Can you tell us about your current role and responsibilities at your institution?

I stepped into the role of Vice Chair for Education a little over a year ago, and this year returned the role of Medical Education Fellowship Director. As I see it, my role as VCE is to be the mortar of our educational bricks. I’m developing systems to leverage siloed expertise across our department, so that everyone can benefit from the knowledge of the many talented educators at WashU. This collaborative work elevates the quality of education across the entire system, exponentially benefitting both learners and educators.

Can you share any innovative programs or initiatives that your institution is currently undertaking in emergency medicine?

Over a decade ago, I created our Education Rotation. Initially a single month of isolated focus on education, we recently expanded it to two months with integrated clinical work. Every third year resident in our four year program does the rotation, where they learn the basics of simulation, slide design, perfecting presentation skills, bedside education, etc. Their clinical load mirrors that of an academic life, working 20-28 hrs/wk while performing many of the duties we are all very aware of. This is a nice sampling of the life of a residency educator, and helps our residents determine if this career suits them or not. A nice side effect of the rotation is that the residents fantastic presentations lead to a, “Rising tide lifts all boats.” effect in our program. We continue to iterate on this rotation, improving the content annually.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing emergency medicine education today?

One of the significant challenges facing emergency medicine education is ensuring consistency in the quality and breadth of training experiences across different programs. Factors such as patient boarding, varying levels of consultant involvement in emergency departments, and differences in program structure and duration can lead to disparate experiences for residents. This variability can affect the depth and range of clinical exposure that trainees receive, which is crucial for their development into well-rounded, competent emergency physicians. While CORD alone may not be able to standardize these experiences, it plays a critical role in advocating for high-quality training with standardized core experiences ensuring that patients receive the level of bedside care expected from Board-Certified Emergency Physicians.

What role do you think technology will play in the future of emergency medicine training and education?

Large Language Models and other AI technologies are already changing the way many of our learners are performing tasks in their training. From Follow-Ups to researching diagnoses (in preparation for a talk or in the ED), we have to accept that AI will be a permanent part of the education landscape moving forward. As educators we have to, at the very least, be aware of what is out there, and what it’s capable of. In creating our requirements and testing options, we will have to decide if we will allow AI to augment the work of the learner, and if not, how we will ensure that they are not using it. AI will also allow us to more readily guide learners through individualized curricula both created, monitored and guided by AI with little input necessary on the educator’s part. I’d argue that teaching learners how to intelligently integrate AI into their education and workflows is now another part of our job that will only expand over time.