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4UIC News Wednesday, June13, 2018CAMPUS NEWSUIC department of medicine participatesin study aimed to reduce biased behaviorBy Sharon Parmet — sparmet@uic.eduThe UIC College of Medicine’s department of medicine is participating in aunique study that will test the efficacy of aprogram designed to help faculty members recognize and reduce biased behavior.The program, called BRIM for Bias Reduction in Internal Medicine, was developed by researchers at the University ofWisconsin-Madison. Its aim is to helpmake participants aware of biases andcultural stereotypes they may subscribeto, even if they do so unconsciously.“Nobody thinks that their thoughts oractions are based on internalized stereotypes or biases, but the truth is that theseideas can be so ingrained that even themost sensitive person can be influencedby them in their behavior at work, towardscolleagues or towards students,” said Dr.Patricia Finn, the Earl M. Bane Professorof Medicine and head of the departmentof medicine at UIC. “BRIM has beenshown in early trials to be effective at“WHILE THIS PROGRAMFOCUSES ON FACULTY,WE LOOK FORWARD TOUSING THESE SKILLS ANDTOOLS IN TRAINING THENEXT GENERATION OFPHYSICIANS.”helping faculty recognize and reduce thatbiased behavior. I knew immediately afterI saw those results presented at a conference that I wanted our department ofmedicine to participate in the further evaluation of the program.”The UIC department of medicine is thefirst to sign up to participate in a larger,nationwide study of the BRIM program,which was developed by Dr. Molly Carnes,professor of medicine, psychiatry andindustrial and systems engineering at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues at Madison. Carnes says the on-The UIC College of Medicine’s department of medicine will test a program that aims tohelp faculty members recognize and reduce biased behavior.going study includes 15 departments ofmedicine and will last approximately twoyears at each institution.Providing a good departmental climate through reducing race, gender andother biases can help increase facultyretention, explained Carnes. “The averagecost of losing a faculty member exceeds 400,000, so climate is also importanton a cost-basis,” said Carnes. “Womenwho work in more supportive climatesalso have lower levels of work/family conflict, even if they work up to 70 hours perweek.”“UI Health — our health enterprisecomprised of UIC’s seven health sciencecolleges and the University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics — is dedicated to advancing health equity for all. Thatcommitment is rooted in a faculty andstaff who are aware of and can recognizebiases and inequities they themselvesmight hold,” said Dr. Robert Barish, vicechancellor for health affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “Engaging in theBRIM program is one way that we canfoster this mission in our interactions withour fellow faculty, staff, patients and students.”Professional interactions, performance evaluations and hiring decisionscan also be inadvertently influenced byopinions people hold about others basedon who they are, where they’re from or thelanguage they speak without getting toknow the individual, Carnes explained.Race, gender, age, sexual preference andeven weight can play into these biases. Asa result, some people and groups experience a more positive and supportive workenvironment than faculty or individuals ofother groups.At the heart of the BRIM program is athree-hour workshop titled, “Breaking theBias Habit: Bias Reduction in InternalMedicine.” Carnes and colleagues designed the program to help participantsrecognize their own biased behaviors, andprovide strategies for reducing those behaviors.Some of the strategies include perspective taking — or putting oneself inanother’s shoes, and stereotype replacement, where a stereotypical perception isquestioned and replaced with real information based on an individual.In the ongoing BRIM study, half of theUIC department of medicine’s faculty andstaff will receive the BRIM program delivered by its developers from the Universityof Wisconsin-Madison. The other half willreceive BRIM training from their UIC colleagues, known as “BRIM implementers,”who have been identified and trained bythe Madison researchers. Participants willcomplete a survey before BRIM starts onthe climate of the department and therespondent’s feelings about the value ofthe BRIM program and expectations.Three months after the workshop isdelivered, participants in both groups willcomplete a follow-up survey asking againabout the climate of the department, theirfeelings about BRIM and if they have noticed changes in their own behavior thatresulted from BRIM.“Our program looks at biases as habits,and these habits, like any others, can bechanged by increasing awareness andsupporting self-efficacy in the practice ofevidence-based strategies like those presented through BRIM,” Finn said. “Whilethis program focuses on faculty, we lookforward to using these skills and tools intraining the next generation of physicians.”Submit campus news items at today.uic.edu/campus-news/submit-your-story-ideas

UIC News Wednesday, June 13, 2018today.uic.edu5Craniofacial Center hosts ‘boot camp’to build confidence, teamwork in kidsBy Jackie Carey — jmcarey@uic.eduNearly 30 kids, age 10 to 14, areparticipating in a UI Health CraniofacialCenter camp meant to help adolescents and preadolescents at risk forlow self-esteem and high levels of insecurity build confidence and embraceteamwork.“We want kids who think, ‘I can’t dothat,’ to realize how much strength andpotential they have,” said Dr. JanineRosenberg, a pediatric psychologist inthe center.“RESEARCH HAS SHOWNTHAT KIDS WHO LOOKDIFFERENT ARE LIKELYTO HAVE HIGHER LEVELSOF ANXIETY AND FEAROF REJECTION THAT CANSIGNIFICANTLY IMPACTTHEIR CONFIDENCE WHENIT COMES TO WORKINGWITH OTHERS.”Of the kids participating in the camp,which is called Project BUILD, for building understanding and individual leadership development, about half arepatients of the center who have craniofacial differences, such as cleft lip andpalate or a genetic disorder.“Research has shown that kids wholook different are likely to have higherlevels of anxiety and fear of rejectionthat can significantly impact their confidence when it comes to working withothers,” said Rosenberg, UIC assistantprofessor of clinical psychology. “Wewanted to provide a safe and, equallyimportant, fun space where kids canThirty Chicago kids participate in Project BUILD (building understanding and individual leadership development), a camp hosted by the UIHealth Craniofacial Center with help from the Face the Future Foundation and Hot Ground Gym.build skills like teamwork, trust and confidence.”The other participants are kids withoutcraniofacial conditions from Chicago’sWalt Disney Magnet School. Rosenbergsays having a mix of patients and non-patients is helpful for creating a sense ofequality in the group.To host the camp, which is sponsoredby the Face the Future Foundation, thecenter is collaborating with Hot GroundGym, an activity program founded in2013 by two military veterans with a mis-sion of shaping today’s kids into strongand confident individuals through fun andphysical activity.One activity, for example, is a trust walk— one partner wears a blindfold while theother has to guide him or her across a series of obstacles, saying “duck here” or“step here.” Another activity has the grouplifting one of their peers, who is sitting in acanoe and moving him or her across theroom. Following the activities, kids willparticipate in a group session led byRosenberg.Kids participate in confidence and team building activities like trust falls and navigating obstacles while blindfolded.Kids and parents will fill out a surveywhen the camp is complete. The goal is tosee an improvement in self-assessed resilience, as measured by statements like,“I am able to adapt when changes occur,”and “I believe I can achieve my goals, evenif there are obstacles.”Participants meet once a month,through June, on the UIC campus. Thecamp’s theme is “no failure,” a messageRosenberg says she hopes will remindparticipants they are not limited by theirdifferences.

6UIC News Wednesday, June13, 2018meetsEast Meets West is a collaboration of Provost Susan Poser and Vice Chancellor forHealth Affairs Robert Barish. This monthly column focuses on UIC faculty and studentsfrom the east and west sides of campus engaged in interdisciplinary research.App developed at UIC to track mood,predict bipolar disorder episodesBy Sharon Parmet — sparmet@uic.eduAn app that one day may help predict“UNOBTRUSIVELY MONITORINGand monitor manic and depressive epiHEALTH FROM AN IPHONE COMsodes in people with bipolar disorder isBINES LOW-COST SCALABILITYnow available in the App Store.WITH FAR-REACHING IMPACTThe app, called BiAffect, was designedTOPOTENTIALLY IMPROVE THEby researchers at the University of IllinoisLIVESOF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE.”at Chicago, along with collaborators atthe University of Michigan, Arbormoonload BiAffect will be able to view their ownSoftware and Sage Bionetworks. The appmetadata, including their cell phoneunobtrusively monitors keyboard dynamusage over time, number of keystrokes,ics metadata, such as typing speed anduse of spellcheck and more.rhythm, mistakes in texts, and the use of“We are excited that our app is nowbackspace and auto-correct. The metaavailable for anyone to download for free,”data, but not the content of the text, issaid Nelson. “We think that this crowdanalyzed using an artificial intellisourced app-based study will soon leadgence-based machine learning approachto digital technologies that act as an ‘earlyto identify digital biomarkers of manicalert system’ for people with bipolar disorand depressive episodes in people withder to help them see manic and depresbipolar disorder. The UIC team was led bysive episodes coming, and take action toDr. Alex Leow, associate professor of psymitigate the effects of those episodes.chiatry and bioengineering in the ColJust being aware of them is a step forwardlege of Medicine, and Peter Nelson,for the millions who live with this moodprofessor of computer science and deandisorder.”of the UIC College of Engineering.“The app isn’t just for people with bipoTo download BiAffect, users must firstlar disorder,” said Leow. “We want peopleopt into a study led by its developers atwithout mood disorders to use the app asUIC that centers on the app. Users agreewell so that we can better understandthat their de-identified metadata will bekeystroke dynamics in healthy adults verused by the researchers to help themsus th

Jun 06, 2018 · The decision to partner with UIC’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences . stemmed from this commitment, as it presented the opportunity to reach an incredibly diverse population and ex - pand new career opportunities in Chi-cago, which