Students from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons have formed the COVID-19 Student Service Corps, or CSSC, to lend a virtual hand to fellow health professionals during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The medical students have been joined by students from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, School of Nursing, and the College of Dental Medicine. Clinical rotations for CUIMC students have been suspended and classes have been moved online in an effort to flatten the COVID-19 curve and prevent further spread of the virus, so the students are contributing through service-learning projects. Learn more.

Two weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual room full of New York Medical College (NYMC) medical students momentarily shed their white coats to become project managers-organizing nearly 200 of their peers volunteering across three major metropolitan hospitals at the center of our nation’s COVID-19 pandemic. From providing assistance at NYMC’s affiliate hospitals — Westchester Medical Center, Good Samaritan Hospital and NYC Health + Hospitals Metropolitan, to delivering food, and setting up childcare and dog walking services for faculty at the front line of the pandemic, the student volunteers stepped up to do their part in both small and large ways. Learn more.

Due to coronavirus precautions, Match Day was held virtually for the first time this year. Instead of the traditional gathering in Bard Hall with hundreds of students, friends, and family members to unveil the match results, students tuned in to the video conferencing platform Zoom from home for an event co-hosted by Lisa Mellman, MD, and Jonathan Amiel, MD, interim co-vice deans for education at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.  Learn more.

Upstate Medical University’s College of Medicine has received a brand new award from the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society for excellence in inclusion, diversity and equity in medical education and patient care. Upstate is one of only four medical schools nationwide to receive the award, which was announced in late 2019. The award recognizes medical schools (and their associated Alpha Omega Alpha chapter) that “demonstrate exemplary leadership, innovation and engagement in fostering an inclusive culture that transforms the ideals of inclusion, diversity and equity into successful programs that support medical students, house staff and faculty diversity in service to the community.”  Learn more.

A new, interprofessional course being taught this month to UB medical students doesn’t take place in a lab or a classroom. Instead, it’s happening in the Culinary Arts department kitchens of SUNY Erie Community College. And instead of white coats, the students wear chef’s coats and toques. Along with UB graduate student dietitians, they’re taking “Introduction to Culinary Medicine,” a pilot course in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB that’s helping them understand food and health in a new way. Learn more.

Simulated (SIM) medical training is an integral part of today’s medical education–and on February 11, advanced SIM training was front-and-center at New York Medical College (NYMC) during the Task Simulator Stations Workshop hosted by the Anesthesia Interest Group in collaboration with the staff at the Clinical Skills and Simulation Center. Thirty medical students, from all four classes, attended the workshop which was led by board-certified anesthesiologists, Garret Weber, M.D., assistant professor of anesthesiology and clerkship director at NYMC and preoperative assessment clinical director general anesthesia at Westchester Medical Center, and Andrew Iskander, M.D., two anesthesiology residents, Cindy Wong, M.D., and Joon Kim, M.D and Elli Levy, M.A., manager of simulation technologies at the CSSC. Learn more.

The first cohort of students in Upstate Medical University’s Medical Scholars Preparation Program have all been accepted to medical school. The new, one-year master’s degree program was created to enhance a student’s academic record to make themselves competitive for medical schools. Enrolled students-there are five in the first class-spend the year strengthening their scientific background before attempting to enroll in medical school.  Learn more.

As notorious workaholics, healthcare professionals spend their days, and many nights, working to help others with their medical needs. Downtime can often get overlooked in favor of providing care to more patients. As many of you are aware, ignoring physical and mental wellness can lead to illness, depression, and professional dissatisfaction.  Learn more.

Medicine is all about caring for others, making the scientific discipline and mentoring a natural fit. But when it comes down to the day-to-day demands on academic researchers and faculty, potential mentors and mentees often need encouragement and guidance-or even better, as Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, envisions it, a “culture of mentorship.” “Why do we care about mentoring?” he asked Jan. 30 during a town hall at Weill Auditorium. “Because mentoring really matters-in academic medicine especially, as we strive to fuel advances in medicine and science, it really matters.  Learn more.

Eager to connect with each other and learn more about improving Latino healthcare, hundreds of members of the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) gathered at Albert Einstein College of Medicine on February 8 and 9 during the group’s 47th annual northeast conference. Hosted by Einstein’s chapter of the LMSA, pre-med, medical, and graduate students, as well as physicians and scientists came together for the event, “Standing Together for Latino Healthcare (Juntos Tenemos Poder),” which was held in the Forchheimer Medical Science Building and Robbins Auditorium.  Learn more.

Following a rigorous evaluation process, the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell has achieved the full eight-year accreditation term from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the national accrediting body for all U.S. and Canadian medical schools leading to the MD degree. “The continued full accreditation is the result of the tenacity and hard work of our entire medical school community,” said Lawrence G. Smith, MD, MACP, founding dean of the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. “It reflects the excellence of our faculty, staff, and student body, and affirms the high quality of our curriculum.”  Learn more.

SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University College of Medicine Dean F. Charles Brunicardi today announced the appointment of Teresa Y. Smith, MD, MSEd as the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and Affiliations, and Designated Institutional Official (DIO). Dr. Smith, an emergency physician who has dedicated her work in the urban communities of New York City, has been at Downstate since 2011 after completing an emergency ultrasound fellowship at SUNY Downstate and Kings County Hospital.   Learn more.

Melissa Stockwell, MD, MPH, a pediatrician and internationally recognized leader in the use of digital technologies to improve children’s health, has been named chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Health in the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of the child and adolescent health clinical service at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital.  Learn more.

Paul T. Diamond, M.D., has been appointed the Catherine and Vladislav P. Hinterbuchner Professor and Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York Medical College (NYMC) and director of rehabilitation medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan.  Dr. Diamond most recently served as director of neuro rehabilitation and associate professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation with the University of Virginia Health System (UVA Health), which he joined in 1992.  Learn more.

Paula Cupertino, Ph.D., will join the University of Rochester Medical Center as Professor of Public Health Sciences and Oncology and as Wilmot Cancer Institute’s Associate Director of Community Outreach, Engagement and Disparities. Her appointment is pending approval by the University’s Board of Trustees. Cupertino will begin her tenure in Rochester in March.

The longstanding commitment of faculty in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons to public service was formally recognized with the launch of the Academy of Community and Public Service (ACPS). The new academy recognizes VP&S faculty who have made substantial contributions to promote and improve community health, particularly among residents of Washington Heights and Inwood, Upper Manhattan, and parts of the Bronx. Learn more.

Kristen Skonieczny attributes some of her most gratifying experiences to the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) Academic Medicine Scholars Program. The program gave her many opportunities, including a fieldwork trip to the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming in June 2019 with Simone Hoffmann, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy in NYITCOM. She collected and analyzed bones and teeth from an ancient mammal, Coryphodon.  Learn more.

Dr. Barbara Hempstead, dean of the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, has been awarded Weill Cornell Medicine’s Joan and Sanford I. Weill Exemplary Achievement Award. The Weill Award was established in 2018 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the medical college’s renaming in honor of the institution’s foremost benefactors, Joan and Sanford I. Weill. The Weill Award recognizes outstanding faculty members whose transformational work enhances health and healthcare worldwide.  Learn more.

Students gathered in February to celebrate.

Students and staff at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell cut and shaved their hairdos for dollars during their annual celebration of St. Baldrick’s Day held on February 26, a charity event in support of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and pediatric cancer research. The Zucker School of Medicine team exceeded its fundraising goal of $10k with a grand total of $12,459 in contributions.  Learn more.

Community members in Harlem came to Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine on Sunday for some free CPR training. Learn more.