Attention R1s!

R1s who are interested in the Rural Training Track and/or Ball High Prenatal Clinic for next academic year need to submit:

Rural Training Track - updated/current CV, copy of your ITE scores, and letter or email outlining the reason(s) for your interest in the program. We will be scheduling interviews with the RTT faculty in the very near future. As a reminder, the RTT faculty choose the residents who will participate in the RTT. Current R2s will automatically be enrolled for PGY3 unless I hear differently from you... Jaime and Rene. Submit documents to the Program Director.

Ball High Prenatal Clinic - email or letter (to me) outlining the reason(s) for your interest in participating. Generally speaking, this opportunity is appropriate for residents who have a higher than average interest in including maternity care as part of their future practice.

Deadline is Friday, March 14 at 5pm.

A new addition to the family!

Congratulations to Dr. Liliana Andrade and family on their new addition:

Andres Eduardo was born on 02/26/08 at 12:46 pm. He weighted 6 lb and 2 Oz. and his length was 18 1/2 inches.

Evaluations

R3 Evaluation Meeting was held today. R3s, please check the portfolio for a summary within the next few days.

Will There Be Enough Family Doctors?

Please watch this short video produced by TAFP. It features (among others) Dr. Falcon, who is one of our preceptors in Rio Grande City, Dr. Clare Hawkins who is the FMR PD in Baytown and Dr. Sam Adkins who is the FMR PD in Austin. Residency funding is addressed.

BTW, UTMB residents - on 2/12 the GMEC voted near unanimously (1 nay) to recommend a pay raise for next fiscal year. This recommendation goes to Finance. When further action is taken, I'll post an update.

Some new DSHS requirements/resources

Umbilical Cord Blood Banking and Donation Brochure

During the 2007 regular legislative session, legislators passed HB 709 which requires that a physician or other person permitted by law to attend a pregnant woman during gestation or at delivery of an infant shall provide the woman with the brochure before the third trimester of the woman’s pregnancy or as soon as reasonably feasible.

More info is available on the DSHS website, including downloadable brochures.

Information for Parents of Newborn Children
This law, effective September 1, 2005, requires physicians, certified nurse midwives, direct entry midwives, hospitals and birthing centers that provide prenatal care to a pregnant woman during gestation or at delivery to provide the woman with information on immunization, newborn screening, postpartum depression and shaken baby syndrome.These brochures can now be either downloaded from the Parents of Newborn Children webpage in English or Spanish or ordered from The DSHS Warehouse . The stock numbers are: #1-316, English and #1-316a, Spanish.

Important Organization Links

American Academy of Family Physicians
American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians

American Board of Family Medicine
American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians

Texas Medical Association
Texas Osteopathic Medical Association
Texas Academy of Family Physicians

Society of Teachers of Family Medicine
Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

AOA on YouTube
AOA on MySpace

Single dose of honey effective for cough in kids

I take care of a lot of kids. With the recent withdrawal of so many children's cough/cold meds, I was happy to see this "old fashioned" remedy determined useful. And it's cheap.

From InfoPOEMS...

Clinical Question:
Is honey effective for cough suppression in children?

Bottom Line:
A single dose of honey is effective at decreasing cough severity and sleep disruption in children with cough due to uncomplicated upper respiratory infections. Please remember that honey should never be given to infants because of the risk of botulism. (LOE = 2b)

Reference:
Paul IM, Beiler J, McMonagle A, Shaffer ML, Duda L, Berlin CM Jr. Effect of honey, dextromethorphan, and no treatment on nocturnal cough and sleep quality for coughing children and their parents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2007;161(12):1140-1146.

Study Design:
Randomized controlled trial (double-blinded)
Funding:
Industry
Setting:
Outpatient (any)
Allocation:
Uncertain

Synopsis:
Children aged 2 years to 18 years with cough attributed to upper respiratory infections of less than 7 days' duration were randomly assigned to receive honey (n = 35), specially compounded honey-flavored/honey-scented dextromethorphan (n = 33), or no treatment (n = 37). The honey and dextromethorphan were administered 30 minutes before bedtime. The honey was dosed by age: children aged 2 years to 5 years received 8.5 mg (1/2 teaspoon), 6- to 11-year-olds received 17 mg (1 teaspoon), and 12- to 18-year-olds received 34 mg (2 teaspoons). Only children whose coughs were moderately disruptive were eligible to participate. The researchers used multiple exclusions to limit this to viral respiratory infections. The authors main justification for using a no treatment arm instead of a placebo group was that in a previous study they found dextromethorphan to be equivalent to placebo. Although the no treatment group obviously knew what they were getting, the other 2 groups were unaware of their treatment. The parents of the children provided ratings of cough severity, effect on sleep, and so forth at baseline and the next day. Only 81% of the children enrolled completed the study. Every treatment group improved by the second night, even those receiving no treatment. Children in the 2 treatment groups had slightly greater reductions in cough frequency than untreated children. Children receiving honey had slightly greater improvements in cough severity and in sleep disruption. Five parents reported hyperactivity, nervousness, and insomnia in children treated with honey compared with 2 parents of those treated with dextromethorphan, and 0 of those receiving no treatment.

Launch of new AAFP brand

I hate it when things change for no good reason. You know... a certain common term has become offensive or there is some other "politically correct" reason for changing the name of something. The thing itself hasn't changed but the name must change...?

This IS NOT one of those times. I was already getting the above mentioned attitude in full gear when I heard AAFP was changing the logo. I was pretty happy with who we are and what we look like. But the truth is, the Future of Family Medicine project pretty clearly outlines that America doesn't understand who we are really, or what we do. I like the new logo and I'm on board. I like the message. Check it out at this link. And there is a good promo video too, you'll find the link on the promo page.

What do you think?

resident research grant awards

I would like to congratulate Drs. Jerome Alonso and Adriana Gomez for successfully obtaining American Academy of Family Physicians awards for their research projects!

Alonso - "A Retrospective Cohort Study Evaluating the Relationship between Uncontrolled Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Intensity of Hypoglycemic Therapy among Type 2 Diabetics." Dr Ripsin - Mentor

Gomez - "Relationship between depression and Glycemic control and its correlation with medication adherence in patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2: a cohort study in a primary care setting." Dr. Cass - Mentor

Dr. Youens on the cover!!

http://www.texas-ec.org/texascooppower/

This month's Texas Co-op Power magazine has a very nice article on rural family medicine, highlighting Dr. Youens' practice in Weimar, TX. This is, of course, the site of our Rural Training Track! The RTT and some of the residents are mentioned in the article.

2007 ITE Top Scores

I am pleased to announce the top ITE scores for our program on the 2007 ITE:

PGY1 - Lorena Salvatori
PGY2 - Tran Quan & Donna Simmons
PGY3 - Rainer Effenhauser

You will each be formally recognized at the 2008 UTMB FMR Graduation ceremony.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with the 2007 ITE scores. Several of the residents distinguished themselves with impressive increases in their scores over last year. Everyone has worked really hard in their academic studies this year and I think we are seeing that rewarded with good scores. Keep up the good work!

back, catching up!

I am home from spending a month in Russia, adopting my two newest daughters. We are all adjusting and I'm looking forward to being back to work in the very near future.

Lots has happened while I've been away.

Recruiting season is getting wrapped up. We have our final two interviews scheduled for tomorrow and we're looking forward to that. Our official Rank Meeting will be held next week, at which we will construct our final Rank list. We're also looking forward to that!

We have a very interesting situation developing with our graduating class of 2008... it looks like five of them will be going on to fellowship training, and that is definitely a record for us! The two who have gotten word recently and not been previously announced are: Javier Rios - Sports Medicine and Jose San Martin - Obstetrics. Congratulations!! Edited to add: I don't find where I previously announced David Schnaiderman's fellowship... so here goes - David will also be staying on here at UTMB for his Geriatrics fellowship!

Also, I recently learned that one of our Chiefs - Carlos Montiel - will join one of our former graduates - Alex Brzezny - in practice in Washington state after graduation. I'm happy for everyone concerned!

photos from Scientific Assembly

David Schnaiderman, MD

Jerome Alonso, MD

And last but not least, Chicago deep-dish pizza and beverages to celebrate! I'm so proud of these guys.

0708 UTMB Family Medicine Residents

cool stuff

We have more students. Now what?

Medical schools are expanding in hopes of meeting the future demand for physicians. But will the U.S. government step up residency funding? See full article here.

Generation Y

I'm working on a presentation for a conference in February. It's turned out to be a really neat topic. The topic is "Generation Y and the Culture of Entitlement". I was invited to present this topic (exactly why ME, I'm not sure, but someone had to do it because it's been highly requested) I wasn't too excited because I really didn't know anything about it except that it's starting to come up a lot when PDs get together.

But it has turned out to be fascinating. One of the most interesting pieces is the concept of "digital natives" (GenY, iGen, Millennials, whichever name you favor) and "digital immigrants" (those of us who did not grow up with a computer). Thought processing and learning are SO different in the two groups. And guess what? The Millennials (most of you?!) think we're pretty boring. I'm still wondering how to bridge this generation gap... it's not easy to change the way you process information. Not to mention that I do not have the computer skills GenY does! It's a case of the younger you are, the more you know.

So I've been researching wikis and (dread!) MySpace and others. Fortunately, I already knew about Flickr, iTunes/iPods and blogs. I was a little familiar with MySpace because I know a few people who have them, but I've never been crazy about the concept myself. I like my blog. The wikis still have me at a loss. And they seem to be the most directly education-related.

So now I'm curious... what do you think about all the Web 2.0 tools? Medical education and GME will be a decade behind the high schools and colleges, maybe I'll be retired by then, but it sure is interesting to me.

And another question... are Thursday afternoon lecture times headed out the door? Should we just be having Web 2.0 assignments instead? I think Thursday afternoon is as much about the camaraderie as anything. Tell me your thoughts...

interview season underway

My goodness, it's been a long time since I posted. It's been busy around here!

Jerome, David and I have been to the AAFP Scientific Assembly since my last post. I enjoyed seeing Jerome and David present their research posters and they did a great job. I'm waiting for David to email me photos and then I will post them too. That is one amazing conference. I'd never attended before, but this year I was awarded fellow status so took the opportunity to go.

Interview season is underway. We're into our second week already. So far, so good.

We continue to actively screen applications, although it looks like the largest group is probably already submitted and has been screened.

It's hard to believe we're already into Block 5. Residents are working hard and for the most part things seem to be going well. Our new Pedi Inpatient rotation and OB rotations are looking good; a few growing pains but that is to be expected with all new rotations. Residents are having good experiences and that's the important thing.

R3s are getting their plans in place for next year... you've seen posts about fellowships accepted, and we have one still interviewing for Sports Medicine. Others are interviewing for jobs and we're getting out letters of recommendation for them. The interns are settled in, finding their way around here and feeling more comfortable.

We're looking for a few good faculty members... Residency will be hiring at least two in the coming year. We're actively seeking at least one of them to be a D.O. to help me with our new program. Still waiting to hear on the PGY2-3 part of our AOA program, but word should be available soon.

Dr. Nash receives honorary degree

NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Lisa R. Nash, DO, 301 University Blvd, Galveston, TX 77555-1123. 409.747.8593

Date: Oct. 8, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Local Physician Receives Honorary Degree
From the American Academy of Family Physicians

CHICAGO – Lisa R. Nash, DO, a family physician in Galveston, TX has achieved the Degree of Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the national medical association representing nearly 94,000 family physicians, residents and medical students. The degree was conferred on more than 250 family physicians during a convocation on Saturday, October 6, in conjunction with the AAFP’s annual meeting in Chicago.

Established in 1971, the AAFP Degree of Fellow recognizes family physicians who
have distinguished themselves through service to family medicine and ongoing professional development. This year’s fellowship class brings the total number of AAFP Fellows to more than 29,000 nationwide. AAFP Fellowship entitles the physician to use the honorary designation, “Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians,” or “F.A.A.F.P.”

Criteria for receiving the AAFP Degree of Fellow consist of a minimum of six years of membership in the organization, extensive continuing medical education, participation in public service programs outside medical practice, conducting original research and serving as a teacher in family medicine.

The AAFP was the first national medical specialty organization to require its members to complete a minimum of 150 hours of accredited continuing medical education every three years. It is the only medical specialty society devoted solely to primary care.

###

About the American Academy of Family Physicians
Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents nearly 94,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. It is the only medical society devoted solely to primary care.

Nearly one in four of all office visits are made to family physicians. That is 215 million office visits each year – nearly 48 million more than to the next medical specialty. Today, family physicians provide the majority of care for America’s underserved and rural populations.

In the increasingly fragmented world of health care where many medical specialties limit their practice to a particular organ, disease, age or sex, family physicians are dedicated to
treating the whole person across the full spectrum of ages. Family medicine’s cornerstone is an ongoing, personal patient-physician relationship focused on integrated care.

To learn more about the American Academy of Family Physicians and about the specialty of family medicine, please visit www.aafp.org.

hello from Manuel

Here is a photo hello from Manuel. He says all is going well and he plans to sit for the boards in December.

Dr. O'Donell has a birthday!

Dr. O'Donell celebrated a major birthday milestone last week, with cheers and ongoing well wishes from her Family Medicine family. A good time was had by all!!

Residents: Donna Simmons, Rene Melendez, Jerome Alonso

What exactly is Jerome up to?!

Chairman Dr. Barbara Thompson, birthday girl Dr. O'Donell, and former resident / now faculty member Dr. Hanan Hussein.

congrats to Jerome!

Dr. Jerome Alonso has recently accepted a Sleep Medicine fellowship at Stanford for 2008-09. Congratulations to Jerome... we're proud of you!

Gerardo has a fellowship

Congratulations to Dr. Garcia-Gallegos! He was recently offered a Geriatrics fellowship position here at UTMB, which he has accepted for 2008-09. Gerardo came here with the dream of continuing into a Geri fellowship, and we are all so happy for him. Good work Gerardo!

emails from applicants

Now that we are nearing the opening of ERAS, I am receiving once again too many emails per day from applicants requesting information about our program. I am not able to respond individually to the large of numbers of requests. Instead, I will refer you to the information posted here and here.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the emails I receive are from applicants who obviously have made no effort to review the available information on this blog and our website and I simply cannot sort through them all on a daily basis to identify the residents with individual concerns that require a personal approach.

Please review our basic information via the links above. Only if this does not answer your questions and you have a specific question, concern or situation that requires a personal response, then you may contact our recruiter, Mr. Louis Johnston who will help you.

We will NOT be able to provide anyone with specific USMLE score cutoffs or any additional information regarding our selection criteria as it varies slightly from year to year. Our basic requirements are posted in the links noted above. If you meet them, please apply through ERAS.

We are happy to respond to questions and individual needs, however we ask that you show us the respect of first reviewing our posted program and application information.

Best wishes for the upcoming interview season.

Salary increases effective September 1!!

I am very pleased to pass on the good news of the following raises to house staff annual salaries as noted:

PGY-1: $41,550
PGY-2: $42,925
PGY-3: $44,526

Not that I'm old or anything, BUT... this is almost double what I was paid as a resident way back when! It came out to (average) $2.83 per hour during my intern year...

resource for IMGs

The Society for Teachers of Family Medicine has a new course to assist IMGs in preparing for Family Medicine Residency application and training programs. STFM programs are always high quality and I encourage all of our international medical graduates to consider attending this course.

If you do complete the course, please be sure to mention it in your ERAS application.

Interview Season for 2008 Match

We will begin our interview season for the 2008 Match on October 22. We anticipate finishing interviews by January 30. Interview days will be Mondays and Wednesdays.

ERAS open for Osteopathic applications

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR OUR OSTEOPATHIC APPLICANTS

We are currently accepting applications via ERAS from Osteopathic applicants. We will have two PGY-1 positions in the Osteopathic Match this year, which will be tracked positions in the Family Medicine Residency.

Due to changes at the AOA and ACOFP levels as well as that we are currently in the AOA/ACOFP application process for our PGY-2 and PGY-3, you may see some conflicting information in the posting of our positions for this year. As of now, we are approved for transitional internship, PGY-1. Concurrent with our application for years 2 and 3 of the FM Residency, we have applied to transfer our transitional positions to PGY-1 FM. At some point during this Match cycle, we anticipate approval of our application. Therefore, we will be seeking to fill our two positions this year with applicants who plan to complete the FM Residency.

Osteopathic students may also apply through the ACGME Match, however you will be applying for an ACGME position via that route, and NOT the dual certified AOA/ACGME positions.

Please call if you have any questions... 409.772.6245

We look forward to hosting you for your interview!

alumni news

We received news of a former graduate, Luis Benavides (Jan '07), by way of a relative with a family member in his new community of Whitney/Hillsboro, TX. Below is an exerpt of the email:

...my Mother (in Whitney, TX) tells me that there is a new physician in the
area (with hospital privileges in Hillsboro) who the whole town in thrilled
with. She is thinking of going to him because he has such a good
reputation.

I'm always thrilled to hear good things about our graduates! Kudos to Luis!

party

Info for applicants

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your interest in our residency training program.

We have no open positions for 2007-08.

Our basic requirements for consideration for interview include:

• graduation from medical school within the past five years (not flexible).
• passage of USMLE I and II, including CSA (preferably on first attempt). Obviously, the better your scores, the stronger will be your application. Osteopathic students need not take USMLE. Similar expectations apply for the COMLEX exams.
• some U.S. clinical experience
• three letters of recommendation, at least two of which MUST be from family doctors

We accept applications only through ERAS. Please do not email me long attachments in an attempt to circumvent the process because I will not read them. If you meet our criteria outlined above, then apply through ERAS. This will ensure that your application is reviewed.

We will be participating in the Osteopathic Match this year. Osteopathic students may apply to our program through either or both Match processes, however you will only be guaranteed a dual-accredited slot by matching through the AOA Match.

We will begin our interview season for the class entering in 2008 in October 2007 and hope to conclude interviews by mid-February at the latest. We will begin screening applications immediately as they become available through ERAS. We will schedule interviews until we have interviewed sufficient candidates to fill our class, so you are encouraged to apply early.

Our program does sponsor J1 visas. Our program does NOT sponsor H-1 visas.
UTMB does NOT sponsor externships or observerships for persons who have already graduated from medical school.

Please see our Residency website for more detailed information regarding our program. For specific questions that may not be covered, please contact our recruiter, Mr. Louis Johnston. His contact information is listed on the webpage.

Lisa R. Nash, D.O.
Program Director
UTMB Family Medicine Residency

Orientation underway

The Class of 2010 is having a successful Orientation month so far. We only had one visa/passport issue, which is thankfully resolved and we're happy to have everyone together and completing their Orientation activities.

From talking with them, there is a little stress over ACLS, BLS, PALS and NRP. But overall, things seem to be going well. Yesterday we had our mini-ALSO workshop and that was a lot of fun. We reviewed Electronic Fetal Monitoring, Postpartum Hemorrhage and Shoulder Dystocia and taught the ALSO mnemonics for those. We pulled out the mannikins and practice the shoulder dystocia drill. After it was over, I realized I should've had someone take pictures. Sorry!

I had Ruthie with me yesterday in clinic and that was fun. We worked through some notes on the EMR so she got a little practice before starting in her own clinic next week. She saw a couple of patients on her own and we finished them up together. Half the class was shadowing faculty in clinic and the other half was shadowing on the hospital service.

They are all anxious about the first rotation and I think ready to get on with that, so they can be into it and be done with all the anticipation. It's normal. They are a GREAT group and I'm really looking forward to working with them.

Congratulations - Alonso

Congratulations to Dr. Jerome Alonso (R3/Chief) on the acceptance of his poster for presentation at the 2007 AAFP Scientific Assembly being held October 3-6, 2007 in Chicago. He also has a project accepted for presentation at NAPCRG. Good job, Jerome! The resident research section certainly has a lot to be proud of this year!

Also, check out Dr. Alonso's article in the June 2007 Houston Medical Journal.

FMR Class of 2007

Here they are! Saturday night was a wonderful celebration. I really enjoyed getting to meet family members and friends and to share in the accomplishments of this fine group of young physicians. They will be missed. Below are the list of awards and recognition achieved:

• 2006-07 Chief Residents: Pompeyo Chavez and Clarence Williams
• Perfect Practice Partner: Pompeyo Chavez (selected by the residents)
• William A. Wilson Award for Scholarship and Clinical Excellence: Pompeyo Chavez (selected by the residents)
• M. Lamar Ross Award for Scholarship and Clinical Excellence: Valerie Hernandez (selected by the FM faculty)
• Thelma Frank Award for Professionalism: Clarence Williams (selected by the Program Director)
• STFM Resident Teacher of the Year: Pompeyo Chavez (selected by the FM faculty)
• Outstanding Achievement in Behavioral Medicine and Family Oriented Primary Care: Valerie Hernandez (selected by the Behavioral Medicine faculty)
• Outstanding Achievement in Resident Research: Pompeyo Chavez
• Outstanding Achievement in Integrative Medicine: Hanan Hussein and Norberto Alvarez
• Academic Achievement Award - R1: Donna Simmons
• Academic Achievement Award - R2: Jerome Alonso
• Academic Achievement Award - R3: Norberto Alvarez
• FM Intern of the Year: Adriana Gomez (selected by FMR Program faculty)
• FM Resident of the Year: Jerome Alonso (selected by the FMR Program faculty)

Faculty/Staff Awards: (all selected by the residents)

• FM faculty of the Year: Syed Azhar
• FM Adjunct Faculty of the Year: Dan O'Neil (Ortho)
• Staff Member of the Year: San Juanita Martinez

more congratulations!

Congratulations to Dr. Pompeyo Chavez (R3/Chief) on the acceptance of his poster entitled "Evaluation of Factors Associated With Health Related Quality of Life in COPD Patients Attending a Primary Care Clinic" for presentation at the 2007 NAPCRG Annual Meeting being held October 20-23, 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Good job, Pompeyo! We're very proud of all our resident researchers.

congratulations!

Congratulations to Carlos Montiel (R3/Chief) on the acceptance of his poster entitled "A potential for long term partnerships that can improve primary care in Nicaragua" for presentation at the 2007 AAFP International Family Medicine Workshop in Tucson, AZ in September.

The FMRP and the International Health Group will award Carlos with a stipend to offset his expenses.

Good work, Carlos! We're proud of you.

Orientation starting

Welcome to our incoming 2007 intern class! Orientation for the university is getting kicked off and one of our new interns has dropped by the office to say hello. We'll be seeing everyone else on Monday, as we begin FM Orientation. We're all looking forward to it!

Graduation for the R3s is Saturday night and we're also looking forward to that special celebration. Look for photos next week.

AOC update

As of this week, I have two AOCs submitted by residents - one in Geriatrics and one in Sports Medicine. Dr. Sierpina has worked on the draft for Integrative Medicine (aka CAM). I anticipate having a draft for International Health soon after Dr. Janice Smith returns from their annual trip to Nicaragua. Despite a lot of interest in Advanced OB in the initial surveys, so far, no one has chosen that area.

Overall, I'm pleased with the interest we've seen for our very first year.

Fellowship completed

This week, at the Program Director's Workshop, 58 of my fellow PDs from around the country and I completed the last session and requirements for the Program Director's Fellowship, from the National Institute for Program Director Development. I'm really proud of the work I did during the fellowship, and look forward to sharing and living what I learned, for the benefit of the program, faculty and residents.



I met many new colleagues and made a number of friends from all over the country.



I'm especially proud of the project and poster that evolved out of some of my fellowship work, and the new colleague and collaboration with my co-author, Dr. Mark Robinson. Dr. Robinson is the PD at the Cabarrus FMR in North Carolina and also the new president of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors. We had a great time by phone and email working on this project and actually met face to face for the first time a few days ago at the meeting!



I'd like to say thank you to a few people. To my Chairman, Dr. Barbara Thompson, and our Faculty Development leader, Dr. Alice Ann O'Donell for sponsoring my fellowship. Also to our department administrator, Judy DiMarco and also to Ty for helping me with my financial project. Thank you to the faculty who covered my call and attending responsibilities and took care of my patients while I was gone. Thank you to the Residency Leadership team and staff who held down the fort, made countless logistical arrangements and all the other things you do every day to make the program run well. Thank you to Rosie for printing my poster! Thank you to the medical students and to my residents who participated in the surveys and gave me feedback on the AOC project. And last, but certainly not least, thank you to the leadership and teachers for NIPDD. They are a phenomenal group of people. Many of them are long-time friends and mentors. They commit a lot of themselves to the fellowship and we all benefit greatly from their contributions. They're amazing.

1st Place

First Prize - Areas of Concentration - Scholarly Posters AFMRD/PDW 2007

residents in Chicago - STFM Annual Conference, April 2007

Dr. Pompeyo Chavez presenting his poster "Evaluation of Factors Associated with Health Related Quality of Life in COPD Patients Attending a Primary Care Clinic"

Dr. Clarence Williams and Dr. Gerardo Garcia-Gallegos

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

PLEASE STOP!!

International graduates: WE HAVE NO OPEN POSITIONS AT ANY LEVEL AT THIS TIME

PLEASE STOP sending me application packets with large attachments!! You are clogging up my email box. And we do not accept applications via email in any case. We accept applications only through ERAS.

Thank you.

brief PD absence upcoming

Just wanted to let you all know that FINALLY my adoption plans are moving forward! I will be in Russia the week of 4/23 (exact travel plans yet to be determined).

The Residency Team - Dr. Shepherd, Ron Williams, Linda Hubbell, etc. - will be managing the program in my absence, which is expected to be approximately 7 to 10 days. There should be no interruption in the usual function of the program. If anyone has paperwork they need me to sign (license applications, etc.), please bring that by ASAP. Dr. Shepherd can also sign those things in my absence.

a few announcements

2007-2008 FM Chief Residents: Jerome Alonso & Carlos Montiel

Class of 2009 Rural Training Track residents: Jaime Ruiz-Perez and Rene Melendez

Additional member of the Class of 2010: Sandra Pedraza, Colombia

Congratulations to all!

published in Texas Medicine 3/07

Diabetes risk factors and testing in a Texas family medicine clinic - Dallo FJ, Weller, SC, Cass AR

Congratulations to Dr. Cass and colleagues!

Alumni news

Announcement from Dr. Mark Guidry:

Appointment
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Cassandra Arceneaux to the executive manager position of Director of Community Health Services effective April 1, 2007. Dr. Arceneaux is a board certified family physician and a preventive medicine resident. She has served as a Ready Provider in the 4C's clinic, provided over 4 months of learning and volunteer service as a resident assigned to the Health District. During her time at the Health District, Dr. Arceneaux reviewed teen pregnancy data, organized outreach Head Start physicals, studied 4C's utilization data and presented her findings to the Governing Board, and assisted in EMS recruitment efforts.

Beginning in April, Dr. Arceneaux will oversee all community health services and programs (public health nursing, breast cancer screening, senior outreach, immunizations, HIV/STD, TB, WIC, etc). She will organize comprehensive community outreach events; will medically supervise public health programs requiring standing delegation orders (e.g., immunizations, TB, HIV/STD, breast cancer screening, etc), will provide clinical preventive healthcare, will serve as deputy health authority, and will participate in public health preparedness activities and outbreak investigations.

Please welcome and congratulate Dr. Arceneaux. On April 2nd, she may be reached at 409-938-2457.


Harlan "Mark" Guidry, MD, MPH
Chief Executive Officer & Health Authority
Galveston County Health District
409-938-2401; Pisa Lewis, Asst.
www.gchd.org

news just in from ABFM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 20, 2007

American Board of Family Medicine Sleep Medicine CAQ Approved by the ABMS

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) approved the American Board of Family Medicine’s (ABFM) application to provide a Certificate of Added Qualifications (CAQ) in Sleep Medicine today at its Annual Meeting. ABFM Diplomates will be able to sit for the first Sleep Medicine examination in November of this year. The Board of Directors of the ABFM made the decision at its Interim Meeting last October to seek approval from the ABMS for the ABFM’s co-sponsorship of a CAQ in Sleep Medicine along with the ABMS Boards of Internal Medicine (ABIM), Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Neurology, and Otolaryngology. The ABFM has begun to work closely with ABIM, who will administer the exam. When the application process is finalized, details will be announced on the ABFM website, www.theabfm.org.

***

As many of you may know, our own Dr. Jerome Alonso (R2) was instrumental in this process. Good work Jerome! It's wonderful to see your efforts and hard work pay off in such a big way!

More big CONGRATULATIONS

to Dr. Carlos Montiel and his wife, who are the proud new parents of a healthy baby girl!!

Big CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Simmons!

On March 3, 2007, at the TAFP Texas Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Students Session during the Section on Resident Physicians, Donna Simmons was elected Alternate Delegate to the National Conference in St. Louis in August. She will represent the TAFP resident physicians and assist the delegate in reporting TAFP resident ideas at the annual session meeting.

Next year Dr. Simmons will fill the role of Delegate to the National Conference.

WAY TO GO!!

Introducing... UTMB FMR Class of 2010!!

From the top, left to right:
Tran Quan - Des Moines University, Osteopathic Medical Center
Thien-An (Ann) Nguyen - UT Houston
Obi Uzowulu - University of Szeged, Medical and Medical Sciences Centre (Hungary)
Martha Molina - UT Houston
























Sashi Braga - Universidade Federal Do Ceara (Brazil)
Ruthie Darg - Universidad San Martin de Porres (Peru)
Anwar Monroy - Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua (Mexico)
Lorena Salvatori - (Argentina)

WELCOME!!

We know who you are!!

and we're very happy! :-)

Stay tuned for the announcement TOMORROW about who is joining our program this summer.

Dr. Triana in UTMB Magazine

Read the story here.

Persistence pays off

FINALLY! The Ropes Course 2007 video. Thanks to Oscar, who produced the video!

Match 2007!!

WE FILLED IN THE MATCH!!!

We are so looking forward to finding out tomorrow WHO will be joining us, but plan to enjoy celebrating today that we filled.

Thank you to all our applicants and we hope all found positions in programs that you are excited about.

countdown to Match!

It's getting close!! Less than one week until we find out if we filled, one week until we will know WHO we got, and one week + one day until our applicants find out where they matched. Very exciting times. I am greatly looking forward to next week!

I received emails from two former residents this week... Anika Bell-Gray and Clint Watson. Both included photos of their kids, so stop by the Residency bulletin board to see those. I hear great things about Clint and Jo from my Waco colleagues! Nita Caskey visited with Luis Benavidez in Whitney recently. His new practice has been open one month and is doing very well. Staff contacts report that Manuel Gonzalez has relocated to New Zealand to begin his additional training in OBGyn.

Alumni - send in your updates or post them in the comments! We love to hear from you.

OB rotation in Nicaragua

Makeshift spacer

Teaching PALS

Carlos just returned from an OB rotation in Nicaragua. He said it was a really good experience and he had a great time, learned a lot. Catch up with him for more details.

update on proposed raises for 07-08

The Graduate Medical Education Committee recently approved a proposal to raise the resident salary structure for next year by the following amounts:

PGY1 - $2221
PGY2 - $2473
PGY3 - $2780

Of course, this proposal still must clear the Budget & Finance Committee and the hoops in their chain of command, but historically, the proposals of the GMEC have been funded. Stay tuned.

blood donations needed

As many of you may already know, Hanan recently diagnosed one of our much loved staff members with leukemia. I visited with her this morning and she asked that everyone who could, please give blood because she will be needing a lot of it. Ask for a voucher at the time of donation, which you can then have placed in an envelope where they are collecting for her account.

Also, she asked for magazines because they fit her current level of symptoms and manageable attention span better than books. If you can catch her between rounds of chemo when the nausea is more manageable, her favorite ice cream is Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia.

RTT applications due!!

R1s interested in participating in the Rural Training Track in PGY2-3 need to turn in your CV and cover letter stating why you are interested to me by THIS FRIDAY!!! So far, I have only Rene's application, although several of you have expressed interest. Please get that to me ASAP. Thanks!

Update on 11:40 and 4:40 appt slots in FMC - for an as yet undetermined reason, those appt slots have not yet been eliminated. I am trying to get to the bottom of it and will update you on the action plan as soon as possible.

ROPES 2007

Here is a preview of the UTMB-FMR Class of 2009 working hard (??) at the ROPES Course during Principles of Family Medicine this year. There are more great photos, but I'm having a few disagreements with my computer today, so I will get back to posting some more photos soon!

Recruiting Events update

The Second Look Reception was a BIG SUCCESS!! Although I didn't actually count, I believe we had about 15 or so of our applicants able to join us for another meet-and-greet with a good number of faculty and residents. Dinners the night before interviews often include spouses and the Second Look is our main big event that includes spouses. Many spouses/significant others of faculty, residents and applicants attended and we enjoyed the opportunity to visit with them and explore how people felt in our group.

A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to Dr. Barbara Thompson, Chair of the Department of Family Medicine, for hosting the reception at her beautiful waterfront home. We didn't see one of the cruise ships go out this year, but the view was still outstanding. We would also like to extend our thanks to Dr. Thompson's sister, Linda, who always helps with the food preparation and general party hosting.

The Rank Meeting is TONIGHT and our Rank List will be submitted and certified TOMORROW, bringing an official end to the interview season and the beginning of THE BIG WAIT for Match Day.

Again, we extend our best wishes for a successful Match to all of our 2007 applicants!

11:40 and 4:40 appt slots

By popular request, the 11:40 and 4:40 appointment slots in the FMC will be relocated to earlier time slots in the session. Total number of appointments per session will be unchanged, but moving the late slots earlier will improve our ability to finish clinic on time and reduce overtime for staff. Thank you for bringing this suggestion to improve our clinic.

from the Boys' & Girls' Club

Leah, I would like to thank you for the resident doctors involvement at the club.
We are blessed to have a person such as yourself to take the time and encourage the doctors to be involved at the club. Over a period of YEARS, you and the doctors have made a difference in our youths life by educating them and their parents about various Health/ Life skills and giving Basic Check-ups to the youths.

I really do not think that I have "THANK" you for all these years of believing in the Boys & Girls Club. Again, I thank you and the doctors from the bottom of my heart.

Thanks
Cheryl Chatman
Unit Director

Finished with interviews!

Today we finished our interviews for the 2007 Match! It's been a good year and we've enjoyed meeting our applicants. We're looking forward to our "Second-Look" Reception on this Saturday. Faculty and current residents will participate in our official Rank meeting on Monday, followed by the submission of our Match List. And then we wait for Match Day. We can't wait!

We believe we will fill in the Match, but if we do not, applicants who have already applied and were placed on the "hold" list will automatically be considered for the post-match. We will accept applications for the post-match ONLY through ERAS.

Recruiting Season nears the end!

We are near the end of our Recruiting Season for 2007! We have 3 interviews left next week, and it's a wrap. We are all looking forward to the Rank Meeting, and then we will just be awaiting the Match results.

I believe it's going to be a really, really good year for us. We have been extremely pleased with the quality of the applications we've received and can't wait to see who will join us next June.

In other news, we finished our RRC mid-cycle (internal) review today and all appears to have gone well.

The Principles of FM course is going smoothly and the R1s are enjoying that. I hear the ROPES course was a highlight again this year. Waiting on photos, so will post some here when they are available. I will be doing a Billing & Coding workshop as part of PFM next week and I've been working on that. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Roberto told me today that it better be, because they have evaluation forms!

The residents have just asked me to do a GYN procedures workshop in March, so that will be coming up. We'll be doing EMBs and IUDs.

Angela P. heard recently that she was accepted for the Emergency Medicine residency (seeking dual certification in FM/EM). Two of the R3s have job offers that look good and like they are going to work out. Everyone else is still considering their options, most haven't narrowed it down sufficiently yet to comment!

It's cold and wet in Galveston right now, so I'm sorry for our recent applicants that you didn't get to see our normally easy to tolerate sub-tropical winter. I'm ready for spring, myself.

Best of luck to all our applicants in the upcoming Match.

top ITE 2006 scores

Congratulations to the residents who achieved the top scores for their class on the 2006 ITE exam:

R1 - Donna Simmons
R2 - Jerome Alonso
R3 - Norberto Alvarez

These residents will be honored at the 2007 graduation ceremony for their accomplishments.



Dr. Alonso - you need to drop by my office to pick up your prize for the last blog contest! It involves coffee and chocolate...

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful holiday season. I'd like to wish you all a happy New Year.

We will soon begin our Principles of Family Medicine course with the R1s, and that is quite an undertaking with lots of FM faculty time committed to our new class. It's one of our favorite times of the year, and we're all looking forward to it.

R1s who may have an interest in the Rural Training Track, please be aware of the following timeline: 1) overview session this month (see PFM schedule for exact date/time), 2) required declaration of interest due to me by 1/31, 3) site visit and interviews with RTT faculty in February, and finally 4) RTT residents selected by mid-March as we begin to work on 07-08 schedules.

We will be finishing up interviews this month for 2007 Match. It's been a very busy and successful season so far and I'm looking forward to moving into the next phase. I will post the dates and times for the Second Look and Rank Meeting here soon.

FMR mid-cycle review, as required by the RRC, will be near the end of this month. Many of the residents will be asked to participate and meet with our committee. Now, for current FM residents who've managed to read this far, first one of you to post a comment will receive a prize. Many thanks go out to Residency staff, particularly Becky, for the extensive preparation required for the mid-cycle review and which is now near completion.

Welcome back from the holidays everyone! It's going to be a busy month.

LRN

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!