Kristina Dzara

I am a Ph.D. medical educator and researcher with more than 7 years of experience working in academic medicine. During my three years at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, I collaborated with faculty, residents, and medical students. Projects included designing and evaluating educational innovations and developing and executing research and quality improvement initiatives. I served as research advisor for PGY-I psychiatry and internal medicine-psychiatry residents and independently taught their Introduction to Research course. I also led the journal club curriculum redesign effort, which was published in Academic Psychiatry. I also spent more than two years at Yale School of Medicine in the Section of General Internal Medicine, working on projects centered around health policy, disease prevention, patient-centered care, and the use of health education to improve patient outcomes. I am a 2017 graduate of the Master’s of Medical Sciences in Medical Education program at Harvard Medical School, and a Harvard Macy Scholar, having completed the Program for Educators in Health Professions, Systems Approach to Assessment in Health Professions Education, and Health Care Educators 2.0.

My academic scholarship focus is on curriculum development, trainee and programmatic assessment, educational program evaluation, educational technology, and the use of social media in medical education. I have a strong professional network and collaborate with faculty from Harvard Medical School, Brown School of Medicine, Dartmouth School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, the Pennsylvania State University, Mayo Clinic, McMaster University, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and Nationwide Children’s Hospital on research and scholarly activities. My sole author, first author, middle author, and senior author scholarly work has been published in multiple journals including the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, Social Science Research, Health Affairs, the Journal of the American College of Radiology, and is forthcoming in Academic Medicine and Teaching and Learning in Medicine.

Currently, I serve as Educational Research Associate for the Departments of Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In Pediatrics, I am part of a two person faculty team developing the new Pediatrics Education Innovation Research Center. The Center is intended to build the capacity of faculty members to be innovative leaders and scholars both in their roles as clinician educators and researchers. Our team works collaboratively to develop unique research and curriculum development projects which support the use of innovative educational technologies to improve pediatrics residency education. Two of our projects have been grant funded. First, we have received funding from the Northeastern Group on Educational Affairs in the form of a Collaborative Research Grant to establish validity evidence for a tool to evaluate senior resident teaching in large groups ($6,000). More recently, the Center for Educational Innovation and Scholarship awarded a grant to determine the acceptability and feasibility of using Avatar Patients as assessment for ACGME communication and professionalism competencies ($3000). In Obstetrics and Gynecology, I grow educational research and scholarship by supporting the Center for Education and affiliated clinical faculty on projects related to curricular innovation, trainee assessment, and faculty development.

In addition to my role at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, I also recently served as Lead Curriculum Developer for the HarvardX Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) "Improving your Business Through a Culture of Health", funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, focusing on a Culture of Health. An expected 5000+ business and public health leaders will take the course to learn from 15 lead faculty at graduate schools throughout Harvard, with whom I worked with to develop unique, engaging content including videos, assessments, and engagements with learners. Together, we developed unique, engaging content including videos, assessments, and engagements. Version 1 of the course launched in May of 2018, enrolling 4000+ learners and ending in August 2018. The course was recently awarded Runner Up for Best Online Program of 2018 from ProEd.

I am also affiliated faculty at the Northeastern University in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. I teach in "Health Care Research" to undergraduate Health Sciences students who aspire to careers in the health professions. Additionally, I teach in the Master’s of Medical Sciences in Medical Education program at Harvard Medical School, serving as Director of the Assessment Module in the Longitudinal Seminar.

Finally, I serve as the social media strategist for the Harvard Macy Institute. I help grow the use of social media in the healthcare education community by curating high-quality content and serving as editor of the Harvard Macy Community Blog. My unique understanding of social media in academic medicine means that I am able to translate knowledge effectively within and outside the medical education online community. My 10 professional blog posts in the the Harvard Macy Community Blog, the Medical Educators’ Tips and Tricks Blog, the Harvard Medical School Global Academy Lean Forward Blog have had a combined 17,000+ webhits worldwide.

Publications

Submitted

Dzara K, Huth K, Kesselheim J, Schumacher DJ. “Implementing Residency Programs of Assessment based on Milestones: Rising to the Challenge. Journal of Graduate Medical Education (Provisional Acceptance). Submitted.

Forthcoming

• Dzara K, Chen DT, Haidet P, et al. AM Last Page: The Effective Use of Videos in Medical Education. Academic Medicine. Forthcoming.
• Dzara K, Frey-Vogel AS. Medical Education Journal Club for the Millennial Resident: An Interactive, No Prep Approach. Academic Pediatrics. Forthcoming.

2019

Michelson CD, Dzara K, Ramani S, Vinci R, Schumacher D. Keystone: Exploring pediatric residents’ experiences in a longitudinal, integrated block. Teaching and Learning in Medicine. 2019;31 (1) :99-108. Publisher's Version

2018

• Dzara K, Hurtubise L. Re: Social Media and the 21st-Century Scholar: How You Can Harness Social Media to Amplify Your Career. Journal of the American College of Radiology. 2018;15 (5) :705. Publisher's Version
• Dzara K, Kesselheim J. Going Up? Tips for the Medical Educator’s Elevator Pitch. Academic Medicine. 2018;93 (12) :1884. Publisher's Version

2015

• Salim Al-Damluji M, Dzara K, Hodshon B, et al. Association of discharge summary quality with readmission risk for patients hospitalized with heart failure exacerbation. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2015;8 (1) :109-11.
• Salim Al-Damluji M, Dzara K, Hodshon B, et al. Hospital variation in quality of discharge summaries for patients hospitalized with heart failure exacerbation. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2015;8 (1) :77-86.Abstract

2014

• Jain G, Dzara K, Mazhar MN, Punwani M. Do regulated resident working hours affect medical graduate education? Trends in the American psychiatry board pass rates pre- and post-2003 duty hours regulations. Psychiatr Bull (2014). 2014;38 (6) :299-302.Abstract
• Rathi VK, Strait KM, Gross CP, et al. Predictors of clinical trial data sharing: exploratory analysis of a cross-sectional survey. Trials. 2014;15 :384.Abstract

2013

• Robinson SW, Roberts N, Dzara K. Residency-coordinator perceptions of psychiatry residency candidates: a pilot study. Acad Psychiatry. 2013;37 (4) :265-7. Publisher's VersionAbstract
• Dzara K, Sarver J, Bennett JI, Basnet P. Resident and medical student viewpoints on their participation in a telepsychiatry rotation. Acad Psychiatry. 2013;37 (3) :214-6. Publisher's Version

2012

• Jain G, Dzara K, Gagliardi JP, et al. Assessing the practices and perceptions of dually-trained physicians: a pilot study. Acad Psychiatry. 2012;36 (1) :71-3. Publisher's Version
• Dzara K, Jain G, Soltys SM. The self-directed, structured summary as a teaching tool in a psychiatry journal club. Acad Psychiatry. 2012;36 (6) :490-2. Publisher's Version
• Rathi V, Dzara K, Gross CP, et al. Sharing of clinical trial data among trialists: a cross sectional survey. BMJ. 2012;345 :e7570.Abstract
• Jenkins WD, DiLalla LF, Dzara K. University students' pursuit of healthy behaviors may influence sexual risk reduction strategies. Prev Med. 2012;55 (6) :650-2.

2011

• Bennett JI, Dzara K, Mazhar MN, Behere A. A preliminary report on resident emergency psychiatry training from a survey of psychiatry chief residents. J Grad Med Educ. 2011;3 (1) :21-5. Publisher's VersionAbstract

2010

• Bennett JI, Costin G, Khan M, et al. Postgraduate year-1 residency training in emergency psychiatry: an acute care psychiatric clinic at a community mental health center. J Grad Med Educ. 2010;2 (3) :462-6. Publisher's VersionAbstract