In the Continuum...

Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education

After a very long and exhaustive search, Susan Culican, MD, PhD, was offered and accepted the Associate Dean position for Graduate Medical Education.  Dr. Culican is a pediatric ophthalmologist and will also be a Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences.

To quote the Dean from an announcement that went out last week, "Dr. Culican is a transformational leader who brings a wealth of experience as a clinician, educator, researcher and mentor. In her role as Associate Dean for GME, she will lead GME operations and strategy and serve as the ACGME Designated Institutional Official (DIO) for the Medical School." 

We are very excited to welcome Dr. Culican to OME when she joins us in June!

Step-Up Program

Step Up is a partnership with the City of Minneapolis, Achieve Minneapolis, Minnesota DEED and Project for Pride in Living. This program connects Minneapolis youth (typically from under served communities) with internships in over 200 organizations across the city of Minneapolis. Each summer, Step Up Achieve provides the University of Minnesota a unique opportunity to diversify its workforce and empower youth to create bright futures through professional skills training and on-the-job experience. The Med School's Step Up Committee (formed by SADI) believes that Step Up's mission aligns with the UMN Med School's diversity initiatives and improves the Med School's involvement and visibility within the community. Participation in this program is also an excellent professional development opportunity for UMN staff looking for opportunities to gain supervisory experience. Please visit https://z.umn.edu/medstepup for more information and resources (the site is a work in progress). The deadline to complete the initial intake form is March 15, and the deadline to submit a final copy of the position description to Step Up is March 30.

This program is fully supported by Dean Tolar and we are encouraged to participate again this year.  This program "provides an opportunity for us to actively contribute to the Med School's diversity initiatives to build relationships and strengthen community involvement."

Last year the Office of Medical Education participated in the Step-Up program by hiring an intern to work for us through the summer.  It was a very positive experience for us and for the intern.

If you have questions about the Step Up Internship, please contact a Med School Step Up Committee member: Alex Lunde: lunde341@umn.edu Stacy Maher: mahe0056@umn.edu Nancy Brask: nbrask@umn.edu

In Our Programs....

Admissions

Congratulations to the Admissions team who wrapped up Medical School interviews in mid February.  They conducted 697 Mini Medical Interviews (MMI's) and have 204 candidates holding on acceptance.  They will have until April 30th to decide where they will matriculate for medical school.

Revisit Day is upon us again! For those who are new to our community, Revisit Day is a "last look", or pre-orientation event for accepted students. All of our guests have an acceptance offer from us, but they may not have officially accepted our offer yet. So, it's vital to show off how we come together as a community at Revisit Day.

If you are available to volunteer on Revisit Day, please complete the  sign-up sheet  as soon as possible for volunteer positions with locations and times.  A reminder will be sent to volunteers in March with additional details on volunteer duties.   If you would like to volunteer to eat with and welcome/chat with the accepted student guests at breakfast or lunch, please RSVP here. 

There will be a Hippocrates Cafe performance during lunch this year. James Cooper will be sending a separate invitation to Hippocrates Cafe to the UMN Medical School community. However, if you RSVP to lunch using the link I provided, you don't need to RSVP again. 

Whether you volunteer for a job, or attend as a guest, we look forward to seeing you at the event! Please contact Diane Hennan if you have any questions.

UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION

An updated UME organizational chart was presented at the January UME All-staff meeting showing a few of the recent changes/additions to the UME team.  One notable change is the Office of the Registrar - the reporting structure has been moved to the OME level to grow capacity, serving learners across the continuum.

Assessment & Evaluation

Our Assistant Dean for Assessment & Evaluation, Claudio Violato, PhD, had a new textbook published, "Assessing Competence in Medicine and Other Health Professions” by Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, New York.  

"This is a comprehensive textbook on how to assess competence in medicine, medical education and healthcare professions (nursing, dentistry, paramedics, etc.).  As well as an authoritative text on testing, assessment and evaluation, it is a very useful “how to” book."  Congratulations Claudio!  We are so fortunate to have you here at the University of Minnesota Medical School!

Curriculum

The following information regarding the next Becoming a Doctor clerkship was sent by Andrew Olson, Course Director, and Johannah Scheuer, Assistant Course Director,  to medical students and faculty:

"We are preparing for our third year of offering our Becoming a Doctor clerkship. This integrated, longitudinal, on-campus required educational activity (students attend 4 separate weeks during years 3 and 4) is focused on empowering students to transition successfully and resiliently into the role of physician in residency and beyond. Through plenary, seminar, and workshop sessions, students develop knowledge and skills in reflective practice and advanced clinical skills, and also participate in activities that foster professional identity formation. After much success delivering learner-driven curriculum during the courses earlier this month, we are pleased to again offer the opportunity for multiple sessions to be designed by students with faculty supervision. Please see our RFP announcement flyer for further details, and contact Dr. Scheurer (krueg080@umn.edu) with questions and/or ideas. We hope you consider applying. Google form applications  must be submitted by March 15 (has been extended)." 

Student Affairs 

Mark your calendars for: 

Match Day - March 15th. Activities will take place at McNamara Alumni Center and match envelopes will be opened starting at 11AM. 

Hippocrates Cafe - Friday, March 29 (noon). The Well-being Committee will again be partnering with the Admissions Office to host another Hippocrates Cafe event with Dr. Jon Hallberg. This year's theme is yet to be determined, however, it will be presented as part of the Return Day events for admitted students. Join for the reflection and help welcome our prospective class of 2023 students.  

Confidential Bridging Counseling (CBC) services - as part of the recent (and ongoing) efforts by OME to address student mental health, the Office of Student Affairs began offering formal 'bridging' counseling services to students in December. Because of long (but common) delays in beginning counseling services, CBC offers students the opportunity to receive support during this waiting period, thus, 'bridging' support to ongoing services. Support provided by Deans Tolar and Rosenberg in helping us create a post-doctoral psychology fellowship allowed Student Affairs to provide this service. 

Recently, Kaz Nelson shared an article from MN Daily with CEC and SFC committee members highlighting the collective efforts to improve the curriculum to support the mental health of the students during medical school. Wonderful article! 

Office of Compliance and Continuing Quality Improvements

"Joe, Ali, and I want to express our heartfelt gratitude for all the work that everyone has done to date to help in our preparation for the LCME site visit in April 2020. We recognize how much work it has been, especially since that work is coming outside your regular duties. At the same time, we ask you to continue to be responsive in a timely fashion to the ongoing needs so that we may together present the true and best picture possible to the LCME."  - Bob Englander

RPAP/MetroPAP

The longitudinal integrated clerkship programs accepted a total of 73 students for the 2019-20 year. 

RPAP: 38

MetroPAP: 9

HeLIX: 6

REACH: 6

VALUE: 10

EPAC: 4

The RPAP/MetroPAP team is re-organizing.  

Pat Schommer, who served as the administrative director for RPAP-MetroPAP for the past 3.5 years has taken a position with the University of Minnesota college of education.  We are grateful for her contribution to our programs, and congratulate her as she takes the next step in her career. The search process was recently launched for an administrative director of RPAP-MetroPAP.

I [Kirby Clark] want to applaud Brinsley Davis and Patty Bailey for their agility in managing our programs during this time of transition.  Brinsley Davis will function in a dyad relationship with the new administrative director, and her expanded role will capitalize on her capacity to help develop our educational program and student experiences.   Patty Bailey will further support travel schedule coordination and faculty scheduling.

Please route RPAP-MetroPAP inquires to the following people:

Brinsley Davis: student assignment/scheduling needs, student examinations, program letters of agreement, student credentialing, or training site issues

Patty Bailey: faculty or student travel, travel reimbursement, program communication, Rural Observation Experience (ROE) inquiries

Kate Krasaway will continue to be the point person to coordinate Duluth faculty

Not sure where to send your question?  Use the rpapumn@umn.edu email address and we will find the right person. 

Graduate Medical Education

Catch up on all GME news in the February issue of the GME Connection.

Continuing Professional Development

Coming soon....

Best Practices in Health Sciences Education conference! The planning committee consists of several talented OME staff members (Mark Rosenberg, Austin Stair Calhoun, Andrew Olson, Laura Almeroth, Theresa Hudachek) who re-vamped the interdisciplinary conference into a two-day structure that will have a broader reach across disciplines. 

This conference will focus on sharing strategies for gathering high-quality educational data, interpreting data, using data to drive improvement, and linking education to clinical and population outcomes in order for educators to improve their educational programs and measure their effectiveness. Sessions will be highly interactive and emphasize implementable strategies.

Wednesday, May 1 – 1:00pm-4:00pm

Optional Pre-Conference Workshop: Assessment in the Clinical Environment

Thursday, May 2 – 8:00am-4:30pm

9:00 Keynote speaker: Marc Triola, MD NYU Langon Health Associate Dean for Education Informatics

10:45 Faculty Development Workshops

12:15 Lunch & Poster Session

1:45 Showcase: Educators highlight how data is used to improve educational programs and measure effectiveness.

Registration

Registration is free and required. Please register at z.umn.edu/BPHS

We've had five new students (see introductions below)  join our student work force this year in a brand new structure.  We now have six students in our newly formed "Student Pool". Two interns, Claire and Faith, are designated to work on projects requested by staff throughout OME, but are also being trained to do work for Assessment & Evaluation and Course Management that in the past has been done only by students hired into these programs.  Two interns, Jayson and Bianca, are designated to work with the Course Management team, but also have opportunities to work on projects within OME during "down time" in course management.  Two interns, Will and Natalie, are designated to work with the Assessment & Evaluation team, but will have opportunities to work on projects within OME during slower times in Assessment & Evaluation.   All interns will eventually be cross trained in all areas so that we will have more coverage throughout the continuum.  To request an intern to work on projects, events, etc., please complete a work request form:  z.umn.edu/intern_workrequest.  These interns are highly skilled and learn very fast.

For those that were not able to attend their welcome earlier this month, they have a new office space down past the Dean's corridor in C652.  They have computers, printers, and scanners that will enable them to work on a variety of projects.

This month we continue our Spotlight on the Admissions program, looking at the Interview Program Coordinator position filled by Serena Jones-White.

The Office of Admissions is responsible for the recruitment and retention of students toward the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree. In Serena's role, she is responsible for advising prospective students of the qualities and attributes the University of Minnesota considers important. She is also responsible for the coordination of the interview day program and work with our Admissions team, faculty, administration, staff, and students to create a program showcasing all of the opportunities available to our students and our community. 

Serena reports to and works closely with the Director of Admissions to plan, organize, manage and run the 35+ interview days they host each year as part of the Admission selection process. The interview day cycle starts in early September and ends in late February. Planning for the interview day cycle begins again in the spring, with the heaviest prep work beginning in August. 

She works closely with the Admissions team (Assoc. Dean, Dimple Patel, Director, Matt Belinski, Diane Hennan, Jeff Pilacinski, and Taisha Mikell).  In addition, she works with Student Affairs staff, Admissions Committee members and Interview Day volunteers and perspective students.

When not working in Admissions, Serena and her husband are kept (very) busy with their 3 children, a freshman in High School, a 6th grader and kindergartner at a Minneapolis Chinese Immersion School and their [beautiful] 1 year old Great Pyrenees rescue pup. 

• "Maryanne Reilly-Spong has been such a wonderful addition to the OME team - personally and professionally. She has made the challenging transition to medical education seem so effortless and has shown her considerable talents in helping to launch several initiatives in the Office of Learner Development. Most notably, she has worked tirelessly to help jumpstart the Confidential Bridging Counseling (CBC) services now offered to students. CBC has been warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by students across all years of UME and Maryanne is embracing this opportunity. Thank you, thank you!"  [Scott S.]

• "As the New Year begins, I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone in the Office of Medical Education for the truly extraordinary work you all do on behalf of our medical students. I am so privileged to work with this extraordinary team. Here's to a spectacular 2019." [Bob]

• "Shout outs to Jon Froehlich, Janell Lopez, Jennifer Neufeld, Brigette Gay, Jess Blum, Kelaine Haas, Pat Schommer, Cynthia Johnson, Madison Stangl, Carol Kampa, Abbe Holmgren and Kristin Basballe for graciously volunteering your time to help during Becoming a Doctor! Please hit me up for a coffee - I owe you all!!" [Andrea Medina]

• "Thank you also to Ali Niesen, Joe Oppedisano, Rachel Rudeen, Scott Davenport, Michael Kim, Abbe Holmgren and Brigette Gay for collaborating with the BaDr team to offer our 3rd- and 4th-year students additional activities during BaDr week. We look forward to continued collaboration in the future!" [Andrea Medina]

• "Another big thanks to Eric Martin-LaPlante, Jackie Gauer, and Claudio Violato for your expertise and dedication to our course evaluation." [Andrea Medina]

• "A special thank-you to Alison Vail! Whether they were planned or last-minute purchases (all justified, of course!), Alison made it possible for me to purchase the supplies needed for Becoming a Doctor in January. Thank you for your understanding and always-positive attitude!" [Andrea Medina] 

• "Many thanks to Abbe Holmgren and Brigette Gay for being a superstar team and working with me day-in and day-out to prepare an accurate BaDr roster for our students. Even though scheduling changes were nonstop, the process we developed was efficient and effective. Thank you for your collaboration, constant attention to detail, and extreme patience :)" [Andrea Medina]

• "A HUGE KUDOS to Andrea Medina for her amazing work on the January Becoming a Doctor. I heard from so many students how well organized the week was and how meaningful and helpful the sessions were. You inspire me!" [Rachel Rudeen]

• "KUDOS to  Michael Kim, Scott Davenport, Addy Irvine, Maija Braaten, Maryanne Reilly-Spong, and Ali Niesen for rallying around me to make the Student Affairs day during BaDr a wonderful team effort! I'm grateful to have amazing colleagues to call upon when it's event crunch time." [Rachel Rudeen]

• "KUDOS to the Admissions Team for executing an average of 2 interview days per week consistently since September - and you still have more to go!" [Rachel Rudeen] 

• "To Andrea Medina, Dr. Johannah Scheurer, Dr. Andrew Olson, and all that helped make this intersession's Becoming a Doctor course a huge success: I appreciate all the work leading up to and during this valuable experience for our students. THANK YOU!" [Jess Blum]

• "Kudos to Marainne Watters for getting us through the growing pains of expanding teams and shrinking space ; )" [Cynthia Johnson]

• "I'd like to send kudos to Janell for scheduling ALL THOSE LCME MEETINGS; executive committee, subcommittee upon subcommittee, doodle poll upon doodle poll upon doodle poll. As her officemate, I have a unique window into the effort that went into this endeavor!" [Cynthia Johnson]

• "Kudos to Andrea Medina for another successful Becoming a Doctor course! It seemed as if Intersession came and went without a hitch, thanks to her careful planning and crack execution." [Cynthia Johnson]

• "... hats off to Maryanne Reilly-Spong for providing loving and kind support to so many students (and kudos for getting everyone through the drama of Med School PROM with very little fallout for the rest of us to deal with)!" [Cynthia Johnson]

• Kudos to..."Jackie Gauer for assuming additional responsibility on the A&E team to help through the restructuring during a busy work time for her - all while also buying a house and planning a wedding. As Claudio says, she is amazing. I especially appreciate the support she is giving me as I transition into a new role on the team - thank you, Jackie!" [Cynthia Johnson]

• "Thank you Rachel Rudeen for the amazing work you have done organizing the latest Student Affairs events (Welcome Backs for year 1 and 2 students, Intersession for years 3 and 4 students) plus all the additional work you [did] to fill the gap until we replaced Z. Your organizational and communication skills keep our students prepared and informed. Thank you Rachel!!" [Scott Davenport]

• "To the GME Team: Thank you for welcoming me to Minnesota and being such a wonderful team to work with. I will miss all you! Best of luck with the exciting changes coming your way this year." [Gretchen Jackson]

• "A HUGE thank you to Matt, Jeff, Taisha, Diane and Serena for all of the extra effort they have put in while I have been on maternity leave.  I am grateful for your leadership and support!" [Dimple Patel]

Special Acknowledgement from OFA Team:

"Our student assistant, Maggie Eckerstorfer, was recently named as a 2019 Finalist for the Truman Scholarship. She will interview in March alongside other finalists from the Midwest chosen from 838 applications. 

The scholarship seeks to fund graduate education for students who possess the leadership skills, intellect and passion that will make them “change agents” for the public good in any field. If chosen as a Truman Scholar she will be provided a network of dedicated professionals and peers and the opportunity to participate in professional development programming. In the future she hopes to pursue a dual MD and MPH program in order to uplift underserved communities through the integration of social and health policies and medical care.

OFA is excited for Maggie, and we're so happy she's a member of our Medical School team!"