welcome to the family!

Gerardo and his wife have a new baby boy in their family! 9#!! Congratulations to their family.

other resident research

Gerardo, Pompeyo and Clarence -- I know you all recently presented at the STFM Annual Conference... I need photos and info to post on the blog!

congrats to Dr. Garcia Gallegos

Gerardo recently presented his poster "Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion in An Elderly Patient - A Case Report" at the American Geriatric Society annual meeting.

Good work, Gerardo!

Podcast delivery of residency education

One of my colleagues and friends, Dr. Ron Cook, PD at Texas Tech UHSC Family Medicine Residency, recently filled me in on an exciting project of theirs... they are developing podcasts to cover some of their didactic curriculum.

The residents seem to really like the format, and they have been able to demonstrate improvements in some quality indicators in their Family Medicine Clinic, which they attribute to the podcast material.

I encourage everyone who is interested to try them out. Instructions follow:

1. Download iTunes from www.apple.com and install it on your computer.
2. Find the MedCast by searching the Music Store with search term Texas Tech MedCast.
3. SUBSCRIBE to the Texas Tech MedCast and GET previous episodes.
4. Load episodes onto an MP3 player or listen on a computer with speakers.
5. You can also listen to episodes and read episode fact sheets at Texas Tech MedCast.

If you try them, let me know what you think!

didactics curriculum and other stuff

Jaime (Resident Didactic Curriculum Coordinator, R2) has been hard at work seeking out input from the other residents and support from faculty to put together the didactic curriculum for AY07-08. The list looks fairly comprehensive to cover a broad range of common FM topics. I'd like to thank Jaime for his hard work... the didactic curriculum seems to be always a "work in progress" but it looks like this upcoming year should see another great leap forward.

We're looking forward to significantly enhancing our Board Prep activities this year, with Dr. Houser's input and leadership.

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We are half-way through our spring Sports Physicals activity, with the two major high school sessions behind us. Today we will be at Boliver and Central Middle School. It's gone well and everyone has had a good time, with good learning opportunities and a fun atmosphere, being out in the community. Thanks to Dr. Cass and our colleagues at the GISD Athletic Department for your organization and leadership.

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I'm very pleased to welcome Dr. Jamal Islam, who is transferring from the Research Division in our department to the Residency Program. Dr. Islam has been very involved with residency education even during his time in the Research division, and it's wonderful that we will now have more of his time. Dr. Islam leads the Journal Club and co-leads the CQI curriculum with Dr. Kunchar every year. He has presented numerous lectures to the residents and mentored resident research efforts. He will lead the Resident Research effort as part of his duties with the transfer to Residency.

new curriculum

In response to campus and rotation changes, RRC revisions and input from our current residents, the following block curriculum revision has been submitted to the RRC-FM and will be in place for our incoming class this year:

Post-Graduate Year 1
Essential Skills in Family Medicine
Family Medicine Hospital Service 1
Family Medicine Hospital Service 2
Family Medicine Hospital Service 3
MICU
Surgery 1
Obstetrics 1
Obstetrics 2
Adult Emergency Medicine
Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Newborn Nursery
Ambulatory Pediatrics 1
Principles of Family Medicine

Post-graduate Year 2
Community Medicine 1
Community Medicine 2
Pediatric Inpatient
Gyn/Colpo
Collaborative Health Care
FM Procedures
Orthopedics 1
Family Medicine Hospital Service 4
Family Medicine Hospital Service 5
Family Medicine Hospital Service 6
CCU
Elective 1
Elective 2

Post-Graduate Year 3
Surgical Sub-specialties
Neurology
Ortho 2 / Sports Medicine
Ambulatory Family Medicine
Surgery 2
Ambulatory Pediatrics 2
Family Medicine Hospital Service 7
Family Medicine Hospital Service 8
Adult Medicine Sub-specialty
Elective 3
Elective 4
Elective 5
Elective 6

Areas of Concentration

Residents: Areas of Concentration will be offered in the 2007-08 academic year. Residents may choose to complete ONE formal area of concentration. Guidelines are below. The AOC draft document for Advanced Obstetrics is available for individual customization and was distributed by email. You may email me for additional copies. Additionally, you may use that document as a template for designing AOCs in other curricular areas. Options may include (but are not limited to): Integrative Medicine, International Health, Academic Family Medicine/Research, Sports Medicine, Geriatrics, etc.

Please contact me if you would like to discuss or have any further questions. I hope that some of you will choose to complete AOCs this upcoming year.

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The Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors recommend individual Areas of Concentration (AOC) to provide a common framework around which residents, program directors, and faculty may design additional, optional training for an individual resident that is above and beyond the core training in family medicine.

Guidelines for Individual Areas of Concentration

A. Written program of study including competency-based goals and objectives. Evaluation measures should be included.
B. Faculty mentor is to be identified and the resident will review their progress periodically with their faculty mentor.
C. Suggested time frame is 4 to 8 months duration. Focused blocks of time (4 week block electives) and/or longitudinal components are possible formats. Specific time frames will vary based on goals and objectives as chosen by the resident.
D. Scholarly Project – must be presented at least locally, although presentation at the state or national level is encouraged. (Resident is responsible for funding travel and other related expenses. Use of discretionary funds is allowed.)
E. Resident will attend a CME meeting in the AOC. (Resident is responsible for funding travel and other related expenses. Use of discretionary funds is allowed.)
F. Resident will present a critical appraisal of a current journal article in their AOC.
G. Quality outcomes should be demonstrated and documented in the AOC with case logs, patient outcome data and faculty reviews of resident competency, as appropriate to the AOC goals and objectives.
H. A letter summarizing the training completed will be written by the Program Director for placement in the resident’s portfolio and attached to the final residency completion letter.