Alexandra Collis expands understanding of medical education as an SGIM MedEd Scholar

Dr. Alex Collis, clinical assistant professor, was accepted into the 2023–2024 cohort of SGIM MedEd Scholarship Faculty Development Program in late summer this year. The one-year certificate program began with an orientation seminar in late September and will continue through early September next year.

Collis’s goal for the program is to solidify her understanding of how to build a medical school curriculum using best practices and produce medical education scholarship in the process. She is currently the course director for the UW School of Medicine Transition to Residency (TTR) curriculum and is focusing on redeveloping its curriculum.

Collis’s hope is to use what she learns in this program and from SGIM mentors to build a comprehensive course that meets student needs. In particular, she will focus on optimizing and expanding a rapid response training session for the TTR program. Collis chose to hone in on this after completing a librarian-assisted literature review as part of the program’s first homework assignment:

“I found, to my surprise, that there wasn't any published literature on rapid response training within transition to residency programs. By doing a formal and thorough literature review, I realized the opportunity to disseminate work that I'm very passionate about and could be highly relevant to other institutions. And so, I have shifted my project to examining the efficacy of this session.”

As she works her way through the program, Collis continues to be enthusiastic, saying “This course is an excellent opportunity for scholarship, and I hope to take full advantage of what I learn in the program. I'm also excited for the opportunity to learn from and get feedback from both the national mentors in the program and my local mentor, Heather McPhillips [Pediatrics].”

Dr. Jeffrey Krimmel-Morrison, clinical instructor, is also a member of the 2023–2024 SGIM MedEd cohort.