As recent appointees, Drs. Allen and Bledsoe traveled to Stanford University this month with a team of Intermountain Emergency Medicine/Trauma Research representatives including, Drs. Michael Woodruff, Brian Galovic, Robert Bryant, Brad Isaacson, and Sarah Majercik. The intent of the team’s visit was to collaborate and plan with Stanford colleagues in the Department of Emergency Medicine.
During the visit, Drs. Woodruff, Bryant and Galovic each presented an article at the Stanford Journal Club to 40 residents and attending physicians at Stanford University Department of Emergency Medicine. This was a great opportunity for the Intermountain physicians and research leadership to be introduced to the Department. The team also toured the Stanford Emergency Department facilities and offices, followed by Drs. Allen and Bledsoe giving their presentations in the morning grand round meetings.
Presentation topics included:
a) An overview of the Intermountain-Stanford Collaboration and Intermountain as a Learning Healthcare System – Todd Allen
b) Pulmonary embolism research and the ePE tool – Joseph Bledsoe
Dr. Allen says “Our visit to Stanford was a great chance to introduce Intermountain Healthcare’s strengths and capabilities to Stanford and discover Stanford’s strengths and capabilities.”
A few important conclusions came from the visit. First, Stanford’s research infrastructure may be more robust than the research infrastructure in the Emergency Department at Intermountain Healthcare and its flagship facility, Intermountain Medical Center. However, Intermountain Healthcare’s experience with condition-specific DataMarts and long history of clinical process improvement is an important resource that may be underdeveloped at Stanford. Therefore, opportunities seem exist to leverage each other’s strengths toward novel learning and research directed toward meaningful clinical outcomes. Second, other resources at Stanford University including the simulation lab, ongoing resident and professional education, and professional continuing medical education (CME) activities also present opportunities for collaboration that would benefit both institutions and the EM faculty at Intermountain and Stanford.
In cooperation with Emergency Medicine leadership from Stanford, the team from Intermountain is working on developing specific goals that will promote the collaboration in the three focus areas:
Research:
The Intermountain team will develop draft proposals for three collaborative research studies. It is hoped that two of these will be submitted during the next Stanford-Intermountain Research Collaborative funding cycle while the third will seek funding from another source.
Process Improvement:
Faculty from both departments will identify one or two clinical areas that seem ripe for process improvement including design, deployment, and implementation. Each project will have a relevant process and outcome measures that are identified and tracked for each institution.
Medical Education:
The team will develop a collaboration model for faculty and resident professional development and education. The model may include Intermountain’s participation in the Stanford Emergency Medicine Symposium (as both faculty and attendees), away rotations for emergency medicine residents, opportunities for simulation experiences and teaching, and distance learning.
“Researchers at Intermountain and Stanford are working closely together to expedite and improve the discovery process to lead to higher quality and improved outcomes for both Stanford and Intermountain patients,” says Dr. Bledsoe. “Our intentions are to develop healthcare models that can be adopted in both organizations and by healthcare organizations across the country, and around the world.”
To find out more about Intermountain Healthcare Research and the advancement of medical knowledge in many clinical areas visit intermountainresearch.org