Monthly Conferences

Research, Advocacy, and Policy (RAP) Series

RAP is a monthly seminar organized by senior residents for LEAD residents. LEAD residents have protected time to attend these sessions and are freed from their clinical duties for the afternoon when their schedule allows. The seminar topics vary based on senior resident interests, and they invite community leaders to speak with and teach residents. Past topics have included lobbying and health policy, featuring a Massachusetts lobbyist to run a skills session on effective communication with members of Congress. Other sessions have included housing options within the Boston area for those with housing insecurity, reproductive rights and how to advocate around them, weight bias, using geo-mapping to identify food deserts and high-risk areas of obesity, youth violence in the Boston area, and more. The RAP series is one of the LEAD residents’ favorite seminars of the year, highlighting work that residents are passionate about in addition to introducing community and national leaders to our residency.

Journal Club/Seminar

In this conference, residents select and present articles within their chosen academy focus with support from specific faculty. The resident prepares a seminar designed to teach broadly about the topic as well as focus on the article or articles distributed in advance.

Each Academy chooses articles in line with their specific focus. For the basic science journal club, articles chosen illustrate a fundamental advance with translational implications. Recent topics include: highly specific new anesthetics, pitfalls in analysis of genomic data, auto-inflammation from escaped DNA, genomic screening for autism, microRNAs, diabetic autoimmunity, peptidomimetics, long QT syndrome, use of gene expression in new drug discovery, gene editing, and the molecular basis of gastrointestinal development. Clinical science journal club focuses on evidence-based decision making and biostatistical approaches. Examples of recent topics include: a new targeted therapy for specific cystic fibrosis gene mutations, acyclovir after neonatal herpes, and screening for neuroblastoma. Similarly, global health journal club includes articles that focus on deliverance of medical services or education in international settings. The medical education journal club highlights articles that include recent innovations in curricular design, feedback, and other educational strategies.