JULY / AUGUST 2006
BULLETIN
In this issue:
Upcoming program to gather leaders in health care quality
- Sri Ramachandra leadership participate in Harvard Macy Institute program
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- Italian university takes a new look at educating physicians
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- Acibadem and HMI team to keep orthopedic surgeons up to date
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- Six from UAE college train in HMSDC observerships
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- French physicians observe the benefits of case review conferences
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- HMSDC workshop presents update on diabetes treatment and management
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- Program helps hospital staff improve communication skills in difficult situations
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- Nancy Soule wins prestigious award for service to Harvard Medical School
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Upcoming program to gather leaders in health care quality
In August HMI will co-sponsor the 2006 Quality Colloquium, an executive education course with a spotlight on patient safety, health care quality enhancement, and the reduction of medical errors. HMI president and chief executive officer Robert K. Crone, MD, and Harvey Makadon, MD, HMI vice president of Global Programs, are part of a multidisciplinary group of speakers who will participate.
The colloquium will feature case studies detailing successful efforts in safety improvement and provide participants with the opportunity to share and discuss specific strategies for designing and implementing patient safety initiatives in hospitals, health plans, and other health care environments. Presentations will also address the responsibility of government, accrediting boards, pharmaceutical and device manufacters, and patients and their families in supporting efforts to improve patient safety, as well as procedures for organizing patient safety officer training.
A wide range of experts from top health care institutions, government agencies, and patient safety advocacy groups are scheduled to speak at the conference, including Dennis O’Leary (president and chief executive officer of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), Janet Marchibroda (head of the eHealth Initiative in Washington, DC), and well-known consumer advocate Erin Brockovich-Ellis.
The program is designed for health care executives, clinicians, and patient care staff. It will held August 20-23 on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge. For more information and registration please visit the program website.
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Krishna Seshadri, right, examines the simulated patient at the Harvard Simulation Center as Radha Venkataachalam, center, and Suresh Venkatan look on. |
Sri Ramachandra leadership participate in Harvard Macy Institute program
In June HMI welcomed Radha Venkataachalam, chief executive director of Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre (SRMC), as a participant in the Harvard Macy Institute’s Program for Leaders in Health Care Education. The program was part of a series of activities that included strategic planning with HMI’s senior management team and visits to Harvard Medical School-affiliated centers of excellence. Mrs. Venkataachalam was accompanied by Krishna Seshadri, MD, professor at Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute, who returned to the Institute as a member of the faculty, after participating in 2005 as a program delegate.
HMI and SRMCRI also discussed plans to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the alliance. The HMI-SRMCRI partnership, which began in 1997, has helped the Chennai-based college become a regional leader in medical education. For the last three years, Sri Ramachandra has hosted major HMI faculty development and leadership programs that have attracted leaders in academic medicine from throughout the region. Sri Ramachandra has also supported a bidirectional student exchange program that enables its students to complete clerkships at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and gives students from HMS exposure to models of health care delivery in India.
The partners are currently collaborating on a quality improvement program at Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre, with an eye towards achieving international accreditation. SRMCRI is also exploring opportunities to serve as a resource for other hospitals and medical schools in South Asia.
Italian university takes a new look at educating physicians
HMI’s Tom Aretz and Elizabeth Armstrong delivered a three-day train-the-trainer program for the University of Padova, which is working to become a regional center of excellence for continuing medical education (CME) programs. In its Venice-based center, the university plans to offer up to 50 CME course each year.
“The university is seeking to create course modules that emphasize active learning and incorporate a diversity of teaching approaches,” said Aretz. “Our goal was not only to present best practices in the design and delivery of CME programs, but to demonstrate, through our own course design and delivery, active learning methodologies that have proven to effective.”
The course also covered the issues associated with ethics, conflicts of interest, and commercial support of CME programs, and reviewed best practices in evaluating the effectiveness of CME programs. The 23 faculty participants collaborated on a three-part course planning exercise that yielded three CME programs with clearly defined goals and desired outcomes.
Acibadem and HMI team to keep orthopedic surgeons up to date
Two faculty from Harvard Medical School joined colleagues in Turkey for an interactive program highlighting the latest in orthopedic surgery. It was the first education program under the partnership between HMI and Acibadem Healthcare Group to include activities in Acibadem’s new Bursa hospital.
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| The HMI faculty participated in interactive case discussions with clinicians at Acibadem. |
The program was co-directed by two orthopedic experts from Massachusetts General Hospital: Dinesh Patel, MD, chief of arthroscopic surgery, and Jessie Jupiter, MD, director of the orthopedic hand service. They led sessions and case discussions on a range of topics including recent advances in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the elbow and arterior cruciate ligament, proximal approaches to arthroscopic knee surgery, and current thinking on treating fractures of the wrist, elbow, and hand.
As with previous programs held at Acibadem, the faculty fielded questions from the general public, this time with a focus on sports medicine and current treatment approaches to knee, elbow, and wrist problems. These interactions with the public, which often include patients and their families, have helped to enhance Acibadem’s reputation as a regional leader in health care delivery, while also broadening the HMI faculty’s understanding of the challenges confronted by health care providers and their patients in Turkey.
Six from UAE college train in HMSDC observerships
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Nouf Khamis Al Ali (left) and Fatima Asfandyar Al-Zaroni gave a presentation in the Kessler Health Education Library at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. |
The Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) Institute for Postgraduate Education and Research has launched a training and observership program for selected students from the Sharjah campus of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT). Six students came to Boston in June to participate in four-week learning opportunities at various Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals.
The Higher Colleges of Technology is comprised of 12 campuses located throughout the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is the largest institution of higher learning in the UAE, and has graduated nearly 20,000 UAE nationals since it was established in 1988.
The HMSDC observership program allows participants to fulfill the requirements in three areas of study offered by the college. Zulaikha Mohamed Abdulhameed and Fatima Ahmed Sultan, who are enrolled in the Medical Laboratory and Technology program, studied stem cell and bone marrow transplantation at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. Amina Mohamed Abdulla participated in the medical informatics program at Children’s Hospital, with a focus on the use of electronic patient records, as part of her pursuit of a degree in Health Information Management. Fatima Mohamed Abdulla, Fatima Asfandyar Al-Zaroni, and Nouf Khamis Al Ali, students in the college’s Health Education program, learned about innovations in patient and family education through observerships at Joslin Diabetes Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“These observerships will play a significant role in preparing graduates of HCT to take up positions in the UAE health care system,” said Robert L. Thurer, MD, chief academic officer of HMSDC. “While there has been much emphasis on the need for more well-trained physicians and nurses in the Gulf Region, skilled professionals in the areas of patient and family education, medical informatics, and other health sciences are also an integral part of building a sustainable health care system.”
HMSDC also offers clinical and research fellowships, as well as specialty observerships, to selected health care professionals in the Gulf Region. For more information, visit the Fellowships section of the HMSDC website.
French physicians observe the benefits of case review conferences
Emergency physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) welcomed counterparts from the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis to participate in their regular case review conference. The mortality-and-morbidity conferences, which are held each Wednesday morning at BIDMC, provide a forum for discussing and learning from recent cases. The French physicians observed a session via videoconference in May, with an eye towards establishing a case review format of their own, and possibly participating in joint sessions with BIDMC faculty in the future.
Philip Anderson, MD, an emergency physician at BIDMC, explained that these conferences, while not prevalent in many parts of the world, are a staple of U.S. academic medical centers. “We gather to discuss a handful of recent cases that present a learning opportunity, such as a case that had an adverse outcome or one that presented unexpected difficulties,” he said. The cases follow a very specific format beginning with the initial presentation of the patient, and following through the evolution of the case.
The French university is working with HMI to provide clinical curriculum review and development tools for the medical faculty as well as joint faculty exchanges in the Department of Emergency Medicine. Last June, the head of the Nice emergency department completed a one-month fellowship at BIDMC.
HMSDC workshop presents update on diabetes treatment and management
In June, the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) Institute for Postgraduate Education and Research presented a half-day continuing medical education program in Dubai featuring updates on the latest developments in medical treatment and management of diabetes. The faculty for the program was comprised of three specialists from Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Around 50 physicians from throughout the Gulf Region attended the program and participated in a series of lively discussions covering a wide range of diabetes-related issues, including coronary artery disease, nutrition, and fitness.
Ramachandiran Cooppan, MD, HMS assistant clinical professor of medicine and consultant for professional education at Joslin, presented updates on two topics: Type 2 diabetes and the relationship between coronary artery disease and diabetes. He reviewed the pathophysiology of Type 2 diabetes, outlined methods of selecting appropriate therapies based on current treatment goals and disease progression, and discussed results of recent studies on prevention. His second presentation covered the epidemiology and pathology of coronary artery disease in diabetes, examining the role of the metabolic syndrome and reviewing current outcome-based therapies designed to help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Two Joslin specialists addressed the participants via live videoconference from HMI’s offices in Boston. Karen Chalmers, MS, RD, CDE, director of nutrition services, and Kathy Mullooly, MS, RCEP, CDE, clinical exercise and fitness specialist, discussed medical nutrition therapy for diabetes patients and clinical fitness education. Chalmers explained how current research evidence has been translated into nutrition guidelines for patients, including recommendations for a diet that includes healthy fats, oils, and nuts. She stressed that nutrition and exercise education cannot be separated from medical care. Mullooly focused on the general health and psychosocial benefits associated with a regular physical fitness plan, and outlined key points for helping to ensure patient success in recommending exercise options and helping to set realistic goals.
Find information about upcoming HMSDC courses and events by visiting the HMI website’s Events section.
Program helps hospital staff improve communication skills in difficult situations
Faculty from Harvard Medical School (HMS) are learning how to improve a critical skill through the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills (PERCS). PERCS is a multidisciplinary training program designed to improve the communication skills and relational abilities of trainees and staff members. The program, which was developed at Children's Hospital Boston and at the Harvard Macy Institute, was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal.
“The program focuses on helping clinicians who have difficult conversations in a broad range of contexts, from breaking bad news in a pediatric intensive care unit, to talking with patients about medical errors that caused them significant harm, to discussing options for transplantation with a family whose loved one has just been declared brain dead,” said Robert Truog, MD, professor of medical ethics (anasthesia) at HMS and principal investigator of PERCS.
PERCS is offered in one-day workshops that are structured around several case scenarios, with actors portraying the patient or family members in situations that require the communication of bad news. Using a multidisciplinary format, physicians, nurses, and other clinicians meet individually or together with the simulated patient or family members in a small consultation setting. The faculty and other participants observe the discussion in a nearby conference room over a closed-circuit video feed. Following the discussion, everyone comes together for a facilitated debriefing that encourages experiential learning and personal insight.
While the program’s core mission is to train clinicians at Children’s Hospital, other faculty members are welcome to participate if space is available. To learn more about PERCS, visit the program website.
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Nancy Soule wins prestigious award for service to Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School has presented the 2006 Dolores J. Brown Staff Award to HMI’s Nancy Soule. The award, established in 2002 to honor former Dean Daniel Tosteson’s assistant, recognizes a staff member who has a record of outstanding service, has demonstrated respect for Harvard Medical School, and has helped to create a welcoming and inclusive work environment. One of the original members of the HMI staff, Nancy is Executive Assistant to Robert K. Crone, MD, president and chief executive officer, and Andrew A. Jeon, MD, MBA, executive vice president and chief medical officer.
“Nancy is often the first person people meet when they visit HMI and she serves as the ‘telephone voice’ of HMI to many colleagues and partners around the world,” said Crone. “She is an extraordinarily effective ambassador for HMI to all with whom she interacts.”
Copyright 2006 Harvard Medical International