In commemoration of National Women’s History Month, SUNY Downstate’s Office of Diversity Education and Research hosted a lecture and award ceremony in memory of Dale Blackstock, MD on March 10th. AMSNY President Emeritus Jo Wiederhorn was recognized with the annual Dr. Dale Blackstock Award for her longstanding commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Dr. Blackstock was an internist, nephrologist, geriatrician, and member of the faculty in Downstate’s College of Medicine during the 1980s and 1990s. The newly formed OIE continues the tradition of honoring women from the Downstate community and beyond this year.

 

The pandemic showcased the sacrifices made by front-line health care workers who worked tirelessly to keep New Yorkers healthy. But it also revealed a severe shortage of professionals in hospitals and clinics, and shined a light on the underrepresentation of minority groups in the health sector. The Associated Medical Schools of New York is trying to address the diversity issue. Learn more.

 

Oftentimes when seeking a doctor, patients will look for a provider who can not only diagnose and offer the appropriate care but will treat them with kindness, compassion and respect. For many patients with disabilities, impairments and other disorders, finding a doctor with all of the above is a struggle that is all too common. Learn more.

 

You may think you know all about the work of a pathologist from all the television shows and films that focus on forensic pathology and solving crimes. Barbara Sampson, MD, PhD, has a slightly different view. She refers to pathologists as the doctor’s doctor. That’s because these doctors are the experts upon whom other doctors routinely rely when trying to reach a diagnosis for their patient. Learn more.

 

Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s vice president for health sciences and the dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and John C. Panepinto, PhD, senior associate dean for biomedical education, have been looking for a way to bring Jacobs School undergraduates into the fold. They accomplished that goal with the inaugural Jacobs School Research and Graduate Programs Open House. Learn more.

 

About 15 percent of surgical procedures performed in the United States today are done robotically, but with rapid advances in medical technology, robotics will likely dominate the future of surgery. Recognizing this growing trend, the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell is bringing state-of-the-art robotics into the hands of its students early into their medical school careers. Learn more.

 

CUNY Med participated in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ first Black Health Summit: Black Health Matters in Washington, DC, last month. Pictured here with Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, are some of the eight BS/MD students and physician assistant students who made the trip with Dean Carmen Reneé Green, MD. Learn more.

 

A group of medical students from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons spent the day in Albany on Jan. 31, meeting with legislators and other policymakers to advocate for key issues important to the future physicians, including the New York Health Act and other bills intended to improve health throughout New York state. Learn more.

 

As a child, Justin Olivera, MD student ’25, dreamed of becoming a doctor, just like his father. Now in his second year of medical school, he’s well on his way to fulfilling that dream. With help and encouragement from his mentor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Olivera recently earned one of 10 national Medical Student Diversity Scholarships from the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Learn more.

 

Native New Yorker Alex Devante Hernandez was always interested in serving his local community. “One of the things that really drew me to New York Tech was the curricular opportunity to spend a year rotating at an inner-city hospital in the New York City area,” he says. “I found it both meaningful and rewarding to learn and contribute to the healthcare of diverse communities within Brooklyn and the Bronx—communities I knew very well.” Learn more.

 

Likolani Arthurs, MD, First-Year General Surgery Resident at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, spoke with CBS News about her unconventional path to medicine. Learn more.

 

Johanna Fritzinger is a fourth-year Neuroscience graduate student at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Fritzinger graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Music. Fritzinger is currently working in the lab of Laurel Carney, PhD, studying how complex sounds with timbre, the quality that allows sounds to be distinguished when they are identical in pitch, level, and duration, are represented in the auditory midbrain. Learn more.

 

With the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the critical importance of biomedical research and new questions being raised about society’s capacity to generate world-changing scientific breakthroughs1, Roy and Diana Vagelos have made a $175 million gift to Columbia University to address this need. Learn more.

 

John Fleagle, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine, has won the Charles Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award. Granted by the American Association of Biological Anthropology (AABA), the award will be presented at the association’s annual conference held April 19-22 in Nevada. Learn more.

 

Two innovative programs are on the horizon at New York Medical College thanks to recent federal funding. A $1,900,000 award from the Community Project Fund will support programming and educational tools in the Clinical Skills and Simulation Center and the Center for Disaster Medicine to advance critically needed equity and compassion in the education and training of physicians and other health professionals by challenging them with demanding real-time scenarios in health care. Learn more.

 

Albert Einstein College of Medicine has named Reginald Leon Hayes, B.S., B.Mus., M.Div., the assistant dean for diversity enhancement. In this role, Mr. Hayes will focus on promoting diversity, equity, and engagement for current and prospective medical students and those in Einstein’s pathway programs. Mr. Hayes began his new role in late January. Learn more.

 

The New York Academy of Medicine has announced Daniel Sartori, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, is a recipient of the 2023-25 Jeremiah A. Barondess Fellowship in the Clinical Transaction. Dr. Sartori is recognized for his program Developing a Virtual Standardized Patient Program to Teach and Assess Trainees’ Clinical Skills in the Telemedicine Era. Learn more.

 

Paula Vertino, Ph.D., an accomplished cancer research scientist and leader at the Wilmot Cancer Institute at the University of Rochester Medical Center, has been appointed senior associate dean for Basic Research effective February 1, 2023. Vertino was recruited to Wilmot in 2018 to transform its research endeavors by breaking down silos and promoting collaboration and team science. She enjoys identifying commonalities and bringing people together in a “grass roots” approach. Learn more.

 

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education has granted NYU Long Island School of Medicine full accreditation. The medical school, which first opened its doors in September 2019, is the only one in the country that offers Full-Tuition Scholarships for a three-year MD degree in primary care. Learn more.

 

The School of Medicine at New York Medical College has formed a new academic affiliation with New Jersey hospitals St. Mary’s General Hospital in Passaic and Saint Clare’s Hospitals in Denville and Dover that designates the hospitals as primary clinical sites for the education of NYMC residents. The NYMC sponsorship includes residency programs in internal medicine and psychiatry at the hospitals. Learn more.

 

TouroCOM professor Dr. Conrad Fischer is a practicing physician who works in internal medicine, infectious diseases and palliative care. Aside from seeing patients and teaching med students, Dr. Fischer is also a theologian ordained as an interfaith minister and as a deacon of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the president of the Institute for Studies in Eastern Christianity. And if that’s not enough, Dr. Fischer is also the Oscar-nominated producer of the film Strangers at the Gate, for which he collaborated with co-producer, Malala. Learn more.

 

When the Jonathan Daniels Chapter of White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL) at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences was planning its inaugural event, it wanted to introduce the organization, honor its namesake mentor, and provide a fun and compelling program for participants to enjoy. Learn more.