Heudebert, assistant dean for Graduate Medical Education and a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Medical Education, brings abundant experience to this role, according to Hughes Evans, M.D., Ph.D., senior associate dean and chair of the Department of Medical Education, and Anthony Patterson, MSHA, senior vice president for inpatient services for the UAB Health System. Heudebert succeeds Patterson, who served as DIO for 10 years.
Heudebert has chaired the Dean’s Council for Graduate Medical Education since 2006, and served as the director of the Internal Medicine residency program for 11 years. He recently was elected a master of the American College of Physicians, one of the highest honors available to primary care physicians.
He will call upon his experience and skill to steer GME in medical era that’s facing physician shortages and challenging economic times. How to train more physicians with less money is a national issue.
“At UAB we have excelled at coming up with creative solutions in challenging times,” Heudebert said. “The UAB Medicine leadership has appointed a committee to look at how to better support our training programs as well as looking at alternative ways to provide patient care, such as advanced practitioners, to allow our residents to fulfill their educational needs while continuing to provide excellent and safe care to our patients.
“A more complex issue,” Heudebert said, “relates to the increasing number of U.S. graduates entering training in an environment in which the number of funded positions for residents hasn’t changed since 1997. Ongoing efforts by the American College of Physicians, the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine and the Association of American Medical Colleges are looking to expand the number of positions to address concerning forecasts regarding physician shortages as early as 2020.”
*This story was updated to reflect the accurate history of DIO directors.