An Innovative Integrated Geospatial Information Systems & Quality Improvement Residency Research Training Program
Authors: Monge Margarita , Reyes Angela , Davis Kendrick 
Published: November 2024

Introduction

Participation in scholarly activity during residency has posed barriers to departments that include: research mentorship, an active and supportive research community, formal research infrastructure and programming, and diverse and accessible opportunities for scholarly activity with faculty, staff and communities in our service region. In response to these barriers our team has created a formal QI research training program for psychiatry residents.2 Our solutions include: assembling a dedicated team, which contains both department leadership and a GIS faculty expert, an expanded interdisciplinary team which includes research librarians and grant support, GIS as a tool and science to best orient residents to the regional landscape and needs of our service populations, formal research training covering GIS, Cultural Psychiatry, and Psychometrics in Psychiatry as curricular themes, and a Chief Resident for Research role to facilitate bridges between residents and faculty and to promote a continuous research community.

Methods

An inquiry-based approach is applied to our formal research curriculum. Year 1 is an inquiry theme focused on basing resident QI research on the needs of our service region. Year 2 is themed research wherein literature reviews, dashboards and Storymaps are the emphasized outputs. Year 3 is themed implementation and residents are supported to use their dashboards with community to aid community organizations in making decisions for and with populations they serve. Lastly, year 4 is themed construct wherein residents are supported to complete and submit manuscripts and grants.

Results

Our pre-pilot phase was underway as of July 1st, 2023. To begin integrating within the Psychiatry & Neuroscience department as a formal program our team targeted core departmental programming; Grand Rounds, Journal Club, and didactics. We presented our curriculum to department staff, faculty, leadership and some residents during Grand Rounds in a detailed PowerPoint presentation. We worked with the faculty and staff directors of Journal Club to have our 2nd year deliverable of a StoryMap or Dashboard become the presentation for each PGY2. We presented it to all residents at a didactic session.
As a follow-up to the didactic presentation we sent residents a QI attitudes and interest survey, which was an adaptation from the BASiC-QI. An estimated 20% of residents responded to the survey. From the residents who responded to the survey, the majority have followed-up with starting regular research mentor meetings with the Vice Chair for Research and advancing their projects.

Findings/Conclusions

Our pre-pilot year is nearing an end. Our full pilot year will begin on July 1st 2024. Thus far we have accomplished increasing buy-in for the program, and selecting a Chief Resident for Research and Wellness. We have also invited our new cohort of residents to our first annual QI/GIS conference showcase enabling a group of interns to begin a new year within our formal curriculum. We will also formalize the tracking of our increases in scholarly activities and our effectiveness with promoting and supporting scholarly activities within our department. Results from the integration of this program into the department and residency training program will be more evident in phases to come.