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| A newsletter for research & medical education | September 2009 |
NEWS 2009 Summer Student Scholar Program a Success for Both Students and Mentors
The scholars represented 5 undergraduate institutions and 1 medical school. Their mentors, who helped design individualized research experiences and provided guidance throughout their learning process, were faculty from Baystate and UMass Amherst. For a complete list of the 2009 scholars and their mentors and research projects, visit the Student Scholar Projects page of the CBR website. If you would like to volunteer as a mentor in next year's program, please email Aryn Anthony in Academic Affairs. Faculty mentors need to provide a summary of the projects. Students apply January through March, and faculty mentors and students are matched based on their common interests. More information is available on the Summer Student Scholar Program website.  Baystate Medical Center Chosen to Participate in National Initiative to Improve Patient Care Through Graduate Medical Education The National Initiative, sponsored by the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers (AIAMC), provides critical education, team training and support to the 34 participating hospitals, and equips participants with the tools and infrastructure necessary to accomplish meaningful improvements to patient care. The AIAMC National Initiative (NI) is the first national and multi-institutional effort that focuses on the alignment of graduate medical education with hospital quality and safety strategies. Participating hospitals were selected based upon their demonstrated leadership in utilizing graduate medical education as a key driver to improve quality, patient safety, and the cost-effectiveness of care. A leadership team from Baystate will collaborate with select hospitals from across the U. S. in designing and implementing a quality improvement plan that integrates graduate medical education and patient safety. “Those of us in academic medicine realize that resident physicians play an important role in patient care at teaching institutions; however, residents are generally not visible in safety and quality efforts”, stated Kimberly Pierce-Boggs, Executive Director of the AIAMC. The AIAMC, based in Chicago IL, is unique in that its approximately 70 members are affiliated with medical schools but are independent of medical school ownership or governance. Peter Lindenauer Presents Paper on Transparency in Healthcare at IOM Workshop Peter Lindenauer MD, MSc, Associate professor of Medicine and Director of Baystate’s Center for Quality of Care Research, presented a paper titled, “Transparency as a Strategy to Improve the Value of Hospital Care,” at The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes, the second in a series of 3 workshops that the Institute of Medicine is sponsoring in response to growing concerns about the rate of increase in healthcare spending. “There is great deal of enthusiasm around transparency in healthcare because it is believed that it will stimulate QI efforts in hospitals and result in better care and reduced costs. But while transparency may be a cardinal feature of free and open societies, to date the evidence that it improves health outcomes is weak,” states Dr. Lindenauer. “Additionally, many efforts that might improve outcomes would not reduce societal healthcare costs and might actually increase them.” His presentation discussed efforts that might be effective at improving care while reducing costs: namely, using transparency to decrease that rate of hospital-associated infections, complications and readmissions. The IOM is a think tank that advises the U.S. on health issues. Attendees at the workshop included professional societies, patient advocacy groups, regulatory bodies and payer organizations. Dr. Lindenauer believes that the proceedings of the workshops may contribute to policy-making efforts that might reward hospitals with lower readmission rates or penalize those with higher readmission rates. Thomas Campfield, MD Promoted to Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine Residents Featured on New Academic Affairs Recruitment Video A new video has been created for the academic website that highlights residents' perspectives about their academic training at Baystate Medical Center and life in the Pioneer Valley. The idea for the video developed from a qualitative analysis of resident feedback gathered at the 2008 new resident and fellow orientation conducted in the Education Office of Academic Affairs. Results revealed that key drivers for residents to come to Baystate are: quality of life, innovative education, and a supportive academic culture. The strongest theme was a desirable academic culture that candidates perceived during interviews with faculty and residents in their prospective programs. The new video, meant to assist in future recruiting efforts, will be online in the next few weeks. |
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