2021 Graduation Awards

There are few more welcoming faces to see than this year’s winner for excellence in clinical teaching at Riley, Dr. Ben Nti. Ben’s good humor on shift is legendary and is only matched by his clinical acumen. He is a fierce resident and patient advocate, and residents agree that they always walk out of a shift knowing something new. The residents truly appreciate Ben’s perspective on the many unique patients and situations at Riley, and his passion for his job is inspiring.

This year’s winner for excellence in clinical teaching at Eskenazi is Dr. Matt Rutz. Whether low acuity or high acuity, residents know that a shift with Matt will be both educational and high energy. No matter the topic, he has something to teach on the subject, and can point learners toward additional resources on any topic they may encounter. Further, his energy is infectious in the department. He makes allies of his team and is able to help lead through even the diciest of patient situations. Any discussion of him would be remiss without mentioning ultrasound, and residents are almost certain to have their ultrasound skills improved by the end of a shift with Matt.

This year’s winner for excellence in clinical teaching at Methodist is Dr. Katie Trammel. Katie Trammel works as a nocturnist and always makes a night shift more enjoyable. She is fun to work with and takes the time to invest in residents personally. Furthermore, she is simply a rockstar in the department. She truly embodies the type of physician residents hope to become. She is cool, calm and collected even in the most critical situations. She is able to talk through clinical reasoning in a way that allows residents to be autonomous in their decision making but also push them to consider additional options and learn something new. Her previous experience in community practice gives her a unique perspective and additional learning points to share. 

In addition to the wonderful teaching residents receive in the emergency department, they also consistently receive outstanding teaching on their off-service rotations. The Outstanding Off Service Teaching Faculty of the Year Award is given to a faculty member from an off-service rotation who has gone above and beyond in their teaching of emergency medicine residents. This year’s winner is Dr. Ilana Porzecanski. Dr. Porzecanski is one of the critical care nocturnists who residents work with on their ICU night rotations. This rotation is always a favorite of residents, as they get to hone some of their critical care skills at an upper level. Dr. P does an outstanding job of facilitating this process. She is incredibly smart and detailed as she challenges residents on their critical care reasoning in admissions and is a talented proceduralist who has taught many tips and tricks. Above all, she is a strong advocate for residents, empowering them to take ownership of their education. The residents all admire her as a strong clinician who always does the right thing for her patients.

Despite the challenge, our residents stepped up. Tweets went flying, an Instagram was started, and we developed a pretty outstanding recruitment website. When we say “we” developed a pretty outstanding recruitment website, what we really mean is “Chris Olson” developed the best residency recruitment website in the country. Chris took the reins and built, from the ground up, a password protected interactive, informational website for all 300 applicants who interviewed with us. He built the content, sourced images for virtual tours, embedded videos from across GME, and generated over 300 unique usernames and passwords so that each applicant could see the best of what IU had to offer. This will benefit the residency enormously for years to come. It is quite fitting that we honor that contribution with an IMPACT award.

Mentorship is vital to the continuous evolution of Emergency Medicine. At some point in their lives, we hope that each resident takes on a passion project; something that is important to them and positively affects the community in which they live, serve, and/or work. Before she left, a recent graduate developed a mentorship program, a passion project, focused on preventing imposter syndrome. This program had a profound impact on the women in this residency. However, it seemed difficult to find someone who would lead the program with as much passion as its creator. This was not the case for the Preventing Imposter Syndrome Club. Jackie took over this program with at least as much passion as Dr. Wagner. She kept it going and made it even better. Jackie has shown her commitment to mentoring and elevating women in medicine throughout her residency in every aspect from her innovative scholarly work on parental leave policies to the incredible mentorship she has provided to fellow IUEM residents.

The Indiana University emergency medicine residency program prides itself on great clinical educators and that starts with the residents. Every year IU medical students praise the enthusiasm and teaching ability of our residents. The Resident Teacher of the Year award is given to the resident who receives the highest evaluations from the graduating medical student class. This year’s winner is Dr. Tony Bucca. In their evaluations, medical students praised Tony’s approachability, patience, and outstanding feedback. While it is a little bit inexplicable that they were referring to someone who models his academic persona after Dr. Ben Hunter, we trust that won’t diminish the prestige of this award too much. Congratulations to Tony!

This is the third year we have been able to present one of our outstanding faculty with the award and monetary stipend established by the Chisholm Rodgers Legacy Fund. The award recognizes an Emergency Medicine faculty who spends the majority of their work time involved in clinical teaching of our residents and students and demonstrates excellence in clinical education. This year’s recipient, Dr. Katie Trammel, exhibits just that. She is one of our faculty members who forms the backbone of clinical development in our learners. Here are a few things our learners said about Katie:

"Amazing teacher and mentor. Balances autonomy and education. Great role model. Cares deeply for her learners."

"Absolutely freaking baller. That is all"

"I can only hope to practice EM like her someday."

Please congratulate Katie - we are so grateful for her dedication to our learners.