For more informationabout the residency programs at UpstateMedical Universityplease visit: www.upstate.edu/gme

A NEWSLETTER FOR SUNY UPSTATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY RESIDENTS AND FELLOWS I SPRING 20 14

Resident Report

Work-life balanceis crucial for medical residents

Dr. ErikQuilty lookedrelaxed whenhe arrived fora ResidentReportinterviewabout theneed formedicalresidents tomaintain a

healthy work-life balance.Dr. Quilty, a third-year resident

in anesthesia, had recently returnedfrom a week’s vacation in Costa Rica,so there was good reason for hiscalm demeanor.

Medical residents know betterthan many professionals the benefitsof quality rest-and-relaxation periods.Maintaining that equilibrium during astreak of 60- to 80-hour weeks in thehospital is the tough part.

“You always have to take timeout for yourself,” Dr. Quilty said. “Myfather (a stockbroker) has always toldme, ‘You need something other thanwork.’ You need to destress anddecompress. Even if you only go outand run one mile, or read five pagesof your favorite book, you can re-center yourself.”

Coming from a family of distancerunners, Dr. Quilty counts on runningand working out to stay balanced. Hegoes out for a run three days a weekin addition to regular cross-trainingsessions in the gym.

continued on page 3

The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and the Office of Graduate Medical Education celebrated Upstate’s fourth annualBeyond the Doctorate Research Day March 5,highlighting the researchaccomplishments of Upstate's residents, fellows and post-doctoral students.

Five residents and three post-doctoralresearchers gave 15-minute oral presentations. A poster session spotlighting two dozen research projects by residents and post-docs was also held. Presentations and posters were selected after a facultypeer review of submitted applications.

For the second straightyear, Dr. Bryanna Emr (PGY 2, Department of Surgery) was selected as the medicalresident winner of the day-long event’s oral platformaward. Dr. Emr’s presentationwas, "Electoporation MediatedGene Delivery AttenuatesARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome).”

Dr. Emr and her teamfound that gene therapy can attenuate acute respiratorydistress syndrome pathophysi-ology, suggesting a potentiallyexciting new therapy for ARDS patients.

In the poster session Dr. Amritpal S. Nat (PGY-3Department of Medicine) was recognized for his workapplying the Milwaukee Protocol in the real case of a24-year-old U.S. soldier who was diagnosed with rabiesafter being bitten by a feral dog in Afghanistan.

Dr. Emr, Dr. Nat and their teams were recognizedwith an honorary plaque and each presenter received a cash recognition of $500.

The day also featured akeynote presentation by TheodoreBania, MD, MS, Director of Re-search and Toxicology at Mt. SinaiSt. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospital inNew York City. His talk was titled:Lipid emulsion as a new antidote:Current use and extension fromlipophilic local anesthetics to otherdrugs’ toxicity.

The fifth annual Beyond theDoctorate Research Day will be held March 11, 2015.Save the date!

Fourth annual Beyond the Doctorate Research Day a success

Dr. Rushikesh Shah, right, discusses his research project with Dr. Amit Sharma at the Beyond theDoctorate Research Day poster session in Weiskotten Hall.

Bryanna Emr, MD

Amritpal S. Nat, MD

Eric Quilty, MD

Theodore Bania,MD

Office of Graduate Medical Education750 East Adams StreetSyracuse, NY 13210

This year’s conference in Nashville gave us the opportunity to interact with other incomingchief residents, and at the same time learn fromexperts what qualities a good leader must possess. I have learned that a chief resident has multiple roles, and it is important to find a balance among these various and occasionallyconflicting roles. One of the more memorable experiences was

attending a session on clinical coaching by Dr. Jeffrey Wiese, Internal Medicine ResidencyProgram Director at Tulane University. He empha-sized the power we, as teachers, have to make abig difference in the world through exponentialteaching – that is, teaching doctors who willthemselves become teachers one day. Surely,the next year will be filled with challenges but Iam positive that it will be as fulfilling.

– Emerald Banas

The conference in Nashville was an eye-open-ing experience. We live in a pseudo-bubble herein Syracuse and for the majority of us, all weknow is what we do at Upstate. One of the best

parts of meeting these future chiefs from pro-grams of all sizes and calibers from all of thecountry was to see how they do things in their respective institutions. The ways programs have come to solve their

unique problems based on their size and locationis really interesting. Some programs did not havea night float system and were manning night ro-tations with senior residents; other programs had

an entire overnight curriculum with educationalmeetings and rounds. I came out with some finetweaks of what we can do in our program, buthonestly for the most part I think we have a finelytuned machine when it’s running right. A few things I really liked:• Some programs use smart phone-based

response apps to allow greater participationfrom medical students, applicants and others fortheir morning reports. I think our morning reportsystem is great because it’s a small, focusedlearning group and forces the residents to takeownership of their MKSAP questions and theiranswers.• Emerald and I attended a workshop about

making an app for the program. It’s an idea thatwe have been tossing around but there are a lotof factors that have to be sorted out.• Dr. Jeffrey Wiese from Tulane gave an

inspirational lecture about clinical teaching vs.clinical “coaching,” and inspired everyone in theroom to take a personal interest in every one oftheir residents.

– Omair A Chaudhary

14.154 0414 1M

UDC

Incoming chief residents attend national meeting in Nashville

Upstate’s incoming chief residents in the Departmentof Medicine attend the annual APDIM chiefs meetingin Nashville, TN. Left to right are Drs. Josh Harrison,Omair Chaudhary and Emerald Banas.

As a part of its “NextAccreditation System” theACGME has revamped theprocess by whichinstitutions will undergoanalysis. The newprocess is entitled CLER(Clinical LearningEnvironment Review) andemploys a more globalfocus on the entire

‘environment’ in which resident learning occurs. The process reflects the ACGME change in

focus from capacity assessment (how many bedsdoes the hospital have) to competencyassessment (how well do the institution and itsprograms prepare an individual to independentlypractice medicine in their specialty).

The ACGME has moved individual programformal assessments to about once every 10 yearsbut has placed increased burden on theinstitution for program monitoring. In addition,the ACGME intends to visit the teachinginstitutions every 18 months with only a two-week notice.

These visits will not only examine theactivities conducted at the GME level but willalso include direct assessments of the physicalenvironment as well as support staff involvementin resident education.

The support staff includes administrators,nursing and other staff. This will be the first timethat the ACGME has specifically included supportstaff in their global assessment. The visits willtake place over a one- to five-day period.

The CLER visits will focus on six areas:Patient Safety, Health Care Quality, CareTransitions, Supervision, Duty Hours/FatigueManagement & Mitigation, and Professionalism.

The ACGME team will be interested ingathering data on five specific questions:

• Who/what form the institutional infrastructure designed to address the six focus areas?

• How integrated is the GME leadership and faculty in institutional efforts across the six focus areas?

• How integrated are the residents and fellows?

• How does the sponsoring institution determine its success of its efforts to integrate residents into the six focus areas?

• What are the areas the hospital has identified for improvement?

As they visit various institutionaldepartments they will be asking:

• Is supervision adequate?• Do residents and support staff know who to call when clinical circumstancesexceed their ability?

• Do you have concerns about mistreatment?

• Do residents know the hospital’s quality goals?

• Do residents know how their individual QI or PS projects relate to the hospital’s PQI and PS initiatives?

• Are communications among residents, faculty and support staff and patients appropriate and adequate?

• Do residents know how to file reports of safety concerns? Do they do it? Do they leave it for the nurses to do?

• If a resident reports a safety concern, does he/she get feedback about what action was taken?

The ACGME has already visited about 100institutions under the CLER process. From thosevisits we already know that in general:

• There is a lack of consistency in after-hours supervision.

• Residents are not provided data to improve clinical effectiveness.

• Residents are not sure how they fit into hospital systems and initiatives.

• There is an institutional responsibility for promoting truthfulness and integrity.

• There is a lack of consistency in standardization of the hand-off process.

Because the process is so new, a series ofinstructional meetings is being conducted withvarious constituencies around the institution.Educational materials on CLER are beingdisseminated. A major CLER retreat was held onMarch 31 to provide information on our currentstatus to a wide audience of Chairs, programdirectors, coordinators, administrators and others.

For more information on CLER pleasecontact the GME office or the ACGME web site’shomepage link to the Next Accreditation Systemhttp://www.acgme.org/acgmeweb/

CLER: A new institutional assessment approach

William Grant, EdD

SUNY Upstate Medical University

Neurology resident selected for advocacy leadership forum

Dr. Sonia Nayyar, aPGY-3 Neurology resident,was one of 29 neurologistsworldwide selected toattend the AmericanAcademy of Neurology'sprestigious Donald M.Palatucci AdvocacyLeadership Forum lastJanuary in San Diego,California.

The Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forumwas developed by the AAN in 2003 to trainmembers to be successful grassroots advocatesand effective spokespeople for their patients andthe neurology profession. Fellows are chosen onthe basis of their strong leadership potential andability to motivate others through effectivecommunication and collaboration.

As a Palatucci Fellow, Dr. Nayyar learnedhow to tailor messages to share with lawmakersand the media. Her advocacy project on

“Adapting Medical Education Theory to PatientCommunication” was completed under thementorship of Dr. John Morren of the ClevelandClinic.

The American Academy of Neurology, anassociation of more than 26,000 neurologists andneuroscience professionals, is dedicated topromoting the highest quality patient-centeredneurologic care.

https://www.aan.com/Sonia Nayyar, MD

Samantha Jones, MD,a third-year medical residentat Upstate MedicalUniversity, is one ofhundreds of successfulgraduates of the AssociatedMedical Schools of NewYork (AMSNY) Post-Baccalaureate program.

After earning abachelor’s degree at SUNY

Environmental Science and Forestry, Dr. Jonesearned a master’s degree in Medical Technology atUpstate Medical University through its MedicalScholars program. She then enrolled in Upstate’sCollege of Medicine and earned her MD in 2011.

“The preparation and training provided bythe program allows you to be confident that youwill be able to handle the rigorous demands ofmedical school,” Dr. Jones said. “Our programhad the added benefit of allowing us to makeimportant networking contacts, conduct globallyimportant and publishable research and obtain amaster’s degree.”

During her final year at Upstate, Dr. Jonesmatched into the competitive EmergencyMedicine specialty and then was able to sub-specialize in Pediatric Emergency Medicine.

The AMSNY Post-Baccalaureate programsoffer opportunities for underrepresented minoritystudents who narrowly missed admission tomedical school. This may be because the

students come from economically or academicallydisadvantaged backgrounds, yet they holdpromise to become quality physicians.

After they succeed in medical school, thesenew physicians often return to communities withlimited access to health care in our state topractice medicine.

Upstate’s Medical Scholars program is one of three AMSNY spinoffs begun in 2008 at medicaluniversities; the others are New York MedicalCollege and Stony Brook University School ofMedicine.

“I have been very blessed and I consider theMedical Scholars program one of thoseblessings,” Dr. Jones said.

Medical Scholars, AMSNY programs helped prepare resident

Spring 2014 Resident Report

Samantha Jones,MD

“That’s the hard part,” he said of finding time forexercise. “If it’s a really longday (in the O.R.), I won’t go fora run. It depends on when I getout of work.”

Dr. Quilty saves long runsfor the weekends when he’snot on call, and averages 20-plus miles a week.

In addition to those soloopportunities to clear his head,he said he and other anesthesiaresidents can count on eachother if needed.

“In my program there are14 of us and we all know eachother pretty well,” he said.“When we see each other wetalk and check in. Everybody’spretty open.”

Stressors for anesthesiaresidents include having apatient who’s very sick, lengthyoperations and just the verynature of surgery.

“We’re always anticipating what’s going tohappen, and what could happen,” he said. “Welook up the next day’s cases before we go home,and talk to the Attending about the patient’smedical problems and the surgery.”

Resources are available at Upstate to helpmedical residents struggling to keep a balance.The GME office and individual programs arethere to help, Dr. Quilty said.

“The one thing that helped me when thingsgot stressful was the realization that you’re not

the only person who’s going through it,” he said.“There are others with you, and there have beenothers who have gone through residenciessuccessfully. It’s temporary, even if it seems likea long temporary.”

Dr. Quilty allows himself to think aboutwhat’s at the end of that “long temporary” ---completing medical residency.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” he said.“You’re about to accomplish something that nota lot of people have done.”

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Dr. Erik Quilty recommends thefollowing to keep the workload andstress manageable:• time management skills• organization • able to prioritize everything from daily work to studying

• strive for good relationships with people at work, including physicians, nurses, support staff and cleaning crews.

• make time for yourself

Dr. Erik Quilty, far right, after the 2013 Turning Stone half-marathonwith Ryan Crouse, left, and Becky Sargis, middle.