Frawley, Calkins Fellowship Awardees Honored

The trainee receiving support from the Thomas F. Frawley, MD, Residency Research Fellowship Fund is:

Hassan A. Khan, MD
Cardiovascular disease fellow
Project Title: “The Relationship Between Panic Attack Symptoms and Atrial Fibrillation Episode”

Honorable mentions went to:

Dharmesh Gopalakrishnan, MD
Hematology/oncology fellow
Project title: “Phase II Trial of Enzalutamide with Venetoclax in a Biomarker-Selected Population with Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer”

Othman S. Akhtar, MBBS
Hematology/oncology fellow
Project title: “Effect of Beta-Adrenergic Signaling on Sensitivity to the BCL-2Inhibitor Venetoclax in Mantle Cell Lymphoma”

The award supports medical or surgical residents, fellows and new graduates for whom research represents a primary interest and passion.

Frawley, a 1944 graduate of the medical school, was a nationally recognized endocrinology researcher, president of the American College of Physicians and chair of medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

The 2021 honorees for the Evan Calkins, MD, Community Based Research Fellowship are:

Laura Hayes, DO
Psychiatry resident
Project Title: “Increasing Rate of Attendance to First Outpatient Mental Health Appointment Post Hospital Discharge After Suicidal Ideation”

Alicia A. Supernault-Sarker, MD
Pediatrics resident
Project Title: “UB Anti-Vaping Advocacy Groups’ Community Project to Reduce Child and Adolescent E-cigarette Use in the City of Buffalo”

Rahat Whig, DO
Psychiatry resident
Project Title: “Increasing Rate of Attendance to First Outpatient Mental Health Appointment Post Hospital Discharge After Suicidal Ideation”

The award supports residents, fellows and junior faculty who conduct community-based research or quality improvement projects.

Calkins was chair of the UB Department of Internal Medicine, division chief of geriatrics and founder of the geriatrics fellowship. He served as director of medicine at Meyer Memorial Hospital (now Erie County Medical Center) for 12 years.

The award is a product of his conviction that medical institutions have an obligation to improve the quality of — and access to — health care throughout the community.

Dharmesh Gopalakrishnan, MD, a trainee in the hematology-oncology fellowship at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, is the 2021 recipient of the Dr. Gerald L. Logue Memorial Award.

Logue was a beloved member of the university community and was a former professor of medicine and chief of hematology. In fact, his commitment to medical training was honored in 2013 when he was given the medical school’s Service Award to recognize 30 years of outstanding contribution to education in medicine and hematology.

Among his many legacies has been the creation of an endowed fund to be used for the purpose of recognizing outstanding students in the field of hematology/oncology or internal medicine.

Elie Akl, MD, PhD ’08, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at American University of Beirut (AUB), was named the 2021 Distinguished Resident Alumnus.

In presenting the award, Michael E. Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School, noted Akl is an internationally recognized internist and clinical epidemiologist.

Akl directs the Clinical Research Institute and the AUB GRADE Center and is co-director of the Center for Systematic Reviews of Health Poilicy and Systems Research.

He earned his medical degree from St. Joseph’s University in Lebanon and completed his residency at UB in the combined internal medicine-preventive medicine program. Akl also earned a master’s degree in public health and a doctoral degree in public health from UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions. He was a Jacobs School faculty member from 2006 to 2014.

Akl’s research efforts focus on systematic reviews, practice guidelines and conflicts of interest. He serves as a guideline methadologist for a number of North American professional organizations and the World Health Organization.

He has published more than 430 peer-reviewed papers and in 2015 was listed by Thomson Reuters as one of the world’s most influential scientific minds and as one of the most highly cited researchers, and has held this latter recognition every year since 2015.

Cain noted the UB Distinguished Resident Alumnus Award is one of the Jacobs School’s highest honors.

It is presented annually to a resident graduate of the medical school who has made notable clinical, educational and/or investigative contributions to medicine and to the Jacobs School.

The Office of Graduate Medical Education announced the award winners at this year’s Celebration of Scholarship, which took place online June 4.