MPPDA Bulletin
December 2014

Happy Holidays!
I hope all med-peds program directors and your residents also are finding some time to be with family and enjoy the holidays amongst the working double time and other strange schedules that are inevitable this time of year. I wanted to get a brief bulletin posted before the end of the year with some things to anticipate for next month as the New Year gets started.

Nominations/Submission opening in January
Stay tuned for several nominations that will be open in January.  These will include the Walter W. Tunnesen, Jr.  Award, the new MPPDA Leadership in Med-Peds Award, and poster submissions for the annual meeting (which is earlier this year than last year!). Here are those descriptions for you to consider.

2015 Tunnessen Award

The MPPDA Walter W. Tunnessen, Jr., MD, Award honors a graduating medicine-pediatrics  resident who demonstrates many of the qualities that were admired in Dr. Tunnessen.  The Walter W. Tunnessen, Jr., MD, Award is presented each spring, alternating between the MPPDA Meeting and the Association of Pediatric Program Directors annual Spring Meeting.

Recognizing Dr. Tunnessen’s dedication and gifts as an educator, clinician, and advocate for children, MPPDA has established this award in his honor. Program directors may nominate one of their fourth-year residents for this award by submitting a letter (up to two pages) describing the qualities and accomplishments of the resident in the following areas:

• Education: the resident should be recognized by faculty, peers, and students as an excellent teacher and role model. • Clinical Care: the resident should demonstrate compassion, altruism, and outstanding communication skills with patients and families. • Advocacy: the resident should show awareness of the impact that the larger community has on the health of children and adults, and should show evidence of advocacy on behalf of patients or the larger community.

2015 MPPDA Leadership in Med-Peds Award

This award is given to a med-peds physician who has made a significant contribution to med-peds as a profession. The recipient is recognized by the MPPDA executive committee as someone who is outstanding in their clinical field, recognized as a national leader in med-ped;  and has made a significant contribution to the education of med-peds residents, promotion of med-peds to students, supported faculty development of med-peds faculty, and has supported the development and betterment  of med-peds as a discipline. The recipient is a physician the MPPDA exec members aspire to emulate.

 2015 MPPDA Poster Session

The abstracts for posters for the MPPDA annual meeting will be judged based on educational value, originality, and relevance to med-peds training. Please consider which content area your work pertains to- we identify 5 content areas that match our MPPDA committee – accreditation, curriculum, recruitment, research and transition.  Full details coming from AAIM soon.

National Med-Peds Graduate Database
We will be compiling an MPPDA med-peds alumni database starting next month. If you have a spreadsheet you keep, this will be as simple as asking your coordinator to send that spreadsheet to the central coordinator collecting this data. If you do not have a graduate list, we would ask that you begin to create one.  More details coming soon.

Upcoming Meetings
2015 MPPDA – March 24 (pre-course) and 25th, 2015 Orlando, FL at the Swan and Dolphin Resort
2015 ACGME – San Diego, CA – Feb 26- Mar 1, 2015
2015 APDIM – Houston, TX – April 26-29, 2015

In closing
I hope this bulletin finds you with some time to spend with those most important to you. It is an incredible honor and privilege to be a clinician and educator of med-peds physicians, but it is only part of who we are. Appreciating, investing in, and enjoying those who are most important to us are what sustain us to do what we do and give what we can at work every day.

Happy Holidays,
And the most deliberate, actionable and enjoyable of New Years to you and yours!

Sandi Moutsios, MD
President, MPPDA Director,
Med-Peds Residency Training Program
Vanderbilt University