Distinction Tracks
Our residency offers three distinction tracks that expand upon content that is taught in other parts of our residency’s curriculum. These distinction tracks meet on a monthly basis during the noon hour and discuss topics relevant to their distinction.
A crucial aspect of each of the distinction tracks is mentorship and a scholarly project. Scholarly projects give residents an avenue to apply what they learn in the distinction track meetings and mentors identified through the distinction track provide regular guidance.
Distinction in Health Equity (DIHE)
The Distinction in Health Equity (DIHE) track is designed for residents who envision working towards eliminating disparities in health care as part of their professional career. Residents participating in the DIHE are immersed in a flexible, mentored, experience-based curriculum with hands-on activities in a variety of low-resource settings. This curriculum is specifically designed to go beyond the health equities curriculum that is taught during noon conference to all internal medicine residents. Residents who participate in the DIHE will also complete a capstone project that addresses a health equity need.
This track was first introduced in the fall of 2022.
2024 DIHE Participants
Rachel Anderson
Adam Blaine
Calie Brownlee
Paige Carlson
San Chandra
Katrina Dovalovsky
Cole Howie
Sarah Little
Kimiya Nourian
Shivali Patel
Laurel Smeins
Katrina Soyangco
Alice Xu
Lauren Zabel
Leadership
Krista Johnson, MD, MME
Jeydith Gutierrez, MD, MPH
Desmond Barber, MD
Manish Suneja, MD
Denise Floerchinger
Distinction in Medical Education (DIME)
The Distinction in Medical Education (DIME) track is designed for residents who are interested in becoming clinician educators and who wish to include medical education as part of their profession career. The DIME curriculum provides experiences and further educational instruction beyond the current three-year longitudinal resident teaching skills curriculum by focusing on curriculum design and development, educational innovations, and educational scholarship. Each resident in DIME works with a mentor on a scholarly project.
Some example projects include:
- Curriculum development for the Transition to Residency course offered to fourth year medical students at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Workshops developed by DIME residents included workshops on hypoxia, chest pain, and altered mental status
- The Clinical Unknown Series
- Introduction to Medicine Workshop for Under-Represented High School Students
- Core Physical Exam Technique Simulation for Internal medicine Clerkship Students
- Medicine workshop series
Residents have presented their scholarly projects at local and national meetings.
Both the Master Clinician Mystery Case series and the Distinction in Point-of-Care Ultrasound stem from work done as a part of the Distinction in Medical Education.
2024-2025 DIME Participants
Grace Alexander
Calie Brownlee
Stefano Byer
Amanda Chang
Nick Coffey
Katrina Dovalovsky
Brittnee Haynes
Alp Kahveci
Tyler Maggio
Shivali Patel
Megan Napier
Joe Phillips
Pranav Puri
Ashten Sherman
Carlie Sorensen
Katrina Soyangco
Quinn Vatland
Alice Xu
Leadership
Jenny Strouse, MD
Director
Yana Zemkova, MD
Co-Director
Stacy Sueppel
Administrator
Steering Committee
Manish Suneja, MD
Lisa Antes, MD
M. Lee Sanders, MD
Distinction in Point-of-Care Ultrasound
The Distinction in Point-of-Care Ultrasound track is designed for residents who are interested in an advanced educational experience in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) and who anticipate utilized bedside clinical ultrasound as a part of their professional career. Residents who participate in this distinction are immersed in a flexible, mentored, experienced-based curriculum with hands-on learning and teaching activities specifically designed to extend beyond the current three-year longitudinal resident ultrasound curriculum (link to Ultrasound Curriculum accordion in the Curricula subsection). Residents work with mentors who review the portfolio of images obtained by the resident at bedside and provide feedback. Residents will also complete a scholarly activity related to ultrasound and/or ultrasound education under the guidance of their mentor.
This distinction track was first introduced in the Fall of 2022.
Leadership
Fellow Director: Sydney Bowmaster
Faculty: Justin Smock
Faculty: Charles Rappaport
Administrator: Abbey Gilpin
2024 POCUS Participants
Grace Alexander
Adam Blaine
Cameron Brownlee
Stefano Byer
Paige Carlson
Amanda Chang
Usamah ElBakkush
Hunter Frederiksen
Austin Mallory
Dylan Miks
Haley Pysick
Zeke Quittner-Strom
Maluki Radford
Ashten Sherman
Trisha Slehria
Quinn Vatland