FemInEM, in partnership with Medelita, has created our first awards recognizing outstanding female residents in emergency medicine: The Right Fit HIPster Awards.
Inspired by Medelita’s H.I.P. (Honoring Inspiring Professionals) program, we sought applications from female emergency medicine residents. We asked potential HIPster awardees to tell us about a problem affecting physicians, patients or their communities that they identified and implemented a project to address. We are delighted to say we had nearly 50 extraordinary women apply and we were blown away by their incredible applications!
Meet these amazing honorable mentionees!
Tricia Smith, MBBS, MPH
Tricia Smith, MBBS, MPH received her medical degree from the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica and her masters in public health from Harvard University. She is a current third year resident at the University of Connecticut. Recognizing the problem of gender disparity in medicine, Dr. Smith wanted to engage women physicians by reimagining scholarly activity for residents and raising the profile of women in emergency medicine. She created Academic Women Engage (AWE) project is designed to allow over 2,000 women residents to connect with professional organizations in order to facilitate networking and development of necessary skills for future leadership roles.
Rachel Solnick, MD, MS
Rachel Solnick, MD, MS received her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and her masters in science in social epidemiology from University College London. She a current second year resident at Yale School of Medicine. As the Co-Chair of the Wellness Committee at her institution, Dr. Solnick leads a weekly high intensity interval training workout called ATP (Athletic Training Program). The program was developed to promote stress reduction, faculty mentorship, team building and fitness. ATP’s utility extends beyond a simple workout to being instead a catalyst to improve lives and careers.
Elizabeth Stachtiaris, DO
Elizabeth Stachtiaris, DO received her doctor of osteopathic medicine from NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine and is a current first year resident at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center. Recognizing the importance of morale among her colleagues, Dr. Stachtiaris co-founded cofounded the Note-O-Chords, her medical school’s first a capella group. They began by serenading students and faculty within their institution, coordinating concerts with fundraisers for charity and eventually began performing for patients and staff in the emergency department and hospital wards. Their goal was to further accentuate their compassion as future physicians by boosting morale through music.
Anuja Trivedi, DO, MPH
Anuja Trivedi, DO, MPH received her doctor of osteopathic medicine from New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, and her masters in public health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a current third year resident at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Dr. Trivedi noted a significant number of patients being placed in her institutions observation unit for chest pain evaluations. She felt that as observation care and patient-centeredness in medicine are gaining popularity, it is essential to consider the perspective of the patient in developing healthcare delivery systems. She has created a research project to determine how patients feel about their observation stay and their transitions to the outpatient world after discharge home.
Amy Waldner, MD
Amy Waldner, MD received her medical degree from George Washington University and is a current third year resident at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Waldner is passionate about the care of vulnerable immigrant and refugee populations. She has volunteers at a clinic serving a primarily Spanish speaking immigrant population and is developing an ultrasound program at this clinic so the patients can receive imaging studies without being referred to the emergency department for what could be a costly visit. Additionally, she performs asylum evaluations at a refugee clinic for patients seeking asylum in the United States.
Talia Walker, MD
Talia Walker, MD received her medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College and is a current fourth year resident at Louisiana State University-Health Sciences Center. Concerned about the long wait times for low-acuity patients in her strained safety net hospital, Dr. Walker designed and implemented an IRB approved study that links Medicaid patients with primary care providers. She is seeking to determine whether obtaining an accessible primary care provider will decrease low acuity ED visits within this population. She hopes to obtain publishable data that will help her hospital and public officials better understand patient behavior and develop initiatives that can decrease ED crowding by improving access to outpatient care.
Kelley Wittbold, MD
Kelley Wittbold, MD received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts and is a current second year resident at Harvard. Dr. Wittbold has worked with multiple departments within her institution to develop and implement a standard screening mechanism in the pre-operative evaluation clinics that requires clinicians to screen all patients about their radiation and chemotherapy history even if it is in the distant past, and to develop an evidence-based algorithm to establish their cardiovascular risk. The goal is to utilize this screening not only at the Brigham, but eventually at the national level if they are able to demonstrate a correlation between time since radiation to the head, chest, or neck and peri-operative cardiovascular events.
Batya Zuckerman, MD
Batya Zuckerman, MD received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is a current third year resident at Staten Island University Hospital/Northwell Health Medical System. Dr. Zuckerman became concerned that the care of sexual assault victims was compromised by the complicated and time-consuming nature of their evaluation. She worked with representatives of her institutions two emergency departments, infectious disease, social work, nursing, pharmacy, and rape advocate service to develop a streamlined guide to the care of this patient population including best practice recommendations and important medical and legal references.