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Showing posts from June, 2020

Safe Babies and Safe Moms

I, along with everyone at MedStar Health, are proud to announce that we have launched the D.C. Safe Babies and Safe Moms Initiative, due to a generous donation from the  A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation. 
 
Washington DC is a microcosm of the United States healthcare outcomes, including outcomes for mothers and their babies. For patients treated at in Washington DC the prevalence of stillborn deliveries and infant mortality overall is almost four times higher for African American mothers than white mothers.  
 
The DC. Safe Babies Safe Moms Initiative  is focused on proving holistic support for mothers and families, both during pregnancy and after the birth. The project is built on patient-centered, culturally competent care, including access to a comprehensive list of services. 
 
This work is a true team effort, with clinicians from MedStar Washington Hospital Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, along with data infrastructure support and scientists from MHRI. Our goal is to improve health of babies and moms today while creating knowledge and methods to deliver care to help generations of babies to come. We are also proud to be working alongside several community organizations to support this incredibly important work.  This program will help us address health inequities which will make a difference in the District and beyond!
 




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Welcome New Interns to MedStar Health

Guest Blogger:
Jamie Padmore, DM

VP Academic Affairs, MedStar Health
Sr. Associate Dean for Medical Education, Georgetown University Medical Center


For all of us in medical education, this is the most wonderful time of the year!  In the past week, we greeted our 300 new interns to MedStar Health.  And in the first time in my 30-year career history, it was done virtually on Zoom.  While COVID-19 has presented us with many challenges such as this, we have used these challenges to innovate and create new ways to connect, communicate, and educate.  For example, physicians and associates from around the system created a welcome video to express how excited we are to meet all of our new residents. It was so much fun to watch, and it was a great way to kick off orientation!

We also held our June GME Town Halls. You can watch the recording by accessing www.MedStarGME.net.
During the town halls, Dr. Evans and I both had the opportunity to discuss MedStar’s position on diversity and inclusion, as well as actions we are taking within our academic community to begin to change racial injustice and health disparities.  I committed to three immediate next steps:


  1. We will provide space and schedule forums for us to have reconciliation conversations together.  These conversations will provide us with opportunities to share, learn, and grow together. 
  2. I am charging our academic leadership to create working groups composed of residents, fellows, and faculty to discuss, inform, and make recommendations to me on actions we should take within our academic community, and within MedStar Health, to make tangible changes to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  3. We will move swiftly to create diversity and inclusion strategies for recruitment and selection of residents and clinical faculty, as stipulated by the ACGME in 2019.  I will provide resources and structure for our program directors and clinical leaders to develop these recruitment and selection strategies that can be implemented as early as this fall. 
These three steps are just a beginning.  In order for us to create actionable and sustainable change, we must all work together to share, listen, contribute, and develop additional steps forward.  I will use this weekly update to provide information on next steps and opportunities for each of you to contribute and participate. 

 
Together we can make a difference.  OneMedStar, OneGME, OneTeam. 

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JUNETEENTH

Guest Blogger:
Carlessia A. Hussein, RN, BS, MS, Dr.PH
Member of MHRI Board of Directors

June 19 commemorates the day that slaves in Texas learned in 1865 that they were free.  This was two years after the actual signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, that freed the slaves.  Slave owners in the south and elsewhere around the nation kept this information about freedom from the slaves.  In many ways, institutional and structural racism prevents or limits full implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation to this VERY DAY.

It is important, that all Americans, immigrants and visitors learn the true story of slavery, its continuation and the Proclamation signed to end it. Knowledge is power, each of us must RELEARN the facts and act on the platforms on which we work, live and play to fully free the descendants of the slaves.  Our nation's destiny is dependent on our actions. 

The link below shares the story the ’Tulsa Riot’ in 1921, where White citizens burned and destroyed a prosperous Black town.  It is one of many examples where the Emancipation Proclamation is rejected and local Whites punished Blacks for their hard work.  For the NEW LEARNER  on this subject, there are many instances where Black communities were destroyed by Whites.   

Please join me in this re-education and share with others who want to learn.

Dr. Carlessia A. Hussein  -   June 19  -  ‘Juneteenth'

 
 


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MedStar Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery Inaugural Research Symposium

As we continue to adapt to living with physical distancing, our community is re-creating our academic platform.  This morning (at 6 am, thank you very much!) I had the pleasure of joining the faculty, staff, residents and students in the MedStar Department of Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery for their inaugural virtual Research Symposium.


Despite the early hour, this was a vibrant symposium.  After opening remarks by Dr. Ken Fan, the scientific director for the department, we went into resident and research fellow presentations.  I was so impressed with the quality and quantity of research studies, from surgical techniques to the use of tele-health.  In many ways, this department's research exemplifies many of the concepts I described in my keynote lecture on becoming a world-class academic health system -  one in which our research is well connected to the health and well-being of our community.


Congratulations to all the presenters and the entire department!

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