Residents’ Research Posters also earn top spots from ACP’s Illinois Chapter
The American College of Physicians (ACP) has selected the Residency Program at Weiss Memorial Hospital to receive the 2023 ACP Quality Improvement (QI) Award. This is the second consecutive year the program has earned this prestigious national award.
Under the mentorship of Sabah Khan, M.D., a core faculty member of the Internal Medicine Program at Weiss, third year resident Seyma Eroglu, M.D., led a team of first year residents in a QI project focused on improving the delivery of opioids in an inpatient setting.
“This year we were very proactive in opioid awareness, opioid prescriptions, and how to handle opioids in the hospital, with resident teams working on programs in both inpatient and outpatient settings. We were honored to have the inpatient program selected as the winning QI project,” said Dr. Khan.
In her project, “Pain Management in Hospitalized Elderly Patients: A Safe and Effective Approach,” Dr. Eroglu and her team of residents, along with Clinical Pharmacy Specialist Helen Kolodizner and her pharmacy students, developed a method to categorize pain into three grades: mild (0-4), moderate (4-7), and severe (7-10), to help staff identify when opioids were truly needed. The team provided continual staff education to reinforce these guidelines to reduce opioid usage for mild and moderate pain.
This year, ACP also recognized the work of Weiss resident Dr. Sabahat Usmani for her contribution to the ACP’s “I Raise the Rates” for influenza and pneumonia project.
“For the past three to four years we’ve continued working on ACP’s ‘I Raise the Rates’ influenza and pneumonia project. Each year a group of residents lead the education of Arvey Clinic staff, residents and attendings about the importance of increasing the rates of vaccination for pneumonia and influenza,” said Dr. Khan.
Second year residents Drs. Ali Shahbaz Baloch and Rabia Mukhtar earned recognition for their posters from ACP’s Illinois chapter.
Dr. Baloch’s poster, “Assessment and Improvement of Code Status Discussion by Internal Medicine Residents” earned first place and Dr. Mukhtar’s poster, “Vitamin D deficiency predisposes to severe covid infection: An overrated phenomenon or true? A research article to address the question!” earned third place.
Congratulations also go to Drs. Ayesha Saleem, Chandan Sapkota, Shahzaib Najam, and Jalpan Patel who were selected to present their posters at the national meeting in San Diego next month, along with residents Andreina Tarff, M.D. and Jin Young, M.D. who were invited to participate in training for next year’s QI projects.
“I am proud of each team of residents for their dedication to these meaningful projects throughout the year. Through each stage I see them learn, develop, and branch out further in their research, and find joy when they realize the impact they are making,” shared Dr. Khan.
“Heartiest congratulations to all the residents and faculty involved in the presentation of posters at the ACP meeting. Your hard work and dedication have paid off,” added Residency Program Director Shehzad Ali, M.D.