Throughout each quarter, we collect various accomplishments—from awards and appearances to publications and presentations and more—from Pritzker students to highlight and promote their outstanding work to the rest of the community.
Submit your own achievements for our next quarterly round up of student accomplishments through this page.
If you have an upcoming event, such as a media appearance or panel discussion, submit the information in advance so we might be able to help promote your participation in the event. You can also submit your peers' accomplishments, though we will seek their permission before publishing or promoting them.
Summer 2023 Student Accomplishments:
Eli Falk, MS3, presented his research entitled “A National Individualized Learning Plan Pilot for the Transition to Internal Medicine Residency” at the Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting in Colorado in May. Eli was mentored on the project by Amber Pincavage, MD.
Taytum Kahl, MS2, published an op-ed entitled “As suicide and gun violence rise, we need gun purchase waiting periods now” on KevinMD.com. The piece, inspired by the #ThisIsOurLane movement, advocated for gun purchase waiting periods, which aim to prevent acts of violence or suicide incited by temporary emotional crises. Read the whole piece here.
Maya Lozinski, MSTP, presented her research “Accuracy vs Complexity in Payment Algorithms: Evidence from Medicare Advantage” at the American Society of Health Economists Annual Conference in St. Louis in June.
Frank Medina, MS3, published a first-author paper in The American Journal of Cardiology entitled “Use of Intravascular Ultrasound and Coronary Angiography to Measure the Prevalence of Myocardial Bridge in Heart Transplant Patients.” Frank was mentored on the project by John Blair, MD, who has mentored him since their first collaboration during Pritzker’s Chicago Academic Medicine (CAMP) summer research pathway program in 2018.
Nicole Miranda, MS2, published a paper in The American Journal of Otolaryngology. The manuscript, entitled “Retrospective Assessment of the Impact of an Education Specialist on the Care of Children with Hearing Loss,” was based on undergraduate research with Michael Cohen, MD at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary and can be reviewed here.
Allison Mobley, MS4, will present her research “Facilitators and Barriers for Implementation of Methadone Maintenance Therapy in the Malaysian Prison Setting: Using Nominal Group Technique to Investigate Perspectives of Custodial Staff” as a poster at the Association of Multidisciplinary Research in Substance use and Addiction conference in Washington, DC in November. The project was part of her NIH Fogarty fellowship research with Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman and Dr. Frederick Altice.
Megan Muller, MS3, published a paper in The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery entitled, "Impact of an Opioid Use Disorder Consult Service on Hospitalized Trauma Patients with Opioid Use Disorder.” The project originated in the Scholarship and Discovery program, and she was mentored on it by Mim Ari, MD, George Weyer, MD, and Tanya Zakrison, MD, MPH.
Ayse Musaogullari, MS2, received a grant from the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness (ISPB) to conduct a research project under the mentorship of Mary Qui, MD. Ayse was also selected as a recipient of the ISPB’s Dreiske Award, which is given for the highest-rated research proposal from an MD student or resident.
Rimel Mwamba, MS3, was elected to the national board of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) as a member of the Academic Affairs Orthopedic Surgery Student Interest Group Research Committee. Additionally, Rimel had a research abstract, “The Effects of Area Level Deprivation on the Severity of Cubital Tunnel Syndrome on Presentation to a Hand Surgeon,” accepted for eposter presentation at the 78th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand in October.
Alex Rains, MS4, sat on a panel entitled "Creative Approaches to Medical-Legal Partnerships" at the Annual Meeting on Law and Society in San Juan, Puerto Rico in June. In July, she presented her research “Harm reduction utilization and strategies for engagement of people who use drugs in rural settings” at the College on Problems of Drug Dependence Conference in Denver. The project originated in the Summer Research Program and Scholarship & Discovery, with mentorship from Mai Pho, MD.
Alia Richardson, MS2, published an op-ed entitled “Programs that recruit and retain Black and Latinx students in health care fields are essential to address racial health disparities” on KevinMD.com. The piece highlighted the importance of pathway programs in medical education and was inspired by her work in the MedCEEP program with Abdullah Pratt, MD.
Marc Sleiman, MS4, received a Health Policy internship with the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, to begin in the fall. Under the direction of committee chair Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Marc will participate in policy research, attend Committee hearings, conduct policy markups, and provide administrative support for the Committee.
Jonas Talandis, MS2, published an op-ed entitled “Our ‘culture wars’ are a serious health risk to LGBTQ community” in the Chicago Sun Times. Read the whole piece here. Jonas also received the competitive Francois Furet Travel Grant from the France Chicago Center at the University of Chicago to support his Summer Research Program project examining HIV PReP care management, which he conducted in Paris with mentorship from Aniruddha Hazra, MD.
Renee Tristano, MS2, had two peer-reviewed meta-analyses published from behavioral and neurodevelopmental genetics research conducted at Tulane University during her gap year. One entitled “A review and meta-analysis: Cross-tissue telomere length correlations in healthy humans” was published in Ageing Research Reviews, and the other, “The interaction of socioeconomic stress and race on telomere length in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” was published in SSM – Population Health. Renee also launched a new peer mentorship program for the Pritzker Women in Medicine student organization, matching incoming first-year students with rising second-year students. The new initiative saw 37 mentorship pairings made, with more than 80 percent of eligible incoming first-year students (women-identifying and gender minority students) signing up to be part of the program.