D epartment
of
M edicine
Con ne c ti ng T e c h n o lo g y , Ed uca t i o n a n d D i s cove ry w ith H um anis m in Me dicine
Vol. 9 Issue 3 Jul. 2020
Online Education
The recent events with COVID-19 and social distancing had our Internal Medicine department seeking creative online solutions to continue didactics and education for residents. Beginning in midMarch, Tennessee’s governor issued a “Safer At Home” order with advisories to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. In accordance with this order, all in-person resident didactics were cancelled. Creativity and resourcefulness at the hands of a team of residents, faculty, and staff ensured that residents continued their education despite these changes. Many faculty members have given their specialty-specific lectures over Zoom. Resident presentations, such as clinic conference, clinical pathology conference, and morning report, have also been utilizing Zoom. The normally interactive sessions now include questions asked both verbally and via a chat box, with efforts made to communicate that questions and concerns are still welcome and thoroughly answered. “I think the primary benefit of online content is that it gives people the chance to access our material from remote sites,” states Dr.
Mark Rasnake. “It also provides a means to archive content so that residents can access materials they would have otherwise missed due to occasional conflicting responsibilities during conference times.” Quiz Bowl, a beloved resident activity modelled on Jeopardy, was also moved online to include Zoom and the phone application Kahoot, an online group gaming platform. In contrast to the in-person, teambased game, residents answered 40 questions individually on their mobile phones and scores were automatically tallied by the Kahoot system. The top 4 winners were awarded Amazon gift cards via their resident mailboxes to comply with social-distancing guidelines. In cases where real-time, interactive platforms cannot be used or lecturers are unavailable, online resources are used to supplement resident learning. Faculty created PowerPoints, peer-reviewed journal articles, and lectures from the University of Louisville School of Medicine are posted on MedHub to allow residents the opportunity to continue their learning on their own time. continued on page 2
Points of View
Rajiv Dhand, MD, Chair
to the start of a new academic year with a great deal of enthusiasm and renewed energy. Several new opportunities will be available for our residents and fellows through the active collaboration of many services in the hospital and the Graduate School of Medicine. Plans are underway for a multidisciplinary ECMO program and a cellular therapy program that will provide advanced level of services, including bone marrow transplantation and CAR-T cell therapy, to our patients. A new program that I am particularly excited about in the next academic year is the Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) program for IM residents and pulmonary/critical care medicine fellows. This multi-phase training program will teach our trainees to acquire ultrasound images, interpret them accurately, and integrate their findings with the rest of the patient’s continued on page 2
The 2019-2020 academic year, especially the last couple of months, has been eventful due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am so grateful that everyone took this unprecedented challenge in stride. We were able to negotiate our way out of this crisis thanks to the adaptability of all the members of the department under these stressful circumstances. However, as a wise woman said, “Don’t look back ─ you’re not going that way.” Indeed, we are now looking forward 1