1. < Message from the Chair

Over the past few weeks, our faculty and trainees have been taking the national stage through presentations and participation in annual conferences. In this week’s reflection, I shine the spotlight on LEADERS in cardiology, hospital medicine, and medical education who are showcasing to colleagues nationwide our leadership in advancing research, patient care, and training programs. Join me as we travel from Boston to San Diego with a few stops in between to celebrate our department of medicine (DoM) community members who are shining bright at this year’s national meetings.

Cardiology at ACC.24, April 6-8, 2024, in Atlanta, GA

I begin with the American College of Cardiology who hosted thousands of cardiovascular professionals at ACC.24 in Atlanta, GA. Each year, this forum serves as an opportunity to debate and discuss innovation in cardiovascular research and care with the brightest minds in cardiology. The DoM had another strong showing with 33 abstracts, posters, and presentations including contributions from 25 general and subspecialty fellows. I was pleased to learn that 55.6%, over half of the cardiology fellowship program, participated in this year’s national meeting. Additionally, 10 internal medicine residents and two medical students shone bright at the event. The DoM also secured one national FIT Jeopardy Competition slot at ACC.24 which invites friendly competition between ACC chapters to test their clinical knowledge in the field.

You may view a list of the abstracts, posters, and presentations that our trainees presented over the course of three days at ACC.24 by clicking below.

Hospital Medicine at Society of Hospital Medicine Conference, April 12-15, in San Diego, CA

Next, we turn our attention to the hospital medicine section whose members participated in two national conferences this past month. First, I highlight our hospitalist faculty and trainees who made waves at the Society of Hospital Medicine Conference. The SHM hosted Converge 2024 in San Diego from April 12-15. The Converge event brought together hospital medicine professionals to learn about the latest research and practices in medicine through over 100 educational sessions hosted over the course of four days. Here are a few of the DoM Hospitalists whose leadership in the field contributed to the educational programming at Converge.

Ruchi Jain, DO, MS presented on the main stage at Converge in the “Best of Research and Innovations 2023” plenary session. Her session titled “Structured Meetings with Junior Hospitalists on Anticipated Complex Discharges” highlights our leadership in mentorship and peer training.

Next, Wendy M. Simon, MD and Andrew Shubov, MD presented ‘Top Advances in Research & Innovations’ oral presentations. Dr. Simon presented “Hospital Follow-Up: Does Provider Continuity, Timing Matter in Reducing Readmissions?”

Dr. Shubov won the Innovation Award for his presentation “Inpatient Integrative Medicine - a Consult Service for Functional Diseases.” Congratulations  Wendy and Andrew!

In poster presentations, Erin P. Dowling, MD presented “Relationship of QI and Work Engagement” and Richard K. Leuchter, MD presented “Projected U.S. Hospital Bed Shortage and Associated Excess Mortality: 2024-2034.”

I would like to give a special shout-out to Tyler Larsen, MD who won the inaugural MED TED Teaching Competition at the national SHM meeting. The session included eight junior hospitalists (within 5 years of training) delivering their best quick teaching sessions.

Section Chief of Hospital Medicine at the VA GLA Dr. Chris Moriates shared the following about Dr. Larsen’s win, “We already know we have the best young hospitalist educators in the country here at VA Greater LA / UCLA.”

I couldn’t agree more, Chris!

Looks like Tyler is destined to be a rock star. I learned that he has already been invited to present again in a full session at next year’s national SHM meeting in Las Vegas.

Hospital Medicine at the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting, April 18-20 in Boston, MA

Now, we move back to the east coast to catch up with hospital medicine faculty who attended the ACP’s Internal Medicine Meeting who themed this year’s annual meeting “Mastering Medicine Together.” At this premiere scientific meeting, Nearly 20 DoM faculty, trainees and medical students from UCLA, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, VA Greater Los Angeles, and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA convened for an exciting three days of poster presentations and panels.

Hospital medicine colleagues from across the country learned from some of the best in the DoM which included:

Resident Posters

DGSOM Student Posters

• Grace Yi "An Immunologic Conundrum: Management of Co-occurring ANCA-Associated Vasculitis and Renal Cell Carcinoma"
• Ghadi Ghanem “Outpatient Hospitalist-Run Procedures Bridge the Gap in Oncology Care”
• Chelse Pan “Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole Induced Rhabdomyolysis in a Critically Ill Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipient” 
• Samantha Garcia “Empowering Expecting Patients: Implementation of a Resident Driven Virtual Prenatal Program.”
• Enat Arega "Stress induced cardiomyopathy and hypoxemic respiratory failure caused by SCUBA diving" 

DoM Education Leaders at Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Week, April 14-17 in Columbus, Ohio

Next, we head to the Midwest where faculty, trainees, and staff who lead our education mission attended the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Week where they joined other AAIM members to discuss emerging topics, best practices, and network with other colleagues who are leading medical education.

Over the course of the three days, they participated in tracks that included:

Mina Ma, MD and Sarah Takimoto, MD presenting the poster "Resident Inclusion in Recruitment to Promote Diversity." Their premise suggests that involving residents in recruitment may serve as a key strategy in fostering greater diversity. Dr. Ma states, “Diversity stands central to our mission of cultivating tomorrow's primary care leaders. This initiative underscores the shared values of our program's leadership and residents in seeking to attract a diverse cohort of future primary care physicians.”

Additionally, the event hosted a chief residents track which welcomed incoming chief residents for targeted education events, professional development and networking opportunities that will set them up for success during their chief year. I should note that we will be formally introducing our incoming class of chief residents very soon, but you may get a sneak peek of who some of them are here!

The residency, fellowship administrators, department and division administrators also participated in educational conferences as well, and I would like to give a shout out to DoM Administrative Director of Education, Doug Carbajal for his leadership in the individualized learning plan workgroup.

DoM Faculty Join the AMA Foundation National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Consortium, April 11-12 in New York, NY

We remain on the east coast to highlight our faculty participating in the AMA Foundation National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Consortium Convening. UCLA was the first to start a LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program. Since its inception in 2019, there are now six programs across the country with many more in development.

Supported by the AMA Foundation, the annual LGBTQ+ fellowship conference unites members from the AMA Foundation board, fellowship commission, fellowship convening workgroup and LGBTQ+ fellows across the country to share knowledge, best practices, plan curricular innovations and collaborate on strategic opportunities that will improve and optimize quality care of LGBTQ+ patients through training and education.

This year’s meeting took place at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. George C. Yen, MD chaired the two-day conference. Fellows from all institutions presented highlights from their training program, focusing on scholarly accomplishments. The meeting also included interactive workshops, plenary speakers, poster sessions and panel discussions.

Celebrating our Early Career Physician Scientist’s Leadership in Research at Home

While many of our faculty, trainees, and staff traveled across the country to highlight their leadership in research, patient care, and education, three of our early career physician scientists stole the spotlight at this week’s DoM Grand Rounds. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Kevin Qian, Dr. Katherine Chen, and PhD Candidate Alex Viloria Winnett for their impactful presentations at this week’s lecture.

With only 20 minutes each, these three physician scientists presented their compelling research in a framework that we were all able to relate to.

Dr. Qian took us on an exciting journey about the process of fat metabolism highlighting the following main points:

• The balance between energy intake and energy expenditure establishes the spectrum of metabolic phenotypes.
• Adipose tissue is an endocrine organ, and proper adipose expansion is critical for metabolic homeostasis.
• Brown fat is a specialized type of fat that “wastes” energy as heat and increases energy expenditure.
• Brown fat is associated with cardiometabolic health, but current approaches to activate brown fat lack specificity
• CLSTN3B is a novel gene that establishes the hallmark multilocular phenotype of brown fat.
• CLSTN3B marks multilocular adipocytes in humans, and a missense variant in CLSTN3B is associated with a higher hemoglobin A1c, implying increased diabetes risk.

Alex Viloria Winnett followed with a riveting overview of insights from his community-based COVID-19 household transmission study, which included daily collection of specimens to understand viral load dynamics and inform testing strategies. Key points included:

• Critical findings show that COVID-19 viral load in saliva and throat swabs reaches high, infectious levels before virus is even detected in nasal swabs, limiting the use of nasal swab tests - especially rapid tests - for early detection.

• Swabbing both nose and throat could enhance test sensitivity, but COVID-19 test manufacturers need to validate that their tests for this specimen type. This improvement in early detection would be especially impactful for the most vulnerable, including the immunocompromised.

• Sequencing the longitudinal host transcriptome reveals the immune response in the upper respiratory mucosa, potentially unlocking early-infection diagnostic biomarkers & informing mucosal vaccine development.

We concluded DoM Grand Rounds with a fascinating look at how homelessness impacts health outcomes, led by Dr. Katherine Chen. Dr. Chen shares that “housing insecurity is an important determinant of health that occurs on a spectrum, with homelessness as the most visible and extreme manifestation.”

She further adds: “even though clinical detection of housing insecurity often begins when a patient experiences complications of homelessness, there are adverse health associations across the entire spectrum of housing insecurity, including not just homelessness but also displacement (being forced to move due to unaffordable housing costs, eviction, or foreclosure) and displacement pressure (worrying about being forced to move).”

In reviewing her two studies, Dr. Chen highlights the following:

• Study 1: California renters who moved due to unaffordable housing experienced worse health outcomes that include psychological distress, increase in ED visits, and fewer preventive care visits.
• Study 2: Examined gentrification's effects on cardiometabolic health in LA County. Results are nuanced with white & older adults improving BP control, and Hispanic adults improving diabetes control.
• The prevalence and distribution of housing insecurity is shaped by our policy environment, which we can change.
• Clinicians can harness patient stories and their position of power in the community to advocate for positive social change.

Thanks to everyone for such an impressive display of scholarship.

Dale

P.S.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, on April 15, we celebrated the 5^th Anniversary of the Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health, led by Drs. Kevin Ghassemi and Jane Yanagawa.

I also had a great visit at the event with two of our outstanding GI fellows Drs. Sarina Lowe (L) and Wendi LeBrett (R).

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