BGS Career Development

Making It Count!

Blog

Penn Contact Tracing Team

by

As Philadelphia and the nation begin to lift restrictions on Stay at Home orders, methods for controlling further spread of COVID-19 will be increasingly important. The Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation, Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, and the Center for Public Health Initiatives are working with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) to strengthen local contact tracing capacity by combining traditional human outreach with digital strategies. 

At the behest of health system leadership, Drs. Kevin Volpp and Carolyn Cannuscio are pulling together a team to coordinate these efforts at Penn.

The Penn Contact Tracing Team represents a collaboration across schools, with more than 80 student volunteers, faculty, and staff from the MPH program, SOM, SON, and SP2 as well as strong input from leaders across a number of groups at Penn Medicine. Mohan Balachandran, Chief Operating Officer for Way to Health, is overseeing the digital strategies and Austin Kilaru (clinical) and Rachel Feuerstein-Simon (administrative) the human contact tracing efforts. We are grateful to many people for their contributions to date including PJ Brennan, Raina Merchant, Hillary Nelson, Mike Restuccia, Bill Hanson, Alison Buttenheim, David Asch, and Roy Rosin.

We are working to leverage a number of Penn Medicine health and social resources in support of the patients who are contacted, including COVID Watch, ImPACT, the Social Needs Team, and the COVID chatbot. Since its formal launch two weeks ago, over 60 volunteers from the Penn Contact Tracing team have connected with over 1300 Penn Medicine COVID patients and their contacts–with the overriding goal of supporting our community and breaking the chain of transmission. 

To streamline Penn’s communications with PDPH, inquiries regarding this collaboration should be directed to Kevin (volpp70@wharton.upenn.edu) or Carolyn (cannusci@upenn.edu). Please feel free to reach out with any questions or suggestions.

Illustrator Training with Penn Biomed Library

by

Tue, May 26, 2020, 12:00 PM EDT
Do you have data you want to share with the world, but get stuck whenever you leave PowerPoint? Want to create better figures for posters and publications? On May 26, Lexi Voss, Visualizationist for the Penn Biomedical Library, will walk you through the basics of Adobe Illustrator and get you on the path to professional diagrams and figures. Registration is required to receive workshop materials.

New Webinar Series for the NIGMS Training Community

by

NIH NIGMS

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has announced a new webinar series for students, postdocs, and faculty. Each hour-long webinar will include a 10- to 15-minute presentation by the speaker followed by a moderated question and answer session. Upcoming sessions include:

Entrepreneurship and Careers in the Biotechnology Industry
Monday, May 4, 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET

Moving Away from the Scientific Pack in Your Research
Tuesday, May 5, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET

See the full schedule and webinar login information here.

Upcoming Webinars with NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE)

by

NIH OITE Webinar - April 1, 2 PM - BGS Career Development

Informational Interviews: What? How? Why?
MONDAY May 4, 3:00 – 4:00 pm EDT
Speaker, Amanda Langer, NCC, OITE Career Counselor
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2973887989168105739

While focusing on networking generally, this workshop will specifically outline steps you can take to begin conducting informational interviews now. These networking conversations can be an effective research tool and often help give you the most current and specific information about a field. Come learn tips on how to get the most out of your informational interviews!

Managing Up to Maximize Mentoring Relationships
WEDNESDAY May 6, 2:00 – 4:00
Speaker, Sharon Milgram, Director NIH OITE
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5846474266919261195

This workshop will explore the relationship between trainees and research mentors/supervisors with the goal of providing strategies for improving communication and interpersonal interactions. The workshop will help participants clarify what they need from their supervisors and mentors and how to ensure that they get what they need.

NIH Career Symposium
FRIDAY May 8, noon – 5 pm

The 13th annual NIH OITE Career Symposium is still happening, albeit on-line. There will be panels, taped interviews, and Twitter chats focused on a variety of career paths in all sectors. For more information and to register: https://www.training.nih.gov/events/view/_2/2823/13th_Annual_NIH_Career_Symposium