In the Know Quick Links – Week of January 18, 2021 – SMPH Intranet

Timely information to help build community within SMPH:

In memory

With a heavy heart, we share the news that Peter Eichman, MD — a former dean of the School of Medicine and Public Health (then called the Medical School) — passed away on Jan. 7 at the age of 95. He joined the faculty in 1954 as a professor of neurology, a position he held for nearly five decades. He was appointed dean in 1965 and played a major role in making our academic medical center into what it is today. Read more

Resources for everyone

Safer Badgers/COVID-19 Testing updates: Testing sites are now in their second week of operation. Please review:
- Friday’s message with important updates about campus testing: Effective Sunday, Jan. 24, campus testing will transition to drop-in only. Please note: while Badger Wellness Ambassadors will begin working across campus on Jan. 25, enforcement of the building access restrictions based on your digital Badger Badge will not begin until Feb. 1.
- Wednesday’s employee message and graduate/professional student message
- Safer Badgers app (used to make testing appointments and manage your health history): view a new video demonstration
  - In addition to the iOS version released previously, the Android version of the Safer Badgers app is now available in the Google Play store.
  - If you installed the beta version of the Android app, you must follow these instructions, or you will lose any negative test results obtained through the app and your badge will reset to “building access denied” until you record another negative test.
- how to test successfully: 1) hydrate early in the day, and rinse your mouth with water 1 h before testing, 2) in the 60 min prior to your test, no liquids, food, gum, toothpaste, smoking, etc. (NPO in clinical terms), 3) “pool the drool” under your tongue as you approach the test site. A 1-min video demonstration is available.
- University Health Services is seeking additional staff for test sites. With supervisor approval, employees can dedicate some of their paid working hours as voluntary COVID-19 Health Technicians
The Kern National Network (KNN) for Caring & Character in Medicine will present “Human Flourishing, Caring and Character in the Medical Profession: To What End?” on Jan. 26 from 4 to 5 p.m. During this free online event — the first in a series — Andrea Leep Hunderfund, MD, from Mayo; Bonnie Miller, MD, from Vanderbilt; and John Luk, MD, from UT-Austin will lead an interactive discussion on the concepts of caring and character within medicine and engage in a conversation with other healthcare professionals on the topic of promoting human flourishing. Continuing Education credits are available. Details and registration instructions are here. KNN is a national network of seven medical schools, including SMPH and the Medical College of Wisconsin, dedicated to advancing caring and character in medicine with the goal of promoting human flourishing.
Candidate visits are occurring in the search for the Chair of the Department of Neuroscience. A schedule of visits and presentations is available on the Leadership Search Candidate Visit page.
The first Global Health Tuesday webinar titled “COVID in Ecuador” will be offered by the UW–Madison Global Health Institute on Jan. 26. Avriel Rose Diaz, executive director of Walking Palms Global Health, will discuss local and national reactions to the coronavirus pandemic and how those measures impacted the interconnected social and economic systems essential to maintaining quality public health. Read more and register
Call for abstracts for the annual Global Health Symposium (on April 14). “Fostering Resilience Through Indigenous Wisdom & Scientific Knowledge,” which is co-sponsored by the Native American Center for Health Professions, will bring together a diverse set of speakers, and we hope to UW and community faculty, staff, clinicians and students will submit virtual poster presentations. New this year: A student (undergraduate, graduate, professional) poster contest with $500 scholarship prizes. Deadline for submitting an abstract: Feb. 15. Read more
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has approved University Health Services to begin vaccinating eligible members of the campus community under the state’s COVID-19 vaccination program. Most individuals at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who meet Phase 1a eligibility should have received confirmation via email from UHS. The initial phase of vaccination includes frontline health care workers and others in direct contact with COVID-19 patients, or in direct contact with the virus that causes COVID-19 or virus specimens. Eligible UW–Madison employees who have dual appointments at UW Health should have received more information from the health system. Read more
Midpoint employee performance conversations (for the time period of July 1, 2020-December 31, 2020) should be completed no later than February 19, 2021. Midpoint conversations are for all full- and part-time (non-faculty) academic and university staff and limited appointees who are not within their evaluative (probationary) period. See PDMP resources for more information.
Professional development opportunities: Several upcoming continuing education opportunities are available through UW–Madison Office of Human Resources.

The Department of Employee Trust Funds will begin distributing employees’ Jan. 1, 2021 Wisconsin Retirement System Annual Statement of Benefits in April, after 2020 account data reconciliation processes have been completed. The statement is a summary of an employee’s year-end WRS retirement account information. To learn more about the WRS Annual Statement of Benefits, watch this ETF video or visit the My Statement of Benefits web page.
Deadline approaching: The Center for Urban Population Health, which is affiliated with SMPH, UW-Milwaukee, and Aurora Research Institute, is recruiting for a new director (40% position). The deadline to apply is Feb. 1, 2021. Read more
Deadline extended to Jan. 31: The Wisconsin Medical Journal (WMJ) is seeking artwork to illustrate a special issue on the impact of race and racism on the health of people in Wisconsin. Works in the following media are invited: photography, digital design, or well-rendered photographs of painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, or textile/fiber art. WMJ is a peer-reviewed, indexed journal owned jointly by SMPH and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Learn more

Resources for researchers

January is national mentoring month and a 10-episode podcast series on mentoring is being released, based on a National Academies report chaired by Angela Byars-Winston, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine. Tune in
Abstracts in original adult and pediatric emergency care research for the 29th annual Wisconsin Emergency Medicine Research Forum are due Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. Read more
The February CHI² Informatics Seminar on Feb. 11 at 11:00 a.m. to noon titled “Access All of Us Research Program Data” features Dorothy Farrar-Edwards, PhD, professor of kinesiology and medicine and All of Us co-PI and Kelsey Mayo, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center sharing researcher engagement activities through the All of Us Research Program and the Researcher Workbench. Read more and download a flyer, and Register
UW-Madison’s virtual 2021 Data Science Research Bazaar will occur throughout February on the theme Data Science for the Social Good. Read more
Human subjects research update: Phase 2 Restart of Clinical Research, which was originally slated to end on December 31, has been extended and will continue into 2021. Please be aware that research teams still need to submit a request for approval for both new studies, and studies that are reopening. Read more
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education is hosting a Research Forward initiative to stimulate and support highly innovative and groundbreaking research at the UW–Madison. A cover sheet with a 300-word abstract was due December 21, 2020. The complete proposal is due February 1, 2021. Maximum funding award $500,000. Read more

Resources for medical educators and clinicians

The Kern National Network (KNN) for Caring & Character in Medicine will present “Human Flourishing, Caring and Character in the Medical Profession: To What End?” on Jan. 26 from 4 to 5 p.m. During this free online event — the first in a series — Andrea Leep Hunderfund, MD, from Mayo; Bonnie Miller, MD, from Vanderbilt; and John Luk, MD, from UT-Austin will lead an interactive discussion on the concepts of caring and character within medicine and engage in a conversation with other healthcare professionals on the topic of promoting human flourishing. Continuing Education credits are available. Details and registration instructions are here. KNN is a national network of seven medical schools, including SMPH and the Medical College of Wisconsin, dedicated to advancing caring and character in medicine with the goal of promoting human flourishing.
January is national mentoring month and a 10-episode podcast series on mentoring is being released, based on a National Academies report chaired by Angela Byars-Winston, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine. Tune in
Save the Date: SMPH Medical Education Day will occur on May 27, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. as a virtual event featuring keynote speaker Cynthia Nebel, PhD of Vanderbilt University. The event is open to all SMPH faculty and staff and will feature professional development opportunities, engaging workshops and oral presentation sessions that highlight education initiatives and innovation. Registration and agenda will be announced in mid-April. Read more
For clinical researchers: Abstracts in original adult and pediatric emergency care research for the 29th annual Wisconsin Emergency Medicine Research Forum are due Feb. 5, 2021. Read more
UW Health has updated their testing requirements for learners doing clinical rotations after winter break. Existing guidelines were changed to include the following (see point 6 of this document on U-Connect): “For learners taking semester breaks of 2 weeks or more in length, and new learners entering for spring 2021 semester, a negative COVID test is required within 96 hours before their scheduled return to or start of clinical rotations. Test results should be submitted to CareerPathways@uwhealth.org, along with the name of the program and clinical rotation assignment.” Please note that this requirement differs from university testing requirements for access to university buildings starting on Jan. 25. Learners on clinical rotations will be expected to abide by both requirements.

Upcoming Events: Anti-Racism and/or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

SMPH Spring 2021 Initiative: Advance Health by Acting Against Racism. The MLK Day event was the kick-off of a series of events and a toolkit of resources that will be highlighted throughout the semester. A new webpage for this initiative serves as the one-stop-shop for our anti-racism events this spring, as well as others on campus and resources for further learning.
SMPH presented a Martin Luther King, Jr. event on Friday, January 15, 2021 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. featuring a talk and Q&A with Tito Izard, MD, President and CEO of Milwaukee Health Services Inc., an independent not-for-profit Federally Qualified Health Center. Watch the recording
On Jan. 25, 2021, the University of Wisconsin–Madison will welcome journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson as the keynote speaker for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Wilkerson is the author of “Caste” and “The Warmth of Other Suns,” and she is the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Wilkerson will discuss connections and reflections on the messages and life of Martin Luther King Jr. in researching and writing “Caste.” This will be a Q&A-style event. Learn more and register
Native American Center for Health Professions Distinguished Lecture series: The first talk in this spring 2021 series will occur on Feb. 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with a presentation titled “Menominee’s Journey to a Culture of Health” by Jerry Waukau Sr., Tribal Health Administrator, Menominee Nation, and Wendell Waukau, MA, ES, Superintendent for Menominee Indian School District. Download a flyer (PDF) and RSVP
A lecture on unconscious bias in medicine titled, “Who, Me Biased? The Reality and the Solutions to Unconscious Bias in Medicine,” will be held on March 9, 2021 from noon-1:00 p.m. with Narjust Duma, MD, assistant professor (CHS), Department of Medicine. Dr. Duma’s research is focused on understanding the challenges faced by underrepresented groups in medicine, improving the diversity of our medical workforce and the effects of unconscious bias in medicine and medical education. This lecture is hosted by the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute and The Alliance of Women Alzheimer’s Researchers in Wisconsin. Register.