The Patricia A. Tietjen, MD Teaching Academy held their Inaugural Academic Symposium on May 18^th, 2022 at the Ballroom of The Summit at Danbury. The Academic Symposium opened with remarks from Dr. Robyn Scatena, Executive Director of the Teaching Academy. Dr. John Murphy, President and CEO of Nuvance Health also offered a poignant testimony of the vision that Dr. Patricia Tietjen, a beloved member of the Nuvance Health community and in whose memory the Teaching Academy was named, had when she planted the seeds for the first interprofessional Teaching Academy at Nuvance Health. A number of Friends of the Academy were recognized for their service to this inaugural cohort. These included The following network leaders who served as Project Coaches for the scholars:

• Brian McCambley, DHSc PA-C
• Susan Parisi, MD, FACOG
• Marc A. Borenstein, MD, FACEP, FACP
• Maureen Solero
• Dawn Myles, MS, MSN, RN, CPHQ, CPHRM

Additional thanks were given to Dr. Patrick Broderick for his significant support in launching the Academy, and Amanda Wallace, for her design and artistic contributions which made the creation of an e-program possible. This e-publication includes each of the inaugural scholar biographies, abstracts of each scholars’ independent educational project which they had developed over the course of the nine-month Teaching Academy curriculum, as well as an academic poster. This e-program may be accessed at  https://www.patmda.us/home

Fifteen inaugural scholars presented their scholarly projects consecutively to the live audience of attendees. Each scholar identified educational objectives, methods, outcomes, and discussion around their topics which ranged from the development of a pilot program to address knowledge gaps in healthcare around transgender and gender diverse patients, a nephrology referral module, a program which builds on a scholars’ earlier doctoral research recognizing and combating moral distress, and the impact of a mindfulness program on a physician assistant surgical residency, among many other meaningful research areas.

Following the academic presentations, attendees were invited to visit with scholars who shared further details of their distinct and inspiring educational projects during a cocktail reception and informal poster presentation. The Teaching Academy is currently enrolling scholars for the 2022-2023 cohort and will announce selections mid-summer 2022. Click here for more information about the Teaching Academy,.   

If you would like to show your support for the Teaching Academy, please visit the link below. We thank you for your generosity and supporting future cohorts of the Patricia A. Tietjen, MD Teaching Academy.