Didactic Experience

Upon arrival in Detroit in fall of 2016, we immediately made a mandate that would set into motion a dramatic culture and paradigm shift with the Department of Anesthesiology at Henry Ford Hospital. That mandate made resident education the top priority of the department. Our philosophy directly linked the overall success and wellbeing of our department to the quality of educational and clinical experience we provided for our trainees. We have not lost sight of this guiding light and it has served to impact our department at its very roots and beyond.

Through aggressive and effective recruitment, we were able to add more subspecialty trained staff than ever before. We introduced an entirely young, fresh and passionate residency leadership team supported closely by leaders with a long history of academic success in the field. In partnership with our Vice Chair for Research, Dr. Donald Penning, M.D., we began to define our path to academic success.

July 2017, with recruitment of a new residency leadership team, began a disruptive cultural change in the educational paradigms and initiatives at Henry Ford. Our team set out to completely and thoroughly overhaul the entire education approach of the residency attacking both the structural and cultural foundations of the residency program. Below you will find an overview of these changes.

1. Recruitment of a new, young, passionate and extremely hands-on residency leadership team which has created a very palpable change in resident and faculty morale.
2. Protected time for ALL resident and fellow didactics from day one.
3. Creation of day long protected academic days for each residency class once every three weeks.
4. Implementation of reverse classroom didactic format and open-ended assessments at end of each rotation in contrast to multiple choice exams.
5. Implementation of a rich and robust visiting professor series. Previously the department hosted one to two per year. At this point, we have hosted one academic leader as visiting professor once every six weeks for the past two years.
6. Rapid expansion of simulation as an educational and clinical training tool, including task trainers, OSCE scenarios and high-fidelity clinical modules.
7. High-fidelity Anesthesia OSCE training program for CA3 residents.
8. Implementation of city-wide mock oral board examinations for CA2 and CA3 residents.
9. Implementation of formal mentoring program for all interns and residents as well as junior faculty members.
10. Increased focus on medical student educational experience and professional development through 1:1 pairing with faculty.
11. Implementation of the PGY1 Longitudinal Curriculum, training PGY1 residents in Anesthesiology for four months in their Intern year, something unique in the country to Henry Ford Anesthesia. This innovative program brings Interns into our department and into their chosen specialty well ahead of any other programs in the country.
12. Recruitment of a senior academic anesthesiologist to act as a third part educator for our residents, focusing on open-ended, verbal assessments of our resident’s knowledge base. Every resident CA1-CA3 received approximately ten formal oral board exam each year of their residency. 
13. Professional development sessions for our faculty as teachers in order to improve and maintain a high quality of didactic delivery for our residents.
14. Implementation of daily resident and faculty evaluations.