The importance of research support

This past week I worked on some NIH JIT documents for a U54 Rare Lung Disease Consortium Grant that will hopefully get funding (fingers and toes crossed) and be brought to UW.

I later saw Dr. Nisha Bansal (our rockstar DOM Assistant Vice Chair for Clinical Research) at a work event, and we compared notes on the differences between the pre-and post-award support that the faculty receive depending on what division they are in.

We, along with Dr. Conrad Liles (our incredible DOM Vice Chair for Research), have also been actively discussing things we can do to support the incredible research talent in DOM during a particularly challenging funding climate. 

Here are some examples of what our DOM research team has been working on:

1. The annual DOM Surviving and Thriving in the Research Years workshop on August 19th. I'll be kicking off this full day in-person workshop which is geared towards trainees and early career faculty interested in research and I hope to see you there! (Link to full information, including agenda and registration available on our website).
2. Multiple newer DOM resources to support research, including our new MIDAS data analytic core, mock study sections and more.
3. An annual DOM research day to bring together research-focused faculty across the entire department to share their work and inspire new collaborations and connections.

In 2023, I had the privilege of participating in the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program, and this 9-month long professional development program involved working on an institutional action project (IAP since Huskies like abbreviations). 

My IAP was entitled "Tackling the Gender Burnout Gap: Strategies to Improve Well-Being in Mid-Level Women Faculty in Academic Medicine" and the bulk of the work focused on women physician scientists at UCLA who had a much higher reported burnout rate than their male counterparts. I held a number of in-person and virtual listening sessions with the faculty, and we honed in on the top interventions (termed wishes) identified by the researchers that would make their work life better. 

Not surprisingly, the top wish was an improved grant submission process and better research infrastructure. The second wish was to have more access to professional coaching and faculty development opportunities. 

I suspect that I don't need focus groups here to tell me that faculty in the UW DOM would appreciate an improved research infrastructure.

At a division head/division administrator meeting focused on research led by Nisha and Conrad earlier this year, top priorities included more consistent support for physician-scientists across divisions and strategies to address structural barriers affecting research productivity. Overall I see research support as yet another area of opportunity as we work to revamp our processes and capabilities in the department. 

While we work on this support, the commitment of our research faculty has been unwavering. The breadth and depth of the research in the UW DOM is truly exceptional, and I recently learned that there were ~180 grant and contract proposal submissions by DOM PIs in just the last two months! All I have to say is WOW and GO TEAM!! 

One last quick aside on coaching - I was excited to see that the UW SOM has a faculty coaching program offered through the Office of Faculty Affairs to support our faculty and help them thrive in their careers. I encourage you to apply for the resource if interested! I engaged in coaching during ELAM and found it super helpful. We also embarked on a DOM funded trial at UCLA using individual and group coaching to improve burnout in clinicians and published our study in JGIM last year if you want to take a read! 

P.S. ELAM was great and I made many lifelong friends. We were assigned to learning communities and tasked with giving ourselves a name. 

Everyone in the group had dogs (I had just gotten Laika as a street dumpster dog a few weeks prior to starting the program) and one of my colleagues quickly said we are PAWS - Powerful Accomplished Women in Science! The name stuck and the swag followed. 

I also have a picture of my learning community in my new office here - they are cheering me on from afar! 

P.P.S. Our own amazing Dr. Geetanjali Chander (GIM Division Head) is in ELAM this year and I hope to sponsor other UW DOM leaders to attend in the future!