Cordelia Stearns, M.D., and Brenessa Lindeman, MD, MEHP, were selected to receive the 2018 Research and Innovations in Medical Education (RIME) Faculty Development Award. Both Stearns and Lindeman received $7,500, which will go toward the 2019 Harvard Macy Institute Program for Educators in Health Professions.
The goal of the program is to enhance the professional development of physicians, basic scientists, and other healthcare professionals as educators. Stearns will implement a “Health Disparities and Community immersion Curriculum,” and Lindeman plans to implement an “Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) pilot for General Surgery.”
Stearns is an Assistant Professor of internal medicine at the UAB Montgomery Regional Campus. In her application for the program, Stearns wrote, “I am particularly interested in health advocacy and social justice for underserved patients, and in teaching trainees about social determinants of health. I believe that the seventh pillar of health quality, equity, is too often overlooked in medical education, and in order to create a health system where physicians see advocacy as part of their role it needs to take a prime place in medical training.” Gustavo R. Heudebert, M.D., MACP, who serves as the Interim Dean at the Montgomery Regional Campus, praised Stearns’s qualifications for the award: “The proposal put forward by Dr. Stearns is robust as it entails both a didactic component as well as a hands-on element…she has shown a strong and consistent commitment to the care of the underserved.”
Lindemann is an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, associate director of UAB’s General Surgery residency program, and Associate Designated Institutional Official for the Clinical Learning Environment. She outlined her goal for getting the most from UAB’s selection as a pilot program for the newly developed EPAs for General Surgery: “By participating in this course, I hope to optimize the resident EPA assessment process for faculty, build assessment tools and strategies with their needs in mind, and learn to build coalitions and manage resistance to change.” Herbert Chen, M.D., FACS, Department of Surgery chairman, expressed his confidence in Lindemann’s leadership, “She has my full support and protected time to complete the proposed work and program specific requirements. I am confident that Brenessa will become a nationally recognized leader in surgical education.”