Shout-Outs
By Office of the President | Jan 10, 2023
New Study on Vaccination Attitudes
David R. Kaufman, Ph.D., SOHP/Health Informatics clinical associate professor, is the final author of “Cognitive and Cultural Factors that Affect General Vaccination and COVID-19 Vaccination Attitudes,” published in a special edition of the MDPI open-access journal Vaccines. Dr. Kaufman and a team of researchers from the NIH, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Arizona examined vital factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy specifically.
Dr. Kaufman and his team found that hesitancy towards general vaccination were most affected by attitudes towards science and public health trust and, to a lesser degree, by information literacy, science literacy, and religiosity. In contrast, the strongest predictor shaping positive attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination was public health trust, while science literacy had no significant impact. You can view the complete study here.
The Bonehead Podcast
Medical Students Joydeep Baidya and Patrick Nian are the founders and producers of The Bonehead Podcast, a new social media platform covering the latest academic contributions to orthopedic surgery. Bonehead’s December 21 podcast, “The Intersection of Orthopedic and Neurosurgical Spine,” was the first in a new series featuring conversations with experts, with guests Jad Bou Monsef, M.D., Orthopedic Surgery assistant professor and spine surgeon, and Ernest J. Barthélemy, M.D., MPH, MA, Neurosurgery chief and assistant professor. You can check out the podcast here.
A New Med “Tweetorial” to De-Stigmatize “Monkeypox” Virus
College of Medicine student Salvatore Volpe was one of several medical student authors who developed “Monkeypox,” a med “Tweetorial” for the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians (NYACP) aimed at raising awareness and decreasing stigma about the virus.
Last November, the World Health Organization formally recommended changing the name of this virus to “mpox” to remove the negativity associated with it. Both terms will be used interchangeably for one year before the “monkeypox” name is phased out.
Downstate Students Present at Inaugural World Congress of Robotic Surgery
Medical students Lakshay Khosla and Vivian To
COM students Alex Wang, Vivian To, and Lakshay Khosla shared their presentation, “The Development of a Quantitative Assessment Tool for Surgical Resident Evaluation,” at the inaugural World Congress of Robotic Surgery held at Mount Sinai in New York City, which was sponsored by the Society of Urologic Robotic Surgeons. Bethany Desroches, M.D., Urology assistant professor, also represented Downstate.
International Publication Launched
Salvador Dura-Bernal, Ph.D., Physiology & Pharmacology assistant professor, was a featured moderator for the online launch of The Risks and Challenges of Neurotechnologies for Human Rights, a new publication co-edited by Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, UNESCO, and Downstate that aims to promote a public debate on the challenges posed by the development of emerging neurotechnologies and to create an international framework for their governance.
Diabetes Awareness Month
To recognize American Diabetes Month, Sarah Marshall, DNP, RNC, Center for Community Health Promotion and Wellness patient/community educator; Kathleen Bratby, EdD, RN, College of Nursing clinical associate professor; Michelle Uzhiyekachi, RN, a student in the Advanced Certificate in Nursing Education Program, and Vicente Marshall, volunteer, staffed an information table and provided a diabetes risk assessment table in Sodexo Court.
Thanks to Marcia Gordon, Sodexo manager, for supporting this and many other health awareness campaigns.
Tags: Shout Outs