Expressions of Our Culture of Education

As members of a leading academic medical center, preparing the next generation to carry on our work permeates all our activities. As role models, we seek to ensure that what we do is not only reproduced by our trainees but that they understand why we do what we do. Our goal as medical educators is to teach physicians and scientists how to think for themselves, how to tap into their imagination and trust their own skills, and not just to blindly follow protocols or algorithms. Dr. Manish Suneja empowers his students on a daily basis. His ability to guide and instruct by example produces national leaders in our profession year after year and inspires his colleagues to strive for the same. For these reasons and more, I was confident that the selection committee would recognize Dr. Suneja with the President & Provost Award for Teaching Excellence. Congratulations, Manish, and thank you for the incredible work you perform for this department, the college, and the university.

It is also important for us as educators to step beyond our walls to share what we practice and to grow as well. Dr. Yuya Hagiwara has just received a travel grant to attend the Innovations in Medical Education Conference later this month in Los Angeles. He has been invited to moderate a panel on innovations in graduate medical education. He is also attending because he hopes to bring back ideas for a new component of the Ambulatory Education Curriculum that he and Dr. Gwen Beck are introducing later this spring. For five weeks, they will both run a Palliative Care Communication Skills series for the residents. By participating at the conference, Dr. Hagiwara says that he wants to “examine a way to better teach empathy at UIHC.” I appreciate Dr. Hagiwara’s effort to ensure he is providing the best his students deserve.

Education also happens in more subtle ways as well, if we are open to receiving the support. Last year, our Design Center expanded to include editorial services when Kris Greiner joined the department. For years, the Design Center has provided assistance to researchers in everything from creating medical illustrations to printing posters for presentations. Shawn Roach and Teresa Ruggle have provided these services with efficiency and impeccable quality, while also creating templates and presentations to help guide our investigators in their future projects. With the addition of Ms. Greiner to the team, researchers can now run their grant applications, manuscript submissions, and any other text past a technical editor with more than two decades of experience editing scientific material. Just recently I received an email from second-year cardiology fellow Dr. Chakradhari Inampudi to praise Ms. Greiner’s editing services. Dr. Inampudi shared with me that he has had seven manuscripts accepted for publication in various cardiology journals in recent months, and acknowledged Ms. Greiner’s expert editorial input.

Our Chief Residents also remain a critical component of our education efforts, bridging the gap between program administration and house staff and medical students. They are leaders, demonstrating excellence in clinical care, and work diligently to fairly satisfy a range of resident concerns while also communicating program vision. Although it seems early to begin thinking about the 2019-20 academic year, interviews for the position of Chief Resident will begin soon. Getting to know the Chiefs on rounds and in countless other interactions is one of the great privileges of my role. Their insights and energy revitalize the residency program every year with new ideas and enthusiasm, despite whatever challenges are presented. I enjoy participating in the interview process, just as I enjoyed helping select the four worthy Chiefs who will assume the role in 2018-19. Interviews will be held over the next few weeks and we should be able to announce the next class in late March or early April.