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MESSAGE FROM ASSISTANT DEAN FOR ONLINE EDUCATION AND ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT

Happy new year! In this first issue of Heartbeats for 2021, let me review progress and point to next steps in the Health Sciences Strategic Plan 2020-2023. Last December, we completed a successful first year and achieved all our goals, despite challenges presented by COVID. So give yourself a big pat on the back! We kicked the initiative off with a great volunteer event that brought us together as a division to help impact worldwide hunger. Then, we went to work on seven strategic initiatives shaped across our plan’s focus areas: Investing in People, Living Our Social Mission, Influencing Health Professions Education, Policy, and Practice; and Catalyzing Innovation and Entrepreneurism. Even during a pandemic, it is easy to see the commitment of our faculty, staff, and students and inspiring to see the impact of our collective work. Exciting to me is that our strategic plan is getting noticed at SMHS and GW.

HS teams are already hard at work for a successful second year. Rather than being a roadmap, our plan is more of a North Star that constantly reminds us of what we can accomplish together through collaboration, innovation, and caring for the communities we serve. The journey we take, however, is ours to choose and knowing sometimes life will put unexpected barriers and opportunities in our way. In the near future, I will share a new tracking tool for our strategic initiatives to record our progress and evaluate our impact. The tool incorporates engaging visuals so everyone can follow the progress as we successfully live our mission and work toward making our vision a reality. Here’s to an exciting 2021!

--Amy King, MDE, PMP

Assistant Dean

Online Education and Enrollment Management

PEOPLE

HAIL TO THE CHIEF. Kevin O’Connor of HS Administration officially joined another administration last week: President Joe Biden has commissioned O’Connor as Physician to the President. O’Connor's service to the White House is possible through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act and an agreement between GW and the U.S Navy. O'Connor is an associate professor in the Department of Health, Human Function and Rehabilitation Sciences and senior medical advisor for HS. Formerly, he served as associate professor of medicine, founding director of the Center for Executive Medicine (GW Medical Faculty Associates) and medical director of International and Diplomatic Affairs (GW Hospital). O’Connor has been Biden’s physician since 2009, when he was appointed Physician to the Vice President. Before joining the White House, O’Connor served 22 years in the Army, including tours of duty with the 82nd Airborne Division, 75th Ranger Regiment, and United States Army Special Operations Command. He retired from the military following the Obama administration and continued as Biden’s doctor when he joined GW.

O’Connor talked with us about his White House role:

Q.  What does your new job entail?

A.   “The Physician to the President is responsible for all aspects of the health and wellness of the First Family. As such, I will continue to be their family doctor for primary care concerns. Additionally, together with the talented members of the White House Medical Unit, we will provide emergency medical planning and coverage, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, anywhere in the world. The White House Medical Unit also provides comprehensive care for the Second Family and primary care support for the President's Cabinet.”

Q.  What are you most looking forward to in your new role?

A.   “I believe that this is going to be a very consequential administration. The nation is more divided than ever and we're combatting a pandemic. At the end of the day, given an opportunity to help a president - any president, address that, even in a small way ... well, if your president asks you to serve, you serve. The fact that I have cared for the Biden family for a dozen years already, and that I have grown to care a great deal for them personally - those are just bonuses.”

“Don't get me wrong, every morning that one walks into the White House does, and should, give you a momentary zap of awe and humility. There are quite a few trappings which come with serving in this capacity. But of those whom much is given, much is expected ... I never lose sight of that, not for one second. We're all there to serve for a brief period of time, and we are stewards of an institution. Nothing there is ‘ours’.”  

Q.  How do you feel about being top doc, serving our president?

“First off, I don't see myself as being ‘top’ anything. I'm a good family physician who has been blessed to end up caring for a good family. In this particular case, it's the First Family. The president deserves to have a personal physician whom he or she trusts and feels comfortable with. Ideally, the ‘doc’* will be one of the only people on the president's staff who isn't walking into the room and presenting him or her with a very difficult problem. The very presence of ‘Doc’ should be received as comforting. President Biden and the First Lady have chosen to continue to place their trust and confidence in me as their physician. For that, I am genuinely humbled, and will serve at their pleasure.”

*Editor’s note: O’Connor is called “Doc” by President Biden and White House staff.

SCHOOL'S OUT.

Congratulations are in order for Patrick Corr of HS Administration, who successfully defended his dissertation to earn a Doctor of Education degree from GW’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD). Corr’s dissertation is: “Subjective Well-Being, Self-Care, and Mental Health Help-Seeking Tendencies Among DACA Students at a Large Public University in the Mid-Atlantic United States.” His committee included: Beth Tuckwiller (chair) of GSEHD, Leslie Davidson (methodologist) of the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL), along with Doran Gresham and Maggie Parker (examiners), both of GSEHD. Corr is also assuming a new role in HS as the GW director of the Governor's Health Sciences Academy at T.C. Williams High School. Corr, who has been a part of this innovative career pathway program since the start, assumes leadership and planning formerly led by Linda Zanin and Catherine Golden, both of HS Administration who will be taking on new initiatives. Corr holds an adjunct faculty appointment in CRL.

MESSAGE FROM THE INTERIM ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR EVALUATION AND EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

SMHS, and Health Sciences in particular, is fertile ground for educational innovation. Whether solving an existing problem or improving our learners’ educational experiences, innovations are critical for dynamic fields like health professions education (HPE). There are many examples of educational innovations in SMHS that we can take pride in, including new curricular models, novel assessment tools, and state-of-the-art instructional methods. Despite our educational creativity, I suspect many of our innovations may never be “written-up” and submitted for publication. This is unfortunate because publishing an innovation benefits all stakeholders: learners benefit from creative educational approaches that are widely disseminated and used, teachers benefit from reading about solutions that may help them solve their own local problems, and institutions benefit from learning what their peer institutions are doing to address related issues. Ultimately, when it comes to HPE, many of the challenges we all face can be solved through innovation.

Publishing our innovations also benefits the innovation (and the innovator) in several important ways. First, innovations can profit greatly from peer review. As painful as the peer-review process can be at times, there is value in having colleagues vet our ideas. Secondly, we benefit from having our work published. After all, publication is the “coin of the realm” in academia. Publishing is a critical requirement for promotion and tenure, and it is one of the primary ways we “get credit” for all the great work we do. Finally, for innovations to have broader impact on HPE, they often require replication and further study before they are ready for adoption by other educators working in different contexts. Widespread dissemination is an important way to positively impact education beyond our own institution.

Despite the benefits, we often do not publish our innovations due to a variety of barriers. We sometimes fail to recognize the broader value of our work or may be convinced our innovation is unworthy of publication. Other times, the barriers are not about the innovation, per se, but more about the writing process itself. We do not have time to write or do not know how to organize our thoughts into a compelling story. Finally, we sometimes fail to realize that educational innovations are a publishable type of scholarship with an ever-evolving landscape of dissemination options in academic journals, scholarly blogs, and even mainstream media.  

Despite these challenges, we can employ strategies to become more productive writers and disseminate our educational innovations. Part of my role in SMHS is to help HS faculty and clinical educators turn their innovations into published scholarship. Building a community of scholars—a network of individuals engaged in a set of activities to achieve a shared scholarship goal—is one of the most effective ways to overcome the barriers described here. Working as a team, the community can divide up writing projects, making them much less overwhelming or time consuming. In addition, members of the community share expertise and provide one another with built-in mentorship and peer review. Lastly, a community of scholars can help members develop relationships and networks that persist far beyond the end of any single project, boosting the scholarly productivity of faculty throughout their careers. Recent work in medical education suggests that communities of scholars generate more and higher quality scholarship than individual investigators working alone. Ultimately, if we do nothing else, I believe we can build new—as well as build on existing—communities of scholars within SMHS.

To this end, we recently convened CHEERS: the Collaborative for Health Education Evaluation, Research, and Scholarship. CHEERS serves as an interdisciplinary, interprofessional forum to discuss, plan, and execute educational research and scholarship using admissions, evaluation, and outcomes data collected by SMHS. CHEERS will “look back” at existing data that might be used to answer important educational research questions and “look forward” to plan prospective research studies using existing and to-be-collected data. Taken together, CHEERS aims to serve as a human and data resource for SMHS students, faculty, and staff interested in conducting educational scholarship. We also hope to foster a culture of diversity and inclusion, interprofessional collaboration and networking, and responsible research and scholarly thinking in HPE. In doing so, we will support the creation and dissemination of new knowledge and informed innovations that establish SMHS as a national leader in HPE and elevate the visibility of our HS programs and teams. For more information about CHEERS, feel free to contact me.

--Anthony R. Artino, Jr., PhD
Professor, Department of Health, Human Function and Rehabilitation Sciences
Interim Associate Dean for Evaluation and Educational Research

PEOPLE

TOP TEACHER.

Rohini Ganjoo of the Department of Biomedical Laboratory Sciences (BLS) has received a 2020 SMHS Distinguished Teacher Award. The award is presented annually to faculty members who in their teaching activities demonstrate exceptional ability in the following five areas: communicating information to advance learning, inspiring, motivating, and stimulating learners; being innovative in their teaching; demonstrating a sustained commitment as an educator; and establishing and maintaining a positive learning environment. Ganjoo, who joined HS in 2015, was humbled to receive the award. “I attribute my success to the wonderful team of people I work with in my department and at the school,” she said. “My colleagues continuously amaze me with their dedication and support. And our students who work so hard for a chance at a brighter tomorrow always inspire me.” Lisa Schwartz, who co-teaches a BLS course with Ganjoo, nominated her for the award. “In my work with Rohini, I witnessed firsthand her strong connection with her students by being inspiring, motivating, and stimulating in her teaching approach,” Schwartz said. “Rohini continually works on improving the learning environment. Her ability to implement different teaching models and strategies to provide a consistent and creative student experience is admirable.” In addition to Schwartz’ recommendation, Ganjoo received letters of support for the award from Marcia Firmani, Yuliya Dobrydneve, both of BLS, and Bart Gillum of the Department of Physician Assistant Studies (PAS). In addition to serving as director for three BLS programs -- the MSHS in Medical Laboratory Science, MSHS in Immunohematology and Biotechnology, and MSHS in Translational Microbiology -- Ganjoo also teaches in the Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medicine Program in PAS.

BUFF & BLUE.

Sheel Singh is obviously a fan of GW. Not only did Singh, a research program associate who joined HS in September, earn her bachelor degree and a master’s in medical anthropology here, but she’s hoping to enroll here to pursue a medical degree. “In the future, I see myself as a physician working in clinical research with underserved populations,” Singh said. For now, she’s enjoying her role, supporting a federally funded workforce development program, affiliated with the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children’s National (CTSI-CN). The CTSI-CN is a partnership between GW and Children’s National Health System. In addition to that work with Reamer Bushardt, Singh is supporting the Athlete Brain Health and Aging Study being conducted by Robert Turner of the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL). “I really enjoy research and I wanted more experience in an academic setting,” she said. “This position balances clinical research and work on training and support with specific educational activities. The aging study is incredibly exciting.” A native of Scottsdale, Arizona, Singh is happy she made the move east to attend GW. “I wanted to step away from suburbia life and try a new city. I fell in love with GW,” she said. “I see myself as an east coast person now.” Like many of us in lockdown, Singh, a resident of the Petworth neighborhood, has spent a fair share of time watching movies. She’s a fan of horror movies and says “You’re Next” is her favorite. “Usually, I get really angry at characters in horror movies making wrong decisions, but I feel like the main character in this movie makes the right decisions, so I’m always cheering her on. If you like horror movies, I recommend it.”

STRATEGIC PLAN

With this issue of Heartbeats we add a “Strategic Plan” section where we will periodically offer updates on initiatives of our Strategic Plan 2020-2023. The Governor’s Health Sciences Academy at T.C. Williams High School is just one example of our focus area on “Investing in People.” The following article, featured on our website, introduces four Academy students who can’t wait to make an impact in health care.

ACADEMY STUDENTS WANT TO IMPACT HEALTH CARE

Meet Alhaji Bah,  Ayrana Brooks, Tiffany Guevara Fuentes, and Tesnim Mohammed.

The four teenagers are among the newest students attending the Governor’s Health Sciences Academy (Academy) at T.C. Williams High School. And they represent the future of health care.

“I’ve always known that I wanted to have a career in the medical professions, but I didn’t really know how to start,” said Bah, a 10th-grader. After hearing about the Academy from friends, he decided to apply.  “They were saying such good things about it … I knew I wanted to join because of my passion for medicine. It helps you so much.

“I can’t wait for the future,” the 15-year-old added.

Setting students up for future success in a health sciences career is at the heart of the Academy, a unique collaboration between the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) and the Alexandria City Public Schools. The Academy, established in 2018 to respond to the region’s urgent need to expand health care pathways, is an example of how GW Health Sciences is investing in people, a focus area of the Health Sciences Strategic Plan 2020-2023. That focus and three others address the division’s mission to drive innovation and quality in health and health care delivery through education, scholarship, and service.

The Academy promotes career pathways in STEM-focused health sciences fields, supports students who want to pursue postsecondary education, and prepares graduates to meet workforce needs. There are seven career and technical education pathways students can choose from: biomedical informatics, medical laboratory sciences, sports medicine, pharmacy, emergency medical services, nursing, and surgical technology. Based on the selected pathway, Academy students can earn up to 18 college credits from GW while in high school.

The Academy’s first cohort of 85 students will graduate from high school in 2022. More than 400-plus students are expected to graduate by 2025. Academy graduates will earn their high school diploma, career-related industry certification, college credits for coursework, and guaranteed admission to GW SMHS.

Just as Bah joined the Academy to get a head start on a health care career, so did his classmates Brooks, Guevara Fuentes, and Mohammed.

“Ever since I was younger, I've always been interested in health sciences and the human body, so when I heard about the program, I knew that I wanted to apply,” said Mohammed, 15. “There are so many different issues going on in the world … viruses and diseases. I want to be a part of helping people deal with those different issues.”

Mohammed is one of many students in the Academy who are multilingual. She speaks Amharic and Afaan Oromo in addition to English. Bah is fluent in Creole, while Guevara Fuentes and Brooks both speak Spanish. In all, 26 languages are spoken by Academy students.

All four students applaud the Academy’s goal to help diversify health professions. “There aren't a lot of people that look like me that are in the health care field,” Mohammed said. “For future generations, it will be good for them to see somebody that looks like them.”

Brooks, who wants to be a pediatric nurse, agreed. “We all deserve the same equal opportunity so to see more people of color and people from different backgrounds or different races will be a game changer.”

“I want to open doors and opportunities … there are so many wonderful things that come out of the Academy,” she added.

Guevara Fuentes said, “I have seen my mom who doesn’t speak English really struggle. When we have the barrier of language we’re not able to connect or communicate easily. I feel like me speaking a different language besides English will be helpful.”

Bah, too, is excited to have an impact as a future graduate of the Academy. “It’s kind of overwhelming, but it also makes me proud to know that I’m going to be a part of this effort to change the world and increase diversity in these professions,” he said.

Bah, who wants to be a surgeon, has been influenced by his mother, a nurse. “She works so hard and she helps so many people,” he said. “I want to have that feeling that she does whenever she helps someone else.”

Guevara Fuentes’ goal is to have a career as a surgical technologist. “I am very interested in just about anything that has to do with the sciences and health overall and taking care of people,”  she said.

She and the other three students took prep courses over the summer so they could enter the Academy as 10^th-graders this fall. “At first, I was a little scared … the workload was a little bit heavier, but not too much to the point that it was overwhelming,” Guevara Fuentes, 16, said.  “To me, it’s such a great opportunity. You just have to try, and if you have the right intentions … if you have a dream, you can do it.”

Mohammed, who’s interested in emergency medicine, was initially worried about the college-level work required in the Academy, but she’s managing just fine. “The courses have been really great,” she said. “I wasn't so sure about how I would be able to handle it, but I’m able to complete all my work and enjoy the courses .”

She loves being a T.C. Williams and GW student. “I’m really happy because I’m part of a university,” she said. “This is a really big deal for my family. I have three younger brothers, so it’s really important for me to be a role model for them, and to show them that if they work hard, they can do what they want.”

Brooks also says she’s setting an example for her younger siblings. “I think I’m accomplishing a lot, especially with being only 15. You don’t really hear about a lot of high schoolers doing college classes,” she said. “I am a big influence and role model with my sisters. They watch everything I do because they want to be just like their older sister.”

Brooks is interested in attending GW after graduating from the Academy. If she does, it will continue a family tradition: her grandfather, Michael Brooks earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the GW School of Business in 1970, and her father, Alphonso Brooks, has taken classes in the School of Professional Development.

For now, all four students are trying to cope with virtual classes during the pandemic.

“I kind of have mixed opinions about it,” Guevara Fuentes said. “I like the fact that I get to stay home. I like the comfort of my own house, but I also hate the fact that I don’t get to interact with my classmates or my teachers.”

Brooks agreed. “It’s been difficult adjusting to certain things because I am a hands-on learner, “ she said. “But I’ve adjusted to virtual classes because the teachers make it very easy.”

The initial novelty of attending school from home has worn off for Bah, but he, too, is adjusting. “At first I was excited because I thought I was going to just stay away from school,” he said. “But the longer we’ve been doing this the more I realize it’s kind of hard. The whole general thing is kind of stressful and disappointing, but there’s nothing anyone can do to fix it.”

“It has made me want to pursue a career in the health sciences even more because of the millions of people who are affected by this pandemic,” he added. “It makes me want to help them.”

Being a high schooler and a GW student can be overwhelming at times, Bah admitted. “It kind of makes my heart race a little bit. I’m taking GW college courses with people who are way older than me. They’re like in their 20s taking the same courses,” he said. “I’m trying to make sure it doesn’t get to my head.”For more information about the Governor’s Health Sciences Academy at T.C. Williams High School visit our website.

MESSAGE FROM SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN

Congratulations to all the faculty and staff highlighted in this issue of Heartbeats! It is exciting to read about all the innovative training, diversity and wellness initiatives, research and scholarly works, and accolades. A takeaway is that not even a pandemic can slow down our Health Sciences teams, and that you continue to find creative ways to teach, serve, and advance science. We find ourselves in an important time for a number of reasons. First, we are less than a week away from Election Day. If you have not voted already, I encourage you to exercise your civic voice and vote. Second, we are heading into flu season, and GW Colonial Health is encouraging everyone to get a flu shot before the end of October. Remember that it takes about two weeks to develop antibodies after the  influenza vaccine. You can receive your flu shot from GW, your health care provider, or a variety of pharmacies around the area. Visit GW Occupational Health for more details and reporting requirements. GW also had a recent visit from the chief advisor for the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine development initiative, “Operation Warp Speed.” GW is one of about 100 sites conducting NIH-funded efficacy trials for a COVID-19 vaccine, and we have been instrumental in recruiting diverse participants, including individuals from underrepresented populations and those with high-risk comorbidities. I am inspired by the many Health Sciences volunteers (including our students) who are assisting with the COVID-19 vaccine trial and those helping to distribute free influenza vaccines to underserved communities across the District.

As a final note, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted HS enrollment and created barriers to our clinical research efforts. I am pleased to see clinical research efforts now resuming, and thanks to our faculty advisory team who developed thoughtful safety guidance and protocols to ensure we resume research with the highest commitment to the health and safety of our teams, participants, and the public. Regarding enrollment, many HS academic programs have met or exceeded enrollment goals. Unfortunately, some have seen lower than expected enrollment in some online programs, increases in deferrals, and a substantial drop in courses taken by GW undergraduates, who are typically on campus. The HS leadership team and department chairs have worked together over the last couple of weeks to address these challenges, formulate remediation strategies within HS and with our external marketing and recruitment partner, and perform budget reconciliation efforts.  While we will need to pay particular attention to completing this academic year with a commitment to fiscal austerity, we have executed a plan to meet our budget obligations without adverse personnel actions like furloughs or layoffs.

Let me end by encouraging each of you to take time for self-care and remain vigilant with masking, physical distancing, and handwashing as the cold weather, flu season, and holiday season nears. I also want to share another “thank you” for all that you are doing to support our students and each other, while advancing the core missions of HS and the school.

--Reamer L. Bushardt

A MESSAGE FROM THE HCOP TEAM

The GW Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) made great strides in its second grant year, advancing its goal to create a future generation of health professionals from diverse backgrounds to provide culturally competent care for underserved populations. The HCOP team led improvements in project operations, produced innovative new training to address student needs, and helped student ambassadors overcome myriad challenges related to COVID-19. 

This year, HCOP invested more than $250,000 in scholarships and stipends to ambassadors. Six ambassadors successfully completed requirements in their program of study and took the next steps in their health care careers. HCOP also added 25 new participants this summer, bringing individuals with important new backgrounds and fields of study to HCOP such as military/veteran students, future PAs, and public health majors.

Our story was shared through a variety of press releases, news, and magazine stories that detailed how our health workforce pathway is serving students across Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and Maryland. Health Sciences was honored as a “Distinguished Partner Award” by the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) Educational Foundation. The HCOP team has presented our work nationally and internationally at the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) Annual Conference and the last two Association of Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) meetings.

The GW HCOP team includes faculty and staff from both SMHS and the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, and the program is fueled by the generous contributions of many from our community. We especially want to recognize the HS faculty and staff who have served as advisors, mentors, event planners, and teachers for HCOP activities. It is clear you are passionate about creating unique and transformative experiences for the ambassadors and believe in their capacity to care for unserved and underserved populations in our region. If you would like to learn more about HCOP, go online or email Blake Harrison, program coordinator, at BHarrison@gwu.edu. 

Besides Harrison, the HCOP team includes: Reamer Bushardt, program director; Catherine Golden, HS academy lead; Carmen Session, case manager; Ellen Scully-Russ, co-investigator; Joyce Maring, evaluation lead; Lloyd “Chip” Taylor, consultant; Maggie Zhu, data manager; Maranda Ward, ambassador program lead; Marcia Firmani, summer program lead; Patrick Corr, HS academy co-lead; Russell Korte, co-investigator; and Sonia Crandall, consultant.

HCOP YEAR IN REVIEW

PEOPLE

COMING HOME. Matt Garber, PT, DSc, OCS, FAAOMPT, is looking forward to putting down roots. Garber, who has joined the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program as associate professor and assistant director of clinical education, lived in nine houses in his first 13 years of marriage due to his military career. “We plan to settle here since our children are in school,” Garber said. “We are looking forward to more stability.” Garber first joined the Department of Health, Human Function, and Rehabilitation Sciences (HHFR) as an adjunct faculty member in January. Retiring from the U.S. Army as a colonel, he’s eager to join GW full time.  “I was always interested in getting into academics,” Garber said. “I always found that when I was in the academic environment I was happiest.” He’s looking forward to in-person classes and continuing his development as an educator. A native of Virginia, Garber and his wife, Lisa, who is a PT with the Fairfax County Public Schools, live in Fairfax Station, Virginia, with their three school-age children. So how is virtual school going? “It’s been harder on my wife,” Garber said. “The kids seem okay, but for the teachers and staff it’s been a challenge.” Away from work, Garber enjoys cooking, playing golf, doing yard work, and watching college basketball – he’s a Duke fan. During Garber’s 30-year Army career, he served with Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2010 in Balad, Iraq and with the Army’s Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He has spent the last five years with the Office of the Surgeon General at U.S. Army Medical Command in Falls Church, Virginia. Garber has a doctor of science degree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas,  a master of strategic studies from Air University in Montgomery, Alabama, and a master of physical therapy from the U.S. Army-Baylor University Graduate Program in Physical Therapy in San Antonio, Texas.

AN EARLY CHEMIST. You could say Lauren Ragle, PhD, owes her career to her grandmother’s tarnished silver. Ragle, who has joined the Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medicine (PBPM) Program as a visiting assistant professor, said it was a childhood experiment using baking soda to remove tarnish that led her to study chemistry. “What I was doing wasn’t just science – it was chemistry,” she said. “It’s the building blocks of life.” She also recalls being fascinated by another experiment turned a Petri dish into a mirror. Those aha moments are why she enjoys teaching. “I love seeing students get it – they go from that confused look to the lightbulb effect when you’re explaining something,” she said. Ragle once considered going to medical school, so she says she relates well to the PBPM students. “We’re all family,” she said. A bioorganic chemist with 10 years of research experience, Ragle enjoyed research and writing grants, but she’s happiest teaching. She joined the Department of Physician Assistant Studies (PAS) in the spring as an adjunct assistant professor and is currently teaching organic chemistry online and in-person sections simultaneously. Before coming to GW, she taught at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, she moved to Bethesda, Maryland, to join the National Institutes of Health as a postdoctoral fellow. Away from work, Ragle enjoys crafting, including knitting, sewing by hand, and woodworking –she’s made shelves and a blanket ladder. “I like creating things,” she said. “You can point to it and say, ‘I made that.’ “ Ragle earned a master of science degree and her doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Memphis.

PROGRAMS

TALKSPACE. All GW Health Sciences students have  access to Talkspace virtual therapy as of September 22, a resource being financially supported by the Office of Student Services (OSS). Talkspace is an app-based tele-behavioral health service that connects users to a dedicated therapist through its secure, HIPAA-compliant platform. There are thousands of licensed mental health counselors in the Talkspace network, and students can regularly communicate safely and securely from mobile devices, tablets, or computers no matter where they live or train. Over the past year, OSS staff met with students, faculty, and staff to discuss needed student services and a top request was access to mental health resources. OSS and GW partnered with Talkspace to ensure free access to the virtual therapy program for all residential, hybrid, and online students. Faculty and staff are also eligible to take advantage of Talkspace, depending on your GW insurance plan. For more information about student access contact SMHSstudents@gwu.edu For faculty/staff access contact AskHRMD@gwu.edu. OSS has been partnering with the Counseling and Psychological Services team in GW Colonial Health to improve access and quality of care for our students.  Talkspace is not intended to replace GW’s on-campus services, rather give students multiple options and immediate access to counseling and mental health support services.   

MESSAGE FROM SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR HEALTH SCIENCES RESEARCH

For anyone who has written research grants, you know the extraordinary amount of creative and intellectual effort poured onto the pages, checking that ideas match the goals of the funding agency, highlighting your team’s research skills, and describing the importance of the work to the larger society. Too often though, what we think is the best idea ever, prompts reviewers to inevitably seek changes before the study can be considered for funding. “Thanks, but no thanks,” can be hard to hear – but criticism (rather than rejection) is part of research. It is rare for studies to be funded on the first submission; indeed, Zev Rymer, a mentor with the Training in Grantsmanship for Rehabilitation Research, says you should expect to submit three to four proposals for every one that is funded. That is, we should expect to resubmit our proposals at least once and to shop them to different agencies.

As I work with the Health Sciences Research Advisory Committee (HSRAC) to build a database of funded research, I find that year over year, we are at about the rate of success that Rymer suggests: overall, HS researchers receive about one award for every three submitted. Drilling down however, our success is with smaller grants (less than $50,000); larger unsuccessful proposals are mostly not resubmitted. This data shows that we are not capitalizing on the initial investments we make in developing these larger proposals. Part of the challenge lies in generating additional pilot data, or building more diverse research teams that would enhance a resubmission without financial support. To that end, HS is initiating a Competitive Grant Resubmission (CGR) program—an award that supports HS researchers developing grant resubmissions that effectively respond to reviewer feedback. We piloted this idea with Mary Corcoran of the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL) last year. Corcoran had received positive reviews for her proposal to study the effectiveness of “Customized Toolkit of Information and Practical Solutions (C-TIPS)” submitted to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD. Although reviews were positive, the team received critiques about the lack of pilot data and limited evidence of the team working and publishing together. These are common, and resolvable, issues but without funding, hard to address. Corcoran completed an application (and helped us revise the forms and procedure based on her feedback), which was reviewed by two members of the HSRAC. She was awarded funds to implement a pilot test of C-TIPS with 50 caregivers. The team has started recruitment through social service agencies and is also looking to collaborate on recruitment with health care systems. Funds are being used for three purposes – hiring a PhD student as a research assistant, providing small incentives for caregiver participants, and purchasing assessment materials. The team plans to complete the pilot study and publish two manuscripts in preparation for resubmission to DOD in early 2021.

Given the initial success in supporting the CTIPS team, the HSRAC is launching the CGR program for all faculty. Full details can be found on the Research Portal in the HS Hub. The goal of the CGR Award is to support investigators who have already received encouraging reviews for a proposal that has a high chance of success on resubmission. These awards can be used to provide support for additional data collection, re-analysis of existing data, to develop further collaborations, or other critical activities that will substantively enhance the proposal’ competitiveness. Both smaller and larger proposals previously submitted and well-reviewed are welcome to apply. These awards advance two focus areas of our 2020-2023 Strategic Plan --investing in people and catalyzing innovation and entrepreneurism. I encourage you to look into a CGR Award; it can assist with resubmission of promising proposals that may result in future external funding.

--Trudy Mallinson, associate dean for Health Sciences research

PEOPLE

Next chapter. GW Health Sciences bids farewell to Lisa Alexander of the Department of Physician Assistant Studies (PAS) who is retiring after 38 years of service. Alexander, a triple GW alumna (PA-C ’79, MPH ’89, EdD ’03), is a recognized leader at the local, national, and international level. She served as program director from 1989-1996 and 2011-2015. A passionate advocate for health equity and access to care, Alexander was the first faculty advisor to SMHS’s inter-professional student run clinic, the HEALing Clinic and served as a volunteer clinician at the clinic since its inception in 2007. In 2011, she received the Margaret B. and Cyril A. Schulman Distinguished Service Award and in 2009, she was the faculty recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. A leader in PA education, she’s a former president of the Physician Assistant Education Association and previously served as president of the PA Foundation. A member of the International Academy of PA Educators, she assisted with the development of the clinical associate program at Kigali Health Institute in Rwanda through appointment as a Fulbright Senior Specialist. She will serve as a GW adjunct faculty member while she makes an impact globally as director of the physician associate programme at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. READ MORE

Career advancement. You could say that Brandon Beattie, MMS, PA-C, found his health care calling in the military, like many pioneers in the field. Beattie, who joined PAS this month as a visiting assistant professor, said it was his U.S. Army experience that prompted him to pursue being a PA. “I worked closely with PAs there in many trauma bays as a combat medic,” Beattie said of his service from 2003-2009. “I enjoyed seeing their scope of practice. I like that PAs are trained as general practitioners and then can specialize.” Following his deployments, Beattie earned a bachelor’s degree from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and then a master’s degree from Yale University. A resident of Alexandria, Virginia, he worked in urgent care at Virginia Hospital Center and as an adjunct faculty member in PAS before assuming his current role. “I really enjoy it,” he said of working with the PA Program. “I’m excited to advance my role with the program. I love interacting with PA students … their skills and intellect are incredible. They make me a better PA and person.” Away from work, Beattie enjoys family time with his wife, Eline, who’s also a PA, and their 10-month-old daughter, Nora. An enthusiast of the outdoors, he enjoys hiking, biking, and running. 

First appointment. Nate’le’ge’ Wardlow, MPH, PA-C, says it was high caliber PA students and GW Health Sciences focus on diversity and inclusion that prompted her to join the PA Program this month as an assistant professor and director of clinical education. Wardlow, who practiced in surgical critical care for the last 14 years at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, was familiar with our program through her work as a preceptor. GW is her first faculty home, and she has hit the ground running. “It’s a big job during this pandemic time,” she said. “One of my goals is to expand our clinical rotations and to incorporate more cultural competency training and a public health perspective into the students’ clinical education. I’m excited to help train the next generation of PAs.” Wardlow lives in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, with her husband, Greg, and a pit bull/mastiff mix named Ziggy. In her spare time, she enjoys walks in the woods, running, reading, traveling, and church activities. One trip on her wish list? Visiting the Maldives. “I want to stay in an over-the-water villa and come out and step down into a clean beautiful ocean,” she said. A native of New York City, Wardlow earned her PA degree from CUNY-City College/Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education-Harlem Hospital Center and an MPH from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. 

New titles. Souheil Ghannouchi and Bart Gillum of PAS, have been named assistant professors. They previously served as visiting assistant professors. Liana Wooten of the Department of Health, Human Function, and Rehabilitation Sciences (HHFR) has been named visiting assistant professor; she previously served in a part-time faculty role.

Leadership collaboration. Trudy Mallinson, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, FACRM, and Samar A. Nasser, PhD, MPH, PA-C, have been named co-program directors of the PhD in Translational Health Sciences Program (THS) in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL). Nasser will lead the program's didactic portion which comprises the first two years of study, while Mallinson will direct the research and dissertation phase of study. READ MORE

Vice chair. Paige McDonald (EdD’12) has been promoted to serve as vice chair of CRL. In the new role, McDonald will work closely with program directors in assessment and modifications to curricula as well as develop cross-curricular initiatives. An expert in teaching and educational research, she will lead faculty in academic programming, course development, and teaching excellence. READ MORE.

PROGRAMS

Calling all writers! Leigh Frame of CRL is serving as guest editor for a special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Frame invites her colleagues to submit manuscripts that focus on the impact of the lifestyle medicine movement. The special issue, “The Lifestyle Medicine Movement: An Extension of Public Health into Medicine,” will address the growing recognition of the importance of lifestyle factors in the prevention of disease and promotion of health and wellness (including their inclusion into practice guidelines). More information can be found at the special issue website. If interested in contributing, contact Frame or jasmine.zhang@mdpi.com at the journal’s editorial office. Submissions deadline is March 14, 2021, but papers will be individually published on an ongoing basis.

Tuning in. PAS is hitting the airways with a new podcast, “PA Connections,” that addresses professional issues relevant to PA practice. The biweekly podcast, launched this month and co-produced by the IMPACT Initiative, will be available on Apple and Spotify podcast directories, and on the PAS website. READ MORE.

DPT takeover. Faculty, students, and alumni of the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Program authored all of the articles in the July issue of Orthopedic Physical Therapy Practice, the official journal of the Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy. The “all GW” issue was spearheaded by Dhinu Jayaseelan (DPT ’10) of HHFR. “I was given a lot of leeway on how to construct the issue,” Jayaseelan said. ”I wanted to make sure that our faculty, students, alumni, residents, and schoolwide collaborators were all represented … specific topics were driven by content expertise and showcase the wide-ranging and interdisciplinary nature of the projects we are involved in.” The issue featured 12 authors from DPT as well as co-authors from other programs within SMHS and the GW School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

In the summertime. The fourth annual Biomedical Laboratory Sciences (BLS) Summer Immersion Program didn’t skip a beat this year, even with the pandemic. Marcia Firmani reports that instead of the usual in-person, two session programs, she and her BLS team developed a virtual program. “We could have just cancelled it due to the pandemic, yet in short order, we completely revised it and developed a fully virtual, synchronous experience for the high school students,” Firmani said. Special thanks go to Emma Levine and Allison Cannon for the application and admissions process and to Cliff Cymrot for revising the program for a virtual format. Kudos also to Cymrot, Yousif Barzani, Firmani, and Carol Rentas for serving as module developers and presenters. The program, held in June and July, featured live Blackboard Collaborate sessions with lectures on lab skills, safety, and techniques; disease case studies, diagnostic techniques, and molecular technologies. In all, 67 high school students attended.

APPLAUSE

Clinical reasoning. Anthony Artino of HS Administration and HHFR and co-authors have published, “Effects of live and video simulation on clinical reasoning performance and reflection,” in the July issue of Advances in Simulation. Artino and co-authors also published, “Military medical students’ intentions to pursue operational medicine: Survey design and initial validation,” in the August issue of Military Medicine.

Master teacher. Yousif Barzani of BLS completed the SMHS Master Teacher Leadership Development Program.

Advising relationships. Terri Bevilacqua, Jonalyn Phelan, and Ivy Meadows of BLS participated in a webinar earlier this month sponsored by the National Academic Advising Association and the Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education. The webinar, “Leveraging the Advising Relationship to Support the Transition and Retention of Online Students,” addressed the importance of building relationships, supporting students, and maintaining connections in a virtual environment.  One strategy from the session will be piloted this fall by BLS: leveraging the learning management system to assist in community building, engagement with academic advisors, and a creating a centralized hub for advising.

Continuing credit. BLS was approved to offer continuing education credit to laboratory professionals nationally through the Professional Acknowledgment for Continuing Education Program of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. Lisa Schwartz is serving as program administrator; the first session, “Genetic Counseling: History, Utility, and Impact,” was held earlier this month.

Future faculty. Earlier this month, Reamer Bushardt co-chaired a virtual workshop, “Health Professions Faculty for the Future,” as part of the Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The webinar reviewed and discussed proposed steps for developing faculty development programs to build the faculty of the future. Leaders from more than 16 health professions (representing professional associations and accreditation bodies), higher education, and health organizations around the world participated. The workshop built on prior work to strengthen the connection between health professions education and health care practice.  The workshop featured a presentation from Anthony Artino of HS Administration and HHFR titled, “Starting with the end in mind: Designing and evaluating faculty development.” A recording of the webinar is available here.

Keys to the future. Cliff Cymrot and Sachi De Silva of BLS received the Keys to the Future Award at the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) conference in July. The award recognizes members in leadership positions that are helping to support and promote the profession. Also at the conference, Cymrot graduated from the ASCLS Leadership Academy. The academy is an intense 12-month program that develops members' abilities and improves leadership strengths, teamwork, and professional and public advocacy. Graduates are tasked with improving the medical laboratory science (MLS) profession and promoting the group’s mission and vision.

Poster & visit. Cliff Cymrot and Marcia Firmani of BLS presented a poster, “Exploring the Relationship Between Value Perception and Turnover Among Clinical Laboratory Scientists,” at the ASCLS conference this summer. The poster revealed data demonstrating the link between how medical laboratory scientists feel valued by employers and reasons they leave their jobs. Also, Firmani and Cymrot completed a virtual site visit in July at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center for the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS). This was the first year for virtual site visits due to the pandemic. Firmani also participated in a review for continuing accreditation with NAACLS in June for the Brigham Young University Medical Laboratory Sciences Program.

Winning authors. Marcia Firmani and Yuliya Dobrydneva of BLS, along with a former BLS graduate student, received a Clinical Laboratory Science Distinguished Author Award at the 88th American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science Annual Awards ceremony in June for their article, “The impact of blood utilization guidelines on product usage."

Career changer. Rohini Ganjoo of BLS and co-authors virtually presented, “Facilitating collaboration for undergraduate career changer students,” at the American Association of Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators held in July.

Teaching ethics. Rohini Ganjoo, Yuliya Dobrydneva, Lisa Schwartz, and Marcia Firmani of BLS and co-authors authored a chapter, “Teaching Ethics Online to Health Sciences Professionals,” in Advancing Online Course Design and Pedagogy for the 21st Century Learning Environment.

Alum honor. Gaetano “Guy” Lotrecchiano of CRL was selected as this year’s recipient of the GW Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD) Dean’s Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award. The honor is presented to an alum who has made considerable contributions to their chosen field as well as to their community.

Faculty perceptions. Joyce Maring of HHFR  and four co-authors from the GW School of Nursing, Gretchen Wiersma, Catherine Wilson Cox, Angela M. McNelis, and Mary Jean Schumann, published: “Faculty perceptions in facilitating success for accelerated BSN student veterans” in a May issue of Nursing Education Practice.

Presenting… Carol Rentas of BLS presented, “Reinforcing concepts with virtual labs in clinical chemistry,” at the annual ASCLS conference this summer. Rentas completed virtual site visits at Berkshire Medical Center and Santa Fe College for NAACLS. Also, she completed a paper review to assess the self-study submitted by the MLS program at Loyola University Chicago.

Knee matters. David Scalzitti of HHFR and co-authors published, "Physical therapist management of total knee arthroplasty," an online clinical practice guideline in Physical Therapy in June.

SMHS service. Lisa Schwartz of BLS has been appointed chair of the Health Sciences Student Evaluation Committee. Schwartz served on a Joint Task Force on Intellectual Property for the Faculty Senate as a member of the Education Policy and Technology Committee. She is currently serving on the Report of Current Status Program Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling.

Predicting success. Lisa Schwartz,  Rohini Ganjoo, and Yuliya Dobrydneva of BLS published, “Predictors of success on the MCAT among post-baccalaureate pre-medicine students,” in the peer-reviewed open access journal, Heliyon. Also, Schwartz presented a virtual poster, “Implementation and Evaluation of a Pre-health Professions Advising Service for an Online Student Population,” on the new BLS pre-health professions advising service at the National Association for Advising in the Health Professions in June.

Measuring cognition. Jen Weaver and Alison Cogan of HHFR, Leslie Davidson of CRL, and Trudy Mallinson of HS Administration and CRL have published, ”Combining items from three federally mandated assessments using Rasch measurement to reliably measure cognition across post-acute care,” in the August (ahead of print) issue in the Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.

Emerging scholar. Maranda Ward of CRL has been awarded a 2020–21 SMHS Emerging Scholars Fellowship. The fellowship program provides intramural funding to support career development and scholarly projects focused on academic advancements, service-learning opportunities, and professional and mentoring partnerships both inside and outside of SMHS. The award is a one-year career development fellowship, renewable for an additional year. READ MORE.

Wdyt contest. Thanks to everyone who entered our “What do you think?” contest of guessing when we would return to campus. We obviously don’t have a definitive date on returning to Foggy Bottom or VSTC, so the most distant date submitted, September 14, is being declared the winner. Congrats to Karen Foote of the IMPACT Initiative with that guess! She will receive a GW branded item as her prize when we do return to campus. Second place goes to Kevin O’Connor of HS Administration with a guess of September 10.

Wellness. Are you facing personal challenges during the pandemic and want to talk with someone? GW offers anytime support via its Wellness Hotline

Work anniversaries. Congratulations to colleagues celebrating anniversaries: Dee Dee Herrmann of PAS  and Qing Zeng of the Biomedical Informatics Center (BIC) (15 years), Catherine Golden of HS Administration (10 years), and the following who all celebrate one year -- Desmond Edwards of HS Administration, Lindsay Garmirian of HHFR, Eduardo Trujillo Rivera of BIC, Liana Wooten of HHFR, and Vicki Wu of HS Administration.

Next chapter. GW Health Sciences bids farewell to Lisa Alexander of the Department of Physician Assistant Studies (PAS) who is retiring after 38 years of service. Alexander, a triple GW alumna (PA-C ’79, MPH ’89, EdD ’03), is a recognized leader at the local, national, and international level. She served as program director from 1989-1996 and 2011-2015. A passionate advocate for health equity and access to care, Alexander was the first faculty advisor to SMHS’s inter-professional student run clinic, the HEALing Clinic and served as a volunteer clinician at the clinic since its inception in 2007. In 2011, she received the Margaret B. and Cyril A. Schulman Distinguished Service Award and in 2009, she was the faculty recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. A leader in PA education, she’s a former president of the Physician Assistant Education Association and previously served as president of the PA Foundation. A member of the International Academy of PA Educators, she assisted with the development of the clinical associate program at Kigali Health Institute in Rwanda through appointment as a Fulbright Senior Specialist. She will serve as a GW adjunct faculty member while she makes an impact globally as director of the physician associate programme at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland.

Last week, a school-wide internal communication announced recent changes impacting Health Sciences, in an e-blast entitled, “GW School of Medicine & Health Sciences Combines Efforts to Bolster Student Support and Evaluation.” These changes include exciting developments designed to increase interprofessional collaboration across SMHS and help move us closer to our vision to drive innovation and quality in health and healthcare delivery through education, scholarship, and service. Now, we ask, “What does this all mean for faculty, staff, and students in Health Sciences?”I have posed questions to some of the leaders in these areas, so they can provide more details, offer insights, and describe next steps for all of us in Health Sciences.

THE WHAT, WHY, & HOW

RHONDA:

Q:          The announcement stated that a new consolidated Office of Student Support will provide assistance to all SMHS students. How will this new office strengthen and enrich current services for HS students?

A:           First of all, I want to say that I am looking forward to working collaboratively with all of you, getting to know more about the Health Sciences programs, and exploring opportunities that will enrich our community. I believe both the MD and Health Sciences programs have significant strengths. Our goal is to combine those services and opportunities, and create new ones, with a commitment to build an office that will provide exceptional academic and personal support services for all students in a healthy and inclusive learning environment. Our team is still in the initial phase of planning, deciding on short- and long-term objectives. We are discussing various strategies to create a culture that embodies our vision. Some specific plans include conducting a needs survey, offering professional development for faculty and staff related to student life and support, promoting activities to enrich the interprofessional student community, creating a student advisory council, and blending MD and HS student interest and wellness groups. Measuring our success and student-oriented research are also key parts of our mission. Stay tuned for more details and plans – and of course, suggestions and feedback are always welcomed and appreciated. 

Q:          Who are the members of the new team?

A:           We are thrilled to have such a terrific team. Besides myself, our team consists of Lorenzo Norris, Patrick Corr,  and Nick Atlas. Aubrey Silverman will provide administrative support. This core team is expanded through supplemental instructors, writing tutors, and others.  

PATRICK:

Q:          How do HS students or faculty reach out for support or guidance from the SMHS Office of Student Support (OSS), or give feedback about support services?

A:           HS Students, faculty, and staff can contact OSS  by emailing SMHSStudents@gwu.edu. Any emails previously sent to the Office of Student Life and Academic Support have been forwarded to the new organizational email account. As a note, the current referral process will remain in place for HS students for the near future. The SMHS OSS will reach out with additional information in the coming weeks.

Feedback on support services, questions, or concerns will be sought in the near future but these are always welcomed at the email address noted above. Additional formal opportunities for updates and discussions will be provided in the coming weeks through communication from the SMHS OSS.

Q:          With the COVID-19 pandemic still upon us, is there any special guidance for students who need support for their social, emotional, or academic well-being?

A:           HS students in need of social or academic support can complete a brief referral form or email SMHS OSS directly at SMHSStudents@gwu.edu. Our office’s team of advisors can provide support for students with a wide array of needs or ensure referral to other offices within the university, as appropriate.

For emotional well-being, SMHS OSS is going to introduce TalkSpace, a telehealth mental health counseling tool, in the coming weeks. Prior to implementation of this new resource, HS students can contact OSS by emailing SMHSStudents@gwu.edu. Our office can provide referrals or assist in providing care for individuals in need through various resources, including Colonial Health. TalkSpace is not designed to take the place of Colonial Health, rather expand the scope of services and provide immediate access for students, no matter where they are or what time of day it is. 

LORENZO:

Q:          The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt nearly every aspect of life for so many, including our students and their families. What advice do you have right now for faculty and staff who encounter HS students experiencing anxiousness, depressed mood, or other concerning symptoms during this difficult time?

A:           At this time, faculty and staff should adopt a supporting listening framework and not seek to give premature advice or judge a student's distress. Faculty and staff should be particularly vigilant for signs of significant disruptions in students’ academic (failing grades) or professional performance (tardiness, disruptive class attitude). Students in academic or professional distress should be encouraged to seek a consultation with the SMHS OSS. Students that express suicidal thoughts, increased substance use, or other self-injurious behaviors, should immediately be referred to Colonial Health, and Rhonda and myself should also be notified right away.

Q:          The stress from COVID-19 and changes with school re-openings are also impacting our faculty and staff. Do you have any tips to share about self-care, or signs that suggest asking for help is warranted?

A:           Faculty and staff should remain vigilant for signs of burnout. Burnout has three key dimensions: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and feeling ineffective. So, when a faculty or staff member starts to feel exhausted, feels less reward, and questions why they are in their profession, these are strong indicators of burnout. Other signs that you should seek help include, but are not limited to:

• • Depressed mood for two weeks or more
  • Increased substance use
  • Disengagement from family and friends
  • Thoughts of suicide

There are a number of things faculty and staff can do to promote self-care, and prevent burnout. The following list is not inclusive, but provides a practical starting point for burnout prevention:

• • Engage in regular exercise
  • Optimize sleep
  • Engage in recreation and activities
  • Eat a balanced diet; avoid fast food
  • Limit use of alcohol
  • Practice mindful meditation
  • Discuss challenges in the work environment with colleagues and supervisors

Q:          We just learned that the Office of Student Support will provide a new service to HS students soon called TalkSpace, which provides 24/7 virtual access to licensed counseling and mental health services. What are your thoughts about the role of virtual counseling services paired with primary care and/or psychiatric care for health professions students?

A:           TalkSpace has all the potential of being a superb addition to the services already offered through Colonial Health, and existing SMHS wellness programs. The SMHS OSS will monitor the utilization and effectiveness of TalkSpace throughout the academic year and share updates on its effectiveness. The counseling sessions are kept confidential, but we will learn more about utilization and invite students to share feedback about their experiences with TalkSpace counseling. 

CATHERINE:

Q:          In the announcement last week, the AskIQ team which you lead was mentioned along with the Integrating Quality (IQ) Initiative.  Many may recall the IQ initiative was started back in 2017 through collaboration between HS faculty and administration. Can you tell us a bit more about the current state of the IQ Initiative, and what’s on the horizon for the AskIQ team?

A:           IQ drives division-wide quality projects within Health Sciences; each year we experiment bringing new services by partnering with departments and programs to identify emerging needs within the organization. In July, we kicked-off Academic Support and Evaluation for New Degrees (ASEND) to provide systematic monitoring and support for new academic programs during their start-up phase (i.e. Year 0 through Year 5) through more structured collaborations, data, and feedback loops between the senior associate dean’s office, department, and program. Building on the current IQ Database, we are adding Key Performance Indicator (KPI) dashboards for each degree program rolling out in September.

Q:          It was also announced that your AskIQ team will provide incremental support to the MD program. Can you elaborate on that, and share any thoughts about how this could create opportunities for more collaboration between HS and undergraduate medical education (UME) faculty or staff?

A:           Yes, we are excited about this partnership. In helping support the MD program, there is a tremendous opportunity to work more closely together, break down some of our silos, and learn from each other. AskIQ will provide data analyst support, and also consulting to see where we might be able build school-wide resources. The IQ Databases have significant educational scholarship potential, which would be an excellent opportunity for collaboration. 

Q:          Under President LeBlanc’s leadership, the university continues to build new data systems for evaluation and quality assurance. What does this mean for HS programs, and how is the AskIQ team keeping our faculty empowered with tools and data for continuous improvement?

A:           This is all part of the AskIQ mission! Health Sciences is well prepared for this environment due to the multi-year build by the AskIQ team of the IQ Database and Tableau dashboards designed to address the unique measures and needs of our academic programs. We now have 16 dashboards specific to HS programs that are certified by GW Business Intelligence (BI), which meet the same rigorous quality standards as the University-produced dashboards. This summer included some major shifts in university reporting tools with the phase-out of Cognos, the introduction of Thoughtspot, and increases to available Tableau dashboards. AskIQ is designing role-specific resources, and delivering basic and advanced training to help us transition.

TONY:

Q:          Congratulations on your recent appointment as interim associate dean. You are taking on a brand new, school-wide leadership role in SMHS related to evaluation and educational research. Would you tell us more about this role, your goals, and vision for the work? 

A:           In this new role, I have three primary goals related to educational research and scholarship. First, I’d like to help advance and increase the visibility of health professions education (HPE) research at SMHS through strategic planning and collaborative research across medicine, HS, and the MFA. Second, I want to build educational research capacity to support the development and delivery of evidence-informed educational practice in the medical and HS programs. This goal will require substantial partnership with many faculty and staff. One way to achieve this goal is to engage clinician-educators as contributors on educational research projects and help to mentor students and early/mid-career faculty on research and scholarly innovation projects. And finally, I’d like to help SMHS and the MFA grow our influence on HPE research and practice nationally and internationally through leadership and scholarly service on decision-making committees, editorial boards, and other interdisciplinary, interprofessional groups. The nice part about all of these goals is that much of this work has already been started at GW by groups like the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE), the IMPACT team, and various faculty in medicine and HS. So, my plan isn’t to reinvent the wheel here; rather, I’d like to partner with others to build even more momentum. My prior work helped me build a global network of collaborators in HPE research, and I am eager to make connections for our teams here at GW.

Q:          How will your role interface with Trudy Mallinson, associate dean for research in Health Sciences?

Trudy and I will work closely together to grow educational, clinical, translational, and health services research in HS. Our early discussions have covered several areas: the HS Research Portal, the HS Research Advisory Committee (HSRAC), the committee's work on strategic planning and identifying priorities for cross-disciplinary research collaborations, and the initiation of research learning opportunities. Under Trudy's leadership, the HSRAC is building the kind of infrastructure we need to support early career investigators, encourage cross-disciplinary science, and create tools to make research and grants administration more efficient. My primary focus, on the other hand, is convening teams of education scholars, conducting my own programs of educational research (and inviting others to join those efforts), and reaching across SMHS and the MFA to build research capacity for longitudinal projects and educational innovations. Although extramural money for research in HPE is limited, Trudy and I are exploring our ability to capture extramural funds for HPE. 

Q:          As mentioned, the AskIQ team will begin offering new services to the MD program. Will you explain your new role in medical education evaluation and how you will collaborate with HS and the AskIQ team?

A:           The MD Office of Evaluation and the AskIQ team both have outstanding track records of high-quality program evaluation and quality improvement. By working together more closely, AskIQ will support part of the immediate personnel needs in the MD Office of Evaluation by helping with some of our routine analysis, reporting, and infographic creation. Following some consolidation and process efficiency work, we plan to partner with AskIQ to develop a relational database (similar to work already done for HS programs) that will help the MD program streamline its reporting and provide dashboards to support program accreditation and curriculum evaluation. This move is also intended to facilitate greater integration between MD and HS programs, including collaboration on how program evaluation processes and data can be used to support educational research and scholarship.

Q:          Dean Bass has spoken many times about the importance of interdisciplinary teamwork, whether it be in the classroom, care delivery settings, a research lab, or the community. With this is mind, how will you advance her vision for greater teamwork related to educational research and innovation? 

A:           I couldn’t agree more with Dean Bass’s comments on the importance of teamwork. Any success I may have had in HPE research and scholarship has been the result of team science. So, my plan right out of the gate is to convene a group of faculty and administrative leaders across medicine, HS, and the MFA who have an interest in educational research. Together, we will brainstorm research ideas, review data that has already been collected, look prospectively at data that needs to be collected, discuss evaluation systems that can be built to leverage longitudinal data, and then work collaboratively to study our own system and disseminate the top-notch scholarship and innovation that’s being done across SMHS and the MFA. We also have some forthcoming news about a couple new scholarly projects involving early career faculty in HS paired with highly experienced mentors. Stay tuned for more details about that soon!  

Q:          For many of our faculty, especially those who devote a large percentage of their time to teaching, getting started with scholarly projects or research can be daunting (at times, overwhelming). Do you have any proven strategies or tips to share for faculty new to educational research or scholarly projects?

A:           The best way I’ve found to bolster one’s scholarly productivity is to find like-minded faculty and team-up to build a community of education scholars. If you look in the literature, you’ll find that most HPE faculty report three primary barriers to research and writing: they lack (1) time, (2) money, and (3) expertise. However, collaboration and applying principles of team science can help solve all three of these problems: (1) projects can be divided up and conquered, thereby making them much less overwhelming or time-consuming [time], (2) education research is often a relatively low-cost endeavor, and others on the team may have start-up funds to help kickstart ideas and collect pilot data for use in obtaining extramural funding [money], and (3) team members share expertise and provide one another with built-in mentorship and peer review [expertise]. Ultimately, if we do nothing else, we need to build high-functioning teams of education scholars with strong leadership if we want to have a positive impact on HPE research and practice at GW and around the world.

Q:          HS has made enormous strides in building capacity for quality improvement and data-driven decision-making in our academic programs over the past three years. How can we leverage these advancements and take our educational research and scholarship to the next level?

A:           The data are all there, and in HS the data seem to be quite well organized and stored (and we’ll work to do the same in the MD program). What needs to be done now, I believe, is to sit down, review those data through the lens of what the field already knows (and doesn’t know), and then think creatively about how our processes can be shared more broadly. Although I’m still learning, I’m fairly certain there is a ton of innovation happening inside SMHS when it comes to quality improvement and data-driven decision-making. We just need to work together to figure out the story line, write a compelling narrative, and disseminate those innovations.   

AMY:

Q:          Congratulations on your recent appointment as assistant dean. The COVID-19 pandemic is creating tremendous uncertainty for colleges and universities. Thus far, HS has maintained very stable enrollment throughout our undergraduate and graduate programs. What strategies and tactics are helping support enrollment?

A:           Emphasizing our mission and vision, and the impact on the current pandemic, really speaks to our prospective students. Usually these are people that are entering health care because they want to make a difference and our emphasis on health care quality and delivery through innovative use of education, scholarship, and service really speaks to their core values. In more practical terms, many prospective students see great professional opportunities in health care and our long history of quality online education allows us to be ahead of many other institutions when dealing with the constantly changing environment in education we are experiencing due to COVID-19.  In our residential programs, the word is getting out that the faculty and staff really care about the students. There is no better marketing strategy than taking great care of your current students, so your alumni become reliable recruiters. 

Q:          In HS, the way we spread the word about our programs and recruit students takes many different approaches in on-campus versus blended and online programs.  What enrollment trends, concerns, and opportunities are on your radar right now?

A:           There are several interesting trends across disciplines and delivery methods we are seeing right now. I continue to see concern regarding the cost of education, and we are waiting to see if the downturn in the economy brought about by COVID-19 will result in increased enrollments, a trend we have seen in the past. I see a trend toward competency-based education continuing, as well as further interest in guided pathways, such as the pathways provided by our Guaranteed Admission Agreements. And, of course, online education continues to grow in importance with the current crisis. As far as opportunities, I see opportunities for HS in all of these areas and continue to maximize those opportunities while staying true to health sciences core values. In the past, online program management (OPM) arrangements have been important for many institutions, including GW.  Many universities are weighing the need to take on some aspects of marketing and recruitment themselves, and GW is no exception. No one way of communicating with prospective applicants is ever going to be sufficient, especially when a strong value is placed on diversity as it is in Health Sciences. HS is actively examining our current recruitment and strategic enrollment practices in collaboration with our recruitment partners and the university.  

Q:          How can HS continue to make progress in strategic enrollment?

A:           Continuing to emphasize our commitment to innovative education and health care, serving diverse students and populations, and interprofessional collaboration will continue to drive our strategic enrollments and help us fulfill our mission and build toward our vision of transforming health care locally, nationally, and globally. Lowering the cost of education through accelerated and guided pathways, scholarships, and extramurally funded pipeline programs are also key strategies that we’re focused on. I have really been excited to see the Governor’s Health Sciences Academy take off, and it’s a testament to the importance of public-private partnerships to shape deep pipelines for our health professions programs. 

REAMER:

Let me share my appreciation to all those who weighed in today with details about the recent organizational changes. We are so fortunate to benefit from their leadership, and I am encouraged by their dedication to SMHS faculty, staff, and students. When we began to develop the Health Sciences Strategic Plan, we started off by defining our core values. Those values -- innovation, collaboration, diversity & inclusion -- are clearly evident in the all work shared with us today. While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on nearly every aspect of life for all of us and our students, I am confident that our best strategy to come out of this crisis healthy and strong in HS is to live true to our values as we make decisions, adapt, and evolve. On a final note, let me encourage HS faculty and staff to pass along your ideas with the leaders we heard from today. They will need your input and support to accomplish these goals. Let me echo the helpful advice shared by Dr. Norris: please remain vigilant for signs of burnout and consider adopting some of the self-care and preventive behaviors offered. I have some work to do myself on a few of them, and I hope you’ll join me in that work and share them with colleagues and students.  Thank you for all that you are doing, during this difficult time, to ensure the success of HS across education, scholarship, and service. And, most especially, thank you for offering your peers and students alike compassion, patience, and understanding.

Leigh Frame of CRL and colleagues, Elise Costa, and Scott Jackson had an article, “Current Explorations of Nutrition and the Gut Microbiome: A Comprehensive Evaluation of the Review Literature,” published in Nutrition Reviews in March. Jackson is an adjunct faculty member with CRL and Costa is a graduate of the Post-baccalaureate Pre-medicine Program. Also, Frame has been named to the Topic Board of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH).

A team representing BLS was top dog and won a trivia contest that raised money for the Homeward Trails animal shelter in Fairfax Station, Virginia. Cliff Cymrot and his wife Sheri, Marcia Firmani and her husband Lloyd, Carol Rentas and her husband Frank, an adjunct professor, made up the “BLS Mutts” team. Firmani, who adopted her two dogs from Homeward Trails last year, organized the group as a fun team-building event and to help the shelter. More than 100 participants on 40-some teams took part in the virtual contest that raised about $1,200. Questions covered history, geography, and music, but no health science topics.

Miriam Okine Davies of HHFR has been inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. She recently presented on building surge readiness/capacity through data in COVID-19 hot-spots in Africa at a 2020 MIT-sponsored virtual conference, where medical and business professionals from around the world discussed their preparedness plans and experiences meeting the challenge of the global pandemic.