At the beginning of July, August, September each year, the Working Group Steering Committee (WGSC) will put out a call for participants via AMIA listservers.

At that time, if you are interested in being a Mentors or a Mentee, you will be directed to the AMIA Mentorship Program application on the web, where you will provide basic information to assist the WGSC in placing you in a good match. Once matched, Mentees and Mentors will partner actively for the duration of that calendar year. You may participate as a Mentee once. Mentors, you may participate in the program in an ongoing basis, and we hope that you will!

By late-October, the Chair of the WGSC will contact you with your mentorship partner’s information. Before the end of January, Mentees will kick things off by initiating first contact with their Mentors. You’ll interact with your program partner at least once per month for the full calendar year.

After each Annual Symposium, near the end of your official program participation year, you and your partner will be asked to provide your feedback via a survey linked to the AMIA Website.

Expectations for Mentees, Mentors and the Working Group Steering Committee

Mentees, you will initiate first contact with your Mentors once the WGSC provides you with notice of your match and contact details in January.

Mentors, as the senior members of your partnerships, please work to put your Mentees at ease from the outset. Your next priority is to guide the conversation towards identifying some specific ways in which you can assist your Mentee.

As Mentee/Mentor pairs you should interact at least once per month for the duration of your participation, which is through the end of the calendar year. How much more than once per month you interact is for both of you to negotiate. The goal is to build a fruitful partnership. Maintaining respect for your partner’s schedule and many other professional obligations is a given.
Phone contact and Web conferencing are the best methods for interacting the first few months until you’ve gotten to know each other and discussed some ways in which your Mentor can assist you.

The WGSC will remind you via email once per month in the first three months to continue interacting. In these emails, the WGSC will request that all participants, who have been inactive either begin interacting or let their match and the program coordinators know that they have chosen to opt out. If you choose to opt out, you do not need to state reasons, but this way, coordinators can definitively identify who needs to be rematched if participants so desire.

If there is an official event to which Mentee/Mentor pairs will be invited at the AMIA Annual Symposium, the WGSC will let you know as far in advance as possible so that you can schedule accordingly. If there is not an official event, please consider meeting up with your partner, even briefly, at the Symposium, which will occur toward the end of your partnership. Many participants in the pilot program found this face-to-face interaction to be rewarding and worthwhile.

Reading Assignment for Mentees: Please read Six Habits of Highly Effective Mentees [Thank you to Jim Cimino, MD for suggesting this resource] before contacting your mentor.