Inaugural Medical Education Week Brings Together SOM’s Best Ideas, Bright Minds

New ideas, and novel solutions were on display during the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine’s (HMSOM’s) inaugural Medical Education Week.

The week-long series of workshops, presentations, journal clubs, discussions, and awards highlighted the work of faculty, staff, students, and residents from across the HMSOM community, as well as the Hackensack Meridian Health network.

“We are doing important work here at the SOM. As we have seen at national meetings and organizations - others are taking notice and want to hear about it and learn from us,” said Miriam Hoffman, M.D., the vice dean of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. “This week is a wonderful venue to share our scholarship with each other, learn from colleagues and learners, and find collaborators.”

Some of the highlights included:

• The Medical Education Journal Club kicked off the week on April 17 with a discussion led by Jennifer Zepf, D.O., assistant professor in the Department of Medical Sciences. The concept of asking whether “measuring outcomes (is) enough” was explored using various models based on traditional assessment approaches, and those based more on the evaluation of programs themselves.
• The Interprofessional Health Sciences Campus (IHS) Library hosted a virtual discussion on “Developing Your Research Presence,” led by Christopher Duffy, MLIS, and Peggy Dreker, MPA, MLS. The various venues of online scholarship - including SCOPUS, ORCiD, Google Scholar, hIndexes, Altmetrics, and social media platforms, among others - was explored in-depth for both veteran and novice researchers alike.
• The IHS Book Club hosted a discussion of Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women who Fought to Become Physicians,from the Civil War to the 21st Century by Jasmine Brown. The discussion was guided by librarian Allison Piazza, MHA, MLIS.
• A Cultural Humility Workshop exploring integrating the concept into the learning environment was held on April 20. Paramount was a discussion on the importance of organizational structural competency as a framework for delivering cultural humility content. Strategies involving this in the Human Dimension course were also shared. Participating in this conversation were: Michal Divney, LCSW, the Human Dimension and Community Programs Manager; Caryn Katz-Loffman, LSW, the Human Dimension Assistant Course Director & Professional Identity Formation Director; Lawrence Rosen, M.D., associate professor; and Carmela Rocchetti, M.D., the director of the Human Dimension.
• Human Dimension Capstone Scholarship Day included projects presented by the 2020 cohort. Projects included those impacting the health of communities, including everything from substance use disorder strategies, barriers to wellness among medical trainees, the monetary benefits of tourniquets, to barriers to digital and health literacy in online Medicaid applications. “Everything we do is in the context of community, and this day shows it the best,” said Jeffrey Boscamp, M.D., dean of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, during Capstone Day.
• Also on Capstone Scholarship Day, Munifa Wheeler, a fourth-year student at the school, received the 2023 Excellence in Public Health Award from the United States Public Health Service. Wheeler has made a mark in projects involving the Pipeline Program to connect undergraduate students with the HMSOM, as well as smoking cessation projects, among other work.
• Inaugural Medical Education Scholarship Day included a plenary address by Hetty Cunningham, M.D., a pediatrician from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, on how to build curricula that are inclusive, anti-racist, and anti-bias. She also spent time talking with our students, faculty, and staff. Her talk relates directly to the work HMSOM’s Cultural Humility Subcommittee is doing within our curriculum.
• A poster session with faculty, staff, residents, and students from across the school and the Hackensack Meridian Health network presenting, shared a wide range of innovation, research, and scholarship in medical education.
• Awards for the best abstracts in Innovation and Research were presented to trainees and faculty and staff.