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Showing posts from February, 2022

Wellness at MHRI

The MHRI Wellness Committee has provided an abundance of valuable resources and information to our associates this month. If the last two years have taught us anything, taking care of ourselves is critical to maintaining our health and wellness. I encourage you to share these resources with others and join us on our journey to staying healthy!

MHRI Wellness Experience Program

The MHRI Wellness Committee launched the MHRI Wellness Experience Program for leaders and associates. This program provides funding from MedStar Corporate Wellness for onsite and remote teams throughout the MedStar Health system to create their own wellness experiences.

Here are a few examples that teams can take advantage of:

We encourage you, our leaders and associates to take time to identify ways that we can promote wellness for ourselves and our coworkers. For questions, email MHRIWellness@medstar.net

MedStar Health Center for Wellbeing

The MedStar Health Center for Wellbeing (MCW) was launched to further develop and promote an innovative and supportive wellbeing culture that prioritizes optimal health, professional fulfillment, and quality of life for MedStar Health associates and providers. MedStar Health formally established the Center in November 2021 after years of successful foundational wellbeing activities that earned Joy in Medicine™ recognition from the American Medical Association (AMA).

The MedStar Health Center for Wellbeing strives to make a positive impact by supporting individuals and creating a culture of wellbeing. The team wants to fundamentally transform how associates cope with the stresses of working in health care, and support those who help others do so. The Center works to overcome healthcare associates’ hesitancy to seek care for themselves by driving meaningful engagement in and expansion of wellbeing initiatives and resources.

Learn More Here.

Free Meditation and Mental Health Resources

  • Smiling Mind offers mindfulness programs for adults, parents, healthcare workers and more
  • Soothing meditations and sleep meditations from Calm
  • Burnout and other support through the Medical Society of DC's Physician Health Program
  • Peer Support Line
  • COVID Coach: a government-developed, free mobile app, designed to provide resources and enhance emotional support during this pandemic. The app is private and secure, no email account or password is required, and user data are not collected. This app is intended for EVERYONE in the community and is available for iOS and Android.
  • MedStar Mind Body Medicine Meditation Series (Please note: You must be logged into the MedStar Health Network to access this resource on Starport)
  • Virtual wellness opportunities

A Checklist for Depression 

What's the difference between a bad case of the blues and the painful mental disorder known as depression? According to the experts, impaired functioning is usually a clear-cut indication of a major depression.

Here's a quick checklist of depression symptoms. If the list sounds familiar, you may want to see a counselor or a  psychiatrist.

  • Depressive Mood: Do you suffer from feelings of gloom, helplessness or pessimism for days at a time?
  • Sleep Disturbance: Do you have trouble falling asleep at night or trouble staying asleep, waking up in the middle of the night or too early in the morning? Are you sleeping too much?
  • Chronically fatigued: Do you frequently  feel tired or lack energy?
  • Isolation: Have you stopped meeting friends for lunch?  Increasing isolation and diminished interest or pleasure in activities  are a major signs of depression.
  • Appetite Disturbance: Are you eating far less than usual -- or far more? Severe and continuing appetite disturbance is often an indication of depression.
  • Inability to Concentrate: If you can't seem to focus on even routine tasks, it's probably time to get some help.
  • Dependence on Mood-Altering Substances: If you depend on alcohol or other drugs to make it through the day, you may be suffering from depression. Often the substance abuse causes symptoms that mimic the appearance of clinical depression, but are in fact due wholly to the drug use.
  • Feeling a sense of inappropriate guilt or worthlessness.
  • Recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation/attempt.

Expedited Mental Health Access

We recognize how important it is for you to take care of yourself, even as you are busy taking care of others. Through this initiative with the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry, MedStar Health providers and associates can establish contact with a mental health clinician within 1-2 business days of the initial call. The mental health clinician will identify the issues and either provide individual support immediately, or, if deemed helpful, will refer the associate to a mental health provider within Georgetown Psychiatry. Providers with expertise in adult, child, adolescent, and family mental health are available.

To set up an appointment, call 202-944-5400 and choose option 2. For urgent needs related to mental health access, please contact BHS at 866-765-3277. (Note BHS is the MedStar Health employee assistance program.)

Care for the Caregiver

Did you know that Care for the Caregiver support is not just for clinicians? And it’s not just for concerns related to work! The team provides free confidential 24/7 care to all associates and physicians system-wide.

  • Real time attention using a nonjudgmental presence, focusing on listening and  understanding
  • Informal debriefings, exploring the meaning of events and offering resiliency-building techniques
  • Information about additional services through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) or crisis intervention services for larger scale stress reduction

Call: 866-674-9355 (866-MSH-WELL)
Email: c4c@medstar.net

Wellness Associate Support & Resources

There are many resources available from MedStar Health, all listed at medstarhealth.org/wellbeing. For questions or concerns, please email MHRIWellness@medstar.net.

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MedStar Health Research Institute Awarded Research Grants From the Charles and Mary Latham Fund

I am proud to announce that MedStar Health Research Institute was awarded grant funding for four research initiatives through the Charles and Mary Latham Fund, established by Ella O. Latham to support medical research in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

The following MedStar Health physician-investigators were awarded funding for their research projects. We are MedStar Health proud of our investigators and the work they're doing to advance health through research.
  Investigator: Victoria Lai, MD, MS 
Research Project: Diving deep into the social factors that affect outcomes and quality of life in endocrine surgery patients: a qualitative study of patients and clinicians 
 
The purpose of this study is to identify the nuanced individual and contextual social factors that influence the quality of life of endocrine surgery patients living in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. Prior work in this patient population showed that many patients face social factors that negatively affect their quality of life and that Black patients are disproportionately affected by such factors. For this proposal, Dr. Lai will leverage and build on prior quantitative work and conduct a multi-level qualitative study that includes patients and clinicians to define the factors that affect medical care and quality of life.  
  
Investigator: Rachel K. Scott, MD, MPH 
Research Project: Advanced Placental Aging in Pregnancies of Women with HIV 
 
Pregnancies complicated by HIV have increased fetal and neonatal complications, such as growth restriction/small for gestational age and preterm delivery, with long-term detrimental impact on development. The impact of HIV on placental maturation remains unstudied, though premature aging may provide a mechanism of placental dysfunction associated with adverse fetal-neonatal outcomes. Understanding and potentially preventing complications for mothers and infants living with HIV is a foremost important public health priority.  
 
Investigator:  Leila Shobab, MD 
Research Project: Spatial Molecular Profiling of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer 
 
The goal of this project is to identify molecular mechanisms that regulate sex-bias in Differentiated Thyroid Cancer (DTC). Thyroid cancer has a strong sex-bias with 4 times higher incidence among women although men have more aggressive disease and higher mortality. The molecular basis for this observation is unknown. Current treatment is not specific to patient sex and is not effective in prolonging survival for 6-20% of patients who develop distant metastasis with majority becoming refractory to conventional treatment. There is a need for novel treatment strategies for advanced Differentiated Thyroid Cancer.
 
Investigator: Erin C. Hall, MD 
Research Project: Law Enforcement in the Emergency Department: on reAssessing Impact and Opportunities for Change Among Patients, Providers and Police 
 
In a national survey of trauma providers on the subject of law enforcement presence in the emergency room, a number of problematic law enforcement behaviors were reported including intrusion into patient care, questioning without allowing for consent or while incapacitated, overbroad searches and seizures, inappropriate disclosures of protected health information, and control of disclosures to family.  Each of these behaviors may have clinically important ramifications for our patients’ health, including the erosion of patient-provider trust, increased involvement in the criminal justice system, and increased risk for future violence. The focus of this proposal is to leverage MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s Community Violence Intervention Program (CVIP) and Georgetown Law Center’s Center for Innovation in Community Safety’s (CICS) history and relationships with victims of violence and the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to conduct a series of focus groups.                                                                                                                                                        

The Charles and Mary Latham Fund was established by Ella O. Latham in memory of her parents. Founded in 1972, the Fund has supported a myriad of worthwhile projects relating to medical research for the cure of diseases in the human body with a preference for clinical applications and medical, nursing, and hospital care for persons suffering from such diseases who are financially unable to provide their own care.


 

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Improving Heart Health and Reducing Health Disparities at MedStar Health

This week, we have passed a sad milestone of 900,000 lives lost to COVID-19.  This deadly pandemic continues to kill approximately 3,000 people per day in the United States (equal to a 9/11 casualty event every day!).  It’s a staggering number.

While we continue to work to understand and fight the devastating COVID-19 virus, including more than 200 active research studies happening across the MedStar Health system, an even larger killer remains at large. Heart disease.  Despite all our medical advances, heart disease remains the top cause of death in the U.S, accounting for about 1 in every 4 deaths according to the latest data from the American Heart Association.  And while heart disease can impact anyone, regardless of gender or race, statistics show that people of color disproportionately shoulder the burden of the worst outcomes. For example, according to CDC data, Black people are 30% more likely to die from heart disease than white people.  In Washington D.C., the death rate due to heart disease is more than 4x higher in Ward 8 than Ward 3.

The intersecting need to improve heart health and reduce health disparities are far reaching, beyond just the cardiac care unit.  For example, pregnancy related deaths, which are significantly higher among women of color, are most often due to cardiovascular disease (and other cerebro-vascular disorders like hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, cardiomyopathy, thrombotic pulmonary embolism or stroke).

As a cardiologist, it is therefore apropos that February is both American Heart Month and National Black History Month.  As an academic health system, MedStar Health is committed to research that helps us better understand, diagnose, and treat all forms of cardiovascular disease in all segments of our community, especially among groups who have the highest risk or need.  That starts with studies that address health disparities in our community to build health equity.
In this issue of FOCUS, you will learn about how MedStar Health investigators understand that the best way to connect our research to the community is to co-learn and co-develop the research with community members themselves, and thus, allowing for both participants and researchers to experience the greatest benefit. Additionally, you will find below some examples of how we are advancing health through research to fight heart disease and health disparities, including application of advanced analytics and machine learning, and creating knowledge from our own experiences (like the article from interventional cardiology on thrombosis in COVID-19). With the work of our investigators, to our clinicians helping patients manage their heart health, to our associates wearing red in support of the fight against heart disease. MedStar Health is tackling the #1 killer every day.

I hope you will join us in support of living a heart-healthy life, raising awareness about heart disease, and advocating for additional research in preventing, detecting, and treating cardiovascular conditions.

Stay well. Stay safe.  Live a heart healthy life!
 
Neil

You may view FOCUS articles online at MedStarHealth.org/blog.
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