Honors and Awards
Faculty and Student Achievements
Rashad Belin, PhD, MS2
Rashad Belin, PhD, MS2, was recently selected as one of just 12 medical students nationally to receive the 2009 American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation’s Minority Scholars Award. According to guidelines, the award serves to recognize “scholastic achievement, financial need, and personal commitment to improving minority health.” Rashad was acknowledged for his outstanding service and mentorship, both within the University community and throughout the Chicagoland area.
Vishal Saxena, MS3
Shashank Sinha, MS4
Vishal Saxena, MS3 has been selected to participate in the HHMI-NIH Research Scholars Program. He will spend the 2009-2010 academic year at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, conducting research with senior NIH scientists.
Shashank Sinha, MS4 was recently interviewed for the Science Careers website, an affiliate of the journal Science, about his experiences as an HHMI Research Scholar.
The APAMSA group featured in the Sing Tao Daily
The Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association’s Hepatitis B screening program, which recently received funding from the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Student Service Project, has also received funding from the University of Chicago’s Community Service Fund. Their work has been featured in the Sing Tao Daily, one of the largest Chinese newspapers in the country.
Anshuman Das, MS2
Anshuman Das, MS2, is the recipient of a 2009 AOA Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship. The award will help support his research on the therapeutic benefits of induced hypothermia in the setting of ischemiareperfusion injury, which he will conduct with with Drs. Terry Vanden Hoek and David Beiser from the Section of Emergency Medicine.
Laura Dilly, MS1
Jeanie Paik, MS1
The Pritzker Mammography Access Partnership (PMAP) was awarded Best Abstract in the category of Health Services, Medical Education, Bioethics at the 2009 Department of Medicine Research Day. PMAP was represented by Laura Dilly and Jeanie Paik, both MS1s. Their submission “Mammogram Access and Awareness in the South Side Chicago Community,” was judged alongside posters submitted by junior faculty and fellows across the DOM.
PMAP students include: Laura Dilly, Jeanie Paik, Kevin Chang, Sarah Horvath, Kyle Karches, Rebecca Levine, Ajay Sampat, Geoffrey Stetson, Ming Zhong, Jamal Benhamida, Zainab Mohiuddin, and Sara Foley. Faculty members Dr. Monica Vela, Dr. Lisa Vinci and Dr. Janice Phillips also contributed.
Julie Oyler, MD
Vineet Arora, MD
Lisa Vinci, MD
Drs. Lisa Vinci, Julie Oyler, and Vineet Arora were featured in the Academic Internal Medicine Insight newsletter. Their article, “Empowering Internal Medicine Residents to Improve Quality in their Continuity Clinics,” outlines the UCMC Internal Medicine residency program’s quality improvement curriculum. This curriculum was designed to address the core competencies of practice-based learning and improvement and system-based practice as outlined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
These three physicians were also recognized for their work with quality improvement and residency training. Along with Lynda Hale from the Department of Medicine, Drs. Vinci, Oyler, and Arora received a Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) Clinical Innovation Award at the SGIM Annual Meeting in May.
Shashank Sinha, MS4 receives the award for Best Clinical Vignette
Shashank Sinha, MS4 won the Clinical Vignette Student Poster Award at the national American College of Physicians Conference, held in Philadelphia in April. His poster, entitled “Is All Angina Really Chest Pain?” represents a case of Ludwig’s angina he saw in the MICU as a 4th year with residents Drs. Shantanu Nundy and Nathan Sandbo.
Vineet Arora, MD
Dr. Vineet Arora was awarded the Walter J. McDonald Award for Young Physicians at the American College of Physicians National Conference in April. The award recognizes outstanding achievement by a physician member who is within 16 years of graduating medical school and who has demonstrated great achievement in areas such as leadership or academics, including publishing, teaching, mentoring, and volunteerism.
The Pritzker Career Advising Team
The Pritzker Career Advising Team — Drs. Herbert Abelson, Vineet Arora, Brian Gehlbach, David Howes, Elizabeth Kieff, Nanah Park, Shalini Reddy, and Mindy Schwartz — were highlighted in the AAMC publication Choices, the Careers in Medicine newsletter. The team was featured in the “Ask the Advisor” section, providing guidance and insight about what to do when a student decides to change career paths after a clinical rotation.
