The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

Pritzker Students Win Campus-Wide Recognition

In the late spring of 2008, numerous Pritzker students received Student Leader Awards from the University Awards Selection Committee. Kelly Eagen, MD’08, a current Family Medicine resident at UCSF, received the Campus Life and Leadership Award for her leadership throughout all four years of medical school. Ramsey Tate and Asima Ahmad, both fourth-year students, were acknowledged for their humanistic pursuits, both receiving a Humanitarian Award. Finally, the founders of the Pritzker Community Service Fellowship, Drs. Martha Johnson, Mia Lozada, Jennifer McDonell, and Allison Stark—all 2008 graduates collectively received the Bridge Builder Award for their development of the organization, which strives to unite students, faculty, and residents with the intent of fostering a commitment to community service.

Success at Regional, National, and International Anesthesia Meetings

Students and resident prepare to leave for the 2008 Midwest Anesthesia Research Conference held in San Francisco

Students from across multiple classes have been meeting great success with their respective anesthesia research. Neil Ray, James (Mac) Walter, and Megan Dorsey, all third-year students, participated in the International Anesthesia Research Society Meeting held in San Francisco this spring. Neil was awarded Best Abstract in the Economics Section for his research in “Does Past Performance Guarantee Future Results? ER Visits, Outpatient Appointments, and Day-of-Surgery Cancellations.” He had two additional abstracts accepted for presentation, all of which emanated from his summer research with Drs. Avery Tung and David Glick. Megan Dorsey was quoted in the June issue of Anesthesiology News in light of her abstract entitled “Comparison of Two Drug Regimens for Awake Fiberoptic Intubation: Dexmedetomidine v. Placebo.”

Megan, Neil, Mac, along with fourth-year students Jason Woo, Tim Miu, Sam Fuller, Ryan Foley, and Vinay Prasad attended the Midwest Anesthesia Research Conference. Mac and Jason received awards for the top presentations in their respective sections, Mac for his research on “It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It: Improving Emergence from Anesthesia For Non-English Speaking Patients” and Jason for his work on “Insurance Status as a Predictor of Day-of-Surgery Cancellations.”

Adam Back

Adam Back, a second-year student, was the first author on a paper recently accepted for publication by the Gamma Knife Supplement of the Journal of Neurosurgery. The paper is entitled "Retrospective Analysis of Unstaged and Staged Gamma Knife Radiosurgery With and Without Preceding Embolization for the Treatment of Arteriorvenous Malformations (AVMs)."

Adam also co-authored an article that recently appeared on the online publication The Internet Journal of Spine Surgery. His research, "The Use of rhBMP-2 to Achieve Posterior Cervical Fusion Without Internal Fixation: Report of Three Cases in Adults," was conducted with members of the Greater Houston Foundation for Medical Research and Education.

Emily Bethea

Second-year student Emily Bethea has been named an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholar. ARCS honors exceptional university students who are U.S. citizens focusing their studies in medicine, science, or engineering, and engaged in high quality research within their field of study. Emily joins fourth-year students Erica Aronson and Ann Laake, and third-year student Shahnaz Kazi, all of whom are current ARCS Scholars.

Two recent alumni, Dan Clayburgh, MD'08, PhD'06 and Nicole Cipriani, MD'08 are co-authors on a case report entitled "Collateral Damage," which has been accepted for publication by the New England Journal of Medicine. Their work is based on a patient Dan cared for during his Internal Medicine clerkship. Nicole, who has a Master of Science degree in medical illustration, also contributed artwork to the article. Their mentors were Drs. John Yoon, Vineet Arora, and Internal Medicine resident Dr. Paul Ricketts, who is also a co-author on the paper. Dan is currently at Oregon Health and Science University as an ENT resident; Nicole is a pathology resident at the UCMC.

Taral Doshi

Patrick Dillon

Radiology resident Taral Doshi, MD'08 and fourth-year student Patrick Dillon were co-authors of a poster on hemoembolization in hepatocelluar carcinoma which was presented at the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe in September. Taral served as first-author and Patrick as second-author. Dr. Thuong Van Ha is their faculty mentor.

Dr. Vineet Arora and Emily Georgitis, MD'08

Emily Georgitis, MD'08, a recent gradate and current Internal Medicine resident at the UCMC, is an author on "Association of Workload of On-Call Medical Interns With On-Call Sleep Duration, Shift Duration, and Participation in Educational Activities." The paper was published in the September 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Emily's work is based on her Fentress Fellowship-awarded project with Dr. Vineet Arora and is a follow-up to her Summer Research Project.

Jonathan Grinstein

Third-year student Jonathan Grinstein has been awarded the American Society for Clinical Pathology Award for Academic Excellence and Achievement. The ASCP annually honors one student at each medical school in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico to encourage superior academic performance and to recommend a career in pathology to the highest caliber candidates. Jonathan is mentored by Dr. Vinay Kumar, Chairman of the Department of Pathology and Executive Vice Dean of the Biological Sciences Division.

Elaine Lin

Elaine Lin, a current third-year student, recently presented at the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine Annual Meeting. Elaine's project, "Communication and Adaptive Profiles of Young Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Comparison with Preschool Developmental Delays," was part of the research she conducted during the Summer Research Program with Michael Msall, MD, Professor and Section Chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

June Lee

Ann Laake

Fellow fourth-year students June Lee and Ann Laake have been selected to present oral clinical vignette presentations as a result of their highly rated abstract submissions to the Midwest Society of General Internal Medicine Meeting. Their work is based on patients whom they cared for during their third-year internal medicine clerkships. June's work presentation is titled, "Beware the Boost: Multi- Ingredient Herbal Supplements and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis," while Ann's project is called, "Tissue is an Issue: Fever of Unknown Origin, Pancytopenia, and Splenomegaly in an Immunosuppressed Woman from Mexico."

Justin Newman

Justin Newman, a current fourth-year student, published a first-authored article in the July issue of Orthopaedics entitled "The Efficacy of a Composite Allograft and Demineralized Bone Matrix Graft in the Treatment of Tibial Plateau Fractures with Bone Loss." His paper emanated from research he conducted at the University of Colorado last year. This is the second time that Justin's research led to a first-authored publication in the journal. His article "A New Minimally Invasive Technique for Large Volume Bone Graft Harvest for Treatment of Fracture Nonunions" appeared in the March issue of Orthopaedics.

Dr. Blanca Camoretti-Mercado, Bonnie Li (undergraduate student), and Ken Poon

"IL-10 Modulates Airway Smooth Muscle Gene Expression," an abstract authored by third-year student Ken Poon, was selected for presentation at the Poster Discussion Session on Cell and Molecular Biology of Airway Remodeling of the American Thoracic Society International Conference in Toronto this May. Ken's abstract emanated from his Summer Research Project "Modulation of Airway Smooth Muscle Gene Expression by Cytokines," in which he worked with Dr. Blanca Camoretti-Mercado from the Department of Medicine.

Ken was co-author in a second abstract, "The Transcription Factor SRF Associates with Tuberin, the Tumor suppressor Mutated in LAM," which was selected by the Respiratory Structure and Function Assembly to be highlighted during the American Thoracic Society Conference Final Program. This project also grew from Dr. Camoretti-Mercado's team and Ken was a key member in this research. The project, "Regulation of Tuberin and SRF by TGF-beta" was led by the undergraduate student Terrell Cummings as part of the PSOMER in 2007.

Luka Pocivavsek

MSTP student Luka Pocivavsek, along with other scientists at the University of Chicago and the University of Santiago in Chile "have explained, for the first time, the physics that governs how thin materials at scales millions of times different in thickness make the transition from wrinkles into folds under compression. The study stems from a research program at the University of Chicago aimed at understanding the characteristics of lung surfactant, a microscopically thin membrane that facilitates breathing." Their research was published in the May 16 issue of the journal Science.

Megan Prochaska

Second-year student Megan Prochaska is a co-author on an oral research presentation that was recently delivered at the Midwest Society of General Internal Medicine Meeting in Chicago. "What are the Missing Pieces?: A Process Analysis of Communication Between Hospital-based and Primary Care Physicians During Patient Care Transitions," is related to her Summer Research Project, during which time she was mentored by Drs. Jeanne Farnan, Vineet Arora, and Julie Johnson.

Abhishek Solanki

Fourth-year student Abhishek Solanki co-authored two poster presentations at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology Annual Meeting in September. He served as first-author on one presentation and second-author on the other. Abhishek's research looked at the prognostic factors in patients undergoing post-surgical reirradiation for recurrent and primary head and neck tumors. Dr. Joseph Salama in the Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology served as his faculty mentor.

Mark Silvestri

Mark Silvestri's research on chronic inflammatory changes in the anal transition after stapled ileal pouch anal anstomosis has led to a spate of recent presentations and publications. Mark is a current fourth-year student who began his research as part of the Pritzker Summer Research program under the mentorship of Dr. Alessandro Fichera. His research was presented at the Central Surgical Association Annual Meeting in March 2008, followed by a presentation at the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons Annual Meeting in 2008. In addition, a first-authored publication is in press with the journal, Surgery.

Christian Skjong

Fourth-year student Christian Skjong was recently named the recipient of the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF) Medical Student Research Fellowship. Christian is one of only ten medical students in the country to receive this honor which will support his research on the effects of time-specific addition of VEGF and CTGF on tensile strength of lacerate rat Achilles tendons. The project is a continuation of research he started during the Pritzker School of Medicine Summer Research program under the guidance of faculty mentor Dr. Daniel Mass.

Joshua Williams

Joshua Williams, a second-year student, has been awarded a Joseph Collins Foundation Scholarship. The Collins Foundation offers a limited number of scholarships for medical students who intend to specialize in neurology, psychiatry, or general practice, and who demonstrate an interest in cultural pursuits (art, music, theater, writing, etc.) outside of medicine.