Office of Academic Affiliations, Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, November 2000 to November 2004
Responsibilities and Accomplishments
Key Responsibilities:
• Lead the health professions education mission of VA. The VA is the nation's largest provider of health professional education with over 76,000 trainees, including nearly 28,000 medical residents, 16,000 medical students, and 32,000 associated health students, the latter including 17,000 nursing students, who participate in clinical training every year.
• Oversee the operation of VHA's educational activities, including its affiliations with 107 medical schools and approximately 1,500 other academic schools and programs.
• Develop and implement policy regarding all aspects of the health professions education programs with VHA's 163 facilities.
• Manage efficient resource allocation of the more than $450 million dollar educational budget in support of VA's health professions education mission.
• Allocate salary support for almost 9,000 paid medical resident positions and 3,500 paid positions in associated health, including nursing, podiatry, optometry, psychology, and audiology.
• Advise the Deputy Under Secretary for Health and the Under Secretary for Health on matters related to education of future health care professionals.
• Manage the relationship between VA and its academic partners through communication with affiliates and the Association of American Medical Colleges.
• Represent VA at national organizations concerned with education of health professionals, including the federally chartered Council on Graduate Medical Education, the National Board of Medical Examiners, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
• Represent the educational mission of VA in national forums such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation National Advisory Committee.
• Implement new directions in VA health care by establishing and maintaining special fellowships to support unique and evolving health care needs.
• Monitor trends in health professional education and medical care to align VA programs with national trends.
Key Accomplishments:
• Developed a mission statement and strategic plan for the Office of Academic Affiliations. This document, developed in a series of office retreats, has served as the template for guiding OAA's transition from an organization focused solely on resource allocation to one focusing on broad aspects of the educational mission.
• Established VHA as a leader in health professional education through creation of interprofessional fellowships training individuals from diverse medical backgrounds in palliative care and psychosocial rehabilitation. The training in palliative care contained an innovative dissemination project in order to assure that the education benefited the training environment as well as the individual trainee.
• Initiated realignment of VA's Special Fellowship Programs with the health care needs of veterans.
• Innovated structural redesign in the fellowship programs by creating hub sites for new programs, which integrate curriculum and activities across program sites. These hub sites, through enhanced web-based and video communication, have created a community of VA Special Fellows, achieving new levels of alignment with VA goals and fostering a sense of participation in VA.
• Improved communication with field facilities through use of electronic media and customer service orientation.
• Established an external advisory committee to solicit broad input on critical issues relating to graduate medical education (Graduate Medical Advisory Committee).
• Fostered partnership with diverse stakeholders to develop better processes for registering, credentialing, and orienting the over 70,000 trainees.
• Reinvigorated VA's academic status through improved relationships with the Association of American Medical Colleges and improved communication regarding intellectual property rights.
• Achieved national recognition for implementation of the Learners' Perceptions Survey as a measurement tool for assessing the performance of the educational mission of VA.
• Recognized as a skilled effective leader whose policies created an excellent working environment. OAA was recognized as the most "family friendly" workplace in the 2002 Employee Survey.
• Integrated modern technology into office operations to enhance office efficiency.
• Advanced change management in high impact areas such as the CARES.
• Established personal relationships with field education leaders.
• Created a new web trainee registration process to identify all individuals receiving clinical training in VA facilities.
• Marketed VA's health professional education mission via scholarly publications and participation in academic activities.
• Guided HIPPA implementation for trainees across the country.
• Initiated comprehensive review of VA's medical resident education portfolio, including geographic distribution, specialty mix, and alignment with affiliated medical schools integrating economic modeling, philosophical framework and VA needs.
• Collaborated with the National Board of Medical Examiners in developing pilot project to use innovative computer technology to assess physician performance.