Southeast PA AHEC Newsletter

Summer 2020

Primary Care Speaker Series

Teaching Medical Students The Value Of Primary Care While Social Distancing

The Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM) recently welcomed back students for the fall semester with a few big changes to the curriculum in light of COVID-19. Among those changes is SE PA AHEC's community-based primary care experience. This summer, SE PA AHEC worked closely with the LKSOM faculty to create an alternative to this in-person experience for the second-year medical students that they can participate in from a safe distance.

Throughout the 2020-2021 academic year, SE PA AHEC will be facilitating a virtual speaker panel series. The first panel, which happened in August, included physicians practicing internal medicine and family medicine in private practice, hospitals, and federally qualified health centers. SE PA AHEC would like to thank Dr. Benjamin Larson, of Lankenau Medical Associates, Dr. Daniel Chen, of Esperanza Health Center, and Dr. Joseph LaBricciosa, of Joseph LaBricciosa, DO, for participating in the first panel. 

In feedback given after the panel, students reported learning more about the variety of settings primary care is practiced in, as well as the rewards and benefits of primary care.  Three more panels are planned for this academic year.

In addition to the speaker panels, SE PA AHEC is coordinating mentorships for second year medical students who have expressed an interest in working in primary care. Mentors and students will be paired before the Fall break and the mentorship will continue through the academic year.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor or a speaker, please email Christine Polit at cpolit@sepaahec.org.

Please join SE PA AHEC for a free lupus education session for primary care providers. Learn how to identify signs and symptoms of lupus and what to do if lupus is suspected. Participants will get the chance to learn from one of Philadelphia's top rheumatologists, Dr. Lawrence H. Brent, as well as a person living with lupus.

Register at: https://forms.gle/oLYYs5JHFUmqmTrQ7

The American College of Rheumatology’s Small Group Provider Sessions on Lupus are, in part, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Cooperative Agreement Number NU58 DP006138. Its contents are solely the responsibility of its developers/authors. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.

Penn State Project ECHO and the Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (AHEC) are partnering to launch a no-cost CME-eligible ECHO series to equip primary care providers with telehealth care strategies to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pennsylvania AHEC Lessons Learned in Implementing Telehealth ECHO series will launch on September 9, 2020, from 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM. One-hour sessions will take place every other week for 6 sessions. This series will provide participants with the latest resources and best practices for leveraging virtual services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sessions will be delivered by an interdisciplinary group of specialists, including experienced healthcare providers and educators, and will provide brief lectures on topics related to telehealth in primary care clinics such as:

• Lessons Learned and Where It Works Best,
• Workflows, Documentation, and Billing,
• Making Telehealth Part of the New Normal, and
• Art of the Tele-Physical Exam: Troubleshooting Exams, Building Rapport and Etiquette.

In addition to brief lectures, question and answer discussions will be facilitated -- empowering participants to provide access to high-quality care while limiting the spread of COVID-19.

Register for this series at: https://is.gd/TelehealthECHO.

Partner Spotlight

Dr. Menachem Leasy

Meet Dr. Menachem Leasy MD, faculty member in the Department of Clinical Family and Community Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and Ex-Officio member of the SE PA AHEC Board of Directors. SE PA AHEC is grateful for Dr. Leasy's leadership and his commitment to primary care education and community medicine.

Dr. Leasy studied medicine at the University of Tennessee before completing his residency at Beth Israel Hospital in New York. He and his wife, also a primary care physician, moved from New York City to Philadelphia, where she had done her residency. Dr. Leasy is now starting his third year at Temple University. When asked about working at Temple University and its surrounding community, Dr. Leasy said “I have really come to love the community and makeup of the people who both live and work here in North Philly. Similarly to when I worked in Harlem before moving here, I feel a real connection to the people here and am committed to serving this community. To be able to do this with like-minded colleagues while teaching learners this profession is an absolute privilege.”

Dr. Leasy  joined the SE PA AHEC board one year ago and has valued the relationship between Temple University and SE PA AHEC, saying “[t]he relationship between AHEC and Temple that I’ve been able to take part in has been so rewarding and enriching for me. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be in a position to help cultivate such an amazing partnership. I’m surely looking forward to many great years to come.” 

Loan Repayment Opportunities

The Pennsylvania Primary Care Loan Repayment Program is open and is taking applications from practitioners at approved practice sites through September 30, 2020. The program is open to a wide variety of health professions. Additional information and the RFA can be found on the Pennsylvania Primary Care Loan Repayment Program webpage.

The National Health Service Corps Students to Service Loan Repayment Program application for 2021 is now open! There will be a webinar about how to apply on 9/15. Learn more at the HRSA National Health Service Corps website.

Pennsylvania AHEC Scholars Update

SE PA AHEC is excited to announce that 23 health professions students, including 6 from the Southeast PA region, have been accepted into the 2020-2022 cohort of Pennsylvania AHEC Scholars. The two-year program is open to any students in a health profession training program that will graduate in Spring 2022 and focuses on interprofessional education, behavioral health education, social determinants of health, cultural competency, practice transformation, and current and emerging health issues. To learn more about the program or to apply, visit paahecscholars.org. Applications for this cohort will be accepted through December 31st, 2020.

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