Annual Pub 2023 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 21
SUMMER 2023 MAGAZINE
orthopaedic/sports injury, traumatic brain
injury, and diabetes. Two of the students did
lab-based projects with stem cell research
and one student did a community-based
project with the Southern Nevada Health
District.
Some of the notable research experiences
for the class of 2025 included Jay Babu,
who was accepted into the Society of
Interventional Radiology Summer Medical
Internship program at the Medical College
of Wisconsin. His research aimed to educate
interventional radiologists intraoperatively
on device costs by creating device lists with
associated costs to determine if this would
change the practice patterns and reduce
overall costs in interventional radiology
procedures.
P H O T O : J O S H H A W K I N S / U N LV
Richard Wang was accepted into Roswell
Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s
Summer Research Experience Program
in Oncology. This program provided an
immersion in cancer science to learn realworld applications of oncology research.
The primary purpose of his research
project was to identify whether the use
of adaptive Gamma Knife Radiosurgery
(GKRS) served as an effective treatment for
metastatic brain tumors while causing fewer
adverse effects compared to non-adaptive
hypofractionated GKRS. The outcomes of
his research were presented at the 2023
Radiosurgery Society Scienti昀c meeting
in March.
Samuel Cohler worked in the school of
medicine’s surgery department for his
project, the purpose of which was to identify
which communities in the Southwest United
States may be at an increased risk for burn
injuries. Specifically, he examined the
relationship between socioeconomic status
and burn injuries in this region. Samuel will
present his 昀ndings at the 2023 American
Burn Association Annual Meeting.
“Accepting our medical students into
these highly competitive national research
internship programs,” Dr. Netski says,
“demonstrates the caliber of students
we admit to the Kirk Kerkorian School of
Medicine at UNLV.”
For all school of medicine classes, 2022
was a productive year in which 74 students
had poster presentations at local, regional,
national, and international conferences.
Additionally, students published 29 research
articles including case reports, full-length
research articles, and systematic reviews.
Another high point for student research was
the 3rd Annual Medical Student Symposium
held in September 2022. The symposium,
organized by the Medical Student Research
Society, had 61 student research posters
and five podium presentations. The top
three podium presentations were awarded
cash prizes. The myriad of topics included
“Prehospital tourniquet conversion saves
limbs in rural and remote medicine,” “A
genetic liability for severe COVID-19
in Alzheimer’s disease,” “The growing
age technology: Touch screen devices
effect on gross motor and fine motor
development in children,” and “Palliative
facial reconstruction for the management
of head and neck cancer: Is it futile?=
“These research and scholarship outcomes
are a testament to the innovation and
expertise of our faculty and students at
UNLV,” says Dr. Netski. “These efforts will
continue to support the mission of UNLV
and our Carnegie R1 designation well into
the future.”
As student research continues to build on
its successes of the past year, many exciting
things are planned for the remainder of
2023. The 4th Annual Research Symposium
will take place this fall and it will be the
昀rst held in the new Kirk Kerkorian Medical
Education Building. They are also working to
create a research seminar series featuring
national experts in biomedical science
and medical education research that will
be invited to Las Vegas to present the
outcomes of their research and potentially
foster new research collaborations.
Above all, though, the students will continue
to engage in the scholarly activities that help
to 昀ll the knowledge gaps in medicine and
improve the health of all Nevada residents.
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