[Starla Pathak]

Hello Everyone –

I would like to offer a perspective in support of the Board’s decision to bring this collaboration with AOA/CORD.  In my previous role (many years ago) as one of the founding members and 1st Chair of the ObGyn Coordinators organization, we were welcomed into ACOG (same as AAOS is to Orthopaedics) where we didn’t have to pay separately for meeting space or for food for our meetings.  The difference being is that the Educational Department of ACOG is where the Program Director’s organization (CREOG) is “housed”.  In ObGyn, the PDs organization was not and is not a stand-alone organization, like AOA-CORD.  As a result, the ACOG/Educational Division provided support for not only the PDs to have their meetings (Spring meeting and summer meeting), but also for ARCOG (Program Coordinator’s organization) to have their meetings in conjunction with the PDs where Education of our Residents, Faculty and Coordinators/Administrators was the sole focus and meeting space was provided at no cost.  These CREOG meetings are traditionally 3-4 days in length and allowed much more interaction between the coordinators, PDs and RRC members. etc.

For this reason, I think that moving forward with a solid collaboration with AOA/CORD where we are all able to focus on education, collaboration and support of our programs is an outstanding move.  I know that many of us have enjoyed being able to go to the larger AAOS meetings, but honestly, we don’t interact with the PDs that often and the opportunities to learn at AAOS Annual meeting itself are non-existant – by collaborating with AOA-CORD, I believe we will have better meetings in locations that are not as expensive or cost prohibitive as the cities that can accommodate the larger AAOS Annual meeting and we will have an opportunity to really grow the education enterprise.

Starla Pathak
Tufts Orthopaedics

 

[Starla Pathak]

Hi all –

My understanding from some insiders at AO is that they have significantly decreased the number of grants being awarded for the AO courses, which is unfortunate.  Another issue we’ve encountered over the past year and half is that AO will no longer allow PGY-1s to register for the course until they have had 6 months of residency training, which has also affected our rotation schedules.  We’ve now had to shift the AO Course back to early in the PGY-2 year.  I know budgets are an issue for all of us and I’m honestly not sure what options we have as other companies are being very selective in terms of what they will support.  I have been adding the AO course(s) into my budget as a line item.  Would love to hear what others are doing to combat this shortfall.

Starla Pathak
Tufts

 

[Starla Pathak]

Good morning.  At Tufts Medical Center, we will be interviewing virtually.  Our Hospital GME is mandating that all programs interview virtually and can offer in-person 2nd looks as long as we can prove that such visits will not be a show of preference to candidates that might come to visit.

[Starla Pathak]

Artina –

Wishing you the very best as you continue on your journey.  Happy Holidays to you and your family.

Starla Pathak
Manager, Educational Programs
Tufts Orthopaedics

 

[Starla Pathak]

Tufts will be doing all interview virtually as mandated by our institution.

 

Starla

[Starla Pathak]

At Tufts, we will be doing both residency and fellowship interviews virtually.  Our institution has mandated that all programs be virtual again this year.   I would like to offer some “food for thought”.  During the past two+ years, we’ve all had to shift our “normal” and consider different formats for recruiting/interviewing across the board.  I know that we, our program directors and medical students would all like to be back to an in-person format, however, for those programs that will be interviewing in-person – how will you/your programs handle the inevitable situation where a medical student’s flight is cancelled at the last minute and/or their flight is significantly delayed and they can’t make the interview? How will you reschedule – knowing your faculty already give up clinic and/or OR time or will you offer to reschedule the interview?  How will students be able to afford the insanely high cost of airfare, hotels (for those whose programs don’t cover that expense for applicants) and other travel-related expenses?  I think Laurie has a good point when she points out that the student loan window has closed for this year.  The excuse or reasoning that some have used that all students get loans isn’t a financially sound reason to take out 10s of thousands of dollars to cover travel-related expenses at a time when economically everything is substantially more expensive.  These reasons and the consideration that we have all been living with in terms of considering applications holistically and not relying on the traditional “filters” we may use, as well as the financial considerations for all students not just those that come from an economically disadvantaged situation are reasons enough in my mind that we should continue at least for one more year to be completely virtual.  Again – food for thought.

[Starla Pathak]

Hi all –

I actually reached out to Jason at Thalamus and the text below is what he emailed me – they will be sending those of us who are using Thalamus a guide on how to proceed.

Thank you for confirming this information (we had been made aware prior).  And the good news, is Thalamus can definitely handle this (we’ve done similar in the past with Urology, Plastic Surgery, etc.).

Our team is finalizing instructional materials for programs in how to set this up.  There are two ways to manage this: 1) Private events and 2) Closed Events (and then essentially making the events non-private or open at the end of the 48-hour moratorium).  We’d also recommend programs communicate clearly to the applicants in the Thalamus invite regarding this process.  Either method will work, and the programs can choose which one better suits their needs.  We will have these materials available likely be early next week, and will include a guide with step-by-step instructions.

More to follow from our team, but yes, please reassure the coordinators in the forum that Thalamus has this covered.

Please let us know how else we can assist and more to follow.

Best,

-Jason

JASON REMINICK, MD, MBA, MS
CEO & Founder, Thalamus
jason.reminick@thalamusgme.com
+1 516 359 2924

 

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