Crystal Vanessa Castañeda, a fourth-year medical student, was awarded the 2012 Aetna Foundation/National Medical Fellowship Healthcare Leadership Scholarship. Now in its second year, the scholarship was established to help address the severe national shortage of physician-leaders who are committed to the health of underserved communities. The program provides $5,000 scholarships to 10 second- and third-year medical students from underrepresented minority groups with a commitment to serving medically underserved communities. In addition, Castañeda was awarded the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship to complete research in Urology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons for the 2012-2013 academic year. This program allows medical students to pursue a career in clinical research by allowing them to take a year off from their formal schooling and experience clinical research first-hand at an academic medical center. Lastly, Castañeda was awarded the Latino Medical Students Association's 2012 National Scholarship for U.S. Medical Students at the National Latino Medical Student Association Conference at Harvard University in February. The scholarship was developed in 2009 to assist medical students with the financial burden of accredited U.S. medical school tuition.
Dr. Nathaniel Hupert, associate professor of public health and associate professor of medicine, co-directed a masters' class titled "From Data to Decision: How to Integrate Modeling Methodologies to Inform Public Health Policy," May 30 to June 1 in Vancouver, British Columbia. This meeting brought together computational modelers and health policy makers from North America, Europe, and both China and Taiwan to discuss strategies for applying quantitative modeling to critical public health operations. Additionally, Dr. Hupert was invited by the American Association of Chest Physicians to participate on its task force on mass critical care tasked with developing the Association's Mass Critical Care Consensus Statement, due to be published in the Association's journal Chest. The 80-member international task force met in Chicago, Ill. June 7-8. Dr. Hupert is also leading several subgroups focused on operational systems.
Dr. Stephen Lyman, associate professor of public health, gave the keynote address to the fourth annual Japanese Orthopaedic Society of Knee, Arthroscopy, & Sports Medicine meeting in Okinawa, Japan, July 19.
Dr. David Madoff, professor of radiology, was in March an ad hoc reviewer for the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center's Imaging Science Program's Board of Scientific Counselors. The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center is a hospital located on the NIH's campus in Bethesda, Md., dedicated to clinical research. The Board of Scientific Counselors is a review group comprised of expert scientists from outside the NIH who provide unbiased and objective evaluations of the intramural research programs and work of individual scientists. Additionally, Dr. Madoff was appointed deputy editor of the journal Radiology this year, and has since last year been an invited member on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Effective Health Care program Technical Expert Panel. In this role, Dr. Madoff has been assessing comparative effectiveness of local therapies for unresectable colorectal cancer metastasis to the liver.
Dr. C. Douglas Phillips, professor of radiology, is president-elect of the American Society of Head and Neck Radiology, which is dedicated to advancing knowledge and stimulating interest in the field of head and neck imaging, sharing new techniques and best practices and fostering the continuing development of head and neck imaging as an art and science. He will become president at the conclusion of the Society's annual meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., in October.
Dr. Michael Posner, adjunct professor of psychology in psychiatry, was honored by the National Academy of Sciences as this year's recipient of the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science. The Carty Award, a medal and a prize of $25,000, is given for noteworthy and distinguished accomplishment in any field of science and is presented this year in the field of cognitive science. In bestowing this honor to Dr. Posner, the National Academy of Sciences recognizes him for outstanding contributions to the understanding of spatial attention and for pioneering investigations of the neural basis of cognition using non-invasive functional brain imaging methods.
Dr. Bruce Schackman, chief of the Division of Health Policy in the Department of Public Health and associate professor of public health, presented a plenary session on "Cost-Benefit Analysis of Universal versus Selective PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis)" at an evidence summit hosted by the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care in London, England. The summit, titled "Controlling HIV Epidemic with Antiretrovirals: Treatment as Prevention and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, sought to provide a venue for the presentation of data related to and discussion about the practical aspects of TasP and PrEP implementation in a variety of clinical settings. In addition, Dr. Schackman was elected secretary-treasurer-elect to the Society for Medical Decision Making's Board of Officers and Trustees for the 2012-2013 term. The election results were announced Aug. 27.
Dr. Shahrokh Shariat, assistant professor of urology, assistant professor of medicine and director of Urothelial Carcinoma Outcomes and Translational Research, was senior author of the poster "Extranodal extension is a powerful prognostic factor in bladder cancer patients with lymph node metastasis," which won Best Poster at the American Urological Association's annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga., in May. Additionally, Dr. Shariat was a member of the European Association of Urology Guideline Panel for Muscle-invasive and Metastic Bladder Cancer, which will help urologists assess the evidence-based management for muscle-invasive and metastatic bladder cancer and incorporate the guideline recommendations into clinical practice. He also serves on the Association's Guideline Group for Urothelial Cell Carcinoma of the Upper Urinary Tract, which prepared new guidelines to aid clinicians in assessing the current evidence-based management of urothelial cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract and to incorporate recommendations into daily clinical practice.
Dr. Yi Wang, Faculty Distinguished Professor in Radiology and professor of physics in radiology, was named a Fellow of the Society by the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine in May. The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine is a multi-disciplinary nonprofit association that promotes innovation, development, and application of magnetic resonance techniques in medicine and biology throughout the world.
Weill Cornell's National Latino Medical Student Association chapter was awarded the Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias Chapter of the Year Award in February at the Latino Medical Student Association Conference hosted at Harvard University in February. This includes a $1,000 grant for the organization and continued support from the northeast and national organizations.
Submit your awards and honors to WCMCAwards@med.cornell.edu.