Each quarter, we gather the various achievements—publications, presentations, awards, and more—of our students to showcase their accomplishments. This article encompasses honors from the Spring and Summer quarters of 2017 through August 11, 2017. Achievements from August 12 onwards will be included in the Autumn Student Achievements article.
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Raj Bhanvadia, MS4 presented his poster entitled “Meis proteins as predictive markers of metastatic prostate cancer progression” at the American Urological Association in Boston, MA this past May. This research was related to his SRP and S&D research performed under the guidance of Donald Vander Griend, PhD.
Riley Brian, MS3 presented his poster titled “Evaluating the Impact of Clinical Librarians on Inpatient Rounds” during the 2017 Integrating Quality Meeting (AAMC) and the Medical Library Association Conference. This research is related to his SRP and S&D work performed under the guidance of Maria Alkureshi, MD.
Catherine Castro, MS2 was awarded the Benjamin H. Kean Fellowship in Tropical Medicine from the ASTMH in June. The fellowship will support her summer research in Panama, entitled, "Gestational Toxoplasmosis Medical Education Project" conducted under the guidance of Rima McLeod MD.
Mark Chee, MS3 gave a poster presentation on his research entitled “Identifying Messages to PROmote Value and Education (IMPROVE) of Generic Oral Contraceptive Prescribing” during the 2017 SGIM Annual Meeting in Washington DC in April. This work is related to his SRP and S&D research done under the guidance of Vineet Arora, MD, AM’03.
Jessica Chen, MS2, Tyrone Johnson, MS2, Rachel Stones, MS4, and Margaret Wang, MS4 were awarded the Schweitzer Fellowship for their dedication to empower underserved communities.
Margaret Dennin, MS4 gave an oral and poster presentation on her research entitled “Assessing Readiness of Children with Asthma to Carry and Use Their Quick-Relief Inhalers in Schools” during the Pediatric Academic Societies Conference and the Academic Pediatric Association Regional Conference in San Francisco, CA and Indianapolis, IN. Additionally, she presented her poster “The Readiness of Children with Asthma to Carry and Use Their Quick-Relief Inhalers: Can We All Agree?” during the American Thoracic Society Conference in Washington, DC. Her work is related to her S&D research performed under the guidance of Anna Volerman, MD.
Nicole Dussault, MS2 along with Ramya Parameswaran, ISTP, Ayushi Chandramani, MS4, Lakshmi Kirkire, MS2, and Nick Lyon, MS2, presented a poster entitled “Development of a Medical School Clinical Skills Course on Trauma Informed Care for Survivors of Sexual Assault” at the 2017 AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Conference in Ann Arbor, MI this month. Their work was done under the guidance of Keme Carter, MD.
Farida Esaa, MS4 presented her poster titled “Medication Management in Older Adults: A Physician Pharmacy Trainee Collaboration” during the American Geriatrics Society 2017 Annual Scientific Meeting this past May in San Antonio, TX. This work is related to her S&D research performed under the guidance of Tia Kostas, MD.
Curt Ginder, MS4 presented his poster titled “Predicting Appropriate ICD Therapy with RealTime Home Monitoring in the IMPACT Trial” during the Heart Rhythm Society Conference and the Janet Rowley Research Day Conference in May. This work was related to S&D research conducted under the guidance of Gaurav Upadhyay, MD.
Ava Ferguson, MS4 presented her poster on “Poorly Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma and Pheochromocytoma with Invasion of Liver, Kidney, and Inferior Vena Cava” at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Conference during May in Austin, TX. She also gave an oral presentation on her research entitled, “Development of the ThyCAT: A clinically useful computerized adaptive test to assess quality of life in thyroid cancer survivors” during the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons Conference in Orlando, FL. This research was performed under the guidance of Raymon Grogan, MD. Earlier this month, Peter Angelos, MD, PhD, presented Ava’s poster entitled “Gender and age disparities in quality of life among a cohort of thyroid cancer survivors” at the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons in Basel, Switzerland.
Jia Guo, MS3 presented her research entitled “Pulmonary Vein Isolation Reduces Risk of Hospitalization Year-on-Year: A Nationwide Cohort Study” at a moderated poster presentation during the Heart Rhythm Society’s 38th Annual Scientific Sessions Conference in May. This work is related to her S&D research performed under the guidance of Gaurav Upadhyay, MD.
Ashley Hite, MS4 presented her poster entitled “Exploration of Barriers Facing Providers in Diagnosing and Treating Obesity” at the New England Science Symposium in March. This work was related to her S&D and SRP research performed under the guidance of Beth Plunkett, MD.
Erin Ho, MS3 presented her poster titled “Social relationships and objective physical activity among older adults in the U.S.” in May during the American Geriatrics Society Annual Scientific Meeting in San Antonio, TX. This work is related to her SRP and S&D research conducted under the guidance of Megan Huisingh-Scheetz, MD.
Phillip Hsu, ISTP received the AMA Foundation Leadership Award and will be attending the Excellence in Medicine Awards and Leadership Award for Educational Programming celebration held in conjunction with the American Medical Association’s annual meeting in Chicago.
Aamir Hussain, MS4 gave an oral presentation on his research entitled “Full Term Newborn Infant with blistering Skin Lesions – Caution Regarding use of Pain Medications” in July at the World Congress of Pediatric Dermatology. This work was done under the guidance of Naveed Hussain, MD. Additionally, Aamir’s research titled “Effective Collaboration on Skin Disease Starts with Medical Education” was published in the April edition of Academic Medicine. This work was performed under the guidance of Rebecca Kaiser, MD.
Tyrone Johnson, MS2 gave a poster presentation, on research he co-authored with fellow second year students Vince Morgan, Keith Ameyaw, Najib Jai, and Joseph Kern, entitled “Paving Black Male Advancement in Academic Medicine” at the 2017 AMA Accelerating Change In Medical Education Conference earlier this month. For his outstanding presentation he was given the Best Visual Abstract Award. This work is related to his S&D research performed under the guidance of Monica Vela, MD’93.
David Jiang, MS3 gave a poster presentation entitled “A Student Driven Initiative to Improve Preclinical Medical Student Exposure to Surgical Subspecialties” at the 2017 AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Conference in Ann Arbor, MI earlier this month. This research was performed under the guidance of Lisa Cannon, MD and co-authored by Matthew Jones, MS3, Riley Kessler, MS2, Allyson Tank, MS2, and Mikhail Pakvasa, MS2.
Natalia Khosla, MS2 gave an oral presentation on her research entitled “The Dangerous Role of Stereotypes: A Comparison of Health Care Racial Bias in the United States and France" at the UIC Minority Health Conference in April. This work was done under the guidance of Sylvia Perry, MD, from Northwestern University; John Dovidio, MD, and Sara Burke, MD, from Yale University; Corinne Moss-Racusin, MD, from Skidmore University.
Tae Yeon Kim, MS2 presented her poster entitled “Who Is Ready? Factors Associated with Children Being Ready to Independently Carry and Use Quick-Relief Inhalers in School” in May during the American Thoracic Society Conference in Washington, DC. This work is related to her S&D and SRP research performed under the guidance of Anna Volerman, MD.
Sunny Kung, MS4 presented her poster titled “Olfaction and Sexuality in Older Adults in the United States” during the Association for Chemoreception Sciences in Bonita Springs, FL this April. This work is related to her S&D research performed under the guidance of Jayant Pinto, MD.
Linda Liu, MS4 was elected to be on the National Board of Students for a National Health Program. She is one of a few selected students in the country to be elected to do this.
Yuan Liu, MS4 gave an oral presentation on “Religious healthcare facilities and the impact on reproductive health service delivery: data from Chicago’s 3 largest hospitals” in April during the Reproductive Ethics: New Ideas & Innovations Conference in Albany, NY. This work is related to her S&D research performed under the guidance of Debra Stulberg, MD.
Nicholas Lyon, MS2 and Jono Matthews, MS2 presented their poster titled “3D Printing to Augment Anatomy Education” at the 2017 AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Conference earlier this month. This research was performed under the guidance of Callum Ross, PhD.
Nolan Machado, MS3 gave an oral and poster presentation titled “Sleep for Inpatients: Empowering Staff to Act (SIESTA)” during the AAMC 2017 Integrating Quality Meeting in June. This work is related to his SRP and S&D research conducted under the guidance of Vineet Arora, MD, AM’03.
Molly McCary, MS4 presented her poster entitled “Pediatric Hospital Medicine: Is Residency Enough? A comparison of perceptions of pediatric residency directors, PHM fellowship directors, and PHM program leaders” at the Pediatric Academic Societies Conference in May. This research is related to her S&D work performed under the guidance of H. Barrett Fromme, MD, MHPE.
Nzuekoh Nchinda, MS2 gave a poster presentation, co-authored by fellow second year students Olivia Jordan, Catherine Castron, Amarachi Erondu, Maria Espinosa, Julia Naman, and Ceciley Scarbrough, on their research entitled, “Women and Minorities: Empowering Trainees to Overcome Gaps in Equity and Leadership” during the 2017 AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Conference this month. Their work was performed under the guidance of Monica Vela, MD’93.
Courtney Orsbon, GDDTP, was awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant from the NSF’s Biological Anthropology Program for her research on tongue and hyoid biomechanics. In March, Courtney was also awarded the Paper Award and the Springer Publishing Junior Investigator Scholarship in the Under Represented Discipline category for her oral presentation titled "New Insights into Swallowing Biomechanics from a Macaque Model System: Evidence for Eccentric Muscle Activity and the Importance of Fiber Rotation" co-authored with Nicholas Gidmark, PhD and Callum Ross, PhD. Furthermore, Courtney was appointed as a Fellow to the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy’s training grant: Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need program in Integrative Neuromechanics. This work is related to her SRP and S&D research performed under the guidance of Callum Ross, PhD.
Olufunmilola Oladini, MS4 gave an oral presentation on her work titled “Comparing PO Lorazepam to IV Midazolam/Fentanyl for Minor IR Procedures” during the Society of Interventional Radiology 2017 Annual Meeting in March. She research was performed under the guidance of Brian Funky, MD.
Joshua Prenner, MS2 presented his poster entitled “Conceptualizing and Planning an Inaugural Forum to Improve Institutional Culture for LGBTQ+ Physicians and Medical Students” at the 2017 AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Conference. His research was performed under the guidance of Monica Vela, MD’93.
Matthew Present, MS3 gave an oral presentation on his research entitled “Access to Diabetes Care in the Era of the ACA: A National Survey of Physicians” during the American Diabetes Association 77th Scientific Sessions in San Diego, CA in June. This research is related to the S&D and SRP work done under the guidance of Neda Laiteerapong, MD.
Frank Qian, MS3 presented his poster titled “A Novel Approach to Undergraduate Medical Student Nutrition Education: Engaging, Connecting, and Teaching Through an Online Platform” at the 2017 AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Conference. His research was performed under the guidance of Sonia Oyola, MD.
Patrick Schiller, MS3 gave an oral presentation on his work entitled “Optimizing Medical Student Imaging Education: The Views and Needs of Residency Program Directors” during the Association of University Radiologists 65th Annual Meeting in Hollywood, FL this May. This work is related to his SRP and S&D research conducted under the guidance of Christopher Straus, MD.
Jared Sokol, MS4 presented his research entitled, “Macular Hole Formation After Pars Plana Vitrectomy for Diabetic Tractional Retinal Detachment” at the 35th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists in Boston, MA this month. This work was done under the guidance of Dimitra Skondra, MD, PhD.
Philip Sossenheimer, MS3 presented his research entitled “Clinical Utility of Routine Pouchography Prior to IPAA Continuity in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis” at the Digestive Disease Week Conference. This work is related to his SRP research performed under the guidance of David Rubin, MD.
Cheyenne Smith, MS2 presented her poster titled “Association Between Bedroom Sound Levels and Sleep Characteristics in Biracial Sample” during the SLEEP 2017: Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Boston this past July. This work is related to her SRP and S&D research conducted under the guidance of Kristen Knutson, PhD.
Claire Smith, MS4 had her SRP research on awake patient procedures featured in a New York Times article titled “Going Under the Knife, With Eyes and Ears Wide Open” this March. Her work was done under the guidance of Mark Siegler, MD, Nancy Schidler, MD, and Alex Langerman, MD.
Wesley Spacht, MS2 presented his poster titled “Frailty Increases Risk of Readmission for Patients with Acute Exacerbation of COPD” in May at the American Geriatrics Society Conference in San Antonio, TX. This work was related to his SRP research performed under the guidance of Valerie Press, MD.
Elise Timtim, MS2 presented her poster titled “Relationship Between Anesthesia Type and Patients’ Overall Rating of Care" in May during the International Anesthesia Research Society 2017 Annual Meeting in Washington DC. This work is related to her SRP and S&D research performed under the guidance of David Glick, MD.
Margaret Wang, MS4 delivered an oral presentation of her research entitled “Best Practices for cervical cancer screening in low-resourced settings" in April at the National Cervical Cancer Consortium in Beijing, China. In May, Margaret gave an oral presentation of her research titled, “Type-specific Human Papillomavirus DNA Load in Association with Prospective Risk of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia: A Useful Triage Tool" at the European Research Organization on Genital Infection and Neoplasia: HPV Associated Diseases and Cancer Conference. Later in July, she gave two oral presentations entitled “Clinical Performance of HPV Testing and VIA in Primary, Combination, and Sequential Cervical Cancer Screening in Inner Mongolia, China” and “Accuracy of Triage Strategies for Human Papillomavirus DNA-Positive Women in Low-resource Settings: A Cross-Sectional Study” at the Asia-Oceania Research Organization in Genital Infection and Neoplasia Conference in Japan. This month, Margaret presented her poster titled “Wuhan University Medical Education Reform Project: Graduating Chinese medical students’ training and clinical performance in women’s health” at the SGIM Conference. This work was done under the guidance of Renslow Sherer, MD. Additionally, she was awarded the Chinese American Physicians - Lester Chen Memorial Scholarship.
Kathleen Wiest, MS4 was awarded Honorable Mention for the presentation of her research entitled “Use of Simulation to Assess Incoming Interns’ Recognition of Opportunities to Choose Wisely” at the AAMC 2017 Integrating Quality Meeting meeting in June. Kathleen also submitted her work to the High Value Practice Academic Alliance Conference and was awarded 1st place in the category of Provider Behavioral Modification & Informatics. This work was done under the guidance of Vineet Arora, MD, AM’03.
Meng Wu, MS3 presented her poster entitled “Developing a Web-Based Educational Module for Teaching Inhaler Technique Using a Snowball Qualitative Focus Group Approach” during the American Thoracic Society International Conference in May. This research is related to her SRP and S&D work performed under the guidance of Valerie Press, MD, MPH.
Luai Zakaria, MS4 was awarded the 2017 AOA Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship in April for his work done under the guidance of Dana Suskind, MD.
Michael Zhang, MS2 was awarded the 2017 BSD Diversity Research and Small Grants Award by the Biological Sciences Division. Zhang seeks to use this grant to fund the study of socioeconomic status as a factor in the prevalence and severity of retinopathy of prematurity, this work will be done under the guidance of Sarah Hilkert, MD.