About Arlene Chung, MD

Chief Strategy Officer,
2016-17 ALiEM Wellness Think Tank
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Assistant Program Director
Mount Sinai Emergency Medicine Residency
Editor, AKOSMED (EM wellness blog)

Peer Accountability: A Strategy for Maintaining Commitment to Personal and Professional Obligations

There are a number of personal attributes characterizing the professional identity of “physician.” We are dedicated to patients, committed to lifelong learning, and responsible for a variety of other professional obligations. Each requires physicians to be highly accountable – obligated or willing to accept responsibility for one’s actions. In this post we present examples of how we’ve adopted peer accountability as a strategy to help us with the myriad responsibilities and obligations at the heart of our profession. Just in time for the New Year – we challenge each of our readers to consider finding an “accountability partner” in 2020!

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By Arlene Chung, MD|2020-01-06T18:09:21-08:00Jan 10, 2020|Professional Development, Wellness|

Call to EM residents: Apply to join the 2018 Wellness Think Tank

This is a call to action for residents who have the creativity and passion to make life better for all trainees. The 2017 Wellness Think Tank survey of more than 1,500 EM residents found that, on average, 15 out of every 16 residents are struggling with burnout. It’s time to change that! We are looking for motivated residents to be a part of a one-of-a-kind grassroots movement to create a better and more sustainable culture within Emergency Medicine. Apply to join the 2018 Wellness Think Tank today!
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By Arlene Chung, MD|2018-01-16T19:36:19-08:00Jan 15, 2018|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Reflections and Summaries from the 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit

The first ever Resident Wellness Consensus Summit (RWCS) was held this year as a pre-day to Essentials of EM on May 15, 2017 in Las Vegas. This was an amazing opportunity for residents across North America to come together and discuss the important topic of resident wellness. We even had some participants from Fiji! Many of the attendees participated in pre-work for the RWCS through their involvement in the Wellness Think Tank, which is our virtual community of practice that involves residents from across the U.S. and Canada. In addition to pre-work for the RWCS, the members participated in online discussions on wellness and worked closely with our Wellness Strategists.

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By Arlene Chung, MD|2017-06-20T13:32:13-07:00Jun 9, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Wellness and Resiliency during Residency: EM is a career with unresolved stories

“We do make a difference, but not just in the setting of resuscitating critically ill or injured people, but in putting people on the pathway to health. We often get cheated out of the ending of the movie. We don’t see the romantic side of what we’ve helped facilitate. We certainly don’t get credit for it.” – Dr. Richard Cantor

There are lots of reasons why Emergency Medicine (EM) has one of the highest burnout rates compared to other medical specialties.^1,2 We have long and erratic hours, difficult patients, and an increasing number of bureaucratic tasks such as clicking boxes in an electronic medical records system or ensuring high patient-satisfaction survey responses.² These stresses are not unique to EM, but our high-volume and high-acuity patient loads do amplify those stresses compared to other fields.

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By Arlene Chung, MD|2019-04-06T00:56:59-07:00May 10, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Wellness and Resiliency During Residency: Professional Identity Formation (featuring a podcast with Dr. Michael Weinstock)

“So I had medicine in my blood. But just because you have medicine in your blood doesn’t mean that it’s always smooth sailing.” —Michael Weinstock, MD

What is “professional identity formation”?

As Abraham Fuks and colleagues once said, “One does not simply learn to be a physician, one becomes a physician.”¹ Professional Identity Formation (PIF) is the slow transformative process by which an idealistic pre-medical college student becomes a battle-hardened emergency physician attending. PIF occurs slowly over years of exposure to the culture of medicine. From Day 1 of medical school, we watch how doctors in the world around us think, teach, feel, and act and slowly absorb those lessons over time, often without even being consciously aware of it happening. These lessons can be inspiring or toxic.

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By Arlene Chung, MD|2017-05-09T19:16:30-07:00Apr 24, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Calling all U.S. EM residents: 5 Reasons to Fill out the 2017 National EM Resident Wellness Survey

This week the Wellness Think Tank is launching a resident wellness survey for Emergency Medicine residency training programs across the United States. We want 100% of EM residents to complete this important survey and we need your help! Check out 5 reasons why you should take our survey TODAY, if you are a U.S EM resident!

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By Arlene Chung, MD|2018-05-13T13:38:30-07:00Mar 20, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

Wellness and Resiliency During Residency: Life happens despite your best plans

When I got back home from taking [my board exams], having all these [negative] feelings swirling through my head, I remember driving up and seeing my wife and baby sitting on the porch and suddenly being like, “Isn’t this what life is all about? Is it really about studying for an exam? Is it really about pushing yourself to get triple-boarded or do this or that within medicine? I mean, isn’t THIS what it’s about? Having a wife and a child, a family to call your own, aren’t these the things that are most important that we should value?” After that point, after seeing them on the porch and over the next couple weeks, things really started to change for me.

— Haney Mallemat, MD
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By Arlene Chung, MD|2017-03-01T10:38:55-08:00Feb 20, 2017|Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

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