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Showing posts from July, 2016

New MedStar Ambulatory Center Open!

While it’s always great to hear about the expansion of MedStar ambulatory services into more neighborhoods, it’s even more exciting when it has dedicated space for research and MHRI. That's right - in the new Hyattsville ambulatory site (with PromptCare, MedStar Medical Group and MedStar National Rehabilitation Network), there is dedicated space to integrate research into the ambulatory environment. It’s great to have research expanding directly into our communities and touching the lives of those who live just around the corner.

The offices just opened officially and will be getting more and more activities over the coming weeks. I look forward to our future research projects there.







Art Gala for HIV Hope

I’ve written about our HIV H.O.P.E program before, but it’s great to bring it back to the front of our minds when I hear about an associate who is impacting the community. The treatment navigator associated with the program, Antonio Pineda, has organized a great community event as a result of the work that he is part of at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

As part of the HIV H.O.P.E program, Mr. Pineda oversees the community support group, which includes an expressive art and dance therapy. Out of this, he has organized an Art Therapy cocktail party, which will include a gallery of work created by the members of the support group.

If you would like to attend the event, details are below. This is a great initiative being lead by MHRI associates.

Art Therapy Cocktail Party
Saturday, August 6
7:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Gala Hispanic Theatre
3333 14th St., NW Washington

Please RSVP to cortlen.h.yarbrough@medstar.net
 

MHRI Managers Meeting July 016



Every 3 months, managers from across MHRI come together for an MHRI Quartlerly Managers Meeting to share information, work on organizational wide initiatives and share in professional development. Last Thursday we had our Summer 2016 meeting and focused our attention on how to create an organization where everyone is empowered to speak up and contribute to making MHRI a more effective, efficient and better place to work. Essentially, it is applying HRO (high reliability organizational) principles of speaking up to organizational structure and culture.

To lead us, we had a dynamic guest speaker Kathy Pearson.

Kathy led us through a discussion of 'why good strategies fail' and how the people setting strategy are often not the people who have to carry out the work. She showed us why we need to include everyone in new initiatives and solicate advice from each associate even when the news is bad. In fact, one of the things that sticks with me is her finding that a mark of a successful company is one in which anyone can give the boss bad news and where any associate can ask any question anytime.

It was a great discussion. The MHRI management team is digesting this information and going to look at ways to influence the culture to create a place that engages each associate to speak up. 

2016 CERSI Scholars Annouced!

I’ve written in previous posts about my involvement with the Georgetown University Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI). This spring, MHRI agreed to co-sponsor a “CERSI Scholars” program, to engage early career researchers and help to train them in regulatory science. Last week, we awarded 10 CERSI Scholars!

The CERSI Scholars program is a joint endeavor of MedStar Health Research Institute and Georgetown University Medical Center. Awards were given to early career investigators who are committed to public health and are actively pursuing research, education, or training in regulatory science.

It’s so great to see the names of the MedStar Health associates as recipients of 5 awards; these individuals are working in various ways to improve public health through regulatory science research efforts.

  • Zach Hettinger, MD, MS, National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, MedStar Health
  • Jennifer Purks, Clinical Trials Manager, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital / Huntington Disease Care, Education, and Research Center, GUMC
  • Erica Savage, Project Manager, National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, MedStar Health
  • Rebecca Torguson, Director, MedStar Cardiovascular Research Network, MedStar Health
You can read about all 10 scholars on the CERSI website. Congratulations to the recipients! 

If you’re interested in learning more about the CERSI Scholars program, or regulatory science in general, feel free to contact Erin Wilhelm (eew6@georgetown.edu) who serves as the Executive Director of the program. Erin will be happy to meet with you and answer any questions you may have.

Sports Physicals

As some of you may know, my son loves playing baseball.  He just came back from Pound, Virginia (yea....  look it up... it is as far away as you can get and still be in Virginia) where he played on the Alexandria team in the state Little League all-stars. 

As part of starting high school this fall, he is gearing up to take part in school sports and, as with many of you, the paperwork has already begun - that's right, the requirement for a medical clearance.

I was thrilled to see that the MedStar Sports Medicine team has opened their doors to conducting pre-participation sports physicals for students who may be taking part in fall sports. It's so great that the official medical team of the Baltimore Ravens, Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards, and U.S. Lacrosse is MedStar Health. They are also the official sports medicine and orthopedic team for the Baltimore Orioles.  This expert team is now available to take care of MedStar associates and their families.


You can learn more about the physicals on this flyer or on the website

300th Post!

 When I started this blog in 2013, I never thought that we would pass 50,000 lifetime page views without my even noticing! And in the three years that I've been writing, my last post was my 300th!

With technology, you can also see some other great statistics:

  • Over 1,000 page views per month
  • Over 150 subscribers to the email notifications
  • As expected, most folks are viewing from the DC-VA-MD area
  • 60% of users view the blog on Chrome and 13% are view it on a mobile device

I look forward to sharing more great things with you this year! 

A Good Dog Story

Many of you who read this blog regularly have followed my own personal dog story and have watch Finn arrive and grow up from a puppy to "60 pounds in 6 months."  Well Finn just recently celebrated his first birthday (and has settled out at just over 70 pounds). Here is a picture of him sitting like he owns the world with his 'Christmas hat' this morning. 



However, that is not the 'good dog story' I was watching today and want to share. 

This story is from MedStar Washington Hosp Center and was featured on the national news. It's a heart warming story about therapeutic dogs being brought into the intensive care unit to help make patients feel better. Here is the link (http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/meet-the-dogs-helping-patients-bounce-back-from-intensive-care-719861827717).  Believe me, no matter what your mood is right now, you will feel better after watching it.

Everyone loves a good dog story. 

Honoring and Celebrating Independence Day

MHRI celebrates the freedom and independence of all Americans. We honor the men and women who served and continue to serve our country to preserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

As the family in this picture is doing, we hope you all have a great holiday weekend and enjoy the time with your family and friends.