Special Interests
Dr. Parekh said hospitalists should be experts in quality-improvement (QI) and patient safety, and HM must incorporate that expertise into daily practice. However, he said, SHM’s largest educational focus is the new Focused Practice in Hospital Medicine pathway to American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) recertification.
In describing the future of this dynamic field, Dr. Weise raised concerns about managing the pipeline of approximately 2,500 new residents turning out each year and the potential for “losing intimacy” among SHM members—which he described as “the curse of being a champion.”
“IT is the only solution,” he added, “and identifying new and better ways of communicating.”
Competency-Based Train-ing (CBT) is critical to the development of new hospitalists, Dr. Wiese explained, as a supplement for what isn’t taught in residency. He posed a question: Should residencies last four or five years to incorporate additional training and career planning? “It’s an MBA paradigm of learning what we do,” he said. “What compels residents to join fellowship programs and earn $50K per year when they can start practicing and earning $150K?”
Educating the membership requires innovation and more than just bench-to-bedside research, Dr. Wiese added. Translational research and best-evidence practices will improve the field. “Five or 10 programs are rock stars,” he said, “but there are 377 that are terrible.”
Future SHM goals include a vision of having hospitalists hold 20% of all Internal Medicine Residency Program Director positions; developing best practices, not unfunded mandates; establishing protected academic time; and encouraging mentorship that positions hospitalists as heroes for the next generation.
An education committee sub-group has been tasked to focus on the recruitment of hospitalists and expose them to the best the society and field have to offer. HM10
—Phaedra Cress
