Start your New Year with recycling your E-Waste

Did you know that you can take your e-waste to any Goodwill to recycle for free?

Recycling electronics helps reduce pollution that would be generated while manufacturing a new product and the need to extract valuable and limited virgin resources.- US EPA

Find out more at: http://www.goodwill.org/page/guest/about/howweoperate/recycling

2008-2009 Highlights of Community-Based Education

The Office of Community Based Education (OCBE) serves as a central source of information and assistance for physicians who teach (precept) in practice-based settings for the School. The office also coordinates teaching opportunities for those interested in serving as on-campus small group facilitators and physical examination instructors. OCBE offers preceptor development programs and provides individual teaching consultation as needed. Christina Lum serves as Manager.

While the mean student rating of preceptorship experiences in 2008-2009 for first-year preceptors was “excellent” 4.5/5.0 and for second-year preceptors was “very good” 4.4/5.0, OCBE continued to improve the experience through faculty development activities. Responding to student concerns over placements, OCBE was able to place 95% of students in one of their top three choices for a third-year longitudinal preceptorship. OCBE has increased the number of available preceptors within San Francisco, resulting in less travel to other Bay Area sites.

Finally, while OCBE continues recruiting new volunteer clinical faculty to teach (precept), the team has developed a database to maintain preceptor information and track the training affiliation agreements in place between UCSF and the various teaching sites. This new centralized system, launched July 31, 2009, streamlines the filtering process for available preceptors and allows for tracking the preceptor–student pairings and other relevant information. The database will also help in tracking teaching hours for Without Salary (WOS) faculty members and assist in expediting promotions within the respective departments.

Medical Education Calendar for February

• 1 AME: Education Day abstracts due
• 1 OME: Call for TSP applications to all faculty
• 1 AME: Advisory Board Meeting, 3:30-5pm, LR-102
• 3 AME: Executive Committee Meeting, 2-3:30pm, LR-102
• 9: OME: Special Topic Education Skills Workshop - Qualitative Analysis, 9am-12pm, TBA
• 10 OME: Medical Education Quarterly Staff Meeting, 8:30-10:20am, Mount Zion, Herbst Auditorium, Kanbar Center for Simulation and Clinical Skills Education
• 15: Presidents Day Holiday
• 23: OME: Portfolio Pilot Open House, 9 am - noon, Alumni House
• 23: OME: Key Educational Skills Series - Tips and Hints for Educational Research Requests to CHR, 1pm-5pm, Faculty Alumni House
• 23: OME: Key Educational Skills Series - Best Practices for Helping Students (and Yourself) Manage Projects , 1pm-3pm, Faculty Alumni House
• 23: OME: Key Educational Skills Series - Making Your Committee Service Work for You , 3pm-5pm, Faculty Alumni House

AME Innovations Funded Projects

The Academy of Medical Educators’ Innovations Funding program provides intramural grants that serve as a catalyst for the development of new curricular programs and promote constructive curricular change through the development of new or improved teaching programs and learning opportunities.

The goal of this year's round of Innovation Funding grants is to promote collaborative curriculum, assessment, and faculty development programs with a high potential to spread or generalize.

Find out more about the Funded Projects.

Student Research Symposium on Wednesday

On Wednesday, January 27, the Office of Student Research will hold their annual Student Research Symposium in Millberry Gym. The symposium is held each year as a platform for medical students to present and exhibit their research that has been funded by the dean’s office.

Poster viewing will be held from 12:00pm – to 2:30pm, and presentations from the winners of the dean’s prize in exceptional research will be held from 12:30pm – 1:30pm. We hope to see you there!

Interprofessional Standardized Patient Exercise at the Clinical Skills Center

The Kanbar Center for Simulation and Clinical Skills conducted its first Interprofessional pilot in our Clinical Skills Center last Thursday. The pilot program was developed with and coordinated under Maria Wamsley's grant to implement an interprofessional standardized patient exercise at UCSF.

The students and faculty educators involved are from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry and the Physical Therapy program. Bernie, Ann, and Jewel deserve accolades for coordinating with Maria on the numerous details involved in the launching of this successful pilot and milestone at our center.

2008-2009 Highlights of Admissions

The Office of Admissions is dedicated to recruiting outstanding future physicians and physician-scientists who will contribute to society through their work in patient care, discovery, education, and public policy.

In pursuit of the most qualified applicants to study medicine at UCSF, the Office of Admissions reviewed 5,991 applications and invited 1,915 of those applicants to submit secondary applications and letters for recommendation. The office interviewed 502 applicants at UCSF with the intention to enroll 149 students into the graduating class of 2013. Of these 149 students, 10 will enter the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and 11 will join the Program in Medical Education for Urban Underserved (PRIME-US). An additional 16 students enrolled at the UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco Joint Medical Program.

The Office of Admissions continued development of their paperless admission system, completing the applicant interface, the administrative console and part one of a module for committee members.

As part of their ongoing strategy to recruit outstanding individuals and maintain diversity within the entering class, the office coordinated programs in which medical students met with Underrepresented in Medicine (UIM) applicants when they came to campus for interviews. In addition, the office worked with the Asian Health Caucus, Chicano/Latino Medical Student Association, Native American Health Alliance and the Student National Medical Association to contact newly accepted students to answer questions and encourage them to attend Accepted Students Weekend. These efforts resulted in a high percentage (32%) of UIM applicants.

Benefits News – Start the New Year Right

Review Your Earnings Statement

All faculty and staff should routinely review their earnings statements/paystubs to ensure that all deductions/contributions listed are correct and any Open Enrollment actions submitted are accurately reflected. Online earnings statements are available on the At Your Service website – Sign in to My Accounts.

Find out more about Starting the New Year Right

Learning & Development: Kick Off Your Career Development Plan and Meet Critical Compliance Training Deadlines

Professional Development for 2010

This is an excellent time to begin implementing your development action plan by taking advantage of the multiple learning and development opportunities here at UCSF. What new skills and knowledge would you like to acquire in this New Year to enhance your performance and achieve your career aspirations?

Read more online for a list of available learning courses for the month of January and the following link to provide you with more details regarding these offerings: http://learningcenter.ucsf.edu.

Composting and Recycling at Work

Recycling coordinators with CPFM- Kathryn Hyde and Susan Bluestone have implemented programs within UCSF in coordination with CLS to provide composting guidance while you are working. Composting programs using biodegradable bags have been successful at Millberry Union. The kitchen food waste is placed into biodegradable bags, which are made of GMO (genetically modified organism) free starch, biodegradable polymer and other renewable resources, unlike more common plastic bags, which are usually made of polyethylene and do not biodegrade.

The food court at Millberry Union clearly displays examples of items that are specific to one of three types of waste: com-post, recycling and garbage.
• Composting for food, paper, paper plates, napkins, milk/ juice cartons, paper cups, tea bags and coffee grounds
• Recycling for plastic bottles and containers, soda cans, aluminum cans, foil, glass bottles and jars
• Garbage for styrofoam, straws, drink lids, chip and snack bags, plastic bags, condiment packages, plastic bottle caps and plastic wrap

CPFM’s goal is to increase campus recycling and compost rate to 75% by 2012. Learn more about CPFM Recycling and Composting

Please Welcome Jesse Arp to Medical Education

Jesse Arp joined the Medical Education team at China Basin Landing on Monday. Jesse will be working with the Educational Evaluations and LCME team on a one-year appointment to help prepare for the LCME accreditation.

Jesse is originally from Knoxville, TN where he received his BA in Psychology from the Univ. of TN, Knoxville and his MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the Univ. of TN, Chattanooga. His MS degree gives him a background in using psychometrics (i.e. surveys, focus groups) and other psychological concepts and methods to help improve organizations. While a graduate student, he also assisted in the reaccreditation process of some of the graduate programs.

His hobbies include rock climbing, horseback riding, and outdoor activities in general. Jesse is located in the China Basin Suite 5350, but travels to Parnassus and other campuses for meetings. Please help us in welcoming Jesse to the team!

Education Rings Loud and Clear in Recent Chancellor Interview

In a wide-ranging interview, Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann outlined her strategy to rein in student fee increases and enthusiastically expressed her support for “the best and the brightest” who work to make UCSF “this fantastic place.” Read more at Synapse Online

UCSF Boosts Efforts to Support Students in Multiple Ways - UCSF Today

UCSF’s continued academic excellence is inextricably linked to the quality of its graduate students, who drive life sciences discoveries, and its professional students, who are tomorrow’s leaders in health care delivery, research and education.

But recent data shows that UCSF is losing some of the brightest minds to competitors as the University grapples with state budget cuts, which systemwide totaled $813 million over the last two years.

For its part, UCSF has been able to increase student financial support by 20 percent from $96 million in fiscal year 2007-2008 to $115 million in fiscal year 2008-2009. In addition, grant/fellowship funds have increased by 16 percent from $46 million to $53 million over the same period, according to Joseph Castro, PhD, vice provost for Student Academic Affairs.

Read more: UCSF Boosts Efforts to Support Students in Multiple Ways - UCSF Today

You can help address the shortage of doctors

Colleagues,

The AAMC has, with your help, been working with Congress on a multitude of issues related to health care reform legislation. One issue of importance to the academic medicine community (and the nation) is an adequate physician workforce to meet the needs of an aging and growing population. The cap on Medicare's support for residency training has been a major barrier to ensuring that our institutions can respond to community needs.

While both the House and Senate language preserve current GME funding, both versions rely on redistribution of unused slots to add only a few hundred physicians a year to the current pipeline. While the cost remains a significant challenge, we continue to press for a 15% expansion of Medicare funded GME positions to be included in the final health care reform bill. Our strategy includes raising the visibility of the issue in opinion-leading media, such as our op-ed in that appears in print and online in yesterday's Wall Street Journal (included below), as well as print advertisements in Capitol Hill publications.

This effort will not succeed, though, unless we can generate enough 'volume' behind the message to distinguish it from the noise of the current negotiations. To that end, I ask that you send a letter to your Members of Congress supporting the expansion of GME using our legislative action center--and ask as many of your colleagues as possible to do the same. http://capwiz.com/aamc/home/

Thank you again for all of your continued help as we enter what look to be the final weeks of the first stage of health care reform!

Darrell G. Kirch, M.D.
President and CEO
Association of American Medical Colleges
2450 N Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
202.828.0460 - Telephone
202.862.6161 - Fax
dkirch@aamc.org
www.aamc.org

Also see:
OPINION JANUARY 4, 2010, 10:45 P.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703483604574630321885059520.html

How to Fix The Doctor Shortage
Congress needs to ensure we're cared for by more than an insurance card and an answering machine.
By DARRELL G. KIRCH