People

Founder and Director, Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making

Dr. Follansbee is the Master Clinician Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Director of the UPMC Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making, which he founded in 2012. His primary interest has been in the field of diagnostic error and diagnostic efficiency. His primary goal has been to attract and support residents, fellows as well as junior and senior faculty to the field of medical decision making. The group’s primary focus has been on educational initiatives at all levels of experience ranging from medical students to faculty, which are designed to improve critical bedside decision making. Under Dr. Follansbee’s leadership, the Center has developed an outstanding leadership team, with programs that include an online curriculum in medical decision-making, a very popular monthly “thinking out loud” Clinical Reasoning conference, “Pitt Puzzles” which are regular brief clinical vignettes presented by residents that feature concepts in clinical reasoning, and a two-year certificate program for residents who wish to acquire advanced skills in the field of clinical reasoning. Approximately half a dozen of the Center’s faculty have earned Master’s degrees in Medical Education with projects related to medical decision-making, many of whom have attained national visibility as experts in the field.

Email: follansbeewp@upmc.edu

Associate Director, Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making

Dr. Tilstra is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She received her MD degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and later completed internal medicine residency training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Subsequently, Dr. Tilstra completed Women’s Health-Medical Education fellowship and received her master’s degree in medical education. She has been Director of the Women’s Health Track for the internal medicine residency since 2015. Dr. Tilstra has been a leader in clinical and educational initiatives in clinical reasoning at UPMC. She was a leader in establishing and leading the Clinical Reasoning Conference series, a novel conference which presents unknown cases to experienced clinicians with a focus on reasoning concepts, and developing the interactive, online Diagnostic Error and Medical Decision Making modules. She also co-developed and co-directs the Advanced Clinical Reasoning elective for 4th year medical students. Dr. Tilstra is well-published in both the women’s health and clinical reasoning fields. She was inducted into the Academy of Master Educators at the University of Pittsburgh in 2018 and has received numerous other awards for her clinical teaching throughout the years.

Email: tilstrasa@upmc.edu

Leadership Committee Chair

Dr. Painter is a Professor on Internal Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was the Director of the Adult Inpatient Medicine Clerkship from 1982-2022 and is core faculty within the residency. Dr. Painter is the Chair of the UPMC Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making Leadership Committee a member of the UPMC Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making Executive Advisory Committee and a member of the UPMC Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making Online Curriculum Development Committee. He has presented lectures and workshops on clinical reasoning at national meetings of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine. His contributions to the culture of clinical reasoning at UPMC are numerous, including leading the development of the popular Clinical Reasoning Conference series, the online Pitt Puzzle clinical reasoning case series, and the Diagnostic Error and Medical Decision Making interactive online modules, and many others.

Email: paintertd@upmc.edu

Director of Curriculum Development and Evaluation in Clinical Reasoning

Dr. DiNardo is a Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and academic clinician educator at the Pittsburgh VA Hospital. She received her MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, completed internal medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and then served as chief medical resident. She later completed a master’s degree in medical education at the University of Pittsburgh. She has served as the Medical Director of Women’s Health at the VA since 2017 and as director of the VA Pittsburgh Advanced Fellowship in Women’s Health since 2021. She is also an Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency training program at UPMC, overseeing ambulatory education at the VA. Dr. DiNardo’s educational interests include curriculum development and teaching clinical reasoning within both undergraduate and graduate medical education. Within the medical school, she has co-developed and co-directs the Advanced Clinical Reasoning elective for 4th year students. In 2020, she was awarded the Sheldon Adler Award for Innovation in Medical Education and the Clinical Educator of the Year Award from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine based on these efforts. Dr. DiNardo has also contributed to the development of the interactive online Diagnostic Error and Medical Decision Making modules that have become a standard part of the undergraduate and graduate clinical reasoning training at UPMC. Finally, Dr. DiNardo also co-directs the master’s level “Curriculum Development” course at the University of Pittsburgh and has mentored residents and fellows in a variety of curriculum development projects within both UME and GME.

Email: Deborah.dinardo@va.gov

Director of Undergraduate Clinical Reasoning Education

Dr. Bonifacino is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and academic clinician educator in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). She completed her medical school, residency, and chief residency at UPMC, and subsequently earned a masters’ degree in medical education through the Academic Clinician Educator Scholar (ACES) fellowship. Her academic focus has been on educational strategies to enhance clinical reasoning, particularly in undergraduate medical education. Her educational initiatives have involved development of a longitudinal case-based curriculum in pre-clinical medical students, implementation of clinical reasoning curricula in third year medical students, and instruction in Master Diagnosticians, a second-year medical student elective in clinical reasoning, and Advanced Clinical Reasoning, a 4th year medical student elective. As part of the UPMC Clinical Center for Medical Decision-Making Education Leadership Committee, her efforts have been awarded the Sheldon Adler Award for Innovation in Medical Education. She also currently serves as a chair of the Education Committee of the national Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine and has developed and implemented an international and interdisciplinary faculty development academy in clinical reasoning education. Lastly, Dr. Bonifacino co-developed and co-directs the master’s level “Teaching Clinical Reasoning” course at the University of Pittsburgh.

Email: bonifacinoe@upmc.edu

Director of Graduate Clinical Reasoning Education

Dr. McQuade is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He completed his MD at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently pursued his internal medicine residency and chief residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He completed a master’s of medical education at the University of Pittsburgh and is core faculty within the UPMC internal medicine residency program. His academic focus is the improvement of clinical reasoning education at the undergraduate and graduate medical education levels. More specifically, Dr. McQuade is most interested in how problem representation skills develop in trainees and how learners progress from novices to experts. He was a 2021-2022 Fellow in Diagnostic Excellence in the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. Dr. McQuade directs the popular Clinical Reasoning Conference series for the internal medicine residency program, which presents an unknown clinical vignette to an expert discussant. He also developed and directs the Clinical Reasoning Certificate program within the residency program, which trains interested residents how to be ambassadors of clinical reasoning education in their future careers. Lastly, he co-developed and co-directs the the master’s level “Teaching Clinical Reasoning” course at the University of Pittsburgh.

Email: mcquadec@upmc.edu

Online Curricular Development and Education Committee

Dr. Bui is the director of the Global Health-Underserved Populations track of the internal medicine residency program at UPMC and the Social Medicine Fellowship Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She was a Peace Corps volunteer and medical specialist at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi from 1995-1997 and has since continued to teach and mentor Malawian students and residents. She is responsible for several curricular initiatives related to social determinants of health (SDH) including the SDH Fast Facts, teaching SDH and upstream QI workshops. She has served on the leadership team of the Birmingham Free Clinic to provide healthcare for uninsured patients since 1999.  Her current research interest is in social needs intervention, anti-racist curriculum, refugee health, global workforce crisis and humanism in medicine. Since 2014, Dr. Bui has co-directed a mini-elective (professional enrichment course) for MS2s titled “Master Diagnosticians.” She was a contributing member of the Online Curriculum Development Committee sponsored by the UPMC Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making.

Email: buit@upmc.edu

Online Curricular Development and Education Committee

Dr. Smith is a Professor of Medicine and Clinical and Translational Science and a core faculty member of the Center for Research on Health Care at the University of Pittsburgh. He also serves on the UPMC Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making Education Leadership Committee. His research centers on the cost-effectiveness of common medical interventions, most notably on pneumococcal, influenza, and varicella vaccination and on the impact of racial disparities in vaccination rates. He has published in many other areas, including pelvic inflammatory disease, diabetes prevention and treatment, VA formulary decisions, anticoagulation and thrombotic disorder management, and hospital-physician communication. He also fulfills many roles in clinical and research education. In addition, Dr. Smith is Associate Editor of the journal Medical Decision Making.

Email: smithkj2@upmc.edu