Page 17 - Delaware Medical Journal - January/February 2019
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EDUCATION
launch the program in pilot form for the fall of 2018.
August 2018 at MSD. The team — which now included Arjan Kahlon, a freshman at the Charter School of Wilmington; John Kepley, a junior at Saint Elizabeth High School; and Mary Fenimore, Manager of Community Relations & Communications at MSD — came together and named the program Apollo: Youth in Medicine, after the Greek god of healing. As the program began to take shape, Apollo successfully applied for grant funding from the Delaware Medical Education Foundation (DMEF), which validated that the Apollo leadership team was heading in the right direction.
Within a few weeks, the Apollo team fully developed a comprehensive project plan. Establishing a realistic plan in accordance with the tight timeline was crucial to the pilot’s success. In the meantime, Sean, Arjan, and John juggled back-to-school requirements, sports, extracurricular activities, and college applications
while actively leading the way for the Apollo pilot launch. Regular after-school conference calls became a must.
The team designed and collaborated
on a logo. Formal documents for the program, including a Student Training Manual, were developed based on similar documents from local facilities and medical practices. Ms. O’Dwyer and
Ms. Beck connected with the selected high schools and their counselors to identify the student participants. The team designed an inclusive communication strategy for counselors, students, parents, the pilot was intensive — and successful.
THE PILOT
The pilot session of Apollo consisted of 20 students from four area high schools: Conrad Schools of Science,
Newark Charter School, Saint Elizabeth High School, and Charter School of Wilmington. Through coordination with the counselors, the Apollo program was allowed the students to take some time
off from school to attend the shadowing sessions.
The team formatted documents that each participating student (with their parents) was required to complete — a parental consent/emergency contact form, a student expectations agreement, and a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) form.
An Apollo Google Drive account
and email address were set up for all communications and documentation. Sean led the team activities and project planning, Arjan assisted the team by spearheading student communications and the online sign-up system, and John facilitated the communications with
the volunteer physicians. Dr. Kahlon
shadow volunteers, who were targeted based on their previous volunteer work
on various committees within MSD. Nearly 20 physicians from a range of specialties, including pediatrics, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and orthopaedics, enthusiastically volunteered to be shadowed.
As Apollo recognized that the shadowing was an opportunity for additional education, an Educational Information Session was planned on a few other important topics, such as types of medicine, pathways to becoming a physician, Delaware’s Institute of Medical Educational Research (DIMER) training. This additional education would help the students immerse themselves
in medical education and also provide valuable and necessary HIPAA training. also planned for the students in the form of “primers” or pre-reading.
Left to right: Nancy Fan, MD; Randeep S. Kahlon, MD; Prayus T. Tailor, MD
Del Med J | January/February 2019 | Vol. 91 | No. 1 17
