NEWS

Brendan Kelly MD, Med-Peds Residency Associate Program Director, is 1 of 3 Winners of Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society's New Professionalism Fellowship

The Professionalism Fellowship, offered for the first time in 2009, was created to emphasize the crucial role of professionalism in being a physician.

Brendan Kelly MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine, has been awarded $12,500 to develop new combinations of programs for teaching professionalism to residents in all specialties. Semi-structured interviews around “critical incidents” regarding professionalism will be followed by analysis of transcripts and identification of the most important and common themes of professionalism. This “bottom up” approach should generate valid directions for thematic learning and teaching in professionalism that will be made available for residency programs across the country.

More than 30 applications were received from medical schools with active AΩA chapters. The 3 winners were chosen by a panel of educators with research interests and teaching experience in professionalism and its applications.

Maura Brennan MD, Director, Geriatrics Consultation Program, Appointed Program Director of the Geriatrics Fellowship

Patrick Mailloux MD, Appointed Associate Program Director of the Critical Care Medicine Fellowship

Robert Baevsky MD, Promoted to Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine

Glen Genest MD, Promoted to Chief of the Division of Dermatology

Effective July 1, 2009 Dr. Glen Genest will succeed Dr. Arthur Sher, who is stepping down after 16 years as Chief of the Division of Dermatology.

Dr. Genest, an Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Tufts University School of Medicine, joined the faculty of the Division of Dermatology in 2004 as a member of New England Dermatology and Laser Center. Dr. Genest received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, his medical degree from Hahnemann University, and went on to complete residency training in both internal medicine and dermatology, and is Board certified in both disciplines.

Daniel Skiest MD, Promoted to Chief of the Division of Infectious Disease

Dr. Skiest joined the Division of Infectious Diseases in 2005 as Director of the HIV Program and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Prior to coming to Baystate, Dr. Skiest served as Fellowship Program Director in Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Skiest received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He then completed residency training in internal medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and an infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington.

Effective July 1, 2009 Dr. Skiest will succeed Dr. Richard Brown who is stepping down after 30 years as Chief, but will stay on as the senior clinician in the division.

James Nichols PhD, Medical Director, Clinical Chemistry & Point of Care Testing, Receives Excellence in Standards Development Award

The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) presented the Excellence in Standards Development Award to Dr. Nichols for his significant contributions to developing consensus standards and guidelines for the health care community. These guidelines are developed to be resources for good laboratory practice that can facilitate education and discussion between physicians and clinical staff. He received the award at the 2009 Annual CLSI Leadership Conference in Philadelphia, PA.

Ilse Levin DO, Internal Medicine Resident, Elected to AMA's Council on Science and Public Health

First Member to be Elected Straight Out of Residency

Dr. Levin was elected to the Council in a full physician seat after previously serving for the past 3 years as the resident on the Council.  In addition to being the first person on any of the councils or the board of trustees to be elected straight out of residency, she is also the first DO to be elected to a full seat on a council or the board.

Dr. Levin will serve a 4-year term with the option to run for an additional term in 2013. 

New BMC Members of the TUSM Curriculum Committee

Grace Makari-Judson MD, Program Director of the Hematology-Oncology Fellowship, and Fadi Bsat MD, Department of Obstetrics-Gynecology, were elected as members of the TUSM Curriculum Committee In the Spring elections among Tufts University School of Medicine faculty members. The curriculum committe provides active oversight of the educational programs in concert with the dean for educational affairs and provides a flexible framework for ensuring the horizontal and vertical integration and overall content coverage and sequencing of the TUSM educational program.

2 New Associates Join the Epidemiological & Biostatistical Core Facility (EBCF)

EBCF Aims to Expand Baystate's Research Efforts

Ms. Jane Garb and Ms. Jennifer Friderici, together with Paul Visintainer PhD, Director of the Epidemiological & Biostatistical Core Facility, will help expand the research effort at Baystate by providing clinicians and researchers their expertise in study design, data analysis, grant development, and training in research methods.

Ms. Garb, who has been providing research support to Baystate for more than 20 years, was most recently in Baystate's Department of Surgery. There, in addition to consulting on biostatistics and epidemiology, she specialized in Geographical Information Systems and spatial analysis. She holds a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts and a Certificate of Geographic Information Systems from the University of Connecticut, and is also a Research Assistant Professor at Tufts University Medical School.

Ms. Friderici received her Masters of Science degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics in 2006 from the University of Massachusetts. She most recently worked on projects in psychiatry and community medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

For questions about starting a research project or analyzing data, please email either Jane.Garb@baystatehealth.org or Jennifer.Friderici@baystatehealth.org.