Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

How A Biology Major Lead Me Into Public Health And Working For A Non-Profit Organization, Viktoriya Yudovina

Pre-Health Day

In the beginning, I wanted to be a physician, a scholar of everything medicine. And while my greatest passion is still medical science and research, my path has taken me in a slightly different direction. Currently, I manage the Afterschool Meal Program and Summer Food Service Program for FLIPANY, a non-profit organization, whose “mission is to empower youth and their families through physical activity and nutrition education programs while raising awareness and creating policies for a healthier community”. Working in an arena of health and wellness, I am able to touch base on both my undergraduate days of biology in …

From A B.A. In Speech Language Pathology To Becoming An Occupational Therapist; Change Is Good!, Kailtkin Dudziec

Pre-Health Day

Everyone thinks college is a time for you to pick a career and decide what you are going to do with the rest of your life. This is true in a way, but it is also a time for you to find yourself and decide who you want to be as a person in the future. Day 1 of my undergrad career consisted of my switching majors from elementary education to speech-language pathology. Going through some of the pre-requisite psychology classes, I also decided I wanted to be a psychology major, so I added that in my second year of …

Advice To My Undegraduate Self About Pursuing A Carrer In Medicine, Daveda Maharaj

Pre-Health Day

The journey I’ve traveled, literally and figuratively, to become an anesthesiologist has been both challenging and rewarding. When I was a student at Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, I hit the ground running with ambition and goals to achieve. A minor detour teaching high school in between undergrad and med school was a huge learning experience, and I still fulfilled my career goals of becoming a physician. I’m not sure I ever imagined that this is what the “real world” would be like for a practicing anesthesiologist, but I’ve come to learn some of the best and worst ways …

From Undergrad To Pediatric Dentist, Claudia X. Harriehausen

Pre-Health Day

I have always known that my desire to become a dentist came during my childhood. Therefore, during my undergraduate years at NSU I reinforced that desire by participating in many activities related to dentistry, such as volunteering for non-profit organizations as dental assistant, and providing oral hygiene education for underserved communities. By working with patients at that time, I learned many interpersonal aspects of dentistry that are not covered in textbooks, which enhanced my commitment and dedication to this type of work. I could not envision a more rewarding and compassionate career to spend my life by promoting the wellness …

Optomestrist And Educator, Michael Bacigalupi

Pre-Health Day

Dr. Michael Bacigalupi grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His father was a letter carrier for the US Postal Service and his mother was an office manager for a local optometrist. He decided at a young age that he wanted to become an optometrist and has never regretted this decision. He is proud of his career and hopes to inspire others to consider the profession of optometry. Dr. Bacigalupi earned an Associate of Arts degree in Chemistry from Schreiner University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Optometry from the University of Houston. In 1993, he graduated magna cum laude …

The Knight Who Saved The Shark, Alberto J. Panero

Pre-Health Day

Reaching one’s goals is never an individual effort. I enrolled at NSU in the year 2000, joining the Men’s soccer team and pursuing a career in sports medicine. High school was easy, managing being a student athlete did not pose many challenges. I could study for an exam the night before and do quite well on it. After getting a 68% on my first biology test in college, I quickly realized this method would no longer work. Developing a new study strategy and keeping up with the demands of being a full time athlete and social life was not easy. …

Road Less Taveled: My Journey To Becoming A Certified Tobacco Cessation Specialist, Carlos Almirola

Pre-Health Day

I didn’t arrive in Public Health through conventional means. My father is a physician and I grew up thinking medicine was in my future. Towards the end of my undergrad I started to learn about other careers and eventually came across Public Health. I saw the importance of helping avoid problematic health issues in our community through early intervention. My Public Health training when combined with my background in Biology opened new doors I never knew existed. Grad School gave me the opportunity to have involvement with different community health initiatives in Baptist Congregational Health, UM Docs Program, and as …

The Journey To Becoming A Dentist: Advice To My Undergraduate Self, Katherine Lorenzo-Machado

Pre-Health Day

Growing up with a few family members who were dentists, I was always exposed to the profession. When I started undergraduate school at FIU, I knew that was what I wanted to be, and focused most of my time on getting there. Juggling undergraduate school, working at different dental offices, and studying for my DAT while maintaining my social life with family and friends was tough, but I was able to achieve that and get my undergraduate degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry in 3 years. I went straight from undergraduate school to dental school, which made some …

The Path To Optometry, Mari Holderby

Pre-Health Day

The path to optometry, although at times challenging, is extremely rewarding. I personally had my eyes set on becoming an optometrist since I was 16 years old, when I attended a Dual Enrollment program called College Academy at Broward College. I had graduated high school with an Associate of Arts degree, and therefore by the time I attended Farquhar, I knew what my long-term goals were. I was lucky enough to be accepted into the Dual Admission program for optometry, in which I had a guaranteed seat in NSU’s optometry school once I completed my three years at Farquhar. It …

From Undergrad To Ph. D., My Lessons, Ivan Jozic

Pre-Health Day

Although the road to becoming a scientist is often riddled with many hurdles, the rewards of self-discovery and potential to revolutionize the world, are priceless. It is said that a PhD is pursued by those who are driven to do something original and those who are have the passion to discover the unknown; but also those that have dedication, persistence and resilience. My journey began at the intersection of College Ave and SW 30th St back in 2004. As with many other Biology majors, I was unsure where my career path should lead to, but I knew it had to …

From Undergrad To Audiologist, The Road Less Traveled, Ashley Lawrence

Pre-Health Day

College is a challenging yet rewarding time in life and if you stay motivated and keep your eyes on your long-term goals, you will be successful regardless of your career choice. I learned about who I was as a person throughout my college years, and I can offer some guidance on both the good choices and mistakes I made on my path to becoming a medical professional. I began undergrad at NSU in 2002, long before the days of the University Center and when the NSU mascot was still a Knight. I majored in Biology and graduated in 2006 with …

My Career Journey, Cecelia Rokusek

Pre-Health Day

Dr. Rokusek currently serves as Assistant Dean for Research and Innovation, Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Prior to joining Nova, Dr. Rokusek served as Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of South Dakota, School of Medicine. She served as Professor and Dean of Education at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota and Dean of Health Professions at Governors State University in Illinois and at Florida Gulf University in Ft. Myers, Fl serving as the first dean to bring all of the 5 health professions program in the newly established university to …

My Path To Pharmacy School, Daven Sawh

Pre-Health Day

came from Trinidad, and when I started I had no idea of how to approach the process. I depended on the advisors and people on the same path to guide me. This was not the best approach. I should have done my own research and mapped out my own path. But I was determined to become a pharmacist and I completed my prerequisites as required for the COP at that time....or so I thought. I was not a competitive candidate and my first application left me devastated. However I learned what I needed to do. I worked on my GPA …

Journey To Becoming A Surgeon, Jill C. Gorsuch

Pre-Health Day

I began my path to become General and Bariatric Surgeon at the University of Florida earning my B.S. in Microbiology and Cell Science. I then spent a year at the University of Miami, Diabetes Research Institute studying islet cell transplantation. In 2005, I began medical school at NSU, College of Osteopathic Medicine where I earned both my D.O. and M.P.H. I then completed my general surgery residency at Michigan State’s Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills, Michigan. While in residency I decided I wanted to advance my general surgery skills and pursue a career in Bariatric surgery. I am currently completing …

Taking The Nontraditional Route To Medical School From Nurse To Physician. Are You Sure You Want To Embark On This Journey?, Zaki Darojat

Pre-Health Day

Changing careers takes a lot of guts regardless of what career you had initially and the decision to embark on the journey of becoming a physician is a long one. I will discuss some factors that one should consider before making this leap. Medical school was not easy but it is definitely a rewarding career and I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else; However, I have colleagues who do not share the same sentiment. I hope to shed some light into the pros and cons of medicine and help you make an informed decision.

The Big Picture Of A Career Behind The Microscope: Life Lessons From A Thirty-Something Woman In Medicine, Marta M. Van Straten

Pre-Health Day

I consider myself fortunate to pursue a career whose steps were laid out before me. The umbrella of medicine is broad, however, and many major life events occur between the time a young person starts college and a career truly materializes. Looking back on the past fifteen years since graduating high school, I’ve learned more about people and the world around me than any single topic taught in a classroom. From one detour after finishing my undergraduate degree, to another after graduating medical school, my path to becoming a pathologist was not the direct one I envisioned. Since graduating from …

Perceptions Of Adherence To Clinical Practice Guidelines For Low Back Pain Treatment Of Physical Therapy Students And Recent Graduates, Emiangeliz Gonzalez Luna

Digital Repository: Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence

This study aims to analyze possible factors that can affect perceptions towards adherence of clinical practice guidelines for low back pain treatment of current and past physical therapy students. An original survey was created to measure demographics, current knowledge of guidelines, influential resources, and perceptions about adherence to these guidelines.

Genetic Counseling Students’ Perceptions: Does Supervisory Training Affect Students’ Perceived Competence Of Their Supervisors?, Sara Malka Cohen

Discovery Day (formerly Post & Beyond)

Clinical supervision of genetic counseling students is one of the integral methods for teaching, training and ensuring competent entry-level genetic counselors. Because of the large impact a clinical supervisor plays in his/her student’s training, the genetic counselor needs to be effective in his/her role. However, a qualified genetic counselor is not guaranteed to be a competent clinical supervisor due to the different skill set required for both counseling and supervision. Therefore, supervisor training may be a good method for aiding genetic counselors in adapting to the skills needed for successful supervision. There is a strong positive correlation between supervision training …

Effects Of Increased Nuclear Localization Of Tip60 In Cancer Cells, Simon Davis

Discovery Day (formerly Post & Beyond)

Tip60C is a 13-protein complex involved in transcription, DNA repair, and cell cycle regulation. In most cancers, the complex has been shown to be a tumor suppressor. Its catalytic subunit is the Tip60 protein, which is a lysine acetyltransferase responsible for acetylating targets including histones H3 and H4, transcription factor NF-κB, ATM kinase, and p53 tumor suppressor. We had previously shown that breast, lung, and pancreatic cancer cells treated with the chemotherapeutic drug paclitaxel and overexpressing Tip60 showed small but significant reductions in proliferation compared to paclitaxel treatment alone. We investigated whether the subcellular localization of Tip60 was necessary for …

Open Access Challenge, Amy Dailey, Janelle Wertzberger

Open Access Week at Gettysburg College

This class activity is designed to help health sciences students understand challenges to accessing public health information in a variety of settings. The exercise was created for students in Prof. Dailey’s Global Health class (HS 322) at Gettysburg College in Fall 2015.

The activity, as well as notes for instructors considering using this exercise, are both shared here.

Think Inside The Blocks: Health Literacy Outreach To Disadvantaged People In Their Own Environment, Nancy Patterson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

This bilingual (Spanish/English) poster highlights six creative health literacy outreach projects that have proven to be successful in increasing participation in health-related events in their communities and in boosting health literacy in the process.

For example, in Georgetown, South Carolina, a beauty salon owner, concerned about her clients’ frequent frustration with trying to decipher medical information, partners with her local public library and is grant funded to provide a Wellness Workstation in her salon. Years later, her clients research health information between services using the workstation, evening health literacy classes are regularly conducted for community members and continued funding has …

Health Literacy 101: Increasing Literacy Reduces Health Disparities, Nancy Patterson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), health disparities are “preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations”. The American Medical Association (AMA) has identified literacy as the number one social determinant of an individual’s health, above education, income and race.

Learn about health literacy as a tool in the fight against health disparities from this poster as well as methods of effective health communication between health information providers and information seekers. Self-advocacy, plain language cultural competence, and the teach-back technique are …

Initial Validation Of A Novel Method Of Presurgical Language Localization Through Functional Connectivity (Fcmri), Stephanie M. Noble, Dustin Scheinost, Susan Y. Bookheimer, Patricia Walshaw, R Todd Constable, Christopher F. Benjamin

Yale Day of Data

OBJECTIVE: Neurosurgery is potentially curative in chronic epilepsy but can only be offered to patients if the surgical risk to language is known. Clinical functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an ideal, noninvasive method for localizing language cortex yet remains to be validated for this purpose. We have recently presented a novel method for localizing language cortex. Here we present a preliminary evaluation of this method’s validity. We hypothesized language regions identified using this novel method would demonstrate stronger functional connectivity than randomly generated set of proximal networks. METHOD: fMRI data were collected from sixteen temporal lobe patients …

A Machine Learning Approach To Post-Market Surveillance Of Medical Devices, Jonathan Bates, Shu-Xia Li, Craig Parzynski, Ronald Coifman, Harlan Krumholz, Joseph Ross

Yale Day of Data

Post-market surveillance is a collection of processes and activities used by product manufacturers and regulators, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to monitor the safety and effectiveness of medical devices once they are available for use “on the market”. These activities are designed to generate information to identify poorly performing devices and other safety problems, accurately characterize real-world device performance and clinical outcomes, and facilitate the development of new devices, or new uses for existing devices. Typically, a device is monitored by comparing adverse events in the exposed population to a matched unexposed population. This research considers …

Who Is Making Lifestyle Changes Due To Preventive Health Care Information? A 10 Year Comparison Study, Joseph D. Cangelosi Jr., David Kim, Edward Ranelli

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

This paper sought to describe from a set of 6 demographic and 13 lifestyle change variables the person who is significantly and positively impacted by preventive health care information (PHCI). Based on past research, six hypotheses were developed. Three of the six hypotheses were accepted. In addition, there were significant relationships for each of the six demographic variables with at least one of the lifestyle change variables. Those who are seeking and are positively impacted by PHCI are better educated, female, and (depending upon the lifestyle change variable in question) fall into a definite age category. There is partial support …

All In Or A` La Carte: Preferences Of Medical Tourists Towards Value Of Co-Creation, Michael Dotson, Jennifer Henson Nevins, Bonnie S. Guy

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Patients Beyond Borders (2014) defines a medical tourist as anyone who travels across international borders for the purpose of receiving nonemergency medical care. It has been estimated that the market size in USD ranges from 38.5 to 55 billion based upon eleven million cross-border patients worldwide spending an average of 3,500 – to 5,000 USD per visit. Further, Patients Beyond Borders suggests that the top Medical tourism destinations are Costa Rica, India, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United States.

Collecting And Acquiring In Earnest (The 14th Annual Health Sciences Lively Lunch), Wendy Bahnsen, Yumin Jiang, Ramune K. Kubilius, Emma O'Hagan, Andrea Twiss-Brooks

Charleston Library Conference

In this year's sponsored but no holds barred lunch, host Wendy Bahnsen (substituting for colleague Nicole Gallo) offered a brief greeting, and Ramune Kubilius provided the traditional “year in review” synopsis of developments since the last Charleston Conference. Panelists then shared insights and led discussion on earnest attempts to meet users’ information needs and satisfy administrations’ budget and other expectations. No matter how information has become repackaged, two formats remain important in health sciences communication: books and journals (articles). Speakers focused on library experiments with these formats. Is PDA a solution? Bahnsen contributed highlights and findings from a survey by …

A Perspective On Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices: Message Development, Media Selection, Medication Adherence And Health Literacy, Yvette L. Bonaparte

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

According to the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy issued in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, health literacy is a multi-faceted concept and has importance for multiple sectors. Stakeholders typically involved in the health literacy discussion include government, public health officials, practitioners and those concerned with health promotion (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2010). In addition to these stakeholders, there is the opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry to be an active participant in the health literacy discussion.

Given the variation in health literacy levels among the U.S. population and the impact of …

Fluorescein Dye For Exploring Anti-Cancer Drug Dissolution Kinetics, Connor Davis, Tonglei Li, Wei Gao

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Nanocrystalline formulations of anti-tumor drugs have been shown to improve desirable characteristics as well as increase the efficacy of delivery. However, the improvements seen are not strong enough to eradicate tumors and there exists a need to better understand how the drug particles move about and release in the body. The use of fluorophores incorporated into substrates allows for highly sensitive and resolute imaging in the body without the need for radioisotopes. This research aims to utilize quenching characteristics of fluorescein in order to provide pharmacokinetic information to aid in the improvement of nanoparticulate delivery formulations. Nanocrystal formulations of paclitaxel …

The Effects Of Vagus Nerve Stimulation On Neuroinflammation In Epilepsy, Elizabeth A. St. Clair, Gabriel O Albors, Pedro Irazoqui Dr., Amy Brewster

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by chronic, unexplainable seizures. Recurring epileptic seizures are associated with long-term structural damage and cognitive deficits, and can even lead to sudden, unexplainable death. Approximately 30% of epilepsy cases are not responsive to medication. Epileptic seizures often induce inflammation in the brain and may increase the frequency of future seizures, resulting in a detrimental cycle. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a non-pharmaceutical treatment method for epilepsy that has been shown to reduce inflammation in peripheral pathways. The role of VNS in the modulation of neuroinflammation has yet to be demonstrated experimentally. To explore this, …