Kudos to Pompeyo!!

Please see the current issue of Family Practice News, which recognizes Pompeyo’s research on COPD and his recent poster presentation at the annual meeting of the North American Primary Care Research Group!!

Dr. Khiran Shokar also tells me that his paper will be submitted for publication soon.

I am so proud of Pompeyo’s accomplishments! Please join me in congratulating him when you see him next!

Reminders

Hi Everyone... just a few reminders about upcoming meeting requirements:

December - R3s semi-annual meeting with PD, R1 meetings with Faculty Advisors

January - R1 Quarterly evaluation by FM faculty, R1s semi-annual meeting with PD, R2 meetings with Faculty Advisors

AOA APPROVED!!!

On November 2, 2006, the AOA Program & Trainee Review Council granted APPROVAL of the NEW Internship training program at the University of Texas Medical Branch - Galveston in Galveston, TX!!!

We are so excited to achieve this very important distinction!

Unfortunately, we did not receive our approval in time to register for the 2007 AOA Match, BUT, osteopathic students can still match with us through the NRMP for 2007.

Please contact us if you need additional information or have questions.
409.772.0641 or lrnash@utmb.edu.

it could only happen to Marisol...

Who would ever have the bad (?) luck for the restaurant where Journal Club is being hosted to ALSO have a group of professional clowns having a meeting at the same time?! I missed the Journal Club, but the stories sure were entertaining!

What a great group!

Here they are... the FM residents of 2006! This photo was taken two weeks ago, while everyone was here taking the In-Training Exam. Everyone studied really hard... some thought the exam was no problem, some thought it was hard. I hope everyone did well... I know they put in the effort and they deserve to do well. This is one outstanding group of residents and I'm really proud of them.

Thanksgiving Luncheon

Residency Staff - Jackie, Linda, Angie

Dr. Janice Smith & Chief Resident Dr. Williams

a few of the Family Medicine Faculty

Residents - Dr. Pettit, Dr. Schnaiderman

Residency Staff - Linda, Angie, Louis

A great meal and a good time was had by all! A big "thank you" to Dr. Thompson for providing the food and the time for us all to sit down together and celebrate.

Recruiting 2007 Update

As of today, all applicants with active, complete applications who have not received an interview invitation will be wait-listed for reconsideration in the event we have cancellations. We will try to get an email out to everyone in this category sometime this week.

We have a number of incomplete applications, which WILL still be considered once they are complete. We ARE still accepting applications.

If you are one of our 18 applicants with an open interview invitation but have not scheduled your interview, please do so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!! If you have decided not to interview in Galveston, please also let us know that so we may invite someone from our wait-list.

I hope the interview season is going well for everyone. We are extremely pleased with this year's applicant class. Those of you who've interviewed with us already, please let us know if any further questions have arisen since your interview.

Best wishes, LRN

Dickens on the Strand

There is LOTS of cool stuff to do in Galveston, but Dickens on the Strand is definitely one of my favorites! For tons more great photos, visit www.webshots.com and type "Dickens on Strand" in the search box. The photo above is Becky Hamilton (FMR Staff), Susan Berkley (PA for FMC) and me (Dr. Nash) all dressed up for Dickens last year.

Applicants interviewing on December 4th might want to think about coming in early to participate in the festivities. Visit www.galveston.com for additional hotel reservations.

STFM proposals accepted

The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine just announced all accepted presentations for the annual Spring STFM meeting to be held in Chicago, April 25-29, 2007.

Our program will be represented by the following:
Lisa R. Nash, DO, Mike Callaway, Becky Hamilton, Clarence Williams, MD - 45-min. lecture/discussion entitled "Observation-Based Evaluation Tools for Family Medicine Residencies"

Mike Callaway, Lisa R. Nash, DO - 45-min. lecture/discussion entitled "Combining the Scores You Have to Create the Scores You Need"

Lisa R. Nash, DO, Mike Callaway - 45-minute lecture/discussion entitled "Do you Know the Reliability of Ratings by Faculty in Your Program?"

Indu Kunchar, MD, Becky Hamilton, Lisa R. Nash, DO, Ron Williams - scholastic poster entitled "Cross Cultural Curriculum for Family Medicine Residents"

All of these presentations have been made possible through our residency training grant from HRSA. We are very excited and looking forward to reporting excellent work which represents the UTMB FMR!

Additionally, the Pre-Doctoral Program will be represented by Gurjeet Shokar, MD and Robert Bulik - 15 minute Peer-In-Progress presentation entitled "Teaching Doctor-Patient Communication Skills Through Web-Based Clinical Cases"

in the news

Drs. Thompson (Chairman, UTMB Dept. of Family Medicine) and Chavez (FMR Chief) were both recently in the news! Check out the story at this link.

In costume

Here is the Gold Team clinic staff having a good time yesterday! Susan brought a box of costumes, some people came in full costume and a good time was had by all. We have a great team!

10/27

What a week! I've been meaning to update this blog ALL WEEK and just now getting to it. It's been long work days every day this week, so I haven't quite caught up from being gone last week.

The end of last week I was in Santa Fe, attending the NIPDD... basically, the Program Directors fellowship. Learning how to be a more effective PD. It lasts through summer '07, and got off to a really good start. I'm looking forward to learning a lot and have already gotten some good tips we'll be implementing in our program. One of the projects we're required to do in the fellowship is a curriculum project, so if any of my current residents have suggestions for which area you'd like me to pick, please let me know! I'm thinking about an applied Practice Management project based on your own clinic numbers, Pedi Inpatient or the community service piece of Community Medicine. You may have other requests I haven't thought about though.

This has been a week of odd occurrences too... kind of unusual circumstances various residents have found themselves in. As you might expect, some had the potential for residents to get into some kind of trouble, with somebody! I've been really impressed with the professionalism demonstrated by you in your handling of the situations. Secondly, I am very much appreciative that you have filled me in. It is SO MUCH easier for me to be effective on your behalf when I already know your side of the story and someone else thinks I need to know about it or that I need to "do something". Good work! Keep it up!

And I'm not the only one noticing... I'd say in the past month, at least a half dozen different faculty have approached me for the purpose of commenting about what a great group of residents we have right now. You make me proud. :-)

Change of subject - for the applicants: based on a request from an applicant via the blog, we were able to send out an email through ERAS for applicants who will NOT be offered an interview. That went out last week. If your application was complete as of last week, and you did not receive a notification email, your application is still being considered.

We have in the ballpark of 65 interview slots. We've scheduled 35 interviews and extended an additional 15 invitations. Should we need to, we will add interview dates in early February. The season is going well, I continue to be excited about Match 2007.

Residents: quick reminders

November 3 & Nov. 6 - ITE exam. Check your schedule to see which date you're assigned. Good luck!! I'm hoping we're going to have a banner year.

November 15 - FM Dept Thanksgiving luncheon, PCP 2.268 from 11:45 to 1:00. See you there!

Season opener

Wow! It's that time, already! Interviews begin for us this week. This is such an exciting time of year for residents, faculty AND the new applicants! We're ready and looking forward to meeting our group of potential new residents. Wednesday 10/18 is day 1.

We didn't get through all of our new applications for last week quite yet... I was out of the office some and Louis was out of the office some, so if your application was completed last week and you haven't heard anything, that may be why. In reality, it will probably be another week before we catch up, because I have Residency business that will keep me out most of the coming week as well. We do still have interview spots available, so don't worry... more interview invitations are coming.

There was a question/comment to the last post that I thought I would answer here: Will we be sending rejection letters to those not invited? The answer is probably not. My initial thought was definitely not, because we have a small staff and I simply can't commit the resources in the midst of a very busy interview season. However, I need to talk to Louis about it before giving a final answer, because it may be possible to sort the applications and send a group email to let people know. It will not be possible to notify 250+ people why they individually were not invited. When we've completed our invitation process, I will post common characteristics of successful applications though.

Best wishes,
LRN

Weekly Recruiting Update

I am still so excited about our 2007 recruiting season! Applications continue to come in. As of yesterday, we have invited 36 applicants to interview and 23 of those have already reserved their interview dates. We anticipate that we will interview approximately 50 - 65 applicants this year, so we are well on our way to filling our calendar. This may be our first year to have to "wait-list" some applicants.

Last week I attended the Texas Medical Association Fall Summit. The TMA Council on Medical Education and the Subcommittee for Academic Physicians both met during the Summit. Workforce and medical education are at the top of the agenda for those groups, as you might expect, but also are becoming more and more of a state-wide (and national) concern. This bodes very well for Family Medicine, and especially Family Medicine residencies in Texas, I believe. There continues to be calls to expand residency training opportunities in Texas. As many of you will already know, Texas medical school seats were increased with this year's entering class. I encourage you to stop by www.coderedtexas.org and look at the reports on workforce and medical education.

The Subcommittee for Academic Physicians (I chair that group) is nearing completion of a Patient Safety Curriculum for medical students, residents and practicing physicians. It will be the first fully on-line, self-contained, free curriculum in Patient Safety. I'm quite proud of this work... we believe it is the first collaboration of all state academic medical centers and the state medical association to produce such a project. The curriculum will be housed on the TMA website. I will post the link when it is published.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Galveston - a great place to be

Everyone who lives here knows, but for those of you following from other parts of the country, Galveston is beautiful right now! The "cold fronts" that have started to push through have brought outstanding weather, with cooler temperatures ( 70 - 80's) and lower humidity. We're getting reasonable amounts of rain and the tropical foliage is gorgeous. This is the part of the year when I am particularly thankful to live on the island!

Particularly, some of you applicants from up north should weigh that in your decision process! Just check out the average daily temps for the year in Galveston! As if having a GREAT residency program wasn't enough, that ought to seal the deal for sure. :-)

Speaking of applicants and residency, we have reached the 3 week anniversary of ERAS opening for 2007. This means about 5 more weeks of heavy application activity. As of today, our program has received a total of 227 applications. Invitations for just shy of 1/2 our interview slots have been extended. If your application is not yet complete, I encourage you to get those missing documents in ASAP. If your application is complete and you've not heard from us, you can check the status of your application by contacting Mr. Louis Johnston. Email is preferred.

LRN

Kudos!

Congratulations and appreciation go out this week to Norberto, Liliana and Marisol for your great work in Urgent Care. Faculty took the time to email me and recognize your contributions. Keep up the good work!

Recruiting 2007

October interview dates are very popular this year. We have at least 1 applicant scheduled for each of our October dates and 10/23 has only one available remaining slot. Other interview months remain fairly open at this point.

I continue to screen applications daily as they become complete enough for initial review. Some interview invitations will continue to be issued as applications are reviewed. I anticipate we will issue a large group of invitations some time mid-October. I will continue to post updates at least weekly.

Recruiting 2007

We're off to a great start! Quality of applications continues to improve every year. It's shaping up to be a very competitive season based on applications I've reviewed thus far (14 days into the season).

This morning, I screened 171 applications. 15 outstanding applicants will have received invitations to interview by close of business today.

Applicants with substantially complete applications who do not receive an interview invitation by 5pm CST today can check with Louis Johnston regarding the status of your application. Possibilities include: 1) screened and placed on hold for possible future interview invitation, 2) incomplete and not yet screened or 3) screened to inactive status (does not meet our criteria).

There are a handful of applicants who applied despite not meeting our published criteria - most commonly the requirement to have graduated from medical school within the past 5 years. All of these applicants were placed on "inactive" status and do not need to contact Mr. Johnson to confirm. Decisions regarding applications currently on hold status will be forthcoming as we progress into the season.

Congratulations to our first group of 15 invited applicants, and I'm looking forward to meeting you!

Message from the President:

Dean of Medicine Resigns - Dr. Valerie M. Parisi to Remain a University Advisor

I am writing today to inform you that Dr. Valerie M. Parisi, dean of the School of Medicine and UTMB’s chief academic officer, has chosen to resign her administrative positions for personal reasons, effective immediately. I have asked Dr. Parisi to remain as an advisor to the university reporting directly to me, to ensure a smooth transition.

Although we are disappointed to lose a dean of Dr. Parisi’s stature, this is Dr. Parisi’s decision and I fully support it. I would like to personally acknowledge her service, and the contributions she has made to the university during the last two years. She is a talented and dedicated physician and we certainly wish her well.

Dr. Garland D. Anderson, longtime chair of obstetrics and gynecology, will continue to serve as interim dean of medicine, and Dr. Pamela G. Watson, dean of nursing, as interim chief academic officer.

These are challenging times for every health institution and our first responsibility is to ensure UTMB’s continued ability to serve the people of Texas and beyond. I have the utmost confidence in UTMB’s future and am personally committed to working closely with faculty, staff and students to move this great institution forward.


John D. Stobo, M.D.
UTMB President

ALSO 2006

The 2006 ALSO course was a rousing success! Five residency programs - UTMB, UT Houston, Baylor, San Jac and Methodist - were represented by their instructors and 60+ participants. It was the largest class we've had yet and we're so pleased that it all went so well. Every single registered participant passed the exams and achieved their certificate. The residents were so well-prepared that most worked their way through the mega-delivery in under 15 minutes, which was a treat for all.

I love doing this course and especially enjoy the opportunity to network with my colleagues in FM who do obstetrics in their practices.

The UTMB residents did exceptionally well and it was a real pleasure to see you represent us in such a good light. You knew your stuff, were professional and friendly and fun to work with. Many of the other residents were not as well prepared and were really anxious with the workshops and material. Once again, I'm proud of you all. Good work!

On another topic, the R2s are off to HealthFind this weekend. I know you'll have a great time there too. I hope many of you identify some good job prospects. Probably most of you know already... but HealthFind is how I found my private practice after residency. It's a really great program that we're lucky to have access to.

Again, good work everyone!

Residents - good job!

For the second quarter in a row, Family Medicine leads the University in highest number of Inpatient charts completed on time! Excellent work!!

I probably don't tell you all nearly often enough how much I appreciate your hard work. I really do. There are things about certain aspects of my job that I find personally "challenging" (<-- P.C. term there) from time to time, but being the Residency Director is not one of them! I would say that 98% of the time, I REALLY, REALLY love being the Residency Director and you guys are the reason why. Thanks for all you do.

UTMB dean temporarily steps down

The Daily News
Published August 16, 2006 GALVESTON — The dean of medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch has temporarily stepped down, the university announced Tuesday. Valerie Parisi will “focus her attention on personal and family matters between now and Oct. 1,” according to a news release.Parisi has been helping to implement a process that includes layoffs of about 1,000 employees. In July, Parisi’s husband and dog were attacked outside their home by three men. One of the men reportedly said, “Your wife doesn’t know who she’s (expletive) with.”Garland D. Anderson, chair of obstetrics and gynecology, has been named interim dean of the school of medicine. Pamela G. Watson, dean of nursing, has been appointed interim chief academic officer.

Related Message from the President, as posted on the UTMB website.

Odds & Ends

ALSO Course: R2s - if you haven't picked up your manual for the ALSO Course, please do so right away. Jackie has them. You need to read through the material BEFORE the course! Failure to do so most likely will result in your not passing the written exam. The ALSO course is required for our program, so if you do not pass it, you will be required to take it again at your own expense. Residency pays the first time.

Kudos to Donna S! We've been contacted twice in the last week with commendations about your work! Keep it up, we're proud of you!

Recruiting 2007: Hard to believe it's almost time for recruiting season to start. We'll be having our first Recruiting Team Meeting next Wednesday, 8/16, at noon in 2.268. All residents, please plan to join us if your schedule allows.

UTMB plans spark controversy in the media

UTMB pay proposal spurs flap on tenure from The Galveston Daily News, 8/5/06

Portfolio system

Yesterday we debuted our new portfolio system to the faculty, during the Quarterly Evaluation process. It was a resounding success, and the faculty are very excited about the convenience and ease of the new system. Advisor meetings for R3s this month will be documented in the portfolio. R3s - make sure you have turned on permission for your Advisor to access your portfolio!!

As the R2s review the Quarterly Evaluations, I look forward to your comments about the portfolio. Please route suggestions to me or Ron Williams.

Epic "Go-Live"

Email message from Dr. Raley 8/2/06:

Congratulations to all providers and staff for the successful completion of our first day of Epic Go-Live! I want to commend you on the speed and accuracy with which you have already learned to use the system and for your positive attitudes that continue to shine through. I would like to particulary thank those who worked in Urgent Care last night during the rush of patients arriving after 5pm this includes the Nurses, OSAs, the many residents who stayed to see patients as well as Debra Kimmey, PA, Dr. Carter and Dr. Smith. This is an excellent example of team work.


From LRN: As expected, the residents are handily showing up the faculty in the conversion! I'm really proud of how well you've all done and the great, positive attitude you've shown. Many of the faculty are struggling with the conversion and you are wonderful role models. Also, thanks for giving of your time to mentor us as we learn the new system! We REALLY appreciate it!

Dr. Stobo responds to GME/Navigant question 7/28

Question/Comment: Please clarify #18 on the Navigant recommendations, with reference to limiting total residents to those with outside funded resources.

Response: Recommendation 18 reads: “Limit the total number of residents to those with outside funding sources.”
The only significant external source of funding for graduate medical education (GME) costs is Medicare. However, Medicare has established “caps,” or limits on the number of residents it is willing to fund. For UTMB, the Medicare cap is 497 residents. In 2005, UTMB had 563 residents. We fall short of being fully reimbursed for what it costs us to train our residents. Adding to the direct cost of “extra” resident positions, the university must also support additional faculty to help train and supervise those residents, must treat a proscribed number of patient conditions to provide sufficient clinical experience (many of those patients are unfunded), and incurs additional administrative costs. Navigant estimated that our total unfunded costs associated with GME amounted to $26.4 million, a large amount for UTMB to absorb.
UTMB, through a committee specifically charged to explore this issue, is currently considering the consultant’s recommendation to reduce the number of residents to the Medicare cap, which is what one typically sees at other academic health institutions. The recommendation has not been accepted yet.
Downsizing the number of residents is a complicated and somewhat long-term process that would need to be undertaken carefully and strategically. It would need to be achieved over several years by reducing the number of new residents coming to UTMB rather than reducing the number of residents already here.

http://www.utmb.edu/president/FIP/FAQs.htm

LRN comment: looks like the difference is about 66 slots, which is quite a bit different than the 118 slots currently circulating the rumor mill. Let's hope the downsizing applied to GME is closer to the 66 cap/gap in the MCR funding.

FAQ - continuity OB

Every year, I'm always asked what exactly counts as a continuity OB delivery. This topic was addressed at the Program Directors' Conference in June. You are required to do 10 continuity deliveries AND 40 deliveries total. Your 10 continuity deliveries may be counted toward your 40, as may any deliveries you do for your OB buddy (I'd try to make sure I saw all my OB buddy's continuity patients at least twice for prenatal visits too) and all deliveries that happen on your rotations.

In order to be eligible to count the delivery as a continuity delivery, you MUST have:
1. seen the patient for two or more prenatal visits AND
2. either perform the SVD or assisted in the C/section (scrub in) AND
3. see the patient post-partum

Duty hour exceptions are allowed for continuity deliveries.

You may count up to 10 C/sections (that you at least scrubbed in for) toward your total requirement of 40 deliveries.

If an R1 or R2 is supervised by an R3 for the delivery, both may count the delivery toward their 40. If the continuity requirements are met for both residents, then both can also count them toward the continuity requirement of 10.

R2 Advisor meetings due

R2 meetings with your Faculty Advisor are due to be completed by the end of the month, in preparation for the Quarterly Faculty Review next week!! R2's, if you haven't met with your Advisor this month, please do it this week.

This will be our first month to use our new online portfolio for documenting the meetings!! You don't have to chase down that paper form any longer. But please make sure you have set the appropriate permissions for your Advisor in the portfolio prior to the meeting. Also please set them for me, as I will need to be able to display the pertinent sections for the Quarterly Review.

Heads-up to the R3's: your Advisor meetings are due in August, so please get those scheduled.

Thanks, everyone!

We had a great time at the party! I'm glad so many people were able to make it. If you missed it, you missed some of the best BBQ brisket in TX! My Dad really knows how to do it. Everyone ate well, we had lots of kids and a wonderful time. In addition to our new R1 class, I was really happy Lorena S., who will join our next class, and her husband were able to make it as well. Andy took advantage of his last FMR party opportunity too, as he will be graduating at the end of next block. David came as soon as he handed off the call pager to the night float resident. All in all, it seemed each class was well represented.

We missed Hanan and Saleh, who had a tragedy in their family this past week. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and let's all do what we can to help them in the coming days.

Most of us had our first opportunity to meet Dr. Weaver's newly-adopted son, from Perm, Russia. It's good to see our family growing, and he is a perfect addition. There were a few new children in the new R1 class too.

Linda is talking about having end-of-rotation 2 at her house, so I'll let her keep us posted about the plans for that. Dr. Thompson also wants to have a party soon at her house and end-of-rotation 3 might be a really nice time of year for that, with her house on the water and opportunities to fish off the deck.

Thanks for coming everyone. I enjoyed having you at my home and the opportunity to spend some casual and fun time with you all.

Strolling Through the Match

Last night was the FMIG's annual Strolling Through the Match. I think the turnout was smaller than last year, but there were lots of good questions. It's always an exciting time to help students get ready for the Match process. It's also a good opportunity to visit with some of my fellow Program Directors. The TX PDs are a pretty close group and we enjoy getting together.

I still can't believe it's almost that time already.

Let me review some of the "top tips"...

Load your documents to ERAS early.

Be sure your letters of recommendation are appropriate to the programs where you're applying. For example, if you're applying to both Pedi and FM, make sure you send the correct letters to the program. It's very bad form to send a FM PD a letter that says, "I'm so pleased to recommend X to you for your Pedi program..."!! It's also not very cool for the letters to be generic. They should indicate that the person writing it knows which specialty you're applying for. The letters should come from practicing physicians, not residents or fellows. Letters from community physicians are encouraged. Some programs prefer to see that you've waived your right to review the letters before they're uploaded.

Personal statement - draft it NOW, and then put it away for a few days. Get it back out and reread it. Have two or three other people read it and give suggestions. Run spell checker. Check your document after you upload it. Sometimes ERAS does weird formatting things and you'll want to correct those. If you had some stumble in medical school or took a leave of absence, the personal statement is the place to address that. Hopefully you will be able to say what you learned from that experience and put a positive spin on it. Don't lecture to us about what is Family Medicine... we already know. We do, however, like to hear any personal experiences you may have had that influenced you to choose FM.

Choosing programs - don't forget, if you will be moving with family that your family has to be happy there too. If they're not happy, you're not going to be either. The consensus among the PDs is that the most important thing is that you like the people you will be working with... that you get a good feeling from the faculty and residents you meet and feel comfortable in the environment. What you get out of residency is a whole lot about what YOU put into it and less so about details of the program. Remember, the accreditation process makes sure all the programs have the minimums. That said, if you have special interests... THAT is worth considering. Make sure the programs you're looking at can meet those needs.

Interview - be on time and be professional. Dress nice. Be on your best behavior. Turn off your cell phone or leave it in the car. Ask questions every time you get an opportunity, even if you've already asked the same question of someone else that day. At the very least, you'll get a different perspective. Most programs have residents involved in the interview process. Often, it is a more casual atmosphere such as a lunch or dinner. Remember that this too is part of the interview process. Being able to work in a team and get along with a group is a huge part of residency, and we'll be looking for clues about you during the group activities. Although more casual, they ARE a part of the interview process. Review your notes about the program the night before the interview. If you are knowledgeable about the basics, it shows real interest in the program and that's important to us.

Don't interview with your top pick first. Do a "practice interview" or two with programs you think are probably lower on your list.

Special needs - if you're couples matching or have a spouse who will need a certain kind of job, there will times it is appropriate to ask for that sort of information. Please do, because it's likely we can help you. We can set you up with a realtor, make sure you get to see the public school system, or whatever you need.

Most importantly, be yourself. Don't put on a show to be what you think the program wants. Obviously, you do want to put forward your best image, but don't try to be something you're not. Chances are, you're going to just know when the fit is right.

Talk to as many 1st and 2nd year residents currently in the program as you can. These are the people you will spend the most time with over the next 3 years of your life.

Good luck! We look forward to seeing you over the coming months.

Keeping up with Navigant

The FM Department budget has been completed, submitted and provisionally accepted. The campus-wide update is that about 70% of the budget cuts recommended by Navigant have been included in the FY07 budgets. Dr. Stobo plans to hold us to 100%. We are awaiting an update on where the remainder will come from... hopefully from the areas that have not yet achieved their Navigant budget target.

The plan regarding FMC support staff (nursing and administrative, OSA, etc.) has not yet been made public. I know that Lynda and Cheryl are currently working on it.

No further word on the recommended GME cuts... Hopefully, we will hear soon because we are beginning plans already for recruiting season. At this point, I remain hopeful that the impact to the FMR will be none or at least very small.

For those of you following from out of town, I'm including some links to articles in the Galveston Daily News.

July 13 July 10 July 8 July 6

kudos to Ron

Ron has been invited by the AAMC to come show them our portfolio. They are currently working on their own portfolio project, so kudos to Ron for being invited to this collaboration!

End of Rotation 1 Party

Don't forget the annual End-of-Rotation 1 Party. It will be at my home this year. My dad is doing his famous brisket and we'll have the usual accompanying food and beverages. Bring your families and a few lawn chairs. It will be held on the last Friday of rotation 1, from 5:30pm until 9:00pm. At that point, my parents and I turn into pumpkins, so if you want to continue partying you'll have to follow Louis to the next location! R1s can check with the upper level residents for the inside scoop on that.

Mark the party on your calendars! Watch your email for directions and more details.

*****

In other news, I'm happy to welcome Oscar to the group and say the new class is now all present! This was a record year for getting in-training permits, visas, and all other necessary paperwork done! A big thank you goes out to all the incoming residents and to the FMR staff for being prompt and efficient with all of that. No easy task. Good work!

*****

Check out the progress Darren Burns has made on our snazzy new electronic resident portfolio! Major portions are now activated and available through the FMR homepage. HUGE thank you to Darren and Ron Williams for your work on that! Residents - please look at your access permissions page and grant permission to your Advisor for the appropriate sections.

PD out of office 7/3 and 7/4

Dr. Shepherd and I will both be out of the office on Monday, July 3 and Tuesday, July 4. You may reach me on my cell phone in case of emergency. Dr. Nash

Navigant update

The immediate impact of the Navigant recommendations as they apply to the FM Department are expected to be limited to the loss of three faculty positions. The Urgent Care position has remained unfilled for the past year and those duties covered by current members of the faculty. That strategy will continue long term and the unfilled position officially closed. One faculty member is scheduled to retire the end of August and that faculty line will be closed. One additional faculty member has decided to make a change to another practice opportunity and when that occurs, that faculty line will be closed.

To the best of my knowledge, there will be no staff cuts in the administrative staff upstairs. It is anticipated that there will be a small reduction in downstairs/clinic staff but I do not yet have details regarding that.

Navigant recommendations included the convening of a Task Force consisting of UTMB people to further study the residency and fellowship programs and make further recommendations regarding those. I do not yet know who will be on that Task Force or what their timeline will be. My personal speculation is that we will know something near the end of the calendar year. The Dean has given her word that all current residents and fellows would have the opportunity to complete their training program according to the current expectations for progress and promotion.

From my perspective, the FMR will continue to move forward on our improvement projects, working toward a program of excellence as has been our goal for the past two years. We've made a lot of progress toward the excellence criteria and hope to realize the achievement of some longer term goals in this new academic year. I anticipate no dramatic impact to our program at this point from the Navigant recommendations.

The Chiefs are updated weekly and they are, as am I, willing and available to answer any questions you may have or respond to concerns related to the Navigant report.

To the new class of FM interns

Thoughts on being a Family Doc…

This is a hard year. You will learn more this year than at any other time in your professional life, with the possible exception of your first year in practice.

Remember that you are NOT a pediatrician, obstetrician, intensivist or surgeon! You will never know as much as they do about their fields. And you don’t need to. That’s not your job.

At the end of this year, your pediatric and internal medicine colleagues will not be competent to deliver a baby. You will. Your OB colleagues will not have a clue about what to do with a sick newborn or a young woman with chest pain. You will know. You will be able to manage a patient’s diabetes AND their hypertension AND their skin cancer. You will know which patient with a headache needs a CT scan and which one needs to learn about stress reduction. You will care for everyone in a family, from newborn to geriatric. You will understand how their history and family and community impact their health. None of your colleagues in other disciplines will be able to do all of that.

Try to remember some of this as you feel stressed and poorly prepared in your intern rotations. You are an intern and you are learning. Every one of us has been there. At the end of this year, you will be more prepared than the interns of any other field. It will seem like eternity and then suddenly the first year will be over. You will be amazed how much you’ve learned.

Welcome. We’re glad to have you here. It’s going to be an exciting and rewarding year.

Happy and sad times

Well, we did it. We had to let them graduate... but we sure will miss them! It was a great night of celebration of accomplishments and sad goodbyes. This class holds a special place in my heart because they were the first that I was primarily responsible for selecting and recruiting as a new Program Director. I'm very proud of them and all they've accomplished. What a talented group of young people!

The UTMB-FM Faculty of the Year for 2006 is Dr. Cecilia Romero. Dr. Romero has served UTMB, the Family Medicine Residency and Pre-Doc programs and so many other organizations in more ways than I can possibly name. The FMR will especially miss her contributions to our Community Medicine curriculum and as a valued and trusted resident mentor. Dr. Romero will retire in September and she too will be missed. See the video of Dr. Romero's award presentation.

Outgoing Chief Residents Clint Watson, M.D. and Huelen Smith, M.D. with Administrative Associate Louis Johnston announce award recipients.

Staff Appreciation Award recipient, Rosie Vincent

I won't list all the award recipients and graduates individually here because we will have a section of the website devoted to the details, so check the photo album in a few days. Thank you to the FMR Staff who did so much to make this a great night. Thank you to the residents of the Class of 2006, who have worked so hard and made us all so proud of them.

Congratulations, Residents of the Class of 2006!!

Congratulations, Angela

Three cheers for our own Angela Wells, member of the FMR staff! For those who don't know, Angela has a beautiful singing voice and recently competed for a chance to win some pretty fabulous prizes, including a recording contract. Learn more, see the video and help Angela win by voting at http://gospel2006.promolot.com/

We're cheering for you, Angela, and wishing the best!

Kudos to Clarence and Jerome

Linda recently received the six month summary report on medical records. I am pleased to recognize Clarence and Jerome for having NOT ONE delinquent medical record for the entire six months! Good work, guys!

UTMB Update

The story in today's Galveston County Daily News

Dr. Stobo's public statement as posted on the UTMB website

Specifics regarding how Family Medicine and the FM Residency program in particular will be affected are not yet available. Dr. Thompson expects to receive some of that information this morning and I will post an update when I know more.

A general meeting for the Program Directors is scheduled next Tuesday. My meeting with Drs. Blackwell and LeBlanc follows on Wednesday morning.

To the best of my knowledge, I do not expect any current residents to be directly affected. This includes our incoming class.

Program Directors' Workshop

Mike Callaway and I presented "Assessing Residents on the ACGME Competencies: The Issue of Reliability" at the 2006 Program Directors' Workshop, May 5th.

This project was funded by our current HRSA Residency Training Grant and begins to look at the issue of reliability of various measures of competency used in our program to assess residents.

The results were well received and should be useful to many Family Medicine programs. We anticipate submission for publication in the near future.

Thanks for the great work, Mike!

Dr. Kunchar's fellowship graduation

Dr. Indu Kunchar, member of the FM Residency faculty, recently completed a Faculty Development Fellowship. Click the link to see the video of the faculty roasting Dr. Kunchar at graduation! :-)

Match 2007

The NRMP has posted the Match 2007 timeline, if you want to review it.

We will be having our first Recruiting Team meeting mid to late July, exact date TBA.

I anticipate our process will be much the same as last year, with interviews scheduled on Monday and Wednesday mornings, from mid-October through early February.

Stay tuned for announcement of the Recruiting Team meeting date/time...

Update on PD

Although not exactly Residency news, I do want to update you on my personal situation as it does affect Residency. And besides, many of you have been interested...

On Monday, I received a referral of a 3y/o girl for adoption from Russia. I will be making two trips to Russia to complete the adoption. The first will be about 10 days and the second 3 weeks. I plan to take maternity leave upon return from trip 2. In total, my second absence will be about 6 weeks.

I AM returning to work and the PD position after my leave. I do not anticipate any significant disruption in Residency. Dr. Shepherd, Ron Williams, Linda Hubbell and the remainder of the Residency team are well prepared to lead the program during my absence. I don't yet have any specific travel plans as I am awaiting my travel invitation from Russia. This could happen at any time and I will most likely get 2 - 4 weeks notice.

If you'd like to see a photo of my angel, there is one on my office door. :-)

I will post updates on specific plans as they become available.

Sad News

It is with a sad heart that we let you know of the passing of Mrs. Jean B. Thompson. The mother of Dr. Barbara L. Thompson, Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine, Mrs. Thompson lived at the Edgewater Retirement Community here in Galveston. She has long been a strong supporter of UTMB and a valued member of the Galveston Community. We ask you to join us in expressing our deepest sympathies to her family and friends. Dr. Thompson and her family have requested that in lieu of flowers a donation be made to the Jean B. Thompson Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Family Medicine, c/o the Department of Family Medicine, UTMB, Galveston, TX 77555-1123.

Jury Duty

I will be out all of this week for jury duty. Dr. Shepherd will be in charge, assisted by the rest of the crew. Jackie has my cell phone number and can leave me messages for any urgent matters, but I'm limited to checking in for 15 minutes each morning and afternoon, plus the lunch hour. I hope to be back in the office on Monday.

We have ARRIVED...

Today as we were planning for the graduation of the Class of 2006, I was thinking about how far we've come in the past four years. Because it was about four years ago that we decided to make some major changes in the UTMB FM Residency. We tightened up our academic requirements. We made the decision that our ranked applicant pool will reflect the diversity of our population. We decided we would aggressively recruit residents who resonated with our mission to reach the underserved. We reviewed and revised our interview process and have continued to refine that process each year since.

As I look at you - the UTMB Family Medicine Residents - I'm really proud of you. I'm proud of what a good job you do every day, taking care of patients and taking your education seriously. I'm very proud of the Class of 2006. You started it all - you were the first group recruited for the new course we set. And now you're going into practice... mostly in rural or underserved areas of Texas. One of you will represent us in another state.

The residents in the classes below you have built on your successes and strengths and learned from your mistakes and experiences. You have left a legacy of unity and support. The faculty have high expectations of you and, more importantly, you have high expectations of yourself. High standards. I think the faculty have learned a lot about how to be helpful in times of struggle. And even the very best residents (and faculty) have their struggles from time to time. It's called being human.

Of course we will continue to improve and evolve. The Residency must and will continue those processes. But I think we all deserve to take a moment and celebrate what we've achieved so far!

We have become who we set out to be. Four years and counting is not a lucky break... it's a trend! Our new tradition. We've finally arrived and the Classes of 2006-2009 are the proof that we've recruited the group of residents we set our sights on four years ago. I am proud of the group as a whole and each and every one of you, from the graduating class to the new recruits. We have become who we set out to be. I like the sound of that.

39th STFM Annual Spring Conference

The FMRP was represented by 7 faculty, 1 resident, 1 medical student and 1 residency staff member as presenters at the 39th STFM Annual Spring Conference April 26 - 30 in San Francisco, for 2 breakfast round-table discussions, 1 podium presentation and 3 poster presentations.

Presentation topics included cultural competency, rural training, spirituality and the ACGME Outcomes project. Faculty members also participated in a variety of special groups and topic discussions. Presentation details follow:

Breakfast discussions:
"Low-cost or no-cost standardized patient based activities for residency programs" - Michael Callaway, Lisa Nash, K. Szauter

"Border health education for medical students" - A. Padilla, Cecilia Romero, K. Flores

Posters:
"Family physicians' beliefs, attitudes and practices regarding the integration of patient spirituality into medical care" - Michael Olson, Victor Sierpina, et. al.

"Assessing the ACGME competencies: the reliability of faculty ratings of residents" - Michael Callaway, Lisa Nash, Becky Hamilton.

"Family medicine residents' perceptions of a rural training track experience" - Lisa Nash, Michael Olson, Juanita Caskey.

Podium Presentation:

"Creating & maintaining a Hispanic/Spanish speaking focus team in an FPC" - Cecilia Romero, Susan Berkley, Pompeyo Chavez and Kristen Solana-Walkinshaw.

Dr. Gary Shokar and Robert Bulik were recognized at the conference too, receiving a national award for their work in the web-based training component of the FM clerkship for medical students. They acknowledged Darren Burns for his technical support and expertise too.

Good job and thanks to all who put in so much work to turn out a good showing for our program! See the residency website photo album too!

A new era, for sure...

Having recently become introduced to the world of blogs (I know, I'm old... give me a break!), I thought we should try having one for the residency. Maybe more of the residents will read this than my emails?! We'll see... the first resident to post a comment indicating that they've read this wins a prize. Leave your comment and I'll notify you where to pick it up. :-)

We're (the UTMB FM Residency program) pretty technology savvy, so this is a logical addition. We're fast approaching the go-live transition from the EMR FM pioneered more than 10 years ago to the new one selected for the entire enterprise. The library resources - database access for research and on line point-of-care technology - available to us are extensive. We all use technology in our patient care activities on a daily basis - real-time schedule access, lab and xray results, PDA based resources as well as internet resources such as Up To Date and the www universe of practice guidelines and patient education materials have totally changed the practice of medicine since my graduation from residency. It's hard to believe I had NONE of those tools when I began my practice. It's an exciting time to be a doctor.

So, here you have it... the just unveiled PD's blog. I'll post news of interest here from time to time. I look forward to your comments and seeing how this works out.