Year 4. October 20. Training the Next Generation of Leaders
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend and share some remarks to kick off our fall internal medicine residency conference. Our department is committed to training the next generation of leaders in internal medicine, and I look forward to seeing what we do to support and continuously improve upon one of the best medicine training programs in the country. I reflected on how things have changed in the nearly 4 decades since I started my residency training and reminded our trainees that the next three years will pass very quickly, as well as of the importance of thinking beyond that by incorporating skills and perspectives that will shape and define their careers for the next 30 or more years. I reminded them of their privileged position and the influence that they will have in shaping the future of health care. A spirit of curiosity, innovation and continuous improvement should drive their pursuits, while not losing sight of the importance of paying it forward throughout their careers. I encourage you to learn more about their conference to increase our insights and appreciation for the critical roles that our residents play in our health system and school.
Fall DoM Residency Conference Offers Space for Reflection and Reconnection
It is no secret that the UCLA DoM has one of the best internal medicine (IM) residency programs in the country — and that it gets better with each passing year. Our success is owed in no small part to ideas that are shared at the biannual IM residency conferences, which bring together program LEADERS, chief residents and residents at all levels to set priorities, learn and connect. This year’s fall conference, which took place on Oct. 3, raised the bar for excellence once again.
“Having the whole program in one room allows our newest physicians to benefit from the perspective of residents a few years ahead of them in training while the senior residents are given a chance to reflect on how they have changed as physicians and people,” program Director Lisa J. Skinner, MD, who gave one of the conference’s opening talks, said. “Introspection, accountability, collaboration, and ability to build a community at work are life skills I want UCLA-trained physicians to carry with them long after residency graduation.“
Chief Resident in Quality and Patient Safety Samuel Alfonso Bolivar, MD added that being such a large program makes the conference particularly beneficial for fostering collegiality and culture.
"We get to talk about important things about the program — such as how it's going and things we like to change — and then we also get to do some bonding activities,” Dr. Bolivar said. “It’s exciting to see everyone here together.”
The conference’s roster of events included talks from program leaders, breakout sessions for each class of IM residents and inpatient rotation feedback sessions. The breakout sessions for PGY-1s included some residency “myth-busting” with Dr. Skinner and Rachel P. Brook, MD and a broad but deep overview of stepping into leadership roles, maintaining effectiveness in the clinic while dealing with the public, navigating clinical challenges and making use of resources here in the DoM. PGY-2s enjoyed an interactive session with Mina W. Ma, MD and Stephanie R. Young, MPH, PsyD that explored effective "senioring,” including leading under pressure and what’s known as “metacommunication" — naming team dynamics, clarifying intent and fostering alignment. Residents practiced reflecting on their own thinking in real-time, assessing conversations and group dynamics, debriefing with teams, and delivering structured feedback to learners, skills that turn everyday patient care and team interactions into concrete leadership opportunities.
“Leadership starts with noticing — and naming — what’s happening in the room. Good senioring isn’t just about making decisions — it’s about helping your team understand how and why you made them,” Dr. Young explained. “Paying attention to your own thinking, and sharing it clearly, turns every high-stakes conversation into an opportunity to lead.”
The breakout session for PGY-3s, who are in their final year of the IM residency program, featured insights from IM residency program Associate Director Edward Lee, MD on finances and retirement planning. Lunch was held alongside a career-fair style informational session with representatives from different IM residency pathways.
Everyone took part in a snack break and enjoyed field activities on the UCLA campus before returning to their clinical duties. For many residents, reconnection was the best part of the conference.
“We're all usually in a bunch of different rotations,” Austin Haynesworth, MD, PGY-2, said. “So, it's good to see everybody's faces — a lot of people that you don't necessarily see all the time — and just be able to debrief on how the program's going.”
Meanwhile, trainees who are part of the UCLA Med-Peds Residency Program used the conference as an opportunity to discuss their program’s priorities. Program Director Gifty-Maria J. Ntim, MD, MPH met with residents to discuss changes to its continuity clinic InBasket coverage system and its new ambulatory curriculum, which launched this year and is going well so far.
“This year's fall retreat really helped our MP residents connect with their categorical colleagues and think through ways to improve on the already amazing care we are providing patients in our two continuity clinics,” Dr. Ntim said.
To PGY-1 Amir Kashfi, MD, MPH, the conference is particularly important for first-year residents who are getting to know each other and their fellow residents for the first time.
“These will be our colleagues over the next few years or perhaps longer, so it’s important for us to get to know each other and build relationships early on,” he said. “We know that we’ll enjoy working together in the coming years and we’re looking forward to building these relationships.”
Dr. Skinner hopes residents left the conference with a renewed sense of purpose and feel hopeful and engaged as they create a future within and beyond medicine.
“I want them to experience how it feels to collaborate to make things better. I want them to have muscle memory for how invigorating it is to invest in a community with shared values,” Dr. Skinner said. “And as they enjoy the privilege of getting to do this work while our faculty and fellows cover the hospital, I want them to cultivate the generosity and resilience to pay it forward for future generations of physicians.”
Thank you to Lisa, Rachel, Mina, Ed, Stephanie, the DoM Education team, and the many other LEADERS who made this year’s retreat a success! Enjoy a video recap of the conference below.
Hospital Medicine Certificate Program Prepares Trainees for High-Impact Hospitalist Careers
The rise of managed care and resulting movement to optimize hospital costs has led to tremendous growth in the number of hospitalists, an internal medicine (IM) physician who specializes in treating patients admitted to the hospital. This is evident in the interests of our IM trainees as well: Since 2014, approximately 20% of UCLA IM residency program graduates have gone into hospital medicine.
To give our IM residents more streamlined exposure to this career path, Khushboo Kaushal Akkad, MD, FACP created the Hospital Medicine Certificate Program (HMCP), a new curriculum that brings together and builds upon components of our existing internal medicine training. Residents apply during their PGY-2 year and complete the program during their PGY-3 year.
“My vision was to create a hospital medicine curriculum that is incorporated into the residents' internal medicine residency training that would help them gain extra experiences and better prepare them to start their career as hospitalists,” Dr. Akkad said. “This program is also beneficial to our UCLA hospitalists because it increases opportunities for teaching, creativity and mentorship for our faculty at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center (RRMC), UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center (SMMC) and also in the community.”
HMCP has four components: mentorship, scholarship, monthly enrichment/didactic sessions, and the hospital medicine elective. For mentorship, residents are assigned to a hospital medicine mentor at RRMC, SMMC or within the community based on their interests, the goal of which being to help develop their early career goals and navigate their job search. With regards to scholarship, they have the opportunity to complete the hybrid online-offline Quality Improvement and Lean Certification Curriculum through DoM Quality under the direction of Wendy M. Simon, MD, during which they will design and implement quality improvement projects.
The monthly enrichment/didactics sessions give residents the chance to learn about and discuss important topics in hospital medicine. Sessions slated for this year include “Hospitalists in the Community” panels, which gives residents an idea of what it’s like to practice in the community; a “Hospitalists in Different Roles” panel, which exposes residents to a hospitalist’s many potential roles beyond practicing medicine, like leadership, informatics, quality improvement and global health; and practical sessions like “Respiratory Therapy and Different Modes Oxygen Delivery,” “Billing 101” and more. The fourth component of the HMCP is the hospital medicine elective in which residents rotate with respiratory therapy, the day triage officer, physical medicine and rehabilitation, wound care, clinical surveillance team, toxicology, diabetes educator, case management and do procedures with interventional radiology. They also take part in a field day at skilled nursing facilities to better understand transitions of care.
Ideally, IM residents will leave the program with experiences and learning that will better prepare them for independent practice and give them the experiences they need to make important career choices, Dr. Akkad said. She would like to see the program eventually expand to include a rotation at UCLA West Valley Medical Center during the hospital medicine elective.
“Several residents I have mentored have found it challenging to decide if they wanted to practice in an academic versus community setting,” Dr. Akkad explained. “Being able to rotate with a hospitalist in the community would give them a better sense of the differences in culture and resources available at community hospitals and help them make informed career decisions.”
HMCP is a fantastic extension to our IM residency program. Thank you, Khushboo, for your dedication to giving our residents meaningful experiences that will shape their careers and, ultimately, patients’ lives.
Faculty Executive Committee Welcomes New Members from the DoM
I am pleased to share that Russell G. Buhr, MD, PhD; Jonathan W. Goldman, MD; Otto O. Yang, MD; and Thomas Vondriska, PhD were recently elected to the DGSOM Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) for 2025-2026. This committee is essential to the progress of our medical school; it serves as an arm of the UCLA Academic Senate and is responsible for the design and execution of the DGSOM academic program. It also authorizes the promotion and graduation of DGSOM students and advises the institution’s administration on questions of faculty welfare, academic priorities and planning and budget allocations within the school of medicine.
Dr. Buhr is a pulmonary and critical care physician who cares for patients at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center, and the West LA VA. He is also a health services researcher who studies COPD exacerbation and how to prevent patients with advanced lung disease out of the hospital. He was elected to be vice chair of the committee — a two-year position that will see him move to the role of chair in 2027 — after serving on it for three years as a medical sciences representative. Dr. Buhr was inspired to rise to take on the position by the outstanding leadership of past chair Langston Holly, MD and current chair Alice A. Kuo, MD, who he feels have toiled tirelessly to navigate the existential challenges and political pressures the institution faces.
“I am grateful for the support of the faculty to help lead this important committee to ensure the ongoing shared governance in our institution,” Dr. Buhr said. “Our campus community has faced a very difficult period over the past few years, and I am hopeful that my longitudinal experience will be useful to help guide the school to ensure that we are upholding our collective missions to teach the next generation of physicians, conduct excellent scientific research, and serve the patients and community surrounding us, despite the headwinds we face.”
Dr. Vondriska is a professor with joint appointments in the departments of anesthesiology, physiology, and medicine and a researcher focused on the epigenetic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease. He will serve as one of the preclinical sciences representatives on the committee, where he will advocate for the research mission of the DGSOM and the voices of DGSOM faculty in school and campus governance.
“My motivation to take this position was the fact that this is a time of great uncertainty and also great opportunity for basic, translational and clinical research,” he said.
Dr. Yang is an infectious diseases specialist who studies T cell immunology in the context of HIV, with the goal of developing therapies and preventive vaccines. Like Dr. Vondriska, he was moved to take part in the committee after witnessing the increasing pressures on physician-scientists — in what is ironically perhaps the most exciting era for them to contribute to medical advances.
“My main priority will be to represent the interests of physician-scientists and supporting the role of scientific research in medicine and medical education,” he said.
Dr. Goldman is a thoracic medical oncologist, a professor of medicine and serves as the UCLA director of clinical trials in thoracic oncology, the associate director of early drug development and a past chair of the University of California Lung Cancer Consortium. He was elected to the health sciences clinical series seat on the FEC. From his position he will support clinical faculty advancement and recognition, serve as a conduit for communication regarding funding and job security, strengthen membership and professional development opportunities, and foster collaboration between clinical and academic missions.
“I joined the committee to help ensure that the perspectives and contributions of health sciences clinical faculty are well represented in school-wide decision-making and to contribute to initiatives that enhance our collective impact on patient care, education and service,” Dr. Goldman said.
Please join me in congratulating and thanking Russell, Jonathan, Otto and Thomas for their leadership and commitment to our faculty, research and medical education!
Take Part in the StandPoint Faculty Engagement Survey
If you have not already, please fill out the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)’ StandPoint Faculty Engagement Survey. As this is the organization that nationally represents the interests of physicians who teach, practice and do research in medical schools and teaching hospitals, it is important that the AAMC hears your thoughts on the effectiveness of our talent management practices on faculty retention and engagement. So far, 10% of faculty across the school of medicine have completed the survey and it is critical that we hear from you on this topic.
Dale
P.S.
Red scarfs at the faculty table at the beginning of the internal medicine fall conference. Note the chief residents with yellow scarves in the background. I suspect that the color schemes have some significance. Let’s see if non-attendees reading this can figure this out.
L-R: Dr. Lisa Skinner, Dr. Tina Mosaferi, Dr. Ed Lee, Me, Dr. Neil Paige, Dr. Kelley Chuang, Dr. Kristin Schwab Jensen.
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