October 9, 2015

This week's BOG Update is brought to you by Craig Alpert, MD, Chief Fellow, University of Michigan; Shashank Sinha, MD, Chair, Fellow in Training Section Leadership Council, University of Michigan; and Michael Cullen, MD, Immediate Past Chair, Fellow in Training Section Leadership Council, Mayo Clinic, Minnesota.

When Dr. Shor asked us to consider what was keeping us up at night, our resounding response was: opportunities for Fellows-in-Training (FITs). Currently, FITs have several annual conferences to facilitate their career development. These include the Annual Scientific Session, Leadership Forum and Legislative Conference. These conferences address a number of areas vital to a FIT's education, including clinical, research, leadership, and advocacy skills. However, none of these opportunities focus specifically on FITs interested in clinical education. Participation in the ACC's Emerging Faculty Program fills this gap for early career members but is, by design, intended for young faculty rather than FITs. Fortunately, the ACC is well positioned to bridge this gap for our next generation of clinician educators.

On behalf of Kim Eagle, MD, MACC and Pat O'Gara, MD, MACC we would like to invite your chapter to consider sponsoring an FIT to the inaugural "Teaching Tomorrow's Teachers" (3T) program held Feb. 14 to19, 2016 in conjunction with the 38th Annual Cardiology at Big Sky conference.

The 3T program is designed for FITs aspiring to careers as clinician educators. In addition to attending the traditional Big Sky course, FITs participating in the 3T program will:

  • Participate in a "presenter boot camp" to sharpen public speaking, presentation, and feedback skills.
  • Engage ACC leaders in a Master Educator Seminar Series as educational luminaries provide mentorship regarding educational research, career balance, and educational leadership.
  • Pair with a senior faculty mentor to prepare a case presentation to the Big Sky attendees.
  • Receive focused feedback on their presentation from their colleagues.
  • Network with other Big Sky faculty members and FIT attendees.
  • Serve as an ongoing resource within your state chapter. This may include producing a narrative for publication on ACC.org, leading the development of educational content at the annual chapter meeting, or creating a new proposal to apply newly acquired educational skills to local chapter programming.

We are confident that FITs who join us will find the 3T program a highly engaging and dynamic experience. The estimated costs of sponsoring an FIT can be found here. Please direct any questions or suggestions regarding this program to FIT staff liaison Kristin West at kwest@acc.org.

We recognize this represents a significant financial commitment – accordingly, ACC National will match up to 50% of funds for any chapter that chooses to sponsor an FIT to participate in this novel program.

If you are interested, please contact Drs. Eagle (keagle@umich.edu) and O'Gara (pogara@partners.org) for additional details. Several chapters have already committed support for FITs for the 3T program. Our deadline for selecting FITs for this program is November 1st. We thank you for your consideration and look forward to offering this experience to as many FITs as is feasible.

Thank you very much for your willingness to engage the College's next generation of leaders.