Medical Education Director Letter
Welcome to the start of a new academic year! The GME circle of life continues with the arrival of our new interns and graduation of our newest physicians and allied health care providers. The spring has seen the transformation in the way we deliver healthcare with the use of telemedicine as well as rapid train up for critical care skills for our providers who do not utilize them in their daily practice. The medical education community created innovative educational platforms to continue to meet academic requirements while maintaining social distancing and reaching providers who are quarantined.
For the first time, our rising senior residents participated in a virtual Chief Resident Leadership Conference, hosted by USUHS, and attended by tri-service residents throughout the country. This allowed our rising senior residents to interface and collaborate with their colleagues across all services and military treatment facilities.
We had to cancel our long-awaited ACGME Accreditation visit for General Surgery in March, due to COVID travel restrictions. We are thrilled that we will be one of the first hospitals to undergo a Virtual Accreditation Visit with the ACGME in July.
As we worked through the pandemic, we also saw an unprecedented awareness of social and healthcare inequities and disparities. The GME team remains committed to equity and diversity and look forward to continued dialog, learning and change.
Respectfully,
COL Foglia
Unified Professional Commencement, 5 June 2020
Womack Army Medical Center held a virtual Unified Professional Commencement Ceremony on June 5th. This even came together rapidly in order to hold an event that honored our graduates while maintaining social distancing requirements. We are so thrilled to have had the support of Womack's videographer, Mr. Jesse Leger. Our guest speaker was LTG Scott Dingle, who gave an inspiring message to our graduates. We were also honored to have Chaplain Avery provide the invocation, SSG Foster the National Anthem, and comments by Womack's Commander, COL Melton and the DENTAC Commander, COL Turonis. The 82nd ABN String Quartet provided music.
The virtual event allowed us to incorporate personal comments from each Program Director. At the conclusion of the event, we had reached a virtual audience of about 2800 people! We were also able to incorporate graduates who do not normally participate in this ceremony due to PCS dates prior to early Jun. This was so well received that we plan to live-stream the 2021 commencement ceremony, in order to allow friends and family who may be unable to travel see their loved ones graduate.
Welcome to Womack's newest physician trainees
Womack welcomed its Family Medicine and Ob/Gyn interns on 1 June 2020. They started the day with the Oath of Office, administered by COL John Melton. Due to social distancing requirements, we even administered the Oath of Office via FaceTime to one new physician who was in quarantine. The interns spent the month of June in a combination of virtual and in-person orientation events, in order to prepare them to begin training on 1 July. We are thrilled to welcome the newest members of our residency family!
Promotions, Welcomes and Farewells
Please join us in congratulating the members of the Medical Education community who were recently promoted.
LTC Louis Magyar was promoted on May 1st, 2020. He is the Director of the Doctorate of Nursing Program Phase II Site at Womack.
COL Wesley Theurer was promoted on June 10th, 2020. He is the out-going Family Medicine Residency Program Director and is moving on to a new assignment as faculty for the Inter-Service Physician Assistant Program. We wish him luck and he will be missed!
LTC Adriane Bell was promoted on May 18, 2020. She is the incoming Family Medicine Residency Program Director. She comes with an exceptional background and we look forward to the next step in the Family Medicine Residency Journey.
MAJ Crystal Hammons was promoted on June 1st, 2020. She is faculty in the OB/Gyn Residency Program and will be assuming duties as the Director of Simulation for Womack.
We’d also like to recognize other teaching faculty who were promoted:
Dr. Merritt Ware was promoted to MAJ, Dr. Morgan Light was promoted to MAJ and Dr. Choi was promoted to MAJ.
We said 'see you later' to the graduates of the USUHS DNP Program, pictured here with COL Melton, LTC Magyar (Program Director) and LTC McKay (Troop Commander) on the day of their Evidence Based Practice presentation. They officially graduated from USUHS on 3 April 2020. Congratulations to MAJ Amber Birkle, MAJ Vonya Gibbons, MAJ Diane Costa & MAJ Angelyn Brown. MAJ Angelyn Brown, received the Student Esprit de Corps award and the Federal Nursing Service Chiefs award from USUHS. MAJ Amber Birkle received the Distinguished Academic Performance Award.
We also graduated CPT Matthew Pace and 1LT Steven Reed from the Inter-Service PA Program on 2 June 2020. They are pictured below taking the Physician Assistant Professional Oath.
Dr. Melissa Roberts, Family Medicine Faculty member, is headed to Fort Belvoir. She was an invaluable member of the faculty and headed the CLER Committee for GME.
MAJ Maggie Fitzpatrick, Assistant Chief of HESD, is headed to Ft. Knox, KY. She was a major factor in the successful relationship between HESD and MTOE assigned providers, and greatly contributed to the educational mission for the hospital.
Mr. Everardo Zamora, the GME Program Support Specialist, retired after a long career of government service. Mr. Zamora’s retirement was effective the 31st of May, 2020. The DME office is sad that a longtime part of our family has left us, but we are also excited to see him have the ability to spend the quality time he loved so much with his family. Ed, we will miss you and thank you for all the hard work you put in to make the DME what it is today. You will be missed.
We also bid a fond farewell to CPT Bethany Atwood, outgoing D. Detachment Commander, and welcomed CPT Donald Ramey as the incoming commander.
We also welcome new employees to the Department of Medical Education. Ms. Amber Hubbard joins the team, and will be a Program Administrator for several of the allied health programs. Ms. Denise Bogue was formally assigned as the Family Medicine Residency Program Administrator, after the departure of Ms. Lisa Dent.
Department of Medical Education Accolades
Congratulations to the DNP Class of 2020. Their Evidence Based Practice project on Battlefield Acupuncture for Low Back Pain was accepted for a podium presentation at the 2020 AANP National Conference and poster presentation at the 2020 MHSRS conference.
Congratulations to MAJ Trey Baker - he graduated from the US Army Graduate Program in Nurse Anesthesia this year. Academically, he was 2nd out of all the SRNA trainees in the Army!
Congratulations to the Family Medicine Residency for being awarded All Around Outstanding Achievement in Scholarly Activity following the Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians Annual Conference. This conference was to occur in April 2020, but due to COVID-19, an online forum was held in its place. Additional congratulations to the team that won First Place for their Poster Display in the Educational Research category. The topic of their poster was Implementing a Reflective Practice Curriculum in a Family Medicine Residency. Authors on this project were: MAJ Nathaniel Watts, DO, Juliana Ee, PhD, CPT Kassandra Pellegrini, MD, MAJ Zacharay Bevis, MD, Ashley Adams, BA, and COL Matthew Hing, MD.
Family Medicine held a virtual Fix-It Forum - an annual event to highlight process and quality improvement projects. The winning teams were the Medication Reconciliation Team and the Cervical Dysplasia team.
Department of Research
Since the beginning of the year, DCI has been supporting the Ft. Bragg/WAMC response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has included several clinical trials using remdesivir, convalescent COVID-19 plasma therapy, genomic and serology-based diagnostic testing, vaccine development, as well as ongoing public health surveillance and monitoring efforts. DCI leads the OSPREY Team composed of WAMC health care providers, which informs the senior leadership at Ft. Bragg on the current state of ongoing health care delivery efforts and the upcoming mitigation strategies during the pandemic. Our collective efforts include the Force Health Protection and Surveillance for the XVIII Airborne Corps and JSOC.
Also during this time, the DCI team has remained engaged in collaborative efforts, including but not limited to the areas of biosensors, telehealth and data-driven medicine. On 3 March, DCI submitted a consortium-based $5.3M full proposal for the development of a mobile platform for the detection of metabolites predictive of muscular damage. The consortium includes University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), North Carolina State University (NCSU), Swansea University (SU), Grand Canyon University (GCU), and the Ft Bragg Research Institute (FBRI). This effort seeks to establish the foundation for future wearable biosensors.
On 26 May, DCI received IRB approval for the Medical Assessment and Readiness System (MARS) database protocol. MARS is a massive longitudinal database of medical and readiness data for US Army active duty Soldiers from 2014-2017; it will eventually include all data from 2018 and will be continually updated. It provides de-identified demographic, anthropometric, and diagnostic information as well as profile data and readiness data (e.g. weapons qualification, MOS, unit assignment). All prescription and lab data will be included soon.
For more information please contact DCI at 910-907-6522.
Department of Research Accolades
A new study titled “Preventing Sexual Violence through Targeting Hazing Behavior” recently won funding through Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). The study’s tentative start date is September 1st and is directed by Dr. Cris Berry-Cabán, of the Department of Clinical Investigation. Geneva Foundation employees working in DCI, Ms. Amber Lane and Mr. Adam Roby, will be the key research team members involved in study development and initiation. This study will investigate hazing in the military with specific attention to the intersection between hazing and sexual victimization among Fort Bragg Service Members. The end goal is to develop a military specific Hazing Prevention Framework that will be deemed beneficial for implementation.
Congratulations to the Dr. Sammy Choi, Chief of the Department of Research. He was presented with an award from COL Sheryl Bedno for his role in the success of WAMC achieving Public Health accreditation.
Medical Library
Due to the the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Womack Library and its librarians have been able to decrease their physical footprint, while maintaining high standards of customer service - a silver lining in the current challenging situation. There are many databases and other resources available online to assist with your research needs. For remote access to the AMEDD Virtual Library, please visit https://medlinet.amedd.army.mil and register for an Open Athens account. The WAMC Medical Library LibGuide is also a great place for current information on COVID-19 as well as research and educational information for WAMC staff and students. Visit the LibGuide here: https://wamc-amedd.libguides.com/medicallibrary/home.
If you need assistance from a WAMC medical librarian, please email: usarmy.jbsa.medcom.mbx.amedd-v-library@mail.mil
Simulation
The Sim Program partnered with the Hospitalist Fellowship to offer ventilator training for providers as the pandemic began, providing training for more than 50 providers in a two week period. The training provided both didactic and hands on experiences in each 4 hour session. Our CAE Athena simulator is capable of operating on a ventilator and her physiological parameters will automatically adjust to reflect the vent settings.
In June, the simulation program hosted a demonstration of the products offered by Experience Anatomy, Charlotte NC. This include anatomical specimens and plasticized anatomy as the have a partnership with Body World.
Experience Anatomy brought their mobile anatomy lab and were at WAMC for 2 full days demonstrating the differences in tissue preservation with their proprietary process. They were also able to demonstrate perfusion of the cadavers. Attendance was phenomenal with over 100 people not just viewing the products but having the ability to perform procedures. Most attendees were clearly impressed and are looking at this for future training capabilities.
The Simulation team is currently in the process of planning support for the 16th HC FTX currently scheduled for Aug 17-20 (pending approval). This will be the 3rd year that we provide support for their field training exercises.
HESD
Please view the flyers below for upcoming ACLS and PALS classes. BLS, ACLS & PALS classes are now held on WAMC 5th Floor, Rooms #C51025-1 & #C51037-1 (Next to SIM Lab).
Department of Medical Education Mission
To resource and support a clinical learning environment that enriches learners through distinguished health training programs, distinct teaching experiences, and scholarly inquiry and research to support the fighting strength of our Nation, our Army, Army Medicine and Fort Bragg.
Department of Medical Education Vision
To create a learning environment of teamwork, quality care and quality caring to equip healers of character and competence for a lifetime of successful service.
https://tricare.mil/mtf/Womack/About-Us/Medical-Education-Division
DME Contact information
Phone: 910-907-6973
Fax: 910-643-1727
Email: usarmy.bragg.medcom-wamc.list.dme-gme@mail.mil
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