Furlough Plan Questions & Answers

Our campus leaders, including the chancellor, vice chancellors, deans and medical center chief executive officer, are aware that faculty and staff have many questions about the system-wide furlough plan the University of California Regents approved in July and how it will be implemented.

Check out the updated list of questions and answers. Please distribute this information to employees who may not have access to email. http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/budget/?page_id=87

Wiki Tip: Cutting and Pasting from Microsoft

When cutting content from Microsoft Word or Excel into the Confluence Wiki it works best to use Internet Explorer rather than Firefox. Using IE keeps more of your original formatting.

OCBE and Affiliations Agreement Database

Over the past 2 months, the Office of Community Based Education (OCBE) and Naika McDonald with the SOM, Medical Education have teamed up with an outside project management team, Echo Lane, to develop a Salesforce.com database to maintain preceptors and training affiliation agreements. We anticipate a “Go Live” date by July 31, 2009. OCBE and OME will utilize Salesforce.com as our tool to manage preceptors/preceptorships and training affiliation agreements

In the past, information on preceptors, preceptorships, and programs were kept on multiple spreadsheets and these spreadsheets were organized in many disparate ways. The new format will store all preceptors in one area, keeping track of notes regarding that particular preceptor, what type of correspondence has been done with each preceptor and more importantly, it will maintain a consistent data format from year to year. In this way, we hope to decrease the time it takes to create and maintain preceptorships as well as update preceptor contact information. This new centralized system will streamline the filtering process for available preceptors and track the pairings, site agreements, and other relevant information between students and preceptors for many years to come. OCBE and OME are very excited for this system to become operational.

Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved (PRIME-US)

PRIME-US is a UCSF School of Medicine program that provides skills and support to medical students with demonstrated interest in working with urban underserved communities.

A special five-year track program, PRIME-US brings together a diverse group of medical students committed to improving all aspects of the health of the underserved, from primary to specialty care, and from direct patient contact to research in epidemiology and outcomes. PRIME-US includes students from the UCSF School of Medicine and the Joint Medical Program at UC Berkeley.

In Fall 2009, 11 new students will join the PRIME-US program, 4 of those students will also be part of the PRIME Joint Medical Program at Berkeley.

NIH Selects 7 New CTSAs

The National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) awarded seven academic health centers with Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs). Five awardees are AAMC member institutions, including the Medical University of South Carolina, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine, and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Awardees will receive a combined $171 million over five years to help researchers turn laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients. The NCRR also released the first progress report outlining the research projects made possible so far by the CTSA program.

UCSF was one of the first Academic Health Centers to earn a CTSA. Learn more about our program at http://ctsi.ucsf.edu/

Faculty & Staff Assistance Program Offers Stress Management Presentations

Due to recent budget cuts and the approval of systemwide furloughs, the UCSF Community is facing challenging times. FSAP well understands that given this climate of uncertainty, it is common and understandable for stress and anxiety levels to rise. Unrelieved stress can create emotional and physical problems and can severely impact overall health and well-being.

During stressful times, it is especially important to take care of yourself. Research indicates that paying attention to signs of stress as well as developing proactive and preventative self-care activities can help to significantly reduce stress and anxiety. There are a variety of techniques that can help you effectively manage your stress.

FSAP has designed a Stress Management Lunchtime “Brown Bag” presentation in which you will learn about the emotional and physiological impact of stress, and learn effective strategies for coping with stress successfully and remaining resilient during these turbulent times.

Join them for these free, drop-in presentations:

• July 22: Mission Bay N114, 12 to 1 p.m.
• July 31: UCOP Franklin Street 9204, 12 to 1 p.m.
• August 6: Parnassus N729, 12 to 1 p.m.
• August 11: Laurel Heights 263, 12 to 1 p.m.

For Managers, Department Chairs, and Directors who want Stress Management presentations for their staff, please call FSAP to schedule them.

For individuals who are finding it difficult to cope with personal and/or professional stressors on your own, professional support may be helpful to you. FSAP is an available resource. They encourage you to contact FSAP at 415-476-8279 for more information or to schedule a free confidential appointment.

iList Contacts Database Revitalization

The iList Committee, led by Matthew Bernad, is working hard to revitalize iList.

iList is a program that:

• Creates private and shared lists
• Maintains organizational hierarchy
• Identifies critical functional roles, like Chairs, Managers, and Vice-Deans
• Links staff, academic, and student databases
• Creates non-UCSF contacts, like consultants
• Provides reliable contact information
• Exports data to MS Word, MS Excel, Email or Palm Pilots

The basic purpose of iList is to facilitate communication and the exchange of information by providing organizational data and current contact information about critical individuals in the School of Medicine. The key individuals are grouped into lists.

iList also supports basic administrative tasks, such as creating a list of committee members and communicating with those members and it automatically generates mailing labels. Before iList was developed by ISU, it was common practice for each unit to maintain lists of Chairs, Deans, Assistant Deans, as well as other groups of personnel. These lists were difficult to maintain and difficult to use. With iList, up-to-date lists of critical personnel are available to everyone with the iList application. All lists have current contact information. In addition, iList permits users to create private lists, assign individuals to maintain those lists, and share those lists with specific individuals, groups, or the entire iList community.

If you do not locate the iList application under Start/Programs, please contact ISU at 502-1919.

Written by Russel Fitzgerald

To learn more about iList, please feel free to contact the iList committee, either through Matthew Bernad or Victoria Ruddick, who helps to represent Medical Education on the committee.

Green Tip: Save Paper by Printing Less, Reusing More

It may seem obvious, but we probably all occasionally forget to use the “printer friendly version” option on web pages or the “print selection” feature when printing portions of documents and spreadsheets. This is an easy way to consistently save paper by cutting down on printing useless text or unnecessary banner ads.

Also, consider collecting reusable scratch paper and making it into a personalized notepad. A binder clip can hold it all together, and it can be as slick or as goofy-looking as you like. You might also try saving used paper and printing on the backside for internal or non-permanent documents. These are great ways to get a second use out of your throwaway paper (non-sensitive or confidential scraps, of course) and give it a renewed purpose in life before being sent to the recycling bin!

Green Tip: Recycle Used Batteries

Batteries that end up in landfills can leach heavy metals into soil, groundwater, and surface water. Proper recycling helps prevent harmful pollution and can save resources by reusing some of the components to make new batteries.

The University Store in Millberry Union has a convenient bin that makes it easy to recycle used batteries. For additional drop-off locations for used (including car) batteries in San Francisco, please visit http://www.sfenvironment.com.

School of Medicine Post Baccalaureate Program

On June 22, 2009, the 11th class of the UCSF School of Medicine Post Baccalaureate Program began their year-long tenure in the program. Fifteen students hailing for all over California spent their first week getting to know each other, the UCSF campus, and learning test taking strategies. This summer they will be enrolled in an intensive MCAT preparation course taught by UCSF medical students. In the fall and spring, they will be taking courses at San Francisco State University and participating in seminars and workshops on the UCSF campus. We look forward to working with them over the coming year.

Please Welcome Liz Sullivan

Liz Sullivan recently joined the Office of Outreach and Academic Advancement. She is replacing Katherine Lao as program assistant. Liz is a recent graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where she majored in English. She has a background in program planning and implementation—chairing the Cal Poly annual revisit weekend, which was attended by over 40,000 prospective students, their parents and alumni. We are excited to have Liz on board and hope you’ll introduce yourselves to her at the next OME meeting.

To welcome Liz, drop her a note at SullivanEM@medsch.ucsf.edu

Thank You to Katherine Lao

We would like to thank Katherine Lao who was a valued member of the Office of Outreach and Academic Advancement team under Valerie Margol. Katherine Lao’s last day was June 25, 2009.

After visiting relatives in the Philippines for a few months, Katherine will begin a MPH program at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Katherine has been a terrific team member and we wish her all the best in her future endeavors.

Please Welcome Lara Pheatt to Medical Education

Please join us in welcoming Lara Pheatt as she officially joins Medical Education as the Foundations of Patient Care, Course Coordinator. Lara has been a temporary employee in FPC since November 2008. Lara comes to us with a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Johns Hopkins University. Before joining Medical Education Lara was a 2nd Grade Teacher for Teach for America and was a Business English Instructor in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We thank Lara for all of her hard work and contributions she has made to FPC over the last 8 months and welcome her as a permanent member of the team.

To welcome Lara, drop her a note at PheattL@medsch.ucsf.edu.

Kanbar Hosts National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF) on Medicine

The National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine introduces outstanding students with an interest in medicine to all aspects of the medical field. Since 1993, this 10-day forum has introduced students to professionals from some of the nation’s top medical centers and faculty from renowned institutions of learning.


On Thursday July 9th, 2009, twenty-nine NYLF students were hosted by the Kanbar Center for Simulation and Clinical Skills Education. The two hour event introduced the students to computer based medical simulation and select partial task trainers used and available at the Kanbar Center.

The hosted sessions were designed to engage the students with a “hands on” interactive learning experience in medical simulation. The students were divided out into three groups; each group rotated through the three twenty-five minute medical simulation sessions.




Once the third session ended the students gathered for a post debrief on their experience. The student commentary indicated that they greatly enjoyed the event and found the sessions ‘fun’, ‘informative’ and ‘well worth their time’. Hosting the NYLF event was a wonderful opportunity and experience for the Kanbar Center and we look forward to future community outreach opportunities.







To learn more about the NYLF program you may visit their website: http://nylf.org/med/index.cfm.

PubGet Trial Launches at UCSF

When you're searching PubMed@UCSF, sometimes it takes several clicks to get from a citation to the article you want. Wouldn't it be great to get to the full text immediately?

PubGet is a new tool that streamlines access to the PDF article. Please try it out and tell the library what you think at http://www.library.ucsf.edu/contact.

Portfolios at UCSF Blog Launches

The UCSF Portfolio Oversight Committee tracks current scholarship on the use of portfolios to manage competency-based education in the health sciences. In order to better disseminate current scholarship on portfolios and activities on the UCSF campus related to portfolios, the committee has launched the "UCSF Learning Portfolios" blog at UCSF at http://ucsfportfolios.blogspot.com

The committee encourages everyone interested in Portfolios to visit the blog and sign up for email updates or subscribe to the RSS feed.

We also encourage you to comment on the postings and forward this to interested colleagues.

Student Email Policy Reminder

Many students continue to use non-UCSF email accounts to check, compose, forward or respond to their UCSF email, a practice which can place confidential information at risk. You can usually identify such an email sent from a Gmail or Yahoo account with the sender’s name reading:

From: JaneDoe@gmail.com on behalf of Jane Doe [Jane.Doe@ucsf.edu]

If you do receive messages from students sent from a non-UCSF account, please remind the students of their professional responsibility to use their UCSF email account in a manner that maintains our ability to protect the confidential information of our patients and colleagues. Also note that as of May 8, 2009, all student UCSF email accounts now provide 1 GB of storage space. This increased storage space will alleviate the need for students to use an external email account to work around limited storage issues.

To help you provide this feedback, we have developed a standard reminder text that you can easily insert or append to an email response:

---------------------------

REMINDER: Compliance with the School of Medicine’s email policy requires use of your UCSF email account to check, compose, forward or respond to your UCSF email. This is not arbitrary, but is the requisite mechanism to protect the confidential information of our patients and colleagues; using a non-UCSF email account (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) jeopardizes this critical capacity. For further details please see the email policy information and video, "produced" by your peers, at http://medstudents.ucsf.edu.

---------------------------

Please feel free to contact Chandler with any questions about this policy or the reminder.

Medical Education Annual Report 2008-2009 Updates

The call for the 2008-2009 Medical Education Annual Report updates went out earlier this week.

This year we are going to use the Wiki to capture the report edits rather than using the word documents that we’ve sent out in the past. As you may remember we changed the format of the report last year to be a narrative instead of the detail-rich outlines. This year we continue to collected the very important detail-rich outline for internal reporting and database purposes, but invite units and programs to draft the narratives to appear in the published report.

We have developed the Medical Education Annual Report wiki site . The site has a wiki page for each program and/or unit which contains last years’ data and narrative as well as a link to this years’ blank template. Report updates are due Friday, July 31st.

If you are having trouble accessing the Medical Education Annual Report wiki, and would like to check it out contact Christina.

Check out our previous year annual reports.

Medical Student Performance Evaluations (MSPEs)

The MSPE, formerly known as the Dean’s Letter, is a written transcript of a student’s performance while in medical school and a required component of residency applications (per AAMC guidelines). The MSPE includes descriptions of the student’s significant accomplishments during college, prior to UCSF, and during medical school. The bulk of the MSPE is the student’s summary evaluations from FPC, clerkships, and any research blocks or Pathways to Discovery work. Dr. Loeser also writes a summative overview commenting on the student’s individual strengths and qualities as a candidate for postgraduate training. The MSPE team includes Kristen Fitzhenry (OCA), Helen Loeser (OCA), Susan Masters (CMP), Katie Morris (OSA), Bonnie Hellevig (OME), Tom Manley (ISU), and Sara Campillo (OCA).

MSPE “season” is from June through October each year. Beginning in early June of their fourth year, students submit a CV through an iRocket course dedicated to information about the residency application process. Additionally, students complete a supplemental online survey, indicating their future career goals and which accomplishments listed in their CV were most meaningful for their career trajectory. Around this time, Bonnie works with Tom in ISU to pull all of the students’ clerkship evaluations to date. Bonnie extracts all of the eValue evaluation summaries, and Tom maps them to clerkship titles according to the student’s individual schedule. This creates the “skeleton”—a chronological listing of the student’s clerkships and corresponding evaluations. Bonnie also pulls the data for the MSPE surveys, and creates an info document for each student. Kristen then creates the drafts by running a macro in Word which pulls in both the skeleton (evaluations) and info doc (data from survey). The editing process then begins, and continues into late September. Referencing the CV, Kristen and Katie edit the raw text into paragraphs that describe the student’s unique characteristics and attributes, and make grammatical edits to the clerkship evaluations. The draft then goes to either Dr. Loeser or Dr. Masters for another edit. Bonnie/Tom do one more data pull from eValue in late August. Any evaluations not captured in this pull are scanned in by Sara. Dr. Loeser does a final review before the draft is released to the student for review; the student has the opportunity to correct inaccuracies and return to Curricular Affairs. A team of proofreaders (led by Katie) then proofreads each letter. After any last corrections are made, the letter is finalized and sent to residency programs via ERAS on November 1.

Green Tip of the Week: Use Reusable Bags

Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year. According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)

Environmental Impact: Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food. Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest. Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation. Paper bags, which many people consider a better alternative to plastic bags, carry their own set of environmental problems. For example, according to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 1999 the U.S. alone used 10 billion paper grocery bags, which adds up to a lot of trees.