We are a group of emergency physicians from across North America interested in tackling issues of wellness, resiliency, and burnout starting from the ground up – with residents! Read what we have done in the past few years:
Peer-reviewed journal publications (see reference)
What’s next?
As of July 1, 2020, the Wellness Think Tank is no longer accepting new members. We are regrouping to determine the most effective means to impact change to support physician wellness and growth.
The mission of the Wellness Think Tank is to create a diverse community of residents who collaborate, innovate, and advocate for physician wellness from the ground up. This grassroots initiative tackles resident issues such as preventing suicide and burnout, enhancing resilience, and promoting overall quality of life. Our ultimate goal is to catalyze innovative and positive change at the individual, institutional, local, national, and international levels.
How do we accomplish this?
Encourage collaboration, support, and meaningful discussion among residents from across North America
Connect residents to well-known experts in wellness, both inside and outside of the field of medicine
Facilitate the development and implementation of innovative, resident-driven interventions targeting common sources of stress and burnout in emergency medicine
Educate residents on principles of resilience, positive psychology, mindfulness, and other mental health promoting skills
Mentor and assist residents in scholarly activities, development and implementation of initiatives, and leadership at institutional, regional, and national levels
Our Platform: Slack
Slack, despite its informal name, is an incredibly powerful digital communication platform that has completely revolutionized how the ALiEM Editorial Board works and is the primary means of communication for many major companies (including eBay, the Wall Street Journal, and even NASA). It has also served as the successful platform for our other high-profile communities (Faculty Incubator, Chief Resident Incubator). It has been described as “team communication for the 21st century” and efficiently transforms how teams work. This will be how we will be communicating, sharing, and working together in a private Wellness Think Tank account.
Executive Leadership Team
Simiao Li-Sauerwine, MD MS
Chief Academic Officer, Wellness Think Tank 2019-20 Assistant Program Director Department of Emergency Medicine The Ohio State University Twitter
Sarah Mott, MD
Special Events Officer, Wellness Think Tank 2019-20 Staff Emergency Physician Emergency Care Consultants Minnesota Twitter
Katie Rebillot, DO
Chief Operating Officer, Wellness Think Tank 2019-20 Assistant Professor Department of Emergency Medicine LA County-University Southern California Twitter
Sneha Shah, MD
Chief Development Officer, Wellness Think Tank 2019-20 Resident Department of Emergency Medicine Maimonides Medical Center
Core Mentors and Senior Advisors
A’lai Alvarez, MD (Associate Program Director, Stanford EM Residency)
Publication of relevant pearls and resources on social media
Why limit the WTT to 30 emergency medicine resident members?
To ensure that each member feels connected to the WTT community, it is important that we limit participants. Each resident member will be paired with a mentor and be part of a smaller group working toward completion of a specific goal. Keeping the group small will help foster a greater sense of connection and help ensure members are engaged and active throughout the year.
Prerequisites and Expectations
Preference will be given to the following:
Emergency medicine residents able to attend Essentials of EM’s preday event
Have demonstrated an interest in promoting wellness and resiliency either while in medical school or residency through participation in committees, research, development, implementation of new initiatives, and/or otherwise championing these topics.
Expectations
Identify and work toward completion of specific project(s) with support of a WTT advisor
Interact and collaborate with other WTT members using the Slack platform
Participate in Google Hangouts
Monthly time commitment of approximately 10 hours (may vary depending on project involvement, deadlines, etc.)
Challenge the status quo, share personal experiences, and continue to work toward advancing the WTT mission!
Application Process
Please submit the following using our form [insert link] below
Curriculum vitae
WTT project proposal (e.g. research, curriculum, events, etc.) – we are looking for innovative ideas and welcome creativity
Letter of recommendation from faculty or wellness advisor
Letter of good academic standing from EM program director
We would like to express sincere gratitude to our generous primary sponsor, US Acute Care Solutions, who share our passion about physician wellness. Their support makes it possible to keep the WTT membership free and for us to develop meaningful projects.
We also wish to thank Essentials of Emergency Medicine for co-hosting our resident wellness preday even at their national conference
References
Li-Sauerwine S, Rebillot K, Melamed M, Addo N, Lin M. A 2-Question Summative Score Correlates with the Maslach Burnout Inventory. West J Emerg Med. 2020;21(3):610-617. Published 2020 Apr 21. doi:10.5811/westjem.2020.2.45139
Arnold J, Tango J, Walker I, et al. An Evidence-based, Longitudinal Curriculum for Resident Physician Wellness: The 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit. West J Emerg Med. 2018;19(2):337-341. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29560063.
Zaver F, Battaglioli N, Denq W, et al. Identifying Gaps and Launching Resident Wellness Initiatives: The 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit. West J Emerg Med. 2018;19(2):342-345. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29560064.
Lin M, Battaglioli N, Melamed M, Mott S, Chung A, Robinson D. High Prevalence of Burnout Among US Emergency Medicine Residents: Results From the 2017 National Emergency Medicine Wellness Survey. Ann Emerg Med. March 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30879701.
Battaglioli N, Ankel F, Doty C, Chung A, Lin M. Executive Summary from the 2017 Emergency Medicine Resident Wellness Consensus Summit. West J Emerg Med. 2018;19(2):332-336. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29560062.
Chung A, Smart J, Zdradzinski M, et al. Educator Toolkits on Second Victim Syndrome, Mindfulness and Meditation, and Positive Psychology: The 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit. West J Emerg Med. 2018;19(2):327-331. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29560061.