COMSEP Annual Meeting Update – Virtual!

The COMSEP leadership has made the difficult decision to move the 2021 annual conference to a virtual format. Originally scheduled to take place in Long Beach, CA, April 6-9, 2021, we will now be meeting virtually over those same dates. While we had hoped to be in person, dancing and hugging in true COMSEP fashion, the health and wellbeing of our members and attendees is paramount. With the future of travel for early 2021 unknown and budget constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we feel this is the best decision.

Rest assured, your COMSEP Annual Meeting Committee is working tirelessly to ensure our virtual Annual Conference still provides the experience our attendees have come to know, love and depend on. With making this decision now, our planners still have ample time to create a dynamic and robust meeting and you, our valued members, can submit workshops and abstracts with the knowledge that we will be meeting virtually.

We encourage you to still block our meeting dates on your calendar to ensure you are available, and present, during the conference. More details to be made available as they develop, but be sure to save the date for April 6-9, 2021!

Sincerely,
Joseph Gigante, MD
President, COMSEP

-10/14/2020

Pediatric Residency Program Virtual Open House Repository

Are you a medical student looking to attend a virtual pediatric residency program open house? Or a faculty member looking to share information on your pediatric residency program virtual open house?

Please click here to access COMSEP’s Pediatric Residency Program Virtual Open House Repository.

We hope that you find this new repository helpful!

-Fall 2020

COMSEP Grant Proposal Call

Dear COMSEP Colleagues,

I am delighted to inform you that the application system for COMSEP Grant Proposals is open for submission. You can access the system via this link https://www.comsep.org/grants/login.cfm

Proposals are due by Friday, December 4th 2020, by 5:00 pm Pacific time. 

In lieu of the Letter of Intent (LOI) process that we have offered in the past as a means for COMSEP members to get feedback on scholarly ideas, this year we have modified our process in consideration of the likely impact of the current pandemic on our lives. While the deadline for the formal submission of the application is December 4, 2020, we encourage potential applicants to submit a ‘pre-proposal’ (optional) using the same format and structure as the full application, if you would like feedback on any aspect of your submission. The ‘pre-proposal’ should be submitted as a single PDF and emailed to lbutani@ucdavis.edu as opposed to being submitted via the on line portal. You do not need to include letters of support or evidence of IRB submission with the pre-proposal.

The deadline for the ‘pre-proposal’ is September 4th 2020 at 5 pm pacific time. This will give you adequate time to make modifications to the grant proposal, should you choose to do so, before the December 4, 2020 deadline.

Please carefully read the information on the right side of the COMSEP Grant Application System page:  2020 Call for Proposals to Advance Scholarship in COMSEP.  Then on the left side of the COMSEP Grant Application System page you will see the items that you are required to fill in or enter.  Note that all information after your name and institution must be uploaded in PDF format only.  When you have completed and uploaded each item, you will have completed the submission process; once submitted the system will not permit modifications to the Proposal.

This is an exciting opportunity for COMSEP members to advance their educational scholarship with innovative research focused on enhancing the quality and advancing undergraduate pediatric medical education.  Should you have any questions about your grant preparation, please do not hesitate to contact me at lbutani@ucdavis.edu.

Sincerely
Lavjay Butani, MD MACM
Chair, COMSEP Grant Committee

-Fall 2020

COMSEP STATEMENT ON RACIAL INJUSTICE

Over the past days, across the U.S. and around the world, we are experiencing a range of emotions-anger, sadness, grief, and anguish at the recent senseless deaths of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.  These tragic deaths are only recent examples of racism and injustice that has plagued the U.S.  We mourn these lost lives in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in which Black Americans are dying at twice the rate of others in the U.S.

Life is to be valued and protected.  We as an organization do not tolerate racism, prejudice, hatred or violence in any form. As a community of diverse educators, learners and scholars we will be united by inclusion and diversity.  We also believe in the transformative power of education.  We need to strengthen our efforts to address structural racism and the adverse effects it has on our learners, faculty members and children’s health.

So what can we do? How can we address this?  Below are some resources we would like to share with you on race and anti-racism. It is by no means an all-inclusive list but it is a start. We hope these resources increase awareness and can stimulate change.  We encourage you to share other resources you think our members will find helpful.

As you may recall the theme for the cancelled 2020 annual meeting was ”Championing Diversity and Inclusion in Pediatric Medical Education.”  Dr. Quinn Capers was our Miller-Sarkin speaker and although we were unable to hear him speak live we did record his talk. If you haven’t already done so we encourage you to watch his presentation on “Implicit Bias in Healthcare and Medical School Admissions”. Click here to watch.

Please reach out to any member of the Executive Committee if you have ideas of how we can better support our members during this difficult time or if you have any actionable ideas on how we can continue our commitment to spark change.

Sincerely,

COMSEP Executive Committee

-Fall 2020

COMSEP List Serve

The COMSEP Listserve has a new address. To send a message to the COMSEP community, please email your post to list@listserv1.comsep.org. This list will continue to be moderated to ensure that there is no spam or commercial product advertised, other than that developed by our own members.

-10/11/2018

2020 Grant Awardees

Improving Pediatric Residency Application Process Recommendations

2020 Grant Awardees

Sarkin Foundation Awardee

Melissa Roy, MD, Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, Baton Rouge, LA

Title: EQIC: Early Quality Improvement Curriculum

Mentor: Michael Bolton, MD

APPD-LEARN COMSEP Grant Awardee

Veronica Gonzalez, MD, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth

Title: Predictors of Success: From Medical Student to Pediatric Resident

Mentor: Mark Hormann, MD

Meghan Treitz, MD, University of Colorado Denver

Title: A Tool to Evaluate the Quality of Narrative Assessment Data

Mentor: Jan Hanson, PhD,

-Fall 2020