Community Health a Focus of DFMCH Senior Night

Connection to community is one of the many things that make the UW-DFMCH Madison Residency Program a unique and rewarding experience. Seniors gather annually to share scholarly projects and community health learning experiences, and this year the Class of 2021 had the opportunity to discuss the unprecedented challenges of these efforts during a pandemic year.

Jennifer Edgoose, MD, MPH, and Jillian Landeck, MD, introduced the residents who presented on projects ranging from health care for the homeless to advocating for addiction treatment in the jail system. One project discussed that captured the heart of the evening was the Wingra Resource Navigator Program—a program where residents and undergraduate students work together to screen patients to help identify needs such as food security or housing and connect them to community resources.

“We’re all trying to figure out how to better address social determinants of health and the Wingra Resource Navigator Program really has the potential to help us,” said Edgoose. “If done well, it can improve patient satisfaction, health care outcomes, hopefully lower costs, but also help health care providers with our own wellbeing.”

The navigator program changed strategies in 2020, as undergrad navigators were not able to be physically present in clinic due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Students stayed involved by handing out forms to patients upon arrival in clinic so they could follow up with them via phone or email to connect people with needed resources.

“Often times, we lose sight of social determinants when managing multiple medical issues,” shared recent graduate Jonathan Christ, MD. “The delegation of social resources to the navigators both allows the patient to connect with someone who is more knowledgeable about community resources and also gives us as providers more time to focus on medical issues during clinic appointments.”

Presenters Included

Megan Bartz, MD

• Therapeutic Efficacy of Yoga for Common Primary Care Conditions
• Hot-Spotting at Dryden Terrace

Taylor Boland Rigby, MD

• The Lion Project: Advocating for Addiction Treatment in the Jail System
• Innovative Partnerships to Support the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder in a Rural Teaching Clinic

Jonathan Christ, MD

• Wingra Resource Navigator Program
• Custom vs. Prefabricated Orthotics for Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis

Diana Cowdrey, MD

• Do Carotid Artery Calcifications Seen on Radiographs Predict Carotid Artery Stenosis in Asymptomatic Adults?
• Community Cooking Classes at Badger Prairie Needs Network

Robert Freidel, MD

• Adapting an In-Clinic Community Resource Navigator Program to a Virtual Referral Model
• Reducing Coding and CDI Queries with Advanced Clinical Documentation Tools

Parker Hanson, DO

• A Case of a Tough Race
• Sugar Creek Elementary Virtual Imagination Fair

James Ircink, MD

• Madison Area Cares for the Homeless—Madison Street Medicine Initiative
• Standards of Care for Street Medicine: Envisioning a Universal Handbook for Providers

Allison Jenness, MD

• Adapting an In-Clinic Community Resource Navigator Program to a Virtual Referral Model

Mark Matusak, DO

• Increased Sleep is Associated with Physical and Psychological Well-Being in Division I Men’s Basketball Student-Athletes
• ChopChop – A Community Partnership to Address Social Determinants of Health

Samantha Mayhew, MD

• Increasing Support for Caregivers of Elderly Patients with Dementia in the Belleville Community
• Statin Use in the Elderly

Courtney Reynolds, MD

• Immune Mechanisms of Breastfeeding and the Role of Vaccinations
• Improving Accuracy of Patient Medication Lists

Carly Salter, MD

• Wingra Resource Navigator Program
• Is there a Role for Anticoagulation Following ACL Reconstruction to Prevent VTE?

Sarah Schaaf, MD

• Vaccine Hesitancy
• Residency Clinic Efficiency

Stacey Schley, MD

• Increases in Training Load Are Negatively Associated with Sleep Duration and Quality in Male Collegiate Athletes
• Verona’s 2020 Fitness and Lifestyle Challenge

Nicholas Squires, MD

• Obstetrical Care Training for Belleville EMS
• Expanding Rural Training Options in Family Medicine: The Rural Health Equity Track (RHET) and Rural Pathway and UW-Madison

Andrea Suarez, MD

• Partnership with the School Age Parent Program (SAPAR)
• What Type of Infant Formula is Best to Prevent Atopic Diseases?

Alexandra Wolf, DO

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Microlearnings Pilot: A Feasibility Study

Learn more about DFMCH community health efforts.

Published: August 2021