AWAEM Awareness Sept/Oct

September-October, 2011

AWAEMAWARENESS

A bimonthly update to inform you of the current activities of our Academy in an effort to make this organization a strong advocate for women in academic emergency medicine.

Table of Contents Getting Ready for Chicago - AWAEM’s Didactic Proposals

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A Lunch Among Friends - More Pearls from the AWAEM Luncheon

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Featured Women in Academic EM

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Book Highlight - The Shallows

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Available Committees

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We want to hear from you!

Please send your comments and feedback to AWAEMNews@gmail.com.

We hope to continue our services of communication to you during the downtime necessary for improvements to the main SAEM and Academy websites.

Any questions or comments sent to this address will be forwarded to your leaders for response.

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AWAEM AWARENESS September-October, 2011

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"Fortunately for serious minds, a bias recognized is a bias sterilized.

-Benjamin Haydon."

Getting Ready for Chicago AWAEM’s Didactic Proposals for SAEM 2012

By Leila Getto, MD and Stacey Poznanski, DO

The Meeting Initiatives Committee has prepared and submitted two fantastic didactic proposals for the 2012 SAEM Annual Meeting. Led by Alyson McGregor, committee members Esther Choo, Preeti Jois, Basmah Safdar, Julie Welch, and Jeannette Wolfe have worked tirelessly to produce didactics that include fascinating content and cutting edge format, and we are all excited for the final product. See below for a sneak peak of their diligent efforts....

The goal of the proposed didactic, entitled 2012 Updates in Gender-Specific Emergency Care, is “to enhance the knowledge and tools emergency care physicians need to learn how physiologic differences between men and women impact their care in the emergency department setting.” The hour-long didactic has been submitted to the “State of the Art” category and will be conducted in a Pecha-Kucha format, a relatively new lecture style that originated in Japan and is being utilized with increasing frequency across the globe.

The Pecha-Kucha (pronounced (peh-chak-cha) style follows a format of 20 slides, for 20 seconds each, automatically timed, giving a total talk time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. It can cover any topic, and allows for the dissemination of information in a concise, high-yield and rapid fashion, perfect for our EM brains. In a given hour, more topics can be covered and the audience’s attention is held with its fast-moving pace. In this manner, 8 different speakers will cover a topic pertaining to gender-specific care over the course of the hour. Proposed speakers for this talk include Alyson McGregor, Basmah Safdar, Esther Choo, Roxanne Vrees and Neha Raukar. Check out

this website for more on the Pecha-Kucha phenomenon (http://www.pecha-kucha.org).

The mission of the second proposed didactic, entitled Floodlighting the Hidden Threat of Unconscious Bias, is to present the fascinating research exposing the impact of unconscious bias in hiring and advancing faculty, identify impediments to achieving gender diversity in academic emergency medicine, and provide effective techniques to address and reduce unconscious bias. This proposal was submitted into the “Career Development” category and the format will include a 30 minute lecture followed by a panel discussion using case studies. The proposed moderator for this talk is Jeannette Wolfe, with proposed panel members Sandra Schneider, Brian Zink, Stephanie Abbuhl and Leon Haley.

We are hopeful that these submissions will be accepted for the Annual Meeting in Chicago this Spring. In addition to the above, look out for other great offerings to our members, including the Annual Luncheon, Business Meeting, and other exciting learning and networking opportunities.

Thank you all for your hard work and for representing AWAEM well!

AWAEM AWARENESS September-October, 2011

A Lunch Among Friends More Pearls from the AWAEM Luncheon

By Sue Watts, PhD

Members from around the country met on June 4th at the 2011 SAEM Meeting in Boston for a fabulous lunch full of lively discussion on some of today’s hottest topics for women in Academic Emergency Medicine. The experience level ranged from Residents to Chairmen (or should I say Chair Women?) and all were intermixed at eight round tables.

Each table covered a preselected topic, and we are bringing you the highlights!

Below you will find the key points and lessons learned from the two tables that discussed the important topic of Negotiating! This is our final article from the luncheon. We hope you have enjoyed all the wonderful pearls of wisdom.

Till next year...

Kate Heilpern (Leader) • You need clarity of vision

• Book ‘Negotiation Genius’ is helpful Do your homework; know your audience •

Tracy Sanson (Leader) • What is negotiable?

• Everything: money, time, position, …

• Helpful resources: • http://www.axialent.com/resource_center; Fred Kaufman: Conscious Business • “Hardball for Women “ • “Be Heard the First Time” • “Women Don’t Ask” • Getting started • Paint the vision • What would it take to get to the vision?

• It is hard to ask but the people who get stuff are the people asking • Women don’t ask enough • Often start from a weak position • Do we value ourselves enough?

• Everyone wants recognition for what they contribute • Waiting for recognition is gender specific • Learn how to brag; be able to say what value do you bring • “imposter syndrome”: accomplished women often have the feeling that they are imposters and they do not belong where they are and they don’t deserve what they have accomplished through their own talent and hard work. Accomplished men are less likely to have these feelings.

• Learn to use your resources; women find this difficult • Keep your peers/bosses apprised of your accomplishments • Come to the table with a solution to your problem

• Identify area(s) of mis-match • Where is the institution? What is the “culture”?

• What is the currency of your institution?

• NIH funding? Teaching?

• Listen to understand • Ask directly for what you want; practice “power talking” • Negotiate for principles first, then for yourself.

• What are you willing to walk away from?

• Negotiations don’t end • You can always go back and ask for more.

• Everything is negotiable….but you don’t need to negotiate everything.

• It is important to get the results of your negotiations in writing.

• Silence is powerful.

• Next steps • Reassess the vision if you don’t get ‘you’ • Yes..’but’ • Why? When? Make your expectations clear • Bottom line • Never compromise your integrity • Know what your ‘walk away’ plan is • Identify your BATNA =’best alternative to negotiated agreement’

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“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But, let us never fear to negotiate.”

- John F

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Kennedy

AWAEM AWARENESS September-October, 2011

Featured Women in Academic EM Lala Dunbar MD

By Esther Choo, MD

In each issue of the AWAEM newsletter this year, we will profile women in academic emergency medicine who inspire us, whether through scholarly work, leadership, mentorship and support of other women, modeling of work-life balance, or service in SAEM and other national EM organizations.

Faculty Profile: In Memorium.

AWAEM mourns the loss of Lala Dunbar, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Section of Emergency Medicine at LSU School of Medicine, mother of three, and grandmother of five, who passed away in August after a battle with colon cancer.

Dr. Dunbar graduated from George Washington School of Medicine in 1978 and completed residency at Washington Hospital Center. She began her academic life at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC) in 1984 and remained on faculty there for over 25 years.

Throughout her time there, she was an active researcher, conducting numerous studies in the areas of infectious disease and cardiovascular health. Further, as Research Director, she enthusiastically guided and encouraged the research activities of countless other faculty and residents.

In addition, she was a highly respected clinician and clinical educator and a much sought-after mentor to students and other trainees. Dr. Dunbar was one of the physicians who remained at Charity Hospital for days after Hurricane Katrina, caring for patients and continuing her research work. She was active in many hospital committees and regional and national organizations, including ACEP, ACP, AAWEP, and SAEM. Somehow, Dr. Dunbar also found time to help organize annual trips to Central America to provide health care, including medicines and basic surgeries, to needy populations through a traveling medical clinic.

With tireless efforts in every aspect of our practice, Dr. Dunbar was truly an outstanding woman in academic emergency medicine.

Some information obtained via her LSU Faculty Profile, located at: http://www.medschool.lsuhsc.edu/ internal_medicine/faculty_detail.aspx?name=dunbar_lala

“I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”

- Abraham Lincoln

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Book Review: The Shallows - By Nicholas Carr What the Internet is Doing to our Brains Review by Gloria Kuhn, DO

First let me say, “I love the internet”. I am one of the generations of people that lived before the internet (BI) and after the internet (AI) and I think life is better because of the internet. If I had had the power I would have nominated the creators of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin for a Nobel Prize. So why am I suggesting that you need to read the book

by Nicholas Carr who is not a fan of the internet? For three reasons, 1) the book asks some disturbing questions about what the internet is doing to our brains, 2) it is well researched and all of Carr’s criticisms of the internet are based on well conducted research and, 3) the book is fascinating. It is simply a great read.

The book is loaded with troubling information. Some of the many allegations: the internet is changing our brains and shortening our attention span, we can no longer concentrate as well as we had in the past, multitasking is a myth and results in superficial learning.

What he is saying is pretty hard to believe, but all of it is based on scientific studies and he has the references to prove his allegations. The reason the internet can actually change our brains is that the brain is “plastic.” The brain changes as a result of our actions and PET scans are showing just how the brain reacts over time to what we do. Hence, the more time we spend in front of a computer on the internet, the more our brains respond to this activity and change both anatomically and physiologically to accommodate us. In a way, you could argue that nature has made the brain a perfect organ, one that learns to accommodate our needs. But what if the brain mistakenly believes that we no longer need to concentrate and reflect? What if, after awhile, we no longer have a long attention span and can no longer concentrate?

Carr believes that the Internet is a medium based on interruption — and it's changing the way that people read and process information. This is shortening our attention span and that shortening is carrying over to other activities which have nothing to do with the internet. Carr states that the “the more time we spend surfing, and skimming, and scanning ... the more adept we become at that mode of thinking." The book cites many studies that indicate that online reading yields lower comprehension than reading from a printed page. Studies have shown that people tend to skim while they read online and truncate the movement of their eyes so that they do not even read what is in the lower right hand corner of the computer screen. He goes on to argue that even if people get better at hopping from page to page, they will still be losing their abilities to employ a "slower, more contemplative mode of thought."

This mode of thought is the very type of thinking that people need to do if they are to engage in the deep learning which is necessary to become experts in an area or to be able to solve complex problems as a result of learning.

“The contemplative mind is overwhelmed by the noisy world’s mechanical busyness...There needs to be time for efficient data collection and time for inefficient contemplation, time to operate the machine and time to sit idly in the garden.”

Another area of concern is our belief that we can train ourselves to multitask. Scientists who have studied multitasking feel that this belief is a myth. One neuroscientist has even gone so far as to state that when we multitask during studying our learning can be “nothing more than superficial.” That is a particularly bitter pill to swallow for those of us practicing emergency medicine, because our whole mode of work is based on the belief that we can multitask, and train our residents to multitask, without making mistakes or forgetting some information each time we are interrupted.

So, is the internet taking us back to our natural state of mind? Before books, did we indeed have a very short attention span? Let’s listen to Carr who claims that the internet simply returns us to our "natural state of distractedness” which was the state we were in before the widespread availability of books encouraged us to learn to concentrate. In his book Carr writes, “Human ancestors had to stay alert and shift their attention all the time; cavemen who got too wrapped up in their cave paintings just didn't survive.” He goes on, “The distractions in our lives have been proliferating for a long time, but never has there been a medium that, like the Net, has been programmed to so widely scatter our attention and to do it so insistently.”

If you read the book you will be able to follow the progress of the internets “assault on our brains.” And, you will be able to decide, after reading the book, if you still love the internet as I still do.

Our Book Review section features interesting books recommended by one of our members. This issue’s selection was provided by Gloria Kuhn, DO.

AWAEM AWARENESS September-October, 2011

Available Committees for 2011-2012 Time to get involved!

If you are interested in helping with any of these committees, as a member or possibly leadership role, please e-mail the Chair so you can be included. If you do not hear from the Chair within a week (or no Chair is listed) please contact Stephanie Abbuhl (stephane.abbuhl@uphs.upenn.edu) as sometimes messages do get lost in the cyberspace of e-mail land.

Membership Chair: Neha Raukar nraukar@gmail.com Co-Chair: Tracy Sanson

AWAEM Guidelines & Policies Chair: Gloria Kuhn gkuhn@med.wayne.edu Co-Chairs: Esther Choo, Sue Watts Awards Chair: Kinjal Sethuraman kinjal.sethuraman@gmail.com Mentor: Michelle Biros biros001@umn.edu E-Communications Chair: Stacey Poznanski stacey.poznanski@gmail.com Co-Chair: Leila Getto Mentor: Gloria Kuhn Medical School Initiatives Chair: Preeti Jois preetijois@ufl.edu Co-Chair: Keme Carter Mentor: Bob Hockberger

Regional Mentoring Chair: Linda Druelinger ldruelin@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu Mentor: Kerry Broderick Research Chair: Marna Greenberg: mrgdo@ptd.net Co-Chairs: Esther Choo, Julie Welch

SAEM Meeting Initiatives Chair: Alyson McGregor amcgregormd@gmail.com Co-Chairs: Esther Choo, Preeti Jois, Basmah Safdar, Julie Welch, Jeannette Wolfe AWAEM Development Chair: Maybe You?

“I’m a woman of very few words, but lots of action.”

Mae West

Many Photos found via Google Images. For a list of Photo Credits, please contact Stacey Poznanski, DO at stacey.poznanski@gmail.com

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