Your Neck of the Woods
The SOM Committee on Faculty Development and Evaluation in association with Office of Medical Education has created a brand-new series of podcasts called Tiger Bites. Tiger Bites are intended to both educate and entertain you on your commute, lunch break or whenever your professional development curiosity is sparked. The podcast may help you gain valuable insights into your role as a member of the LSUHSC community. With each episode, you will hear from your colleagues about their experiences on topics such as:
- Building your CV
- How to give a grand rounds
- Reflection on professional identity formation
- Navigating crucial conversations
- The role of a clinical department chair
A full list of Season 1 episodes for you to chew on can be found HERE!
Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (CIPECP)
Shane Sanne, DO, Faculty Council member representing the SOM for CIPECP, recently authored a
presentation accepted at the 10th Annual Emswiller Interprofessional Symposium: Assessing
outcomes of an interprofessional longitudinal curriculum: In-person and online synchronous.
(Gunaldo, T., Allen, H., Baudoin, C., Davis, A., Gasparini, S., Hogan, M., Sanne,
S., Sorrells, Straif-Bourgeois, S., N., Zamjahn, J., Edwards, S. Richmond, VA.).
Dr. Sanne also authored a poster, Heartland Interprofessional Education Conference: Outcomes
of a two-year longitudinal interprofessional education curriculum: Differences in
outcomes using SPICE-R2 across participating professional schools. (Baudoin, C., Allen,
H., Edwards, S., Hogan, M., Sanne, S. Straif-Bourgeois, S., Gunaldo, T.)
Internal Medicine
Several faculty members contributed to the Louisiana ACP Resident and Student Meeting:
- Dr. Naji Masri presented a lecture on contracts.
- Dr. Ross McCarron served as a mystery panelist.
- Dr. Katherine Oakden served as a student judge.
- Dr. Cacky Hebert put together a group of student cases for the morning session.
Dr. Nicole Lapinel (Pulmonary & Critical Care) presented two abstracts as lead author at the American Thoracic Society meetings. She was also invited to serve as a facilitator for a separate Thematic Poster Session at ATS. Her research mentor is Dr. Juzar Ali. She presented:
- "Nontuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) Isolation Status Relative to Pulmonary Exacerbation Frequency in Bronchiectasis Patients: Results from the Bronchiectasis and NTM Research Registry (BRR)" and
- "Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) and Pulmonary Exacerbation Frequency in Bronchiectasis Patients from the Bronchiectasis and NTM Research Registry (BRR)".
Several Emergency Medicine, EM/IM and Med-Peds residents and faculty presented abstracts at the American Academy of EM Scientific Assembly 2022 in Baltimore:
- A Labial Infection Gone Awry: A Case of Fournier's - Dr. Apre Dixon-Gleaves (EM Resident); Dr. Thuy-Mai Nguyen (IM/EM Resident); Dr. Stephen Lim (Emergency Medicine)
- Metastatic Cancer, AIDS, or Both? An ED Presentation - Dr. Thuy-Mai Nguyen (IM/EM Resident); Dr. Brooke McVaney (MedPeds Resident); Dr. Justin Meunier (Emergency Medicine)
- A Presentation of Profound (8200mL) Urinary Retention Dr. Thuy-Mai Nguyen (IM/EM Resident); Dr. Matthew Johnson (IM/EM Resident); Dr. Elizabeth Clement (Emergency Medicine); Dr. Sean Hardy (Emergency Medicine).
Dr. Miranda Mitchell (Medicine faculty, BR Regional Campus) and Dr. Shane Sanne (Medicine faculty, LSUHSC-New Orleans Campus) served as Co-chairs for the Louisiana ACP Chapter Residents Meeting and were responsible for event organization.
Trainee presenters represented the IM program, IM/EM program, and Med/Peds Program as well as 4 medical students at the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (SSCI) Meetings. The residency programs had eight oral presentations and 17 posters. Several fellowship programs also presented. Dr. Lee Engel (Hospital Medicine) reviewed all the abstracts and printed all the posters for the LSU team.
Dr. Charles “Bo” Sanders was honored for his work with Southern Society for Clinical Investigation at a reception attended by many LSU faculty and other members of SSCI. Drs. Fred Lopez (Infectious Diseases), William Bennett, and Taniya De Silva (Endocrinology) shared tributes to Dr. Sanders, who then shared words of wisdom about the SSCI meetings and what they had meant to him through the years.
Dr. Juzar Ali (Pulmonary/Critical Care) was recently interviewed about TB by a UK-based medical education organization. The interview can be found here.
Dr. Allison Augustus-Wallace has been invited as a panelist for the virtual discussion “Tools to Promote Culturally Responsive Mentorship” hosted by the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.
Dr. Augustus-Wallace is also an invited panelist to “Monitoring a Neural Network: Transforming Mentorship” hosted by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NIH-NINDS, R25/T32 Programs).
Dr. Gala True (Community and Population Health) and her VISION team were recently active at the Capitol educating legislators on HB 260, a bill that would create a safe harbor for firearm retailers who offer temporary storage as a service to veterans, military families, and other customers.
Ophthalmology
Jayne S. Weiss, MD (Associate Dean and Chair) served as a visiting professor at New York Eye and
Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai and at The Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University
in March and April of 2022.
Aravinda Rao, MD (Clinical Associate Professor) presented a retinal surgical case film at the Telluride RetinaFilm Festival earlier this year.
Lena Al-Dujaili, MD, Owen Krueger, MD (1st year resident), Lama Assi, MD (1st year resident), James David, MD (Senior Vitreoretinal Fellow), and Joel Epling (medical student) volunteered at the LCMC Health Fair at UMC held in April.
Jonathan Williams, MD (3rd year resident), Ben Lee, MD (4th year resident), Kaushik Annam, MD (3rd year resident), and James David, MD met with Senator John Kennedy at the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Congressional Advocacy Day in April.
Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Rohan Walvekar, MD served as one of the course directors of a two-part sialendoscopy series with CSurgeries:
- Beginning Salivary Endoscopy: Office and OR Management in February, and
- Advanced Salivary Endoscopy: Challenging Cases Diagnosis & Treatment in March.
Rohan Walvekar, MD and Vilija Vaitaitis, MD coordinated a Head and Neck Cancer Screening in New Orleans earlier this year at the Broadmoor Community Church in conjunction with the New Orleans Musicians Clinic, the LSU Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Justice & Beyond and 16 medical student volunteers from the ENT Interest Group. A total of 48 patients were screened.
Lacey Adkins, MD joined the Board of Opera Louisiane. She also spoke with the New Orleans Opera in their Community Conversation series in March about health equity for artists in the leadup for La Boheme.
Pathology
Drs. Zaid Khreefa, Fernanda da Silva Lameira, and Wenjing Qiu recently presented posters at the USCAP Conference held in Los Angeles. Pictured left to right: Dr. Wenjing Qiu, Dr. Fernanda da Silva Lameira, Dr. Sharon Fox, and Dr. Zaid Khreefa
Physiology
Dr. Scott Edwards presented “Assessing Outcomes of an Interprofessional Education (IPE) Longitudinal Curriculum: In-Person vs. Online Synchronous”at the 10th Emswiller Interprofessional Symposium in Richmond, VA.
Dr. Danielle Levitt served as a judge for the virtual Research Appreciation Day at the University of North Texas HSC earlier this year.
Dr. Marcus Weera is a member of the organizing committee for the Greater New Orleans Society for Neuroscience Seminar Series. Dr. Weera also served as co-organizer of the D'Angelo New Orleans Neuroscience Retreat, April 2022.
Psychiatry
The Department of Psychiatry has added a number of Medical Humanities/Bioethics modules and student electives this year. An “Ethics and Identities” lecture was implemented in the clerkship, and two new student electives were offered this spring: PSYC450 “Narrative Medicine” (open to all students), and PSYC460 “Medical Humanities for Psychiatrists.”
Dr. Erika Rajo and Dr. Sandy Hyatt recently conducted a training on trauma-informed care for the 2nd year medical student class as they prepare to enter their clinical rotations next year. With the increase of traumatic events in our city, this training will help the students to feel more prepared and comfortable in how to approach patients and their families.
The department, in collaboration with the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute, held a two- day symposium on Health Disparities in April. Topics included Short & Long-Term Impact of COVID-19 on Health Disparities, Mental Health and Violence in New Orleans and Cancer Disparities.
Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center
Dr. Augusto Ochoa, Deputy Director of the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center and Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology, and Dr. Xiao-Cheng Wu, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health, were invited panelists for the Cancer Moonshot Community Conversation held in May. The daylong event was comprised of virtual roundtable discussions hosted by federal agencies and departments of the Cancer Cabinet to inform and advance Cancer Moonshot priorities. According to the White House, the Cancer Cabinet is a “central driver of President Biden's vision for a whole-of-government approach to ending cancer as we know it.”
Cancer Moonshot Community Conversation panels focused on topics including gender equity and cancer care, diversity initiatives, tobacco cessation, cancer prevention in primary care and rural health settings, preventing cancer through healthy eating, and accelerating lung cancer care and research, among others. Dr. Wu presented on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Perspective on Cancer and the Environment Panel. Dr. Ochoa presented on the National Cancer Institute's Doubling Clinical Trials Accrual Panel.
Then Vice President Joe Biden launched his National Cancer Moonshot Initiative six years ago to make significant strides in the war on cancer. To help guide its efforts, the National Cancer Institute appointed a 28-member Blue Ribbon Panel of scientific experts, cancer leaders and patient advocates. Dr. Ochoa was one of its scientific experts and cancer leaders and the only member from Louisiana.
In February 2022, President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden revitalized the Cancer
Moonshot, setting a new national goal - to “reduce the death rate from cancer by at
least 50 percent over the next 25 years and improve the experience of patients and
families living with and surviving cancer.”