Zsofi Szep, MD
Associate Professor, Medicine
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical Leaders G1

About the Project: Through my experiences and successes in education, research and clinical leadership as Medical Director of the Partnership I am looking to build a skill set that will allow me to expand HIV education, research and bring the Partnership to a leading role in HIV clinical care, research and education in our region. My goals in the next three to five years are threefold. I plan to expand the services offered by the Partnership by providing HIV care at another location, through collaboration with a community based organization and through referral of new patients by collaborating with community based organizations focused on HIV in high HIV prevalence areas in Philadelphia. In addition to expanding our services, within the Partnership I plan to focus on the needs of our aging HIV population by developing a geriatrics focused clinic within the Partnership and piloting the use of telehealth to engage patients in care and improving adherence to antiretroviral therapy.

Seena Ajit, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Physiology
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical and Basic Scientists

About the Project: My goal is to increase Drexel presence and the participation of our trainees at local scientific meetings. I plan to initiate this by focusing on the Mid-Atlantic Pharmacology Society (MAPS) meeting held annually. This will ensure that all the graduate students, including junior PhD and MS students, will have an opportunity to attend and present at an external scientific conference. (1) I would like to explore what role I can play in national and international scientific organizations, specifically American Pain Society, International Association for Pain and International Society for Extracellular Vesicles. This will include submission of symposium proposals and chairing sessions, presenting and volunteering in organizational efforts as needed. (2) I would like to explore ways to make research being performed at Drexel University to be at the forefront among the institutes in Philadelphia by involving our students.

Meera Nair Harhay, MD
Associate Professor, Medicine
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical and Basic Scientists

About the Project: The overarching goal of my faculty launch proposal is to increase the capacity of Drexel University to develop a multidisciplinary, translational, and patient-oriented kidney disease research program. The short-term objective of this proposal is to develop and promote a speaker series for Drexel University faculty and trainees who are engaging in research on kidney disease and related health conditions to engage with each other. The intermediate-term objective is to form a kidney disease research mentoring group that will meet regularly to provide opportunities for feedback and collaboration across Drexel University. The long-term objective is to build multidisciplinary kidney disease research teams at Drexel University that will put forth competitive applications for extramural funding. I propose building a Drexel University Kidney Disease "think tank" that is comprised of a multidisciplinary team including faculty and graduate students at the University.

Leon McCrea, II, MD
Deborah J. Tuttle, MD, and John P. Piper, MD, Vice Dean for Educational Affairs; Director, Drexel Pathway to Medical School Program; Associate Professor of Family, Community and Preventive Medicine
Dragon Learning Circle: Graduate/Medical Educators

About the Project: There is now momentum within the ACGME community to demonstrate the measures that each residency program is using to promote diversity in residency education. In order to address this issue within the greater academic community at Drexel University College of Medicine and Hahnemann University Hospital, I am proposing a two layered approach to increase workforce diversity: development of a longitudinal mentorship program for undergraduate and graduate medical education and a diversity workforce curriculum and team to teach residency and fellowship programs novel methods to attract underrepresented groups in medicine.

Annette Gadegbeku, MD
Associate Professor, Family, Community and Preventive Medicine
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical Leaders G1

About the Project: To institute, implement and develop: (1) a Community Medicine Fellowship in collaboration with the School of Public Health; (2) a Division of Community Health in the Department of Family, Community, and Preventative Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Eishi Noguchi, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical and Basic Scientists

About the Project: This career-oriented graduate program emphasizes internship experience in an industrial setting. Students will have opportunities to integrate research and professional experience in the rapidly expanding fields of molecular biosciences and biotechnology. Thus, students will have opportunities to advance their careers and to become more marketable for employment in biotech and pharmaceutical industries and governmental agencies.

Kheyahndra Lewis, MD
Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dragon Learning Circle: Graduate/Medical Educators

About the Project: Being selected as a fourth-year chief resident is a title that comes with great respect, but also several responsibilities. Chief residents must find a balance between educational, clinical, and administrative roles. This curriculum, grounded in reflective practice, will provide chief residents with a framework to enhance their roles as medical educators, clinical leaders, and mentors, and will conclude with their year-long body of work showcased using an electronic educational portfolio. With structured implementation of a curriculum and designation of faculty peer groups, the goal of my FLIP would be to identify avenues with which faculty can advance in academic promotion.

Sandhya Kortagere, PhD
Associate Professor, Microbiology and Immunology
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical and Basic Scientists

About the Project: Develop an integrated center for researchers interested in translating their discoveries into therapeutics. The center aims to bring together researchers with drug discovery and development interests to exchange ideas, resources and expertise to develop novel therapeutics.

Florence Momplaisir, MD
Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical and Basic Scientists

About the Project: I hope to develop an administrative core with the purpose of providing structural and administrative support to physician scientists, particularly to early career investigators.

Patrick Osei-Owusu, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Physiology
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical and Basic Scientists

About the Project: I propose to play a leading role in an effort to build transdisciplinary cardiovascular research programs across DUCOM and ultimately the entire university.

Danielle Cullen, MD
Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical Leaders G1

About the Project: Currently, teaching about infant feeding in Drexel Obstetrics offices is provider dependent and may occur or not occur based on which provider a patient is seeing in the office. The goal is to standardize breastfeeding teaching throughout our outpatient offices and amongst our providers, as well as standardize documentation of this teaching. Ultimately, this is a required step for our hospital to earn the "Baby Friendly" designation. We are the only hospital in Philadelphia that does not currently have this designation, and the City of Philadelphia would like for all hospitals to achieve this. Other local hospitals have found the outpatient teaching component to be the most challenging part of earning this designation.

Jill Giordano Farmer, DO
Assistant Professor, Neurology
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical Leaders G1

About the Project: This project will bring awareness to the constellation of conditions under the umbrella of Functional Neurological Disorders, initially focusing of Functional Movement Disorders. It will also lay the foundation for the development of a dedicated multidisciplinary program to manage these patients, the first in Philadelphia, through physical therapy, psychotherapy and social work. One of the aspects of neurology that I am passionate about is Functional Neurology which blends psychiatric and neurologic etiology of disease – this is most commonly seen in Functional Movement Disorders and Non-Epileptic Seizures. These patients are isolated, ostracized and undertreated because it is an area of neurology many practitioners shy away from. I want to create cohesive inpatient and outpatient intense clinic for these patients which would be the first of it's kind in Philadelphia.

Humaira Hussain Khan, MD
Associate Professor, Medicine
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical Leaders G1

About the Project: I aspire to provide an outstanding patient experience at the Drexel Infusion Center by providing patient directed improvements in the quality of care. In addition, I want to improve the operation of our outpatient clinics by providing much needed flexibility in provider scheduling and better management of provider and patient time. This will improve provider accessibility to patients, and increase provider satisfaction, while maintaining stable patient flow throughout the day. I would also like to setup a dedicated musculoskeletal ultrasound clinic.

Nicholas Kuzma, MD
Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dragon Learning Circle: Graduate/Medical Educators

About the Project: The goal of this project is to help faculty thrive in their roles as medical educators. This will be accomplished through a new longitudinal curriculum that will provide faculty with the knowledge and skills they need to be effective in their various teaching and educational roles. "I am on a steering committee that is working to retool professional development at the hospital. I could design a project that aims to strengthen medical education professional development for faculty, including developing ways to get both faculty and administration buy-in. I may be chairing a hospital committee aimed at standardizing handoffs throughout the handoffs (was discussed a few months ago, but haven't heard any updates lately). My project could revolve around strategies to best implement I-PASS hospital wide. My role with sub-interns may be increasing from one clerkship to supervising all pediatric subintern clerkships (tentative). I think there are many leadership projects that will arise from this opportunity, for example standarzing the objectives across the varying sites.

S. Farhan Hasni, MD
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical Leaders G2

About the Project: This is a pilot program initiative to start a cardio-oncology service at the Drexel University/Hahnemann University Hospital Medical Center. The purpose of this program will be to establish a clinical protocol that focuses on maintaining the cardiovascular health of cancer patients and cancer survivors. I have clinical interest in cardio-oncology and I was hoping to help establish a cardio-oncology program here at Drexel.

Nathalie May, MD
Associate Professor, Medicine
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical Leaders G2

About the Project: The objective of this project is to develop a template for the Primary Care offices to ensure there is a mechanism in place for a team member to gather necessary pertinent information for patients who have been hospitalized before an office visit to help with transition of care. By doing so, we can generate revenue by billing more TCM visits and improve provider wellness since a team member will be responsible for accessing the information before the patient arrives for their office visit. Once successful, a similar template can be developed for all outpatient practices including ob/gyn, surgery and multi-specialty practices.

Ryan Offer, MD
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical Leaders G2

About the Project: The term "quadruple aim" has been coined, which incorporates the wellbeing and satisfaction of the physician, which is needed for the success of the Triple Aim. Whether this area becomes a subset of patient satisfaction aim or its own "aim", it is an important issue. I want to develop a way to afford physicians the time to step away from the "never-ending" tasks and bring together physicians across departments to better foster a sense of community and comradery. The result of which, leading to physicians who are reenergized and eager to care for their patients.

David Vearrier, MD
Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical Leaders G2

About the Project: Dr. Vearrier serves on the DUCOM telemedicine committee and is spearheading efforts by the Division of Medical Toxicology to bring telemedicine to emergency department consultations for poisoned patients. Offering telemedicine consultation will improve patient outcomes and provider satisfaction at remote sites, while potentially improving billing for patient care services. The objective of this project is the implementation of an OEND program targeting patients at risk of opioid use disorder or opioid overdose at the time of discharge from an inpatient admission at Hahnemann University Hospital.

Veronica J. Tom, PhD
Associate Professor, Neurobiology and Anatomy
Dragon Learning Circle: Clinical and Basic Scientists

Michael Bouchard, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Dragon Learning Circle: Graduate/Medical Educators

About the Project: I would like to create a committee (consisting of internal and external (including industry partners)) with the role (and authority) to conduct two processes: (1) Review Graduate School programs and courses for relevance, overlap, and redundancy, and work with course directors and program directors to streamline, combine, and update the relevancy of programs when necessary; (2) Create an equitable distribution of funds that rewards streamlining and collaboration and creates an atmosphere of trust that specific programs or program directors will not be favored based on any factor except performance.

Dana C. Farabaugh, MD
Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Office of Educational Affairs
Dragon Learning Circle: Graduate/Medical Educators

About the Project: Establish a robust Interprofessional Education Program into the College of Medicine where learners in different health professions have the opportunity to learn together.  The focus of the sessions will be communication, team dynamics, and understanding roles and responsibilities. Develop a longitudinal curriculum with a focus on teamwork and collaboration among health professionals.

Ayesha Waheed, MD
Associate Professor, Psychiatry
Dragon Learning Circle: Graduate/Medical Educators

About the Project: My project will aim to measure the longitudinal outcomes of diversity using DUCOM graduates from the past five years. Additionally, I am interested in expanding opportunities for diversity and inclusion to residents and fellows at DUCOM. I envision a resident/fellow led Diversity Subcommittee which would work as a liaison between Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) and DUCOM Committee on Diversity and Inclusive Excellence.