how they have transitioned to practice, and learning about their own successes and challenges.

This particular year, I was not a presenter, nor did I run any workshop.  I went to this conference strictly to learn.  It was simply wonderful to do so.  The day started off with a dynamic visiting speaker reflecting on the state of well child visits and potential innovations around how to be more effective with these, especially given the changes in medicine that are occurring and will continue to occur.

One might think that this topic is not all that interesting (which the speaker himself even acknowledged).  Plain and simple, I was inspired!  It brought me back to why I chose to go into medicine in the first place: to make a difference. Other extremely well-presented sessions reminded me of things I should be doing when encountering patients with specific conditions.  A lunchtime talk on mentoring solidified a successful day for me (and that was only halfway through the day!).  Other great “high-yield” topics in the afternoon piqued my interest as well.

When some people come back from conferences similar to this one, they realize that while the conference was wonderful, there is still a stack of paperwork that needs to be completed, that there is more work to be done, patients need to be seen, and emails must be answered.  I also have all of those things looming over me.  But I also gained a sense of purpose, connectedness, and excitement for the future of medicine from the conference.  In addition, I learned some new things, was reminded of things I should already know, and also heard about changes coming in the future.

What do you get out of going to conferences besides the acquisition of information?  What other “informal curriculum” things get you jazzed up, and how can conference organizers effectively capture that for other attendees?  I am curious if others see this similarly or differently.