It is hard to believe that it is December of 2020.
Our GIM staff, clinicians, educators, and researchers have shown incredible grit and have stepped up during the pandemic to provide the best possible care to our patients, education for our trainees, and research findings to inform policies and clinical practice.
Amazingly, you did this all while caring for your children, family members, and friends. The stories that I have heard from so many of you over the past nine months, especially during our annual career meetings, is an enormous source of inspiration and pride and makes me want to work even harder for you.
As we all face what is likely to be the most challenging time of the pandemic, my hope is that you find time to celebrate the holiday season with your loved ones and to stay as safe as possible.
Here’s to a better 2021!
--Carol
Join our
GIM-HSR Virtual Holiday Party!
Friday, December 11, 6:30pm
AAMC Toolkit for First-Gen Medical Students now Online
First Generation (First Gen, First in family to attend college) medical students and others who come from backgrounds with limited exposure to college graduates, have unique needs and face challenges that are not always readily recognized by their schools.
GIM's Dr. Alejandra Casillas has formed part of a small, national workgroup to improve medical education for First Generation college graduates. After nearly two years of collaboration, the workgroup is proud to announce the posting of an accessible toolkit on the AAMC website: Tools and Resources for First-Generation Medical School Students and Advisors. This online toolkit include resources for students (and medical school leadership, educators) to support and celebrate First Gen students in medicine."
Olive View Internal Medicine Residency Spotlighted by AMA
The inaugural AMA GME Innovations Summit featured UCLA-Olive View IM residency's 3-model teaching approach lead by Dr. Laxmi Suthar with 3rd year resident Dr. Michael Kahn.
"UCLA-Olive View Internal Medicine Residency Program ran a pilot study of the need for a curriculum more heavily rooted in the resident-as-teacher and found that “interns in general lack confidence [as teachers] and that they want their programs to help them become better teachers,” said program director Laxmi Suthar, MD. “We also looked at the data and found … clinical reasoning to be a continued area of weakness for medical students without clear curriculum.”
GIM Awarded COVID-19 Grants
Drs. Arleen Brown (contact PI), Keith Norris and Steve Dubinett were recently awarded a grant to lead a statewide coalition of 11 academic institutions and their community partners in (STOP COVID-19 CA) as part of the NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities.
Launched in September, CEAL works with communities to address COVID-19 misinformation and promote inclusion in prevention, therapeutic, and vaccine clinical trials for populations disproportionately affected.
Dr. Joann G. Elmore will lead the UCLA/Los Angeles arm of a new, multi-site, CDC-funded COVID-19 study looking at the long-term outcomes of the disease in adults and aging populations. The Innovative Support For Patients With SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry (INSPIRE) study is a national effort in partnership with Washington, Rush University, Yale, UT Houston, UT Southwestern, UCSF, Jefferson University, and UCLA. The UCLA/Los Angeles site will soon begin enrollment of hundreds of eligible adults throughout L.A. with suspected exposure to and confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. The 3-year award will support research on the long-term effects of the disease and will advance innovative efforts through methods that leverage electronic health record data in research. Participants will share their symptoms and experience via online surveys and will also be able to share their health information confidentially through the secure Hugo Health app.
Dr. Elmore will lead a team of UCLA GIM & HSR faculty and staff which includes Dr. Laauren Wisk, PhD, who will oversee recruitment and data collection and analysis, and Dr. Doug S. Bell, to support understanding of electronic medical records as an expert bio-informatics faculty. Annie C. Lee, PhD, and Raul J. Moreno are also supporting the initial project rollout as the Administrative Core continues to grow.
NCSP Alum Featured in Forbes Healthcare "30 Under 30"
National Clinician Scholar Program graduate Dr. Kristen Choi is a pediatric psychiatric nurse and an assistant professor and a NCSP assistant director. Her research focuses on mental health policy for vulnerable populations. She has published more than 30 academic articles, including several commentaries in the past few months on how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting mental health.
Congratulations, Dr. Choi! View the full list here.
FYI Clinicians: CareConnect now provides a race-free formula for estimating GFR using cystatin C. Another option is to use the routine CKD-EPI formula for all patients without using the adjustment for race. --Dr. Norris
Be sure to check the Clinical Trials website for trials in which COVID-19 outpatients may be interested in participating.
GIM Seminars & Events
GIM Friday Noon Seminar Series
This Friday, December 4, 12pm Ioana Popescu, MD, MPH "Social Network Analysis: An Application to Health Care Disparities"
Friday, December 11 - Russell Buhr, MD, PhD
Friday, December 18 - Arpan Patel, MD, PhD
Friday, December 25 - No seminar
Live streaming webinar & phone conference line: https://uclahs.zoom.us/j/588355752 | Password: uclagim
(669) 900-6833, Meeting ID 588 355 752
SGIM 2021 Meeting Registration Now Open
Submissions for Scientific Abstracts, Clinical Vignettes, Innovations in Healthcare Delivery and Innovations in Medical Education are due January 6. This year’s meeting theme is Transforming Values into Action.
Spread the Word: GIM is Searching for Clinician Scientists!
The Division of General Internal Medicine & Health Services Research in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, and the Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System are inviting applications for clinician-faculty positions at the Assistant, Associate, and full Professor Rank.
It is hard to believe that it is December of 2020. 
The inaugural 
Drs. Arleen Brown (contact PI), Keith Norris and Steve Dubinett were recently awarded a grant to lead a statewide coalition of 11 academic institutions and their community partners in (STOP COVID-19 CA) as part of the NIH 
Dr. Joann G. Elmore will lead the UCLA/Los Angeles arm of a new, multi-site, CDC-funded COVID-19 study looking at the long-term outcomes of the disease in adults and aging populations. The 
