NEWS

Baystate Emergency Medicine Residents Take Second Place in National SimWar Competition

Drs. Aram Shemmassian, Nishan Shah, Gabriel Cade and Brian Hagan Brought Home the Silver in National SimWars

A team of Baystate's Emergency Medicine residents matched up against seven other teams in a national SimWars competition at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 9-12, 2012. The SimWars competition allows residency programs from across the U.S. to demonstrate their skills in the management of simulated cases.

The eight elite teams, culled from 80 applicants, competed two at a time in front of an audience of their colleagues/peers. Using high fidelity patient simulators, teams completed three challenging scenarios while being judged on medical care skills, teamwork, and communication.

The Baystate team's scenarios were:

• 14 year-old with acute anaphylaxis disguised as sepsis

• 9 month-old with congenital prolonged QT syndrome and hypovolemic shock

• rare methemoglobinemia presentation from internet drug purchase.

Within each scenario, teams also had to triage other patients, call consults, deal with family members, and deflect the patient's own primary care team—all within 8 minutes.

Baystate's PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency Program Accreditation Extended Until 2015

The ASHP Commission on Credentialing voted to extend the accreditation for the PGY-1 pharmacy residency program at Baystate Medical Center for the remainder of its current 6 year cycle (until 2015). The Commission arrived at its decision based on a thorough review of the progress report submitted by the program.

Alex Knee and Jennifer Friderici, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Research Core, Appointed Research Assistant Professors

Alex Knee, MS and Jennifer Friderici, MS, both biostatisticians in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Research Core in Academic Affairs, have recently received faculty appointments as Research Assistant Professors in the Department of Medicine at Tufts University.

Ms. Friderici and Mr. Knee assist faculty and residents with research protocol development, data management, statistical analysis, interpretation and manuscript writing; and provide education on research topics such as, study design, statistical methods and power and sample size.

Baystate Medical Center Residents and Faculty Take Active at American Geriatrics Society Annual Scientific Meeting

At the May 2012 American Geriatrics Society meeting in Seattle, 17 posters were presented by BMC residents and fellows. 

Residents & Other Postgraduate Trainees Poster Session

In the Case Studies and Clinical Innovations Category:

• Anju Bhagavan, MD tied for First Place for her case report, "Do Not Record (DNR) code status = RESUSCITATE," and received Second Place for her case report, "Frozen with Pain."

• Wanda Colon Cartagena, MD tied for Third Place in the resident poster session for "Transitioning into the Weekend, Staffing Constraints and Delayed Care."

• Vijay Gadiraju, MD, and Sonali Arora, MD won Honorable Mention for their poster, "When Hallucinations Are Not Due to Delirium or Psychiatric Disease: Charles Bonnet Syndrome."

• Shin Yin Lee, MD, won Honorable Mention for his poster, "Elderly Female with Hypercalcemia: Hodgkin Lymphoma Masquerading as Relapsed Breast Cancer."

Geriatric fellows, Liesbeth Tryzelaar, Mohamed Elarabi and Sandeep Sharma, served as poster session judges and were also faculty at an interactive resident quiz competition and a competency training in affective and cognitive disorders. Dr. Elarabi's Simulation Wars team won second place.

Maura Brennan, MD, Geriatrics Fellowship Program Director, organized clinical skills sessions at which she and Drs. Julio Martinez Silvestri, Laura Iglesias Lino, and Reham Shaaban were faculty. Dr. Brennan also organized the Resident Poster Session and a pre-conference course for Program Directors.

All four of next year’s co-presidents of the AGS Residents’ Section are from Baystate: Randa Jaber, Yee Ang, Shin Yin Lee and Shiv Khosla.

Barbara Richard Honored with 2012 Outstanding Volunteer Award from the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA)

Barbara Richard, Director, Sponsored Programs Administration, was selected for NCURA's Region 1 Outstanding Volunteer Award in May. The award, presented annually, recognizes a research administrator's significant volunteer efforts with regard to Region I (New England).

Ms. Richards was presented the award on May 7, 2012 during the spring meeting in Newport, RI.