Learning How to be a Better Clinical Teacher with Resident/Fellows from a Variety of Specialities

Blair Robinson, MD MPH

MGH Internal Medicine Residency
PGY1

The Clinical Educator Teaching Course allowed me to learn from other residents and fellows from a wide range of specialities. The course was lead by leaders in the education at Partners Healthcare who have a presence nation wide. Despite being such prominent instructors, they allowed the students in the course to come to their own conclusions through mostly a "flipped classroom" approach. 

MGH Medicine Residents and Fellows Learning from one another

From left to right Gabriel Bromberg,

Blair Robinson (me),

Meghan Lockwood, Stephanie Kiser,

Hawra Al-Lawati, and Dana Larsen

This style of teaching allowed the group to explore areas that were most pertinent to our work and educational goals. As a intern, just 4 months into residency, I found particular value in hearing about the challenges and solutions that upper level residents and fellows faced in creating a positive teaching environment that caters to all level of learners. No matter what the future holds for my career, I want to be a great clinical educator who is able to discover what makes learners tick and helps empower them to reach their goals. Taking this course as an intern set me on track to do just that. By giving me concrete strategies for sharing knowledge and feedback, this course gave me more confidence in approaching rotations where I will be teaching medical students. Over the next few years, as a junior and senior resident, teaching will compose a larger and larger portion of my clinical role and I'm excited to delve into those roles with a better sense of the evidence of how to be an effective teacher to adult learners. Given that teaching each other and learning from each other is such a large component of residency and fellowship training programs, it's important that trainees are exposed to courses like this during their training. More formal training on teaching and mentoring will also enhance the learning oriented culture in our training programs, which will have impacts on decades of trainees to come.

An introduction to evidence-based medical education

Xavier Guell Paradis
Internal Medicine 1yr-Neuro, MGH
PGY 1

view from the Charles/MGH subway station.
A few of us commuted from MGH to BWH to attend this seminar

I would like to encourage all medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty who are interested in improving their knowledge and skills regarding medical education to attend the COE CTS seminar. Hearing presentations by experts in the field and practicing short teaching scenarios with my colleagues allowed me to become aware of fundamental concepts that guide the research of medical education. I believe this short introduction to the science of broad topics such as feedback and types of trainee attitudes will be helpful for my trajectory as a resident, neurologist, and scientist – while obtaining deep knowledge about these issues was not within the scope of the session, knowing that there is a large and expanding body of science analyzing these concepts and being aware of some key fundamental aspects of this field will reorient my thinking when preparing for teaching sessions, interacting with trainees, and working as a resident with supervising faculty.

Clinical Teaching Skills Course Was Awesome!

Madhvi Deol

Radiology Resident, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
PGY3

The clinical teaching skills course was a great introduction to important concepts in upper level medical education. I am interested in working in education during my career and this course has given me a lot to think about.

It was enlightening to formally discuss how learning motivation can impact success rate.  While I intuitively realized that learning-orientation is beneficial, I didn’t realize how much it influences overall performance and happiness. In many ways, medical training encourages performance-orientation due to the emphasis on testing and evaluations.

Mock teaching sessions with feedback

I think it is important to shift medical education towards a more learning-oriented environment. For example, evaluations could be geared towards individual improvement

rather than a ranking system/comparison to peers. My feeling is that such a culture shift could have positive impact on medical students and residents in other ways as well. A more individually supportive culture would likely reduce burnout as well. 

The discussion about common challenges in clinical teaching was also helpful. In particular, I learned creative strategies on how to simultaneously teach residents at different training levels. As residents, we give several presentations to our cohort and I have always found it challenging to plan lectures that are educational to both junior and senior residents.  In particular, I liked the idea of have senior residents explain concepts to the more junior residents because this would keep each of the residents involved and would allow senior residents to practice their teaching skills.

For my own personal learning, several of the concepts in adult learning were also useful. I often find myself forgetting material I have learned and this feels very inefficient. I think I can approach my learning more systematically and hopefully have a positive impact. For example, after reading material, I will try to answer certain questions about the material, so that I am actively retrieving this information. I could also accumulate these question/answers and try to do the same process one week later and review concepts that I have forgotten.

 

I highly recommend this course. I gained practical tips for my day-to-day learning/teaching and gained food for thought regarding medical education in the broader context.

Attending the 2019 Connected Health Conference

Madhvi Deol

Resident in Diagnostic Radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
PGY3

I was pleased to receive a grant to attend the Connected Health Conference for the first time. The Connected Health Conference brought together people from various backgrounds including medicine, psychology, business, and engineering. It was eye-opening to see how other industries have and continue to shape the face of healthcare. I attended several lectures that discussed the role of technology in medicine. Technology has the potential to serve a vital role in preventative healthcare. Currently, the majority of healthcare spending goes towards medical treatment.

2019 Connected Health Conference

Yet, in theory, disease prevention could not only reduce healthcare spending, but could also
improve quality of life.

Health care applications could assist patients with a variety of issues from anxiety to medication compliance.  Despite misconceptions, technology is also well received by the aging population and could be used to provide a sense of purpose and reduce depression. I was impressive by the level of research on behavior and the psychology of habit formation that goes into designing healthcare applications. In addition to the lectures, I attended a mentorship session for women in the healthcare technology sector. We discussed important skills for success including personal branding and negotiation. I also made contacts with several women in consulting, medical education, and business. I also met several physicians who worked in both clinical medicine and business/technology.

Applying virtual reality to patient care
and medical education


Physicians, as direct providers of healthcare, have valuable insight and could play a key role in healthcare technology.   I met engineers and consultants who were eager to hear my perspective on various healthcare issues. Through this meeting, I learned about unique career options for physicians. I hope to have a career that bridges clinical medicine and innovation.This conference certainly met my expectations. I would encourage other residents/fellows to attend if you have  interest in the interface between technology and medicine. Regardless of the conference, I would advise you to take advantage of all mentorship and networking sessions. I gained interesting perspectives and valuable career advice from the people that I met. You never know where your career may lead you. 

Clinical Teaching Skills – Learning to teach our teachers

Kyle Wu, MD
Resident in Neurological Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital
PGY-5

Teaching is fundamental to medical training.  It is simply not possible to go through the graduate medical education system without engaging in the education of peers, colleagues, and patients. As we have all had the privilege of accessing the minds of great mentors and teachers, standing upon their shoulders to improve our own knowledge and take better care of patients, it is our responsibility to provide these same opportunities to the rest of the medical community.

Almost as soon as we begin our medical training we are positioned to impact and influence the thoughts and minds of those around us. This potential, whether welcome or not, is further magnified as we ascend the medical hierarchy. For this reason, I believe that courses such as the

From left to right: Dr. Joshua Bernstock (PGY-1),

Dr. Linda Bi (Faculty), Dr. Kyle Wu (PGY-5),

Dr. Melissa Chua (PGY-1), and Dr. Saksham Gupta (PGY-1)

attending the 2019 Annual Society of Neurological

Surgeon’s Intern Boot Camp.

Clinical Teaching Skills course are essential for all trainees to experience, regardless of predisposition towards education. This course not only introduces the fascinating research and cognitive science behind learning while providing insight into how to connect with varying types of learners, it also forces the participant to self-reflect on how s/he fits within the same schema – making the teacher both a more effective teacher and learner.

Participating in this course has empowered me to take my understanding of an area that I have always been passionate about to the next level, preparing me to become a better resource for my colleagues. In addition, being exposed to a community of residents and faculty that will or have already dedicated their careers to teaching is invigorating and inspiring. As I transition through subsequent roles in my residency and career, I will be able to use the concrete skills, techniques, and frameworks that I have learned from this course to better connect and impact the medical education experience of learners like me.  

Learning with and from other specialties and other medical professions with COE

Dana Larsen
Resident in Internal Medicine at MGH
PGY-3

I was honored to spend the day on the “other side of town” learning from and with those interested in medical education at the COE Clinical Teaching Skills workshop. The day was filled with interactive activities that were focused not only on learning through the didactic aspect of evidence-based teaching constructs,

Women from MGH department of medicine and sub-specialties,

happy at the end of their COE learning day!

but also pragmatically how learners from other specialties and areas within medicine are taught.  Having participated in many of the opportunities for improving teaching skills within my institution’s medicine department, I was fascinated to learn from others in class who were interested in pursuing similar careers in medical education.  I was especially struck by those in fellowship who had varied practices and teaching on med ed at their prior institutions.  The interactions and relationships I formed enabled me to gain a wider breadth of areas for future research and allowed me to build relationships that I hope will bolster continued growth through a network of like-minded physicians. My hope when I move to fellowship is to continue to pursue research in medical education.  Discussing the fellow experience from those with similar aspirations, has already helped to prepare me for fellowship and I hope will continue to shape my future research career in this field.

Connected Health Connected Minds

Junzi Shi MD

Chief Resident PGY-5 in the Department of Radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Madhvi Deol MD (left) and Junzi Shi MD (right)
are COE grant recipients
 to attend the 2019 Connected Health meeting.

Who owns big data owns the future. This was a clear message at the 2019 Connected Health conference held in the Seaport World Trade Center Oct 23-25^th. The conference brought together tech companies, marketing companies, start-ups, healthcare organization leaders and providers all in one space. As a radiologist, I am trained in processing visual information and using imaging as guidance for minimally invasive procedures. My expectations for attending the meeting was to learn more about how informatics is being applied through technology to benefit all the stakeholders in healthcare.

One of the most interesting parts of the conference was visiting the vendors on the exhibit floor. As I walked around, I enjoyed learning about various software and hardware that were being advertised. The target audience seemed to be other tertiary vendors rather than providers or patients themselves. Some messages seemed openly hostile towards physicians. Instead of telling me about his product, one vendor launched into a diatribe about how “clinicians own the data” (I gently corrected him) and proceeded to rant that patients need more rights to delete or manipulate their own data. As I walked away, he called out after me, “Computers are coming for you!” However this interaction was counterbalanced by running into a friend James Wyman, co-founder of Pillo Health, a company featuring a pill-dispensing tele-health device to help patients with medication adherence at home.

Several talks in the Innovation Stage located in the middle of the exhibit floor featured patient testimonials relaying about missed or delayed diagnoses that supposedly could have been prevented or ameliorated by technology. The physicians’ fault was implied. Despite these disheartening presentations, one talk rose above the others with an overwhelmingly positive message. Janak Joshi, Chief Technology Officer of LifeImage, stepped on stage and gave an enthusiastic talk about patient engagement and the need to work together to bring the best service in healthcare. I wholeheartedly agree that collaboration is needed in the complex arena of healthcare technology with many moving pieces and stakeholders.

It was also interesting meeting other conference attendees and hearing about what they were looking for. For example, a primary care physician from Chile had self-funded the trip to Boston for the conference, and she was enthralled by the amount of technology offered in the US compared to South America. A technology company executive I met in the line for coffee was disappointed by the relatively smaller size of the meeting compared to previous years and other conferences.

Junzi Shi MD (left) and James Wyman co-founder
of Pillo Health at the exhibit floor of the
2019 Connected Health meeting.

My favorite part of the conference was the women in IT mentoring session. The small group discussions were very productive and featured challenges and solutions that were very relatable to academic healthcare, but also distinctly unique to the corporate world. I sat at the table focused on negotiations, led by Nancy Green, President and founder of the SAA group. An important takeaway from this session is that imposter syndrome can be normal, and do not be afraid to negotiate but do not let emotions enter the negotiations.

Overall I am very thankful for the opportunity to attend the Connected Health conference in the Seaport World Trade Center as part of a grant from the Partners Centers of Excellence. In the future, trainees who attend the conference could get a better sense of the meeting by connecting with meeting organizers, since it is partially sponsored by Partners. As one of the few physicians at the conference, I would have found this very useful to get a sense of the overall purpose – who attends the meeting, what kind of connections are made, and what metrics define success on the part of organizer, attendee or exhibitor.