 |
Celebration, loss and an exhortation
to dream
Public health grads urged to
develop skills beyond science as leaders and advocates
PA students don white coats
in new ceremony marking their entry to medicine
Students present their findings at
22nd Student Research Day
Match Day 2008
Liza Goldman Huertas, James Troy, Amy Meadows and Alexander Diaz de Villalvilla
before the Commencement ceremony at Old Campus.
Class co-president Kristina Zdanys received her degree from Dean Robert Alpern.
Zofia Piotrowska, Karl Laskowski, Lu Anne Dinglasan and Kevin Lau on their
way to Old Campus.
Deans Nancy Angoff and Richard Belitsky before the procession to Old Campus.
Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney was among those who received an honorary doctorate
from Yale this year.
|
|
Celebration, loss and an exhortation to
dream
Marking their own graduation, students in the Class of 2008 remembered
a fallen classmate.
Commencement was a day of mixed emotions for graduates in the Class
of 2008. As they celebrated their own passage from students to physicians,
they also mourned the loss of their classmate Mila Rainof, who died on
April 20 after being struck by a car. (See related story, “A
student's warm heart and ‘amazing’ smile.”).
Rainof’s absence was palpable throughout the day’s events. As the
medical and public health students marched to Old Campus, each left a carnation
at the site of the accident at York Street and South Frontage Road. During
the ceremony on Harkness Lawn, Merle Waxman, M.A., associate dean, ombudsperson
and director of the Office of Women in Medicine, accepted Rainof’s posthumous
medical degree. And the class gift was a donation to a scholarship fund in
Rainof’s memory.
Maggie Samuels-Kalow and Ellen House took the podium to offer their reflections.
They recalled Rainof’s commitment to her friends and patients as well
as her seemingly boundless warmth and compassion. Samuels-Kalow urged her classmates
to find other ways to remember Rainof. “We honor her memory in less tangible
ways, in the ways we treat each other and our patients,” she said.
“Let’s celebrate today, as Mila would have wanted us to,” said
House. Commencement speaker Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, M.D., offered as
inspiration his own life story, recounting how he packed his few possessions
into a bag 20 years ago and, with $65 to his name, crossed the border illegally
from Mexico to California. The same hands that now probe “the most beautiful
organ in the human body—the brain” were once bloody and raw from
pulling weeds on the farms of the San Joaquin Valley. After an industrial accident
almost killed him, Quiñones-Hinojosa’s father told him, “You
have been given a gift. Life is short.”
Quiñones-Hinojosa went on to graduate from a California community college
and Harvard Medical School. While at Harvard he became a U.S. citizen. He is
now a neurosurgeon at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. For the full text
of the address, visit The
American Dream.
Commencement awards
This year’s Bohmfalk Prizes for excellence in teaching went to Leigh
V. Evans, M.D., HS ’02, assistant professor of surgery (emergency medicine),
for clinical sciences, and to Aldo J. Peixoto, M.D., associate professor of
medicine (nephrology), for basic science.
Thomas P. Duffy, M.D., professor of medicine (hematology), received the Leonard
Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. The Leah M. Lowenstein Awards went to Nina
Horowitz, M.D., assistant clinical professor of surgery, and to Andres S. Martin,
M.D., M.P.H. ’02, associate professor in the Child Study Center and of
psychiatry.
Eve R. Colson, M.D. ’89, associate professor of pediatrics, received
the Alvan R. Feinstein Award. Lynn D. Wilson, M.D., M.P.H. ’86, professor
of therapeutic radiology and of dermatology, received the Francis Gilman Blake
Award. And the Betsy Winters House Staff Award went to Vikram Reddy, M.D.
—John Curtis
|
|
|
| |
Jennifer
Dominguez, center, with colleagues from the Yale Program for Women’s
Reproductive Behavioral Health, where Dominguez did her thesis research.
Amanika Kumar, a student from Stony Brook University Health Sciences Center
School of Medicine, who was at Yale on a fellowship, with David G. Nathan,
who delivered the Farr Lecture.
|
|
Students present their findings at 22nd
Student Research Day
At this year’s Student Research Day, the 22nd Annual Scientific
Poster Session featuring research by students in medicine and public
health, 58 students presented their findings on topics ranging from the
soon-to-be-personal (Depression and Resilience During the First Six
Months of Internship) to the practical (Educational and Behavioral
Interventions to Reduce Exposure to Isocyanates in Auto Body Shops) to
the profound (Beyond Patient Satisfaction: Physician Ambivalence,
Authenticity and The Challenges to Patient-Centered Medicine).
Some projects reflected the notion that the most common expression in science
is not “Eureka!,” but “Huh?” As medical student Kiera
S. Levine analyzed her findings—patients expressed satisfaction with
physicians whose manner was cold and impersonal—she asked, “That’s
interesting. What’s going on?” Her conclusion: “The idea
of satisfaction is complicated and tremendously ambivalent. Looking for simple
assessments doesn’t reflect the patient’s circumstances.”
Medical student Ayal Aizer—Radical Prostatectomy Versus Intensity-Modulated
Radiation Therapy in the Management of Localized Prostate Adenocarcinoma—reviewed
the records of about 800 patients treated for prostate cancer at Yale over
a 10-year period to see whether they fared better with surgery or radiation
therapy. For patients with a favorable prognosis, there was no difference in
outcomes between patients who had surgery and those who had radiation. Patients
with a poor prognosis tended to do better with the radiation therapy, as did
patients with the most advanced cancers.
Allison Arwady, who graduated with a degree in medicine this year, studied
an old disease that is on the rise again in New Haven and elsewhere. In her
project, The Uses of Rickets: Race, Technology and the Politics of Preventive
Medicine in The Early 20th Century, she found that in the century’s
early decades, as higher rates of the disease were observed in people with
darker skin, it was erroneously concluded that the disease must be the result
of poor sanitation. A large-scale study in New Haven in the 1920s found that
the disease, now known to be caused by a vitamin D deficiency, was widespread
and afflicted people of all races and ethnic groups. Only then, Arwady said,
did the public stop blaming the victims.
She believes there’s a lesson to be learned from this rush to judge and
stereotype, as she sees that reaction reflected in the response to some public
health issues we face today, such as HIV/AIDS.
Following the poster session, five students who won prizes for their research
gave oral presentations. Lu Anne Dinglasan discussed “The role of matrix
metalloproteinases in axon guidance and neurite outgrowth”; Ryan Kaple
wrote his thesis on “The axial distribution of lesion-site atherosclerotic
plaque components: An in vivo volumetric intravascular ultrasound
radiofrequency analysis”; Jason Roh’s talk was “The chemokine
MCP-1 is an essential mediator in tissue engineered blood vessel development”;
Andrew Simpson researched “The utility of plain radiography in the evaluation
of degenerative spine disease”; and Nandakumar Narayanan’s paper
was titled “While they wait: Rodent frontal cortex and delayed-response
performance.”
The day ended with the annual Farr Lecture, delivered this year by David G.
Nathan, M.D., president emeritus of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His talk, “A
voyage in clinical research,” focused on his pioneering investigations
into blood disorders.
—Jennifer Kaylin
|
|
|
| |
Sarah Frasure, right, got a congratulatory hug from classmate Lindsay McGuire
at Match Day in March.
Corinna Levine, left, shared the good news with classmate Zofia Piotrowska.
Gene-Fu Liu and Julia Marsh, right, celebrated.
Kristin Hoffman will stay in New Haven for a dermatology residency.
Yunie Kim discussed the Match with faculty member Cyrus Kapadia.
|
|
Match Day 2008
Nationally, this year’s match was the largest ever—more than 28,000 applicants competed for 22,240 slots as first-year residents. At Yale, 97 students matched. And for the third time in the last four years, all students found a match. “I couldn’t be happier,” said Nancy R. Angoff, M.P.H. ’81, M.D. ’90, HS ’93, associate dean for student affairs. This year’s match also saw a high number of students entering psychiatry—nine chose the field, the most ever at Yale.
CALIFORNIA
Alameda County Medical Center, Oakland
Mary Hatcher, emergency medicine
Mila Rainof, emergency medicine
California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
Sean McBride, medicine-preliminary
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose
Jenelle Jindal, medicine-preliminary
Maulik Shah, medicine-preliminary
Stanford University Programs
Louis Salamone, general surgery
Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa
Rachel Friedman, family medicine
UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
Anne Ackerman, surgery-preliminary, urology
University of California, San Francisco
Jessica Beard, general surgery
Tina Dasgupta, radiation oncology
Rasha Khoury, obstetrics and gynecology
Yunie Kim, internal medicine/primary
Kiera Levine, psychiatry
Maulik Shah, neurology
Krishan Soni, internal medicine
Michael Swetye, psychiatry
James Troy, internal medicine
Pavithra Venkat, obstetrics and gynecology
CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Hospital
Claudia Castiblanco, medicine-preliminary
Griffin Hospital, Derby
Louvonia Boone, medicine-preliminary
Hospital of Saint Raphael, New Haven
Jennifer Dominguez, medicine-preliminary
Keith Gipson, transitional
Nandakumar Narayanan, medicine-preliminary
Karen Shoebotham, transitional
Hannah Yu, medicine-preliminary
St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Bridgeport
Scott Kennedy, transitional
University of Connecticut Program, Farmington
Keith Gipson, anesthesiology
Jeannine Ruby, general surgery
Yale-New Haven Hospital
Mary Allison Arwady, medicine/pediatrics
Eric Arzubi, psychiatry
Erik Carlson, orthopaedic surgery
Claudia Castiblanco, ophthalmology
Douglas Davis, medicine/primary-preliminary, diagnostic radiology
Jennifer Dominguez, anesthesiology
Ryan Hebert, surgery-preliminary, neurosurgery
Kristin Hoffmann, medicine/primary-preliminary, dermatology
Lily Horng, internal medicine
Rasika Jayasekera, psychiatry
Kimberly Johung, medicine-preliminary, radiation oncology
Rachel Laff, Internal medicine/primary
Tamara Lazic, medicine/primary-preliminary
Nandakumar Narayanan, neurology
David Peaper, clinical pathology
Elizabeth Wahl, internal medicine/primary
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Children’s Nat’l Medical Center/George Washington University
Ephat Russcol, pediatrics
Uniformed Services University of the
Health Sciences
Melissa Wollan, obstetrics and
gynecology
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Amanda Sandoval, psychiatry
Indy Wilkinson, anesthesiology
Kimberly Schinnerer, medicine-preliminary
FLORIDA
Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami
Gabriel Widi, neurosurgery-preliminary
Mount Sinai Medical Center of Florida Program, Miami Beach
Roger Goldberg, medicine-preliminary
University of Miami
Gabriel Widi, neurosurgery
University of Miami/Bascom Palmer Eye Institute
Roger Goldberg, ophthalmology
ILLINOIS
University of Chicago Medical Center
Jason Griffith, internal medicine/M.D. scientist
IOWA
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City
Paul Walker, otolaryngology
MARYLAND
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
Mohamad Bydon, surgery-preliminary, neurosurgery
Julia Marsh, internal medicine
Kimberly Schinnerer, anesthesiology
Johns Hopkins University
Alison Norris, social science postdoctoral fellow
Johns Hopkins University/Bayview Medical Center
Elizabeth Houle, medicine-preliminary
Johns Hopkins University/Wilmer Eye Institute
Elizabeth Houle, ophthalmology
MASSACHUSETTS
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
Candace Feldman, internal medicine/primary
Sarah Frasure, emergency medicine
Sanaz Ghazal, obstetrics and gynecology
Karl Laskowski, internal medicine
Sean McBride, radiation oncology
Zofia Piotrowska, internal medicine
Jason Roh, internal medicine
Margaret Samuels-Kalow, emergency medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
Argyro Caminis, psychiatry
Sharmin Ghaznavi, psychiatry
Ellen House, psychiatry
Jenelle Jindal, neurology
Ryan Kaple, internal medicine
Jeffrey Winer, pediatrics
Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Combined Program
Dania Magri, orthopaedic surgery
Andrew Simpson, orthopaedic surgery
Mount Auburn Hospital Program, Cambridge
Karen Shoebotham, diagnostic radiology
MINNESOTA
Regions Hospital/HealthPartners Institute, St. Paul
Timothy Sullivan, emergency medicine
MISSOURI
Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis
Gregory Nelson, orthopaedic surgery
NEW YORK
Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Jacobi/Montefiore), Bronx
Kurtland Ma, emergency medicine
Albert Einstein College/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx
Liza Goldman Huertas, family medicine
Hospital for Special Surgery/Cornell Medical Center, New York City
Peter Fabricant, orthopaedic surgery
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City
Tina Dasgupta, transitional
Carolyn Graeber, transitional
Sophia Liu, transitional
Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City
Leon Boudourakis, general surgery
Lindsay McGuire, medicine-preliminary
New York-Presbyterian Hospital–Columbia University Medical Center, New York City
Louvonia Boone, anesthesiology
Cynthia Correll, medicine-preliminary, neurology
Sophia Liu, anesthesiology
Christopher Winterbottom, internal medicine
Hannah Yu, anesthesiology
New York-Presbyterian Hospital–Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York City
Scott Kennedy, diagnostic radiology
Lindsay McGuire, dermatology
Lori Spoozak, obstetrics and gynecology
New York University School of Medicine, New York City
Benjamin Bowling, internal medicine
Carolyn Graeber, ophthalmology
Mark McRae, plastic surgery
Kristina Zdanys, psychiatry
St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center Program
Barbara Wexelman, general surgery
OHIO
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Al Makkouk, orthopaedic surgery
PENNSYLVANIA
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Kevin Lau, pediatrics
Tamara Miller, pediatrics
Ashley Neal, pediatrics
Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia
Abby Hochberg, medicine-preliminary, dermatology
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Lu Anne Dinglasan, diagnostic radiology
Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia
Lu Anne Dinglasan, medicine-preliminary
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Misaki Kiguchi, vascular surgery
Amy Meadows, pediatrics/psychiatry-adult and child
Danielle Smith, obstetrics and Gynecology
RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island Hospital/Brown University, Providence
Alexander Diaz de Villalvilla, medicine/pediatrics
Roger Williams Medical Center Program, Providence
Tamara Lazic, dermatology
TENNESSEE
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Jennifer Giltnane, pathology
WASHINGTON
Swedish Medical Center Program, Seattle
Soledad Ayres, family medicine
University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle
Corinna Levine, otolaryngology/research
Natalya Lopushnyan, surgery-preliminary, urology
|
|
|
