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Showing posts from June, 2019

Cyber Safety at MedStar

In light of the recent news about the City of Baltimore's malware attack and the current initiative at MedStar Health around phishing, it seemed important to share some simple, smart steps that you can take to protect your computer.

Here are three cyber-hygiene best practices from MedStar Health IS:
  • Do not turn off your computer before leaving work. Desktops and docked laptops should be locked, but not shut down. This allows important software updates to occur while you are away.
  • Always log out of the Office portal. Our upgrade to Office 365 allows secure access to email and documents anywhere, at any time using a two-step verification process. However, once you log in, you must be mindful to manually log out of the portal if you are working on a public or shared device.
  • If you step away, lock or log off. An unattended logged-in computer can expose patient or sensitive information or allow unauthorized access to MedStar systems. Every time you step away, eliminate the opportunity for anyone to commit harm or misuse.
These tips go hand in hand with our systemwide focus on avoiding phishing email scams designed to trick you into clicking on a malicious link or attachment, and/or revealing your network password. Verify every sender before you click and report all suspicious email to spam@medstar.net.

Thank you for recognizing your vital role in keeping information, systems and devices safe.

Summer Research Students

Every summer, MedStar & MHRI is pleased to partner with Georgetown University to bring on medical students, between their first and second year of medical school, to collaborate with our researchers for eight weeks over the summer.

Each summer student is paired with a mentor who will guide them through the research project. We hope that this experience engages students to continue with research as they grow in their medical careers.

We hosted the summer students at our offices for their official orientation. Jamie Padmore, vice president of Academic Affairs at MedStar Health, and Munish Goyal, MD, who directs the summer student research initiative, welcomed the students, while our human resources team guided them through the on-boarding process.

We are excited to have so many Georgetown medical students this year (a record number!) and know they will have a great, educational and fulfilling summer gaining great reseach experience across the MedStar system!  We wish them the best for their summer and I can’t wait to see their research at the Capstone presentation later this year.



MHRI Service Award Luncheon

Each year we recognize associates who are celebrating milestone years of service to MedStar Health and the MedStar Health Research Institute. 

On Thursday, we showed our appreciation by hosting a luncheon to present awards to our associates and celebrate with each other. We joined the festivities with other MedStar Diversified entities. In all, there were 115 team members celebrating 1240 years of combined experience at MedStar Health.  Anniversary milestones range from 5 to 35 years of service.

In addition to balloons and music, there was a fun photo-booth.  Here is a pic from some of the MHRI associates who were receiving an award:




Congratulations to all of our service award recipients and thank you for your commitment to MedStar!



 



What a day!

Below is my monthly message for the June 2019 edition of the MHRI newsletter, Focus. You can view Focus online at MedStarResearch.org/FOCUS.


Dear Friends and Colleagues,


I’m writing this message on the heels of our most successful Research Symposium to date! We had over 1,000 MedStar-Georgetown associates, presenting more than 400 research studies, preceded by 8 pre-Symposium educational workshops and our 3rd system-wide resident research day (highlighted by 6 oral presentations from the highest rated resident abstracts). And all of that was kicked off by the inaugural partnership with Georgetown University, across research and educational domains, with a very successful Georgetown CENTILE Colloquium for Educators in the Health Professions. 


So those are the facts. I tend to be a very analytic person obsessed with data. However, words and data don’t begin to express the feeling in the room. Others, who were kind enough to send me an email, are better at expressing the feelings:
  • A++++++ event
  • Bravo! I am so proud to be at MedStar!
  • Awesome! Highlight of the year. Period!
  • What an absolutely boffo and wonderful Research Symposium.
  • There could not have been a better demonstration of the power of multiplying academic prowess with a real-life clinical healthcare machine.
  • It’s my new favorite MedStar event of the year!
  • These residents and fellows are so impressive. The quality of the research is phenomenal.
  • This is too good – I need to bring the rest of my department next year.

Yes, we want you to bring your colleagues and be ambassadors for academics across MedStar Health. Together, with our academic partners at Georgetown, we are building a world class Academic Health System that will lead the next generation of academic medicine and this Symposium brings us one step closer. Thanks to all who attended and made it possible.

And if these words don’t give you the feel, please take a look at #MedStarGTsymposium19 on Twitter or scan some pictures from the Research Symposium on my latest blog post here.

I hope you came away from the event as energized as I am with a renewed commitment to our vision of advancing health through research, education, and innovation!


Neil

Read Focus at MedStarResearch.org/FOCUS.