In this edition:
- Message from the Chair
- CFAS Ad Board Retreat in Review
- Sessions of Interest for CFAS at Learn Serve Lead
- CFAS Rep Profile: Charles Day, MD, MBA
Message from the Chair
Dear CFAS Colleagues and Friends,
Many of you, like me, have close colleagues, family, and friends in areas of Florida hit by Hurricane Ian this week – and in areas that have yet to see the full impact of the storm as it bears down on other areas of the South. CFAS also has many reps at schools throughout the region. I want to express my concern and hopes for all of you in making it through the challenges that will be unfolding through many weeks and months to come. Given the CFAS audience, I have no doubt many of you in the region – even those directly affected – are among those bringing relief and support to others in need. It is part of what makes all of us feel so gratified to be in the academic medicine community.
The middle of September marked an important event for CFAS and its leadership: the first in-person gathering of the CFAS Administrative Board since July 2019. As it happens, the AAMC has decided for financial stewardship reasons to reduce the number of in-person leadership meetings various councils and other affinity groups hold to control expenses. But we made the case that there was good reason to bring the 15-member administrative board of CFAS together in one place for a full day of focused conversation and work. In addition to the regular members of the ad board, we also invited the two new, incoming members who officially take their seats in November, Valencia Walker of the Ohio State University, and Lily Belfi, of the Association of University Radiologists. All of us were joined by our AAMC staff partners.
It was a tremendously productive day where we explored in detail the offerings CFAS has developed over the past two years and weighed their relative effectiveness against the needs of faculty today and the expectations that all of you, as CFAS reps, have for the council itself.
How do we know what you are looking for? Because we asked– and you responded. As part of the preparation for the retreat, we sent a one-question survey to the community: “Where has CFAS been successful in the past two years, and where have we fallen short?" More than 50 of you took the time to respond, and in most cases, the answers were quite specific and detailed. CFAS Ad Board members spent the bulk of the morning looking at your responses, sharing our own observations and reactions to the question, and measuring them against the various offerings we have, such as CFAS Connects, our spring meeting and AAMC Annual Meeting programming, publications we have produced, council-wide communications we share with all of you, and other activities.
It was encouraging to see how consistent the responses were. For instance, there were frequent observations about our successes in convening the group during the pandemic, with particular attention paid to CFAS Connects, our monthly community forum, but in equal numbers, many of you observed that the important connection we have gained through the years during in-person networking and convening in person over the course of a conference to share our experiences has created a challenges for our productivity. (By the way, our inaugural CFAS Connects session of the academic year was held Wednesday, Sept. 21, and focused on the ad board retreat.)
On balance, we agreed that our virtual work with CFAS Connects will continue. These virtual events have been successful beyond our initial goal of simply keeping us connected when it became infeasible to meet in person. Everyone believed it would be a mistake to lose this opportunity to interact even as we transition back to in-person conferences. We also identified a need to rethink how we onboard new reps, get individual representatives engaged in their earliest time with CFAS, and provide resources to you to enhance your effectiveness as school and society reps from your various institutions and organizations. The CFAS Program Committee, under the leadership of Nita Ahuja, CFAS chair-elect, will take these challenges into account as it establishes the details of our March 26-29 CFAS Spring Meeting in Salt Lake City.
And speaking of committees, we devoted the afternoon of our retreat to reviewing all CFAS committee charters and goals, revamping and rethinking how they are oriented so that we can boost their effectiveness. During the CFAS Business Meeting at Learn Serve Lead in Nashville this November, we will share with you details on committee work along with more information on the results of the survey.
We hope to see a good number of you in Nashville not merely to share more information about what’s to come for CFAS throughout the remainder of 2022 and into 2023, but also so all of us can reap the benefits of being together in person again. I can’t wait to see you all there.
Yours in good health and wellness,
Aviad “Adi” Haramati, PhD
CFAS Chair
Representing the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health
CFAS Ad Board Retreat in Review
For the first time since 2019, the CFAS Ad Board met in person at the AAMC’s Washington, DC, headquarters on Sept. 14 to chart the direction of CFAS in the coming years and evaluate successes, shortcomings, and opportunities for growth identified during the pandemic. The CFAS Ad Board meeting on the 14th took place right after an AAMC Board of Directors meeting on the previous day where CFAS Chair Adi Haramati, PhD, and CFAS Chair-elect Nita Ahuja, MD, had the opportunity to represent the faculty perspective during discussions among members of the AAMC Board. In addition to the existing roster of the of the CFAS Administrative Board, the retreat welcomed two incoming members, Valencia Walker, MD, and Lily Belfi, MD, whose seats will officially go into effect after the Learn Serve Lead Annual Meeting in November. The Ad Board also welcomed Lisa Cain, PhD, the chair of the AAMC’s Group on Faculty Affairs, who has an ex officio seat on the CFAS Ad Board.
The retreat offered an opportunity for ad board members to take a deep dive into the importance of CFAS and its work in representing the interests of academic medicine faculty across the country, and across specialties and disciplines – the core of CFAS. The retreat additionally provided an opportunity to reinforce the camaraderie and personal connections that make the council so effective. Not only did the group observe how important it was for it to work together in person, but it also discussed how to get the council overall reconnected in light of nearly three years of no in-person meetings.
Prior to the retreat, a voluntary, one questions survey was distributed to CFAS reps asking them, “Where has CFAS been successful in the past two years, and where have we fallen short?” Ad Board members discussed more than 60 answers to this question during the daylong retreat and shared perspectives on priorities and potential programming at future meetings and events to address specific concerns many of you expressed. Suggestions to mitigate concerns raised included everything from more intensive onboarding of new representatives to closer, more detailed focus on key issues affecting faculty when we resume our in-person meetings starting in November and continuing at our first in-person spring meeting in three years March 26-29, 2023, in Salt Lake City.
One clear success CFAS has had: CFAS Connects monthly community meetings. Almost to a person, the response has been universally appreciated. Even as we make the transition to more in-person meetings, we will maintain a robust schedule of virtual events to fill in the gaps between direct contact. But we’ll also expand the topics and the presenters of the sessions to represent a wider view of perspectives from the community and greater number of issues explored.
Among other discussions, the CFAS Ad Board reviewed the current structure and roles of the CFAS committees and made several recommendations for increased alignment and effectiveness. Each committee chair reviewed their committee charges with the other Administrative Board members to ensure they remained aligned to CFAS goals. While the structure generally holds, the ad board is now considering repositioning a couple of committees to better reflect both the true work being done and the needs of faculty today.
A week after the retreat, CFAS Chair Adi Haramati, PhD, hosted a CFAS Connects session on Wednesday, Sept. 21 to review the discussion of the retreat to the broader CFAS community, and to seek broader input from the community. The summary of the session and a link to the recording will be available on the CFAS Resources webpage this week.
Recommended Learn Serve Lead Programming for CFAS Representatives
The AAMC’s Learn Serve Lead Annual Meeting features a rich array of sessions and networking events throughout the schedule, often with many tough choices of which sessions to attend. Below is a list of sessions and programming opportunities with CFAS reps in mind, including CFAS committee meetings, business meeting, and other CFAS-specific events.
Please use this guide as a reference only rather than a substitute for the full meeting program, which is available online. There are many more sessions on the full agenda – including all the plenary sessions and full listing of concurrent breakouts. Some of the competing breakouts may be more beneficial to you than the CFAS-recommended programming. In all cases, as a CFAS rep, you are free to attend all breakout sessions and most other events at the meeting.
As always, if you have questions or need help, reach out to me at eweissman@aamc.org or call 202-828-0044. See you in Nashville in November!
Friday, Nov. 11
CFAS Committee Meetings
Cohort 1: 9:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Cohort 2: 11:15 – 12:30 p.m.
| COHORT 1: Nov. 11, 9:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m. | COHORT 2: Nov. 11, 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m. |
|---|---|
|
|
(Refreshments and light meals will be available throughout committee meetings.)
1:15 p.m. -2:30 p.m. - JW Marriott Symphony A-F
AAMC Leadership Discussion with CFAS, COD, COTH, and the Alliance
3:30 p.m. - 4 p.m. - JW Marriott Symphony Pre-Function
CFAS Cookies and Coffee Networking
4 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. - JW Marriott Symphony C-F
CFAS Business Meeting
Saturday, Nov. 12
7 – 8:15 a.m. - JW Marriott Griffin A-D
CFAS Networking Breakfast
1:30 – 2:45 p.m. – MCC Room 207 A-D
A Transforming Landscape: What’s Working & What’s Changing in Academic Medicine Scholarly Publishing
1:30 – 2:45 p.m. - MCC Room 205 A-C
MedEd Strategies for Ensuring Gender Affirming Learning Environment and Gender Inclusive Health Care
1:30 – 2:45 p.m. - MCC Room 209 A-C
The Great Resignation in Health Care is Here
3:15 – 4:30 p.m. - MCC Room 103 A-C
Zoomed Out and Covid Fatigued: What to Keep and What to Change as We Move Forward, Post-Pandemic
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.- Omni Legends A-G
GWIMS, COD, CFAS and GFA Joint Poster Reception and Awards Ceremony
(Open to All CFAS Reps)
Sunday Nov. 13
7 a.m. - 8:15 a.m.
JW Marriott Griffin A-C
CFAS New Representative Orientation
(For new CFAS Reps, but pen to all CFAS Reps; breakfast will be served)
10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
MCC Room 105 AB
Leadership Education in Undergraduate Medical Education
10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
MCC Room 202 A-C
Equitable Competency Assessment: Implementing Recommendations of the UME-GME Review Committee
1:15 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
MCC Room 103AB
Linking Principle and Principal in Academic Health Systems: A Bridge How Far?
3 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
MCC Room 205 A-C
Science, Credibility, and Strategies for Addressing Health Misinformation
Monday, November 14
1:15 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
MCC Room 102 AB
Valuing Faculty in a Post-Pandemic World – Do Advancement Pathways Match the Needs?
3 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
MCC Room 207 A-D
Empowering Wellness by Implementing 10 “Well-being Champions” Recommendations
Leadership Education in Undergraduate Medical Education
3 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
MCC Room 103 A-C
Facilitating Effective Allyship: Creating Safe Spaces for Dialogue
4:30 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.
MCC Room 205 A-C
CFAS Knowledge‐Sharing Session
(All CFAS reps encouraged to attend; refreshments served)
CFAS Rep Profile: Charles Day, MD, MBA
Interim Chair and Medical Director of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Service Line at Henry Ford Health System; Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Wayne State University School of Medicine and Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
CFAS: Tell us about your research interests in orthopaedics.
Dr. Day: My research interests are fairly broad. I’m a firm believer that whenever I have to make a decision in my work, I should try to base it on published data rather than personal opinion. And in cases where published data does not exist, I will then conduct my own research. Therefore, my research ranges from topics in medical education and clinical outcomes for hand and wrist surgery to the financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications of virtual visits in orthopaedic surgery.
Other research I do examines how some orthopaedic surgery is moving from ambulatory settings to outpatient settings with no anesthesia. I’ve designed a decision aid to help patients determine whether they would prefer to have surgery awake or under anesthesia. A lot of hand surgery can now be done with local anesthesia so that the patient won’t feel any pain during the procedure (much like a dentist appointment). You drive yourself in and drive yourself out. But there’s pros and cons to each way, so that’s why the patient’s preferences become important.
I have also done research on issues of diversity in academic leadership for 12-13 years and have written several papers on it. I published one paper documenting the lack of diversity in orthopedic surgery back in 2010.
CFAS: Tell us about your work on the Post COVID-19 Orthopaedic Surgery Recovery Task Force and how the pandemic has affected surgeons.
Dr. Day: This work stemmed from another area of research that I’ve been actively engaged in. I serve as the interim chair of the orthopedics department and the orthopedic service line at Henry Ford Health. We have 85 employed surgeons and many other affiliated surgeons, so we faced a steep challenge when COVID-19 shut down all elective surgery. There were substantial financial implications for the service line and the department. We were also confronted with questions around physician engagement. I focused on those questions on this taskforce and we published a couple papers on our findings.
I had to have frank conversations with our surgeons and ask them how they might be able to help the health system make ends meet. During this time, there was no elective surgery revenue, but there were still expenses on the hospital side. This was where the physician engagement piece came in: I asked the surgeons if they wanted to take a pay cut or work longer hours and take less vacation. I sent these types of questions through a survey to 85 surgeons and most said they would rather work longer hours and take less vacation. Then I gave them different options for when they could work longer and after I got everybody’s perspective, I went to the hospital’s administration and presented them with times we could open the OR on Saturdays. This helped the system make decisions about resource commitment. By evaluating the surgeons’ preferences, I had the opportunity to fit those preferences with the hospitals systems’ needs and available resources in terms of space and scheduling.
CFAS: What are some recent accomplishments or initiatives at the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA)?
Dr. Day: The AOA is the oldest orthopaedic association in the United States and represents all orthopaedic residency programs. Faculty members must be mid-career before they are nominated by existing members before they can be considered for membership in the AOA.
The AOA was fashioned after the British orthopaedic association and there are strong ties between the AOA and other orthopaedic associations around the world. This originated after WWII as people realized the need for innovative orthopaedic procedures to treat the large numbers of wounded soldiers with significant musculoskeletal injuries. The Allies got together to help each other with their wounded – the British would come here and learn from us, and we would go there and learn from them. It was called the ABC (American - British - Canadian) Traveling Fellowship and it still exists today. I participated in this program in 2011 and had the opportunity to visit 15 academic programs in in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. This is a very unique educational benefit that not many specialties have access to.
During the past two years, the AOA has held discussions about whether to move to virtual interviews over in person interviews for residency. We have struggled with that question because we don’t take in many trainees per year. We’re smaller in number and many of us feel that the in person setting is a better way to determine whether someone would do well in our respective orthopedic programs. After numerous discussions, we ended up leaving the choice open to individual residency programs to make their own decisions.
At the AOA we have also talked a lot about signaling in the residency application process. We implemented the signaling aspect of residency interviews to give program directors better indications of which applicants are really interested in our respective programs.
I think we have made some progress in DEI. This has been a hot topic in orthopedic surgery for nearly 20 years, and we know we’re one of the least diverse specialties. But at a meeting just last year, the AOA selected its first female president, had a symposium on gender justice, and had four female chairs of orthopaedic departments in a panel speaking about how they got to their positions and how orthopedic surgery needs to change.
Having been a participant in the CFAS programs over the last 2 years, I realize that the AAMC, the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) and CFAS deal with many of the same issues in academic medicine. In the AOA, we recently put together a symposium on deficit recovery strategies for orthopedic service lines. We had different perspectives on this panel, which explored financial recovery strategies at 4 different academic orthopaedic departments: Henry Ford Health, Yale Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis, and University of Pennsylvania. We were able to turn our presentations into a publication. That’s a major benefit of presenting your ideas at the AOA annual meetings – When your symposium topics are chosen, they are expected to be written up and published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
CFAS: What do you like to do in your free time?
Dr. Day: First and foremost, I love spending time with family members. I have three kids and my wife is a pediatrician, so we are busy. I’m an avid outdoorsmen and cyclist and I love to ski and play basketball, volleyball, softball, and tennis. I also like to karaoke … when there’s strong beverage around!
Tell Us How You’re Doing
Please keep the lines of communication open so we can provide you with the resources and information that would be most useful. It is helpful for the AAMC to understand in detail what is happening on the ground at the medical schools, teaching hospitals, and academic societies we serve. Please email Eric at eweissman@aamc.org, or call directly at 301-437-2572 with updates or feedback from your perspective. You can also reach out with questions or comments to CFAS Communications Specialist Alex Bolt.
If you are looking for information about CFAS, find what you need on our website, from the names of CFAS leaders, to updates on committee and working group initiatives, to upcoming offerings and meetings, and finally, current and previous editions of CFAS News.
Do you have an article or study coming out? A new promotion or professional accomplishment? Let us know and we'll feature it in an upcoming edition of the CFAS Rep Bulletin.
Previous Editions