University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Newsletter

University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Newsletter OCTOBER 2013 WELCOME TO THE DFM! I am delighted to be serving as the new H...
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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Newsletter OCTOBER 2013

WELCOME TO THE DFM! I am delighted to be serving as the new Head of the UIC Department of Family Medicine, succeeding Dr. Patrick Tranmer who has done a wonderful job building excellent patient care and educational programs. I feel privileged to lead such a talented group of physicians, faculty and staff. Here is a little bit about me. I am mostly a Midwesterner – born in Minnesota, lived in the Los Angeles area in a small town called San Dimas until I was 10 and then moved to southern Michigan. I am one of 13 children, and I went to a catholic men’s college in Minnesota thinking I would be a priest. But I met my wife during college and the rest is history. 5 children and 5 grandsons later I know it was the right decision to get married! After completing medical school at Indiana University and my Family Medicine Residency in Charleston, South Carolina, my wife and I moved back to Michigan where we lived for 22 years in Escanaba, a small town in the Upper Peninsula. I worked for Michigan State University College of Human Medicine but felt like a small-town family doctor, delivering many babies, taking care of patients in the clinic, the hospital and nursing homes and making home visits. It was a great life for a young family physician. After 25 years in Michigan, I wondered how the rest of the world lived and came to University of Chicago in 2003 to help develop a new family medicine department. During that time I developed research programs, taught medical students and cared for patients at ACCESS Grand Boulevard Clinic on 55th Street. My most memorable experience was working closely with Michelle Obama developing the Southside Health Collaborative, an outreach program designed to connect patients with primary care doctors in their neighborhoods. After 5 years in Chicago, I was recruited by Cleveland Clinic to be Chair of Family Medicine, but 4 years later my Val and I are back in Chicago and we are very happy to be back! Val, who is a speech and language therapist, loves the buzz of Chicago city life. In my 35 years as a family doctor, I must say that now is the most exciting time in my career to be a family physician. The United States has finally discovered the outstanding value of family medicine; even President Obama knows what a family physician does! Our patients and healthcare systems are looking to Family Medicine for strong leadership in delivering the kind of personal health care patients want and need in a coordinated and compassionate way. Transforming our clinical sites into "Medical Homes" will be a challenging but necessary step in the evolution of high quality primary care. Thanks for the warm reception you all have given me; I look forward to working together in the coming years to advance Family Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sincerely, John Hickner, MD, MSc Head, and Professor of Family Medicine PS When I am not at work, look for me on the tennis courts!

Inside this issue: Thank you, Welcome, and Congratulations...

2

Residency...

3-5

Medical Student Education...

6-7

Research...

8-10

Global Community Health Track...

11

Announcements...

12

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Newsletter OCTOBER 2013

Many thanks to Dr. Patrick Tranmer for his outstanding leadership of the department for more than 10 years. Dr. Tranmer remains in the DFM as a Professor of Clinical Fam Med. He is also Co-Assoc. Dean for Clinical Affairs in the COM and Exec. Dir of the MSP office. (Above - pictures from his celebration at Francesca’s.)

Dr. Javette Orgain’s last day as Medical Director for Mile Square Health Centers was on July 31, 2013. We wish her well in all her endeavors.

Welcome to the DFM! Dr. Ariel Leifer, Assistant Professor of Clinical Family Medicine joined the department on September 3rd.

Congratulations on your retirement Mary Ann Rank Cunningham! She retired from the department on August 15th.

Welcome to the DFM! Dr. Matthew Johnson, Assistant Professor of Clinical Family Medicine joined the department on September 16th.

Welcome back! Dr. Karl Kochendorfer joins the U of I Hospital & Health Sciences System as Chief Health Information Officer, Assist. Vice President for Health Affairs, and Associate Professor in Clinical Family Medicine.

Welcome to the DFM! Sandy Young, CPC (right) Associate Director of Clinical Operations Welcome back to the DFM!

Liz Hawes, MBA (left) Associate Director of Administrative Operations

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Residency Program OCTOBER 2013

Congratulations Class of 2013! June was a bittersweet month for the Residency Program. Although we are proud of our residency graduates, it is hard to see them leave UIC. We wish them every success! Top row (L-R): Shikha Bhan, MD;,John Chico, MD, Katherine Putz, MD; Bottom row (L-R) Gabriela Baeza, MD, Munazza Majeed, MD, Krupa Patel, MD

Teaching Awards 2012-2013 Every year the residents vote for the best of the best at UIC. We celebrate these UIC All Stars! Krupa Patel, MD Attending in Training 2012-2013 Wesley Eilbert, M.D. Specialty Attending Teacher of the Year (Emergency Medicine) 2012-2013 Mark Potter, MD Inpatient Attending of the Year 2012-2013 Nimmi Rajagopal, MD Outpatient Attending of the Year (Mile Square) 2012-2013 Maria Albright, MD Outpatient Attending of the Year (University Village) 2012-2013 Debra Gilmore Support Staff of the Year (Mile Square) 2012-2013 Bernadita DelRosario, RN Support Staff of the Year (University Village) 2012-2013 Nathan McLaughlin, MD Family-Centered Maternity Care Attending Teacher of the Year 2012-2013

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Residency Program OCTOBER 2013

Welcome 2013 UIC FMR Interns

Clockwise from left: Christine Neeb, MD (University of Rochester, NY), Megan Waterman, MD, MPH (Boston University), Tyrisha Clary, MD MPH (Georgetown University), Nathan Stackhouse, MD (UIC COM), Lupita Gallardo, MD (UIC COM), Aneta Kowalska, MD (UIC COM), Amy Arialis, MD (Rush Medical College), and Yesenia Valdez, MD (UIC COM).

Recruitment 2013 - 2014 The arrival of the 2013 interns signals the search for the UIC Family Medicine Class of 2017. The recruitment team connected with over 100 medical students in Kansas City the first weekend of August. It is exciting to meet so many people passionate about UIC Family Medicine Residency's core values of social justice and commitment to care of vulnerable populations! Please wish us success this season - our first interview day is October 23, 2013.

Picture from left to right: Cari Benbasset -Miller, MD (PGY-3), Morgan Madison, MD (PGY-2), and Evelyn Figueroa, MD, Associate Residency Director.

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Residency Program OCTOBER 2013

Awards and Honors

Lillian Holloway, MD UIC Student-Run Free Clinic Resident of the Year 2012-2013

Andrew Dykens, MD, MPH Outstanding Young Physician Award, Medical Alumni Board of Governors of the University of Missouri

L. Amanda Perry, MD in Patient Satisfaction Survey - Spring 2013

Nathan Stackhouse, MD Memoona Hasnain, MD, 2013 UIC Bill and Jean MHPE, PhD Markel Scholarship 2013 Alumni Achievement Award in Health Policy and Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health

The Department of Family Medicine is sponsoring the 2014 Advanced Life Support for Obstetrics (ALSO) Providers Course on Friday, February 14 and Saturday, February 15, 2014. Since 2003, the DFM at UIC has coordinated the ALSO course, designed to teach obstetrics providers how to handle obstetric emergencies and keep them up-to-date on evidencebased practice recommendations. The ALSO course instructors are comprised of a consortium of Chicago-area family medicine residency faculty: UIC, Illinois Masonic, Hinsdale, Resurrection, and Cook County-Loyola-Provident are all represented. ALSO is a structured, evidence-based, multidisciplinary training program on the practical management of obstetric emergencies. The two-day course is for maternity care providers including physicians, midwives, nurses and other clinicians. 10th Annual UIC ALSO Providers Course Friday, February 14 & Saturday, February 15, 2014 8am – 5pm UIC College of Medicine Research Building (COMRB) 909 South Wolcott Avenue Chicago, IL 60612 To register, please call: (312) 355-1706

Summer 2013 Retreat

After ten exciting events the Capillaries won our retreat competition! Our residency’s fearless leaders, Drs. Evelyn Figueroa and Mark Potter!

30 residents, faculty, and loved ones (and two dogs!) enjoyed the Indiana Dunes on August 28th. The team enjoyed group challenges, wiffleball, barbecue and beautiful Lake Michigan. Picture above: Caterpillar Crawl look at them hop!

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Medical Student Education Program OCTOBER 2013

AWARDS: We are pleased to announce that our University of Illinois, at Chicago, College of Medicine FMIG chapter is one of only 10 FMIG programs nationally to receive the prestigious 2013 AAFP Program of Excellence Award. Full credit for this award goes to our FMIG student leadership team who proposed applying for this award and did 99% of the work. Congratulations to our FMIG group but especially this year's student leaders - Mustafa Alavi, Kristin Dakis, Michael Donovan, and Becky Krasaeath. Congratulations to Dr. Rik Stringham (right) on winning the 2013 M3 Golden Apple Award. This is an award for the top teacher of 3rd year medical students as voted on by the 3rd year medical students. This is the 3rd year in a row that Dr. Stringham has received this award.

THANK YOU: Dr. Stringham would like to thank the faculty, residents, and staff in the department for their support and excellent teaching of our 3 extern students. These three UIC medical students - Simone Asare, Daniela Guerrero, and Ana Mauro (above) - were between their 1st and 2nd years of medical school. They all commented on how much they appreciated the experience and the teaching and support from so many people in the department. This was the 3rd year we have had this successful program.

First Annual Community Faculty Dinner: We had an enjoyable and informative First Annual Community Faculty Dinner on October 23rd. There were over 20 participants including representatives from over ½ of our community sites. Dean Azar was in attendance and commented on the great work our community faculty are doing with educating our medical students. Dr. Hickner, Dr. Hyderi, and Dr. Stringham spoke as well. A very engaging and interactive discussion ensued regarding ways to improve teaching and encourage more students to pursue family medicine as a career.

OCTOBER 2013

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Medical Student Education Program Active Learning for Third Year Medical Students During the academic aspect of the 6-week Family Medicine clerkship, students choose from a list of over 20 interactive mini-courses called, selectives. Topics include preventive medicine, outpatient orthopedics, adolescent medicine, global health, occupational medicine, preventive medicine, home visits, and self-management support techniques. One selective offered numerous times throughout the school year is: Engage People with Developmental Disability through Patient Education: Field Experience. It offers interested third year medical students (M3s) the chance to interact with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. During this selective, M3 students visit UCP Seguin Services, Inc., an organization in Cicero that provides vocational, residential, day and other services to children and adults with developmental disabilities (consumers). They interview consumers to understand their lives and to identify health topics consumers of interest before developing an interactive education program to present a week later.

The M3 students learn to make health promotion programs accessible and available to a population that has been and continues to be marginalized. Past program topics include: diet, nutrition, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, understanding annual physical exams, overcoming fear of shots and many more. Working as a team to design a program specifically for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities benefits both UCP Seguin participants and the students. Students have the opportunity to think creatively to make complex facts tangible for their audience. Squeezing a turkey baster to push “blood” (red Kool-Aid) through different widths of rubber tubing to understand the concept of high blood pressure, relating blood contents to soup to understand blood “ingredients,” and using sugar to explain how many calories an individual can burn with simple exercises are just a few of the many examples that students have incorporated into past programs. A Seguin staff member said the UIC medical students succeed in capturing the attention of Seguin consumers. Seguin consumers often ask staff when the medical students are returning. Medical students enjoy this program. One student said, “This selective gave me insight into an underserved population that we did not focus on in medical school. [My experience was insightful and fulfilling...Explaining complex disease processes in a simplified way would be applicable to any patient population and seeing the Seguin participants gain more insight into healthy living was gratifying].” Engage People with Developmental Disability through Patient education: Field Work, originated in January 2011 and is co-facilitated by Maureen Gecht-Silver MPH, OTR/L, Department of Family Medicine, UIC College of Medicine and Kiyoshi Yamaki PhD , Department of Disability and Human Development, UIC College of Applied Health Sciences. This project is currently possible, in part, by funding received from the Illinois Department of Public Health and offered in conjunction with Seguin Services Inc. Special thanks to all of the third year medical students and Family Medicine externs that actively participate in this selective. This program is one of the PatientCentered-Medicine Selectives for Medical Students.

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Research Program OCTOBER 2013

Training the Next Generation of Physicians to Provide Patient-centered Care In line with our Education in Action philosophy and creating and sustaining Patient-centered Medical Homes, the Patient-centered Medicine (PCM) Scholars Program continues to grow and evolve. The program went through a very active year filled with a variety of activities. In addition to students’ ongoing direct clinical work with patients, highlights of this year included enhanced communitybased participatory research projects conducted by students; a series of lunch and learn sessions; a symposium about the changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act and its impact on vulnerable populations; and last but not the least, publication of PCM Voices volume 2. Picture 1 (left): SLP Showcase Participants

On March 14, M2 and M4 Scholars presented reflections on their program-related work at the 8th Annual Service Learning Showcase. Congratulations to all the Scholars for carrying out meaningful community-engaged participatory advocacy, action and scholarship that positively influences the lives of vulnerable and underserved individuals and builds healthier communities. Pictures 2 & 3: M4 Graduates and PCM Faculty

On May 10th we bade fond farewell to another cohort of PCM graduates and are delighted to welcome some of the PCM graduates to DFM residency. Dempsey Hughes, M4 Class President, gave a special commendation to the PCM Scholars Program in her speech during the College of Medicine graduation ceremony.

The program commenced for the 2013-2014 academic year with an orientation for the Service Learning Program on August 22 and an orientation for the new M1 Scholars on September 4.

Picture 4 (Above): M2 SLP Scholars, M4 Co-Tutors, Community Partners and Faculty & Staff at the SLP Orientation

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Research Program OCTOBER 2013

Picture 5: SLP Team From left to right - Drs. Minesh Shah, Sonia Oyola, Richard Stringham, Memoona Hasnain, Keia Hobbs, Nimmi Rajagopal and Fasika Alem.

Picture 6: SLP Immigrant & Refugee Health concentration meeting at Heartland Alliance From left to right - Sonny Patel, Elizabeth Hebert, Léa Tienou, Michael Charles, Dr. Memoona Hasnain, Darwensi Clark, Drs. Andrew Dykens and Sagina Hanjrah

Jacob Fyda (M2 SLP Scholar) was awarded the Gold Humanism Summer Research Fellowship and Monash/Scott Scholarship in support of his research contributions to evaluating a patient-centered digital health record for individuals living with HIV. The digital health tool, MyBestHealth, was born out of the Patient Centered Medical Scholars Program's (PCM) HIV/AIDS concentration. The research is assessing the feasibility and utility of a personalized digital medical record for individuals with HIV who are living in permanent supportive housing in the North Lawnsdale neighborhood. His summer project focused on assessing and addressing issues of feasibility of the intervention and supporting participants in their use of the tool. He appreciates the participants and wants to acknowledge the support of other students, staff, faculty, and community partners. He's looking forward to presenting his summer work at the Family Medicine Midwest Conference.

Picture 7 (right): 2013 M1 PCM Scholars

Acknowledgements: The PCM Scholars program reflects the hard work and commitment of a team of dedicated faculty and staff, motivated students, and committed community partners. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of M4 Co-tutors, our community partners and Faculty & Staff listed below. 2012-2013 M4 Co-tutors: Osamah Abdallah, Benjamin Carney, Celeste Cruz, Carmen Flores, Rachel Guild, Dempsey Hughes, Lauren Kendall, Anne Jennings, Jade Pagkas-Bather, Melissa Preyss, Laurine Tiema-Benson 2013-2014 M4 Co-tutors: Neha Agnihotri, Amanda Allison, Edwina Chang, Michael Charles, Innessa Donskoy (Kipnis), Khushboo Doshi, Aaron Goldstein, Ruth Hsiao, Angela Jiang, Sonny Patel, Luis Rivera, Jenna Spencer Community Partners: Connections for Abused Women and their Children (CAWC): Stephanie Love-Patterson, Roxana Licona & Meave Raphelson; H.O.M.E. Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly: Caren Arden-Tabani & Lisa Leland; EdgeAlliance/AIDSCare Progressive Services: Eric Homer; Lincoln Park Community Shelter: Erin Ryan & Linda Gibson; Heartland Alliance: Darwensi Clark, Elizabeth Hebert & Léa Tienou

Program Faculty & Staff M1 Preceptors: Maria Albright, Mariya Dmytriv, Brian Dudkiewicz, Andrew Dykens, Evelyn Figueroa, Thomas Gavagan, Armand Gonzalzles, Samuel Grief, Sagina Hanjrah, Keia Hobbs, John Hickner, Abbas Hyderi, Matt Johnson, Nandini Khatkhate, Ariel Leifer, Mykela Loury, Katya Cruz Madrid, Todd Ochs, Mark Potter, Nimmi Rajagopal, Glenda Rios, Minesh Shah, Augustine Sohn, Richard Stringham, Jeffery Tiemstra, Patrick Tranmer, Christina Wells SLP Faculty: Sonia Oyola - Domestic Violence; Richard Stringham - Geriatrics; Minesh Shah & Abbas Hyderi - HIV/AIDS; Nimmi Rajagopal & Keia Hobbs Homelessness; Andrew Dykens & Sagina Hanjrah Immigrant & Refugee Health M3 Selective Instructor: Maureen Gecht-Silver Program Coordinator: Fasika Alem Program Director: Memoona Hasnain

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Research Program OCTOBER 2013

Scholarship Day, May 29, 2013 Building Capacity for Research and Quality Improvement to Enhance Service & Scholarship May 29, 2013 served as the DFM annual Scholarship Day. Faculty, residents, and staff convened to listen and learn about their colleagues’ scholarly works, both complete and in progress, and to spark ideas for building and expanding on current initiatives for the future. This year’s event included an introduction by our new Department Head, Dr. John Hickner, who, aside from extensive clinical and educational experience, is also an experienced researcher and has much to share with the rest of the Department. All third year residents presented scholarly projects that they have been working on during their time at DFM, while several faculty also shared recent research projects. Dr. Memoona Hasnain, Associate Head for Faculty Development and Research, moderated the presentations and presented an update on DFM research and scholarly activities, including a vision for the future in line with the event’s theme focusing on capacity building for research and quality improvement to enhance service and scholarship. Dr. Lindsay Martin-Engel (2013 UIC COM graduate) received the UIC COM Award for Excellence in Family Medicine. Lindsay received praise for her scholarly work, as well as clinical work with underserved patients in the PCM Scholars Program and during rotations. She is dedicated to working with underserved communities and vulnerable populations now and in the future. Dr. Michael Fleming gave the keynote speech, “A Personal Journey as a Family Physician Scientist”. Among his many achievements, Dr. Fleming has published 140 peer-reviewed manuscripts, with alcohol intervention research on college campuses as one of his major researched topics. Dr. Fleming discussed how family physicians can not only participate in research, but lead the way and to truly make a difference in the lives of patients everywhere through their scholarly work and ultimately enhance evidence-based practice. Congratulations to Dr. Lindsay Martin-Engel and all the presenters. Special thanks to Fasika Alem, Catherine Lind, and Claire Bridges for helping organize the Scholarship Day logistics and their assistance during the event.

Resident Presentations:      

Blood pressure response to initiation of oral contraceptives. Gabriela Baeza, MD & Jeff Tiemstra, MD Excisional vs. Ablative Treatment for Presence of CIN 2-3 in Colposcopy Results. Shikha Bhan, MD & Evelyn Figueroa, MD Sudden death in young adult athletes: Using evidence to guide best practices. John Chico, MD; Jeff Tiemstra, MD; Memoona Hasnain, MD, MHPE, PhD Addressing learner mistreatment in an academic medical setting. Munazza Majeed, MD; Memoona Hasnain, MD, MHPE, PhD; Richard Stringham, MD Obstetrics quality improvement: Utilizing EMR to decrease errors. Krupa Patel, MD; Jeff Tiemstra, MD; Memoona Hasnain, MD, MHPE, PhD Electronic case finding for undiagnosed hypertension and patient survey. Katherine Putz, MD; Thomas Gavagan, MD, MPH; Memoona Hasnain, MD, MHPE, PhD; William Galanter, MD, PhD; Steve Andes, PhD

Faculty Presentations:



 

Establishing comparability of assessment across all campuses of a multi-site medical school. Abbas Hyderi, MD & A Lin, MD Evolving accreditation standards for residency education: Opportunities and challenges. Mark Potter, MD Longitudinal patient-centered geriatric education for medical students. Richard Stringham, MD & Memoona Hasnain, MD, MHPE, PhD

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University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Family medicine Global Community Health Track OCTOBER 2013

Senegal and Dominican Republic

The UIC Department of Family Medicine Global Community Health Track started the academic year off with its second trip to the Dominican Republic this September. The Global Community Health Curriculum trains residents to foster sustainable, evidence-based solutions to health problems in low and middle income communities, globally, through partnership. Its unique collaborative approach is based in solidarity with the community in need and depends upon the partnership of the university team, the community and a Peace Corps Volunteer. It encourages the participants to find ways to strengthen the health systems already in place. The track has had success in its first project in Senegal. Last spring the Dominican Republic was added as the track's first Latin American site. Med-Peds faculty, Dr. Amy Huang, UIC DFM 3rd year resident, Lillian Holloway and Med-Peds 4th year resident, Clemence Sullivan made the trip last month and were accompanied by Shannon Galvin, MD and Juliet Sorensen, JD, Global Health and International Law professors at Northwestern University. The visit marked the progression into the Assessment phase of the model where focus groups with the community revealed key community health concerns. The UIC team observed focus groups with key community members, youth groups and NGO leaders. Key players in the health of Guaymate were interviewed, including business leaders, municipal government leaders, health professionals and NGO advocates at local and regional clinics and hospitals. The visit in September was the project's second visit to Guaymate, a small town in the southeastern coast of the DR. The Eastern coast of the Dominican Republic is known for its sugar cane and Guaymate is one of the hubs of sugar cane production. The majority of sugar cane workers are Haitian immigrants and Guaymate is home to over 30 bateyes (Haitian sugar cane worker communities). A combination of poor primary care and preventive services, social and political reasons have led to high rates of HIV, sexually transmitted illnesses and preventable disease. The next trip will take place in March with Internal Medicine faculty, Dr. Minesh Shah, Med-Peds resident, Katie and UIC DFM resident, Morgan Madison. During the spring 2014 visit, the group will focus on facilitating the implementation of a Quality Improvement process into the local Guaymate community hospital.

OCTOBER 2013

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Announcements

Congratulations Rita Smaw for receiving the 2013 UIC Award of Merit! The Employee Recognition Award Ceremony will be held on November 5th from 11am12:30pm at the UIC Forum.

Dr. Emily Hall is a co-author in the August issue of Academic Medicine publication “How do medical students navigate the interplay of explicit curricula, implicit curricula, and extracurricula to learn curricular objectives?

Dr. Sam Grief has authored an article “ Upper Respiratory Infections”, which published in the Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice and is featured on the http:// www.mdlinx.com site.

Dr. Nimmi Rajagopal was appointed as the Essentials of Clinical Medicine (ECM) 1-2 Associate Course Director and is currently the Director of the ECM Introduction to Patient Care (IPC) Program.

Dr. Marina Khusid’s “SelfCare Mindfulness Approaches for Refractory Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” article was published in the Psychiatric Annals July issue on Healio.com/ Psychiatry

In June, Dr. Memoona Hasnain was selected as one of only 5 people nationally to be named a Macy Faculty Scholar. She was selected from a national applicant pool of 64 talented medical and nursing educators.

Dr. Abbas Hyderi presented a poster on Establishing Comparability of Assessment Across All Campuses of a Multi-Site Medical School and a 90 minute workshop at the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) in St. Andrews, Scotland. Dr. Hyderi has been appointed UIC COM Associate Dean for Curriculum . He was also a co-author in the October issue of Academic Medicine publication “Validity Evidence for a Patient Note Scoring Rubric Based on the New Patient Note Format of the United States Medical Licensing Examination”.

Maria Devens, PhD, ABPP September 16, 1966 – April 10, 2013 Maria Devens, beloved UIC Faculty from 2001 - 2013, lived with great passion, empathy, and insight. Highly valued by our faculty, staff, and trainees, Dr. Devens was an exceptional behavioral scientist, a gifted clinical psychologist, and, most importantly, a supportive friend and ally. Dr. Devens was invaluable in the family medicine residency and in medical education. In her typical energetic fashion, Dr. Devens dedicated herself to improving relationships between doctors and patients through her work in the American Balint Society. She strove to create more robust support networks for physicians and encouraged more mindfulness in our workplace. Dr. Devens favorite words were “joy” and “grace.” She sought joy and grace in all things and she brought them to many people. Dr. Devens lived a life of balance and helped us notice the beauty we might rush by and take for granted – whether it be a favorite color (purple was her choice), music (Baroque, and her beloved ‘80s), or a delicious, homemade dessert with a strong cup of tea. Even in the depths of her illness, Dr. Devens remained steadfastly herself, thoughtful and generous. She assisted her colleagues, residents and students and took on new endeavors. Always the professional, she selflessly helped others even during her times of greatest need, and often reminded us to “embrace change” and appreciate what was good. We learned so much from Dr. Maria Devens during her tenure at UIC and continue to celebrate her in our everyday activities. Although she has passed, Dr. Devens’ spirit and actions are unforgettable. On September 16th (her birthday), the department dedicated the FM Learning Center to her. It is now the Maria Devens, PhD Family Medicine Learning Center.

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