Awards and Honors
Awards and Honors for Faculty and Students
Vineet Arora, MDVineet Arora, MD, Assistant Dean for Curricular Innovation, presented one of the four-award winning poster presentations at the Quality Fair sponsored by the University of Chicago Hospitals. In collaboration with Drs. Paula Podrazik, Stacie Levine, Greg Sachs, and David Meltzer, as well as second year medical student, Martha Johnson, Dr. Arora’s research employed standard quality indicators to measure the quality of care for frail, hospitalized elders. Dr. Arora et al. found that the quality of geriatric-specific hospital care is worse than for general hospital care. Furthermore, although quality indicators for documentation of screening of geriatric-specific conditions were often met, the screening assessments were often incorrect. Quality indicators for hospital care that focus on documentation of screening may overestimate performance. This work was honored at the October 25th Quality Fair Awards Ceremony.
Ari Bernstein, ’05 and Herbert Abelson, MDAri Bernstein, ’05, currently an intern at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Herbert Abelson, MD, Associate Dean for Admissions and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Pediatrics, published an editorial in the Archives of Pediatrics on PM 2.5—A Killer in Our Midst . Drs. Bernstein and Abelson call for a variety of national and local efforts to reduce levels of air pollution PM 2.5, which is the component of air pollution that poses the greatest threat to health, particularly in children.
David DickersonDavid Dickerson, a second year student, was awarded the Joseph Collins Medical Foundation Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to a medical student involved in other cultural endeavors outside their studies. Dave received the scholarship for his participation in the production and recording of string arrangements for several independent music projects recorded throughout the United States in the past year. Dave spent eleven weeks in India on an Edson Memorial Scholarship where he gave a violin program at the Arya Vaida hospital auditorium in Coimbatore, India. Dave has been working to launch his own production label, "Organic Strings." Dave's music is featured on the Pritzker Admissions DVD.
Karoline DmochowskaKaroline Dmochowska, a third year medical student, was one of very few medical students invited to present an oral abstract at the Society for General Internal Medicine Midwest Regional Meeting in fall 2005. Karoline's presentation, entitled Motivation Factors for Entry, Discontinuation, or Completion of a Primary Care/Web-Based Intervention for Depression in Adolescents: Observations from Project Catch-It, is based on research she began last winter with her mentor Dr. Benjamin Van Voorhees, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, and Director of Project Catch-It.
Will Harper, MDWill Harper, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Course Director of the Clinical Skills courses, received honors for Best Presentation in Medical Education, when he presented his work on a health literacy curriculum at the Opening Plenary Session of the 2005 Society for General Internal Medicine Regional Meeting.
(Read more about Dr. Harper's research on health literacy by clicking on "Health Literacy: Innovation in Medical Education Award" in the sidebar.)
Jonathan HemmertJonathan Hemmert, a second year medical student, serves as first author on an abstract accepted for presentation at the AMA 2005 MSS Research Poster Session, which was held on November 4th in Dallas, Texas. Jonathan worked with Dr. Steven Roth of the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care this last summer on a neuroscience project focusing on Akt/Protein Kinase B in Endogenous Retinal Neuroprotection.
Gretchen Hermes, PhDGretchen Hermes, PhD, a third year student, served as first author for two articles published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the American Journal of Physiology, based on her doctoral research in the Committee on Human Development and Department of Psychology.Gretchen's doctoral dissertation focused on the impact of social isolation on bio-behavioral systems, pre-disease pathways, and patterns of aging. Gretchen also presented her research from her postdoctoral fellowship at the 8th International Congress on Toxoplasmosis in France this summer. This work demonstrated that common, persistent, parasitic infection causes chronic inflammation with neurologic and behavioral abnormalities.
Andrew HongAndrew Hong, a second year student, presented his research at the Central Society for Clinical Research and the Midwestern Section American Federation for Medical Research's 2005 combined annual conference. At this meeting, Andrew received a Centocor Scholar Award in Rheumatology/Gastroenterology for work looking at genetic contributions to bilirubin levels in cancer patients. Prior to matriculating at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Andy was a Post-Baccalaureate Fellow at the National Cancer Institute where he studied the mechanisms of cell cycle protein, MAD1. He recently served as a co-first author on a 2005 paper in Genetics.
Aaron HorneAaron Horne, a fourth year medical student has been named an American Medical Association Foundation Minority Scholar for his excellence as a medical student and outstanding promise for a future career in medicine. Aaron was one of ten medical students in the country to receive the $10,000 scholarship. The Minority Scholar Award recognizes scholastic achievement and promise for the future among students in groups defined as historically underrepresented in the medical profession. "We are pleased to recognize the outstanding achievements of Aaron Horne," said AMA Foundation President Linda Ford, MD. "The AMA Foundation is committed to introducing more minorities into the medical profession in order to better reflect the needs of our diverse society." Aaron previously served as national president of the Student National Medical Association.
Troy LeoTroy Leo, a second year medical student, served as first author on a poster at the 2005 Society for General Internal Medicine Midwest Region Meeting, with second year co-author Adam Kern, third year co-authors, Karoline Dmochowska and Griffin Myers, and faculty mentor, Don Scott, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine. The poster discussed the results from the recent student opinion survey conducted among first and second year medical students on perceptions of professional behaviors.
Jennifer NewberryJennifer Newberry, a fourth year medical student currently on leave of absence while attending the University of Chicago Law School, was one of two students selected to receive the Tony Patiño Fellowship. The Tony Patiño Fellowship is a merit award created to support law students with demonstrated leadership ability whose outstanding academic and personal histories show good moral character, ethical conduct, good citizenship, motivation, and initiative. One of the factors in evaluating character is past participation in public service activities. Jennifer served as one of the Co- Chairs of the University of Chicago's chapter of Students for Global Public Health/Physicians for Human Rights. In that capacity, Jennifer played an integral role in the 2003 AIDS Week events as well as the first national conference of Physicians for Human Rights. Jennifer received the Jane Morton and Henry C. Murphy Award in 2004 in recognition for her exceptional contributions to the University community.
David SilverDavid Silver, a third year student, attended the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Conference in New York City in May of 2005, where he presented a talk entitled Efficiency, Effectiveness and Preference for Use of Traditional vs. Assessment Oriented Oral Case Presentations in an Academic Emergency Department. For this presentation, David received the second place prize for excellence in research. David also presented a poster on Interruptions During Oral Case Presentations in the Academic Emergency Department: Benign or Problematic?
Yousef TurshaniYousef Turshani, a fourth year student, was Project Coordinator for an international coalition of volunteers through the international Volunteers for Peace, an organization whose objective is to promote the dialogue of people across cultures while they are working together on common goals in support of a local community. Yousef has been involved with this organization since his undergraduate years. Before beginning his fourth year, Yousef was invited to serve as the group leader in an environmental camp working with international volunteers to clean the Point Reyes National Seashore Park in Northern California.
Sam SeidenSam Seiden, a fourth year student was invited to present at the September 14th–15th Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations national conference. Sam spoke on Transforming Health Professional Education: Core Competencies, Microsystems, and New Training Venues. Sam's role was to present a medical student perspective and to highlight the University of Chicago's recent involvement with the Clarion competition (see Pritzker Pulse, Summer 2005). Sam's presentation focused on opportunities and experiences that medical students can have in enhancing patient safety and preventing medical error.
Adam SchmittAdam Schmitt, a second year student, is first author on an article which will appear in Nature. The data in the paper is based on work which Adam began as an undergraduate Biology major at the University of Chicago and served as the basis for his Honors Thesis. Adam spent a year following graduation working in Dr. Yimin Zou's laboratory in the Department of Neurobiology, Pharmacology, and Physiology and continued to collaborate with this scientific team as a first year medical student. The paper is entitled Wnt-Ryk Signaling Mediates Medial-Lateral Retinotectal Topographic Mapping.
Three Pritzker Students Receive Scholarships from the ARCS Foundation
Three Pritzker students were awarded scholarships from the ARCS Foundation this October. Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) is a national organization providing scholarship support in the natural sciences, medicine, and engineering. For 2005-06, fourth year student Megan Collins received the Cashel Foundation Scholarship, fourth year student Shannon Hensley received the Takeda harmaceuticals North America Scholarship, and first year student Shahnaz Kazi received the Baxter International Scholarship. At the annual luncheon held on October 26th at The University Club of Chicago, our students had the opportunity to present their research in progress to other awardees and members of the Foundation.
From left to right: Shannon Hensley, unidentified, unidentified, Megan Collins, Shahnaz Kazi and unidentified .