Communications Director's Message

As you may already know, the journal will have a new editor beginning January 1, 2009 – Peter Szilagyi will be taking over the reigns from Jim Perrin after 10 years of his incredible leadership in taking the journal from just an idea to a mature and well respected journal. In keeping up with the Association, the name of the journal will also change with the first issue in 2009 and be called Academic Pediatrics.  

It has also been one full year of using the new APA electronic newsletter. It is a learning process for all – those who generously contribute to it, those who put it together and those who use it. Many people have told me they love the new look and how it interchanges with the APA's website. Others say they like it but also want the option for a printed copy. The electronic newsletter will continue as it is easier to create and saves a considerable amount of money. We will also offer the ability to download a printed version. The print version will have the same information with just a simple layout. We are planning on doing this over the next year and then re-evaluating it.

The website redesign is continuing. After much work by the Communications Committee under Karen Edwards leadership, Captus Communications is working on the actual layout/design and then implementation of the new website.

Working with Lee Pachter, the membership chair, we will be enhancing the Membership Only area of the website to provide better information to members. We are also looking at centralizing, updating and creating new information for prospective members, potential partners and others interested in the APA.

The Communications Committee welcomes your input into the newsletter and website, marketing or other ideas you just wish to share.

Please contact me:

Donna M. D'Alessandro, MD
donna-dalessandro@uiowa.edu

November Elections: On behalf of kids and families Tina Cheng

In a cab ride last month, the radio was tuned to a political radio show and the cab driver engaged me in discussion about the November election. He had strong views on the candidates and the direction of our nation. He told me he was an immigrant and a U.S. citizen. But to my surprise, he said that he, his family and friends did not plan to vote. At this critical time of instability and opportunity for children, adolescents and families, I can’t imagine not exercising my civic duty to vote. I’ve often wondered what more I should be doing in an election year to advocate for kids and families.

Many issues dear to APA will be decided in the next four years. Current State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation expires in March 2009. The reauthorization of Title VII Health Professions Program which funds training programs including residencies and general pediatric fellowship programs focusing on underserved populations and the Emergency Medical Services for Children Program awaits a new administration and Congress. Also, funding for NIH, AHRQ, children’s hospitals and public health in general are big issues in the coming months and years. What can we do as an organization and as individuals to support our personal values and APA’s mission?

• Vote: Some say that American Idol and other reality shows have taught us to vote. Voting is a cherished privilege.
• Encourage others to vote: Al Gore has said, “The first lesson is this: take it from me, every vote counts.” Make sure those in your department including faculty, staff, residents and other trainees have time in the day to go vote.
• Organize voter registration in your clinic: We have done this in our clinic with a table and poster and encouragement from all staff for our patients to register and vote. State laws vary on registration deadlines and process. Go to http://www.declareyourself.com/voting_faq/state_by_state_info.html for state by state voter laws and registration deadlines. The APA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Committee will have information on our website (www.acdemicpeds.org) starting in mid-August on how to support your patients’ families and young adult patients to register now and vote in November.
  
• Get involved nationally and locally in the election: Now is the time to get involved on the national level and in your community. "Tip" O'Neill once declared, "All politics is local," explaining how the problems and concerns of towns and cities affect the actions of Congress and people’s lives. Visit your local representatives and ask where they stand on issues critical to children. Go to candidate forums and ask questions about child and adolescent health. Write a letter to the editor or an editorial to voice your view. Use the AAP’s 2008 Election Center at http://aap.grassroots.com/election2008/ where you will find a State and Federal Election Resource Guide that provides key information, tools, and resources to assist in getting involved in the electoral process.

• 5. Don’t forget ballot initiatives: Some big ones are on this year. For example, California has a children’s hospital bond act and a constitutional amendment regarding teen pregnancy. Oregon has a ballot initiative limiting the amount of time non-English-speaking students can be taught in their native language.
• 6. Get involved in APA policy activities: Mark Schuster leads the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee, and APA is involved in many public policy issues: writing letters, meeting with Congressional leaders, and working with other pediatric and primary care organizations. Support and send around the Position Statement of the Federation of Pediatric Organizations (FOPO): Health Insurance for All Children and Youth in the United States. Peter Szilagyi and the APA led the writing of this statement which will be published in the Journal of Pediatrics this fall and on our website www.ambpeds.org.

These are but a few ways to get involved. I’m not sure I convinced my cab driver to vote, though I gave it my best try. We know that kids cannot vote. Dwight D. Eisenhower said “The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.” We often say children are our future – your vote is theirs.

Money Matters: The Treasurer’s Report

Changing our name from the Ambulatory to Academic was more than a symbolic act; it represented a recognition that our organization was embracing the need for active support of high-quality academic work in the midst of a rapidly changing clinical environment. Historically, the APA focused on ensuring that the annual meeting supported the academic development of our members, and supporting members who needed a vehicle for the facilitation of a project. Generally, the projects were grant supported (and ceased when the grants ran out). Because of the limited number of core activities, our dues were low.

Now, many of the activities that began as projects are becoming “core activities” of the APA, supported by a combination of grants, fees and dues revenue. The Journal, the Educational Scholars Program, the New Century Scholars, Generalist Accreditation, CORNET, PRIS- the list has grown dramatically over the past five years. Recently, the Board created a policy stating criteria for development of new APA core activity. The challenge now for your Treasurer is to develop a rubric for the Board to assess the quality of the business plan of these activities, and to create a transparent process that allows us to see the budgetary impact of these necessary and important activities.

The good news is that, so far, our financial status remains positive. We have been fortunate in obtaining external funding for a number of our programs, and the APA staff has recently been expanding to help them all cope with the increasing demands that core activities place on the “nerve center” in Virginia. This affords us the opportunity to carefully examine the impact of the new “core activities” on our budget over the summer, allowing the Board time for careful reflection of the 2009 Budget in the fall.

So, how can we expand our financial rubric in a way that reflects our traditions of inclusion and transparency, and also allows us to adapt our activities to the changing world of academic medicine in an efficient way? In the “open town meetings” of New England, the Board of Selectman proposes the budget, but the Finance Committee offers its non-binding review to the Town Meeting before the vote. In Congress, the Congressional Budget office performs a similar function. Do we need a “Financial Advisory Committee”, to assess the financial impact of new programs on the budget and make non-binding recommendations to the Board regarding the financial impact of new programs? Let me know your thoughts (kellerd@ummhc.org). Whatever we do, we need to take care to preserve our ability to adapt our programs to enable our members to serve the needs of our children and families. To quote our Immediate Past President, “Remember, it is all about the children”.

Mary Ottolini MD, MPH

The Education Committee met on Sunday May 4th at the PAS meeting in Honolulu.

Ray Helfer Award Winner:
Dr. Jennifer Arnold for her paper entitled: “Effect of a High Fidelity Simulation Curriculum on Pediatric Resident Competency in Neonatal Airway Management Skills”. Dr. Arnold and her collaborators in the Division of Neonatology at Stonybrook determined that the neonatal intubation simulation she developed significantly enhanced resident performance in real intubating real neonates.

Teaching Award:
Leslie Fall, Norm Berman and their many collaborators won the Teaching Award for the interactive computer program: CLIPP, which incorporates the COMSEP competencies and is used by most pediatric clerkships across the nation.

APA Educational Guidelines
URL: http://www.ambpeds.org/egweb/
The Educational Guidelines Team monitors website usage (new registrants, log-ins, and downloads) and is happy to report high satisfaction and sustained usage of the website over the past three years. We have received some requests to post new and updated curricular materials (EBM, community pediatrics and mental health). To accommodate these and other requests, we have developed a review process and we are developing the administrative component of the website so we can update our database of goals and objectives more easily.

CALL FOR UPDATES/SUBMISSIONS
Groups such as APA SIGs, APA committees, etc., that are writing curricular goals, objectives and/or competencies should contact us early in their writing process, so we can discuss formatting requirements. Advanced planning will allow us to integrate your material more effectively into the website. Please contact Diane Kittredge or another member of the Editorial Team.
Diane Kittredge --Diane.Kittredge@Hitchcock.ORG
Connie Baldwin --Constance_Baldwin@urmc.rochester.edu
Mimi Bar-on-- mbar-on@medicine.nevada.edu
Trish Beach-- psbeach@utmb.edu
Franklin Trimm-- rftrimm@usouthal.edu

PAS Educational Scholars Program
The ESP is currently recruiting its third cohort of 20 scholars, who will include about 10 pediatric hospitalists and 10 faculty from other pediatric disciplines. (Please see the accompanying newsletter article by Connie Baldwin for details)

4th Year Medical Student Curriculum:
Drs. Konopasek and Sanguino, leaders of the COMSEP Curriculum Task Force are developing a Pediatric Sub-Internship rotation curriculum. Dr. Bill Raska, the COMSEP president has been developing a survey to be circulated through the COMSEP, APPD and APA listserves to determine perceived gaps in current 4th year medical student education for those entering a pediatric internship after graduation.

“ Pediatric Educational Excellence Across the Continuum Conference”
Maryellen Gusik is leading a planning committee which includes members from the leadership of COMSEP (Bill Raszka, Chris White), APPD (Rob McGregor and Susan Guralnick) and Mary Ottolini to work out logistics for the conference which is tentatively being planned for fall of 2009. We will seek the wealth of experience and creativity within the membership of the three organizations when planning the educational sessions.

We envision this “Pediatric Educational Excellence Across the Continuum Conference” (PEEAC) to be the first in a series of annual meetings to enable pediatric educators teaching different levels of learners (students, residents, fellows) and in different clinical settings including the ED, primary care in either academic or community based setting or inpatient or critical care unit to collaborate and learn from each other. We envision that this conference will offer tracks focusing on different topic areas/levels of teaching experience and the opportunity to collaboratively plan pilot projects to introduce new curricula to improve education across the pediatric continuum.

Education Committee Selected Workshops:
Connie Baldwin, Larrie Greenberg, Fred McCurdy and Mary Ottolini led the Education Committee sponsored workshop this year: 3156 Educational Scholarship: Writing, Publishing, and Reaping the Rewards

The Committee selected a workshop proposed by Lindsey Lane and Rob McGregor for the 2009 sponsored workshop, focusing on how to encourage collaboration between educators responsible for teaching different levels of trainees and in different settings.Drs McGregor and Lane gave a preview, leading a mini-workshop during the Education Committee meeting this year discussing how to translate theories about overcoming barriers to collaboration from the business to the medical education setting. We look forward to learning more from them in Baltimore!

Summary of COPE: The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric Education
COPE held its annual meeting in Chicago, IL on November 18-19, 2007. (The Education Committee was represented by Franklin Trimm due to the overlap with the APA Fall Board Meeting) Several topics of importance to present and future Pediatric education were discussed and are summarized here.

Physician Re-entry into the Workforce.
With the growing proportion of women in pediatrics and other specialties, there will likely be an increase in the number of pediatricians taking an extended leave during their career or returning to medicine after retiring. Physicians returning to the workforce will face questions about their competence to resume clinical practice. The AAP established the Physician Reentry into the Workforce Project with four workgroups focusing on the concerns noted above. For further information see www.aap.org/reentry.

Residency Review and Redesign in Pediatrics Project (R3P) Changes Direction.
A project is under way to assess general pediatric residency training and design the best education for pediatricians now and in the future. Three colloquia have been convened over the year of August, 2006 through August, 2007 to create a shared body of knowledge through dialogue within the pediatric community. The ongoing responsibility of the R3P project will be to determine how best to permit goal-oriented innovation in pediatric residency education, how to initiate, facilitate and sustain it, how to oversee it, and finally how to disseminate proven innovations. For more information or to give feedback see the R3P section of the American Board of Pediatrics website, www.abp.org.

Resident Education in Environmental Health and Medical Toxicology
The AAP Committee on Environmental Health (COEH) developed educational strategies to improve the education of healthcare providers. Dr. Helen Binns, Chair of the COEH, presented these strategies. the 2nd edition of the “greenbook”, Pediatric Environmental Health 2003, free to all AAP members/all incoming pediatric residents. For more info call 866-843-2271. See case studies from the CDC: www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.html; webcasts from the EPA: yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/2007activities.htm.

Resident Education in the Uniformed Services
A presentation by Capt. Gregory Blaschke, MD focused on the unique aspects of pediatric education in the uniformed services and the impact of military action on families and children

International Pediatric Education
Two separate focus areas have been addressed by COPE and the AAP Section of International Child Health (SOICH). The Global Health Educational Council (GHEC) is in the midst of surveying every medical residency program on their international rotations and is going to develop a large resource online composed of all those international opportunities. To address and remove these barriers, the AAP submitted a resolution to the American Medical Association House of Delegates to “work to achieve improved flexibility in graduate medical education funding to defray the costs of rotations in underserved and underrepresented areas that take place outside of a residency’s sponsoring institution, included international settings.”

Culturally Effective Pediatric Care (CEPC)
A number of educational resources for teaching CEPC have been collected over the past year by COPE members and administrators. The next phase will be to further develop specific educational goals and objectives/organize educational resources to effectively accomplish the educational objectives. These will be available through the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) web-based Share Warehouse (www.appd.org) .

Region II had its second combined regional meeting with Region III at the New York University School of Medicine on March 7, 2008. Approximately 80 APA members, non-members and trainees traveled to New York City. The Keynote address was delivered by Benard Dreyer who used political figures to illustrate important principles related to leadership. The morning workshop “Leadership Begins and Ends …with You” was led by Kenneth M Slaw, PhD. APA President, Peter Szilagyi joined us for the day and updated us on the APA strategic planning process as well as the resulting initiatives of the organization.

The afternoon program consisted of original research presentations. Both Region II and III members heeded our call for abstracts and, following a peer review process, 18 were chosen: 10 for poster presentations and 8 for platform presentations. This year’s best trainee presentation award winner was J. Nadine Gracia, MD, from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA for her original research, “Vacant Properties: A Modifiable Target for Intervention to Reduce Aggravated Assaults in Urban Cities?” Of note, almost all of the presentations were chosen to present their research either as a poster or platform presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. Congratulations, everyone!

During our regional breakfast in Hawaii, we had a great discussion regarding our upcoming regional meeting. Many people expressed a preference for more interactive workshops. We came up with a list of many possible future topics for upcoming meetings: curricular development, environmental topics including global climate change, assessing information through the internet, mentoring and more leadership skills including strategic planning. Please contact either of us (Cindy is cjo1@nyu.edu and Suzy is tomops01@nyumc.org) if you have other ideas or want to get involved.

Thanks to Judy Turow’s gracious offer, our upcoming combined Region II and III meeting will be at Jefferson in Philadelphia. More details, including the date, will be forthcoming! We hope to see you there. Finally, Suzy and Cindy would like to thank Judy Turow and Cindy DeLago, our outgoing regional chairs, for their hours of hard work and their incredible organizational skills while making it look so easy. We hope to measure up to their high standards!

Region II Co-Chairs:
Cindy Osman (dcjo1@nyu.edu)
Suzy Tomopoulos (tomops01@nyumc.org)

Robert Hilliard and Carrin Schottler-Thal

Region III is that exciting region which comprises Upstate New York, Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ontario. Despite our relatively small size, we are an active region and have had a busy year.
This spring we held our regional meeting with our neighbors to the east, Region 2 at New York University Medical Centre. The theme for this year was “Leadership in Academic Pediatrics” and included a keynote presentation given by Benard Dreyer, Professor and Chair Department of Pediatrics NYU and Chair of the APA Research Committee and then an interactive workshop lead by Dr. Ken Slaw of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

We would like to ask members:
a. Would you like to continue to have joint regional meetings with Region II? and
b. Where would you suggest we hold our combined regional meeting?

We held our Region III breakfast during the PAS and APA Annual Meetings in Honolulu in May. We heard from Peter Szilagyi who spoke about the exciting future of the Academic Pediatric Association and from Connie Baldwin who spoke about the continuing activities of the Educational Scholars Program. Many members of Region III were involved in presenting workshops and abstracts, but the prize may go to Maryellen Gusic who presented five different workshops. Academic general pediatrics is changing and evolving and we need your suggestions, your input and your participation.
We would like to increase our membership and would be willing to send information about the Academic Pediatric Association and a membership application to any academic pediatricians in Region III who might be interested. Please let us know who might be interested.
Maryellen Gusic completed her term as Co-Chair for our Region and turned over her role to Carrin Schottler-Thal at our regional breakfast at the PAS meeting in Honolulu. Maryellen, many, many thanks for all your years and hard work as the Region III co-chair. We will miss you, but know that you will still be very involved in the Academic Pediatric Association.

Region III Co-Chairs:
Robert Hilliard (robert.hilliard@sickkids.ca)
Carrin Schottler-Thal (schottc@mail.amc.edu)

Welcome back from Hawaii! PAS was again a wonderful meeting, and we were glad to see so many familiar faces (as well as plenty of new ones) there. We had a fabulous turn-out for the Region IV breakfast on Monday morning, with over 30 members attending from 10 different institutions around the region.

The breakfast meeting was very productive. We thanked Barry Solomon for his dedication to the region as co-chair as he completed his term, and warmly welcomed Ivor Horn, who began her 3 year term. We gave kudos to several of our members who received awards and distinctions at the meeting this year. These included: Tina Cheng (Baltimore, MD), who was installed as the new APA President; Lawrence Pakula (Lutherville, MD), who received the Pediatric Community Teaching Award; and Ken Roberts (Greensboro, NC), who received the Miller/Sarkin Mentor Award. Congratulations to all of them! We also had discussions on ways for the APA to work better for all members, both regionally and nationally; some ideas for new activities at the regional meeting were proposed. If you have any suggestions or ideas, please contact one of us – we would love to hear from you!

Membership in the region continues to grow. To encourage increased participation and membership, please invite colleagues, faculty members, fellows, and residents to consider applying for membership. If you are interested in serving as a recruiter for Region IV at your home institution, let us know. Please keep Barry Solomon informed of any changes in your contact information at bsolomon@jhmi.edu or if you’d like him to send a message out to Region IV members. If you do not have e-mail, please call Barry at (410) 614-8438.

Finally, please mark your calendars for next year’s Region IV meeting! It will be held February 21-22, 2009, in Charlottesville, VA. We look forward to seeing everyone then!

Region IV Co-Chairs:
Gail Cohen (cohen@wfubmc.edu)
Ivor Horn (ihorn@cnmc.org)

Happy Summer Region V members. I would like to take a moment to thank Jenny Christner for her years of work on our behalf as she steps down. I would also like to welcome our new Co-Chair, Bill Stratbucker as well as our Co-Chair Elect, Adam Spanier!
It was good to see many of you at our Region meeting in Hawaii. There was a very nice set of presentations from our trainee abstract competition. Thanks to our trainees as well as our abstract reviewers!
Looking forward, we are planning to start quarterly Region teleconferences as we start planning Region V activities. The first is scheduled for September 15th. The time and agenda will be decided after reviewing responses from our upcoming e-survey of our region members. This survey is primarily to assess member ideas for a potential fall 2009 Region V meeting. Please take a moment to complete when you receive it.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact one of us!

Region V Co-Chairs:
Shalini Forbis (shalini.forbis@wright.edu)
Adam Spanier (adam.spanier@cchmc.org)
Bill Stratbucker (william.stratbucker@devoschildrens.org)

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We will have our annual fall meeting which will be hosted by the Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO. The specific information about this meeting can be obtained from Lorraine Brewer (labrewer@cmh.edu)

As Beth Simpson completed her term as the regional chair for region 6, Lorraine Brewer has been elected as a third regional chair after Young J. Juhn, MD, MPH at Mayo Clinic as a second chair and Heidi Sallee, as the first chair at St. Louis University. We thank Beth Simpson for her excellent leadership during her tenure. Also, please join us to congratulate on Lorraine’s new role as the regional chair.

At our regional level, we are trying to develop serve list for interest groups. Young J. Juhn, at Mayo Clinic proposed an idea developing serve lists for individual interest group. Many members of our region expressed their support for the idea and indicated their interests on sharing information among faculty who belongs to an interest group. Interest groups considered include General Pediatrics, Hospitalist, Behavioral/Development, Emergency Medicine, and Child Abuse. Once the serve list for each group is developed, members in an interest group can post questions and share relevant information. The serve list for an individual interest group should work better than a serve list that includes every member.

Region VI Chair:
Young J. Juhn (juhn.young@mayo.edu)
Heidi Sallee (salleehm@slu.edu)
Lorraine Brewer (labrewer@cmh.edu)

APA Regions VII and VIII joined together at the Southern Regional Meeting in New Orleans, LA on February 21 – 23, 2008. The number of abstracts submitted and attendees was the highest we have had in more than 10 years! The APA led the platform presentations in Adolescent Medicine/ Pediatrics and Medical Education/Medical Ethics. The APA sponsored an excellent workshop on “Making Learning Fun for All: Working with Your Learner’s Differences,” presented by Marney Gundlach and Rosina Connelly.

We also had some time for networking and fun. Following the opening poster session, we held our 2nd annual dinner at the Palace Café and the final morning of the conference we enjoyed combining breakfast with our business meeting. We were privileged to have Peter Szilagyi, President of the APA, attend this breakfast and speak to the group about the organization’s strategic plan. We also presented travel awards to nine recipients who were chosen for excellence in research. Each year, Regions VII and VIII collaborate to present trainee travel awards, consisting of a one-year trainee membership to the APA and money.

Honolulu provided a wonder setting for this year’s Pediatric Academic Societies meeting. On Monday, May 5, 2008 we held our regional breakfast with thirty members present and a lively discussion. We had reports from the AAP committees and we discussed several ways to recruit new members as this continues to be one of our priorities. Arthur Fierman, the outgoing APA treasurer, attended the meeting and was complementary of the excitement in the room. The new Region Co-Chair, Marny Dunlap from the University of Oklahoma was introduced and Bryan Burke, the outgoing Co-Chair from the University of Arkansas was thanked for all his hard work. At the Region Chairs’ Luncheon it was decided that the immediate past Co-Chair would take on a new role as Membership Co-Chair. Congratulations Bryan!

Next year’s regional meeting as part of the the Southern Regional Meeting in New Orleans, LA will take place February 12-14, 2009. Workshop submissions should be sent to Charlie Kantrow ckantrow@ochsner.org by August 15, 2008. The deadline for abstract submissions is October 16, 2008. We hope more people will join us! This is a great opportunity for trainees and young faculty. We will also have our annual regional breakfast as part of the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting May 2-5, 2009 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Region VII Co-Chairs
Teresa Duryea (teresad@bcm.edu)
Charles Kantrow (ckantrow@ochsner.org)
Marny Dunlap (Marny-Dunlap@ouhsc.edu)

Our Region Breakfast meeting in Hawaii highlighted four poster presentations from outstanding trainees selected from the 2008 Region IX and X meeting in Los Angeles. Awardees included Joyce Javier, (Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles), Angelika Valdez,. (University of Utah), Diana Rickard, (UCLA) and Carole Stipelman, (University of Utah). The agenda also included discussion of turnover in leadership and planning our upcoming Regional Meeting in 2009. Tremendous gratitude was expressed to outgoing chair, Cindy Ferrell, , from Region X. Elizabeth Miller, from UC Davis was nominated as the new co-chair for Region X.

Our Joint Region IX and X Meeting, the Pediatric CARE (Community, Advocacy, Research and Education) Conference, will be on January 31, 2009 in Monterey, California at the Naval Post Graduate School (the Western Society for Pediatric Research (WSPR) region meeting is also nearby on the same weekend). Residents or fellows who present posters or platform presentations at the Pediatric CARE Conference will be eligible for 2-3 travel stipend awards to the national PAS conference in Baltimore to present at our Regional Breakfast meeting. This year, we will also include a “Works in Progress” poster session for residents/fellows who would like feedback from faculty on their projects. The abstract deadline this year is October 3, 2008.

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and should use a structured abstract format, either the standard PAS format (Background, Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusion) or the modified format suggested in the Call for Proposals (timeline, target audience, goals and objectives, activities, outcomes measures and lessons learned in implementation). Topics can be in the areas of community pediatrics, child advocacy, basic or clinical sciences research, health services research, or medical education. If the first author is a current pediatric resident, please indicate the year of training next to the resident’s name. Residents and fellows are strongly encouraged to work with their faculty mentors on their abstract submissions. Please indicate if you would like the abstract to be considered for an oral presentation, the Works-in-Progress Poster Session or both.

Please submit abstracts to Region X co-chair Patricia Barreto at pbarreto@mednet.ucla.edu no later than October 3, 2008. We will notify presenters by November 1, 2008.

We welcome any feedback or ideas for APA regional activities, either locally or at the national meeting. Please feel free to contact in

Region IX:
Greg Blaschke (gregory.blaschke@med.navy.mil) or Alice Kuo (akuo@mednet.ucla.edu)
Region X:
Patricia Barreto (pbarreto@mednet.ucla.edu) or Elizabeth Miller (elizabeth.miller@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu)

The Child Abuse SIG was held on Sunday, May 4, 2008 from 8-11 AM. The agenda for the SIG was as follows:
8:00-8:50 Radiologic dating of intracranial hemorrhage Katie Deye, M.D.
8:50-9:30 Cutaneous mimickers of child abuse Dena Nazer, M.D.
9:45-11:00 Human trafficking of minors William Shipley, Esq. (US attorney)
Clare Connors, Esq. (US attorney)
Nicole Littenberg, M.D., MPH

The talks given were excellent, and generated lively discussion. The session on human trafficking of minors raised our awareness significantly, as this is an area that few of us have much experience with. The session was well attended, and met our goals for education.

The child abuse SIG was successful this past year in asking for, and receiving, a platform session in child abuse. This session, held May 3, 2008, from 7-9 AM, was extremely successful and well attended. We had active discussions after each presentation, and the support from the PAS community was great.

SIG Chairs:
Cindy Christian (christian@email.chop.edu)

2008 Continuity SIG agenda/minutes

• Introduction of members, including several new members. About 55 members attended the annual meeting of the Continuity SIG. John Olsson, Chair of the Continuity SIG, urged continuity leaders to become APA members. He also reminded junior members that SIG members can be mentors for their careers.
• Marilyn Dumont-Driscoll presented a report from the APA Board. She reminded members that the APA Business Meeting is open to all and that new members of the APA’s four committees are always welcome. Additional updates included the recent Board retreat, the new name (Academic Pediatric Association), the Development Fund, a 2009 Educational Meeting, New Century Scholars, and APA elections.
• Susan Feigelman and Becky Collins (not present) talked about the opportunity to post more information on SIG listservs. The group decided to post summaries of queries from the listserv, for example. More work would be done to make the website more useful in the future. There are about 250 members using the continuity listserv. APA-continuitysig@listserv.ambpeds.org is the address to post Continuity SIG issues.
• Janet Serwint provided an update of CORNET (Continuity Research Network). This included a discussion of current enrollment of sites, new manuscripts and abstracts in progress, and a review of current grants for future projects. Interested members were invited to become a member and contact information was provided (cornet@ambpeds.org).
• Jan Drutz reviewed the history of having a manual for new continuity directors, now out of date, and interest in revising the manual with the help of members in addition to members of the Task Force. The manual will need some new chapters in addition to the old ones.
• Jan Drutz also gave a report of a meeting held earlier in the PAS with continuity preceptors who were using the EPIC electronic medical record. This group looked at the use of EPIC to gather data for RRC visits and for doing research. Members using other electronic medical records were encouraged to participate in this effort. Jan asked members to contact him by e-mail if they had interest.
  
• Sharon Riesen presented an RRC update, taking questions and comments from the membership. Recent citations related to continuity are more of the same: bean counting. Susan Feigelman shared that U. of Maryland is one of three sites for beta testing an ACMGE learning portfolio. More information about this can be found on the ACGME website.
• Susan Guralnick and Diane Kittredge provided an update on the R3P project, which is coming to a close. They shared that the outcome of extensive discussions was that it was difficult to predict the future of pediatrics and therefore there could not be a prescription for pediatric education. However, innovative teaching methodologies should be explored and shared. There is interest in working with the APPD, and in particular, the interest is largely on the continuity curriculum. Project ideas may require an ACGME waiver, especially with projects that are collaborative, multisite projects. There is no set timeline for an RFP.
• Finally, John Olsson introduced the workshop portion of the meeting. He provided an historical background of the ACGME’s interest in looking at other outcome measures for which to determine the adequacy of the continuity experience. Work has moved forward in collaboration with the APPD.
• Four break-out groups looked at educational goals developed by the CC SIG Task Force in their October meeting and came up with next steps. Each of the four groups presented summaries of their discussion. These summaries will be typed and shared with an emphasis to move this process forward over the next few months.
  

We had a very productive SIG meeting in Honolulu. We spent the first hour in small groups, discussing issues in faculty development. The remainder of the SIG meeting was devoted to a workshop on mentoring led by Mimi Bar-on and Maryellen Gusic.

The discussion groups were designed to address the needs of anyone interested in faculty development, from novice to expert. We began by inviting everyone to select either a novice or expert small group in which to discuss a number of prepared questions. Each group was facilitated by one of the SIG co-chairs. We spent most of the hour in active small group discussion and then concluded by sharing our findings in a report out. Our questions and a summary of the discussions are below.

Novice Group

• What are your motivations for doing faculty development?
• academic recognition, promotion, financial
• enthusiasm and passion for medical education and faculty development
• support or encouragement from department chair or division head
• to help promote a curriculum change
• mandated by accreditation process
it is helpful to have colleagues who are similarly interested
• How did you assess your faculty’s needs?
• needs assessment of faculty themselves, questionnaire to faculty, ask about their, self-reflection and self-efficacy
• based on residents’ complaints or evaluations from residents
• How do you get buy-in from faculty to come to faculty development activities?
• stick approach – particularly if there are less than positive comments from an accreditation process or site visit
• carrot approach – demonstrate the effect on faculty success
• start small and build, can be divisional and voluntary, can be mandated but this often is less effective
• What are the resources for faculty development within your institution and outside your institution for faculty development?
• support from Undergraduate Medical Education or Continuing Medical Education offices
• support from school of public health
• should we ever ask for financial support from a pharmaceutical company’s fund for continuing medical education
• if web-based may not need a lot of financial support
• How do you ask for participation in faculty development without becoming the change agent

• What are some innovations you have seen?
• Peer review of teaching: a “teach buddy” is a concept where peers will give feedback on lecturing skills of faculty.
• Teacher learning contracts: self assessment and individual learning plans for teachers can guide learning for faculty
• Faculty development snippets: short subjects (15 minutes) on faculty development delivered monthly at departmental meetings.
• Your learning style: Look up your own learning style using a simple questionnaire: see: http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp.
• Develop learning communities of both junior and senior faculty as clinician-educators for likeminded faculty.
• How do you get faculty to participate in faculty development?
• Get chair to demand that you go.
• Close or “shut down” the clinic so all faculty can participate.
• Bring faculty development to faculty meetings, e.g. Graduate Medical Education or Continuing Medical Education committees, residents' meetings.
• Have an audio PowerPoint presentation on-line, or use web based computer assisted learning.
• Reward faculty for professional development through – promotion, awards for participation, peer review of teaching.
• Ensure performance reviews include participation in faculty development activities.
• How do you evaluate the impact of faculty development? What subset of Kirkpatrick’s triangle do you use?
• Measure how many learners are influenced by your teaching, measure learner outcomes.
• Submit yearly progress report on your faculty development activities.
• Track promotions / rewards / awards.
• Consider measuring teacher performance using an Objective Structured Teaching Evaluation (OSTE).

• Sutkin, G., Wager, E, et al. What Makes a Good Clinical Teacher in Medicine? A Review of the Literature. Academic Med 2008; 83:452-466.
  
  This is a fascinating literature review from 1906 to the present. The authors reviewed almost 5,000 articles written over the last 100 years that attempted to answer this question: “What makes a good clinical teacher in Medicine?” After an exhaustive review and qualitative analysis, the authors conclude there are 5 basic themes that emerge. See for yourself and check out their recommendations for future research in this area.
  


• Guardino, C Ko, C et al. Impact of Instructional Practices on Student Satisfaction with Attendings’
  Teaching in the Inpatient Component of Internal Medicine. J Gen Intern Med 2006; 21:7-12.
  
  I know what you are thinking…this is inpatient internal medicine. What relevance is it to me? Well the authors looked at a nationwide survey of fourth year medical students and asked them about attending teaching practices, organization of the clerkship and their satisfaction with attending teaching. They conducted a logistic regression analysis to try to discern which factors about inpatient attending teaching were associated with high student satisfaction with teaching. They conclude that engaging students in real discussion (vs. formal lecture) giving spontaneous talks, and seeing new patients together were associated with high degrees of student satisfaction. See how you stack up.



• Boehler M., Rogers D, et al. An Investigation of Medical Student Reactions to Feedback: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Medical Education 2006; 40:746-749.
  
  This study from researchers at Southern Illinois University looked at what aspects of feedback most impact learning and which impact student satisfaction. They studied two groups of students. Group A was taught surgical knot tying with specific feedback on their skills while group B was just given lots of praise as they attempted to tie their knots. Both groups were tested and scored by blinded observers. The results showed that student satisfaction was higher in the group that just received praise, while performance scores in knot tying were highest in the group that received feedback. They conclude that student satisfaction is not an effective measure of the quality of feedback, rather, the effective teacher combines both compliments and feedback to effect learning.



• Muething, SE, Kotagal, U, eta l. Family-Centered Bedside Rounds: A New Approach to Patient Care and Teaching. Pediatrics Vol 119, Number 4, April 2007 ;829-832.
  
  This is the how-to article on conducting family centered rounds brought to you by the folks at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. While some of us veterans remember fondly the days when all rounds were at the bedside and family centered, many programs we have visited have lost this teaching and learning style. This article aims to re-invigorate us into trying this style (again) when we are attendings on the wards.

Please let us know if you have ideas or questions for discussion at the Faculty Development SIG session in Baltimore next year.

SIG Co-chairs:
Bob Hilliard (robert.hilliard@sickkids.ca),
Joe Lopreiato (jlopreiato@usuhs.mil)
Lyuba Konopasek (lyk2003@med.cornell.edu)

We had a great meeting at PAS in Hawaii. About 60 people showed up bright and early for the SIG meeting.

We discussed the APA name change and it is more inclusive. Our usual discussion of education issues veered away from hospitalists as educators to how to educate hospitalists. Different resources for faculty development were discussed, highlighting the role of the APA particularly for those in academic roles, plus the offerings of the Society of Hospital Medicine. This served as an opportunity to recruit applicants to the next cohort of the APA’s Educational Scholars Program which will have ten spots specifically for hospitalists. The pressing need for faculty development and mentoring of hospitalists was also a theme at the APA’s Leadership Conference in Orlando last March. The SIG will continue to work within the APA to expand opportunities to hospitalists. An ongoing resource is the Hospitalists track for the PAS meeting that the SIG coordinates each year. Jeff Sperring has led this effort, with help, and it provides a meaningful listing of topics and presentations at the PAS so attendees can be more focused if they so choose.

The meeting finished with a discussion of setting a research agenda for Hospital Medicine. As many of you know, the SIG participates in the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings (PRIS) network, along with SHM and the new research subcommittee of the AAP SOHM. The APA board provides support for PRIS in the form of Nui Dhepyasuwan who has been a tremendous help. Topics of research interest include: outcomes measures, systems of care, transitions of care, complex care, and education on the inpatient service (deferring Family Centered Care to the new FCR SIG). We are hoping to reinvigorate PRIS to take the lead on this and start tapping the potential of the PRIS network.

SIG Co-Chairs:
Daniel Rauch (daniel.rauch@med.nyu.edu)
Jeffrey Sperring ( jsperrin@iupui.edu)

The Integrative Medicine SIG met on Sunday morning, May 4th, as part of the annual PAS meeting. Taking advantage of the Hawaiian venue, the SIG co-chairs, O.J. Sahler, MD (University of Rochester) and David M Steinhorn, MD (Northwestern University), developed a program in conjunction local Honolulu-based pediatrician David Paperny, MD. Twenty-eight PAS attendees were present and participated in the extended four-hour SIG meeting that featured presentations by local Hawaiian experts. The presentations included:

• Kumu Hula Kapiolani Hao - Demonstration of traditional hula and explanation of cultural, health and spiritual significance.
• Aunty Betty Jenkins focused on native healing concepts and was entitled “Total Wellness and Healing of Our Children; A Focus on Native Hawaiian Cultural and Traditional Healing Practices”.
• Discussion of traditional Hawaiian herbal healing practices
• Ki Kata master Sensei Kiyohisa Hirano - Ki techniques for soft and hard Ki
• David Paperny, MD,FAAP,FSAM - Pediatric EEG biofeedback & clinical hypnosis Evaluation process:

Evaluations were returned by 18 of the attendees and were highly complementary and encouraged similar activities at future meetings.

SIG Co-Chairs:
Olle Jane Z. Sahler (OJ_Sahler@urmc.rochester.edu)
David Steinhorn (d-steinhorn@northwestern.edu)

The Race in Medicine SIG had another interesting session during the 2008 PAS annual meeting in Hawaii. During this year’s meeting, we explored what does the construct of “race/ethnicity” mean in Hawaii and what are the unique implications on health status for Native Hawaiians given more than 50% of the population in Hawaii are mixed race. Our panelists for the session were J. Keawe'aimoku Kaholokula, PhD from the Department of Native Hawaiian Health at John A. Burns School of Medicine at University of Hawaii and Sylvia Yeun, PhD from the Center on the Family at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Our panelists focused on the construct and measurement of race/ethnicity in health research, as well as presented data on children’s health outcomes in Hawaii; acculturation and diabetes; and ethnic-admixture and hypertension.

SIG Co-Chairs:
Iris Mabry-Hernandez (imabry@ahrq.gov)
Suzette Oyeku (soyeku@montefiore.org)

PAS 2008

Once again the Women in Medicine Special Interest Group presented lively discussions about 2 challenging issues. The topics were selected based on issues raised during PAS 2007 Women in Medicine SIG, had been submitted as potential PAS workshops but had not been accepted. In a true aloha spirit, Dr. Berkowitz presented each of the presenters with a lei. The first part of the program was devoted to a debate entitled: Resolved: Work-Life Balance is a Generational, Not a Gender Issue .

The debaters included: Gary Freed and Sandra Hassink arguing in favor of the resolution, that the issue was generational and not gender–based, and Alison Holmes and Joe Zenel arguing against, that gender rather than generation was the prevailing concern. Their presentations are available on the APA website. Humor prevailed as in previous debates, and neither side could claim victory.

The second part of the program included a panel discussion entitled: Succeeding in Academia: The Challenge of Being an IMG: Are there Gender Differences? Discussants included Surendra Varma, Latha Chandran and Doug Jones. A recurrent theme among the presenters was the challenge that IMGs face when they come to the United States. Chandra noted that programs were loath to accept her for a residency slot and how she finally secured one. Varma commented that the advice he received from his father was invaluable. In particular, his father told him that if he did well, people would comment that Varma is an excellent physician. If he did not do well, people would say that Indian physicians could not be depended upon. Jones highlighted the need to judge people individually and not from preconceived ideas. It was apparent that Varma and Chandran had worked especially hard to succeed and to be a credit to their native countries. Varma’s Power Point presentation is also posted on the APA website.

There were approximately 40 attendees at the session. The audience included both men and women. During the interval between the debate and the panel discussion, the audience engaged in an appreciative exercise where they meet their neighbor and then introduced their neighbor to the group.

SIG Chair:
Carol D. Berkowitz ( carolb@pol.net)