UofL's Leadership & Innovation in Academic Medicine program expanding

UofL's School of Medicine’s Leadership & Innovation in Academic Medicine (LIAM) 2019 graduates were honored and the class of 2020 announced at a ceremony July 16 at the Novak Center for Children’s Health. Presiding over the ceremony were Toni Ganzel, dean of the School of Medicine, Tracy Eells, vice provost of faculty affairs, Gerard Rabalais, associate dean for School of Medicine faculty development, and Staci Saner, LIAM program director.

The mission of the LIAM program is to develop the next generation of leaders at the Health Sciences Center by investigating how best to apply leadership and innovation principles to influence a group or an organization to achieve a common goal. Faculty enroll in an 11-month training program that includes discussions and team projects.

"The goal of the LIAM program is to engage, equip and inspire young faculty leaders to do their part in transforming the organizational culture on the Health Sciences Center campus," Rabalais said.

Russell Farmer, MD, one of the graduates honored, said the program translated to his personal interactions as well.

“I think the program as a means by which you gain leadership skills is one thing, but for me personally, it’s been more of a life program. LIAM has changed the way I think about almost every daily activity, from being a parent and being a spouse to the way I interact with my friends. It most certainly changed the way I interact with everyone as a professional,” Farmer said. “The LIAM group I participated in has gelled into a group of driven, motivated young leaders with a refreshed, burning desire to improve our medical center and university.”

During the program, the members of the class worked in teams to develop projects to improve some aspect of health care delivery and education at UofL. At the graduation ceremony, the teams presented their projects to incoming program members, program administrators and other graduates. 

LIAM program expanding

Beginning with the 2019-2020 year, LIAM will expand to include faculty members in other schools on the Health Sciences Center Campus as well as Belknap Campus. The third cohort will include three faculty members each from the Schools of Nursing and Dentistry and five faculty members from the School of Arts & Sciences. As well as participate in the discussions, the members from Belknap Campus will explore how a similar leadership program may be tailored to the needs of that campus. For the team projects, the A&S faculty will be placed on their own team to complete a project specific to the Belknap Campus.

“Having these faculty members participate will allow us to pilot a LIAM-like leadership program that specifically addresses the needs of Belknap Campus,” Rabalais said. “The program also will function to align LIAM and any similar program on Belknap Campus to the new strategic plan being developed for the university.”

LIAM 2019-2020 class

• David N. Brown, PhD (A&S, Physics)
• Linda C. Fuseller, PhD (A&S, Biology)
• Brandon McCormack, PhD, (A&S, Pan-African Studies)
• Susan M. Ryan, PhD, (A&S, English)
• Siobhan Smith-Jones, PhD, (A&S, Communications)
• Himabindu G. Dukka, BDS (Dentistry)
• James L. Harrison, DMD (Dentistry)
• Marija Sasek, DMD (Dentistry)
• Jennifer P. Daily, MD (Family & Geriatric Medicine)
• Suzanne E. McGee, MD (Internal Medicine)
• Tamer Mohamed, MA, PhD (Medicine)
• Arpita Lakhotia, MD (Neurology)
• Michael Sweeney, MD (Neurology)
• Mary DeLetter, PhD (Nursing)
• Luz Huntington-Moskos, PhD (Nursing)
• Beverly R. Williams-Coleman, DNP (Nursing)
• Rodolfo A. Zamora, MD (Orthopaedics)
• Kimberly E. Pate, MD (Medicine, Palliative Medicine)
• Ziyan Salih, MD (Pathology)
• Brit Anderson, MD (Pediatrics)
• David W. Lohr, MD (Pediatrics)
• Maria Mendoza, MD (Pediatrics)
• Jennifer H. Stiff, MD (Pediatrics)
• William T. Tse, MD (Pediatrics)
• Chithra P. Ram, MD (Radiology)
• Tracy VanMeter, MD (Radiology)
• Michael E. Egger, MD (Surgery)

Class of 2019 team projects

Active Learning: This group was focused on increasing the active, engaged and self-directed learning opportunities within the medical school curriculum. The project focused on the third year clerkship level and used the OB/GYN clerkship to pilot a new, engaged learning curriculum using interactive, online topic tournaments. The team plans to present their project to the curriculum committee as a model that can be adopted.

Team members: Priya Chandan, MD, MPH (Neurological Surgery), Sushil Gupta, MD, (Pediatrics), Jennifer Hamm, MD, (OB/GYN & Women’s Health), David Haustein, MD (Neurological Surgery), Rana Latif, MD (Anesthesiology) and Melissa Potts, MD (Radiology).

Patient Access to ULP Clinics: Improving access to health care is important to patients, providers and health care systems. One way to improve access is utilizing technology with telemedicine. Changes to Kentucky law in 2019 make this service more readily available and UofL Physicians (ULP) providers can be on the forefront to improve patient care and access to services.

Team members: Lynzee Cornell, PhD (Otolaryngology & Communicative Disorders), Bridget Hittepole, MD (Medicine) and Christina Terrell, MD (Psychiatry).

Effective Employee Engagement: This team presented the results of an engagement survey administered to UofL Health providers, as well as targeted interventions to address the identified barriers to engagement.

Team members: Alard Pascale, PhD (Microbiology & Immunology), Thomas Altstadt, MD (Neurological surgery), Deborah Kozik, DO (CT Surgery), Eli Pendleton, MD (Family & Geriatric Medicine), Vikas Singh, MD (Medicine) and Jennifer Le, MD (Pediatrics).

Patient Length of Stay at University of Louisville Hospital: Using principles and lessons from LIAM 2.0, this team examined ways to improve physician engagement with patients from presentation to discharge at UofL Hospital to streamline care and reduce the length of stay.

Team members: Laura Bishop, MD (Medicine – Pediatrics), Camilo Castillo, MD (Neurological Surgery), Russell Farmer, MD (Surgery), Josephine Gomes MD, (Family & Geriatric Medicine) and Abigail Stocker, MD (Medicine).