Friday, April 28, 2006
San Francisco Marriott
San Francisco, CA

Review of the new PIF: The opening session was devoted to a review of the new Program Information Form (PIF), effective for all programs with an RRC site visit notification date after January 1, 2006, as well as a presentation of the rationale behind some of the changes. The discussion was led by Carol Carraccio from the University of Maryland and the Pediatric RRC, as well as Jerry Vasilias, Executive Director for the Pediatric RRC and Caroline Fischer, the Senior Accreditation Administrator. Although there are many significant changes with additional areas specified for documentation of competencies, the majority of the form is still devoted to describing process. It was mentioned by the panel that the current PIF is but the first in what will likely be a series of revisions in the future, hopefully with a greater emphasis on documenting outcomes. One result of the changes has been a decrease in the bulk of the actual PIF document secondary to streamlining of some of the information required in previous editions.

Fall meeting: There was general consensus that the Mid-Atlantic Region should convene again for a fall meeting, which would be the fourth such consecutive fall meeting. The issue of funding was brought up for discussion, both for the meeting itself, as well as for additional projects like local travel grants for visiting faculty interchange within our region, and possibly research grants for educational projects. Three options were discussed:

1. Charge annual regional dues for each program, regardless of whether or not the program participated in the fall meeting. If this option were pursued, it was recommended that this should remain separate from the APPD annual dues collection process.

2. Pursue commercial support of our educational endeavors, eg. sponsorship of the fall meeting. It was suggested that one of the residency education software companies might be an appropriate sponsor for the region’s activities.

3. Charge a nominal fee for each program’s participation in the regional meeting to cover expenses. To date this has not been a problem as the host site has used discretionary funds to cover the cost of the meeting.

The general consensus among the participants was that we should continue to keep things simple for now, and if any costs were incurred for the fall meeting, that all individual participants should contribute to covering the expense. We also agreed that this could be a further topic of discussion at the fall regional meeting after more extensive research is made regarding the details and feasibility of the above options.

There was also general consensus that last year’s format for the fall meeting was well received and should be duplicated for this year’s meeting. We will again pursue participation by 7 or 8 programs to highlight unique projects or educational endeavors that their programs have embarked upon, and that might be of general interest to our regional group. We will also be seeking a plenary speaker, either from one of our member programs, or from outside sources. And lastly, we will also have our afternoon breakout sessions amongst chief residents, coordinators, and program directors/associate program directors.

Thus far, we have two potential sites for the fall meeting. One option was that Paul Bellino had offered last fall to again host the meeting this year at Geisinger Medical Center. The other option was that Renuka Verma from Monmouth Medical Center in New Jersey had offered her site near the Jersey shore, which her institution would
financially sponsor to include possibly a guest speaker. If there are preferences for either site, please e-mail your preference directly to me at Clifton.yu@na.amedd.army.mil separate from the general listserv.

Faculty Development Network: Given the new RRC requirements for faculty development, the idea of developing a regional network of educators within our programs that we could share for visiting lectureships, workshops, etc. was discussed. This idea will be a further topic of discussion as well at the fall meeting as we gain more input of those interested in participating and those having material to share.

Procedure Logs: Two versions of a letter signed by our APPD leadership were circulated addressing pediatric program directors’ concerns about continuing to utilize the case log system in it’s current form. Although this issue will be elevated by Drs. Sectish and McGregor with the ACGME, it was suggested that we as a region could develop internal standards based on studying procedural outcomes in our programs that would be the first outcomes based criteria for procedures done by pediatric residents. Interested participants who would like to collaborate on this project should contact Lynne Yao from the Inova Fairfax Program at lynne.yao@inova.com At the least, we anticipate a survey amongst our listserv group of what people believe to be minimum numbers for certain procedures that would constitute competency. We anticipate sharing this information at the fall meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 AM.

Clifton E. Yu MD, FAAP
Program Director
National Capital Consortium Pediatric Residency
APPD Mid-Atlantic Regional Chair
(202) 782-1899
(202) 782-0740 FAX
Clifton.yu@na.amedd.army.mil