Table of Contents

Upcoming Events

Message from the Chair

Focus of the Week - Community

Announcements

Faculty Presentations/Publications

Frankly Speaking Podcast

Clinical Services Spotlight

Upcoming Events

FMCH Grand Rounds - Steven L. Putterman, MD Memorial Lecture

Tuesday, September 20th, 12:00 - 1:00 pm. "Building Alliances and Sharing Power for Health Equity and Racial Justice", presented by Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH.

Meeting ID: 191 986 273 Passcode: FMCH

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/191986273?pwd=NEtlZmNkdWlSUGwyeTJQU3dCeUs1QT09

Psychiatry Grand Rounds 

Thursday, September 22nd, 12:00 - 1:00 pm. "A Neuro Psychiatric Approach to Functional Neurological Disorder", presented by David L. Perez, MD, MMSc, FAAN, FANPA. To reserve lunch, RSVP your in person (in person for UMASS/UMassMemorial employees only at this time) attendance to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R5P29DR

Meeting ID: 818 349 233 Passcode: PsychGR1

https://umassmed.zoom.us/j/818349233?pwd=VVRDNUxZZmF4K3NqNXppTHJiVmNSUT09

Message from the Chair

This week I want to call attention to some recent good news.

First, the Medical Center announced the launch of Tuition.io, an app that helps to ease the burden of applying for Loan Forgiveness for benefits eligible employees. Clinicians who work for a non-profit and have made 120 payments may apply for the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The process has been described as difficult, but tuition.io provides services to make the process less burdensome or more likely to be successful. See the recent email from Dr. Bird with times of upcoming webinars.

Second, the medical center has announced enhancements to the tuition reimbursement benefit (to a max of $5250 for full time employees).  And starting in Jan 2023, the medical center will offer loan repayment for non-union caregivers up to $5250/year. This benefit will be extended to those who do not qualify for PSLF. More to come in the coming weeks- right now they are focused on PSLF.

Third, the newly formed Center for Digital Solutions has announced the first round of “DIGI grants.” These are focused on small scope, fast turnaround tech-enabled solutions that can improve quality, patient experience or clinician experience. These are intended to develop scalable solutions and are not research projects. All projects have in kind IT support and 40K for faculty support. The deadline for the first round of proposals is 11/22/22. More information at https://www.ummhealth.org/physicians/medical-group-home/physicians/grant-opportunities/digital-health-insights-grant-digi-grant. 

Focus of the Week - Community

Thank you to all who hosted rising second year medical students as part of our Summer Community Health Assistantship. Students share their learning through brief narrated posters on the OUME website. We invite you to look at the progress toward community health made by 16 of our most engaged learners on topics ranging from patient education to food insecurity. https://umassmed.sharepoint.com/sites/oume/SitePages/Service-Learning-Assistantship-Program.aspx  

The New England AIDS Education and Training Center (NEAETC), under the leadership of Philip Bolduc and Vanessa Carson-Sasso, recently presented two sessions and three posters at the 2022 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment, August 23-26. 

Presentations included:  

• Where There is No Classroom: Remote Learning Transformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic  
• Designing and Implementing an HIV Community Health Worker Advisory Group: An EHE Initiative in Massachusetts  

Posters included: 

• Implementing an HIV Ambulatory Curriculum in Internal Medicine Residency Programs  
• Staff in Ryan White Centers Demonstrate Improved Awareness Related to PrEP 
• Practice Transformation: Improvements in Outcomes Along the HIV Care Continuum at Clinics in New England 

We’re excited to celebrate the ribbon-cutting for the new HARBOR Program. HARBOR (Healthcare, Advocacy, Room, Board, Outreach, Rehousing) is an expansion of the LIFT (Living in Freedom Together) drop-in center with a 15-bed low barrier-maximum vulnerability shelter for survivors of the sex trade. Faculty in our department including Jillian Joseph are able to supplement the care provided by HARBOR through regular visits of the Road to Care mobile service launched this summer. 

This fall's Population and Community Health Clerkship promises to be full of engagement, as all second year medical and graduate nursing students are sorted into 29 small groups exploring a range of populations while learning about the value of considering community-level determinants of health and care interventions. We invite you to save the date to join events listed in our "Shared Calendar" between October 24-November 4 including our virtual Presentation Day. Details and zoom links can be found as they become available on our PCHC website: https://sites.google.com/view/pchc22/calendars  

Virtual events open to all include:

• Wednesday, October 26th, 2:00pm: Universal Primary Care Proposal: Join Wayne Altman MD FAAFP and Katherine Gergen-Barnett MD for a discussion centered on the lack of access to primary care and an incredible proposal gaining support in the state house to revise funding of primary care in a manner that would provide universal access for all residents of MA in a prepaid Per Member Per Month model.
• Thursday, October 27th, 2:00-5:00pm: A Place to Breathe (https://underexposedfilms.com/a-place-to-breathe), a film that focuses in part on the work of the Metta Health Center in Lowell and on immigrant and refugee healthcare generally. We'll screen the film together then have a panel discussion with the filmmakers, Michelle Steinberg and Robyn Bykofsky, from Underexposed Films.
• Wednesday, November 2nd, 9:00am: Population and Community Health Management from the Clinical Perspective - Dr. Thomas Scornavacca, UMass Memorial Office for Clinical Integration
• Wednesday, November 2nd, 10:00am: Linking Social Determinant of Health Screening to Effective Referrals Utilizing Community-Based Resources - Kathleen Franco-Anthony and Denise Murphy, UMass Memorial CommunityHELP Team
• Wednesday, November 2nd, 12:00pm: Community Engagement for Health and Connection - Family physician, Dr. Erban will describe her experiences with the Walk With a Doc program and lessons learned through engaged activity with her patients in the community setting. 
• Thursday, November 3rd, 12:00-2:00pm: MassHealth Basics Every Provider Should Know: (time still tentative) This presentation will be developed by the students on the MassHealth team to share with their peers. This was the most-ranked team in the clerkship, with many students sharing their desire to improve their understanding of MA Medicaid program we call MassHealth. This presentation will allow the team to share the most valuable information with a wider audience.
• Friday, November 4th, 9:00-11:00am and 1:00-3:00 pm: Presentation Day: All teams from both Worcester and PURCH programs will give 20 minute presentations followed by 10 minutes for Q&A. 

An Opportunity to Engage with the Community During Work Hours - for UMASSMED employees. UMass Chan Medical School has adopted a Volunteer Time Policy which will provide eligible employees with 16 hours of paid time off to volunteer during regular business hours. This new policy, effective on February 9th, 2022, supports those in the UMass Chan community who have the capacity and desire to serve the broader community through volunteer efforts and will serve to enhance our ties to the communities we serve. Below is an overview of the policy as well as steps that must be taken to use the Volunteer Time Off benefit.

Policy Overview

• Sixteen hours of paid time off per calendar year for employees to use to volunteer during regular business hours (time must be used in increments of at least four hours).
• Prior supervisor approval is required for use of volunteer time.
• Volunteer service must take place at eligible nonprofit organizations, public schools or UMass Chan designated initiatives and may not include political or religious activity.
• Volunteer time may not be carried over into a new year.

Steps in Process for Using Volunteer Time

1. Employee explores volunteer opportunities, contacts eligible nonprofit organization and makes preliminary arrangements to volunteer on a particular date.
2. Employee completes Step 1 of Volunteer Time Off Form and seeks supervisor approval.
3. If approved by supervisor, employee completes volunteer service and completes Step 2 on the Volunteer Time Off Form, indicating that they served and providing a name and contact information for person at organization where the volunteer service took place.
4. Employee submits completed form to supervisor and supervisor submits to HR.
5. Employee fills out time sheet using “VSL” code with number of volunteer hours used.

Tracking of Time

Managers will be responsible for tracking volunteer time and will be provided with a reporting tool in Summit in the next few weeks. 

Questions and Resources

The Office of Community and Government Relations (OCGR) SharePoint site contains links to the policy, FAQ document, eligible nonprofits and the Volunteer Time Off Form. Questions on the policy and the process for the use of paid volunteer time may be directed to OCGR@UMassmed.edu.

Announcements

Transitions/Open Medical Director position at Benedict

From Josephine Fowler, MD, MBA: I am pleased to share that the UMass Chan has increased its support of the important role of the 3rd year clerkship directors. As a result, Dr. Mary Lindholm will be stepping down from her medical director role and shifting her time to, as she says, "care for her patients and care for the clerkship." Mary has served as Benedict's Medical Director for five years and I am grateful for her leadership. Mary has led Benedict to excellence in quality and patient care. Anyone from the Benedict practice who is interested in stepping into this role should contact me for more information at Josephine.Fowler@umassmemorial.org.

Med Moth is looking for speakers at its fall event, scheduled for October 12th at 5:30pm in the Albert Sherman Center Multi-Purpose Room (Cafeteria). Med Moth is an event based on The Moth Story Hour where 6-8 members of the UMass Community (SOM, GSN, GSBS, and Baystate) share stories for 5-10 minutes each. Past talks have been about the speaker's journey into medicine, meaningful patient encounters, or other experiences that have shaped one's personal or professional identity in health care. Some have been humorous (a horrible first day of internship) and others have been more serious (coping with the guilt of making a medical error) but the topic is up to the speaker. We seek to highlight a diverse collection of voices and capture the richness of experiences of the members of our UMass-Chan community. Those interested in sharing a story can contact the event organizers, Sean Boyden (sean.boyden@umassmed.edu or Eve Manghis (eve.manghis@umassmed.edu) for more information. Talks do not need to be scripted or pre-approved.

Drs. Judson Brewer and Lia Antico in conjunction with the Brown Mindfulness Center is conducting a research study to test if a short mindfulness-based training is effective at reducing burnout in physicians. Participants must be physicians. If you are a physician and you are interested in helping us to learn about burnout, please contact Brown affiliated contact person at burnout-research@brown.edu. Use of this message for recruiting participants has been approved by Brown's Human Research Protection Program. Protocol # 2022003296. 

Calling All Fellows and Chief Residents

The FMCH Fellows and Chief Residents are invited to a dinner gathering and get to know each other on September 29th, 2022, 6:30 - 8:30pm. Location TBD.

Please RSVP through your Outlook invite or contact Erica White at Erica.white@umassmemorial.org.

Faculty Presentations/Publications



Hugh Silk presented a Primary Care Grand Rounds on September13th at Reliant in Worcester on the topic of Using Medical Humanities - A Pathway to Better Medicine and a Better You.

Frankly Speaking Podcast

A weekly Podcast series covering newsworthy topics in primary care medicine.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frankly-speaking-about-family-medicine/id1194659367.

Please join us for an overview: Fibromyalgia is a common and difficult to diagnose disease, with highly subjective symptoms. Another challenge is that treatment is dependent on a patient's implementation lifestyle changes. This brief podcast walks you through the diagnosis of fibromyalgia and offers best evidence on effective treatments. Guest: Susan Feeney, DNP, FNP-BC, NP-C, presents: "The Best Evidence for Treating Fibromyalgia". - Frankly Speaking Ep 294.

COVID-19 UPDATES

Moving Forward- COVID-19 MA

• Wastewater is being monitored in MA; Boston's level of COVID in wastewater has increased in the last 3 days.  
• COVID cases in MA have also increased with 7,936 new cases in the last report over the last 7 days.
• The 7-day average of percent positivity is 7.32%.
• On 9/13, there were 182 patients hospitalized with a COVID-19-related illness and 591 hospitalized with COVID.  
• This includes 48 patients in the ICU and 14 intubated. 
• The total confirmed deaths from COVID in MA is 20,206 and 38 in the last 7 days. 

COVID-19 UMMMC

• The 7-day average of percent positivity is 12.2% up from 10% 7 days ago. 
• In-house as of 9/18 with confirmed positive COVID: 33 with 5 in the ICU.
• Of the 33, 53% are fully vaccinated including 4 of the 5 in the ICU.

Monkeypox in the US

• There are 23,499 cases in the US. 
• MA has 364 cases. 
• Provider information regarding the vaccine guidelines and locations can be found at the link below. 
• https://www.mass.gov/info-details/monkeypox-information-for-health-care-providers
• States with the most cases include:
• California 4,656
• New York 3,738
• Florida 2,352
• Texas 2,017

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.