Skip to contents
In This Issue:
John O’Shea, MD, House Energy and Commerce, Majority Committee, tours the Medical Intensive Care Unit during morning rounds.
The decision to pursue a career in medicine is not one to make lightly, said David Rosenthal, MD, a second-year resident in Internal Medicine.
“Once you jump on the train, it will take you there, but it’s going to take eight to 15 years of your life,” said Rosenthal, who shared his experience as a medical resident with congressional staffers who visited BWH on April 27 as part of Project Medical Education (PME).
Sponsored by the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals and its affiliated medical schools—Harvard Medical School, Boston University School of Medicine and Tufts University School of Medicine—the multi-year project aims to ensure that lawmakers understand that the future of medicine depends in large part upon the strength and vitality of its teaching programs and that reliable, consistent government support for the graduate medical education is critical to maintaining the caliber of the health care system we have today. If, for example, proposed cuts in GME funding were enacted, it would mean a drastic reduction in funding to BWH over five years, which would affect the training of new physicians.
In total, nearly 50 lawmakers, staffers and medical education advocates visited Boston-area hospitals. BWH hosted 10 congressional staffers, including medical education advocates and staff representing Senator John Kerry, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas and Congressman Stephen Lynch.
After visiting Harvard Medical School, members of the group split up to join care teams on patient rounds in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, the Coronary Care Unit and the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.
The group then gathered in the Shapiro Center Boardroom, where Andy Whittemore, MD, chief medical officer, and Joel Katz, MD, director of the Internal Medicine Residency program and vice chair for Education, explained how teaching hospitals like BWH are national resources with intertwined missions: educating tomorrow’s doctors, conducting research and delivering vital services to communities locally and globally.
The group of staffers also participated in a panel discussion with residents and staff who spoke about different aspects of their training and areas of interest, including quality improvement, health information technology and providing cost-effective care. Their last stop was a visit to the Neil and Elise Wallace STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation, where they received an insider’s view of the state-of-the-art, real-time computer-driven simulation system that is used for teaching and improving the skill level of our trainees and other providers.
Residents Daniel Stein, MD, Casey Olm-Shipman, MD, and David Rosenthal, MD, participate in a panel discussion.
Watch the Video and Photo Gallery