Betty Drees, M.D., was just a few years into her term as dean of the UMKC School of Medicine in 2007 when Vijay Babu Rayudu, one of her medical students, died unexpectedly.
“This was very much a life-changing event for many people,” Drees said, during the school’s 10th annual Vijay Babu Rayudu Quality and Patient Safety Day on May 5.
Today, the event Drees was instrumental in establishing highlights the school’s commitment to improving the quality of care and patient safety. Each year, medical students, residents and fellows present research conducted throughout the year focused on the topic of quality and patient safety.
During a morning session of the event, 49 poster presentations were made to a panels of judges that selected the top two student posters and the top two resident/fellow posters. Medical students Paige Eichhoff and Sydney Edson, resident Ramy Ghaly, M.D., and fellow Anna Nelson, M.D, received the top poster awards.
A record 58 abstracts were submitted on various topics related to the quality and patient safety, 36 of those from medical students. A panel of 30 judges also selected the top two student and top two resident/fellow presentations that were given as oral presentations during the afternoon session of the event. Medical students Madeline Glodowski and Mallika Joshi, resident Fouad Jaber, MD and fellow Edward Lyon, DO, received the top abstract awards.
In addition, Julie Banderas, Pharm.D., assistant dean for graduate studies and allied health, was presented with a Faculty Mentor of the Year Award. Drees also received special recognition with a Quality and Patient Safety Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sanjay Saint, M.D., MPH, chief of medicine at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and the George Dock Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Saint, gave the day’s keynote address focused on implementing change to enhance patient safety.
“When I was in training, we would just tolerate those things that we couldn’t change,” he said. “Now, I think we’ve got an army of people out there who are going to change the things we can no longer tolerate.”
Patient safety, implementation science, and medical decision-making make up a large part of Saint’s research efforts. He has written nearly 350 peer-reviewed papers, more than 110 of those appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, The Lancet or the Annals of Internal Medicine. He is also a special correspondent to the New England Journal of Medicine and an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and the Association of American Physicians (AAP).
In 2011, members of the Rayudu family gave a gift of $500,000 to establish a Vijay Babu Rayudu Endowed Chair of Patient Safety. Mamta Reddy, M.D., currently serves the school in that role. Two years later, the School of Medicine conducted its first Vijay Babu Rayudu Quality and Patient Safety Day.
“To see what’s going on today makes me feel really proud to be here at UMKC,” Drees said.
To see a list of all the presentations given at this year’s event, go to the school’s Quality Improvement/Patient Safety page.
