KIRK KERKORIAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT UNLV Making the Rounds May 11, 2021 Issue 281

Friends & Colleagues,  As I participated in graduation week festivities for our charter class last week, I shared a story with our students that I heard as a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (now the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania). It was told by Dr. Francis Wood, a former Chair of the Department of Medicine who took part in research that perfected the electrocardiogram as a diagnostic device. Though Dr. Wood died in 1990, his story lives on. It is an amusing tale, yet it shows the trust people have in physicians, that reveals how doctors must do all they can never to betray that trust... It turns out a medical student has finished his exams for the semester but his girlfriend is going home. She has to take her cat on the train and is afraid he might act up. She asks her medical student boyfriend what to do. He figures morphine will sedate the cat and goes to the library to find out how much medication the cat can take without killing it. At the train station, he gives morphine to the cat just before he sees his girlfriend off. That night he goes to a pub and runs into some students studying to be veterinarians. He proudly tells them what he’s done, how he’s sure he impressed his girlfriend, and they begin to howl with laughter. Morphine, they laugh, doesn’t sedate a cat, it drives them crazy. When his girlfriend returns from her visit with her parents, the medical student, with real trepidation, asks how her cat acted. She replied that he was terrible, scratching and hissing the entire trip. The medical student says he’s so sorry, but his girlfriend interrupts: “It’s not your fault,” she says. “Think of how bad he would have acted if you hadn’t helped me.”  At the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, we’re doing all we can to ensure that our students understand that people will listen to their advice. I reminded the students to be truthful, to be true to their professions, to be true to their communities, and to be true to themselves. This past week was remarkable. In a very short time, a fully accredited medical school was created in Las Vegas. Our school graduated the newest group of young physicians, some of whom will soon be taking care of our community. We have a lot to be thankful for. Marc J. Kahn, M.D. Dean, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Medicine By The Numbers Osteoporosis  Osteoporosis is a disease of the bone that makes a person’s bones weak and more likely to break. Approximately 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and another 44 million have low bone density, placing them at increased risk.   54 million Americans, half of all adults aged 50 and older, are at risk of breaking a bone and should be concerned about bone health.  One in two women and up to one in four men will break a bone in their lifetime due to osteoporosis. For women, the incidence is greater than that of heart attack, stroke, and breast cancer combined.  The disease is responsible for an estimated two million broken bones per year, yet nearly 80 percent of older Americans who suffer bone breaks are not tested or treated for osteoporosis.   People with osteoporosis can break a bone from a minor fall, or in serious cases, even from simple actions like sneezing or bumping into furniture.    The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends five steps to improve bone health and prevent osteoporosis/broken bones: Get the calcium and vitamin D you need every day. Do regular weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises. Don’t smoke and don’t drink too much alcohol. Talk to your healthcare provider about your chance of getting osteoporosis and ask when you should have a bone density test. Take an osteoporosis medication when it’s right for you. Source: https://cdn.nof.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Osteoporosis-Fast-Facts.pdf

Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Awarded National Medical Honor Society

Left to Right: Colby Shreve, Jordan Miller, Sierra Mastrantonio, William Gravley, Emily Guyaux, Toyokazu Endo, Shilpa Daulat, Kristina Cordes, Monica Arebalos, Anita Albanese

At the first annual Medical Students Awards Ceremony held by the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, the awards included the induction of students into a national medical honor society that began more than a century ago. Those students -- Anita Albanese, Monica Arebalos, Kristina Cordes, Shilpa Daulat, Toyokazu Endo, William Gravley, Emily Guyaux, Sierra Mastrantonio, Jordan Miller, and Colby Shreve -- received their recognition at the Red Rock Resort Casino & Spa in Summerlin on May 6, the day before the medical school’s first graduation.   It was not preordained that a school graduating its first class would have a chapter of the nation’s only national honor medical society, Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA). “The application for an AOA chapter was somewhat involved,” says Gary Shen, the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine Assistant Dean for Clinical Education and Associate Professor of Surgery who serves as Councilor for the AOA chapter. The process of being granted a chapter, he says, has similarities to site visits by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting body for educational programs at schools of allopathic medicine in the United States and Canada. “The AOA leadership spent a whole day (virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic) at the school with several different sessions,” says Shen, noting that a slide presentation was created highlighting the strengths of the school. “First of all, we had to be fully accredited, which we were in February, just to be considered...What they looked at included our curriculum, our support for students, our admission policies, our efforts for diversity and inclusion, and how the school was funded. They also met with students to get their honest feelings about the school.”  Dr. Neil Haycocks, the Kerkorian School’s Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Education, calls AOA’s fast approval of a chapter in April “affirming of what we’re doing at the medical school.”  In 1902, it was medical students at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago who were fed up with a lack of professionalism on the part of fellow medical students and some faculty who actually began AOA. Led by 35-year-old William Webster Root, they modeled the honor society after Phi Beta Kappa, the honor society founded in 1776 which celebrates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. Root and his colleagues defined the AOA motto as, “Be Worthy to Serve the Suffering.”  Shen says what started out as an honor society focusing mainly on scholastic achievement now includes leadership, community service, research, professionalism and identifying physician leaders and servants to their communities.

"When I received a call as a medical student that I had been elected, it was a life highlight.”  Dr. Marc J. Kahn, Dean of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV

AOA awarded the Kerkorian School a chapter just a month before the May 7 graduation of the school’s charter class. While membership in AOA may be attained by medical students, residents, fellows, faculty members, alumni, clinicians or distinguished leaders in medicine, Shen said that this year, because of the short amount of time between the granting of a chapter and the awards ceremony, only nominations of students were made. Shen became a member of AOA while being a member of the faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.  For medical students, deans of medical schools, or their designees, identify a pool of candidates from the graduating class who have excelled in the criteria for AOA membership. Each school may elect up to 20 percent of the graduating class of students. Since its founding in 1902, nearly 200,000 members have been elected to the society. Shen says AOA membership can be helpful to students in obtaining residencies. AOA membership is meaningful to those who receive it.  “When I received a call as a medical student that I had been elected, it was a life highlight,” says Dr. Marc Khan, dean of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine. AOA supports 13 fellowships, grants, programs and awards for medical students at its more than 130 chapters. It also publishes a quarterly peer-reviewed, medical humanities journal, “The Pharos,” which contains articles on nontechnical medical subjects, including history, ethics, national issues, personal essays and poetry.

Medical Student Award Winners

Left to Right: Shilpa Daulat, William Gravley, Toyokazu Endo, Horacio Guerra, Sabrina Noveschi, Monica Arebalos, Hadley Johnson, Zarah Rosen, Kristina Cordes, Emily Guyaux, Sierra Mastrantonio, Ashley Prandecki, Anita Albanese, Caleena Longworth, Colby Shreve, Jordan Miller, Michael Briones

At the Inaugural Medical Student Awards Ceremony on May 6, other awards were given in addition to the election of the AOA National Medical Honor Society members. These awards recognized the charter class students' hard work throughout their four years of medical school. Faculty Recognition Awards were given at the Graduation Dinner, as well. Medical Student Award Winners

Dean’s Award For Academic Excellence Colby Shreve and Kristina Cordes Barbara Atkinson Service & Leadership Award Lauren Hollifield Outstanding Achievement In Research Award Michael Briones and Sierra Mastrantonio Outstanding Service To The Community Award Monica Arebalos Extraordinary Service Recognition For 2021 Caleena Longworth Student Affairs Recognition Award Toyokazu Endo Outstanding Student, Family Medicine Award Caleena Longworth Lisa Yao Memorial Scholarship In Family Medicine Award Horacio Guerra and Sabrina Noveschi Outstanding Student, Internal Medicine Award Ashley Prandecki Outstanding Student, Obstetrics & Gynecology Award Zarah Rosen Outstanding Student, Pediatrics Award William Gravley Outstanding Student, Psychiatry Award Hadley Johnson Outstanding Student, Surgery Award Toyokazu Endo

Faculty Recognition Award Winners

Outstanding Faculty For Phase I Neil Haycocks, M.D., Ph.D., Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Education  Outstanding Clinical Faculty Shadaba Asad, M.D. Outstanding Resident Teacher Kassandra Coletta, M.D., Obstetrics & Gynecology Nathan Kirsch, M.D., Internal Medicine  Outstanding Community Faculty Ashok Gupta, M.D. Ryan Hafen, M.D.  Outstanding Clinical Department Internal Medicine

In The News

 UNLV Med School Graduates First Class KSNV 3 Interviewed: Students Anita Albanese and Alex Ma, Founding Dean Barbara Atkinson, Dean Marc J. Kahn

 Doctors in The House as UNLV’s First Medical Class Graduates Las Vegas Review Journal

UNLV Med School Celebrates First Graduating Class; Many to Stay in Nevada Las Vegas Sun

UNLV Medical School Mints First Graduates, Some Staying Put Las Vegas Review Journal Interviewed: Dean Kahn, Student Faun Botor

UNLV Medical School Graduating 50, With 18 Staying in Nevada US News & World Report

Additional Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Graduation Coverage:

Washington Times SFGate Seattlepi.com Clay Center Dispatch The Argus-press The Titusville Herald Lake County Star Shelton Herald Conroe Courier Darien Times Herald Review Fairfield Citizen News 

Upcoming Events

May 11: Learn to Identify & Fight Trafficking (LIFT) Training May 11: Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Admissions Information Session May 13: Office of Research Virtual Webinar/Understanding Grant Writing More Upcoming Events

www.unlv.edu/medicine

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