More News		The Match goes online, but students prefer old-fashioned envelopes The Internet proved no match for snail mail as scores of students gathered in Harkness Hall on Match Day, March 18, to receive the plain white envelopes that would tell them where they’d been accepted for residencies. Rather than wait until 1 p.m. and find out by logging on to a computer, students preferred to share their joys, and occasional disappointments, with their classmates at noon. The medical school, said Cynthia Andrien, assistant dean for student affairs, has no plans to change the annual rite of passage for medical students. “I think the fun is the envelopes,” Andrien said as she prepared to deliver them to students. Accompanied by Nancy R. Angoff, M.P.H. ’81, M.D. ’90, HS ’90-93, associate dean for student affairs, Andrien wheeled a cart bearing the letters into the mailroom shortly before noon. A few minutes later she stepped out and students poured in, only to emerge a moment later, tearing open their envelopes. “Oh, my God!” shouted Nnemdi Kamanu, who matched at her first choice, primary care medicine at the University of San Francisco - General Hospital. She hugged Clovene Campbell, who also matched at her first choice, a residency in pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital. All 92 students in the class found residencies, Andrien said, and 73 percent matched to their first choice and 97 percent matched to one of their top three choices. “No one went below their fourth choice,” she said. Nationally, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, 94 percent of medical school seniors received a first-year residency program, with 80 percent matching at one of their top three choices. Notification via the Internet was a novelty this year, and no doubt useful to far-flung applicants. But not all availed themselves of the computer service, even if it involved a lengthy trip. “There is something giddy about being here and seeing so many smiles,” said Steven Jacoby, who came from New York City to learn he was accepted for a residency in internal medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center there. “There was no way that I was going to sit alone in Boston and log onto the Internet to discover where my residency training would take place,” said Ruth Potee, who drove to New Haven to be with her classmates for the ceremony. She was accepted at her first choice — a residency in family practice at Boston Medical Center, the first such offering in the city. “I like the idea of being in a new program,” Potee said. “You get to blaze your own trail.”
Top    More		Pioneer in G proteins urges students toward careers in research The speaker at this year’s Student Research Day warned his audience of the perils of spending too much time in the lab. “It is very addictive,” Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D., cautioned students when he delivered the 12th Annual Farr Lecture in May. “One doesn’t realize one is addicted until one is put in withdrawal.” His tongue-in-cheek warning couldn’t have come on a better day, one that celebrates Yale’s long tradition of student research. The school’s thesis requirement, which sets Yale apart from other medical schools, began in 1839, said John N. Forrest Jr., M.D., HS ’70, professor of medicine and director of the Office of Student Research. “What makes it work,” Forrest said, “is the faculty-student pairs. It’s a great synergy.” Lefkowitz, professor of medicine and biochemistry at Duke University Medical Center and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, described “G Protein-Coupled Receptors and Their Regulation” in his speech. He said he moved between clinical work and research before settling on research as a career. His groundbreaking work on G protein-coupled receptors in 1970 has led to the development of precise and effective drugs. “Drugs which target these receptors,” he said, “either as agonists or antagonists, probably represent the largest and most useful class of therapeutic agents. Understanding the properties of these receptors in molecular detail holds great promise for developing novel targets and novel therapeutic strategies.” This year 62 students displayed posters or made oral presentations of their research projects, which ranged from studies of informed consent in pediatric emergency cases to novel methods of gene therapy. “It is not the number of research projects that is important,” said Dean David A. Kessler, M.D., “it is the effort towards gaining knowledge, towards asking fundamental questions. That is what this day is all about. Curriculum changes will come and go, but what we celebrate here today is part of who we are and what we do.” Five students delivered oral presentations of their award-winning theses: Obinwanne Ugwonali, “The Role of White Yams in the Increased Incidence of Multiple Births in Southwestern Nigeria”; Angelo Volandes, “Film Documentary as Ethnography: Tempering Medical Ethics with Patient Stories”; Senai Asefaw, “Stimulation of Myocardial AMP-activated Protein Kinase by AICAR Increases Cardiac Glu-cose Uptake and Causes GLUT4 and GLUT1 Translocation In Vivo”; Steven Jacoby, “Analysis of Structure and Function in the Na-K-Cl Cotransporter”; and Maie R. St. John, “The Role of LATS in Mammalian Tumorigenesis, Development and Cell Cycle Regulation.”
Top    More		Education gets high marks, but students worry about safety While 90 percent of students rated the quality of education at the medical school as good or excellent, they also remain concerned about security, particularly in parking lots and on streets leading to the main campus. The Committee for the Well-Being of Students reported its findings from an annual survey to the Medical School Council on April 15. The survey was based on responses from 277 students in the medical school, public health and the Physician Associate Program. “Most people are very satisfied with the quality of education,” said Ben Smith, co-chair of the committee. “Most students view the administration as concerned about them and responsive to their needs.” Although most also gave high marks to security efforts, it remained a top concern. Only 58 percent of public health students rated security as good or excellent, compared to 95 percent of PA students and 84 percent of first-year medical students. “A lot of us feel our end of campus gets neglected at night,” said public health student Kathy Witgert. She said public health students would like to see a nighttime foot patrol and scheduled bus stop in front of the public health building on College Street so students could wait inside, rather than on the street. A related complaint was the high cost of secure parking near the medical school. The report recommended better lighting of parking lots and adjoining roads, more foot patrols at night, change machines for parking meters, and incentives for car-pooling, such as reduced parking rates. Jack Gundrum, director of security for the medical school, said that in response to the concerns outlined in the students’ report a periodic foot patrol has been added at night to LEPH and College Plaza. Parking, however, is a harder problem to address. “Parking is at a premium,” he said. “There is certainly adequate parking, but it comes at a cost.” Other topics of concern to students were prices of meals at cafeterias, rare instances of discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation and verbal abuse on medical rounds. The Office of Student Affairs is establishing a program to make peer counseling available to students who wish to discuss verbal abuse or other forms of student mistreatment.
Top    More		Student-led course helps clinicians with their Spanish Imagine being sick and helpless in a hospital, surrounded by strangers in white jackets, stethoscopes hanging from their necks. Then imagine you can’t tell them what’s wrong. You speak and they look back, uncomprehending. They speak and their words are so much gibberish. That is the case for many patients in hospitals that serve large minority and foreign communities. To remedy the problem, students offer a 10-week course, once each semester, that teaches the rudiments of Spanish for medical practitioners. The course is open to students in medicine, nursing, public health and the Physician Associate Program. “When I try to use Spanish,” said Michelle Sanders, M.D. ’99, “patients really appreciate the effort.” Students organized the course about six years ago, with support from the Office of Student Affairs and the Committee for the Well-Being of Students. This year, the course, under the direction of fourth-year M.D./Ph.D. student Michael Singer, has some innovations. Singer, who studied Spanish in high school and as an undergraduate at Yale, has created a Web page (habibi.med.yale.edu) with a course description and tutorials. For the first time, the students have been divided into beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Singer persuaded the student affairs office to increase the budget to add a stipend for a second teacher, Diana Bojorquez, a medical student from California who teaches the intermediate course. Singer also has offered students a chance to apply what they have learned. For advanced students, a typical class includes a textbook lesson in a hospital conference room followed by a visit to Spanish-speaking patients on the wards. The last class of the semester in April took four students to the room of a middle-aged Puerto Rican patient. In their halting Spanish, the students ascertained that she had come to the hospital complaining of stomach pains and vomiting that started a few days before and that she was diabetic. “Do others in your family have diabetes?” “Is the pain worse at certain times of day or night?” “Do you feel better or worse when you eat?” The questions continued, veering from her condition to her personal and family medical history. The patient, who also speaks English, had volunteered to meet with the students to help them practice Spanish. For patients who speak no English, the hospital maintains an interpreters’ service. The students said they have found patients receptive to their efforts to learn Spanish. Ultimately, they believe, it will benefit patients to have caregivers who speak their language and can help them feel more at ease in an unfamiliar and perhaps frightening environment. “They really appreciated that we were making an effort to communicate with them in their own language,” said Marjorie Trotter, who is in her first year of the Physician Associate Program.
Top    More		Students help students find their way to a college education For 10 weeks this winter and spring, high-school students from New Haven and nearby communities gave up their Saturday mornings to come to the medical school to learn about HIV, nutrition, drug abuse, domestic violence and other health issues. They attended a series of lectures prepared by minority students like themselves and designed to encourage them to go to college. “One of the keys to this program is the interaction with other students from backgrounds that are similar to theirs,” said David LaBorde, a second-year medical student who coordinated the program this year. “It is something that medical students are committed to, to make sure that students who come after them have the same opportunities they were privy to.” The Health Professions Recruitment and Enrichment Program (HPREP) was created in 1989 by the Student National Medical Association and started at Yale five years later. “The whole idea is to foster mentorships between local high school students and medical students in the same regions and cities,” said Eboni G. Price, a fourth-year medical student at Johns Hopkins, a member of the SNMA who co-chairs HPREP at the national level. The program has spread to 60 chapters around the country. “Our predominant goal is to get them into college and support them in whatever career choice they decide.” On a Saturday morning in March, Karl Lozanne, a second-year medical student, stood on the stage in the Hope Building auditorium and asked 40 high school students what they eat and how they eat it. “How many individuals are going to eat their first meal at 11 o’clock today?” he asked, referring to the pizza and sodas on the menu for lunch. Hands shot up all over the auditorium. “That’s not healthy,” Lozanne said before beginning a talk on the basics of healthy eating. After a lecture on nutrition and exercise, the students had lunch and then broke up into small discussion groups. Since its inception in 1994, the Yale program has also offered tangible help to college-bound students, providing $18,500 in grants to 13 students. An interest in health or medicine is not a requirement. The course is designed to encourage a range of abilities. “Things like critical thinking and writing skills have broad applications in any field they go into,” said Damani Piggott, a second-year student who taught the HPREP course this year and served as president of Yale’s SNMA chapter last year.
Top    More		At commencement, candidate Dole addresses health care concerns In a commencement speech that touched on gun control, Kosovo and advances in medicine and biology, Elizabeth Dole urged the Class of 1999 to devote time to public service and to maintain a concern for the needy. “Twenty years from now,” said Dole, past president of the American Red Cross, former cabinet secretary and current presidential candidate, “American physicians will not — must not — be practicing the same medicine they are today. Meanwhile, however, some things will stay the same. Patients will still need to be listened to with concern and attention. The helpless will still need our special care.” Dole was the graduating class’s choice to deliver the keynote address at the medical school’s commencement ceremony on May 24. Dean David A. Kessler, M.D., who worked with Dole when he headed the Food and Drug Administration, praised her commitment to public service, noting that as transportation secretary she had made the roads safer by requiring additional brake lights on vehicles. As leader of the Red Cross, he added, she had transformed the way the nation protects its blood supplies. “Let there be no doubt,” he said, “that when a patient in our hospital, in any hospital, needs a transfusion, that blood is safer because of Elizabeth Dole.” Although Dole never mentioned her own campaign to win the Republican Party’s nomination for the presidency, she alluded to it in her speech. The budget of the National Institutes of Health should be doubled over the next five years, she said. “We should have the same commitment from our next president, whoever she may be,” she added. Mindful of her audience, she linked her stands on issues of the day to medicine. “For years we have had safety caps on medicine that might cause injury to children,” she said, holding up an aspirin bottle and a gun trigger lock. “Why not protect children with safety locks on guns?” She also called for expanded health care coverage to protect the 43 million Americans without health insurance and for changes in the relationship between physicians and health insurers. “We must ensure that our health care providers have the freedom and the flexibility to provide the best possible care,” she said. FACULTY AWARDS Bohmfalk Prize: Dr. James Jamieson (basic sciences) Dr. Barry Wu (clinical sciences) Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey Humanism in Medicine Faculty Award: Dr. Karen E. Brown Dean’s Medical Education Farr Prize: Dr. Robert H. Gifford The Leah M. Lowenstein Prize: Dr. Shanta E. Kapadia The Francis Gilman Blake Award: Dr. Barry Wu The Betsy Winters House Staff Award: Dr. Stephen Kavic STUDENT HONORS AND PRIZES Parker Prize: Michelle M. Pinto Miriam Kathleen Dasey Award: Ruth A. Potee Norma Bailey Berniker Prize: Sherri D. Sandifer Dean’s Prize for Community Service: Alison L. Days Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey Humanism in Medicine Student Award: Ruth A. Potee Campbell Prize: Michelle M. Pinto Perkins Prize: Michelle M. Pinto Merck Book Awards: Angelo E. Volandes Meena Thayu Lange Book Award: Lawrence Etter M.D./Ph.D. Award: Alexandra B. Cohen Eric A. Hughes Connecticut Society of American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Kristen R. Aversa New England Pediatric Society Prize: Tanya E. Froehlich Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Award: Joshua S. Broder Connecticut Society of American Board Surgeons Prize: Shahram Salemy Peter A. T. Grannum Award: Obinwanne F. Ugwonali Sherri D. Sandifer Camille M. Hylton Lauren Weinstein Award: Paul Huang (posthumously) Richard X. Lyn-Cook Connecticut Academy of Family Physicians Award: Ruth A. Potee J. Bruin Rugge Winternitz Prize in Pathology: Danica N. Barron Michelle M. Pinto Endocrine Society Medical Student Achievement Award: Ursula A. McVeigh The Courtland Van Rensselaer Creed Award: Richard X. Lyn-Cook National Medical Fellowship (NMF) James H. Robinson, M.D., Memorial Prize in Surgery: Obinwanne F. Ugwonali ACP-ASIM Internal Medicine Award: Nicole C. Rabidou National Health Service Corps Certificate of Recognition: Alison L. Days Jennifer B. Griffiths
Top    More		Hold fast to ideals and integrity, public health students urged At a time of great and varied challenges to public health, Michael H. Merson, M.D., dean of public health, urged the Class of 1999 to hold fast to its courage and principles. “When you accept your diplomas today,” he told the 118 graduates, “I ask you to remember that you have a new responsibility in public health. Class of 1999, be proud to be entering a profession that has accomplished so much for our nation.” Merson offered his comments in place of Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Heavy rains and fog on Commencement Day made it impossible for her flight from Washington to land in New Haven. Student speaker Cari Jo Clark told her classmates upon graduation they were no longer peers, but colleagues. “We are now a complex network of health professionals who will most likely benefit from knowing each other,” she said. “The very nature of public health has brought us into contact with interesting, inspiring and dedicated people.” James Jekel, M.D., M.P.H. ’65, Charles Edward A. Winslow Professor Emeritus and Lecturer in Public Health, received the Award of Excellence in Teaching. As he came forward to accept the award he brandished an oversized hourglass, a gift from students poking fun at his tendency to time student presentations with an egg timer. AWARDS AND HONORS Award for Excellence in Teaching: James Jekel, M.D., M.P.H. SCHOLARSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS Wilbur G. Downs International Travel Fellowships: Ibilola Abike Fashoyin Rajesh Gupta George Levon Melikian Timothy Myshrall Nicole C. Rabidou James A. Hamilton Scholarships: Natasha Devi Goburdhun Anthony Jerome Giovanni Pacheco Kathleen Hara Howe Scholarship: Audra Nicole Boscoe Mary Florence Ricciuti Merit Scholarships: Stacey Rebecca Grill Sofia S. Kennedy Richard H. Schlesinger Fellowships: Kathleen Anne Harris Anthony Jerome Giovanni Pacheco Sarah Helen Stanton John Devereaux Thompson Scholarships: Scott Christopher Durbin Katharine Ellen Witgert E. Richard Weinerman Fellowships: Magdalena Cerda Cari Jo Clark April Celeste Cohen Christina Y. Kim Kristin Mattocks Pamela S. Nelson Thomas Horton Riess
Top    More		1999 residency placements for Yale medical students The Office of Student Affairs has provided the following list, which outlines the results of the National Resident Matching Program for Yale’s medical school graduates. Some names appear twice because the graduate is entering a one-year program before beginning a specialty residency. The transitional designation is a one-year program with three-month rotations in different specialties. CALIFORNIA Alameda County Medical Center, Oakland Danica Barron, emergency medicine California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco Victoria Gross, medicine Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles Kristin Boger, internal medicine Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose Yvonne Lui, transitional UCLA Medical Center Jason Merritt, internal medicine Karen Purcell, obstetrics and gynecology Lisa Skinner, internal medicine Maie St. John, surgery, otolaryngology UCLA – Neuropsychiatric Institute Michael Brodsky, psychiatry UCLA – San Fernando Valley, Sepulveda Robert Chiang, medicine David Gershfield, medicine University of California – Los Angeles David Gershfield, neurology University of California – San Francisco R. Alison Adcock, psychiatry Mariel Eliza, surgery Jessica Haberer, internal medicine Alexander Kao, anesthesiology University of San Francisco – General Hospital Nnemdi Kamanu, internal medicine/primary CONNECTICUT Greenwich Hospital Alexandra Cohen, medicine Hospital of Saint Raphael, New Haven Jeffrey Hart, transitional Alexander Kao, medicine Yale-New Haven Hospital Senai Asefaw, internal medicine Kristen Aversa, obstetrics & gynecology Deena Berkowitz, pediatrics Tamar Braverman, internal medicine John Chang, internal medicine Holly Craig, internal medicine Caroline Dumont, psychiatry Lawrence Etter, medicine Jeffrey Hart, ophthalmology Eric Hughes, internal medicine Zachary Leitze, orthopaedics M. Grey Maher, surgery, urology Nicole Rabidou, internal medicine Richard Torres, pathology Steven Williams, surgery Meher Yepremyan, medicine DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA George Washington University Minh Tran, neurosurgery National Capital Consortium Jon Meyerle, internal medicine HAWAII University of Hawaii, Honolulu Matthew Lawrence, medicine ILLINOIS McGaw Medical Center – Northwestern Univ., Chicago Kenneth Kim, plastic surgery MARYLAND Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore Kerri Cavanaugh, internal medicine Daniel Rothbaum, surgery, otolaryngology Johns Hopkins Hospital, Sinai, GBMC, Baltimore Camille Hylton, ophthalmology Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore Michael Schlosser, surgery, neurosurgery University of Maryland, Baltimore Joshua Broder, emergency medicine MASSACHUSETTS Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Cyrus Komer, internal medicine Debby Lin, internal medicine Alison Zimon, obstetrics & gynecology Boston University Medical Center John Carr, internal medicine Jennifer Chiu, internal medicine Dennis Lee, dermatology Ruth Potee, family practice Brigham & Womens Hospital, Boston Jesse Flaxenburg, internal medicine Lifei Guo, plastic surgery Michelle Pinto, internal medicine Jeong Yoon, surgery Cambridge Hospital Suruchi Chandra, medicine Jerry Doshen, internal medicine/primary Carney Hospital, Boston Beth Murphy, medicine Harvard Medical School Jeong Yoon, urology Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, Boston Matthew Lawrence, ophthalmology Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Clovene Campbell, pediatrics Nina Eisenberg, pediatrics Daniel Kamin, pediatrics Rosemarie Pezzullo, pediatrics Michelle Sanders, pediatrics Sujatha Singaracharlu, pediatrics/adult and child psychiatry Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean, Boston Suruchi Chandra, psychiatry Beth Murphy, psychiatry New England Medical Center, Boston Eloisa Falzarano, pediatrics Tufts/New England Eye Center, Boston Meher Yepremyan, ophthalmology NEW YORK Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx Alison Days, pediatrics/primary Hospital for Special Surgery John Koski, orthopaedics Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park Tamara Koss, medicine The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York Richard Lyn-Cook, medicine/pediatrics Deborah Steinbaum, pediatrics/primary New York Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia Steven Jacoby, internal medicine Tamara Koss, dermatology Obinwanne Ugwonali, orthopaedics/ research New York Presbyterian Hospital – Cornell Christopher Aiken, psychiatry Deanna Chin, diagnostic radiology John Koski, surgery Sandra Santiago, diagnostic radiology New York University Medical Center Alexandra Cohen, dermatology Yvonne Lui, diagnostic radiology St. Vincents Hospital, New York Deanna Chin, medicine Sandra Santiago, transitional SUNY – Health Science Center at Brooklyn Victoria Gross, dermatology Grace Korting, obstetrics & gynecology NORTH CAROLINA Duke University Medical Center, Durham Lawrence Etter, dermatology OHIO Cleveland Clinic Foundation Lee Akst, surgery, otolaryngology The University Hospital, Cincinnati JoAnne McDonough, emergency medicine OREGON Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland John Rugge, family practice PENNSYLVANIA Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia Camille Hylton, transitional Allegheny University Hospitals, Philadelphia Alison Portnoy, emergency medicine Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Tanya Froehlich, pediatrics Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Dennis Lee, medicine Joshua Pierce, general surgery Angelo Volandes, medicine/primary Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia Robert Chiang, ophthalmology University Health Center – Pittsburgh Daniel Hall, general surgery Paul Leong, surgery, otolaryngology TEXAS Baylor College of Medicine – Houston Sherri Sandifer, pediatrics VERMONT University of Vermont/Fletcher Allen, Burlington Ursula McVeigh, internal medicine VIRGINIA Portsmouth Naval Medical Center Scott Hines, transitional WASHINGTON University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle Matthew Mealiffe, internal medicine Shahram Salami, general surgery Meena Thayu, pediatrics
Top    More		Student notes Randy R. Kidd, a history of medicine graduate student, received a Prize Teaching Fellowship award for excellence in teaching. Undergraduates and faculty nominate graduate students for this high honor at Yale. Kidd also will teach an independent course, which he designed, titled “The Scientific Revolution,” at Yale College in Spring 2000. Caroline Harada, a second-year medical student, was honored with an Ivy Award in May. Harada was chair of the Committee Overseeing Volunteer Services (COVS) of the University’s health professional schools and was an active volunteer in four programs within COVS. The Elm and Ivy Awards are in recognition of efforts to strengthen the relationship between Yale and the city of New Haven.

Also in Student news: Students prefer old-fashioned envelopes  |  Students urged toward careers in research  |  Education gets high marks, but students worry about safety  |  Student-led course helps clinicians with their Spanish  |  Students help students find their way to a college education  |  At commencement, candidate Dole addresses health care concerns  |  Hold fast to ideals and integrity  |  1999 residency placements  |  Student notes     < top of page >   Originally published in Yale Medicine, Summer 1999. Copyright © 1999 Yale University School of Medicine. All rights reserved.