GME Times
The UIC Graduate Medical Education Newsletter
July 2007
Vol. 5, No. 1
Suggestions? Comments?     
Please let us know what you would find useful in the GME Times. Call 312-996-2933 or send us email.
  
GME Resident HotLine - 312-996-8662
Confidentiality is Assured

If you have an issue relating to your residency program that you don't feel comfortable discussing with your chief resident or program director, call the GME Resident HotLine. Your  message will be received only by Cathy Canfield-Jepson, the Director of Graduate Medical Education, and Dr. L. J. Sandlow, the College of Medicine Senior Associate Dean for Educational Affairs. Confidentiality is assured.


  
First Paychecks for New Residents and Fellows
If your file is complete and everything is in order, you will receive your first full month paycheck on August 16. Your pay for the first weeks of your program will arrive some time between July 16 and August 16, as soon as your new appointment is completely processed through the payroll system.

  
Graduate Medical Education Committee
Resident Representatives Election 2007
The 2007-2008 election of resident representatives to the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) is under way. Brief statements expressing the candidates’ qualifications for and/or interest in serving on the GMEC are available on the GME website.
You may vote by paper ballot or email for a maximum of three residents.
The three residents receiving the most votes will be alternate members of the Graduate Medical Education Committee. Alternate representatives vote when the voting members are not present and are elected as the first, second or third alternate based on the total number of votes each receives. A maximum of three resident representatives may vote at any GMEC meeting.
Alternate representatives may opt to be voting members of the GMEC the following academic year without participating in the election process if they meet the attendance requirement as stated in GME Policy #34, Graduate Medical Education Committee.
Paper ballots with candidates’ statements have been delivered to your program office. If voting by paper ballot, you must return your ballot in the envelope in which it was received. Your ballot will then be separated from the envelope to ensure your anonymity. If you wish to waive some degree of confidentiality in favor of convenience, you may vote via email to:  gmecvote@uic.edu
Voting by email has been the preferred method for most residents in the past several years. Email messages with votes are deleted to retain as much confidentiality as  possible through the medium. If you send your votes via email using a non-UIC email account, you must include your name and program  in the body of the email.
Please note:  To be counted, your votes must be received in the GME Office by noon on Tuesday, July 31.

  
GME Online Core Curriculum
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is a private, nonprofit council that evaluates and accredits medical residency programs in the United States. The organization's mission is “to improve health care by assessing and advancing the quality of resident physicians’ education through accreditation.” To help fulfill this mission, the ACGME has identified six general core competencies:
Patient Care
Medical Knowledge
Professionalism
Systems-based Practice
Practice-based Learning and Improvement
Interpersonal and Communications Skills
The GME Online Core Curriculum has been designed to introduce you to concepts which will prepare you to join the physician community. The online format provides the opportunity to engage in lively discussion with your peers and to participate at any time that is convenient for you, from any computer which has Internet access and a web browser. The URL for the Core Curriculum is:   www.gme-core.org
CORE CURRICULUM SUPPORT STAFF IS EAGER TO HELP
Your Core Curriculum login and password were distributed to you at GME New Resident Orientation on June 21 or June 28, 2007. Please contact the Core Curriculum support staff with any questions you have related to your participation in the program. They are eager to help you.
Toll-free Phone:  877-363-6656
Email:  help@gme-core.org
ALL  RESIDENTS  AND  FELLOWS  -  NOTE:
CORE CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL RESIDENTS AND FELLOWS
IN ALL PROGRAMS
In general, residents and fellows are required to complete four GME Online Core Curriculum modules per year until a minimum of ten have been completed. Check with your program director to verify your program's specific requirements. Some programs require more than ten modules and/or specific elective modules. You must satisfy your program's approved Core Curriculum requirements in order to complete your training program or fellowship.
CONTINUING  RESIDENTS  AND  FELLOWS  -  NOTE:
CORE CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS FOR RESIDENTS AND FELLOWS
CONTINUING IN TRAINING PROGRAMS OR FELLOWSHIPS
WHICH BEGAN PRIOR TO JUNE 1, 2007
•   If you are a resident or fellow participating in a training or fellowship program prior to June 1, 2007, you must complete four GME Online Core Curriculum modules per year, or a total of ten modules for a program of three or more years unless your program requires more than ten modules and/or specific modules. You must satisfy your program's approved Core Curriculum requirements in order to complete your training program or fellowship.
•   If you are a resident or fellow in a subspecialty or fellowship program, you must complete four online Core Curriculum modules per year unless you have previously completed them at UIMCC or have produced documentation of completion of a similar curriculum at another institution. The documentation will be reviewed by the Senior Associate Dean for Educational Affairs.
•   If you are a resident or fellow in a training or fellowship program which has received yearly approval from the Senior Associate Dean for Educational Affairs to participate in a program-specific, alternate Core Curriculum, you must complete the equivalent of four GME Online Core Curriculum modules per year, or the equivalent of ten modules for a program of three or more years.
  
NEW  RESIDENTS  AND  FELLOWS  -  NOTE:
REQUIRED CORE CURRICULUM MODULES FOR RESIDENTS AND FELLOWS
BEGINNING TRAINING PROGRAMS OR FELLOWSHIPS
ON OR AFTER JUNE 1, 2007
If you are a resident or fellow beginning training at UIMCC on or after June 1, 2007, you must complete four GME Online Core Curriculum modules per year, or a total of ten modules for a program of three or more years, as follows, unless your program requires more than ten modules:
•   All residents and fellows must first complete GME 114:  Introduction to the General Competencies
•   Next, you must complete the six modules which are matched to the six ACGME Core Competencies:
GME 101: The Nature and Scope of Professionalism in Medical Practice
GME 103: Management of the Health Care Team
GME 106: Evidence Based Medicine and Life-long Learning
GME 107: Teaching and Learning Skills for the Physician Educator
GME 111: Communications Skills for Physicians
GME 115: Focus on Patient Safety


•   Residents completing only one preliminary year at UIMCC and fellows completing one-year fellowships must complete GME 114 first, followed by any three required modules: 101, 103, 106, 107, 111 or 115.
•   All Residents and Fellows:  Please check with your program director to determine:
•   If your training program requires more than 10 modules, and/or
•   If your training program requires specific elective modules.
ELECTIVE CORE CURRICULUM MODULES FOR RESIDENTS AND FELLOWS
BEGINNING TRAINING PROGRAMS OR FELLOWSHIPS
ON OR AFTER JUNE 1, 2007
•   After completing the required modules, residents and fellows may select from the following electives to complete their program's requirements:
GME 102: Evolution, Organization and Financing of the US Health System
GME 104: Quality, Cost, and Resource Management in Medical Practice
GME 105: Health Care Monitoring and Regulatory Systems and Agencies
GME 108: Managing a Successful Medical Practice
GME 109: Fundamentals of Medical and Health Care Information Systems
GME 110: Topics in Research for Medical Residents
GME 112: Medical and Clinical Ethics
GME 113: Cultural Competency for Health Care Delivery



  
GME  Rotation Evaluations
WHO: All Residents/Fellows
WHAT: Institutional and Duty Hours Evaluations
WHEN: Each Month
HOW: Using the New Innovations Residency Management Suite
Beginning July 1, 2007 all residents and fellows are required to complete monthly online rotation evaluations created and distributed by the GME Office using the New Innovations Residency Management Suite.  Please see the article titled “How to Login to New Innovations” elsewhere in this newsletter.
Note:  Some residents and fellows will also be required to complete evaluations of rotations and faculty using New Innovations. These evaluations will also appear in your Notifications box when they are available for completion.  Contact your Program Coordinator for more information on program-specific evaluations.
Institutional Issues
The GME Institutional Rotation Evaluations will ask for feedback regarding institutional issues related  to your training. This is your opportunity to provide input on the quality and availability of food, call rooms, patient support and laboratory services, information resources, security, and parking at each institution where you trained. The information received from residents on these evaluations is used to make decisions on improvements to the quality of the training experience at each institution where you work.
Duty Hours Buzz
The GME Office will also  distribute required Duty Hours questionnaires to each resident at the end of every rotation. These questions are aimed at assessing each resident's compliance with duty hours/work hours. The responses will be reported in summary to Program Directors without names or other identifiers twice annually. Open and honest reporting is important in helping the GME Office identify and correct problems with current resident duty assignment systems.

  
How to Complete GME Evaluations
•   Open your web browser (Internet Explorer is recommended) and login to New  Innovations. See “How to Login to New Innovations” elsewhere in this newsletter for details.
•   On the New Innovations Welcome Page, scroll down to the Notifications box.
•   If you have evaluations to complete, a variation of the following statement will appear in your Notifications box:
You have 3 evaluations to complete.
Click here to complete them.
•   Click the complete them link to view a list of your incomplete evaluations.
•   From the list, click on Evaluate to go to each evaluation.
•   Complete the evaluation as instructed.
•   If you are required to sign the evaluation, check the box certifying that you are electronically signing the document.  If a signature is not required, proceed to the next step.
•   Click on  Submit Final to submit your evaluation.
•   A message box will appear to verify you are ready to submit the evaluation as final.  If you do not wish to make any changes to the evaluation, select OK to submit your evaluation.
•   Repeat steps 5 through 9 for all incomplete evaluations.
GME New Innovations Contact:
Lindsay Butrum
312-996-1970

  
How to Login to New Innovations
1. Open your web browser (Internet Explorer is recommended) and visit the UIMCC homepage.
2. From the Administrative Departments drop-down menu, select New Innovations.
3. On the New Innovations login page, insert the following information:
a. The Institution login is UIC (all uppercase)
b. Your Username is your NetID (the first part of your UIC email address, all in lowercase)
c. Your initial Password is your first initial followed by your last name (entered as one word, all lowercase)
Example:    John  Smith's  email  address is johnsm2@uic.edu. His NetID and Username is johnsm2 and his initial password is jsmith.
4. After logging in for the first time, please change your password for security purposes. This can be done by selecting the Change Password link from the New Innovations Welcome Page menu at the top of the webpage. Passwords cannot include your name or NetID and may only include standard keyboard characters except for &, +, < or >. For security reasons,  a minimum of eight  characters is suggested.
5. Once you have changed your password, go to the Main menu and select Welcome Page to return.
6. If you have trouble logging into the system, please contact your Program Coordinator.

  
NetLearning ANNUAL Mandatory Training
Deadline  for 2006-2007: July 31, 2007
Deadline for 2007-2008:  September  30, 2007
To access the NetLearning system, click on the NetLearning “Quick Link” on the UIMCC homepage. The NetLearning login procedure is well documented on the “Student Interface” page.  Your Participant ID is your NetID without the “@uic.edu.” Your password is your University Identification Number (UIN), found in the lower left on your University I-card. If you have difficulty accessing and/or using the NetLearning system, you may call the NetLearning Hotline (312-996-8393) which is available weekdays from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm for troubleshooting and answering questions. You may also send your questions via email at any time to:  NetLearn@uic.edu
NetLearning is a web-based computer learning system which is available 24 hours daily, seven days per week, from any computer with Internet access and a web browser.  At UIMCC, NetLearning is used to meet federal and state compliance training regulations.
All CONTINUING residents and fellows must complete the following seven training courses (“CBLs to Do” in NetLearning jargon) for the 2006-2007 academic year by July 31, 2007 if they have not yet done so:
1. Compliance
2. Confidentiality Agreement
3. Fire Safety
4. Infection Control for Physicians
5. Pain Management
6. Patient Confidentiality
7. Accessing Medical Center Policies/Procedures

as well as a newly added Pandemic course and a HIPAA update course.
All NEW residents and fellows must complete the following HIPAA courses and the seven NetLearning training courses (“CBLs to Do” in NetLearning jargon) for the 2007-2008 academic year by September 30, 2007 as follows:
HIPAA Privacy for Patient Care
HIPAA Security for Patient Care
1. Compliance
2. Confidentiality Agreement
3. Fire Safety
4. Infection Control for Physicians
5. Pain Management
6. Patient Confidentiality
7. Accessing Medical Center Policies/Procedures

Please note: As regulations are modified, all residents and fellows may also be required to complete additional CBLs during the academic year.

  
Procedural Skills Assessment Update
If you are a PGY1 or new-to-UIMCC PGY2 resident who needs to be reassessed on any of the four mandatory Procedural Skills, please contact your Program Director immediately. Your director will reserve time at the Clinical Performance Center for a senior resident to demonstrate the four required skills and provide you with a reassessment. New-to-UIMCC PGY3s and higher will be assessed later this year.