Alfredo Mena Lora, MD, Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago
I am an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I've had the opportunity to serve as associate program director for our internal medicine residency and program director for our infectious diseases fellowship. I also teach M1/M2s at the College of Medicine and lead the IM interest group. I also lead the IM clerkship at Saint Anthony Hospital. Medical education is one of my passions, and I love contributing to medical education at all levels. I try to incorporate history in everything that I do, connecting current concepts to how they evolved in the medical literature and medical history. Inevitably, I learn more from my students and residents as they challenge my medical knowledge and help me improve my teaching style. The Roman philosopher Seneca said it best: “Homines dum docent discunt." (We learn the most by teaching.)
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I was lucky to have many role models at my institution. One example was my program director, Fred Zar, who is an amazing physician, teacher, and infectious diseases expert. He personifies excellence in teaching, with his profound knowledge of medicine and his joy of teaching. He also makes learning joyous for the learner. It is through examples like his that I became seriously interested in teaching as a PGY1. This grew as I progressed in residency and culminated in a year as chief resident. That year remains a template for what I enjoy doing today: teaching, trainee advocacy, program improvement, and working towards an environment where learners are happy and able to reach their fullest potential.
I try to integrate medical education into the fabric of my week and thus embed it into my career. It's important to always carve time for the things that you love, which in my case includes morning report, case conference, or residency/fellowship lectures. This leads to exposure to trainees and further roles or opportunities in medical education.
I started a podcast with our chief residents in 2017. It has been a very rewarding and versatile way to deliver content to our residents. Learners can listen to the podcast when they exercise or do other activities, helping us deliver key content to our residents and fellows in a seamless way. We were able to develop content specific to our residents, such as areas that needed improvement from our recent In-Training Exams. The versatile nature of this platform also gives you the opportunity to explore other topics. For example, we have done a series of faculty interviews and in-depth biographies. These are my favorite because we interview senior faculty to get a sense of institutional history and the evolution of medicine through their careers, and the many winding roads that have led them to where they are. We also highlight diversity and inclusion through our faculty interviews.
It has been very rewarding to contribute to board review books, converting some of my lectures into book chapters for fellows, residents and students.
There are so many aspects of our practice that may not be a part of a traditional fellowship curriculum. We've tried to incorporate exposure to committee meetings (infection prevention, stewardship, transplant) and hospital policy work into our curriculum. Fellows thus get more exposure to some of the things that happen behind the scenes and are more confident in these settings once they graduate. We also invite interested fellows to help us deliver our classes to M1/M2s and other faculty-level teaching opportunities. I also engage with medical students to show them the beauty and diversity of infectious diseases. Medical students are always eager to learn about careers in medicine. I expose them to career panels with ID physicians and discuss the many careers in ID in order to inspire students to join our field. We recently started a robust ID interest group, where students join us for research projects and join our fellow lectures.
COVID-19 has brought challenges and opportunities. Transitioning our curriculum into a virtual platform was a great way to bring all of our resources to the 21st century. Fellows now have access to all of our materials, schedules, curriculum, via their mobile phone. Through this platform, we also deliver our lectures and fellows are able to join and actively participate without having to move to a central location on campus. Our lecture curriculum now includes colleagues from the University of Chicago and Loyola University via a city-wide fellowship core curriculum. This means our fellows get to know trainees and faculty from other universities in the city, and we foster a strong collaborative environment for teaching and case discussions. Our core curriculum reflects ABIM priorities and important topics in adult infectious diseases.
My advice is to find as many teaching opportunities and as much exposure as possible. The more you teach, the more you will find your teaching style. This exposure will also lead to more encounters with trainees, where you can build great relationships of mutual growth.
I am excited about developing a more personalized approach to fellowship training. Our fellowship developed career pathways and tracks that help fellows personalize their fellowship as much as possible. For example, fellows interested in infection prevention will have a seat at the table in our infection control committees and help us develop policies. Fellows interested in transplant medicine or HIV would have similar unique exposures to grow within their preferred space in our profession. I'm excited to explore further ways to make the fellowship unique for each individual. Incorporating technology into our teaching and training is also something that I look forward to.
