UMass FMCH Tuesday Talk - February 28, 2023/RESEARCH

Welcome to the FMCH Tuesday Talk. Please continue to send us your announcements, celebrations, and accomplishments to [email protected]. 

Table of Contents

Upcoming Events

Focus of the Week – Research

Announcements

Frankly Speaking Podcast

Clinical Services Spotlight

Upcoming Events

FMCH Grand Rounds

Tuesday, February 28th, 12:00 - 1:00pm, "Restorative Justice in Academic Medicine", presented by Lynn Hernandez, PhD.

Meeting ID: 191 986 273 Passcode: FMCH

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

Special Seminar

Wednesday, March 22nd, 12:00 - 1:00pm, "Improving Cancer Health Equity in Rural Settings through Participatory Implementation Science", presented by Melinda M. Davis, Ph.D., M.C.R. Dr. Davis is an Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Sciences University, Interim Director of the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network and co-Director of the OCTRI Community and Collaboration Core. Dr. Davis conducts participatory implementation science research with patient, community, and health system partners to improve health and enhance health equity in rural settings. Please register in advance for this webinar.

https://umassmed.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hrdGUagDQuqwEHBBniA_cQ

See flyer for additional information.

Career Development Workshop: UMass Cancer Screening Research

Thursday, March 23rd, 12:00 - 1:00pm, Presented by Melinda M. Davis, Ph.D., M.C.R., for early-career researchers and faculty, however, all are welcome.

https://umassmed.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwufumvpzIjGdf54vKqf8zMuvLfMB6uK4GQ

Black Maternal Health 6th Annual Conference (BMHC)

Friday, April 7th; "Centering the Role of Nurses and Midwives in Addressing the Black Maternal Health Crisis", this conference is hybrid, with virtual spots remaining, and is free. you can register here: 

https://www.accelevents.com/e/bmhc2023?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Monthly Departmental Research Forums 

We’re looking for some presentations from many of you who do very interesting work! On the third Friday of each month (September through June; noon – 1pm), we offer a research forum where you may present some work in progress or be a ‘member of the audience’ offering one of our colleagues some feedback on their work to get it to the next level. These are still via Zoom which has definitely increased the number of persons able to attend. Both works in progress as well as presentations on methodologies are offered. https://umassmed.zoom.us/j/97469936669?pwd=YTFpc1k2bkdKTjVjT1dPa3gzd1NRQT09

Meeting ID: 974 6993 6669

Passcode: FMCHForum

Patient and Provider Health Education Materials

The following patient/provider health education materials were developed by 4^th year medical students as part of a month-long 4th year elective in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. The

list below was shared with Tuesday Talk readers and we received a number of requests for copies of these materials to be used in various practices. These materials have all been developed working closely with one of our FMCH faculty or a content clinical expert in another department. Please let Judy Savageau ([email protected]) know if you’d like copies of any of these. ALSO, if you have an idea for a topic, we have other students signed up to take this elective later in the Spring and we’re happy to pass along to them our department’s interest in a variety of topics where we hope there might be a match between their interests and yours – so please pass along your ideas for a new topic!

Current Infographics include:

• Education needs for children in foster care
• Lipids and statins / Lipid management
• Circumcision guide for patients and providers
• Tips to help people living with mental health conditions to stop using tobacco products
• Information for family members and care givers of persons living with Alzheimer’s or dementia
• Information about facilities for caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer’s or dementia
• Worcester County resources for food insecurity
• Mindfulness: Evidence-based tools for coping with everyday stress

Senior Scholars Day is Wednesday, April 26th

Twenty-five of our 4^th year medical students participated in this year’s Senior Scholars Program – some of whom worked with faculty in our department (in addition to the many students who partnered with our faculty on a Capstone project). Senior Scholars Day is Wednesday, April 26th from 2:00-6:00pm in the medical school lobby (where students will formally present their work) and the faculty conference room (guest speaker this year: David Ayers, MD / Department of Orthopedics and Physical Medicine). If you’re interested in working with a Senior Scholars student for AY24, please let Judy Savageau know ([email protected]); often students are very interested in a particular content area but have not yet identified a mentor to work closely with and gain the experience not only of enhancing their research skills but observing the life of a clinician/investigator. A few additional faculty are needed to help judge the student projects between 3 and 4 pm that afternoon. This year’s activities will be in-person. If you’d be willing to have a student present their work to you and provide feedback/evaluation, we’re still looking for an additional 2-3 faculty (as well as Chief Residents) to help with judging the student’s work. Let us know; we’d love to have more representation from FMCH faculty.

Data for Healthcare Information: Resources at your fingertips

In the last edition of Tuesday Talk which featured research activities in the department, we noted a number of places where you might go to register for healthcare-related newsletters, blog posts, national and foundation resources, and much more. In this edition, we feature a number of resources where data can be easily found to support some of the work you’re doing. Researchers at all levels often need current information on select populations or topics for reference in writing up a literature review or comparing your study data to some state or national figures; and educators often want to present to learners some information on incidence and prevalence of select topics, which populations might be most at risk, etc. Check out the resources below!

• U.S. Census (www.census.gov)
• Information on populations and people, education, income and poverty, employment, health, housing, business and economy, race and ethnicity ---- Much of this data is from the 2020 U.S. Census; some of the data is from the 2021 American Community Survey (see below)
• There are some interesting pages on: languages spoken at home, ancestry, native and foreign born, computers and internet use, veterans, plus many more!
• Census data is also available by state and within some states by counties and large cities
• American Community Survey (American Community Survey - Census Bureau Tables)
• Information by age, gender, and other demographics, characteristics of those 65 years and older; select characteristics of native and foreign-born populations, poverty status in the last 12 months, disability statistics, occupations by sex and median earnings in the past 12 months using 2021 inflation-adjusted dollars), and many more
• CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) (www.cdc.gov). The CDC is the nation’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organization that protects the public’s health
• Data and statistics can be found at: Data & Statistics | CDC – including vital statistics (births and deaths, select diagnoses (e.g., diabetes, heart disease), prevention (e.g., immunizations), disability and health promotion, state and territorial data, smoking and tobacco, alcohol use, and much more
• This site also provides links to select surveys; e.g., adolescent behaviors and experience survey
• The CDC also publishes the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report); often called “the voice of CDC,” the MMWR series is the agency’s primary vehicle for scientific publication of timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations. The data in the weekly MMWR are provisional, based on weekly reports to CDC by state health departments
• NCHS (CDC - NCHS - National Center for Health Statistics); NCHS produced a number of key reports and data from national surveys (e.g., Health United States: 2020-2021 – provides information and data on patterns and disparities in national health trends
• Among the national surveys that can be found on the NCHS site include: NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey), NHIS (National Health Interview Survey), and NSFG (National Survey of Family Growth), among others
• Of interest, this site provides a ‘Stat of the Day’ – did you know that the U.S. teen birth rate declined 78% from a 1991 peak of 61.8 per 1,000 females to a record low of 13.9 in 2021?
• Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) (Available public health research data sets | Mass.gov). Some of the datasets include:
• Vital records
• MA Cancer Registry
• Birth defects
• Substance abuse treatment
• Childhood lead poisoning cases
• Per the MDPH web site: Maintaining the privacy of the individuals whose personal information is contained in these databases is essential to MDPH's mission to promote public health. MDPH conducts a detailed review of every application for access to confidential data and makes a determination whether to approve access on a case-by-case basis. Approved researchers are held to the highest ethical and legal standards and must agree to stipulations regarding use of the data. Approved researchers must provide adequate justification for every variable requested and are granted (temporary) access to only the minimum necessary data elements to complete a study. The databases contain confidential MDPH records. By law, the Department may make them available to qualified researchers if approved by the Commissioner of Public Health in accordance with Massachusetts General Law, chapter 111, §24A.
• All requests for access to MDPH confidential information for research must have approval from the Commissioner of Public Health in accordance with M.G.L. c. 111, §24A. This protects the confidentiality of all information collected or created as part of an approved research study and imposes restrictions on use and disclosure of research data. All research involving human subjects conducted by MDPH employees, or agents working on its behalf, must be reviewed by the Department Institutional Review Board (IRB).

As in the past, if you have some favorites of your own that you’d like to share, please send these to Judy Savageau ([email protected]) and we’ll consider having a new link on our research web pages (www.umassmed.edu/fmch/research) where we highlight these many great opportunities to obtain info that’s relevant to the work we do.

Request for Publications and Presentations for our FMCH Research Web Pages

Several times a year (and most recently done this month), we update our department’s research web pages (www.umassmed.edu/fmch/research) with new grants, publications, presentations, student/faculty projects, and many other research-related activities. If you have published something in the past year that hasn’t gotten to the Tuesday Talk, or you’ve given a research presentation, please send those updates to Judy Savageau and we’ll include them in the next set of updates. We would love to highlight all of your great work on our website!

MCSTAP Guideline Update: A Series on Applying the 2022 CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain. The latest CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Pain include very important information for prescribers. To support you, MCSTAP is offering a three-part series on applying the Guidelines to managing care for patients with chronic pain. Register for all dates now!  MCSTAP

Dates/Topics:

• Wednesday, March 15th, 12:00 - 1:00pm, "Continuing Opioids: Applying the 2022 CDC Guidelines
• Wednesday, April 19th, 12:00 - 1:00pm, " Assessing Risk of Opioid Therapy: Applying the 2022 DCD Guidelines



Mick Huppert Awards!

The department is revising how Mick Huppert Awards are awarded. For those who remember Mick, a long-time faculty member and AHEC leader who died in 2017, his two passions were family medicine and community health. We are revising the award to foster student interest in family medicine during the first year of medical school, engage in a community project, and build a connection with a family medicine mentor who will also be recognized with this award. Please see the attached application for more details. This application is being shared with students as well. The due date for applications is March 10th to [email protected].

MassAFP 2023 Annual Meeting & Spring Refresher

Friday, March 24th, 2023, 8:00am - 6:30pm

Saturday, March 25th, 2023, 8:00am - 1:30pm

Registration for MassAFP 2023 Annual Meeting & Spring Refresher is now open. 

Manju Mahajan is co-chair of the MassAFP Education Committee. 

Click here for the full conference schedule.

See the attached flyer for more details or go to: massafp.org. 

Announcing the 19th Annual Gerald F. Berlin Prize for Creating Writing

Be sure to tell students and residents you know who like to write about the 19th Annual Gerald F. Berlin Prize for Creative writing. The Gerald F. Berlin Prize is awarded for creative writing, prose or poetry, authored by medical students, nursing students, graduate students, residents, and fellows based at UMass Chan Medical school, Berkshire Medical center, Worcester Medical Center/St. Vincent's or Baystate Medical Center. Submission deadline: April 15th, 2023. See flyer for details. For guidelines visit Library's website at https://library.umassmed.edu/news-events/lsl-now/berlin-award-2023.

Learning Opportunity:

The Massachusetts Psychiatric Society is offering Psychiatry for the Primary Care Physician, a virtual program, on Saturday, April 29th from 8:15am-3:45pm. The attached flyer explains more.

The course provides 6.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits; 1 credit meets MA BORM for Risk Management and 1 credit for Risk Management/Opioid Education and Pain Management. The course is $150 for MMS members, $15 for fellows and free for students. Register here: https://maps.memberclicks.net/primarycare23#!/.

See attached flyer for additional information.

Mindfulness and Compassion During Tumultuous Times - Essential Tools to Remain Steady and Whole, presented by Paula Gardiner, MD, MPH, CMMT and Gail Gazelle, MD, MCC, CMMT.

Friday, May 5th, 2023, 9:00 am - 3:30 pm (ET)

At this in-person program, you will acquire practical strategies to quiet your mind and gain mastery over worries and self-doubt. You’ll learn about the neuroscience behind mindfulness and meditation, and practice with a variety of readily accessible tools that will help you attain calm, clarity, and the balance you need to build resilience and avoid physician burnout. Event Info (massmed.org).

Faculty Development

Annual Department Retreat

Please Save the Date, May 11th, 2023, 12:00-6:00pm for our annual department retreat. We plan multiple CME events as well as follow up on the department strategic planning. We look forward to seeing you there!

Primary Care Bootcamp for NPs and PAs

Jillian Joseph, MPAS, PA-C, Kristin Wickstrom, PA-C, Megan Brochu, PA-C, and former Barre APPs Mariyan Montaque, NP, Andrea Julian, NP, and several other APPs from UMass and GSN collaborated with Pri-Med to create Primary Care Bootcamp for NPs and PAs. The Bootcamp is a digital, on-demand curriculum designed to help early career APPs build confidence and hone skills in primary care. The platform is now live at bootcamp.pri-med.com and open for registration! There are over 20 hours of CME available through the Bootcamp and the courses are organized into two distinct tracks that cover a range of topics, including chronic disease and concern-based sessions, professional development topics, as well as practice management concepts. Any questions can be sent to [email protected].

See attached flyer for additional information.

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: Exercise has been shown to be an effective way of decreasing migraine frequency, but the best type of exercise for this has not been established. A systematic review compared strength training to both high-intensity aerobic exercise and low-intensity aerobic exercise. Guest: Alan M. Ehrlich, MD, FAAFP, presents: "Exercise for Migraine Prophylaxis: Strength Training vs Aerobics". - Frankly Speaking Ep 317.

CLINICAL UPDATES

Colon Cancer Screening True North

Top cancers in the US in 2022 were:

• Breast
• Prostate
• Lung and Bronchus
• Colon and Rectum
• Melanoma of the Skin

UMass has chosen to focus on colorectal cancer screening as the True North goal for 2023. The goal is to close the gap between screening for BIPOC groups when compared to white groups. Overall, colon cancer is the second deadliest cancer in the US.

March is National Colorectal Awareness Month. One in 24 people will be diagnosed with colon cancer in their lifetime. We challenge you to get patients screened for colon cancer in the month of March. Get excited, dress in blue, on March 3rd and tell everyone you know about colorectal cancer prevention. In the US, persons who are not up to date in screening report the following as barriers to screening: 

• fear
• embarrassment
• bowel prep
• lack of provider recommendation
• cost of evaluation
• lack of transportation

COVID UPDATES

COVID-19 US

• Total cases to date in the US: 103,268,408; total deaths 1,115,637.
• Current hospitalizations: 12,319.
• The dominant COVID variant in the US is XBB.1.5 (more than 85% of cases). 
• Currently, the most common symptoms associated with COVID are:
• cough and chills
• fever
• muscle and body aches
• sore throat
• fatigue

COVID-19 MA

• The total number of confirmed cases is 2,216,870.
• Total deaths: 24,131.
• On average, MA had 726 cases of COVID daily in the last week. 

COVID-19 UMMMC

• The current 7-day positivity rate is 6.7%.
• The confirmed positive in-house cases: 50.
• Of the 50, 72% were fully vaccinated. 
• Of the 50, 5 were in the ICU.

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.

Yoga Classes with Dr. Liz Erban

New members always welcome. Please join for early morning gentle yoga, Wednesday mornings 6:30am via Zoom. Much appreciation to Dr. Liz Erban for hosting these outstanding classes. 

Join Zoom Meeting ID: 923 9393 3653 Passcode: 764113

https://umassmemorial-org.zoom.us/j/92393933653pwd=RW9TL3FhZGtLUVZBa09oMWhIQzZUT09