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Upcoming Events
Medical Student and Resident Research and Scholarship Day
Friday, February 28, 2017 | 12:30pm - 4:30pm
Click here for more info.
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Don't miss a beat of college news in between newsletters!
Make sure to check out our Social Media pages and follow us for hashtags on upcoming events!
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Letter from the Dean
I am pleased to announce that the College of Medicine has received $1.15 Million as part of the State University Professional and Graduate Degree Excellence Program, designed to enhance the quality and excellence of professional and graduate degree programs in medicine, business, and law. For medical schools, the stated quality and excellence metrics are: 1) advancement in the U.S. News and World Report Rankings; and 2) enhanced first-time pass rates on the United States Medical Licensing Exam.
Toward this end, the State University Excellence Funds will be allocated for targeted investments in research infrastructure and student scholarships/educational support. A variety of initiatives to support our faculty and students will be undertaken, including a $630k investment in research (infrastructure, student research training center, research administrator), a $300k investment in merit-based scholarships for this year's applicant pool, and a $220k investment in educational software to support student success.
These investments are a cause for celebration by our entire community! If we consider the addition of a new staff position as part of this investment, these funds touch our faculty, staff, and students.
Should these funds become recurrent in the coming years, we will have an opportunity to allocate future funding toward recruiting and retaining talented faculty and students in support of excellence.
Sincerely,
Phil Boiselle, M.D.
Dean and Professor
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FAU Unveils New Medical Clinical Skills Simulation Center
Community leaders, donors and FAU officials gathered for a special unveiling of the center, which provides sophisticated simulation and trainer technologies to educate medical students, medical residents, nurses and first responders. The advanced technology utilized throughout the center improves their clinical skills, enhances critical thinking, and enables them to become more self-assured in their skills while under the supervision of trained instructors.
"We are able to celebrate the launch of this new Clinical Skills Simulation Center because of the generous support we have received from the
Quantum Foundation,
Palm Healthcare Foundation and our Florida legislature," said
Phillip Boiselle, M.D., dean of FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. "This expanded center will allow us to increase the reach of our high-tech, high-touch training to continue to improve health care for so many people in our surrounding communities."
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Patient Testimonial
To celebrate those who make a positive difference for our community, patient testimonials will be featured in upcoming issues of MedNews. The experience of FAU's, Elise Morgenstern, assistant vice president for campaign initiatives in Institutional Advancement is highlighted in this issue. She credits Scott Alter, M.D., N.R.P., assistant professor of Integrated Medical Science and associate research director for Emergency Medicine and fourth year medical student, Brian Shin, for providing excellent patient care during a recent ER visit. If you would
like to share a patient story in MedNews, please email C
[email protected]
.
Elise's Story
This summer, Elise had a routine endoscopy and colonoscopy. While the procedure was a success, she later experienced chills and a fever and was advised to go to the emergency room. Elise was nervous as she entered the Bethesda Hospital East Emergency Room. "I had never been sick in a hospital before," she said. Then, she saw the FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine sign on the ER wall and some of her apprehension lifted.
Medical student, Brian Shin, "was very attentive," Elise said. Brian recorded Elise's medical history and shared it with Dr. Alter, who then examined her. Elise was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia, a rare complication of endoscopies and colonoscopies, and admitted her to the hospital. She recovered in three days and was grateful for the care she received from Dr. Alter. "His thoroughness, concentration, and concern were exceptional," Elise said. "I felt certain I was in the best hands, and in a safe place."
She shared her experience with Dean Phillip Boiselle, M.D. "Everything about the experience made me terrifically proud to work at FAU," she wrote. "You and your staff are forging the strongest and deepest bonds with our community. I thank you as both as an FAU employee and as a member of the community," she wrote. "We are honored to have Dr. Alter among our outstanding team of clinician educators," Dr. Boiselle said.
Emergency medicine is Dr. Alter's passion: "I enjoy the diagnostic challenge of the undifferentiated patient, which ranges from low acuity to the critically ill, involving any and every organ system." In addition to his medical degree and residency, Dr. Alter is a nationally registered paramedic and completed a fellowship in Emergency Medical Services at Carolinas Medical Center and Mecklenburg EMS Agency. Medical student Brian Shin, the Vice President of the class of 2018, was also drawn to emergency medicine and is currently interviewing for emergency medicine residency programs: "I enjoy the interaction between the patient and physician, as well as within the medical team including nursing, pharmacy, and techs," Brian said.
 
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Researcher Highlight: Randy D. Blakely
 F
or more than 15 years, Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D., executive director of the FAU Brain Institute and professor of biomedical sciences at the College of Medicine, has researched acetylcholine, the first discovered neurotransmitter. Acetylcholine regulates attention, learning, memory, heart rate, and muscle contractions. Certain nerve cells express a special protein, the choline transporter, which allows them to efficiently synthesize acetylcholine. When the gene encoding the choline transporter protein is damaged or mutated, the production of acetylcholine can be drastically reduced and these alterations have been implicated in Alzheimer's disease, attention deficit disorder, depression, and congenital myasthenic syndrome, an inherited neuromuscular disorder.
After identifying the choline transporter gene in mice and humans, Blakely began exploring the consequences of choline transporter gene mutations carried by approximately eight percent of the U.S. population. Dr. Blakely and colleagues pursued disease association studies in humans and demonstrated a greater risk for cognitive deficits, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and depression. Recently, partnering with clinical geneticist, Andrew Crosby, he demonstrated that severely damaging mutations in the choline transporter gene create debilitating neuromuscular problems. "While we have understood that loss of choline transporters can produce paralysis and early death in mice, how damaged choline transporters impact humans is only now beginning to be revealed," Blakely explained.
In a recent paper published in Brain, Dr. Blakely and collaborators from England and Germany, identified choline transporter mutations in four infants with congenital myasthenic syndrome. "Our findings show that these individuals make mutant choline transporters that fail to reach synapses on their muscles, where constant acetylcholine synthesis is needed. This results in devastating problems with muscle contraction among other problems," Dr. Blakely said. "With a team approach, we were able to combine genetic studies with studies of transporter function and localization to synapses."
Blakely's postdoctoral fellow, Osama Refai, Ph.D., used the nematode (round worm) C. elegans to demonstrate that mutant choline transporters become trapped in the neuronal cell body, and cannot travel to synapses where they can maintain acetylcholine synthesis. "This was a multinational effort, with our lab contributing important evidence that demonstrate why mutant choline proteins misbehave in a living nervous system," Dr. Refai said.
Blakely's team believes the worm model might also lead to new therapeutic strategies to treat myasthenic syndromes. "We have already shown we can successfully enhance choline transporter activity and acetylcholine synthesis in genetically altered mice" noted Blakely, "and these animals show increased motor function and physical endurance." Currently, most FDA-approved treatments for Alzheimer's disease are drugs that elevate patient's existing levels of acetylcholine by preventing the neurotransmitter's breakdown. Agents that target the choline transporter, alone or in combination with existing medications, might therefore also improve cognitive function.
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PBCMS Summit Conference Winners
Students, residents, and faculty presented at the recent Eleventh Annual Future Medicine Summit - The New Reality of Health Care sponsored by the Palm Beach County Medical Society (PBCMS). FAU College of Medicine won five of the six poster awards in the research and clinical
categories, competing with medical students from the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine and the University of Florida, among others.
Research Category
First place: Jennifer Frevert (second year student) Poster title:"Validating Protein Arginine Methyltransferase-5 (PRMT5) as a Therapeutic Target in Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma."
Second place: Cody Jackson (third year M.D./Ph.D. student) Poster title: "Could Profiling of Multi-Drug Resistance Protein 1 (MDR1) Facilitate Personalized Treatment for IBD?"
Third place: Kimberly Herard (second year student) Poster title: "HIV Strains Exhibiting High Replicative Capacity are Associated with Increased Viral Evolution in BLT Humanized Mice."
Clinical Category
Second place: Emily Senderey (fourth year student and Ob/Gyn residency applicant) and Affiliate Faculty, Dr. Sylvia Siegfried, Poster title: "A Coincidental Finding of Polyhydramnios and Bladder Exstrophy with Epispadias."
Third place: Berna Byukozturk, (second year student) and Kristina Rankine (second year student) Poster title: "Delayed Diagnosis of Tuberculous Spondylitis: A Case Report."
"I am incredibly proud of all of our medical students and residents who shared impressive scholarly work and research at the Summit," said Dr. Sarah Wood, senior associate dean for Medical Education. "Winning five out of six possible awards at that event was just icing on the cake." Featured was a panel focused on "wellness," which included Dean Phillip Boiselle. Dr. Janet Robishaw, interim senior associate dean for research and professor and chair for Biomedical Science, presented "Science of Opiod Use Disorder" as part of the summit's Opiod Healthcare Response Initiative. Additionally, Dr. Michelle Lizotte-Waniewski, director of Student Success and Wellness and associate professor, Integrated Medical Science, hosted a table for the college's "HealthFirst: Health and wellness initiative."
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HealthFirst Healthy Meal Preparation
The HealthFirst program held a culinary training session with the second year medical students this month in the Clinical Skills Simulation Center, where Chef Aria Kagan demonstrated healthy/raw food preparation. Students and participating faculty members each made their own Mason Jar Salad with all plant-based ingredients, inlcuding proteins such as quinoa, and garbanzo and black beans. The purpose was to provide a kinesthetic experience for students to encourage healthy meal preparation that is easy, fast, and nutritious. This activity has been embedded in the student's endocrine, renal, and reproductive courses.
Educating our doctors to maintain their own wellness will help them to teach patients about the importance of participating in their own medical treatment through wellness. The HealthFirst: Health and Wellness Initiative, led by
Dr. Michelle Lizotte-Waniewski, was launched just last year, but has already become a university level wellness initiative, partnering with both the Palm Beach Medical Society and Peaceful Mind Peaceful Life, and receiving a generous donation from the Farmer's Table.
The goal of the initiative is to weave wellness activities into the medical curriculum, so that each course contains relevant aspects of nutrition, exercise, mindfulness and cognitive health to reduce and prevent burnout among students while completing their degrees, and in their future practices. Click
here to view the full Flickr Album.
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Medical Student Accolades
Medical students are making headlines this month with publications, awards, and scholarships. Included in this issue are a few highlights featuring note-worthy accolades.
Congratulations to fourth-year medical student, Emily Senderey, and affiliate faculty member, Dr. Mark Stravitsky, who recently published an article in BMJ Case Reports, entitled, "Does quality of life outweigh the cardiovascular risks of stimulant medication in a child with ADHD and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?"
Congratulations to fourth year medical students, Jordan Beau and Kristine Almonte, and third year medical student, Adam Ferrone, who were recipients of the David L. Wulkan Schloarship Award from the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation.
Student Talon Award Winner
Third year medicine student & Healthcare Outreach Program (HCOP) Student Leader, Ovini Rodrigo, won the Student Talon Award at FAU's Homecoming event, for her leadership and service to FAU. She was nominated by the Office for Diversity and Inclusion in the College of Medicine for her exemplary leadership. A selection committee inclusive of faculty, staff, students, and alumni evaluated nominees within a broad framework of leadership, focusing specifically on the student's contribution to the FAU community. The Student Talon Award is an honor bestowed annually at the Homecoming Talon Awards and our college is thrilled that one of our students was selected for this esteemed award.
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First Year Medical Students Tour Boca Raton Regional Hospital
First year medical students, the Class of 2021, received a tour and orientation from the staff at Boca Raton Regional Hospital (BRRH) last month. Our medical students will attend several clinical experiences and clerkships at BRRH for the next four years while completing their medical degrees at the College of Medicine.
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Sleep Apnea/Obesity Meeting
 The College of Medicine will host a consortium meeting focused on the genetics of obstructive sleep apnea on December 1.
The all-day meeting will bring together colleagues from FAU, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt, Kaiser Permanente, the Mayo Clinic, and Northwestern University to discuss the major accomplishments and future goals of this research collaboration.
The investigators currently have a substantial NIH-funded study co-led by
Dr. Janet Robishaw, interim associate dean for research and professor and chair of Biomedical Science, Dr. Les Kirchner at Geisinger Health System, and Dr. Allan Pack, professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine. This is an important area of research since obstructive sleep apnea afflicts more than 25 million Americans. If left untreated, sleep apnea increases the risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, and depression. This study could potentially lead to identifying genes and novel therapeutic targets for this common sleep disorder.
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