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#IAMSE17 – Bill Jeffries, 2017 Site Host

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As Site Host, I am excited to remind you that the 21st Annual IAMSE Meeting will be in Burlington, Vermont, USA, on the beautiful campus of the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Burlington is the educational, medical, financial and cultural epicenter of our state and is a popular year-round vacation destination. The pre-conference workshops and the main IAMSE meeting (which has received a record number of abstracts) will make use of our excellent university facilities and will feature world-class speakers and facilitators. There will be a daily wellness and fitness program and we are planning a social program for families and friends of attendees. The annual IAMSE Gala Dinner will take place at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, which features interactive science exhibits along beautiful vistas. You will find the city easy to get to, with direct air service at the Burlington International Airport by American, Delta, United, JetBlue and Allegiant airlines. The city is 220 miles northwest of Boston, 285 miles north of New York City and just 100 miles southeast of Montreal.

In addition to the superlative IAMSE program, there will be lots to see and do in Vermont. Located on the shore of the sixth largest freshwater lake in the U.S., Lake Champlain, and in the shadow of the Green Mountains, Burlington is Vermont’s largest and most cosmopolitan city. Trip Advisor suggests that it is the “perfect blend of old New England charm, arts, culture and nature.” No matter where you go, you’ll be sure to find something you love in Burlington. You can tour the campus, stroll the Farmer’s Market and historic Church Street, visit the many museums, shops and breweries, take a cruise or paddleboard on the lake and hike or bike hundreds of miles of dedicated trails. Lake Champlain’s waterfront is perfect for summer nights and the famous Burlington Jazz Festival will coincide with the meeting. Burlington is also known as a gourmet destination and is home to the “locovore” food movement. So please plan on attending the IAMSE Annual Meeting here in Vermont and consider bringing your family for a wonderful visit to New England!

Have you registered for the 2017 IAMSE Meeting? The Early Bird Deadline is April 1st, so be sure to register before then to receive the reduced registration rate. You can register online anytime at www.iamseconference.org.

IAMSE March 9, 2017 Web Seminar Session POSTPONED

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Due to technical issues with last week’s session, we are moving our webinars to a new platform.

This week’s session ‘Remediation of “High Stakes” professional exams’ will be postponed to April 13th so that we may transition smoothly to the new system. We will announce the new date soon.

Next week, we will continue our series as scheduled, with “Trust and Remediation: Entrustable Professional Activities and Trust Decisions” from presenter Brian Martin.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this delay but looking forward to providing you with an improved webinar experience next week.

If you have any questions, please write support@iamse.org.

IAMSE Spring Web Seminar Series: “Remediation of Gaps in Clinical Skills – One Size Fits One”

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Remediation of Gaps in Clinical Skills – One Size Fits One
Presenters: Cate Nicholas and Camilla Curren
March 30, 12 PM ET

Remediation of gaps in clinical skills requires an individualized approach to the learner, the problem, and the clinical setting in which the gaps are noted. Having the learner repeat a standardized patient skills encounter alone, for example, will likely not result in the desired demonstration of adequate skills which were absent on initial assessment. However, a methodical assessment of the learner’s cognitive or behavioral errors, followed by progressive coaching to an acceptable endpoint, is usually successful in achieving targeted skills acquisition. This session will discuss methods of analyzing clinical skills encounters for, and of remediating, common cognitive or behavioral learning issues in ways that are respectful of the learner and that contribute to durable improvement in clinical skills. We will specifically discuss teaching approaches that have been implemented successfully in clinical skills remediation situations. During this session the participant will learn to:

  1. Analyze the learners cognitive or behavioral error
  2. Create an individualized remediation plan
  3. Assess the effectiveness of the plan

IAMSE Spring Web Seminar Series: “Sharing Assessment Information: Why, How, and What to Consider”

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Sharing Assessment Information: Why, How, and What to Consider
Presenter: Lynn Cleary
March 23, 12 PM ET

Competencies in medical education are developed longitudinally, and competency is rarely achieved within one course, clinical rotation, or educational unit. Learners gain competency at differing paces, and some require more time or practice to achieve one or another competency. Sharing assessment information across traditional course boundaries may improve efficiency and support more personalized educational experiences. As a group, educators have some ambivalence about sharing assessment information, with the greatest concern that sharing assessments may introduce bias. This webinar will summarize existing literature on the subject, the case for and against sharing assessment information, and considerations in establishing a process for sharing assessment information.

For more information and to register for the Spring 2017 Audio Seminar Series, please click here.

IAMSE Spring Web Seminar Series: “Trust and Remediation: Entrustable Professional Activities and Trust Decisions”

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Trust and Remediation: Entrustable Professional Activities and Trust Decisions
Presenter: Bryan Martin
March 16, 12 PM ET

Professionalism is difficult to define, and both professionalism and unprofessional activities are too often described in terms that resemble the old adage: “you will know it when you see it.” Activities that are difficult to define and quantitate are also difficult to remediate, and leave the educator with the difficult and frustrating task of accessing a remedial endpoint for an attribute that is difficult to define. This program will examine the important role of trust in the training of medical professionals. How do we develop, evaluate and remediate trust in the training of medical professionals? The new paradigm in undergraduate medical education assessment: Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), has made the incorporation of trust a vital part of medical education. Medical Educators and patients both want the same thing in student health care providers. The patient needs to trust that the team member who is in a learning role is knowledgeable, yet understands the limits of his/her knowledge, is compassionate, can communicate with them in a way they can understand, who will be there when needed; in a word, one they can trust. The preceptor also needs to know the learner has these attributes, and wants a student who is able to ask for, receive and react to, feedback. While it may seem obvious that trust underlies all educational and medical decision making, trust is difficult to access and even more difficult to remediate if it is lacking or lost. There is evidence that physician-learners are poor at accessing their own capabilities, making feedback a critical part of their education, and yet, honest, constructive feedback is both difficult to give and difficult to receive. EPAs may help educators give this feedback by breaking down Entrustable Professional Activities into individual competencies which can be evaluated and discussed. Using a series of case examples this webinar is designed to help the educator develop an emotional intelligence based strategy to help provide better communication and remediate trust based decision making.

For more information and to register for the Spring 2017 Audio Seminar Series, please click here.

IAMSE – Master Teacher & Master Scholar Nomination Reminder – Due 2/28

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The deadline for Master Scholar and Master Teacher nominations is drawing close! As a reminder, all nominations and application packets must be received by Brandi Hinkle (brandi@iamse.org) no later than February 28, 2017! The awards will be presented at the annual meeting in Burlington, Vermont in June, and awardees must be present.

Qualified candidates may self-nominate, or be nominated by an IAMSE colleague. Details regarding each award, required application materials, and deadlines may be found here.

IAMSE Spring Web Audio Seminar: “Remediation of ‘High Stakes’ Professional Exams”

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Remediation of “High Stakes” Professional Exams
Presenter: Aubrey Knight, Nicole Wadsworth, Pat Kenney-Moore
March 9, 12 PM ET

(USMLE Step-1, COMLEX, PANCE) Nicole Wadsworth will describe the multidisciplinary approach to identifying and supporting the students who are most at risk for failing Level 1 of the COMLEX exam.

Pat Kenney-Moore: Physician assistant education is a condensed and abbreviated version of allopathic medical education that occurs over an average of 27 months. The licensing examination for PAs (Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination or PANCE) is uniquely situated to occur after graduation, creating challenges in identifying at risk students early in order to ameliorate potentially negative outcomes after graduation. This portion of the webinar will highlight issues related to PA student remediation and the approach to graduates who are unsuccessful in passing the PANCE.

Aubrey Knight will talk about the process of preparing, monitoring progress, modifying study strategies, and remediation of students for USMLE Step 1.

For more information and to register for the Spring 2017 Audio Seminar Series, please click here.

IAMSE Spring Web Seminar Series: “Remediation of Basic Science in Integrated Blocks”

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Remediation of Basic Science in Integrated Blocks
Presenters: Giulia Bonaminio and Jeannette Guerrasio
March 2, 12 PM ET

The session will define remediation and describe the unique challenges of struggling medical students, including information to guide course directors and students through the process. Drs. Guerrasio and Bonaminio will highlight teaching tips to improve our learners’ studying and test taking skills. Examples of remediation programs will also be discussed.

For more information and to register for the Spring 2017 Audio Seminar Series, please click here.

#IAMSE17 – Katie Huggett 2017 Program Chair

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This year’s annual meeting will focus on “Delivering Evidence-Based Health Sciences Education.” We will be led in our discussions and deliberations throughout the event with internationally-renowned plenary speakers Dr. Eric Mazur, Dr. Patrick G. Croskerry, Dr. Jimmie Leppink and Dr. Jeffrey D. Karpicke and other education scholars and innovators. The conference theme will explore the evidence for effective teaching strategies and challenge us to ask difficult questions about how we teach and assess learners and the scientific evidence to support our work. This scholarly approach to health sciences education will be reflected in the meeting’s posters, oral sessions and workshops.

The Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont looks forward to welcoming you to beautiful Burlington, Vermont in June 2017. Vermont is centrally located in New England for easy access to the major metropolitan areas on the East Coast, including New York, Boston, New Jersey, Connecticut and Montreal, Canada. Consistently ranked among America’s top places to live and top college towns, Burlington is a vibrant city with downtown shopping, lakefront areas, and an active local food and craft brewing scene. There are many outdoor activity and recreational options for all ages, and the Green Mountains are only a short drive from the city. There will be much to experience so I encourage you to bring yourself, your colleagues, and your families!

Have you registered for the 2017 IAMSE Meeting yet? Register online today at www.iamseconference.org!

IAMSE Winter 2017 WAS Session 5 Highlights

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In case you missed last week’s Webcast Audio Seminar Series, here’s the highlights of the session:

Cultivating Resilience and Reducing Burnout for Health Professionals: The Power of Presence, Reflective Practice and Appreciative Dialogue
Mick Krasner MD
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

Summary:

  • The current crisis in the practice of Medicine is influenced by crises of meaning, identity, purpose and role.
  • To offset burnout, it is imperative to create capacity as individuals and organizations to build resilience and a sense of accomplishment in work life.
  • Resilience is an integrated way of learning, a capacity that can be cultivated and grown. Humans are uniquely designed for this.
  • Cultivating resilience involves reimagining how one views stress and how one sees his/her capacity to cope with stress.
  • In order to build resources for resilience, one must engage with the environment, acknowledge uncertainty, face difficulties head-on, appraise one’s relationship with stress and develop perspective-taking skills.
  • Physician well-being and burnout inform both quality of care and quality of caring.
  • Three domains characterize burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low personal accomplishment. Negative physical, social and psychological environments influence these domains.
  • There is no “one size fits all” for interventions to address burnout. However, the literature provides many examples of different interventions that have had positive effects in the burnout domains. (Kearney, JAMA, 2009, West et al. Lancet, 2016, West et al. JAMA, 2014, Krasner et al. JAMA, 2009, Beckman et al. Academic Medicine, 2013).
  • Strategies for addressing burnout and cultivating well-being include: mindfulness, appreciative inquiry and communication and narrative medicine (crafting stories).
  • Participation in a mindful communication program yielded positive results. Participants identified three domains for enhancing wellness: establishing a sense of community, skills development and self-care (giving oneself permission to take time for self-development).
  • Wellness is not just for the “at risk” and “floundering;” it needs to be integrated into the formal and hidden curricula and prioritized and institutionalized at all levels of education.

Registration for the Spring WAS Series is now open! Click here for more information or to register today.

IAMSE – 2017 Board of Directors Slate Online

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We are pleased to present the Nominating Committee’s slate of candidates for the 2017 election of members for the Board of Directors of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE). In accordance with our bylaws, the committee has delivered these names and supporting materials for posting to our website. We now invite you to review the individuals and their qualifications. Click here to view the slate.

This information will remain posted throughout the month of February, and on March 1st an electronic ballot will be activated. At that time, IAMSE members in good standing will be invited to select three (3) of the candidates for the position of Director.

Write-in candidates will be accepted until Wednesday, February 15th. To qualify for nomination by petition, each candidate must have the support of at least 15 IAMSE members in good standing. All petitions and letters must be addressed to and received by Brandi Hinkle (brandi@iamse.org) on or before midnight Eastern Time (GMT-5).

IAMSE Winter 2017 WAS Session 4 Highlights

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In case you missed last week’s Webcast Audio Seminar (WAS) Session, here are the highlights of this session:

The Imperative for Incorporating Mind-Body Medicine in Health Professions Education
Aviad Haramati PhD
Georgetown University School of Medicine

Summary:

  • There is abundant evidence in the literature underscoring the prevalence and impact of physician burnout.
  • Physician burnout is a serious issue that is preceded by declines in empathy and well-being in medical school.
  • Medical schools have a responsibility to prepare graduates for the rigors of the medical profession through curricular interventions that help to manage stress, foster empathy and build resilience. Mind-Body Medicine is one such approach. These interventions need to be fully integrated into the institutional culture.
  • Practicing mindfulness can reduce burnout and increase empathy by modulating the physiologic stress response to help individuals “de-stress” and bring their stress hormones back to baseline.
  • Mind-Body therapies include the following: Meditation, Imagery, Biofeedback, Self-Hypnosis, Breathing Techniques, Exercise, Yoga/Tai Chi and Group Support.
  • Georgetown University instituted a voluntary Mind-Body Medicine program for medical students which utilizes a skills development platform that is designed to cultivate self-awareness, self-care and personal growth. Key components of this Mind-Body Medicine intervention include: fostering engagement by faculty and medical students, non-marginalization of Mind- Body participants, maintenance of confidentiality and group support. Data collected indicate that an increase in mindfulness correlates with a decrease in perceived stress. For further information about this program, contact Dr. Haramati at haramati@georgetown.edu.
  • Mindful practice and enhancing self-consciousness, self-care and a sense of meaning in work are elements that need to be actively integrated into the curriculum and culture at academic health centers.
  • Burnout is an issue that extends across all health professions. It is an issue that needs to be taken seriously with the understanding that the status quo is not acceptable.

For more information on the final session or to register, please click here.