Winter 2020
Greetings! We began 2020 on a somewhat bittersweet note after Traci Chupik resigned her position as Administrative Director of MSHP to join the management team at the Leonard Davis Institute . During her time with at MSHP, Traci has been absolutely instrumental in the growth, maturation, and success of our program. While Traci is leaving the MSHP in outstanding shape, we will certainly miss her excellence in administrative operations, her passion for the well-being and growth of our students, and her warm demeanor.

Following a festive gathering at Distrito to celebrate the end of the first semester (picture above), we are looking forward to an inspiring and learning-rich spring semester. We are currently in the midst of interviews for the 2020-2022 MSHP class, and are excited by the strengths and research acumen of the prospective class.
Looking Ahead: Advanced Topics in Implementation Science
In addition to their Implementation Science Institute in June, Rinad Beidas and Meghan Lane-Fall (pictured left) have developed an advanced Implementation Science Course for the MSHP. Topics will include study design, execution, and tensions in the IS field. Students will apply their learnings directly to ongoing and proposed implementation research. If you are interested in taking this course, or the institute, for which we offer scholarships, contact MSHP Staff.
Grantwriting and Review
Once again, MSHP is teaming up with Epidemiology to offer an in-depth grantwriting course this summer (exact dates TBD). This course guides students through the design of an NIH grant (F-32, K, R21 or R01) for submission by enhancing appreciation of the specifics of the grant writing process and an understanding the grant review process. If you are interested in registering, again, contac t MSHP Staff .
Student and Alumni Opinion in The Inquirer
Current students Utsha Khatri and Shoshana Aronowitz teamed up with mentor and MSHP alumna Eugenia South to write an Op-Ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer . In the piece, they tackle problematic theorizing of the "protective" properties of under-treating patients of color that result from racial bias. "Racism in health care still exists and is by definition harmful", they write, "...to suggest otherwise will stop us from developing effective strategies to help all Americans struggling with addiction". It is wonderful to see this kind of collaboration happening across specialty and across generations of MSHP students.
Katherine Courtright and Gary Weissman Co-Principal Investigators
In November, the University of Pennsylvania became the only US University with two NIA Roybal Research Centers. MSHP Alumni Katherine Courtright '15 and Gary Weissman '17 are co-Principal Investigators on the first two pilot projects awarded by the new center. The National Institute on Aging's Roybal Centers are designed to create research infrastructures for assembling multidisciplinary teams of scientists to solve practical problems in aging-related areas of health care. "The prevalence of Alzheimer’s and related dementia disease is high and growing," Courtright continued. "The use of residential nursing homes is also high and these are facilities that historically weren't designed and equipped with both the staff and expertise to address the end-of-life care and planning needs for this population."
Select Current Student Research
MSHP Second-Year Victor Lei, PharmD examines risk stratification for postoperative acute kidney injury in major noncardiac surgery using pre- and intra-operative data for JAMA Network Open. Read more.
MSHP First-Year Laura Sinko, RN, PhD led a study published in the Journal of Community Psychology using photography to describe healing journeys of survivors of sexual violence . Read more.
Select Alumni Publications
In a piece for Pediatric Critical Care Medicine , Charley Woods-Hill '19 et al found that s ending blood cultures in children at low risk of bacteremia can contribute to a cascade of unnecessary antibiotic exposure, adverse effects, and increased costs. In a cross-sectional electronic survey of 15 pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) enrolled in the Bright Star collaborative , they explored typical blood culture practices, attitudes and beliefs about cultures, and potential barriers to changing culture use in a PICU setting. They found notable variation in blood culture practices in the PICU, with no standard approach to culture source or frequency. They found that fear of missing sepsis and reflexive habits (ordering cultures in response to fever without evaluating other patient data or performing a physical exam) are common drivers of cultures. In part due to these findings, Bright Star collaborative has now done Delphi consensus work to develop more standardized guidelines for blood culture use in critically ill children.

Jessica Dine '09 had a recent article with David Asch , Lisa Bellini, and MSHP Co-Director Judy Shea in JGIM looking at dissatisfaction with medical and surgical residency training. This data was collected as part of two large trials testing different residency work hour models (over 6000 surveys were collected). Women were more dissatisfied with all aspects of their training regardless of type of residency. Read more at the link above.

We hope that 2020 is off to a fantastic start for all.

Warm regards,