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PA grads urged to keep learning
Proposing a new paradigm as international
health hits close to home
Still going strong—Hunger
and Homelessness Auction nets $32,000 for local groups
Medical student receives psychiatry
fellowship
Joxel Garcia, former commissioner of health for the state of Connecticut
and current deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization, was
the Commencement speaker.
Kristin Noell-Casey, Susanna Cho, Laura Desilets and Jeff Donnelly applauded
speakers at the ceremony.
Daniel Walsh received his diploma from Dean Robert Alpern.
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PA grads urged to keep
learning
Only through constant learning can health professionals keep up with
medicine.
At their Commencement in September the 29 members of the Physician Associate
Program’s Class of 2005 heard words of encouragement from Joxel
Garcia, M.D., M.B.A., former commissioner of public health for the state
of Connecticut and current deputy director of the Pan American Health
Organization.
“These are exciting times to be in the health care field,”
Garcia said, citing new technology and new medical discoveries. But this
day, he continued, would be a benchmark in the new graduates’ careers.
“Anything you do from today on is going to have an impact five,
10, 20 years from now. Today is all about you and how you are going to
fulfill yourself as a person. Just make sure you do what you love to do.
Never compromise yourself for things that are going to be short-lived
or are not going to make you happy.”
His closing admonition to the graduates was to “keep learning. …
If you are not learning you won’t be able to adapt yourself …
to the new realities of life.”
In keeping with Garcia’s advice, Robert J. Alpern, M.D., dean of
the School of Medicine and Ensign Professor of Medicine, said, “Medicine
is changing so fast that what you’ve learned will probably be completely
out of date five years from now.” Noting the unequalled academic
achievements of the Class of 2005, he said, “People will look to
you for leadership—not just to practice health care, but to lead
it.”
This year’s Didactic Instructor Award for dedication and excellence
in the classroom went to J.G. Collins, Ph.D., professor of anesthesiology
and lecturer in pharmacology. David Spiro, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor
of pediatrics (emergency medicine), and John Roney, PA-C, lecturer in
pediatrics, shared the Clinical Instructor’s Award, given to recognize
exemplary teaching at a clinical rotation site. John P. Hayslett, M.D.,
HS ’65, professor of medicine (nephrology) and of obstetrics, gynecology
and reproductive sciences, received the Jack Cole Society Award for contributions
in support of the physician associate profession.
—John Curtis
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Sayaka Ogata, a nursing student, examined how family planning workers
in the Chinese province of Henan integrated HIV/AIDS services into their
work. |
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Proposing a new paradigm as international
health hits close to home
Each October, students in medicine, nursing and public health present
their findings from a summer of research abroad at the Committee on International
Health Symposium Poster Session and Reception. But last year Hurricane
Katrina cast a shadow as Curtis L. Patton, Ph.D., director of International
Medical Studies and professor of epidemiology, suggested that health issues
once thought to occur only in the developing world have emerged in this
country.
“The United States is clearly part of the globe,” Patton said.
“We have all thought of ourselves as separate and distinct and immune
from disasters. We should seriously consider having students who want
to do international health, do international health in the United States.
Problems we have had this past fall suggest that there are opportunities
to do in the United States the kind of work that is truly international.”
Three students made oral presentations at the symposium. Sayaka Ogata,
a nursing student, described the integration of HIV/AIDS services with
family planning in rural China. Public health student Vidya Angundi studied
placental malaria in western Kenya. The placenta, she noted, is susceptible
to the most severe form of malaria. Carolyn Graeber, a medical student,
measured central corneal thickness, a gauge of intraocular pressure that
is a factor for the development of glaucoma, in Puerto Rico.
—J.C.
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First-year medical student Matty Vestal and his girlfriend, Sarah Hunt,
looked over items up for auction.
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Still going strong—Hunger
and Homelessness Auction nets $32,000 for local groups
Thirteen years ago a second-year student asked his classmates to join
him in a fund-raising activity in which he’d participated as an
undergraduate at Haverford College. Now that activity, the Hunger and
Homelessness Auction, has become a tradition at the medical school, growing
from a one-day affair to a flurry of activities spread over several days,
including a football game, a dinner and a silent auction with hundreds
of offerings. This year the auction raised $32,225 for seven organizations
in New Haven.
The first auction in 1994 netted $3,500 and had far fewer activities,
recalled Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, M.D. ’97, who organized it. “The
silent auction,” he said, “was just two tables.” Meyerhardt,
now at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, returned
to Yale in November to relate the history of the auction. Some things
don’t change, he said in a subsequent interview. William B. Stewart,
Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy, is still auctioning off his trademark
bowtie, and Frank J. Bia, M.D., M.P.H., FW ’79, professor of medicine
and laboratory medicine, is still called upon, as he was this year, to
serve as an auctioneer. Richard Belitsky, M.D., associate professor of
psychiatry, shared this year’s auctioneering chores.
Items on the block included, as in past years, weekends in faculty vacation
homes, meals at restaurants or faculty homes, baby-sitting services, rides
in planes and on yachts, various types of lessons (language, sports, music,
art) and lots and lots of food items. Perhaps the most unusual offering,
with a starting price of 50 cents, came from second-year student Maggie
Hatcher: “Former rugby champ will tackle you three times this year
when you least expect it.” Her offer netted $50 from a bidder who
preferred to remain anonymous.
—J.C.
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