GME Scholarly Exchange Day Honors Outstanding Research

Recipients of Scholarly Exchange Day Research Awards are as follows:

Milind Chaudhari, MD, PhD
Internal medicine/preventive medicine resident
Basic science award winner
“The Effects of Experimental Sleep Apnea on Cardiac and Respiratory Functions in 6 and 18 Month Old Dystrophic (mdx) Mice”
Mentor: Gaspar A. Farkas, PhD, associate professor of exercise and nutrition sciences

Asma Mursleen, MD
Internal medicine resident
Clinical research award winner
“Most Common Sources of Health Information and Most Common Topics of Interest for Primary Care Clinic Patients”
Mentor: Nitu Kataria, MD, assistant professor of medicine

Arthur Chang, MD
Generalist scholar
Educational research award winner
“Kawasaki Disease in Western New York”
Mentor: Mark D. Hicar, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics

Ashish Arora, MD
Neurology resident
Quality Improvement award winner
“Increasing Yield of CSF Cytology and Flow Cytometry Analysis (FCA) for Detection of CNS Malignancies”
Mentors: Ping Li, MD, clinical assistant professor of neurology, and Nan Zhang, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences

Other presenters were:

Basic research

• Neil Parikh, MBBS, pediatric allergy/immunology fellowship
  “Galectin-1 Suppresses Methamphetamine-Induced Neuroinflammation in Human Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells: Neuroprotective Role in Maintaining Blood Brain Barrier Integrity”
• George Ventro, MD, surgery resident
  “The Effect of Omegaven on Proinflammatory Cytokine Signaling”

Clinical research

• Mohamed Abdel-Aal Ahmed, MD, internal medicine chief resident
  “Alcohol and Mortality Rates in PVD”
• Reham Abdou, MD, pediatric gastroenterology fellow
  “Pediatric Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and its Association with Serum Acute Phase Reactants”
• Eliane Abou-Jaoude, MD, internal medicine chief resident
  “The Effect of an Influenza Fact Sheet on the Acceptance and Perceptions of Influenza Vaccination in a Single Ambulatory Primary Care Center”
• Ata Afshar, MD, cardiothoracic anesthesiology fellow
  “The Predictive Value of the Epicardial Adipose Tissue Thickness in the Rate of Expansion of the Ascending Aorta”
• Nischala Ammannagari, MD, hematology/oncology fellow
  “Factors Predicting Clinical Outcome of Induction Hypomethylating Agents in Older Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia”
• Peter Davidow, DDS, dentistry
  “Dental Screening Prior to Renal Transplantation: A Retrospective Analysis”
• Robert Dorman, MD, surgery resident
  “Utility of Routine Pelvic X-Ray Imaging in Pediatric Blunt Trauma”
• Jeanette Epstein, MD, generalist scholar
  “Evaluation of Multi-Disciplinary Intervention on Body Mass Index Trajectory in Youth with Obesity”
• Asif Fakhri, MD, nuclear medicine resident
  “Detection of White Matter Small Vessel Disease by Cerebral Perfusion SPECT and MRI”
• Nadine Haykal, MD, MPH, otolaryngology resident
  “Single Center Experience with Ultrasound-Guided Drainage of Pediatric Head and Neck Lesions”
• Tieying Hou, MD, PhD, pathology resident
  “Clinical Manifestations and Histopathologic Features of 279 Patients With Statin-Induced Myopathy”
• Upasana Kochhar, MD, generalist scholar
  “Weight Perception and Obesity Management in African-American Patients in a Primary Care Setting”
• Amita Krishnan, MD, internal medicine chief resident
  “Improving OSA Screening in Hypertensive Patients Using the STOP-BANG Questionnaire in Primary Care Clinic”
• Pranay Kumar Reddy Loka, MD, rural family medicine resident
  “ACEI’s Are More Effective Than ARB’s for Reducing All-Cause Mortality When Used to Treat Appropriate Chronic Medical Conditions”
• Brian MacDonald, MD, PhD, generalist scholar
  “Weight Change in an Urban Adult Primary Care Population”
• Rutika Mehta, MD, MPH, hematology/oncology fellow
  “A Survey of Outpatient Chemotherapy Dosing Practices Among Obese Patients in a Tertiary Care Cancer Center: Identification of Barriers and Implementation of Full Weight-Based Dosing”
• Rafeh Naqash, MBBS, internal medicine Catholic Health System resident
  “Can Gastrointestinal Involvement at the Diagnosis of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) be a Predictor of Higher Mortality in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Patients?”
• Hibbut-Ur-Rauf Naseem, MD, pediatric surgery fellow
  “Quality Improvement Process Lowers Effective Radiation Dosage in Pediatric Trauma Imaging”
• Michael O’Brien, MD, emergency medicine chief resident
  “Ultrasound Identification of Successful Endotracheal Tube Placement by Paramedics and Residents”
• Kara Powalski, MD, generalist scholar
  “Appropriate Testing and Treatment of Pharyngitis in Children: A Quality Improvement Project”
• Natdanai Punnanithinont, MD, MPH, internal medicine/preventive medicine resident
  “A Multidisciplinary Checklist for Management of Acute Decompensated Heart Failure: A Quality Improvement Initiative”
• Shiva Rahimi-Shahmirzadi, MD, nuclear medicine resident
  “Body Mass Index Affects Cerebral Perfusion in Memory Impairment”
• Paul Rodrigue, MD, nuclear medicine chief resident
  “Factors Associated With Response to Therapy in Esophageal Adenocarcinoma”
• Parteet Sandhu, MD, internal medicine resident
  “Improving the Use of ASCVD Risk Calculator to Assess the 10-Year Risk of Cardiovascular Disease for Patients in the Primary Care Clinic”
• Kenneth Schmidt, MD, pediatrics resident
  “Prevalence of Clostridium Difficile Infection in Children Undergoing Colonoscopy”
• Ahmad Sharif-Tabrizi, MD, nuclear medicine resident
  “Brain Tumor Response to Stereotactic Radiosurgery Revealed on FDG-PET/CT”
• Amandeep Singh, MBBS, family medicine (rural) resident
  “In Patients with Dyslipidemia Should Statins be Avoided in Patients with Unexplained Elevation in Transaminase Levels to Avoid Hepatotoxicity”
• Taryn Spencer, MD, internal medicine resident
  “Assessing the Relationship of Spirituality and Religion to Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus”
• Asma Tariq, MD, internal medicine resident
  “Improving COPD Care: A Resident-Led Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative in a Teaching Outpatient Clinic”
• Carson Williams, MD, otolaryngology resident
  “Liposomal Bupivacaine Use in Routine Thyroidectomy”

Educational research

• Sarah Belliotti, MD, generalist scholar
  “Identifying Risk of Gynecologic Malignancy in Women With a Prior Hematologic Malignancy”
• Danielle Hirsch, MD, MPH, pediatric emergency medicine fellow
  “Adverse Reactions During Procedural Sedation in Children with Long Bone Fractures — Does BMI Matter?”
• Jeffrey Silpe, MD, surgery resident
  “Residents as Teachers and Leaders: A Five-Year Experience With a Resident-Developed and Resident-Run Surgery Intern Boot Camp”

Other research

• Sashank Kaushik, MD, clinical informatics fellow
  “ED Utilization Patterns of Super-Utilizers Across Multiple Independent Healthcare Systems”
• Joseph Kirti, MD, hospice and palliative medicine fellow
  “Transcendentalism in Medicine Rounds: Exploring and Stimulating the Humanism within Ourselves”
• Remek Kocz, MD, pediatric anesthesiology fellow
  “No Time to Wait: A Quality Improvement Project About the Knowledge, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Heat Illness/Stroke and Malignant Hyperthermia”
• Paul Washburn, MD, internal medicine/preventive medicine resident
  “Multiple Reference Point Informed Probability Theory (MRPIP): The Modern Comorbid Disease Recovery Initiation”

Scholarly Exchange Day provides participants an opportunity to deliver poster presentations and interact with other researchers and the school’s alumni.

It is held each year in conjunction with the UB Medical Alumni Association’s Spring Clinical Day.