Faculty Care Group Seminar Series

Joan Swearer, PhD, neuropsychologist, professor, and director of neuropsychology at UMASS. Her research interests include clinical features and treatment of dementing illnesses, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis. She has over 50+ peer-reviewed publications on neuropsychological topics and many on Alzheimer’s Dementia. She worked closely with our founding Chair and dementia expert, David A. Drachman, MD.    

Traveling

The benefits of traveling by Wiley Hall, MD

Want to get away? Travel may not be something we routinely think of as health maintenance but travel has been associated with many health benefits. Large epidemiological cohort studies including the Framingham Heart Study and MR FIT have shown an association with reduced heart disease and mortality in women and men respectively.  Other studies show reduced levels of cortisol and incidence of metabolic syndrome or even suggest that anticipating experiential purchases (e.g. Travel) provides more happiness and positivity than anticipating material purchases. (e.g. a new toy, etc.)

Wiley Hall, MD, director of neurocritical care group at UMass Chan and UMass Memorial Health. He is also the director of telestroke program which he built, led, and grew to its current size and importance. Dr. Hall was the first neurointensivist at UMass and with his excellent patient care and improved outcomes paved the way for the establishment of our closed neuro-ICU which he was co-director of for more than 15 years.  He is a champion of the Neurocritical Care Society’s Emergency Neurology Life Support (ENLS) education/training program for which he was recognized by the NCS with a President’s Recognition award and has taught courses abroad.  He is also one of the most experienced world travelers in our department.

Neurorehabilitation and what the current state of practice is.

Andrew Galica, MD, a graduate of UMass Chan Medical School completed his internship and neurology residency in our program, serving as Chief Resident his senior year. Dr. Galica was our very first Neurorehabilitation and Neurorecovery fellow and helped create and refine our new fellowship training program with the help of our faculty as well as other authorities in the field, including Dr. Doug Katz and others.  He was instrumental with Delia Bakeman in providing inpatient consultations in neurorehabilitation to patients with TBI and other neurological disease to bridge the gap of care that currently exists for these patients as they transition to the outpatient setting.

Dr. Galica discusses what makes Neurorehab different from PM and R rehab, appropriate referrals to Neurorehab, and opportunities for improving multidisciplinary care and collaboration in patient care and research. 

Graceful Self-Promotion

This sessions give advice on how to gracefully promote our work and ourselves for career advancement.

Susanne Muehlschlegel MD, MPH, FNCS, FCCM, FAAN is a professor of neurology, anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University and adjunct professor at UMass Chan Medical School. She is the former director of neurocritical care research and the UMass Chan Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP).  She is an NIH-funded researcher in traumatic brain injury with a focus on outcome predictors and shared decision making and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Neurocritical Care Society and has served on numerous committees in NCS, UCNS, and AAN.  You may know her best as a neurointensivist and pioneering researcher in neurocritical care, but in her former role as the director of the UMass Chan (JFDP) where she mentored faculty on how to become better academic researchers, mentors, and educators.  She was nominated for the UMass Chan Medical School Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2020.

Our Vice Chair for Clinical Operations, Dr. Brian Silver will be hosting the session and will lead further discussions regarding the topic and other related topics.  

 Neurologists working with the Biotech Industry

As Academic neurologists and neuroscientists we have opportunities to collaborate with industry in the areas of translational science and clinical trials and many of us have had experiences of working with industry in the limited context of an Industry sponsored clinical trial that we are the Site Primary Investigators or Co-investigators on but what is it like to be fully immersed and work with industry?

Diego Cadavid MD is an Instructor in our Department of Neurology will provide his personal experiences being fully engaged in the biotech industry. Dr. Diego Cadavid graduated from the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogota, Colombia. Dr. Cadavid completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Microbiology and Immunology at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, followed by Neurology Residency at Georgetown University School of Medicine and a Neuropathology Fellowship at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.  Diego was a Tenured Associate Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Rutgers University and Consultant in Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases at MGH before he joined Biogen as Associate Medical Director, Medical Director and then served as Senior Medical Director before moving to Fulcrum Therapeutics as Head of Clinical Development. He was then hired in the role of Chief Medical Officer at X4 Pharmaceuticals before he was appointed to his current position of Chief Medical Officer of Verge Genomics which is an AI-driven biotech company that has delivered on the promise of using technology to advance potential new medicines into the clinic more quickly while addressing challenging diseases with high unmet need among patients. By integrating human disease data and human model systems into the drug development process, Verge is forging a new path to treat complex human diseases such as ALS.

Do you find filling out evaluations difficult? Do you struggle when talking to fellows, residents, students, or other trainees and trying to give constructive feedback? Do you find yourself reacting negatively when receiving feedback?

One of the most difficult things to do as an educator, mentor, supervisor, or colleague is to give and receive feedback.  Feedback is essential in our progress as individuals and in our work as a group, program, section, and department.  It’s how we get better and one of our responsibilities - to each other and to the community at large - is to provide input and feedback to give ourselves and each other opportunities to continue to grow.

Reid Evans, PhD, assistant professor and education director in the Department of Graduate Medical Education at UMASS Chan Medical School.  He is a gifted educator and conducts research on Language learning and Linguistics, Complexity Theory, and other educational topics.  He currently supports various academic departments and residency programs and has given previous sessions on “Creating an inclusive environment”, “Effective preceptoring” and “Active Learning Strategies” and is an important contributor to the educational sessions for our program.

Working relationships with our nursing colleagues

We are fortunate to have excellent nurses working with our patients and this session will feature some of the best and most experienced:

Ray St.Peter, MSN, RN, CCRN,  a Lakeside 2 ICU Nurse and Nurse Educator
Peter Daoust, MSN, RN, a Nurse Manager of 4^th Floor (4 EAST and 4 WEST)
Tammy Wylie, MSN, AGNP-bc, a Daisy Award Winning 4^th floor nurse who is now a Nurse Practitioner on the Trauma Service

Our strongest and most essential allies in the care of our patients are our nursing colleagues.  They are the clinicians at the bedside and have expertise in serial bedside assessment, in providing daily care and responding to the patient’s needs in a timely manner.  Our relationships and communication with them is critical to provide the best care for our patients.  As physicians we can go about our day focused on patient care, communicating with patients, families and other services and trainees but how about our working relationships with our nursing colleagues? How do we come across to them and what are optimal behaviors and communication strategies in working with them in the various settings that we do?  How do we resolve conflicts when they arise and ensure that we are always working well together?

Benefits of Regular Exercise and Fitness Activities.

Brian Silver, MD, vice chair of clinical operations in neurology, Boston Marathon finisher, runner, iron man and fitness enthusiast, discussed the multiple benefits and kinds of exercise and fitness activities available to a busy faculty member of the neurology department. He shared his personal experiences and insights into this highly relevant topic, which was one of the topics requested in the survey. Our health and well-being are important and often neglected in our busy work schedules.

Brian provided a recent meta-analysis and systematic review on the neurological benefits of exercise published in Frontiers of Neuroscience. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10228832/