The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

David Fitter, MS 4

David Fitter, a third year medical student will serve as a 2007 Lambaréné Schweitzer Fellow. Each year since 1979, The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship has selected four senior medical students to spend three months working as Fellows at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon on clinical rotations.

Susanne Phogsak Vanderbilt

Susanne Phongsak Vanderbilt’s work with Dr. Caleb Alexander from the 2006 Summer Research Program resulted in a first-authored publication in the Journal of the National Medical Association. The paper, A Qualitative Sudy of Physicians’ Engagement in Reducing Health Care Disparities involved in-depth interviews with a group of physicians to identify how they became interested in alleviating health care disparities and what strategies they use to improve care for their minority patients. Susanne and Dr. Alexander’s work found that most participants either experienced being a minority (half were racial minorities) and/or many related extensive childhood experiences with minorities. This paper details the lived experiences of a group of physicians who are highly engaged in reducing disparities and suggest that connecting with experiences as a minority and other early life experiences can prompt later professional engagement in this important issue.

Ryan Lawrence, MS 2

First year student, Ryan Lawrence and Dr. Farr Curlin’s paper entitled Religion, Conscience, and Controversial Clinical Practices, recently appeared in the February 9th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Ryan became involved in this work prior to his matriculation at the Pritzker School of Medicine when he interviewed with Dr. Curlin as a medical school candidate. Given Ryan’s background in theological studies, and interest in studying interactions between religion and medicine, Dr. Curlin invited Ryan to collaborate on a paper analyzing data from a 2003 physician survey. Ryan worked with Dr. Curlin to study the data, organize its presentation, review the relevant medical and bioethical literature, and relate the study’s findings to longstanding debates about the norms that should guide doctor’s interactions with patients.

Rebecca Sheffield, MS 3

Third year student, Rebecca Sheffield serves as an author of a paper in Early Human Development based on work conducted with her mentor Dr. Kate Keenan in the Department of Psychiatry through the 2006 University of Chicago Summer Research Program. Rebecca’s paper, entitled Are Prenatal Psychological or Physical Stressors Associated with Suboptimal Outcomes in Neonates Born to Adolescent Mothers explores observed variance in developmental outcomes of children of adolescent mothers that cannot be entirely traced to environmental circumstances.

Katie Sharff, MS 4

Fourth year student, Katie Sharff, currently on a leave of absence to conduct research, recently received an AMA Foundation Seed Grant for 2007 for her proposed project on osteosarcoma that she is pursuing in Dr. Tong- Chuan He’s lab this year. Katie’s work on the role of the Hey 1 gene in the BMP-9 mediated osteogenic signaling pathway of mesenchymal stem cells is already supported by the 2006 AOA Carolyn Kuckein Scholars Award. Katie began to explore her interest in musculoskeletal diseases through her participation in the 2004 NIH-funded Summer Research Program, working with faculty from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery on gait studies to predict the propensity to fall in individuals with osteoarthritis of the knee. Katie’s initial projects led to her involvement in translational studies exploring the molecular basis and pathogenesis of osteosarcoma.

Sarah Cross, MS 4

Fourth year student, Sarah Cross will serve as first author of a paper in Neuropsychopharmacology entitled Molecular Genetics of the Platelet Serotonin System in First Degree Relatives of Patients with Autism. This paper is based on work that Sarah conducted during the 2004 University of Chicago Summer Research Program with Drs. Edwin Cook and Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele. Dr. Veenstra- VanderWeele graduated from the Pritzker School of Medicine in 2001.

Julia Kao, MS 4

Second year student, Julia Kao presented a poster entitled Medication Discrepancies in Resident Sign-out: Frequency, Characteristics, and Potential to Harm at the Chicago Patient Safety Forum on March 9th. This poster was also accepted for the Society of Hospital Medicine annual meeting in Dallas, Texas in May. This poster is based on work that Julia conducted with Drs. Vineet Arora, David Lovinger, and David Meltzer as part of the 2006 University of Chicago Summer Research Program. Pritzker graduate, Sam Seiden, MD ‘06, is also an author on this poster.

Amit Mehrotra, MS 4

Fourth year student, Amit Mehrotra will also be presenting a poster at the May annual meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine, entitled The Ability of Hospitalized Patients to Identify their Inpatient Physicians. Co authors include Dr. Vineet Arora, Megan Tormey, Ranjin Ginde, and Dr. David Meltzer.

Stuart Chen, MS 2

Second year student, Stuart Chen is a coauthor on a poster, Relationship of Quality of Care for Hospitalized Vulnerable Elders and Functional Decline that was accepted for the Presidential Poster Session at the American Geriatrics Society. The Presidential Poster Session presents the highest rated abstracts submitted to the AGS national meeting. Other authors include Drs. Vineet Arora, Greg Sachs, and David Meltzer and Juned Siddique.

Jessica Buck, MS 3

Third year student, Jessica Buck was coauthor for the paper, The Importance of Discreet or Secret Use of the Diaphragm to Zimbabwean Women and Their Partners, which appeared in a recent edition of AIDS Behavior.

Walter Conwell, MS 4

Fourth year student, Walter Conwell received the AOA Medical Student Service Award to support the Multicultural Community for Academic Advance-ment in Medicine (MCAAM). Walter founded MCCAM to promote the academic success of minority medical students, undergraduate students, and high school students interested in pursuing a career in medicine. Dr. Monica Vela , Assistant Professor of Medicine and Dr. Bill McDade, Associate Dean for Multi-cultural Affairs serve as faculty advisors on the project.

Amrita Arora, MS 3

Amrita Arora, a third year medical student received the HHMI Research Training Fellowship, Women’s Dermatological Association Medical Student Award and the American Society of Pediatric Research Medical Student Training Fellowship. Amrita will use the funding to support a year of dedicated research under the tutelage of Dr. Amy Paller, Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University.

Caroline Cottrell, MS 3

Third year medical student, Caroline Cottrell will present a poster entitled, CFTR and PrP: Investigating a Novel Degradative Pathway Between the ER and Lysosomes for the Elimination of Misfolded Proteins at the ACP National Conference in San Diego on April 19-21. This poster was based on work Caroline conducted with with Dr. James Mastrianni as part of the 2005 University of Chicago Summer Research Program.

Yang Shen, MS 2

Second year student, Yang Shen served as co-author on three poster presentations at the International Anesthesia Research Society’s annual meeting held March 23-27, 2007. Drs. Steven Roth and Avery Tung served as co-authors on the posters entitled, Are We as Good as We Think: Trends in Anesthetic Complications Rates Determined by a National Inpatient Discharge Database, The Changing Face of Spinal Fusion Surgery: Analysis of National Inpatient Sample (NIS), and Protein Kinase, Mitochondrial KATP channels, and Retinal Ischemia Preconditioning. Yang’s research emanated from her work with Dr. Roth during the 2006 Pritzker School of Medicine Summer Research Program.

Erica Aronson, MS 2

Correction: Second year student Erica Aronson received the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation Scholarship. She presented her research and scholarship at the annual ARCS luncheon in the fall. The ARCS scholarship is awarded each fall to Chicago’s best and brightest student scientists. Erica’s name was inadvertently left out of the print edition of the Winter 2007 Pritzker Pulse.