UMass FMCH Tuesday Talk - February 11, 2025/EDUCATION

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 - Education

Announcements

Scholarship Opportunities

Department Member Recognition

Publications and Presentations

Frankly Speaking Podcast

Resources

Message From the Chair

Don’t forget to register for our 50th Anniversary Celebration & Reunion on March 15th UMass Family Medicine at 50: Staying Focused on Access, Equity, and Justice in collaboration with the MassAFP spring refresher. Register here! Saturday afternoon will kick off with a casual networking lunch followed by a program that explores the role of family medicine in health and health justice and culminate with a networking reception. We have received corporate sponsorship to defray some of the costs of the event, so the ticket price is just $75. You can also make a charitable donation to fund the attendance of a medical student or resident supporting our focus on the next 50 years of family medicine. Registrations must be received by February 24th.

Upcoming Events

FMCH Grand Rounds

Tuesday, February 11th, 12:00 - 1:00pm, "MSK X-Rays: Clinical Pearls and Cases", 

presented by Lee Mancini, MD, CAQSM, FAAFP, CSCS*D, CSN, John Campagna, MD, MPH, and Chad Beattie, MD.

Meeting ID: 191 986 273 Passcode: FMCH

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

STFM's Medical Student Educators Development Institute (MSEDI) is now accepting applications for its 2025-2026 fellowship class through March 4th. This 18-month fellowship offers training, tools, and support for faculty who educate medical students and is particularly suited to those who aspire to be clerkship directors or medical student education directors. MSEDI Fellows build skills in developing curriculum, advising students, and recruiting & maintaining preceptor networks. Apply or learn more at 

https://stfm.org/MSEDI

Peers for Promotion

Assistant Professors in the non-tenure track who are considering going up for promotion can apply now for the Peers for Promotion Program, which helps prepare and support faculty through the process. Applications are due February 20th and include:

• Completed application
• Current CV in the UMass Chan format(uploaded as part of application submission)
• Signed Chair/Division Chief Support Form (you will download the form within the application itself, and then upload a signed version as part of the application submission)

Email Retention and Destruction Policy to Take Effect March 3, 2025 

For people who principally use their umassmemorial email address: emails older than 4 years will be destroyed on March 3, 2025. Think about any messages that you may need in the future. Examples include any emailed evaluations that may be helpful for your promotion portfolio or sensitive documents (like HR, student grade challenges). For more guidance, please refer to the Records Retention Policy, which defines a record, and the Record Retention Schedule, which identifies the length of time each different type of record should be retained. For emails older than 2021 that you wish to retain, please follow this step-by-step job aid.

We're pleased to announce the new WFMR Chief Residents for AY26:

• Barre FHC: Matt Morrow, DO
• Queen St: Zoë Onion, MD
• Hahnemann FHC: Ope Olukorede, MD

A big THANK YOU to our outgoing Chief Residents for all of your hard work this past year!  

• Barre FHC: Brennan Dagle, MD
• Queen St: Tekiyah Shabazz, MD
• Hahnemann FHC: Andrea Chin, MD

The Chiefs will transition over the month of April and will fully switch over as of May 1st. 

Congratulations to our new Chiefs!

WFMR has finished up the recruitment season with Rank Days for each health center. We are very excited about the incredible candidates we have recruited and look forward to finding out who our new intern class will be on Match Day (March 21st). Thank you to all the staff, residents and faculty for your dedication to this important work, and a special thank you to Michael Smith for his expertise and tireless efforts to get us a successful Match!

The Fellowship in Primary Care Psychology and Medical Education has successfully completed recruitment and matched with Gabrielle Piela who will begin her two-year fellowship this summer. Gabrielle is currently finishing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Pace University and will be a Fellow within the Worcester Family Medicine Residency with her clinical placement at the Barre Family Health Center.

Kristina Gracey and students Jen Merino and Eden Diamond (both Class of 2025) presented the poster SNAP into Health: Addressing Food Insecurity in a Rural Community

Other presentations included

Parvathi Perumareddi, and Jeanne Cawse-Lucas, Charting Your Promotion Course: Strategies for Advancing From Assistant to Associate Professor in Family Medicine. Seminar at the STFM Conference on Medical Student Education, San Antonio, Texas; February 1st, 2025.

Jeanne Cawse-Lucas, and Kevin Hart, Characteristics of Longitudinal Primary Care Programs: Research Outcomes and Next Steps. Lecture discussion at the STFM Conference on Medical Student Education, San Antonio, Texas; January 31st, 2025.

UMass Chan Women’s Professional Pods Program is enrolling individuals who identify as women or other minoritized gender identities in medicine and science and have an academic faculty appointment at any one of the three UMass Chan Medical Campuses. This program is available for all health care providers, including APPs. If you have any questions, please reach out to Caitlin Tanski caitlin.tanski@baystatehealth.org.

See link Women's Professional Pods Program (WP3) | Baystate Health.

Dr. Ariana Perry, Peds PGY-3 and former MassAHEC Scholar, shares the following:

Thank you to those who responded to my needs assessment last fall, I am sharing this resource created in response to assist you in caring for our refugee and immigrant patients. For more comprehensive resources, including printable handouts in a variety of languages, see this Google folder: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RfLQ2Ii3YpZT84uawsjgZS9hdgGbMjQ6?usp=drive_link. This folder will continually be updated to reflect the resources available and some information regarding the immigration changes made by the Trump administration. Please let me know how these resources worked for you.

https://forms.gle/nz2Yob9T6JCvSRmu7

New Clinical Practice Guideline for Medication Abortion Services at UMass Memorial Health Clinics

UMass Memorial Health is working to ensure equitable access to reproductive health care with the introduction of a new Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for Medication Abortion. This evidence-based guideline provides a standardized protocol to help clinicians competently offer medication abortion services, making care more accessible to patients across our system. The initiative is part of UMass Memorial’s broader commitment to reproductive health and addressing racial disparities in accessing abortion services at earlier gestational ages, where care is safer and outcomes are improved. Kristina Gracey provided co-leadership to the development of the CPG. For more information see flyer. You can access the full guideline on the Hub.

2025 Thomas Zand Refugee Health Scholarship 

The Department of FMCH invites applications for the annual Thomas Zand Refugee Health Scholarships. These scholarships support medical students passionate about refugee health by funding their attendance at the North American Refugee Health Conference (NARHC). This year’s conference will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, from June 27–29, 2025. To apply, submit your application to maria.barluenga@umassmed.edu by February 15th, 2025. (guidelines here).

More details about the conference can be found here and at refugeesociety.org/narhc-conference.  

Hepatitis C and General Hepatology Project ECHO

(Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes)

You are invited to join an exciting virtual collaborative learning opportunity which will allow you to build expertise in the evaluation and management of patients living with chronic

Hepatitis C. (see attached brochure and curriculum schedule)

A new cohort begins Friday, February 21st, 12:30-1:30pm ~ with 10 sessions held

bi-monthly.

Register Today!

The Center for Integrated Primary Care is offering a free webinar on Engagement Skills for Primary Care Practice on Thursday, February 27th from 12-1pm. 

More details and registration here.

Save the date for the Mass AFP Spring Refresher

March 14-15, 2025

See the link for registration. https://massafp.org/page-1075355

The 2025 Faculty for Tomorrow Workshop for Residents will be held on May 3rd, 2025 as part of the STFM Annual Spring Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. See link for additional information.

https://www.stfm.org/awardsscholarships/scholarships/facultyfortomorrowresidentscholarship/overview/

Scholarship Opportunities:  2025 Family Medicine Advocacy Summit

AAFP

AAFP awards scholarships to two students and two residents. Interested candidates may fill out the application form here. Scholarships will include reimbursement for travel to and from Washington, DC; hotel accommodations; and registration fees. The deadline to apply is February 14th, 2025.

Society of Teach of Family Medicine's Advocacy Scholarships for New Faculty

STFM supports five scholarships annually for new faculty to attend FMAS. Scholarships cover the cost of registration, travel, hotel accommodations, and meals not provided by the conference up to $1,500. Applicants must be members of STFM and fulfill all eligibility requirements. More on that here.  Deadline to apply is February 28th.

The Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors

AFMRD provides scholarships for at least 16 family medicine residents, 2 AFMRD members, and 2 current NIPDD fellows. AFMRD reimburses up to $2,500 for approved FMAS travel, lodging, meals, and registration expenses for the scholar. More on that here.

Deadline to apply is February 28th.

Department Member Recognition

Hugh Silk was interviewed for an article on UMass Chan Medical School News entitled: Science for Living: Hugh Silk highlights importance of fluoride for oral and overall health.  

https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2025/02/science-for-living-hugh-silk-highlights-importance-of-fluoride-for-oral-and-overall-health/

Hugh Silk was mentioned in a Medical Xpress post:  

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-02-expert-highlights-importance-fluoride-oral.html about the importance of fluoride for oral and overall health.

Presentations and Publications

Hugh Silk had a book review published in Family Medicine for Dr Sunita Puri's book, That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour. [published February 4, 2025]. Fam Med. https://journals.stfm.org/familymedicine/online-first/br-silk-0285/

Frankly Speaking Podcast

Please join us for a weekly Podcast series for an overview: Water fluoridation has been an area of periodic controversy since it was first introduced in the 1950s. This episode dives into recent reports on the benefits and potential impacts of water fluoridation on children's IQ. Gain valuable insights and feel prepared when addressing patient questions about this topic. Guest: Alan M. Ehrlich, MD, FAAFP, presents: "Fluoride in Drinking Water: Why Is There Controversy?" - Frankly Speaking Ep 419. Listen on Apple Podcasts:

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

Resources

Resources to promote Family Medicine Proud and celebrate our 50th Anniversary: 

a PowerPoint template, Zoom backgrounds, logo etc:  

https://www.umassmed.edu/fmch/faculty-resources/department-logos/

Past editions of the Tuesday Talk are available at 

https://www.umassmed.edu/fmch/ under Resources.

The UMass Memorial Caring for Caregivers Program is available at 508-334-HELP,

EAP at 866-263-3525, and the UMass Chan EAP at 800-322-5327.

www.LiveandWorkWell.com 

Yoga Classes with Dr. Liz Erban.

New members always welcome. 

Please join us on Wednesday(s), 6:30-7:30am, for a gentle awakening yoga session led by the talented Liz Erban.

https://umassmed.zoom.us/j/91343267992?pwd=ZHF3NHVrVlR1MVdMV09HSE5lTzdsQT09