Newsletter - Spring 2016

Alpha Epsilon Delta Premedical Honor Society

Johns Hopkins University

Maryland Alpha Chapter

Spring 2016 Newsletter

Table of Contents Page 2 Community Service

Page 3 Undergraduate & Medical Student Mentoring

Page 4 Conversations in Medicine Symposium

Page 6 Programming Timeline 2015-2016

Page 8 Profiles: Graduating members

Page 11 Alumni Updates

Our Mission Alpha Epsilon Delta is the National Health Pre-Professional Honor Society dedicated to the encouragement and recognition of excellence in pre-professional health scholarship. Our Society welcomes all students engaged in the pursuit of a professional development, provides a forum for students with common interests, and extends a program of service to benefit the college/university community.

2015-2016 Executive Board President Emily Toler** Community Service Julian Hurtado Vice-President Christina Morello Nicita Mehta* Secretary Bridget Nucum CiM Symposium Yi Shao** Treasurer Rohil Malpani Recruitment Pankhuri Jha Webmaster Neil Rens* Mentoring Josh Novack* Publicity Adarsha Malla* Jon Hochstein* Katherine Lam*

We would like to thank our advisors, Dr. David Verrier & Dr. Stephen Yang, the Pre-Professional Advising Office, The Johns Hopkins Alumni Association, and The Parents’ Fund for their generous support. ** Editors-in-Chief *Contributed to this Newsletter

Community Service

As aspiring physicians, we are, above all, motivated by a heartfelt concern for the quality of individual lives. AED’s community service program empowers students to make a difference in the communities around them.

This is particularly relevant to us as Hopkins student living in a community plagued with homelessness, malnourishment, and poverty. Some of AED’s community service programs this year have included Project PLASE (pictured above), an outreach program through which AED volunteers travel to a nearby homeless shelter and educate residents about healthy living and nutritional practices, Arts for Hearts, a student-led health fair with the goal of reducing the incidence of stroke through targeted educational and awareness programming, and KKI (pictured below), a School of Medicine initiative through which student volunteers interact with and entertain children suffering from physical and developmental disabilities at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Above: AED members present HIV/AIDS information to PLASE residents. Right: Members enjoy their visit to the Recreation & Rehabilitation Playroom at KKI

Mentoring AED's Undergraduate Mentoring Program is an essential part of premedical advising at Hopkins and a critical aspect of how AED interacts with the broader premedical community. By connecting our experienced members with JHU premeds, the program fosters a collaborative pre-medical environment on campus where our mentors can pass their knowledge and connections. Through the program, mentees can have their questions answered without a formal trip to the Pre-Professional Advising Office and can gain insights from peers that are in the middle of a process that the mentees are only just starting.

“The mentoring program has helped me to establish a stable foundation in my freshman year to grow from. It has made me more confident in myself and has encouraged me to continue pursuing medicine. In addition, the mentoring program allows me to feel secure and in control of my life whenever it gets hectic.” – Bryan Larin, Class of 2020

Every medical student has a unique story to tell. For undergraduate pre-medical students, connecting with current medical students in our Medical Student Mentoring Program is a great way to learn from each medical student’s experience and better discern his or her vocation in medicine.

Above: AED members share their pre-med experiences with current freshmen and sophomores over refreshments Right: Experienced members E. Toler and J. Novak talk about what to expect during the first year of medical school with JHU & AED alum K. Tran

Conversations in Medicine Symposium

2/11/16 Dr. Leana Wen Baltimore City Health Commissioner

What Does It Mean to be a Modern Doctor? Addressing the social determinants of health

Our theme this year was "The Modern Doctor." Our speakers have risen to the challenges of the changing medical culture and have demonstrated the breadth of innovation, compassion, and diverse expertise required of physicians working in the United States and abroad.

Sponsored by the Parents’ Fund

2/18/16 Dr. Catherine DeAngelis Professor & Vice Dean of Faculty at JHSOM

Former Chief Editor of JAMA

4/5/16 Dr. Emily Oster Associate Professor of Economics,

Brown University

3/7/16 Dr. Cindy Sears JHSOM Professor of Medicine, Oncology, Molecular Microbiology, & Immunology

AED Programming Timeline

“What I Wish I Knew” Pre-Med Panel (September 2015)

AED collaborated with the Women’s Pre-Health Leadership Society to host a panel for freshmen and sophomore pre-med students. Members shared their experiences of being pre-med at JHU and answered questions from the audience about a range of topics including research, studying abroad, and gap years.

Opening Symposium for the Medicine, Science, and Humanities Major (September 2015) AED worked with the new MSH major to host Dr. Thomas Duffy, Director

“Take the Fight” Information Session (October 2015)

of the Program for the Humanities in Medicine, Yale University SOM. Dr. Duffy presented “Portrait of an Illness,” in which he demonstrated how the humanities are a vital part of caring for patients and of physicians' caring for themselves. The event concluded with a panel discussion on the interface between humanities, science, and medicine.

AED hosted several recruiters from “Take the Fight” for an information session about their increasingly popular fellowship program, in which students get trained to fight alongside cancer patients.

Medical School Admissions Workshop: A View from the Other Side of the Table (November 2015)

Medical Skills Training Workshop (November 2015)

AED collaborated with the Pre-Professional Office to host Dr. Robert Witzburg, Associate Dean and Director of Admissions, Boston University SOM. In this interactive session, students discussed the types of information admissions committees consider, and broke up into small groups to review individual cases.

Members were taught a variety of medical skills from the Hopkins Emergency Response Organization (HERO), including CPR, airway maintenance, and measuring blood pressure.

Free Practice MCAT (December 2015) AED hosted a free practice MCAT exam for all interested undergraduate students. It was a great opportunity, especially for those preparing to take the exam over the winter break.

Student-Physician Networking Event (March 2016)

AED worked with a student intern from the Baltimore City Medical Society to host a networking dinner with several of their physicians. The event was open to all undergraduates and served as a great platform for students to ask questions and hear about a variety of specialties.

When asked about his experience in the Biomedical Engineering program at Hopkins, Rens is quick to express his appreciation: “BME at Hopkins has been an excellent fit for me. The program enables students to explore liberally because of the way the curriculum is structured and because of the depth and breadth of the research areas.” Rens and his design team were recently named finalists in the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition for their creation of a system capable of monitoring key vital measures such as blood oxygen levels and respiratory rate and diagnosing various health conditions. “The competition challenges entrants to build a device that patients can use to diagnose themselves. It has to weigh less than five pounds, continuously monitor vital signs, and diagnose twelve conditions without any assistance from a medical professional. Our team’s approach involves a combination of hardware to gather data and algorithms to interpret those data. After putting on the vital signs monitoring unit, the user enters demographic and symptom information. Based on preliminary results, our system prompts the user for more information,” Rens explained.

Profiles: Graduating Members

Neil Rens From designing a self-contained medical diagnostics system to serving as a PILOT Core leader and student-EMR on HERO to being a MERIT mentor and Alumni Student Ambassador, Neil Rens has filled numerous roles during his time at Hopkins. As a graduating senior majoring in biomedical engineering, Neil will be completing a master’s degree next year after which he will attend either Harvard or Stanford Medical School.

While his accomplishments may be lengthy and impressive to say the least, Rens is quick to mention that his pre-medical journey at Hopkins would not have been the same without AED. “AED has been a great venue for me to connect with other premeds. This became especially helpful when I was immersed in the application process and was able to reach out to people who had applied in the cycle before mine.”

After graduation, Neil will pursue a masters in Health Economics, Policy and Law at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands on a Fulbright Scholarship. Rens explains that in spite of already being accepted to both Harvard and Stanford medical schools, he chose to take a gap year in order to develop his other interests: “Although I am committed to treating patients, I am also interested in health policy and medical technology because of their potential to impact orders of magnitude more people than I could ever treat. Conversations with mentors convinced me that it would be valuable to explore these interests before beginning my medical training,” Rens said.

For underclassmen choosing between taking a gap year and going straight to medical school, Rens believes that there are two main reasons for taking a gap year: 1. To strengthen your medical school application and 2. To broaden your experience before medical school.

By Manish Paranjpe

Emily Toler

In addition to providing mentorship that enabled her to decide her post-graduation plans, one of the largest strengths of AED, according to Toler, are the varied opportunities for community service. “AED provides incredible opportunities for community service and leadership, both of which help members grow personally as well as become stronger medical school applicants. The chance to get out and interact with members of the Baltimore community has been one of my favorite parts of being an AED member,” Toler said. She later added that Project PLASE was her favorite activity, describing the residents as warm and welcoming and “eager to enter into a discussion with us about health and wellness.” In addition to serving as president of AED, Toler conducts research at the Hanes Lab in the Center for Nanomedicine at JHMI. She studies the impact of bacterial vaginosis on the structural and barrier properties of human cervicovaginal mucus, specifically its role in susceptibility to HIV infection. Her involvement in research has helped her cultivate a sense of scientific curiosity and develop critical reasoning skills. Toler also is a member of the Alpha Phi Omega community service fraternity, plays the flute in the JHU Wind Ensemble, and works as a teaching assistant for Organic Chemistry Lab. About being a TA, Toler says, “It’s been one of my most rewarding experiences as an undergrad. I enjoy spending time with the same group of students over an entire semester and getting to know them and see how they grow and improve.”

Emily Toler served as the president of AED for the 2015-2016 school year. Following graduation as a Molecular and Cellular Biology major, Toler will be spending one gap year working in Baltimore to expand her clinical experiences and receive more exposure to medicine before applying to medical school. As president and leader of AED, Toler oversaw the organization programming, recruitment, and general body meetings on campus this year. “I’ve particularly enjoyed being a part of the executive board and getting the chance to work closely with other AED members in planning various programs and projects,” Toler said in an interview with AED. When asked to evaluate the success of AED this year, Toler was quick to explain how the society has worked to expand its operations in order to reach more premedical students on campus. “I’ve taken great pride seeing the way AED has grown over the past few years that I’ve been a member. This year we did a great job of expanding our presence on campus, particularly through collaborating with other groups to host more programs, such as the Medical School Admissions Workshop with the Pre-Prof. Office, and the training workshop with HERO. We also did an excellent job expanding our undergraduate mentoring program and getting the word out about AED recruitment this year,” Toler said. Moving forward, Toler would like to see more inter-group mentoring and interaction, citing AED’s informal dinner this semester as a way to foster group bonding and networking. After graduation, Toler will be working in Baltimore while applying to medical school. Toler decided to take a gap year after receiving the guidance of past AED members. “Initially I did not know if I wanted to take a gap year, but speaking with older AED members as well as medical students at our networking events certainly helped me reach that decision. Part of my reasoning for taking a gap year was that I transferred to Hopkins as a sophomore. I didn’t feel like spending only two years at Hopkins was enough before applying,” Toler explained.

Rohil Malpani Senior Biomedical Engineering student Rohil Malpani knew he wanted to become a doctor when he first came to Hopkins from Calcutta, India. What he did not know was that over the course of his four years, he would serve as the treasurer for AED, conduct epigenetics research in the laboratory of Dr. Winston Timp, volunteer at the Endoscopy Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital for the past year, and serve as Pledge Instructor and Academic Chair for Theta Tau, the co-ed engineering fraternity on campus. Off campus, Malpani conducted research in Singapore and has volunteered extensively in Calcutta, India. After graduating, Malpani will begin medical school at the Yale University School of Medicine. Malpani credits AED with allowing him to meet like-minded students on campus. “AED was instrumental in helping me meet a group of motivated pre-medical students on campus. Through AED, I found a couple of mentors that aided me in fulfilling my potential at Hopkins and put me in touch with opportunities I would not have otherwise come across. In addition, meeting current medical students and doctors through panels and discussion forums helped me get a more thorough idea of the medical profession and what it entails. Finally, having served as the Treasurer for two years allowed me to have a say in the weekly activities of AED and manage a position of responsibility.” Malpani has confidence that the BME curriculum at Hopkins has prepared him to enter Yale medical school in the fall, “exceeding all his expectations.” The biomedical engineering curriculum, Malpani notes, is particularly well-suited for premedical students because it “seamlessly integrates with the premedical requirements” such as biochemistry and organic chemistry and physics.

Furthermore being surrounded by exceptional peers in the program gave him the inspiration and motivation required to pursue medicine. Malpani wishes, however, that the BME department would better serve students wishing to get industry jobs after graduation. In addition to his involvement in AED, Malpani is a research assistant in the biomedical engineering lab of Dr. Winston Timp. After joining the lab in his junior year, Malpani began working on an epigenetics project to complement his Cell and Tissue Engineering focus area. “In the beginning, I worked on ATAC-seq (a next generation sequencing technique), optimizing the technique and applying it in different situations and since then I've moved on to working on EMSA (Electrophoretic mobility shift assay) gels. I've learned a lot of lab techniques for use in future research endeavors and also got to work on interesting projects!” Malpani said.

Alumni Updates “I am a first year at University of Maryland School of Medicine. The past 7 months have made me realize that the experiences I had while I was a member of JHU's chapter of AED gave me a good preview of all the exciting opportunities that exist in medical school. For example, I have continued to participate in community service by mentoring at Baltimore City schools and have utilized the skills I gained through volunteering with AED. In part because of my enjoyment for interacting with members of the community, I am currently interested in the field of Emergency Medicine, and I will be conducting research in that field this summer.”

Katherine Tran Molecular & Cellular Biology & Public Health, 2015

"I've recently finished the final courses of my second year of medical school at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and I'm happy to say that I've thoroughly enjoyed my experience so far. My main interests are plastic and reconstructive surgery, pediatric surgery, and hematology/oncology; I'm fortunate to have fabulous mentors who, along with my advisers, are greatly helping me prepare for Step 1 and beyond. As a JHU AED alumnus, I would like to encourage the current members to engage, as best as possible, in the opportunities that AED has to offer; the service and mentoring opportunities alone will prove invaluable to your success with your peers and patients.“

Zayne Washington

Behavioral Biology, 2013

Alumni Updates

“I am currently finishing up my fourth year of medical school at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. One of my favorite things about USC has been the opportunity to rotate at the Los Angeles County Hospital, one of the largest public hospitals in the nation. In addition to meeting many other aspiring pre-meds, being a part of AED allowed me to have the opportunity to develop leadership skills and work on projects such as Conversations in Medicine. After graduation, I will be going to Anesthesia residency at Stanford University starting in July.” d

Alexandra Ruan Public Health & History of Science, 2012

“I graduated from Hopkins undergrad with a degree in Neuroscience in 2011. I spent my gap year working full-time as a research assistant at the University of Maryland and getting a Masters in Biotechnology from Hopkins. I am currently finishing up my last year at Virginia Tech Carilion SOM, where I've had the opportunity to be at a relatively new school with a small class size in Roanoke, VA. This summer, in addition to getting married, I

will be starting my residency training in Neurosurgery at Georgetown University in DC with the eventual goal of becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon. As a member and officer of AED, I was able to meet and network with other students who shared the same ambition and passion that I had -- most of whom I still keep in touch with -- as well as faculty who I learned a great deal from and helped me through the pre-med process.” s

Ehsan Dowlati Neuroscience, 2011

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