Saman Nematollahi, MD, Fellow at Johns Hopkins

Saman Nematollahi is currently finishing his ID fellowship at Johns Hopkins and will start his transplant ID position at the University of Arizona. He has completed his coursework in the Masters of Education in the Health Professions through Johns Hopkins University School of Education. He is the Vice-Chair of the IDSA Fellows Subcommittee and is a liaison to the IDSA Medical Education Community of Practice Executive Committee. His education interests include diagnostic reasoning, curriculum development, and leveraging social media to advance medical education.

How did you get interested in medical education?

I've been interested in medical education since I was a medical student. I had a mentor at the University of Arizona who was instrumental in getting me involved in medical education projects, such as "flipping classrooms" in the MSK block, using cadaver models to improve technical skills, and assessing pre-clinical factors that determine USMLE Step 1 scores.

What opportunities have you sought out as a medical educator to further develop your skills?

I had the opportunity during residency to join the Advanced Clinical Educator (ACE) track, which allowed residents to hone in on their teaching skills with other residents and medical students. During fellowship, I was able to complete coursework with a Masters in Education in Health Professions. This allowed me to gain skills in curriculum development, mixed methods research, development of health programs, assessments and feedback, and grant writing.

How have you incorporated social media into medical education, and what role do you think social media can serve in education?

I think social media, in particular Twitter, can act as a great supplement to trainees at all levels. How I use Twitter really depends on the audience and the specific learning objectives that the learner and I have. I've incorporated social media into teaching by curating content while on rounds or teaching a particular topic. I bookmark certain tweetorials and infographics that are well-done and high-yield, and I reference and review them as specific topics come up in discussions.

What advice do you have for ID educators who are looking to start incorporating social media into their teaching?

It is very overwhelming to dive into social media and then start creating content at the very beginning. At first, I recommend creating an account and following a handful of Twitter accounts, so you are not overwhelmed with the amount of information. Then, as time goes on, you can start following more accounts, start "liking" and "retweeting" material, and perhaps comment on posts. Then, you can start curating content for your learners by bookmarking tweetorials and infographics that you like and sharing them with your learners when those specific topics come up on rounds or in the classroom.

You were recently awarded an intramural grant to create a fungal diagnostics curriculum for IM residents. Tell us about that project.

Myself and my mentor, Dr. Michael Melia, were awarded a grant through the Fisher Center Discovery Program to leverage Twitter to enhance fungal diagnostic practice amongst internal medicine residents across three residency sites. The project consisted of a pre and post-Twitter survey to assess attitudes/interests about fungal infections and a ten multiple-choice question knowledge assessment, in addition to 16 multiple-choice questions on Twitter that were each followed by a tweetorial (through the account, @FilaMentor). We wanted to see if we could improve knowledge of fungal diagnostics (specifically, serum beta-d-glucan and galactomannan) among IM residents. The study is complete, and we are analyzing the data with hopes of submitting it for publication soon.

What has it been like to serve on the IDSA Fellows Subcommittee?

It has been fantastic being on the IDSA Fellows Subcommittee. Currently, I am the Vice-Chair and will be Chair starting October 2021. In addition to helping with some activities during IDWeek, we have started a national ID fellow conference series where we focus on professional development for ID fellows. Prior talks have included the virtual ID job search and how to navigate your new job as an early faculty member.

What other innovative educational program or process are you excited about currently?

In addition to the work mentioned above, I am a member of the Clinical Problem Solvers podcast, where I serve as the director of Medical Education Research. We have been describing our early experiences and assessments with the podcast and have several publications in press. And finally, I am a team member of the ID Fellows Network (recently launched in 2020), where we curate and create ID content for ID fellows and others interested in ID.