Four UI Health Care Internal Medicine faculty members received 2024 VA Provider Awards at the Iowa City VA Health Care System’s (ICVAHCS) annual all-provider meeting on October 2:

VA Specialty Medicine Teaching Award: Joe Szot, MD

Dr. Szot has been a faculty member at the ICVAHCS since 2003, and has served our teaching mission in a variety of roles. He previously served as an Associate Residency Program Director and VA Site Director for the University of Iowa’s Internal Medicine residency program. He has served as the ICVAHCS Associate Chief of Staff for Education, and as the Acting Chief of Specialty Medicine. He is currently the Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Integrative Education at the UI Carver College of Medicine. Though he has certainly had a successful career as an educational leader and scholar, Dr. Szot’s greatest educational impact continues to occur at the bedside and in the clinic with his patients, residents, and medical students. Over the past year, Dr. Szot’s resident evaluation scores are impressive, ranging from 4.84-5 (on a five-point scale).

Selected comments from residents include:
“Great teacher and great at building rapport with patients at the bedside.”
“I really appreciated the autonomy that Dr. Szot provided (along with his gentle guidance when he needs to nudge us in the right direction). He was very kind, and he took the time to give constructive feedback. Additionally, he demonstrated physical exam maneuvers in the patient rooms that were helpful to see.”
“Dr. Szot is an outstanding doc. Always love to learn from him and he’s always a pleasure to work with.”
“SO kind, empathetic, and fun to learn from!”

VA Rehab and Extended Care (REC) Teaching Award: Margo Schilling, MD

Dr. Schilling has been the cornerstone of geriatric care and geriatric education at the ICVAHCS for more than two decades. Not only is Dr. Schilling a master clinician, she is also recognized as a master educator amongst our trainees and her peers. Nearly all Internal Medicine residents rotate with Dr. Schilling for all or part of their required geriatrics experience during their residency training. She was previously selected by the Internal Medicine residents as the “Faculty Teacher of the Year.” Over the past year, Dr. Schilling’s resident evaluation scores range from an impressive 4.84-4.97 (on a five-point scale).

Selected resident comments include:
“One of my favorite attendings to work with. She is a great role model who demonstrates thoughtful and compassionate care for her patients.”
“Loved working with Dr. Schilling. She is an amazing physician and provides outstanding care to patients. I learned a lot of medicine in her clinics, but also learned how to better care for aging patients. Her positive attitude made coming to work so enjoyable every day. I would want her caring for my family members.”
“Dr. Schilling is a fantastic teacher and an even better physician. Dr. Schilling did an excellent job giving me autonomy to form my own plan as well as gave great tidbits and explanations on how she would do things which were great learning opportunities. She would be a great person for a Master Clinician noon conference.”
“Dr. Schilling was fantastic to work with on the Geriatrics rotation! She is a wonderful teacher and made this rotation an invaluable learning experience. I was impressed with her warmth and openness with patients and family, it is something I try to incorporate into my care as well. She is also extremely knowledgeable and thoughtful with her clinical decision making. I think this is overall a great rotation for residents largely due to Dr. Schilling’s efforts and highly recommend it!”
“Dr. Schilling is an incredible teacher and genuinely one of the best physicians I have had the pleasure of working with.”

VA Specialty Medicine System Change and Innovation Award: Sam Zetumer, MD

After completing a year as our VA Chief Resident in Quality and Safety (CRQS), Dr. Zetumer joined our faculty as a hospitalist and Chief Health Informatics Officer in July 2023. Dr. Zetumer’s extensive knowledge in clinical informatics, VA data systems, and programming have led to several high-impact system redesign projects and innovations in just his first year on staff. He completed a project started during his CRQS year to improve efficiency, workflows, and data access in our Transitions of Care Clinic. In collaboration with Primary Care leadership and GI, he co-led a process to dissect, delegate, and resolve our colorectal cancer gap reminder problem. He has developed an automated tool that allows for greater efficiency and improved workflow in notifying providers with delinquent notes (i.e. Action Required). He adapted this “Action Required” tool into an automated system to identify, notify, and resolve incorrect “trainee-only” billing encounter forms. Lastly, he has been extensively involved and has offered a unique clinical informatics leadership perspective on several other ongoing projects, including ICCA errors and optimization, discontinuation of auto D/C on transfer orders, sepsis protocol implementation and provider pager communications. There is no doubt that Dr. Zetumer’s contributions to system change and innovation have improved the ability of our staff to care for veterans across our health care system. We expect further innovative contributions for years to come.

VA Pathology/Lab Continued Achievement and Support Award: Matthew Soltys, MD

The laboratory is an integral part of the health care team, but we would be irrelevant without providers and patients. This continued achievement and support award is given to a person who continues to achieve great things and provide support to our service line. The recipient can be from PLMS or a collaborating service line. This year we would like to present the award to Dr. Matthew Soltys. Dr. Soltys has been collaborating with the laboratory since he was the Chief Resident of Quality and Safety. He found a pet project that involved the laboratory and has been collaborating with us ever since. Dr. Soltys has brought a number of residents, students, pharmacists and others who round with him to the laboratory to discover what is in that mysterious black box. He takes the fear out of talking with the laboratory away from some of the people who are not sure who to ask the question, “What does this lab mean?” He has worked with the laboratory on a few quality projects which have made a difference in how order, result, and provide interpretation for laboratory tests. His questions often spark a discussion on the why of a process, and he will work with us to improve a process to better serve the providers and other end users. We appreciate all of his collaboration and forward thinking and thank him for being a collaborator and facilitator on laboratory projects.