At the core of the American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation’s mission is to attract the best and brightest trainees into a career in rheumatology. To do this, the REF has an extensive portfolio of awards and grants that provide support during critical career stages. One special award, the ACR REF Clinician Scholar Education Award, supports unique individuals who serve as excellent role models for future rheumatologists and rheumatology health professionals.

The REF is pleased to announce the newest class of Clinician Scholar Educator Award Recipients. The 2010 recipients are:

Eugene Kissin, MD
Boston University
A Competency Based Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Curriculum

As an increasing number of rheumatology training programs adopt musculoskeletal ultrasound into the course of fellowship, the development of a standardized training and competency testing procedure for musculoskeletal ultrasound becomes imperative. This project will develop a year-long, blended-learning curriculum which would include Web-based teaching materials, quizzes, ultrasound image submission for review, as well as a hands-on, 20 hour course on to standardize and improve scanning technique. The data generated from student test results can be used as the basis for establishing competency-based training and certification for musculoskeletal ultrasound techniques.

Seetha Monrad, MD
University of Michigan Medical Center
Methodology for teaching medical students rheumatology

The overreaching goals of this project are to optimize undergraduate rheumatologic medical education and provide a resource for educators interested in reforming their own curricula. To that end, this project will investigate the effectiveness of educational methods for achieving rheumatology learning objectives in the second year musculoskeletal sequence at the University of Michigan.

David Sherry, MD
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Developing OSCEs for Pediatric Rheumatology

The goal of this project is to give fellows meaningful feedback regarding the core competencies
—especially focusing on knowledge, skills, communication, professionalism and systems based practice—by developing a pediatric rheumatology objective structured clinical examination instrument to assess the performance of fellows in pediatric rheumatology as they advance through the three years of their fellowship. The tool will be designed to be used “out-of-the box,” with standardized instructional materials for all participants and a validated scoring system. Ultimately, this evaluation tool will enhance fellowship education by giving program directors a new tool to evaluate fellows’ performance, give structured feedback and will expose medical students and residents to the field.

These recipients will complete their REF sponsored projects during the period from July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2013.

About the ACR Research and Education Foundation
The American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation was established in 1985 as a 501(c)(3) with a mission of advancing research and training to improve the health of people with rheumatic diseases. Since its founding, the REF has promoted and advanced the field of rheumatology by funding research, training and education opportunities for clinicians, students, health professionals, researchers and academic institutions. As a highly effective medical research organization with remarkable efficiency in directing donor dollars to its mission, the REF has received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest and most utilized independent evaluator of charities. On average, 90 cents out of every dollar donated to the REF is used to fund its extensive award and grant program.

Source:  American College of Rheumatology (ACR)