It is with great sadness that we announce that Judy A. Shea, PhD, the Leon Hess Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine (DGIM), has died.
If you hadn’t been touched by Judy in some way, you are in the minority at the Perelman School of Medicine, and sadly, you missed out on one of the greatest mentors and collaborators at Penn Medicine.
Judy was raised in a home with no indoor bathroom (only an outhouse) and was educated in a one-room schoolhouse that blended students from multiple grades. And then Judy received her BS in Psychology from Kearney State College in 1975; a MS in Family and Human Development from Utah State University in 1978; and her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University in 1981. Judy had a successful early career at the American Board of Internal Medicine and then came to Penn in 1991 as a project manager. In 1998 she was appointed to the faculty of DGIM rising rapidly to professor as a health services and medical education research methodologist.
Along the way, Judy held many titles including Associate Dean for Assessment and Medical Education Research, Director of the Office of Evaluation and Assessment, Co-Director of the Master of Science in Health Policy Research, and Director of Faculty Development for DGIM. She also served many years on both the Department of Medicine Committee on Appointments and Promotions (COAP) and on the PSOM COAP.
Judy received numerous prestigious awards at Penn and nationally. At Penn she received the FOCUS Award for the Advancement of Women in Medicine (2009), the Arthur K. Asbury Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award (2018), and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (2020), the University’s highest teaching honor. Nationally she received the Society of General Internal Medicine Career Achievement in Medical Education Award (2011), the Hubbard Award from the National Board of Medical Examiners (2011), the AAMC NEGEA Distinguished Educator Award (2016), and the AAMC Merrell Flair Award (2018). These are among the highest national awards in medical education. To win one of these awards is an amazing accomplishment; to win multiple is beyond exceptional.
Judy dedicated her entire career to working with faculty and fellows to design and execute research projects. Much of Judy’s work focused on the psychometric properties of evaluation tools and developing measures to assess components of health such as health literacy, patient satisfaction, and health-related quality of life. She was PSOM’s go-to expert in quantitative survey research and qualitative methods including focus groups and interviews and critical to the success of Penn’s reputation as a leader in the field of medical education research.
Throughout her career Judy was a tireless mentor, meeting her students where they were and helping them to successfully navigate research careers. She published over 375 peer-reviewed articles, many with junior colleagues and mentees. Judy’s mentees are now leaders in medical institutions at Penn and across the country. As one of the greatest of all time mentors, her mentees have taken what they have learned from Judy and are themselves mentoring the next generation of trainees and junior faculty. Her impact will be felt for generations of medical educators and health services researchers who were directly or indirectly the recipients of her insights and attention.
Prior to Judy’s passing, DGIM established an endowment for the DGIM Judy A. Shea, PhD Faculty and Fellow Development Award. This award will honor Judy’s lifelong commitment to advancing the careers of those in academic medicine by providing meaningful support for faculty and fellow career development activities.
Judy’s family has asked that in lieu of flowers, please consider honoring Judy with a donation to the Faculty and Fellow Development Award Fund.
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Division of General Internal Medicine Week-in-Review | July 1, 2024
Dear DGIM,
Congratulations to Pete Groeneveld (CHERP Director) and the VA CHERP team. The Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP) was renewed for another 5 years after receiving the highest VA HSR Center renewal score in the country!
Congratulations to the following recipients of DGIM Pilot Grants:
- Maggie Lowenstein got a Matt Slap Pilot Research Grant for her project: “Patient Perspectives on a Transitional Hospital-to-Housing Model.”
- Aaron Schwartz got a Matt Slap Pilot Research Grant for his project: “Pilot Study of an AI Large Language Model (LLM) to Support Frontline Health Workers in Low-Resource Settings.”
- Jen Kogan and Jessica Dine got a Sam Martin Education Pilot Award for their project: “The Opportunity Costs Associated with Publish or Perish in Undergraduate Medical Education.”
I look forward to reporting back on the results from these projects.
Congratulations to David Aizenberg. He received the DOM Andrew Schafer Leadership in Medicine Award.
It is that time of year when we say goodbye to our senior residents and say hello to the new interns. Congratulations to our primary care residents: Virginia Waldrop (Ambulatory Chief Resident), Nicole Scaramella, Hector Mora, Patrick Sayre (Residency APD), Casey Krickis, Rani Nandiwada (Primary Care Residency Program Director), Menaka Dhingra, Uttara Gadde, Nichole Smith, Hannah Lampert, Jessica Zuo, Eva Szymanski, Abby Schmucker, and Kurt Koehler.
Maggie Lowenstein, Rachael Truchil, Judy Chertok (FM) and other Penn colleagues have an article in the Journal of Substance Use & Addiction Treatment assessing outcomes for patients treated by a mobile low-threshold OUD treatment program (Prevention Point van). The program served a predominantly male Black population. Impressively 69% completed 4 or more visits with the mobile program. Of the people served, 51% of the 237 had at least one visit with an outside site and 30% followed up at least two times. Being referred to a site where the people who staffed the mobile clinic (i.e. Penn) increased the odds of a successful linkage to brick-and-mortar care (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.2-4.5). Glass ½ full or ½ empty? While the direct linkage to care may have been lower than they hoped and on par with other efforts, they reached a very hard to reach, transient population and connected 4 or more times with almost 70% of the population, supporting a medication first approach to OUD treatment.
Bob Burke has a new article out in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society looking at the relationship between a VA facility being recognized by IHI as “Age-Friendly” and subsequent facility-free days in older Veterans. They find a small but statistically significant increase in facility free days among veterans seen in an Age-Friendly recognized medical center – about one extra day per year. This effect was consistent across subgroups and level of recognition (Level 1 versus 2 where Level 2 is considered a higher level of Age-Friendly recognition). While this might not seem a lot, Bob points out that if this was spread across the VA during the time frame under analysis (2018-2022) it would have saved the VA about $1.3 billion (although this number does not include the cost of implementing Age-Friendly practices so likely lower in reality). This study was a high-level analysis. Many of the veterans included in the analysis may not have been touched by Age-Friendly practices. If this is true, one would expect greater effects with more people touched. Implementing comprehensive Age-Friendly practices can be hard to do and expensive. An ROI analysis might help determine if the effort is worth it both from a financial perspective and quality of life perspective.
Katy Milkman (Wharton) just published a paper in Nature with Kevin Volpp and many other Penn faculty showing that almost any text message was just as good at getting people to get a COVID booster as were free roundtrip Lyft rides to a CVS pharmacy where they could get the booster. This was a megastudy of over 4 million people. The effect size was about a 1% overall increase in booster uptake (compared to a control group) and a small but significant spillover effect with a 0.34% increase in influenza vaccination completion. We know transportation is a barrier to care, but we have yet to show that providing transportation significantly increases care receipt. The text messaging effect is consistent with other studies – text move the needle a little, but are cheap, and we are able to easily get them to many different people.
Turning research into policy: Aaron Schwartz recently learned that Medicare has adopted quality measures he developed as a graduate student for the AHEAD accountable care organization global payment model. For those who are interested in the details, you can find the measures on page 91 of the financial specs. Aaron says the lesson learned is If external parties ask for your help/code to build on your prior work, help them.
Wellness: On Tuesday, June 25th, Penn Medicine on Demand (PMOD) became the first call for after-hours clinical calls coming into the PIMUC and Cooper Clinics. They are covering weeknights and weekends, including holidays. This has already been rolled out to some of the Penn Medicine Primary Care Clinics and has led to a substantial reduction in after-hours calls (see graph) and incredible provider satisfaction (basically 100% of people said their life was better due to the program). The plans are to eventually roll this out to all the clinics. We are thrilled. Thank you Kevin Mahoney and the team making this happen!
Teddy Wu was selected to become SGIM National Membership Committee Co-Chair. He will serve in this capacity for the next 2 years, and of course he encourages you all to renew your membership or join SGIM if you’re not a member. Teddy also wants you all to note that the fall Mid-Atlantic SGIM regional meeting is Friday October 18, at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Hospital, and next year’s Annual SGIM Meeting is May 15-17 in Hollywood, Florida!
Keep the news coming,
Judith
Judith A. Long, MD
Sol Katz Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine