Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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Managing a Specialty Service During the COVID-19 Crisis: Lessons From a New York City Health System.
The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched health care resources to a point of crisis throughout the world. To answer the call for care, health care workers in a diverse range of specialties are being retasked to care for patients with COVID-19. Consequently, specialty services have had to adapt to decreased staff available for coverage coupled with a need to remain available for specialty-specific emergencies, which now require a dynamic definition. In this Invited Commentary, the authors describe their experiences and share lessons learned regarding triage of patients, staff safety, workforce management, and the psychological impact as they have adapted to a new reality in the Department of Neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center, a COVID-19 hot spot in New York City.
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The Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women is designed to promote the careers of senior female leaders in academic health care in a way that ultimately seeks to transform culture and promote gender equity far beyond the careers of its participants. In an era of increased awareness of gender inequity within academic medicine, the longevity of the ELAM program raises several important questions. ⋯ They describe ELAM's approach, which builds the knowledge and skills of the women who participate in the program, while also intentionally raising their visibility within their home institutions so that they have opportunities to share with institutional leaders what they have learned in ways that not only promote their own careers but also support gender equity in the broader environment. The authors conclude by offering thoughts on how ELAM's model may be leveraged in the future, ideally in partnership with the numerous professional societies, funding agencies, and other organizations that are committed to accelerating the rate of progress toward gender equity at all levels of academic medicine.