SGA Sponsored Student Organization Travel
The paragraphs on this page are brief recaps of the events that different student organizations attended with the help of SGA funding.
On May 24th and 25th, 2012 twelve juniors from the Respiratory Class of 2013 attended the Annual Texas Society for Respiratory Care Conference held in Austin at the Renaissance Hotel. The conference was filled with information about new treatments and information about the future of respiratory. In addition to the lectures over the course of two days, there was a hall of vendors showcasing the new technologies that are available. The vendors and lectures provided new insight invaluable information for us as we continue with our studies. Along with attending lectures and learning about our future, four students represented UTMB in a Sputum Bowl competition. This was a quiz bowl type event, in which we won several rounds before being eliminated before the quarter finals. Overall, attending the conference was a beneficial and educational experience for us. We were able to bring back knowledge that will not only help us, but also our peers to come. Attending the conference shed new light onto our program and showed us the practical side to the knowledge that we gain from our professors in the classroom.
From April 22nd to 25th, the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) held its 50th annual meeting. Thanks to the SGA’s support, I was able to participate in this extraordinary and unique event in the field of neuroradiology for which my colleagues and I had a presentation accepted. Representing UTMB among the leaders of the field, we were able to show illustrative cases and participate in lectures and panel discussions that covered the breadth of neuroradiology as well as the cutting edge. In addition, there were breakout sessions for young professionals. Personally, it was a glimpse into my future as an academic neuroradiologist and interventionalist and a chance to meet and engage with the ASNR members. Showings at these academic events are so important for individuals at our level and I want to pass on the information I gathered from the event to the Radiology Interest Group (RIG). I will ensure that RIG has access to the multitude of ASNR presentations electronically which will help guide them for future submissions.
UTMB MS2 Sheila Jalalat received funding from the UTMB Student Government Association to attend the American Contact Dermatitis Society and American Academy of Dermatology annual conferences from March 14-16, 2012 in San Diego, CA. As part of her DIG officer position (Contact Dermatitis Outreach Chair), Sheila wanted to explore the most recent topics, news and research relating to contact dermatitis and incorporate it into awareness, prevention, and management at UTMB and in the community. She made a presentation to the DIG members and other UTMB students on Wednesday, March 27th that included what is Contact Dermatitis is, who is affected, and what to do about it? She also discussed CAMP (Contact Allergen Management Program), which is an allergy specific database with over 1200 daily products that specifically and accurately list products that a patient can use. Lastly, Sheila presented information on the new FDA regulation (in effect Summer 2012) which requires stringent usage and UV protection labeling on all sunscreens to help prevent and decrease the cases of skin cancer and premature aging.Thank you to the UTMB Student Government Association for funding this wonderful learning experience for Sheila and the UTMB DIG!Please email Sheila Jalalat (szjalala@utmb.edu) with any inquiries on the topic or conferences.
The AMSA National Conference occurred on March 8th-11th, 2012 in Houston, Texas. Through the funding provided by SGA, our local chapter was fortunate enough to attend this event. At this conference, we had an opportunity to meet pre-medical and medical students from across the nation. It was very rewarding to talk to premedical students from across the state of Texas about our medical school experience at UTMB. Additionally, the second year officers of AMSA were able to show some of the first year students at UTMB what serving as an AMSA chapter officer is all about. As part of the conference, we had the opportunity to attend various sessions given by healthcare leaders across the nation. Topics of the sessions included “Women’s Health Care Right”, “Tips on How to Ace the Boards”, and “Life during Residency”. We expect to present the knowledge gained from this conference at our next AMSA meeting. We had a great turnout this year for the conference, and we hope by informing other UTMB students about the AMSA National Convention, UTMB will have an ever bigger voice at next year’s convention.
I recently attended 56th Annual National Conference on Public Health at Kochi in India. I feel this opportunity was an excellent learning experience as it introduced me to broader platform of public health care at global level. This experience helped me understanding burden of infectious and chronic diseases in developing countries with limited resources. The focus area of the conference was Communicable Diseases, Life style interventions in non communicable diseases, Health financing & Health insurance, Poverty & Urbanization, Public Health Ethics, and Health of the elderly. During the conference, I presented my abstract on “Fall Risk Assessment among Indian Older Adults”. Although, conference was in India but they did an excellent job of covering wide spectrum of research from different part of the globe. I also got opportunity to interact with public health professional from World Health Organization and did networking with researcher from other state of art research centers across the world. Some of them were interested in collaborating with UTMB and were excited at prospects of sharing their data with us. This conference gave me a unique opportunity to understand the epidemiology of chronic disease and also encouraged me to analyze gaps in public health preparedness to face the challenges in countries with limited resources. I would encourage student with public health or global health track to attend thesekinds of conferences.
From November 10-12, six members from the Christian Medical Association at UTMB traveled to Louisville, KY for the annual Global Missions Health Conference, hosted at the Southeast Christian Church of Louisville. This conference was 2 ½ days of main speakers who had experience with global medical missions and aid as well as several breakout sessions each designated with a special topic of interest such as information on HIV/AIDS, Tropical Diseases, Urban and Community Health and Development, Human Trafficking and Health, etc. In between the breakout sessions and the main speakers, there were several exhibition halls with organization booths set up with loads of very helpful information relating to all fields of healthcare; medicine, pharmacy, nursing, medical assisting, and on. The majority of our group gathered information particularly from residency programs represented there with emphasis on international health as a part of residency training. There were also organizations and ministries that offered post-residency programs with opportunities to short-term and long-term medical work in various countries. Overall, the trip was very beneficial and upon returning we have encouraged our fellow student group members of CMA to consider traveling to this conference next year to see if an opportunity in global mission health might arise for them.
I recently returned from the American College of Rheumatology 2011 Annual Meeting in Chicago. It was a wonderful experience and a great opportunity to learn about current research and hot topics in rheumatology, the field I plan to enter, as well as meet new people in the field. I was even introduced to my research collaborators in Houston and the UK! As a student, seeing the other 18,000 people there, all interested in the same things as me, was inspiring. I would like to bring that excitement back to my fellow students and encourage them both to pursue research opportunities as well as attend conferences in their areas of interest. There are many ways to get involved and I hope to share these with other members of the Alliance in Internal Medicine.
The weekend of October 14th Dustin Dwiggins and Michael Yip, MS-IIs attended the American College of Emergency Physician’s (ACEP) Scientific Assembly in San Francisco, CA. It was an amazing chance to learn more about the ever-changing field of emergency medicine, and collect advice from the experience of numerous residents and residency program directors. One of the keynote speakers was Dr. Richard Wolfe, the program director of Harvard’s EM residency program. In his speech he talked about the beginning of emergency medicine and how he predicts it will change. In the future, he predicts as healthcare organizations progress and begin to align into Accountable Care Organizations, emergency department’s “true customers” will be the primary care physicians (PCP). In this scenario, he sees emergency departments taking only very high acuity cases, relieving the PCP of true medical emergencies, while PCPs will manage the non-emergencies often seen in the ED today. He estimates that this improved embrace of the gatekeeper role will improve care, reduce costs, and drive competition between ACOs. We spent Saturday taking in the Medical Student Forum put on by the EM Residency Association (EMRA). An important topic discussed was the value of being involved in the organized medical community for our careers- that organizations such as ACEP and EMRA are committed to improving and advancing our profession and our care for our patients. We look forward to sharing what we learned with UTMB and our EM Interest Group (EMIG). Students interested in emergency medicine can contact EMIG at emig.utmb@gmail.com.
The Students for Bioethics and Humanities is the graduate student organization for the Institute for the Medical Humanities (IMH). The Institute offers the only PhD program in the country for medical humanities with research tracks in the history of medicine, healthcare ethics, literature and medicine, religion and medicine, social medicine, and health policy and the law. The national medical humanities conference is hosted by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) and this year's theme was Generation(s) and Transformation(s). ASBH provides critical opportunities for graduate students to present our work to a national audience, to network with important thinkers in the field, and to connect with IMH alumni in terms of increasing their participation in current IMH workings.
A number of IMH faculty and doctoral students attended the conference including Dr. Jason Glenn, Dr. Jerome Crowder and graduate students Dr. Susan Mccammon, Andrew Childress and Alina Bennett who presented a panel on health inequities in Galveston County. Other faculty including IMH Director Dr. Howard Brody served in varying capacities as moderator and presenter on various topics relevant to the medical humanities. A number of Institute for the Medical Humanities alumni attended and presented including Drs. Cheryl Erwin, Daniel Goldberg, Craig Klugman, John Caskey, Mike Bevins, and Dan Bustillos.
In terms of continuing education for the students unable to attend the meeting, we have requested that the Institute purchase a copy of audio disk made by conference organizers which features recordings of the keynote and plenary speakers, and most of the panel sessions. This will provide a critical resource for students interested in the various contributions. Before attending the conference, the graduate student panelists hosted a dry-run of the presentation to illicit feedback from the graduate students who were unable to attend. Lastly, the Students for Bioethics and Humanities will be hosting a tea in the spring during which we will listen to the ASBH plenary speech hosted by the incoming president focusing on next year's conference. This event will include a workshop on writing humanities academic conference abstracts followed by brainstorming for potential collaborative panels for next year's conference. The Students for Bioethics and Humanities hopes that graduate students will continue participating at the ASBH conference such that as medical humanists in training, we might bring our education to bear on the critical issues facing patients and providers today.
On October 15th, four UTMB medical students from the Anesthesiology Student Club embarked on a trip to Chicago for the annual American Society of Anesthesiologists conference. Saturday morning there was a great opening session addressing the changes in the healthcare system and how they affect physicians in general and also anesthesiologists. This was followed by a keynote presentation addressing the healthcare goal of mortality to less than 1%. Saturday afternoon was a dedicated medical student portion where there were numerous presentations from residency program directors about the residency application process, what they look for, as well as information regarding specialization. There were over 50 residency program represented at the conference meet-and-greet and we were able to speak with program directors and residents and ask questions regarding their programs. There were numerous lectures Sunday until the conference ended on Wednesday. Not only did we attend educational sessions we were able to network with many programs all over the United States. This was an invaluable experience for us and appreciate the opportunity.
* If your organization has recently traveled to an SGA sponsored event, please send us a brief synopsis (one paragraph) with the details of the trip and the experience your organization encountered while traveling. Your paragraph should include your orgranization's name, names of all who attended the event, date(s) of the event, and a summary of your experience, including any highlights/comments for future students.
