Congratulations to the Department of Emergency Medicine’s Dr. Casey Smolarz on becoming the first person to be re-elected as Chief of Staff for Baptist Health-Conway. Dr. Smolarz, Emergency Department Medical Director for the hospital, was also named Physician of the Year by the Conway Chamber of Commerce early this year. We’re proud of the difference Dr. Smolarz is making in patient care in the Conway community as well as here on the UAMS campus!
UAMS Emergency Medicine fellow Meredith Von Dohlen, M.D., has been selected for a competitive national education program that will advance her goals as an educator and scholar.
The Harvard Macy Institute Program for Post-Graduate Trainees: Future Academic Clinician-Educators Course uses teaching theory to help participants become better educators. It also focuses on scholarship so that Von Dohlen can conduct original research on improving methods for teaching in medical education. The three-day intensive interactive virtual program will be held in December and the program culminates in a research project on educational theory.
Von Dohlen is the Department of Emergency Medicine’s inaugural medical education fellow.
“I love teaching, so this is a great opportunity for me to further my teaching skills,” Von Dohlen said. “My scholarly interests are health care disparities and social determinants of health. My project will look at gender disparities in medical education and how our teaching approaches influence that – the way residents are taught, their teaching environment, etc. – and how these experiences influence their effectiveness as physicians. Ultimately, these issues influence health care outcomes.”
Von Dohlen said there is a lot of research on gender disparities in the workplace, especially when it comes to pay, promotion and leadership opportunities, but she is interested in pinpointing how disparities are being reinforced along the way through education.
“Are we doing things that are propagating that?” Von Dohlen said. “Are there areas that we could teach it a little differently? Can we improve our resident education to positively influence the quality of physician they become and the quality of the health care they provide?”
In addition to learning skills from the course, she is working with a mentor at UAMS to complete the scholarly project. Mentor Sarah Greenberger, M.D., is an associate professor and director for the residency program in the Department of Emergency Medicine.
“In our residency program we emphasize leadership, and we encourage our residents and fellows to become involved with efforts to improve health care on a larger scale,” Greenberger said. “Gender disparities in medicine persist, and we need to recognize and understand these inequities to address them. I am excited about Dr. Von Dohlen’s work and can’t wait to see where it leads.”
Von Dohlen is already working on her project and will present parts of it during the course in December for feedback from its facilitators and her peers across the county. The ultimate aim is to develop publishable work from the project.
The course fits in with Von Dohlen’s career goals of continuing in academic medicine.
“I get so much fulfillment from patient care, but also medical education,” Von Dohlen said. “Better doctors mean better patient care. That is something I am incredibly passionate about, and something I feel we can always do better to improve.”
The course is co-sponsored by the Harvard Macy Institute, MGH Institute of Health Professions, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Valerie Chism, D.N.P., M.N.Sc., APRN, from our department was featured on Faces of UAMS!
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Congratulations to Dr. Meryll Pampolina on receiving the Resident Rocks It! Award at ACEP 2018! This national award is given to a female resident who shows promise for significant career achievement and leadership in Emergency Medicine.
Congratulations to CPT Daniel Holleyman, M.D., for being the recipient of the 2018 EMRA Steve Tantama, MD, Military Excellence Award at ACEP 2018! This award honors residents who embody the ideals of leadership, integrity, and bravery in service to our nation and our specialty.
