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 2024 Student Accomplishments:
Spencer Asay, MS4, published a first-author paper in Hospital Pediatrics titled “Food Insecurity and Community-Based Food Resources Among Caregivers of Hospitalized Children.” The paper originated from his Pritzker Summer Research Program and Scholarship and Discovery project under the mentorship of Stacy Lindau, MD, and can be read here.
Alexa Canning, MS2, was selected for the Chicago Gun Violence Research Collaborative Fellowship. Working with the Sinai Health Institute and Ashley Wolf, MD, Alexa’s project is examining gun violence in neighborhoods with disparities in social determinants of health. Alexa will also be presenting with the fellow MS2 and Chicago Street Medicine board members Paul Copeland and Rachel TerHaar at the International Street Medicine Symposium in Kansas City in September on a project investigating medical and social needs of migrant populations.
Symphony Fletcher, MS4, received the American Medical Association Foundation's Physicians of Tomorrow Underrepresented in Medicine Scholarship, which was awarded to seven medical students nationally this year.
Austin Huang, MS3, published a first-author paper in The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders titled “Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Trichotillomania.” The paper originated from a Pritzker Summer Research Program project, under the mentorship of Jon Grant, MD, and can be read in full here.
Robin Ji, MS2, was accepted to present her project “Promoting high-value inpatient delirium management with an integrated best practice advisory and order set” as a poster presentation at the Architecture of High Value Health Care Conference in Baltimore in October.
Samantha Kwock, MS2, published an op-ed in MedPage Today titled "Here's What I'm Looking For in an Ob/Gyn Residency: Comprehensive Training." The op-ed was written for the first-year Foundations of Health Policy and the US Health Care System and can be read here.
Henry Liedl, Alumnus (’24), published a first-author paper in JAAOS: Global Research and Reviews along with fellow alumni Kevin Lazenby and Ryuji Arimoto and current MS4 Armaan Singh. The paper “Normothermia to Decrease Surgical Site Infection Risk: Silver Bullet or Fool's Gold? A Retrospective Cohort Study” originated from a Pritzker Summer Research Program project and continue into Scholarship and Discovery, under the mentorship of Jason Strelzow, MD. Read the paper here.
Frank Medina, MS4, was Selected to be a 2024-2025 Sarnoff Fellow through the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation. The Sarnoff Fellowship Program is a prestigious research training program that offers 15-20 medical students from across the country the opportunity to spend a year conducting intensive work in a research facility of their choosing in the U.S. Frank will conduct clinical research projects in Interventional Cardiology, mentored by Dr. Robert Yeh and Dr. Eric Secemsky at the Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Evan Neczypor, MS4, won the University of Chicago's American College of Physicians case competition and will represent the University at the Regional Northern Illinois competition in November. He presented "A Curious Case of Hemolytic Anemia," detailing a case of unusual presentation of spur cell anemia.
Marc Sleiman, MS4, had a first-author paper accepted for publication in HAND titled “Prevalence and Effect of Cannabinoids in Pain Management for Hand Pathologies.” The paper, which examines the prevalence and efficacy of cannabinoids for pain management in new patient, is in press. Marc was also recently selected for a health policy internship at with the World Health Organization (WHO) at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Sarah Sun, MS4, published her PhD research as a first-author paper in Immunity titled “BCG vaccination alters the epigenetic landscape of progenitor cells in human bone marrow to influence innate immune responses.” She was mentored on the project by Luis Barreiro, PhD, and the paper can be read here.
Medha Venigalla, MS2, published an op-ed on KevinMD.com titled "The Cost of Exhaustion: Resident fatigue is a public health emergency." The op-ed was written for the first-year Foundations of Health Policy and the US Health Care System and can be read here.
Alex Wang, MS3, was invited to present in the West Virginia University Center for Excellence in Disabilities’ Ability Grand Rounds series on his research project “Association Between Sensory Loss and Psychosocial Health in Older US Adults,” which was conducted for the Pritzker Summer Research Program under the mentorship of Megan Huisingh-Scheetz, MD.
Elena Whitney, MS3, published a first-author paper in the Substance Use & Addiction Journal titled "Understanding Clinician Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Relating to Nonpharmaceutical Fentanyl and Harm Reduction." The project originated in the Pritzker Summer Research Program, mentored by Mim Ari, MD, and the paper can be read here.
Three Pritzker students received travel grants from the Healthcare Delivery Science and Innovation research center at the University of Chicago to present their research at conferences across the country. Claudia Covelli Velez, MS2, presented her project “Institutional Factors in Access to Care for Transition: The Role of Hospital Religion” at the National LGBTQ Health Conference in Atlanta in August. Joseph Krongold, MS4, presented his project “Effects of Discharge Delays Due to Skilled Nursing Facility Availability on Patients, Providers, and Payers” at AcademyHealth’s 2024 Annual Research Meeting in Baltimore in June. Jasmine Rios, MS2, will present her project “Management of monochorionic gestations affected with type II selective fetal growth restriction: A cost-effectiveness analysis” at the 2024 International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis (ISPD) Conference in October.