Issue 82, February 2025

In the words of Lucian De Crescenzo: "We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another."

I frequently get asked what brought me to WashU Medicine. My answer is simple: the opportunity to link two things that have always driven me - educational innovation and disparities in health outcomes and access - with a goal of progressively improving care for all people. And that is true. Full Excerpt.

Congratulations to Tyler Fraum, MD and Fahd Ahmad, MD, MSCI, for being selected as Loeb Teaching Fellows for the 2025-2027 term. Fraum's (far left) project is called Promoting Active Learning for Trainees in Radiologic Physics: Development of a Case-based, Clinically Relevant Curriculum. Ahmad's (left) project is called Implementation of a Financial Well-Being Curriculum to Reduce Burnout and Increase Career Satisfaction in Pediatricians. A full announcement can be found here. 

Patrick Aguilar, MD, MBA, joins Dr. Linda Wu as the new Innovation Pathway Co-Lead. Aguilar is Managing Director of Health at Olin Business School. Previously, he served as the inaugural leader for the Innovation Pathway for EXPLORE as well as leader of the consolidated MD/MBA program. He also maintains a clinical practice in pulmonary medicine at WashU. To meet with Dr. Aguilar, please email explore@wustl.edu or paguilar@wustl.edu. Full article here. 

Workday Student goes live Monday, February 17 for Fall 2025 course registration and other academic tasks. Student support staff, faculty directors, and students should be receiving email communications within the next two weeks with additional information. Audience-specific information is available on sunrise.washu.edu under the Go-Live Year section. Please stay tuned to messages from your specific program as we enter this period of transition.

The Division of Biology & Biomedical Studies (DBBS) welcomes the WashU Medicine community to attend DBBS trainee thesis defenses. Defenses happen throughout the year, so keep an eye on our new Thesis Defenses page and plan to attend an upcoming defense. Join us as we celebrate DBBS trainees accomplishing this significant milestone!

Qualitative Research Methods for Education Scholarship
Application Deadline: Sunday, March 2, 2025, 11:59PM
View Dates, Learn More & Apply Here
This virtual certificate course will provide in-depth work in qualitative research methods. Scholars will develop their own qualitative studies, for research, program evaluation, or other education scholarship. Questions: academyofeducators@wustl.edu. A MERU collaboration.

Small Grants Program
Application Deadline: Sunday, March 30, 2025, 11:59PM
Learn More & Apply Here
Projects must be focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning, rather than biomedical discovery or application. Proposals may originate from any unit within the School of Medicine. The principal investigator must be a WashU Medicine faculty member. Grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded based on a competitive review process. Questions: Contact MERU. A MERU collaboration.

Date: February 10-14
Location: Virtual, Danforth and Medical Campuses
More Information
Celebrate all things data with a week of presentations and workshops presented by Bernard Becker Medical Library, WashU Libraries, Office of the Provost, Digital Intelligence & Innovation Accelerator and the Institute for Informatics, Data Science & Biostatistics. All are welcome.

Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 11:30AM-1:00PM
Location: FLTC, location will be sent upon registration
Register Here | More Information
Learn how to recognize different manifestations of grief in health profession trainees, develop an approach to supporting a trainee experiencing grief using the TEARS framework, and explore changes to improve support for trainees experiencing grief.

Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 11:00AM-5:00PM
Location: EPNEC
Register Here | More Information
Join us for the I2DB Annual Scientific Symposium. This year’s event will feature a keynote address by Miguel Hernán, MD, DrPH Professor and Director of CAUSALab at Harvard University, focusing on formulating well-defined questions for actionable causal inference and recognizing the complementarity of randomized and observational studies. The symposium will include research presentations and networking with leading experts in the field.

View details & register for all events here.
AI for Educators Series
Date/Time: AI-Enhanced Simulations Transforming MedEd: Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 1:00-2:30PM / Generative AI Policy & Ethics at WashU: Monday, March 3, 2025, 1:00-2:30PM
Location: FLTC Room 205

Ready, Set, Mentor! Interprofessional Speed Mentoring Luncheon
Date/Time: Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 12:00PM
Location: In-Person (Calendar invite sent with location)

Mind the Mindset: Promoting Our Own Growth Mindset
Date/Time: Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 2:00-3:30PM
Location: Virtual

Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 12:00-1PM
Location: FLTC Room 204 | RSVP here (Lunch provided)
The Master of Population Health Sciences (MPHS) degree prepares public health leaders with the skills and knowledge needed to impact health outcomes for patient populations. Students explore key public health issues in epidemiology, biostatistics, clinical effectiveness, and outcome research. The dual MD/MPHS provides medical students with an opportunity to add clinical research methods training to their medical school experience, learning from our highly ranked faculty while maximizing your research productivity by using your current, ongoing research projects for course assignments. With no thesis requirement, the MPHS degree can be obtained in as few as 10 months, with part-time study options available. Learn about PHS master's and certificate programs here. Questions: mphs@wustl.edu

Date: March 19, 2025, 6:00PM | Submission deadline Jan. 24, 2025
Location: Clark-Fox Forum, Hillman Hall, Danforth Campus
Details and submission link here
WashU medical students, occupational therapy and physical therapy students, residents, fellows, and faculty are invited to the third annual In Our Words event, where visual artwork and personal stories are submitted and recited live. The 2025 theme is “Identity."

Date/Time: Friday, March 21, 2025, 11:00AM-12:30PM
Location: Virtual or EPNEC Seminar Rooms A & B | Information here
The Class of 2025 and their guests will gather on the 1st floor of EPNEC in the Great Rooms and Auditorium. The entire WashU Medicine community is invited to join virtually via the livestream link. There will also be an in-person viewing location on the 2nd floor of the Eric P. Newman Education Center in Seminar Rooms A & B.

WashU Medicine's OT, PT, Medical, Audiology, and Graduate students have successfully advocated for the elimination of single-use plastic water bottles on campus. We are one of the first medical campuses to make this important change. This movement was supported by over 500 signatures, most of which were students. After careful research, the University partnered with a local distributor to offer recyclable aluminum water bottles. This transition will occur in February 2025! Thank you to all of the students, faculty, and staff that supported this mission, a step towards a more sustainable campus. At the medical campus, the Climate Action Working Group’s Waste Subcommittee meets monthly, and welcomes students, staff, and faculty who would be interested in leading or contributing to future initiatives. Please contact OT student Tyler Hood for more information. Learn more about sustainability initiatives here.

In honor of Healthcare Continuing Education Professionals Day (January 24th), we'd like to spotlight some of our own CME team's recent accomplishments. Over the past two years, our CME team has earned Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education with Commendation, accredited 673 continuing education activities involving 184,016 healthcare professional interactions, secured over $2.8M in funding through educational grants, exhibit fees, registrations, and Foundation support, and achieved 96% participant satisfaction. CME has also expanded our accreditation services to support CE at Missouri Baptist Medical Center and for pharmacists in our community, filling gaps left by other institutions, and streamlined compliance with new Illinois and DEA education requirements for School of Medicine clinicians. Finally, our CME team has implemented new ABS and ABTS reporting processes to support our surgeons’ board certification compliance. Job well done CME! 

Cassandra Fritz, MD, MPHS was featured as part of a series of interviews with the 2025 recipients of the ACGME Awards. Fritz spoke about the internal medicine residency’s efforts to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Fritz will be honored at the 2025 ACGME Annual Educational Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The internal medicine residency program will also be recognized with the 2025 Barbara Ross-Lee, DO Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. Full interview can be found here. 

Congratulations to Erin Foster, PhD, OTD, OTR/L who will receive the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA’s) Roster of Fellows Award at AOTA’s Inspire 2025 Annual Conference & Expo. The Roster of Fellows recognizes occupational therapists who through their knowledge, expertise, leadership, advocacy, and/or guidance have made a significant contribution over time to the profession with a measured impact on consumers of occupational therapy services and/or members of the Association. Foster is being recognized for “advancing science and practice supporting functional cognition.” Full Article here.  

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