MESSAGE FROM SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR HEALTH SCIENCES
Let me wish each of you and your families a happy, healthy Thanksgiving. This time of the year is my favorite of the entire year—from the changing colors of the leaves, the twinkly lights sprinkled around town, more time spent with friends and family, to the way my kitchen becomes engulfed with the best holiday aromas from holiday baking and fall spices. Whatever your culture and traditions may be, I hope you will find joy, renewal, and time to spend with your loved ones this holiday season.
Our lives began to change dramatically in February 2020, and since then we have seen both heartbreak and modern-day miracles unfold before our eyes. Let us remember the many lives lost to COVID-19 and keep their families in our hearts and minds. In a season of thanks, let us also honor the ingenuity and courage of all those who have sustained us during the pandemic, including our scientific, health care, and essential worker communities. My youngest daughter received her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine recently, as soon after it was authorized that I could get her scheduled. As she received her dose, I thought about all the people that helped make that a reality from the scientists, the clinical trial volunteers, the health care and research teams conducting and monitoring the studies, the regulators, and so on. It reminds me that when we come together around a shared goal with a true desire to collaborate and value one another’s contributions, we can solve nearly any challenge.
It is a great honor to be part of the Health Sciences faculty and staff, sharing in a common purpose to teach, learn, and serve. This holiday season, I am especially thankful for each of you and our students who live their passion and a commitment to care for others. This month’s Heartbeats once again reminds us of the important, impactful work being realized in Health Sciences. Be generous and kind to others, open your heart to those you teach and serve, and always nurture the curiosity that lives within each of us. These are my wishes for you, and my own new year’s resolution. Happy Thanksgiving!
--Reamer Bushardt, senior associate dean for Health Sciences
PEOPLE
KUDOS! Three HS staff members have received “Kudos” from coworkers for going above and beyond. Desmond Edwards, Minhye Kim, both of HS Administration, and Heather Richards of the Department of Health, Human Function and Rehabilitation Sciences (HHF&RS) have been recognized by the HS Staff Culture & Morale Committee for their commitment to excellence and collaboration. Notice a staff member doing a great job? Nominate them today!
PROGRAMS
BIOMEDICAL AI. The joint GW-Yale Informatics Seminar Series presents, “Biomedical AI: Its Roots, Evolution, and Agenda for the Future,” on Wednesday, Dec. 1 from 12 to 1p. Featured speaker is Edward H. (Ted) Shortliffe, MD, PhD, FACMI, FIAHSI, chair emeritus and adjunct professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University. Join via Zoom. For more information, contact lizworkman@gwu.edu
STRIKE UP THE FUN! The HS Staff Culture & Morale Committee is hosting a Holiday Bowling Party for staff members Wednesday, Dec. 8 from 2:30 to 5:30p at Pinstripes in Georgetown. If you haven’t rsvp’d yet, check out the invitation.
‘TIS THE SEASON. GW’s holiday celebrations for faculty and staff have been announced. The Foggy Bottom campus will celebrate at the Charles E. Smith Center on Thursday, Dec. 9 from 2 to 4p. VSTC’s holiday event is Thursday, Dec. 16 from 2 to 4p. (Location tbd).
MERRYMAKING. The SMHS/MFA Holiday Party will take place Wednesday, Dec. 15 from to 6:30p in Ross Hall.
A PROMISING PROGRAM. They serve in different departments. They have dissimilar research. One’s a clinician, one’s not. Harrison Reed and Maranda Ward might not appear to have a lot in common, but they both agree that the Emerging Scholars Fellowship (ESF) is a boon for their academic careers.
“Through the Emerging Scholars Fellowship, I have had the protected time to lead health and racial equity research and disseminate its outcomes in ways I had yet to experience,” said Ward, assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL). “This is invaluable as a junior investigator with a heavy teaching load.”
Ward and Reed, assistant professor in the Department of PA Studies (PAS), are the first two recipients of the ESF which provides early and mid-career faculty with salary support for protected time and individualized mentorship from senior scholars for one academic year, with an option for a second year of funding. The protected time and mentorship help faculty launch scholarly careers and research trajectories. The program also enables faculty to build their scholarly networks through team science, collecting and analyzing pilot data, and disseminating their work to build their national reputation, and achieve future funding.
“We are forging new ground with this state-of-the art education and training fellowship for burgeoning health professions scholars,” said associate dean Anthony Artino of HS Administration, director of ESF. The program is an example of how GW Health Sciences is “Investing in People” and “Influencing Health Professions Education, Health Care Policy, and Practice,” focus areas of our Strategic Plan.
Reed has appreciated his experience and endorses ESF. "The Emerging Scholars Program is a great opportunity for early career researchers to utilize the protected time and dedicated mentorship that is often difficult to obtain without external grant funding,” he said. “For faculty who have primarily focused on education, it's an excellent first foray into the world of research. It allowed me to connect with researchers and academics outside of my usual professional circles."
Reed is using ESF support to study the effect of interpersonal workplace behavior on PAs. The interactions of health care professionals and the environment these behaviors create plays a pivotal role in important institutional and health-related outcomes. His exploratory work will inform interventions to mitigate toxic workplace behavior and improve the wellbeing and efficacy of the 130,000+ certified PAs practicing in the United States.
The program has enabled Ward to lead the educational efforts of SMHS’s Anti-Racism Coalition and manage a multidisciplinary student research lab: the Coalition for Restructuring Education via Health Equity and Antiracism Leading to Health. The lab is piloting a department-level antiracism demonstration project that will be scaled and replicated across SMHS’s medical enterprise.
ESF is funded by HS Administration. Artino said the program is moving toward a "shared funding" model where HS covers about 10 percent of a fellow’s salary and the chair of the faculty member's department agrees to cover the other 10 percent. “The goal is to cover 20 percent of the faculty member's time, so they can have one day per week of protected time to participate in the Emerging Scholars Fellowship,” Artino added.
The program is currently limited to two scholars per year, but Artino would like to eventually expand so up to four fellows can participate annually. The application and selection process for the next class of fellows will open in Spring 2022. A letter of nomination (self-nominations are fine), as well as a letter of support from the faculty member's chair will be required. For more information on ESF, contact aartino@gwu.edu
APPLAUSE
ETHICAL BEARING. Anthony Artino of HS Administration and HHF&RS and co-authors published, “Knowledge syntheses in medical education: Meta-research examining authors’ gender, geographic location and institutional affiliation,” in the Oct. 26 issue of PLOS One. He and co-authors also published, “Ethical bearing is about our conduct: Ethics as an essential component of military interprofessional healthcare teams,” in the Oct. 26 issue of Military Medicine.
VETS AS PAs. Brandon Beattie and Harrison Reed of PAS co-authored, "No, Thank You" For Your Service,” in the November issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
PEDIATRICS. Marisa Birkmeier of HHF&RS presented, “GEORGE Practicum, Pandemic Edition: Preparing Early Interventionists to Meet the Needs of Teachers, Family, and Children,” at the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy Annual Conference this month. She and Erin Wentzell of HHF&RS presented, “CAT Got Your Tongue? Small Group Discussions to Enhance Pediatric Clinical Reasoning,” at the conference.
NIH GRANT. Shawneequa Callier of CRL is a co-investigator of a bioethics, legal, and social implications grant, "Bridging Gaps in the ELSI of Data Science Health Research in Nigeria.” NIH awarded $75 million to catalyze data science research in Africa and Callier’s team is one of the awardees. She’s collaborating with colleagues at the West African Bioethics Center in Nigeria. Callier also presented, “Population Descriptors in Genomics Research: What classifications are used?” this month at the Q4 IHCC Members Workshop. IHCC is the International HundredK+ Cohorts Consortium.
NUTRITION FIRST. Leigh Frame of CRL presented, “The Future of Healthcare Begins with Nutrition, but Tell Us More about That Future” and “Caring for the Other Half of Humans: The Microbiome and Its Relationship with Nutrition,” at the Plant-based Prevention of Disease Continuing Education Conference in October. Frame has been named an inaugural member of the Friends of NIH Office of Nutrition Research Coalition by the American Society for Nutrition.
DIVERSE DIETS. Rohini Ganjoo of the Department of Biomedical Laboratory Sciences (BLS), Sameera Talegawkar of the School of Public Health and co-authors published, "Dietary Diversity and its Associations with Anemia among Women of Reproductive Age in Rural Odisha, India," in the October issue of Ecology of Food and Nutrition.
ACTION PLAN. Mountasser Kadie of CRL presented, “Sustainability of Healthcare Organizations: A Plan of Action,” in October to the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Southeast Texas Chapter at the ACHE Annual Healthcare Leadership Conference. Kadrie was a panelist discussing, “Collaborating Across the Health System To Connect Data and Optimize Workflow,” this month to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society-Phillips Advisory Group. The panel assessed how COVID-19 has impacted and promoted collaboration across health systems to connect data and optimize patient care workflow. Last month, Kadrie developed a global health informatics course, “Digital Health Adoption: Psychological Staff Safety and Well-being,” for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform. HIMSS members from 120 countries will take the course, which launches in January, as it is a requirement for HIMSS professional certification and fellowship tracks. Kadrie was recertified and reappointed as a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives in October.
HCOP DATA. Joyce Maring of HHF&RS, Carmen Session, Reamer Bushardt, Minhye Kim of HS Administration, and Russell Korte of GSEHD presented a poster, “Improving Educational Outcomes through Mentorship: Health Careers Opportunity Program Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds,” at the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions Conference in October.
PRESIDENTIAL AWARD. Howard Straker of PAS received the President’s Award for leadership and dedication from the PA Education Association at the group’s Annual Forum in October. Straker is a former president of PAEA. He and Susan LeLacheur of PAS presented, “Teaching Race, Power and Privilege in Healthcare Settings,” at the meeting. Straker also presented, “Presidents Commission: Pipeline to the PA Profession.”
GROUP EFFORT. Maranda Ward, Kathy Thoma and Tim McCall, all of CRL; Trudy Mallinson of HS Administration, HHF&RS and CRL, Angela McNelis of SON, Heather Yoho (MSHS graduate and former HS research assistant), Erin Wentzell of HHF&RS, Yolanda Haywood of SMHS Administration, and Rohini Ganjoo of BLS authored a poster, “Validating an Instrument to Measure Health Equity Knowledge and Capacity of Students across the Health Professions,” for the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting in October. Also at APHA, Ward presented a poster, “The Need for Processing: Training on Antiracism While Black in A White Colonial Space,” and co-authored two posters: “An Introduction to a New Model for Organizational Change towards Racial Equity,” “Student-Led Research and Practice: A Model for Organizing Antiracist Institutional Aims.”
ANNIVERSARIES. Congratulations to the following colleagues celebrating work anniversaries: Senait Tekle and Ying Yin, both of the Biomedical Informatics Center (one year).
SAVE THE DATES. Upcoming Foggy Bottom campus events include:
- Dec. 7 from 7-8:15p: Myanmar In Crisis. A viewing of “Padauk: Myanmar Spring,” a short film documenting citizens’ efforts to reverse the coup. Film will be followed by a panel discussion with commentators from Myanmar. The Elliott School and SPH are two of the event sponsors. Register here.
- Dec. 8 from 12-6p: Free chair massages! Stop by Room B114 in District House for a free chair massage from a licensed massage therapist.
- Dec. 13 & 14 from 9a-3p: Greenhouse Plant Sale. Go green with your gift-giving and visit Room 8500 in the Science & Engineering Hall to buy a plant grown organically on campus. Houseplants, herbs, hanging baskets, orchids, rare plants, cactus, and succulents are available.
HB HOLIDAY! Heartbeats will be on holiday in December. See you in January!
