Weekly Update

November 2, 2020

From Dr. Manish Garg: EM Interview Season

Dear EM Family,

We are quickly approaching interview season and it’s an opportunity for us to add new members to our EM family!

Interview season will be starting soon (November 8th), and the schedule will be Sundays to Tuesday every week until January 19th. Let me break it down for you…

On Sundays from 6p-8p, we are looking for (at least 5 ) residents who would like to join the (COVID rules) residency-covered dinner/social event where we will zoom in the prospective applicants for Monday/Tuesday. It’s a chance for you to spend time together and share insights with the applicants in a less formal way. I know it will take a little getting used to, but I think this will be our best bet for showing the culture of the program and our interpersonal relationships.

Monday and Tuesday will be interview days in the morning, hosting 8 applicants per day. We need at least 2 people for 9am-11am to give the “virtual tour” and “Question and Answers”.

We need your incredible help. Nobody can share how wonderful our program is like you can. The applicants want to share time with you, and you have the fun/awesome opportunity to create continuing lasting legacies by bringing another outstanding group to help our patients/EM community.

The interview sign-up schedule will be run by Cam, and Adria will be our faculty point person (See next update post).

Thank you for everything you do. We are all very excited for this wonderful time of year.

From Dr. Cameron Callipari: Residency Recruitment

EM Fam,

ERAS is OPEN and interview season is upon us (November 8th)! The schedule will be Sundays to Tuesday every week until January 19th, and we all need to step up to help make things run smoothly this year.

1.) On Sundays from 6p-8p, we need (at least 5) residents who would like to join a residency-covered dinner/social event where we will zoom in the prospective applicants for the Monday/Tuesday interviews. It’s a chance for us to spend time together and share insights with the applicants in a less formal way. It’s not perfect, but this will be our best chance to show the culture of the program and our interpersonal relationships. We are also looking for people to volunteer to host these little weekly social gatherings or suggest a unique place to do them.

2.) Monday and Tuesday will be interview days in the morning, hosting 8 applicants per day. We need at least 2 residents for 9am-11am to give the “virtual tour” and “Question and Answers”. These will be over zoom so no need to get together in person, unless of course you want to because brunching is the best.

Interview season can be incredibly fun if we all step up and help make it that way! No amount of zooms or flyers can show how awesome our program is like we personally can. The applicants want to share time with us and get a vibe of what our tribe is like, and this is a great opportunity to create a lasting legacy by bringing another outstanding group into our EM community.

The interview sign-up schedule is attached below, and the expectation is for everyone to sign up for at least one slot, but please sign up for as many as you can possibly make!

Here’s a sign-up sheet with all the dates and social events laid out. Let me know what you think!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/189btiJiGA1WH30KsWxpLOUrMOgeT4PeInY7MO1-QHPE/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you and let’s add some awesome new members to our EM family!

-Cam

From Dr. Adria Simon: DEI Committee Residency Interviews

Hi everyone

As we approach interview season, I wanted to share our plan for outreach. We’ve created a centralized email account for the committee (nypemdei@gmail.com) and plan to have a resident “on call” for that week to handle outreach. Interview invitations and subsequent communication will include this contact info and an open invitation to meet with a committee member. Ideally, we could offer an opportunity to chat with both residents and faculty. The residents will be handling the inbox and will reach out to faculty to coordinate.

We will be interviewing Monday and Tuesday mornings starting 11/9 through 1/17. Each interview day has a built in “break” with some loose structure for reviewing videos and informal Q&A with the residents from 9-10 AM. This is a great opportunity for faculty drop in and interface with the applicants. Once we have the schedule, I can also identify the days or weeks when we have URiM applicants interviewing so we can focus our efforts more on those days.

We created a sign-up sheet linked below to have a point person week by week and will be extending this invite to faculty from Cornell as well. I think the involvement can range from a quick email, a zoom hangout and interview day drop ins.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/189btiJiGA1WH30KsWxpLOUrMOgeT4PeInY7MO1-QHPE/edit?usp=sharing

If interested, please indicate your availability on the sign-up sheet so the residents can coordinate with you during that time.

Thanks to everyone for your time and we are so excited to collaborate this interview season!

Adria

From Dr. Tony Dajer: Bounceback Review

Bouncebacks (or patients who return to the emergency department with the same complaint) are some of the best teaching resources. We are looking to use Epic to review bouncebacks who are admitted on second visit. We’re looking for resident volunteers who can vet 6-8 cases a month. Please contact Dr Dajer (and9136@med.cornell.edu) if interested!

From Dr. Penny Lema: NY ACEP Advocacy and Leadership Awards

The NY ACEP Advocacy and Leadership Awards due date is coming up Nov 15.

Our very own Diksha Mishra was a recipient last year (although it was a virtual event).

https://www.nyacep.org/leadership-and-advocacy

Any questions can be directed to Dr. Penny Lema (pcl2124@cumc.columbia.edu) or Dr. Kaushal Shah (kas3002@med.cornell.edu()

From Dr. Duncan Grossman: “The COVID Project”

A group of fellow NYC residents and I are putting together a city-wide project that I hope you’ll be interested in.

It’s called, “The COVID Project.” It is going to be a compilation of creative pieces from emergency medicine residents all around the city that reflect on our time as EM residents during the COVID surge.

These may take the form of journal entries, short stories, poems, essays, photos, drawings, or any other creative pieces that you would be comfortable creating for this project. Whatever your artistic medium may be, feel free to submit it. (Probably can’t take interpretive dance at this time… Apologies.)

You may focus on a particular patient, a moment on the subway, home life, family life. Your stories may be insightful, or funny, or benign, or (of course) tragic. Whatever moves you.

We’re not sure what final form this will take – Maimo did a similar project before that became a small book for our its residents but who knows, we can dream a bit bigger, perhaps.

Please email your piece (along with your name, PGY, and program) to covidprojectnyc@gmail.com. We’d be happy to share your piece anonymously, just leave some contact info so we can reach out to you if needed.

We’ll be accepting submissions until December 1st.

Thank you. Please keep up the amazing work. Be happy, be safe.

From Dr. Mark Curato: Post-Residency Career Plans

Thanks to those who have completed the career survey; we’re at about 50% completion, so good start!

We are part of a group studying factors influencing EM resident career choices. We’re working with some other big programs (UCLA, Davis, UW, Iowa, Rush, Michigan, and Pitt). Some programs have already made it to 100% completion, so let’s be sure to keep pace!

I ask that you please take the survey at your earliest convenience. Your answers are confidential. Participation is voluntary, but I do hope that we can have 100% participation.

It should only take a few minutes. The survey link is here.

We do really appreciate your participation, THANKS!

2020 Annual Hospital Training (AHT 2020)

Get ready to complete your mandatory annual hospital training!

Access the 2020 Annual Hospital Training (AHT20) in the NYP Learning Center. This year’s launch is earlier than in prior years to allow more time for completing the training and learning the critical competencies. Completion of AHT20 is required by all graduate staff. Compliance is mandatory for you to work and for NYP to meet regulatory requirements. Failure to complete this in a timely manner will lead to your CWID account being disabled.

The deadline for completing AHT20 is Friday, December 4, 2020.

Instructions for completion can be found here.

From the Munira Persad: BLS/ACLS Recertifications

Please see the attached documents regarding BLS/ACLS (Re)Certification.

Residency Leadership guidance will be coming shortly to answer questions residents have about certifying or recertifying.

AHA COVID Interim Guidance

BLS/ACLS NYP Sign-Up Information

Campus Announcements

From Maura Curran:

Dear All,

Due to the social distancing restrictions we are unable to host a Holiday Party this year.

To add to your EM swag and prepare for the cooler weather, Dr. Mills will be gifting fleece jackets to Faculty, Residents, PAs and Staff.

Using the Doodle links below, kindly designate your preferred size. I’ve attached a mockup of each style as well as a size chart.

Please provide your selection by November 6^th.

Thank you,

Maura

Men’s Size Fleece

Women’s Size Fleece

From Drs. Lily Abrukin and James Kenny: Palliative Care Training

Hi all,

I hope you are all doing well. Lily and I have been working with Palliative Care to develop a program for all ED providers (attendings, PAs and residents) to receive additional education and training in Palliative Care core topics pertinent to us in the ED. The initial focus will be on communication skills training, emphasizing how to best facilitate goals of care discussions and deliver serious news. Our hope is that this will lead to additional collaborative projects with Palliative Care in the future.

The first phase of developing this program involves gathering a small group of interested participants to undergo a one-day training course called EMTalk, which will be facilitated by our palliative care colleagues. See attached pdf for additional details about the course. This group would then work together to develop a curriculum that can then be brought back to our department so that the rest of the staff can receive training. If you are interested in becoming part of this initial group, please email Lily and I for further information. We have room for 10 participants. The training will likely occur in January or February.

Do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

From Dr. Sachin Argawal: Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest

PGY3s and 4s – Please remember to call the Neurocritical care fellow at 8-COOL to let them know of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that have neurological deficits at time of ROSC. Targeted temperature management is an important part of post-arrest care and the NICU would appreciate early involvement!

From Dr. Bernard Chang: the IMPROVE Study

Dear Team

We are excited to finally launch our study on long-term clinician physical and psychological health (called IMPROVE) led by our team here in Columbia Emergency Medicine. This study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will be one of the largest longitudinal studies on emergency provider mental and physical health and could lead to significant changes in how EDs operate, while providing evidence for staffing/scheduling and patient-flow innovations to improve both clinician well-being and patient outcomes.

We designed our study to be respectful of your time, minimally disruptive given your busy schedules, while also recognizing you with a bunch of goodies Please read below for details and how to sign up if interested. (Of note, this is a different study from Dr. Laurel Mayer’s study on mental health. There is no problem in participating in both studies.)

We are looking for full time emergency department nurses, physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants to participate in this study. The study baseline visit will involve:

answering questions (electronically) about your demographics, health history, thoughts, behaviors, and sleep (about 15 minutes)
wearing an activity monitor on your wrist to assess physical activity and sleep during a 2-week period (Fitbit watch)
taking Home Blood Pressure (HBP) readings daily (in the morning and at night) during a 2-week period
sharing your work schedule during the 2-week assessment period (while at Columbia)

Study participation and annual follow-up will continue over 3 years and the two-week burst assessments described above will be repeated at years 1, 2 and 3. Compensation for participation is available:

1) up to $600 ($150 at baseline and annually for 3 years)

2) A Fitbit Inspire HR to keep

3) A bluetooth enabled blood pressure device (the Omron 5 Series BP7250) to keep.

Please note that participation or decision not to participate in this study has no bearing or influence on your evaluation or status as an employee at New York Presbyterian or CUIMC. The data will be collected in a confidential manner and no identifiable information will be shared with non-study personnel.

If you wish to view the electronic consent and information sheet to learn more about the study, please click on the following link:

https://tinyurl.com/ImproveStudyEligibility

Thank you so much for considering and look forward to sharing the results of this study with you all. Sending you all my best and thank you again for all your hard work at our ED!

From the Columbia EPIC team: Documentation Workflow

A reminder to all residents that when completing your primary provider note in Epic, you must click the box requiring a co-signature.

Once the note has been assigned to the attending, sign your note (unless specifically asked not to by the attending. This workflow ensures that notes can be signed in a timely manner by attending.

If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to the chiefs!

From Cornell Leadership: Morning Report

When working weekdays at Cornell, it is very important that you are back in the ED after morning report NO LATER than 9:05am. Residents must be present for morning huddle back in the bays.

This is especially important when coming from the SIM center on the 10th floor; please account for transit time and don’t dally. Just get back to the department, huddle, get caught up on patients, then go grab a coffee/breakfast after that. Faculty have also been reminded to make sure sessions end on time.

Thanks for your attention to this!

From Dr. Tony Dajer: Bounceback Review

From Dr. Manish Garg: EM/IM Signout in Cornell Epic

Dear EM family,

As part of the admission process for Cornell EM/IM sign out, please make sure to read the following workflow. The Qualtrics attestation is present once you have completed the review.

https://weillcornell.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eEffZK8LAlmzd6B

We graciously ask for 100% compliance. If it happens that you miss this clinically, we will try to reach out individually to remind you.

We appreciate your hard work and care.

Thank you sincerely,

Manish

From Dr. Phil Perera: CT-RAP

I am starting up an abdominal pain research study at Cornell in the next months named CT-RAP, or CT imaging in the regional assessment of acute abdominal pain. Doing the IRB now. This would be the second phase prospective study. A first phase retrospective study was completed at Stanford with 800 patients with data being analyzed now.

Would love to have some interested (and faculty) residents on this study.

My research question is which patients (not peds, not pregnant woman) with acute abdominal pain presenting to the ED need an imaging study (CT or ultrasound).

If interested, please email pererap@med.cornell.edu to learn more!

MCB Message of the Month