Welcome to the FMCH Tuesday Talk. Please continue to send us your announcements, celebrations, and accomplishments to FMCHtuesdaytalk@umassmed.edu.
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Table of Contents
Upcoming Events
Focus of the Week - Diversity
Announcements
Frankly Speaking Podcast
Department Member Recognition
Faculty Presentations/Publications
Clinical Services Spotlight
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Message from the Vice Chair of Education
Please welcome Philip Day, PhD as our new Associate Director of Education. Philip comes to us from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Medical School where he served as Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Family and Community Medicine. He was the associate program director of the Community Health Fellowship Program, advised on ethics, and served on the IRB at UTSW; he also serves on US EPA’s Human Subject Review Board. One of his areas of expertise is supporting scholarship. He worked with students, residents, fellows, and faculty at UTSW and looks to be similarly involved here. His PhD is in Philosophy (Applied Ethics). He is familiar with Massachusetts and our weather after completing his master's degree at BC but will need to figure out our zone for gardening up north.
Dr. Day will be working with faculty and programs across the department to expand the assessment and dissemination of our innovative educational work. Stacy Potts will be scheduling opportunities for him to get to know the department over the next two weeks. Don't hesitate to reach out if you would like to set up a meeting.
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Upcoming Events
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health Septemberfest!
Hopkinton State Park, Saturday, September 25th,11:00 – 3:00pm.
Barbecue, activities for the kids, canoe, sailboat and kayak rentals
Don't miss out on the fun at Septemberfest. Please RSVP to Jennifer Masoud by Friday, September 10th to reserve your spot. Include the number and names of everyone in your party.
Carpooling is recommended as the parking lot fills up fast on weekends.
The WFMR is happy to announce a Fall Resident Retreat date
10/5/21 8am to 5pm at Camp Selah, Orange, MA
We appreciate faculty who will be doing additional service to allow the residents this important wellness and team building time. Also, residency faculty who are interested and able to be free are invited to join. Please mark your calendars and contact Hilda Alers for further details.
American Board of Family Medicine Maintenance of Certification
KSA (SAM) Workshop: “Care of Children”
Thursday, November 18, 2021, 8:00 – 10:00 AM
WEBINAR (no need to leave your desk) Link will be sent prior to 11/18/2021
We will complete the latest (just released) 60 question Care of Children KSA via a virtual CME event. You will record your answers while we work through the KSA, then after completion, log into your ABFM account and enter the results and claim your CME credits through the ABFM. Successful Completion of the Knowledge Self-Assessment (KSA) Module is eligible for up to 10 ABFM Credit Hours.
See the attached invitation for a WEBINAR to complete the ABFM KSA: Caring for Children. To register, please complete and follow the directions on the attached registration form.
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Focus of the Week - Diversity
We’re keeping it short this month to draw attention to this request for your input:
Please share your thoughts as we develop a departmental diversity plan that responds to identified needs among our faculty, staff, and learners on both the school and clinical sides. Your participation in this survey will help us to see where we are as a department and will direct meaningful, data-driven action toward a more inclusive workplace. This survey is intended for faculty, staff, and learners who identify as current members of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (FMCH). Your responses are anonymous and data will only be shared in ways that protect individual identities. Please get your responses in before Friday, September 17th. Thank you.
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Announcements
Annual Compliance Training, due today!
The Annual Required Education completion for UMass Memorial Health System has been extended until August 31, 2021.
STEP UP
Program Dates: September 1st, 2021 to October 31st, 2021.
Using your smart phone and/or smart watch track the number of steps each week and enter it into the data base link that will be sent out at the end of each week by your designated team leader. You can choose your own team, designate a name for your team and a leader who can keep track of data by each team member using a smart link. Your team leader will complete the first sign up survey after which we will create a “team link” for you where each member of your team can enter their own numbers/data. It will take less than a minute for the whole week’s activity tracking. Incentive: Improve team bonding, improved physical activity, friendships among co-workers, recognition in the Tuesday Talk and system wide recognition at the end of the program.
Massachusetts Latent Tuberculosis Infection (LTBI) ECHO. Come join us!
What? Massachusetts Latent TB Infection ECHO, a virtual case-based telementoring educational model.
Who? Primary care interdisciplinary team members (providers, nurses, social workers, community health workers, patient navigators, etc.).
Why? The USPSTF guidelines urge primary care teams to test high risk populations for TB & treat latent TB infection within primary care.
When? Thursday 12:15 - 1:15pm for 11 monthly sessions; 10/14/21, 11/18/21, 12/16/21, 1/13/22, 2/17/22, 3/17/22, 4/21, 5/26/22, 6/16/22, 7/21/22, 9/15/22.
This course is designed for beginners and more advanced practitioners. Those who are new to LTBI management will receive introductory material from our previous LTBI ECHO courses. We welcome previous course participants to join for new curriculum content and more advanced considerations in LTBI management.
Curriculum content includes:
- Latent TB infection testing and treatment recap
- Short course regimen considerations
- Ruling out TB disease - advanced considerations
- LTBI advanced testing and treatment considerations in special populations (i.e., pediatrics, pregnant people, liver disease)
- CME available
Teaching of Tomorrow (TOT)
January 7-8 and March 25-26, 2022
Registration is Open!
For over 25 years, UMass faculty from the departments of Family Medicine and Community Health, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics have trained over 1,500 clinical faculty and preceptors from across the Northeast and beyond. TOT focuses on building and refining foundational skills for effective clinical teaching in both the inpatient and ambulatory settings. Preceptors from any specialty and discipline will enhance their clinical teaching skills through discourse and practice. TOT also provides valuable opportunities to network with other clinician educators. Our award-winning faculty utilize the principles of adult learning, drawing on participants’ experience and building knowledge through dialogue. The conference provides frequent opportunities to practice and assess new skills in a safe and fun environment.
Audience:
- Clinical educators – MDs, DOs, NPs, PAs, RNs, Behavioral Health, Pharmacists
- Primary Care and Specialty providers
- Teachers of students, residents, and advanced learners
- Teachers in both In-patient and Ambulatory settings
Acting Patients Applicants Needed
Acting Patients will work independently to accurately portray specific emotions, behaviors and symptoms while interacting with participants of our Motivational Interviewing Program.
The actor may serve as a standardized patient with various health issues including smoking, anxiety, hypertension, and prescription opioid use. If interested, or know someone, please see attached Acting Patients Job Description for more details and contact Amy.Green@umassmed.edu.
Medical School Applicant Interviews
The School of Medicine is seeking raters for the Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI) to choose the next class of medical students. It is a great opportunity to meet enthusiastic MD applicants. Please forward any questions to Stacy Potts at stacy.potts@umassmemorial.org or Brenda Fusaro at brenda.fusaro@umassmed.edu. Here is the doodle link for the training sessions:
Trying to Keep Up with the Literature?
The department pulls together the tables of contents (TOCs) for about 15 medical journals and distributes this bundle monthly to a select listserve that people can easily sign up for. The TOCs include 4-5 FM journals, JAMA, NEJM, AJPH, Health Affairs, Medical Care, JGIM, Am J Prev Med; etc. – lots of great articles that can easily be accessed through links within the bundle. We are also open to adding more journals if there’s an interest expressed! Take a look at what's been posted in the past several months by going to the department's web pages under the section on Research. You will see a tab in the left-hand margin for these TOC bundles that we post monthly (www.umassmed.edu/fmch/research)
Call for Participation in Research Study
Greetings from the Family Medicine & Community Health Department!
We are searching for Healthcare Providers (e.g., nurses, doctors, clerkship or resident students, behavioral health providers, etc.) who have experience working with chronic pain patients to take part in a 90-minute Teleconference Interview/Focus Group. It will help us evaluate GEMINI (H00017069), an online tool that’s goal is to provide patients with integrative medicine tools that can be used in their daily lives, and to host online telemedicine groups made up of patients and providers.
- Research Study Expectations
- Answer a brief (15 minute) survey about your professional background and experience with medical group visits and telemedicine programs.
- Participate in a 90-minute (at most) structured interview/focus group during which you will be introduced to GEMINI and asked for feedback.
- You can earn $50 for your time and participation.
We need your help to understand 1) the features that you expect to see in GEMINI; 2) the benefits that you expect from GEMINI for your work specifically and for other professionals with similar roles in general; and 3) the barriers to adoption of GEMINI that you foresee in your practice and in other similar organizations.
If you are interested in participating in our research study or would like to learn more, contact Diana Rinker (Research Coordinator) by phone at 774-314-9509 or email at diana.rinker@umassmed.edu.
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Frankly Speaking Podcast
A weekly Podcast series covering newsworthy topics in primary care medicine.
Join us to discuss the CDC's new guidelines for the management of sexually transmitted infections due to Neisseria gonorrhoeae. You'll walk away with recommendations for how to address urogenital, rectal and pharyngeal infections. You'll also discover alternative regimens for patients allergic to first-line therapy and understand how to manage coinfection with chlamydia. Guest: Alan Ehrlich, MD, FAAFP presents: Update From the CDC: New Gonorrhea Guidelines - Frankly Speaking Ep 239.
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Department Member Recognition
Thanks to Nick Hajj for a superb tutorial on Epic for the scribe fellows in the pilot Scribe Fellowship!
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Faculty Presentations/Publications
As part of the HRSA Training Grant on Oral Health Integration in Primary Care Training, several department members recently published on work they did developing and validating a tool for programs to assess their oral health curriculum and identify ways to enhance it with numerous resources provided.
Savageau JA, Sullivan K, Hargraves JL, Silk H. Oral Health Curriculum Evaluation Tool (OHCET) for Primary Care Training Programs. Journal of Dental Education 2021:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1002/jdd.12750.
On August 26th, Dan Mullin, PsyD, MPH delivered a 4 hour workshop for the Texas Department of State Health Services entitled “Women, Addiction and SBIRT: Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment”. Workshop participants included family physicians, obstetricians, neonatologists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and recovery coaches.
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Clinical Services Spotlight: |
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COVID-19 UPDATES
CDC and FDA Changes
- The CDC no longer recommends the Shanghai Dasheng’s N95 mask for emergency use for healthcare workers after it was revoked by the FDA.
- The federal government has evaluated plans to roll out COVID booster immunizations and recently stated that boosters may be available in late September.
COVID MA
- MA had its highest days of increase in COVID cases on Thursday and Friday of last week: 1,793 and 1,591 cases respectively.
- The state's total confirmed cases are 703,961. The 7-day average of cases is 1,005. The 7-day positivity rate is 2.75%.
- Number of hospitalizations 572 with 149 in the ICU and 78 intubated. There are 17,847 confirmed deaths.
- Several MA cities and towns have issued mandatory indoor mask mandates.
COVID UMass Medical Center
- Seven day average number of inpatients with COVID is 28 as of 8/29/21. Ventilation rate 51%.
- Inpatient COVID patients that are fully vaccinated - 25%.
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The 7-day positivity rate is 7.6%.
COVID Vaccines
According to the CDC, the following persons should receive an additional dose of the COVID vaccine:
- Moderately to severely immunocompromised individuals.
- Those receiving active cancer or tumor treatment.
- Those who have received an organ transplant and are taking medication to suppress the immune system.
- Untreated or advanced HIV.
- Active treatment with high-dose steroids or other drugs that suppress the immune system.
Telehealth Visits and Payment Reimbursement Parity Reminder
- As of June 15th, the State of Emergency was lifted.
- All services that can be delivered by telehealth will continue permanently.
- Behavioral Health audio-visual and audio-only will continue to be reimbursed in parity with in-person visits.
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Primary Care and Chronic Disease management services will be reimbursed at parity until the end of the calendar year 2022.
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The requirement to reimburse all other services at parity will no longer be mandated after September 13, 2021.
- Passed by the Massachusetts Legislature, Chapter 260, January 2021.
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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.
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Yoga Classes with Dr. Liz Erban
Please join department members for early morning gentle yoga, Wednesday mornings 6:30am via Zoom.
Much appreciation to Dr. Erban for hosting these outstanding classes. Join Zoom Meeting
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Zumba with Dr. Anna Zheng
Zumba Holiday
No class the week of September 6th.
Class resumes Monday, September 13th.
Please join department members Monday mornings at 6:00am over ZOOM, Thursday evenings at 6:15pm**(30 Anna Street, NEW tall, spacious indoor location), some Saturday mornings at 9:15am and get moving with Zumba. Please note details and any changes via webpage: http://annazheng.zumba.com/. ZOOM still possible for all classes.
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