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.