Shout Outs
By Office of the President | Apr 16, 2024
Downstate Represented at the Annual Dermatology Conference
Daniel Siegel, M.D., Clinical Professor of Dermatology, covered Actinic Keratosis at the International
Dermatology Outcome Measures 11th Annual Meeting, held in Washington, D.C.
Championing Healthcare Equity and Prostate Cancer Awareness
To the Urology Department’s vice chair and associate dean for clinical affairs, Brian McNeil, M.D., MBA, FACS, whose op-ed about healthcare equity and addressing prostate cancer was published in the Amsterdam News. Thank you, Dr. McNeil, for reminding us about
the importance of these critical healthcare topics that primarily affect underserved
communities.
New Employee Orientation
We join the Department of Human Resources in welcoming the most recent group of employees to complete the New Employee Orientation. Welcome, everyone, and we wish you success here at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University.
Student Employee Appreciation Week
The Student Center celebrated Student Employee Appreciation Week by displaying a banner and bulletin board to recognize the hard work of our student employees. They help keep the Student Center running smoothly by facilitating various events throughout the year. These great folks were honored with a thank-you dinner to acknowledge some of the most meaningful achievements made possible by our student employees. Academic & Student Affairs Vice President Jeffrey Putman, Ed.D., and Financial Aid Director Farah Burnett, MS, expressed their gratitude and offered words of encouragement. Participants received thank-you bags filled with snacks and fun items as tokens of appreciation.
Surgery Resident Presents on Genomics and Disparities at Society of Surgical Oncology Conference
Cristina Solis, M.D., Research Fellow and Surgical Resident, presented her work with mentor Jose Jaime Alberty-Oller, M.D., Kings County Comprehensive Breast Center director, at the 2024 Society of Surgical
Oncological Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia. Her study focused on how genomic
testing is a valuable tool in predicting which breast cancer patients benefit from
neoadjuvant chemotherapy and which patients will be able to achieve a response to
chemotherapy.
iNSPIRe Represented at the Academic Surgical Congress with Sixteen Abstracts
At the 19th Annual Academic Surgical Congress held during February in Washington DC, there was a tremendous amount of participation
and representation from SUNY Downstate’s Department of Surgery’s iNSPIRe initiative. Sixteen abstracts were accepted for posters and oral presentations.
Among those representing the Department was Chair of Surgery Panos Kougias, M.D., MSc, FACS, and Director of Clinical and Health Services Research Sherene Sharath, Ph.D., MPH. Senior authors and mentors for these studies included Drs. Kougias and Sharath, Ernest Barthélemy, M.D., MPH, MA. Francisca Velcek, M.D. served as project mentor for the other submissions presented by trainees.
Residents representing the Department included Tomas Daviu-Molinari, M.D., Marla Sacks, M.D., and Sanjana Balachandra, M.D. (who is currently completing a research fellowship at the University of Alabama). Additionally,
the Department was well-represented by students from the SUNY Downstate College of
Medicine and School of Public Health, who are aspiring surgeons and members of the
iNSPIRe program, including Tobi Somorin, Lindsay Haefner, Jacob Bamberger, Moyouri Bhattacharjee, Tadeusz Wroblewski,
Favour Ononogbu-Uche, and Grace Shadid.