Welcome to the FMCH Tuesday Talk. Please continue to send us your announcements, celebrations, and accomplishments to FMCHtuesdaytalk@umassmed.edu. |
|
Table of Contents
Message From The Chair
Upcoming Events
Focus of the Week - Community
Announcements
Department Member Recognition
Frankly Speaking Podcast
Clinical Services Spotlight
|
|
Message From The Chair
Our Annual Faculty Retreat will be held this Friday. We look forward to reconnecting and continuing our strategic planning for the future. We are mindful of the increase in community spread of COVID and the increase in hospitalizations. To gather safely, we will mask indoors, eat outdoors, and as an added precaution, ask everyone to test within 24 hours of the event.
In the category of small victories, we finally have confirmation that we may resume using the primary care exception for commercially insured patients.
Sadly, I want to acknowledge another horrific act of hatred and racism. A white supremacist shot and killed 10 in a Buffalo supermarket. This uniquely American combination of racism, gun violence, and social media reflects a deepening crisis. I know we all grieve together for the victims and their families, for the Buffalo community, and all who are further traumatized by another act of terror. I am overwhelmed by the work to be done to create a safe and inclusive world, but I know we will work together to support our community and do our part to find solutions.
|
|
Upcoming Events
Department of Medicine Virtual Lecture Series Spring 2022
Wednesday, May 18th, 12:00 - 1:00 pm. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS, presents: "Can Digital Medicine Advance Health Equity?"
Meeting ID: 96760350573 Passcode: 585921
Spring Department of Family Medicine and Community Health Faculty Retreat:
Vision 2030 - The Next Chapter for FMCH
Save the Date: Friday - May 20, 2022
8:00am-6:00pm
Plan for in-person retreat at South Street Campus, Shrewsbury
FMCH Grand Rounds
Tuesday, May 24th, 12:00 - 1:00 pm. Elizabeth Bobersky, MD, presents: "Urinary Incontinence".
Meeting ID: 191 986 273 Passcode: FMCH
Surgical Grand Rounds
Wednesday, May 25th, 7:00 - 8:00 am. Utibe Essien, MD, MPH, presents: "The Urgency of Now: Sustaining Antiracism in Academic Medicine".
Meeting ID: 95677566224 Passcode: 908061
FMCH Grand Rounds
Tuesday, May 31st, 12:00 - 1:00 pm. Constance van Eeghen, DrPH, MHSA, MBA, presents: "Effecting Change in Primary Care that Benefits Patients and Providers: What Makes It Easy, What Makes It Hard, and What to Expect Next for Opioid Prescribing and Integrating Care".
Meeting ID: 191 986 273 Passcode: FMCH
|
|
Focus of the Week - Community
The Community Health of Family Medicine and Community Health
The World Health Organization defines Community Health as “the environmental, social and economic resources to sustain emotional and physical well-being among people in ways that advance their aspirations and satisfy their needs in their unique environment.” Given this rather broad definition, it’s challenging to describe and measure accomplishments of the community health dimension of the department. At a time when the leadership of community health is changing with Suzanne Cashman’s retirement and Warren Ferguson stepping back from his role as Vice Chair at the end of June, the department’s strategic planning retreat is well timed. Listening sessions over the last number of months have led to a synopsis of priorities advanced by faculty, staff and learners are summarized here and will form as a starting point for this Friday’s efforts. We look forward to creating some tangible action items toward a vision for the department in 2030.
A. Think outside Worcester for Community Health. The department’s reach includes much of Worcester County and beyond.
B. Partnerships in the department.
- AHEC and NEAETC grants are strengths but have not realized full potential or integration.
-
Reduce barriers for collaboration with Family Health Center of Worcester and Edward M. Kennedy Health Center.
C. Partnerships outside the department.
- Collaborations with other academic departments, Commonwealth Medicine and state government entities are opportunities.
D. Faculty and staff achieve community health goals, but the impact is hard to measure.
E. We do not publicize as much as we should.
-
Need to connect the dots better across department, community, and institution. i. Department goals for CH should align with UMass Chan goal
F. Need community voice in our CH goals and work.
-
Strategize for community-oriented funding, programs, and research. i. PCORI, NEAETC/AHEC, PBRN?
- Involve students in CH Research i. MD-MPH?
G. V2030: Robust integration of community into research and education.
-
Involved in new faculty and resident orientations to introduce community partners.
- Robust, quality primary care that is recognized and respected by the institution.
H. Publicize our CH work more.
- Share nationally and try to attract philanthropy/foundation money.
- Need to inform UMass Chan leadership to keep more aware of our CH work.
I. More attention and integration of patients’ social health needs.
J. Pathway to create workforce from and reflective of community (needs).
|
|
Announcements
Mike Ennis is accepting nominations for the annual Ann Nemitz Award, given to a student in the graduating class who emulates Ann’s values and is going into Family Medicine. The spirit of this award emanates from the way Ann Nemitz practiced medicine. Her guiding principle, from which all of her behavior followed, was that it was truly "a privilege to serve" others. Ann was humble, self-forgetting, and compassionate. A staunch patient and student/resident advocate, Ann naturally put others first and approached everyone with kindness and respect. She laughed at herself. She was a passionate activist for family medicine, particularly women's health and family-centered maternity care. Contact Mike at Michael.Ennis@umassmemorial.org.
FMEC Annual Conference - Opportunity for Students
Student Scholarships are available for the FMEC annual conference in Arlington Virginia September 16-18th. Please encourage students with interest in Family Medicine to attend. There is a call for student poster presentations open until July 30th if they have an interesting project to present this is a great opportunity.
|
|
Department Member Recognition
Congratulations to Melanie Gnazzo for receiving the Outstanding Community Service Award from the Women’s Faculty Committee. She will be honored on May 24th.
|
|
Frankly Speaking Podcast
A weekly Podcast series covering newsworthy topics in primary care medicine.
Please join us for an overview: The concerns over the use of NSAIDs have been well documented. The medications can raise blood pressure and have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke when used long term. These known risks, supported by the FDS's warning in 2005, has prompted many clinicians to prescribe acetaminophen instead. But do acetaminophen products confer a lower risk of cardiovascular effects? Join us for this episode to review the results from recent trials assessing similar blood pressure effects from regular use of acetaminophen. Guest: Robert A. Baldor, MD, FAAFP, presents: "Does Acetaminophen Increase Stroke Risk?". - Frankly Speaking Ep 276.
|
|
Clinical Services Spotlight: |
|
COVID-19 UPDATES
COVID MA
- 4,654 new cases in the last 7 days.
- The 7-day average percent positivity is 8.68%.
- Worcester Stop-the-Spread test positivity has increased to 13%.
- No. of total confirmed cases in MA, 1,663,904; total confirmed deaths, 19,252.
- There are 729 patients hospitalized with 64 in the ICU and 22 intubated.
UMMMC
- The current 7-day positivity rate is 22.9%. The asymptomatic rate has increased to 5.2%.
- Current COVID hospitalizations are 78 across the system, and 61 at the medical center.
- Employees out due to COVID: 85 since Friday, with 7 day rolling average of 35/day.
COVID US
- Total confirmed cases, 84,230,829.
- Confirmed deaths to date are 1,026,670.
- During the omicron surge, 73% of deaths were among those 65 years old or older.
- Six out of 10 Americans have had COVID-19.
New cCOVID-19 vaccine restrictions for Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
Recently new restrictions have been placed on J and J vaccine for the following groups due to increased concern for blood clots with thrombosis with thrombocytopenia.
- Vaccine EUA is limited to those persons 18 years and older for whom other vaccines are not available or appropriate.
- They would not get the vaccine otherwise.
- People who experienced an anaphylactic reaction after having an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, like those made by Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech.
|
|
Wellness Resources
The Caring for the Caregiver Program provides resources such as the Caregiver Support Line (508-334-HELP) and The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) which offers a variety of services and supports (including virtual peer support and wellness tips. EAP can be accessed at 866-263-3525, or www.LiveandWorkWell.com, [company code UmassMemorial]. More information is available on the Caring for the Caregiver page.
Wellness
You are invited to become a member of the Department Wellness Committee. Key goals for this year include improving the efficiency of use with the Electronic Health Record. Watch your email for future training sessions.
|
|
Yoga Classes with Dr. Liz Erban
Classes have resumed on May 4th, 2022.
Great time to join!
This is a great time to join, new members always welcome. Start your mid week with some relaxing yoga!
Please join for early morning gentle yoga, Wednesday mornings 6:30am via Zoom.
Join Zoom Meeting ID: 923 9393 3653 Passcode: 764113
|
|
|
Zumba with Dr. Anna Zheng
All classes both in-person and over ZOOM are on hold until week of Thursday, June 23rd
Much appreciation to Dr. Anna Zheng for hosting these outstanding classes. New to the class? Please email Dr. Zheng at ZumbawithAnnaZheng@gmail.com to register, complete brief health screen if it's your first class and the ZOOM link.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
