Knoxville Medicine Magazine Summer 2022

ACADEMY OF MEDICINE

KNOXVILLEMEDICINE.ORG

Academy Officers

Brian Daley, MD

PRESIDENT David Harris, MD

PRESIDENT ELECT

Melissa Chiles, MD

SECRETARY

Daniel Bustamante, MD

TREASURER

Jeff Ollis, MD

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

Kimberly Weaver, PhD

CEO

Board of Trustees

Greg Curtin, MD

Matt Doppelt, DO

Carley Fowler, MD

Jeff Gilbert, MD

Patrick McConville, MD

Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, MD

Ex- Officio Board Members

Mark Browne, MD

Richard Briggs, MD

Debbie Christiansen, MD

Randal Dabbs, MD

Elise Denneny, MD

Richard DePersio, MD

Keith Gray, MD

Robert Page, MD

Nancy Sewell -KAMA

Alex Kattran - LMU

Chassidy Sumler - LMU

Publisher Kim Weaver, PhD

Editor Jonathan Weaver Production/Advertising

ADVERTISING: For advertising information, call the Academy offices at (865) 531-2766. The magazine is published four times per year by the Knoxville Academy of Medicine (KAM). All rights reserved. This publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the KAM.

The appearance of advertising in KAM publications is not a KAM guarantee/endorsement of the product or the claims made for the product by the manufacturer. The fact that an advertisement for a product, service, or company has appeared in a KAM publication shall not be referred to in collateral advertising. The KAM reserves the right to accept or reject any advertising in the publication.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Service

Service is a word with multiple meanings and even more implications. Service is a noun and a verb and in our medical context means either helping or doing work for someone; supplying a public need; and/or perform maintenance or repair work. We in Academics constantly debate the training of residents to avoid service over education. I for one find this distinction as ludicrous, because by those definitions, we are in the truest service industry–after all every pre-med, medical school applicant and resident has written in their narrative “I just want to help people”.

That is in fact what we do and provide service to multiple entities every day. We are expected to sacrifice our time and individual needs for others in service. After all service derives from the Latin – servus - meaning slave. These are the expectation we face from society and unfortunately from ourselves.

I had the pleasure last month of flying with Honor Air, a way to pay tribute to our veterans by taking them to see the monuments recognizing them in Washington DC. It was especially poignant for the Viet Nam vets as they did not return to a thankful nation. The vets were finally and deservedly thanked for their service on this trip over fifty years from them placing

others above themselves- often through the Draft. They finally heard “Thank you for your service.”

For us, the thanks for our service in Covid have faded, just like the Healthcare Heroes banners hanging on our Medical Centers. We have seen the cost of such service, the migration away from care and now see increased workloads and demands to catch up from the quarantine. Though we use words like wellness and burnout, there has been no change in service expectations.

Physician, heal thyself. Give service to yourself. In the Harvard Business Review of May of last year, Melody Wilding writes “Stop Being So Hard on Yourself.” Three of the offerings are: 1) isolate your harshest critic (your own thoughts) by personalizing them with a name and defusing or separating your emotions from those thoughts; 2) flip the narrative of “what if’ to going right rather than going wrong; and 3) make yourself proud and count all the little wins. Simply, in our world of Medicine today, we cannot expect others to recognize our effort. Internally recognize the help you give and feel free to thank yourself for your service.

- Brian J. Daley, MD, MBA, FACS

Knoxville Area Project Access Corner

Did You Know…..

By donating charity care through the KAPA Program, you can earn up to eight (8) CME hours of CME credit toward the 40- hour requirement per licensure renewal period.

Project Access is found in over 100 communities throughout the United States, with the largest program being KAPA! Some of the specialty areas that we are seeing the highest need are; Orthopedics, Gynecology, Gastroenterology, Neurology, Urology and Dermatology. Please consider becoming a KAPA Physician Partner!

KAPA officially serves residents of Knox, Loudon, Roane, Anderson, Scott, Campbell, Morgan, and Monroe counties. Since expansion KAPA’s new patient referrals have increased 21%. KAPA has been working to recruit additional physicians, clinics, and hospitals in the new counties to account for the increase in referrals.

New physician groups include: Gastrointestinal Associates, GIA Path Lab, Knoxville Gastroenterology Anesthesia Associates, Radiology Imaging Associates of Oak Ridge, and Oak Ridge Gastroenterology, McNeeley Family Physicians, Hookman Cardiology, East Tennessee Cardiovascular Surgery Group Oak Ridge, and Kingston Family Practice.

We are thankful to all of our current and new KAPA physicians. Your contribution to our community is recognized and appreciated by many!

For more information on how your practice can participate in KAPA and refer patients, please contact: Laura Culotta, Director of Provider Relations (865) 531-2766 ex2500

David Caudill

The Knoxville Academy of Medicine Foundation (KAMF) has been a vehicle for community health and well-being projects for many years. KAMF has undertaken projects which include education on disease prevention, implementation of ventilator bundles to reduce ventilator associated pneumonia, development of rapid response teams in all participating hospitals, Knoxville Area Project Access (KAPA), our physician wellness program the Vitality Initiative Project (VIP), and most recently the Tennessee Community Resource Network (TCRN).

TCRN is a program which connects all health supporting providers and social services to improve individual health and well-being. The ultimate goal is to connect our medical, behavioral, and social services systems state wide through a common referrals platform. TCRN will establish the first truly effective means for these three sectors to communicate and coordinate care; thus achieving improvements in healthcare outcomes as well as re-

ducing healthcare expenditures for Tennessee businesses and governmental entities.

The tool which we are utilizing consists of several key components: closed loop referrals, individualized profiles, and the real-time resource directory. In addition, TCRN will have System Navigators to assist in directing individuals who are referred to resources they need.

TCRN will allow communities and the State to look more upstream; addressing factors which will improve overall health, identify gaps in resources, provide insights to community health, gain cost savings for businesses and government agencies, and reduce duplicative work and spending on technology and siloed initiatives.

Stay tuned for the latest updates regarding the Tennessee Community Resource Network. If you would like additional information or would like to participate in the pilot, please contact Danielle Sims at 865-531-2766 ext. 2430.

Tennessee Community Resource Network (TCRN)

KAM is producing a weekly podcast focused on various medical issues. Each week our host, Rob Page, M.D., will feature a KAM Physician Member to address hot topics surrounding health and well-being. These candid conversations are recorded, as both audio and video, in a relaxed setting and allow the viewer/listener to learn from discussions. These segments will aid in fulfilling the gap in medical literacy on various subjects. Our goal is to educate patients in East Tennessee, while offering a better understanding of how to treat and manage the illnesses and chronic conditions that many in our community are facing. These featured pieces will be approximately 15 to 20 minutes long and pushed out weekly through our social media sites. Additionally, they will be accessible on our YouTube Channel for a minimum of one year. Featured physicians of these productions will be identified by name, specialty, practice name, location, as well as appointment contact information. Not only will this be an FREE ongoing advertising opportunity, it will also be a production that you can link to and utilize on your website and social media free of charge! This is a great opportunity to build awareness and educate those in our community with the most frequently asked questions that you receive on various topics. Some of our latest topics have covered Sleep Apnea, Interventional Cardiology, Gallbladder Surgery, Weight Loss Surgery, and Robotic Surgery, to just name a few.

Scan the QR code below to get to the DocTalk YouTube channel.

If you would to be a guest on DocTalk contact us at: DocTalk@knoxvillemedicine.org

By: Donna Brunson, KAMA President

This spring, the KAMA Philanthropic Fund awarded over $83,000 to the community from our fundraising efforts!

• Over $15,000 was awarded to community organizations including CADES, Catholic Charities, EM Jelinek, St. Mary’s Legacy Mobile Clinic, and Tennessee Medical Foundation.

• Our Raise the Paddle Event at our Starry Night Legacy Gala raised over $17,000 for a new playground at New Hopewell School.

• $18,000 in scholarships was distributed to UT/Memphis Medical School, Pellissippi Nursing School, LMU Nursing School, UTK Nursing School and TN Wesleyan Nursing School.

• Over $33,000 went to four endowed scholarships, including a new endowed scholarship for Quillen Medical School.

Our 2022-23 theme is “Explore KAMA.” After two years and counting of the pandemic, we can all use a little adventure in our lives. Many of us have become accustomed to doing less. As we come out of the pandemic, I want to encourage our members to rediscover the joy of doing. As we continue our mission of promoting health education programs that impact the welfare of our community and to encourage friendships among our membership, I will encourage our members to Explore KAMA, explore friendships old and new, and to explore new ways to get involved in the community.

Although KAMA does not officially meet during the summer, we still have a full slate of activities planned. We are very excited about co-

hosting the KAM/KAMA picnic on July 29. This is always a great opportunity for our families to get together for food, fun, and friendship. We also have several membership retention and recruitment events planned including monthly KAMA Lunch Bunch and KAMA Book Club meetings. In June several members, including myself, attended the AMAA Annual Meeting and Centennial Celebration in Chicago where longtime member and former KAMA President, Jacque Prince, received an AMAA Health Awareness Promotion Award for her focus on educating our membership on the availability of emerging COVID vaccines in early 2021.

On August 28, we have plans to host our first annual Neyland Stadium Tour and Tailgate. For those KAM members whose spouses are not already KAMA members, this membership event is a great opportunity to join us and explore all that KAMA has to offer.

Our first meeting will be September 8. Attendees will be encouraged to “Explore Knoxville.” Representatives from Visit Knoxville will discuss our city’s highlights and hidden gems.

Last year, KAMA made the decision to host one Legacy Fundraising Event per year. I am excited to announce that this year, Doc Rock returns! Mark your calendars for January 28 and get ready to vote for your favorite physician band.

Thank you, Donna Brunson, KAMA President 2022-2023

KAMA Corner

Promote your practice with Knoxville Medicine’s DocTalk, a free KAM membership benefits that spotlights our members!

TECHNOLOGY NEWS

NPPES Digital Contact Information

By: Pam Matthews, etHIN CEO/Executive Director

The 2020 CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Rule mandated a centralized directory of providers’ digital contact information be published by the National Plan & Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) to improve interoperability and the efficiency and effectiveness of electronic health information exchange.

While providers are encouraged to enter digital contact, or endpoint, information in NPPES to promote health care interoperability, the information is not required to obtain an NPI. However, CMS stated in the 2020 Rule that it would begin publicly posting a list of providers who do not include an endpoint in their NPPES listing. That list is now available at https://data. cms.gov/provider-compliance/public-reporting-of-missing-digital-contact-information.

To ease the administrative burden on larger health care organizations, NPPES also enabled bulk upload in the registry. An explanation of bulk uploading as well as answers to other frequently asked questions related to digital endpoints

is available at https://www.cms.gov/about-cms/obrhi/faqs#118.

Adding a secure endpoint to your NPPES listing is simple and allows other providers to contact you and share data in a HIPAA compliant manner. Multiple secure endpoint types were approved by CMS, including Direct Secure Messaging.

If you need an inexpensive, HIPAA-compliant endpoint, etHIN Direct allows providers to securely receive CMS-required Hospital Event Notifications, exchange referrals and patient PHI, and have secure one-to-one communication with other health care providers.

Contact etHIN today at 865-691-8433, ext. 1, or email info@ethin.org to learn more about etHIN’s simple, cost-effective way for you to comply with the 2020 CMS Rule and make your digital contact information available in the NPPES directory so you can securely communicate with other providers about your shared patients.

What Is It And How You Can Comply With The CMS Rule

Physician Well-being a Priority for KAMF

At the end of 2021, the KAM Foundation was made aware of a HRSA grant to address Physician Burnout. KAMF quickly began working with the other Medical Society Foundation’s across Tennessee to develop a statewide program which built upon existing programs in our respective areas. Although we did not receive the grant, much more information was gathered and has only intensified the need for a Physician Wellness program. Below is a section of the grant that speaks to the magnitude of this challenge over the last several years.

A 2018 Physicians Foundation survey of America’s physicians found 40% of physicians often felt burnt out. Two years later, an unprecedented global health crisis wreaked havoc on our nation’s healthcare systems and propelled medical providers to elevated levels of stress, burnout, and mental health challenges. Physicians and health care workers across specialties and systems are increasingly asked to deliver more with less in practice environments that often fall short in fostering cultures of well-being and support. This crisis coupled with increased demands on physicians has exacerbated physician burnout to 61% according to the Foundation's 2021 survey.

A February 2021 Jackson Physician Search survey found 54% of physician respondents reported that the pandemic had altered their future career plans with 36% of those saying they were planning for early retirement or to leave medicine altogether. 50% said they were planning to leave their current employer for another. Administrators surveyed reported the pandemic had a negative effect on physician retention with 30% responding that physicians were retiring early.

Due to the high number of physician’s experiencing burnout, the Knoxville Academy of Medicine Foundation created the Vitality Initiative Program (VIP). The goal of VIP is to destigmatize the need for counseling and support and provide access to discrete care. With that in mind, the VIP has setup a confidential and secure number to call for counseling: 865-9999KAM (526). This service is offered as a free program to support KAM Members. If you are experiencing symptoms of burnout or would like to speak to a counselor anonymously, please call the KAM VIP Hotline at 865-9999-KAM.

Together, we go further.

The practice of medicine is full of unforseen challenges, and an experienced, proactive partner will help navigate them. As a premier provider of medical malpractice insurance, our in-house attorneys and unique array of tailored services are always at the ready to help you be prepared for what lies ahead.