News Vice Chair of Education

2022-2023 Annual Report – DOM Vice Chair for Education

Abby Spencer, MD, MS, FACP

A Word from the Vice Chair

Education in the Department of Medicine continues to thrive thanks to the commitment, innovation, expertise, and dedication of our DOM GME and UME leaders and directors, our outstanding clinical teachers and mentors, our exceptional trainees, and the support of our Department Chair.

In our Office of the Vice Chair of Education annual report, you will see our progress in enhancing our GME programs and best practices, aligning our UME goals and impact, developing our faculty as educators and educational leaders, and building a community of educators.

2022-2023 Strategic Goals

Educator Support icon

Educator Support

  • Host monthly GME education leadership meetings
  • Establish medical educationmentoring office hours
  • Meet individually with fellowship programs
  • Initiate Faculty Development programming for Educators
  • Promote professional development opportunities for coordinators
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Community

  • Establish a DOM Educator network
  • Develop a common fellowship curriculum
  • Establish and support a Fellows’ Council
  • Disseminate educational opportunities, resources and celebrations
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DOM Representation

  • Serve as GME Board representative
  • Participate in educational leadership selection committees(UME, GME, DOM)
  • SEL committee representative and letter-writer
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Outcomes Tracking

  • Build a dashboard to track key GME education outcomes

Educator Support

Mentoring in Medical Education Careers (MIMEC)

Held dedicated monthly office hours to support DOM Faculty and Fellow Educators

GME Leadership Meetings

Program Report-Outs
Recruitment
ACGME FTE Requirements
Diversity
TL1 MD Fellowship
OUTmed
WUTPP
PD Bootcamp
Faculty Development
SAFE Reporting
Fellow Orientation
Institutional Surveys
IDEAS@DOM
VITAL Talk
Fellows’ Council
Professional Opportunities

In AY 2023, we continued hosting monthly meetings with DOM Fellowship Program Directors and Coordinators. The meetings provided an opportunity for programs to discuss common issues, share best practices, and build support networks. Discussion topics (left) were submitted by meeting attendees or identified by the Vice Chair with a goal of increasing resource awareness and fostering collaboration across programs.

12 – Number of guest speakers
27 – Average meeting attendance
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Faculty and Coordinator Development

Formed plans to incorporate quarterly 30-minute professional development sessions into regular DOM GME Leadership meetings starting in July 2023. Share AoE PD Bootcamp resources.

Community

Left to right: Angela Brown, MD, Thomas Ciesielski, MD and Milan Andakat, MD were all featured presenters during new faculty orientation.
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DOM Educator Network
  • Updated DOM Educator and DOM PD & Coordinator email distribution lists
  • Created DOM Training Programs contact list for internal distribution
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Common Curriculum
  • Inaugural DOM New Fellow Orientation scheduled for July 5-7
  • Quarterly curriculum planning in progress; topic list developed
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Newsletter
  • Vice Chair of Education section published in quarterly DOM Insider
  • Established process for collecting and tracking content
  • Share Academy of Educators Newsletter with all DOM educators
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DOM Fellow’s Council
  • Council established with 8 fellows selected for initial cohort
  • See Fellow’s Council spotlight below
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DOM Resources Library
  • Established Box folders for sharing recruitment resources and meeting materials

DOM Fellows Council

1-Hematology/Oncology
4-Pulmonary & Critical Care
2-Infectious Disease
3-Gastroenterology
4-Pulmonary & Critical Care
5-Endocrinology
6-Nephrology
7-Electrophysiology

The DOM Fellows’ Council formed in February 2022 under the leadership of the Vice Chair for Education. Inaugural Councilmembers could self-nominate or be nominated by Program Directors and Coordinators. Eight fellows or recent graduates served on Council in AY2023, representing seven training programs and fellowship training years 1, 2, 3, and instructor-level faculty.

Upon formation, the Council developed a vision statement and a leadership structure to support their mission. Council members filled the four leadership roles on a volunteer basis: Council President, Membership Chair, Professional Development Chair, and Social Activities Chair. Council was provided with administrative support from the Office of the Vice Chair for Education, and received a $5000 annual budget from the Department of Medicine to carry out programming.

Vision Statement

The DOM Fellows’ Council aims to foster a greater sense of community among fellows from all subspecialties in the Department of Medicine. We will develop and implement programs to promote fellow well-being, networking, learning and career development opportunities, and support interdisciplinary collaborations and social events.

Fellows Council timeline

In its inaugural year, the Fellows’ Council hosted six events for Department of Medicine Fellows, with an even distribution between social events and professional development opportunities. In addition to formal events, Council led a number of independent initiatives aimed at increasing a sense of community and providing additional career development opportunities for fellows. These initiatives included:

  • Curating a list of product/swag recommendations for fellowship programs to use during recruitment
  • Sending a welcome letter to incoming fellows following the Medicine Subspecialties Match
  • Developing and launching a Fellows’ Council webpage
  • Establishing subspecialty interest groups within the IM Residency program

By the Numbers

6 – Council-sponsored events
18 – Average event attendance
2 – Conference poster presentations
4 – Independent Council initiatives

2022 Meet and Greet

Poster presentations outlining the formation and structure of the DOM Fellows’ Council were accepted at both the regional at national meetings of the Society for General Internal Medicine.

DOM Representation

  • Participated in the search committees to select new IM Clerkship and Advanced Clinical Rotation directors, served on search committees to select new VCE for neurology and surgery; represented DOM on WUSM educational search committees outside our department
  • Served as the DOM Representative for the WUSM GME Board
  • Assisted in the development of a Structured Evaluative Letter(SEL) template for DOM and in drafting letters for medical students as part of the IM SEL Committee
  • Participate in monthly OFPCD Advisory Committee
  • Presented at DOM and WUSM Faculty Orientation
  • Presented at annual DOM workshop on preparing CEP
  • National ACGME Internal Medicine RRC Member
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Outcomes Tracking

  • Established centralized administrative access to ACGME WebADS and ERAS PDWS in order to develop a more efficient DOM GME program data collection process
  • Collaborated with DOM IT representatives to build the initial version of the DOM Training Programs Dashboard
    • Recruitment data dashboard was launched online in May 2023
    • ACGME Survey data dashboard is currently in development

New Initiatives

The Office of the Vice Chair of Education took on a number of initiatives in
AY 2023 in addition to goals and projects identified in strategic planning.

Named Director of Fellow Support

Dr. Amy Riek, MD was named Director of Fellow Support effective March 1, 2023. Dr. Riek’s primary responsibilities in the role include developing a common fellowship curriculum and serving as a faculty advisor to the DOM Fellows’ Council.

The entering class of 2022 participated in the White Coat Ceremony and recited their student oath

Increased UME Oversight

In addition to participation on the IM SEL and ACR/ACD Search Committees, the Vice Chair increased oversight of undergraduate education within the Department of Medicine through active participation and leadership in LCME preparation and the site visit in February 2023 and the initiation of monthly DOM UME leadership meetings in April 2023.

Improved Structural Organization

With the addition of dedicated administrative support, we began to refine our organizational processes to improve office operations. These efforts included development of an office organizational chart, incorporation of faculty support via the Director of Fellow Support role, creation of standardized meeting templates and schedules, and a review of Education content on the Department of Medicine website.

September 2023 – FWIM Professional Fulfillment: Connecting to Joy & Meaning session

Co-Developed / Directed New WIM Trainee Leadership Course

In collaboration with FWIM, we developed & directed a longitudinal leadership development program for women trainees in the DOM and successfully presented our work nationally.

Looking Ahead

As we start a new academic year, our office is looking forward to continuing many existing projects and introducing several new initiatives aligned in our key areas of Educator Support, Community, Outcomes Tracking and DOM Representation.

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Continuing Projects

  • Refinement and expansion of the DOM Training Programs Dashboard
  • Implementation of the inaugural DOM New Fellow Orientation and development of a quarterly common curriculum for fellows
  • Development of a centralized resource database for training program leaders
  • Expansion of professional development opportunities in Medical Education for DOM educators
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AY 2024 Goals & Initiatives

  • Initiate a mentorship program for faculty with an interest in Medical Education towards career advancement
  • Enhance support for and impact of DOM GME and UME DOM leaders on their programs
  • Support new IM residency PD and chief resident development
  • Utilize training programs dashboard output to support program improvement

Thank You

We share our annual accomplishments with gratitude for our outstanding team, administrative lead, and collaboration with our DOM GME and UME leaders.

Abby Spencer, MD
DOM Vice Chair for Education abbys@wustl.edu
Amy Riek, MD
Director of Fellow Support
aeriek@wustl.edu
Julie Byington, C-TAGME
Administrative Lead
jbyington@wustl.edu