Charles Lockwood, MD, MHCM participated in a poverty simulation on Monday, April 1, 2019, at the American Legion Seminole Post #111 in Tampa. Some of the objectives of the simulation was to engage USF Health faculty experience struggles faced by low-income families.

Donna Petersen, ScD, MHS, CPH (facing camera, right) participated in a poverty simulation on Monday, April 1, 2019, at the American Legion Seminole Post #111 in Tampa. Some of the objectives of the simulation was to engage USF Health faculty experience struggles faced by low-income families.

Haru Okuda, MD, USF Health CAMLS executive director and USF Health executive director for interprofessional education and practice, took a photo during a poverty simulation on Monday, April 1, 2019, at the American Legion Seminole Post #111 in Tampa. Some of the objectives of the simulation were to engage USF Health faculty experience struggles faced by low-income families.

Multimedia story by Allison Long.

Two new Research Day awards focus on scholarly work promoting research and practice across the health colleges

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This year’s USF Health Research Day hit another record number of poster presentations, and the successful event’s aim to encourage interdisciplinary and interprofessional research among students was at the forefront.

For Research Day 2018, held Feb. 23, the university’s Marshall Center Ballroom filled early more than 370 poster presentations. The event showcases the best scientific work of students, residents, fellows and postdoctoral students across USF Health as well as health-related collaborations with other USF colleges.

Among the 97 judges who volunteered to evaluate student presentations was Charles J. Lockwood, MD, who has seen Research Day grow in both the numbers of participants and the caliber of research in his more than three years as senior vice president of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

This year’s USF Health Research Day hit another record number of poster presentations.

“The quality of the presentations is exceptional, and the passion and energy of our students is infectious,” Dr. Lockwood said.  “This passion for excellence in research is a sign of our maturity as an academic organization.  It’s what a great health sciences center ought to do.”

Now in its 28^th year, Research Day initiated three new awards this year — two focused specifically on scholarly work promoting interdisciplinary research and practice.

A Research Day participant prepares her poster for presentation.

The $1,000 USF Health Deans’ Interdisciplinary Research Award, sponsored by the deans from medicine, nursing, public health and pharmacy and coordinated through the WELL, was created to reward students from two or three different USF Health colleges who collaborate on a research project. The $500 Lisa DeSafey Japp Memorial Award in Patient-Centered Health Care and Communications recognizes a team of interdisciplinary USF Health students conducting patient-centered care that promotes empathy and compassion for patients and their families. The third new award, the USF Federal Credit Union Cancer Biology Poster Award, honors a Morsani College of Medicine doctoral student conducting outstanding research in cancer biology. (A list of USF Health Research Day 2018 top award and certificate winners appears at the end of this story.)

Research Day kicked off with the Annual Roy H. Behnke, MD, Distinguished Lectureship presented by Francis McCormack, MD, director of pulmonary, critical care medicine and sleep medicine at the University of Cincinnati.  Dr. McCormack conducts National Institutes of Health-funded research on lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) and other rare lung diseases with the aim of applying that knowledge toward discovering new biomarkers and treatments.  His presentation was titled “Silencing LAM: Science, Synergy and Serendipity.”

Stephen B. Liggett, MD, associate vice president for research at USF Health and vice dean for research at Morsani College of Medicine, welcomes attendees to USF Health Research Day 2018.

Dr. McCormack has worked with USF Health’s Jeffrey Krischer, PhD, one of the world’s top NIH-funded principal investigators who oversees a major data coordinating center for the NIH Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network, encompassing some 250 medical centers worldwide.  The network’s Rare Lung Diseases Consortium includes the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where Dr. McCormack leads LAM studies bridging both basic and clinical research.

Following his presentation, Dr. McCormack said he was “very impressed” by the level engagement and enthusiasm at USF Health Research Day.

Other academic Research Days he has attended “don’t get turnouts like this,” he said. “I think young people become interested in (advancing) research when other students and faculty take an interest in their research, and this kind of event is the forum where that interaction can happen.”

Featured Research Day speaker Francis McCormack, MD, of the University of Cincinnati, spoke about his laboratory and clinical research seeking new biomarkers and treatments for rare lung diseases, particularly lymphangioleiomyomatosis, or LAM. 

Dr. McCormack, who encourages emerging health scientists to focus their energies on answering “big questions” that could ultimately benefit patients or public health, said “collaboration is the key to success.”

Public and private agencies increasingly require that collaborative edge in the projects they fund.

Both Dr. McCormack and Stephen Liggett, MD, associate vice president for research at USF Health and vice dean for research at the Morsani College of Medicine, agreed that team science that stretches the abilities of researchers to tackle the big questions of science by working across disciplines and professions is the wave of the future.  Within a structured format, projects that bring a broader range of expertise and perspectives to discovery in the laboratory, clinic or community settings have the potential to improve experimental design and the relevance of findings.

“Interdisciplinary research builds a process whereby we can get things done in a quicker, and often better, fashion than if you try to do everything yourself,” Dr. Liggett said.

Nicole Le, far right, of the Morsani College of Medicine Department of Plastic Surgery, explains her team’s research poster results to judges, including Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of MCOM.

USF Health students were quick to cite the advantages of working across disciplines and colleges to help solve problems.

Second-year medical student Attiya Harit, winner of the USF Health Deans’ Interdisciplinary Research Award, led a team creating a health care needs assessment for Tampa Bay Street Medicine (TBSM), a medical student-run organization providing basic medical care to homeless in the Tampa Bay area through street runs and outreach clinics.

Last summer, TBSM partnered with the USF College of Public Health to create an interdisciplinary service learning opportunity. Undergraduate public health students taking a health education course with COPH Assistant Professor Anna Torrens Armstrong, PhD, drafted a structured questionnaire to help TBSM identify the strengths of services they offer as well as pinpoint any gaps or barriers to care that might be addressed.  To get to know the people TBSM serves and their daily challenges, some of the public health students accompanied medical students on outreach runs to distribute hygiene supplies. The preliminary assessment tool will be further refined and implemented by a class of COPH graduate students this summer before being used by TBSM to evaluate services.

Second-year medical student Attiya Harit speaks with Victoria Rich, PhD (right), dean of the USF College of Nursing.

“Creating the health needs assessment really would not have been possible without the expertise of the College of Public Health,” Harit said. “Public health as a discipline has a strong background in doing needs assessments and looking at things from a preventive aspect, and we in medicine can take the needs they’ve identified and act on them.”

Abena Annor, a first-year medical student; Samia Vo Dutra, a PhD nursing student;  Marlene J. Bewa, a public health graduate student; and Danielle Gorman, a first-year physical therapy student, are members of a research team working to develop a user-friendly mobile app to improve patient-centered communication.  Annor, lead author on their poster, received the Lisa DeSafey Japp Memorial Award in Patient-Centered Health Care and Communications.

Theresa Nguyen (left), a College of Public Health graduate student specializing in global communicable diseases, explains the research she conducted with colleagues in mental health and civil engineering. The study combined  GIS, mapping technologies and sociodemographic information to help define populations vulnerable to the opioid epidemic in Florida counties. COPH Professor Ellen Daley, PhD, was among the Research Day judges. 

Each student contributed different perspectives in designing survey questions that the app will use to assess patient and provider feedback about patient encounters.  Their goal is to help improve provider communication skills to increase patient satisfaction with care and adherence to medical recommendations. The students plan to test the app this summer with a pilot study involving USF faculty physicians and 15 eligible cancer patients.

USF Health provides an environment that gives students from different colleges the opportunities to interact – which helps create the context for interprofessional research and practice, Dutra said.  “If we weren’t able to reach out to students and faculty in other colleges to brainstorm, team projects like this would not happen.”

College of Pharmacy Associate Professor Srinivas Tipparaju, PhD, (left) one of the judges for the Research Day oral presentations, listens intently to a student speaker. 

Following the 9^th Annual Joseph Krzanowski Invited Oral Presentations by 12 select students representing medicine, nursing, public health and pharmacy, Research Day concluded with a ceremony announcing top award and certificate winners:

Jeremy Baker, a doctoral student in the Morsani College of Medicine’s Department of Molecular Medicine, took the top prize in the oral presentations for his research on a naturally-occurring human enzyme  that can unravel protein aggregates contributing to both Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease

Top Award Winners

The 9th Annual Joseph Krzanowski, PhD Invited Oral Presenters
Evan Hegarty, master’s student, College of Public Health
Elliot Pressman, Med II student, Morsani College of Medicine
John Canfield, doctoral student, Morsani College of Medicine
Krys Johnson, MPH, doctoral student, College of Public Health
Jeremy Baker, doctoral student, Morsani College of Medicine
Caitlin Wolfe, MPH, doctoral student, College of Public Health
Ashley Marie Perry, Med II student, Morsani College of Medicine
Chao Ma, doctoral student, Morsani College of Medicine
Kimberly Sand, DNP, postdoctoral student, College of Nursing
Arunava Roy, PhD, postdoctoral student, Morsani College of Medicine
Jared Tur, PhD, postdoctoral student, College of Pharmacy
Danielle Henry, MD, fellow, Moffitt Cancer Center

Kimberly Sand, DNP, a postdoc in the USF College of Nursing, presented results of her quality improvement project evaluating the impact of an adult cardiovascular disease risk assessment on patients’ perception of risk and their intent to change risk.

USF Health Vice President’s Award for Outstanding Invited Oral Presentation
Jeremy Baker

Outstanding Innovations in Medicine Poster Presentation Award
Elliot George Neal

Outstanding Med IV Student Presenter Watson Clinic Award
Leah Clark

Dr. Christopher P. Phelps Memorial Fund Annual Morsani College of Medicine Graduate Student Travel Award
Chao Ma

Attiya Harit was among the top award winners, receiving the first-ever USF Health Deans’ Interdisciplinary Research Award for a research/service-learning project teaming medical students from Tampa Bay Street Medicine with College of Public Health students.

USF Health Deans’ Interdisciplinary Research Award
Attiya Harit

USF Federal Credit UnionCancer Biology Poster Award
Mark Howell

The Morsani College of Medicine Outstanding Poster Awards

Postdoctoral Scholar Poster
Lei Wang

Resident Trainee Poster
Kelsey Ryan

Clinical Fellow Poster
Matthew Perez

Lisa DeSafey Japp Memorial Award in Patient Centered Health Care and Communications
Abena Annor

From left, Abena Annor, a first-year medical student received the inaugural Lisa DeSafey Jaap Memorial Poster Award for Patient-Centered Health Care and Communications.  She’s pictured here with her student teammates:  Marlene J. Bewa of the College of Public Health, Samia Vo Dutra of the College of Nursing, and Danielle Gorman of the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences. 

Certificate Winners

Morsani College of Medicine Masters & Doctoral level Graduate Student Categories

Overall Masters-Level Student Research
Shan He

(Masters-level) Molecular Biology and Neurology
Jacob Wilson

(Doctoral-level) Allergy, Immunology & Infectious Disease Research
Udoka Okaro

(Doctoral-level) Cardiovascular Research
Natascha Alves

(Doctoral-level) Clinical and Education Research
Rohini Nimbalkar

(Doctoral-level) Molecular and Cellular Biology
Thomas Parks

Morsani College of Medicine Medical I- III Student Categories

Med I Student Research
Karisa Serraneau

Med II Clinical Science Research
Ashley Perry
Lawrence Guan

Med II Student Case Studies
Jose Jesurajan

Med II Chart Reviews
Kyle Sheets
Matthew Gliksman

Med II Education Research
Sabrina Khalil

Med II Evidence-based Research
Chelsea Schmitt

Med II Neuroscience Research
Suraj Nagaraj

Med II Public Health Research
Anna Radisic

Med III Case Studies
Danny Nguyen

Med III Chart Reviews
Roger Gerard

Med III Clinical Science
Joseph Luke O’Neill, II

Research presented ranged from basic and translational science to clinical studies.

Morsani College of Medicine Medical IV Student, Medical Resident/Clinical Fellow, Postdoctoral Scholar Categories

Med IV Case Studies and Chart Reviews
Min Kong
Bryce Montane

Resident Case Studies, Chart Reviews
Stefanie Grewe

Clinical Fellows Case Studies, Allergy, Immunology & Infectious Disease
Sonia Joychan

Clinical Fellows Chart Reviews
Lynh Nguyen

College of Public Health Graduate Student Categories
Marlene Bewa
Linda Bomboka
Kenneth Taylor
Yingwei Yang
Nisha Vijayakumar
Alexis Barr
Mosadoluwa Afoiabi
Evan Hegarty
Virginia Liddell
Jessica Berumen
Rumour Piepenbrink

College of Nursing & College of Pharmacy Student Awards

College of Nursing Research
Samia Vo Dutra

College of Pharmacy Graduate Student Research
Donna Mae Marg Pate

College of Pharmacy Postdoctoral Scholar Research
Vetriselvan Manavalan

Emerging young scientists included undergraduate award winners, some of whom are pictured here.

USF Health Undergraduate Student Poster Awards

Undergraduate Research: Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Bence Zakota

Undergraduate Research: Case Studies and Chart Reviews
Meghana Reddy

Undergraduate Research: Clinical Science
Hayley Rein
Radhe Mehta
Pamela Bulu

Undergraduate Neuroscience Research
Mohammed Khatib

Undergraduate Research
Grant Morrison

A group of award winners shows their USF Bulls pride.

-Video by Sandra C. Roa and Torie Doll, and photos by Eric Younghans and Freddie Coleman, USF Health Communications and Marketing

It’s all about connecting with those who have walked before you. That’s the crux of USF Health Plexus, a mentoring program that pairs current students in USF Health colleges and programs with future health students in hopes of offering them support, guidance and assistance.

Students from across USF Health colleges and programs spent a recent evening meeting pre-health undergraduate students, some reuniting and getting updates on progress and some meeting for the first time.

The USF Health Plexus project, which is funded in part by the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society and is supported by the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and its Office of Student Diversity and Enrichment, is founded on helping students succeed in their efforts to become doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists and public health professionals. The effort is a success and is, very much, meeting a need for strong mentorship, said Jessica Lambert, a second-year student in the USF College of Pharmacy and director of the Plexus Mentoring project.

“I have been involved with Plexus since 2014 and, when I first joined the program, there were roughly 50 participants, with 25 mentors and 25 undergraduates,” Lambert said. “Since taking then, and with hard work from our outreach team, we were able to increase enrollment to more 330 members this year. Mentorship provides our undergraduates with an insider view on everything that it takes to make it into a professional healthcare program. Our mentors love guiding their mentees through these complicated and nerve-racking times, afterall who is better to prepare you for the application process than someone who just successfully went through it themselves?”

The mentoring project helps students connect both on a one-to-one basis and as a network to facilitate the development of the professional behaviors and attitudes necessary for a successful health career. It is also tailored to each student, she said.

Plexus 2016

Plexus 2016

Plexus 2016

Plexus 2016

Plexus 2016

Plexus 2016

Plexus 2016

Jenny Huynh (left) matched with Ahh Bri, first-year medical student .

Plexus 2016

Plexus 2016

Anas Honini (left) jots down info provided by third-year pharmacy student Issa El-Ajame.

Plexus 2016

Plexus 2016

Mentor matched are Gabriela Saavedia (left) from Pharmacy and Sindy Saint Clair.

Plexus 2016

Spencer Henth from Pharmacy matched with Ritchine Guerrier.

“One aspect that makes this program so unique is that we hand select every mentor and mentee pair,” Lambert said. “We pair members based on health profession interests, but we also try to match members based on their personality, hobbies and backgrounds. This style of pairing allows members to relate to one another on a more personal level, creating a stress-free and more productive partnership. This process is time consuming, but we receive tremendously positive feedback for our efforts.”

In addition to offering support and advice, mentors complete several modules with their mentees throughout the year that touch on professionalism, writing a personal statement, interview techniques, and how to prepare for entrance exams like the MCAT, PCAT or GRE, among other topics.

“Having mentored several pre-health undergraduates I see a sense of relief and understanding come over them at the end of each session,” Lambert said. “They seem more confident and more enthusiastic about applying for a professional health program. I am very proud of this program and I know that it has made a huge impact on so many students’ lives.”

Photos by Ryan Noone, USF Health Office of Communications

Dr. Mehmet Oz watches as USF medical student Adam Schwartz draws from blood from a health screening participant.

USF Health was out in force to assist Dr. Oz when he visited Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute July 12 as part of his nationwide tour checking the health of key metropolitan areas, including Tampa Bay.  Nearly five dozen USF nursing, medical and public health students, with some residents and faculty, volunteered for “Dr. Oz’s 15-Minute Physical” event.   From early morning to afternoon, they helped screen pre-registered Tampa Bay area residents for potential indicators of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, enter data into laptop computers, and explain results.

Mehmet Oz, also known as Dr. Oz, is a Turkish-American cardiothoracic surgeon, author, and television personality. Starting on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004, Dr. Oz quickly became a leading health expert for a national audience, earning two Emmy Awards for his program, The Dr. Oz Show.

USF nursing student Matthew Hester pricks a finger for a blood sugar screening.

At Florida Hospital, an estimated 1,000 Tampa Bay area residents participated in the free 15-minute screenings, which measured cholesterol  and blood sugar levels as well as blood pressure, body mass index, waist size and neck circumference.  Florida Hospital, a strategic healthcare partner of USF Health, hosted the event along with Practice Fusion, a provider of free web-based electronic health records.

The USF Health volunteers, specifically trained for the 15-Minute Physical screening format, helped participants understand the results and whether they were good, borderline, or required further attention. Dr. Oz’s team is expected to analyze the cumulative results, noting averages, trends and other significant data points that will provide a “report card” on Tampa’s health.

USF nursing student Morgan Schmoll takes a waist measurement.

“It was a great opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills that our students learn in a classroom setting to patients in the community, before they are hospitalized in an acute care setting,” said Cheryl Zambroski, PhD, assistant dean of undergraduate studies at the USF College of Nursing.  “These activities help reinforce the critical need for prevention and screening to promote health in the community.”

“We greatly appreciate all of our volunteers for this collaborative service event between USF Health and Florida Hospital Tampa,” said Ellen Kent, coordinator for the USF Health Service Corps, which spearheaded the volunteer effort. “It is wonderful to see that we have had such a positive response and we thank our community partners at Florida Hospital for inviting us to participate in this amazing event!”

An estimated 1,000 Tampa Bay residents participated in the “Dr. Oz 15-Minute Physical” event at Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute. USF Health students volunteered at the free health screenings.

USF nursing students Tracey Spronatti, left, and Laura McKenna, right, with VA Nurse Academy faculty member Betsy Keller.

Dr. Oz with USF medical student Adam Schwartz, Class of 2015

 Photos above by Eric Younghans/USF Health Communications
Click here to view photo album by Ellen Kent/USF Health Service Corps