The Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research hosts the Northwestern Student Health Leaders program for 100 Chicago Public High School students. The program consists of four half-day Saturday workshops with the goal of helping students become empowered health advocates who educate their peers on issues seen in their school and greater neighborhood communities. Learn more about the Student Health Leaders program from fourth-year medical student Alex Xiao, his experience with the program and ways to get involved from our Instagram stories and the program webpage.
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NEWS FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS
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Medical Students Discuss Study Showing Neurological Impact of COVID-19
Second-year medical students Jeff Clark, Nathan Shlobin and Steven Hoffman are the co-authors of a first-of-its-kind study, which found that more than 80 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 experienced neurological manifestations. Read more.
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Residency Mentorship Program Fills Learning Gaps
A new residency mentorship program developed by Northwestern faculty may serve as a model for other academic programs seeking to provide more formalized mentorship opportunities for residents. Read more.
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Goldsmith Named Associate Dean for Student Affairs
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Trivia Question
What tool can be used to help you more quickly receive answers to potential COVID-19 exposure questions? Submit your answers here! The winner will receive a prize from AWOME.
The winner of the last trivia was first-year medical student Sareen Ali. The question was, "What Northwestern office can provide writing help, interview prep and access to essays written by previous winners? " The answer is Northwestern Office of Fellowships.
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EVENTS FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS
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Ex Vivo
TONIGHT| December 4 at 8 p.m., livestreamed on YouTube
This year, tickets to the show are available for a $3 donation, made to @FeinbergInVivo via Venmo. Proceeds will benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository, a network of more than 700 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other programs. Learn more about their impact here.
Purchase your ticket on Venmo to get access information to the livestream and show program, which includes five recipes for recommended refreshments. Anyone who cannot make the premiere can still donate and watch the show on the FSM In Vivo YouTube channel.
Make sure your Venmo transaction is set to public and include your email address and name in the comment, so that the livestream information can be emailed to you. You can also donate privately, take a screenshot and send it to Blackberrie Eddins.
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TOMORROW | December 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., online
Join Students for Patient Advocacy & Research in the Community (SPARC) for their second annual conference. This year's theme is "Evolving Systems: Advocacy in the Modern World," which aims to address the way that communities and activism have been affected by the global pandemic and the push to move to virtual platforms. The SPARC conference will center on the collaboration among student groups, community organizations and hospital systems through breakout sessions co-hosted by Feinberg School of Medicine student groups and community organizations/providers. Attendees will walk away with concrete skills that are emphasized by the hosts of the breakout sessions.
Hear from SPARC board members to learn more about their mission and goals on Instagram stories.
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Family Medicine Office Hours
December 8 from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m., online via Zoom*
Drop in to Family Medicine office hours. Faculty are ready to talk to you about the specialty, research endeavors, elective options and answer any questions you may have. No registration needed.
*You will need to log into Zoom with your northwestern.edu email address.
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Montgomery Lecture Series
Thursdays from noon to 12:45 p.m., online
The Montgomery Lecture Series addresses diverse topics within bioethics and the medical humanities. Presenters are faculty, affiliates and alumni of the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Graduate Program, along with a few special guests. Lectures are open to students, faculty and general public. Please check the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities website for Zoom information and lecture updates.
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December 9 - "Medical Ethics Grand Rounds: Dynamic DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) Conversations...," presented by the Donnelley Ethics Program at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. The session will feature Gordon Quinn, artistic director and founder of Kartemquin Films, who will share his experience as a patient with COVID-19.
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December 15 - "Schwartz Rounds," presented by Northwestern Memorial Hospital Ethics, a multidisciplinary forum where caregivers discuss difficult emotional and social issues that arise in caring for patients.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS
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TOMORROW | Volunteers Needed to Help Distribute Essential Items and Information to Families in Belmont Cragin
December 5 from 10 a.m. to noon, meet at Northwest Side Housing Center (5233 W. Diversey Avenue)
One of our close community-based partners, Northwest Side Housing Center (NWSHC) needs our help! They are leading a resource and information support effort in coordination with the City of Chicago to help families in the 60639-zip code that have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Volunteers are needed for one of the following three roles:
- Volunteer making packets: on site at NWSHC, indoors (no transportation needed)
- Volunteer passing out info packets at local grocery stores: specific addresses given day of (will need transportation), dress warmly will be outside
- Pass out info packets door-to-door: transportation recommended but not needed, dress warmly will be outside
All interested volunteers should arrive promptly at the Northwest Side Housing Center by 10:00 a.m. Please wear a mask. Housing Center staff on-site are coordinating volunteers for the distribution morning of.
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Reminder to Submit Your Flu Record to the NM Interactive Portal
The 2020 annual influenza vaccine requirement deadline was December 1. If you have not completed your documentation, please do so as soon as possible and upload your flu record to the NM Interactive Portal. If you have questions, please contact Linda Daniels at: [email protected].
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U-Pass Fee Waiver Extended to December 15
CTA is extending the U-Pass fee waiver for the winter/spring 2021 quarter. If you would like to cancel your U-Pass of the winter/spring 2021 quarter, please complete this form by December 15. The refund amount is $173.75.
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COVID-19 Hotline Triage Questionnaire
Due to longer-than-normal wait times experienced when calling the COVID-19 Hotline, the COVID-19 Hotline Employee Triage Questionnaire is now available to help you more quickly receive answers to potential exposure questions. Based on your responses, you may receive the guidance you need to avoid waiting on hold.
For other COVID-19 policies, guidelines and resources available to MD students, click here.
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Fein-est Halloween Costume Contest Winners
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Thanks to all who participated in the Student Wellness Group's Fein-est Halloween Costume Contest. After tallying all the votes, Emily Suen is our first place winner, Tomas Krestpostman won second place, and Gio Perottino placed in third (photographed, left to right).
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OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS
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Did you know there is a Northwestern Office of Fellowships?
They can help current students with the following:
- Provide support and mentorship through the fellowship application process
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Help search for fellowships that match your interests and qualifications by using the Fellowship Finder.
- Match you with mentors who have won fellowships that you are pursuing
- Provide writing help, interview prep and access to essays written by previous winners
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M2s and M3s: Kaiser Permanente’s Oliver Goldsmith Scholarship
Kaiser Permanente is offering 11 scholarships for $5,000 to medical students who show their commitment to their communities. Kaiser Permanente is seeking students who are:
- Planning to practice medicine in Southern California
- Committed to the advancement of culturally and linguistically responsive care through community service work, clinical volunteering or applicable research
- A student in good standing entering (fall 2021) in their third or fourth year of medical/osteopathic school
- Available to participate in a 4 to 6 week clerkship or elective and a mentoring relationship with a Southern California Kaiser Permanente physician during the school year*
* Please note, due to COVID, all rotations have been halted until further notice.
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MMSAP offers mentored introductory biomedical research experience to underrepresented minority students in medical school. Request a mentor by November 15. Award Applications are due on January 15, 2021.
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During this immersive, year-long project for first-, second- and third-year medical students, participants conduct laboratory, translational, or clinical hematology research. Award applications are due on January 15, 2021.
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Schweitzer Fellowship
The Schweitzer Fellowship is a prestigious year-long service learning program for graduate students in health-related professions who design and implement innovative direct-service projects aimed at improving the health and well-being of underserved Chicago area communities. Thirty graduate students are selected annually from diverse fields to become fellows who will design and implement year-long direct service projects. In addition to their service projects, other elements of the program are designed to inspire and inform the fellow and to reinforce their commitment to humanitarian service. These include supportive mentors, monthly meetings, symposia on pertinent public health issues and service days. Fellows receive a $2,500 stipend for their participation.
Join the 2021-2022 cohort of outstanding interdisciplinary fellows and a network of over 4,000 fellows nationwide. The deadline to apply is February 1. More details and application information are linked here, and application guidelines are linked here.
To learn more about the fellowship, attend an informational session by signing up via the provided links below*, or visit the website:
*Additional dates and times through January are available on their website.
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Guidelines to Protect Your Meetings From "Zoombombings"
Feinberg School of Medicine has continued to be affected by Zoombombings in which explicit video is shared with the audience of the meeting.
You must take the steps provided in the link below to protect your Zoom meetings. The most critical step is to prevent participants from screen sharing. For help securing your meetings, please contact [email protected].
Helpful Links
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Furry Friends of Feinberg
Hazelnut, North Carolina
Hazelnut, who is one-year-old, recently took her first trip to the beach! She was skeptical about why the water was salty, but had fun splashing around and sticking her nose in the sand. A big adventure for those little legs!
- Caroline Zhao, M2
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***We are looking for more Furry Friends!
Click here to submit the name, picture and fun facts of your furry friend, which will be featured weekly on a first come, first serve basis. We look forward to meeting many of the Feinberg Community's own Furry Friends.
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ResilientNU Winter Cohorts
ResilientNU is your crash course on increasing wellness, managing stress and finding balance. This student and staff collaboration will host virtual small group cohorts for 75 minutes per week, over five weeks, starting a few weeks into the quarter. Groups are co-facilitated by a Northwestern student and a Health Promotion and Wellness (HPaW) staff member. ResilientNU will be running at least two cohorts – one cohort open to all students and one cohort specifically for Black or African American students, led by Black-identified facilitators.
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Let's (Tele)Talk
Let’s Talk, now Let’s (Tele)Talk available for students via Zoom, provides virtual informal drop-in consultations. Common concerns include: stress, sadness, worry, relationships, academic performance, family problems, financial struggles.
Sessions are available:
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Mondays from noon to 1 p.m. with Sean Serluco, PsyD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Liaison to Pritzker School of Law
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Wednesdays from 11a.m. to noon with Dorothy Addae, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
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Fridays from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. with Rachael Collins, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Liaison to Feinberg School of Medicine
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Chicago CAPS Virtual Workshops, Gathering Spaces and Resources
Online programming is now available and can be found on CAPS website. Programs include:
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Support and Connection for Graduate and Professional Students - Tuesdays, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Coffee Talk for International Students - Every other Friday. For specific dates and times, please visit CAPS website.
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Support Space for Northwestern Students in Quarantine or Isolation - Mondays, 9 a.m. to 9:50 a.m.; Fridays, 3 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.
- Self-Help and Resources During COVID19
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Coping With Recent Events
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Crisis Support for Students
For CAPS urgent daytime appointment, or to connect to after-hours crisis counselor call (847) 491-2151 (on evenings/weekends, press “0”). To schedule a routine appointment with a CAPS counselor or to get assistance with connecting to a local community provider click here. Appointments are released no more than two weeks in advance. If you cannot wait for an appointment, call the CAPS main number. If you live outside of Illinois and are seeking help connecting to services in your current state, select a Resource and Referral appointment. To access CAPS Referral Provider List to search for Chicago, Evanston and surrounding area providers click here.
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Why I Chose a Career in Radiation Oncology: Faculty Perspective
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Several weeks before college was to officially begin, my father instructed me as his father did for him: “I don’t care if you’re a doctor, engineer, lawyer, musician or dancer. Just get an education and be good at something you love!” So, I did as I was instructed. I fell in love with science and medicine, not through an arrangement, but by natural affinity. I was fascinated by scientific legends and their stories: Kornberg, Watson and Crick, Pauling, Burg… And I really love difficult problems.
Why radiation oncology? Let’s begin with the oncology part… More than one million Americans are diagnosed with cancer annually. But cancer is not a single disease with a single treatment, it is thousands of “diseases” that can differ greatly from patient to patient. What’s more, the disease evolves over the course of a patient’s treatment course, so at the genome level cancer is constantly evolving. This is a difficult problem.
The use of radiation to eradicate cancer. Very shortly after the discovery of the X-ray in 1895, scientists began using this poorly characterized factor (variable ‘X’) to treat surface malignancies (fungating breast masses) using primitive discharge tubes. The field has developed into a technological marvel since those early days. Today, using multiple penetrant and dynamically shaped beams, we can maneuver ionization tracks to conform very tightly to the shape of the target tumors. We can target malignant or troublesome non-malignant lesions the size of a nerve root (~1 mm) to large chest or abdominal tumors the sizes of watermelons. And, we can do all of this non-invasively.
The future is bright. Despite the tremendous progress in technical precision, our field needs bright clinicians and investigators to tackle the next century of challenges and there are ample areas for research and discovery. To date, we have done a poor job of incorporating cancer genomic information into our clinical decision-making process. In addition, our clinical practices generate petabytes of data and this data remains largely unmined and/or poorly harvested. In the age of big data and medical informatics, our discipline (and specifically our department here at Northwestern Medicine) is poised to be at the forefront of clinical prediction and the development of novel augmented-intelligence systems.
I have one of the best jobs in the world.
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Why I Chose a Career in Radiation Oncology: Resident Perspective
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I chose radiation oncology because it has all the elements I love about medicine: broad knowledge, robust collaboration, unique challenges and the importance of understanding the whole patient.
My path began with a cancer biology course my last semester of college, where I was captivated by the intricacies of tumorigenesis. In medical school, I witnessed the unique partnership between physicians and patients with cancer. I knew I wanted to be an oncologist, and then had to pick between medical, radiation or surgical.
After doing an elective in radiation oncology during my third year of med school, I fell in love. Creating unique computer-based treatment plans for each patient was a new cognitive challenge unlike anything I had experienced. I also liked the idea of using imaging and technology as part of my daily practice. Probably most important to me, though, was learning that radiation oncology is a very patient-centered specialty. Radiation oncologists get to create deep relationships with their patients and see them on a weekly basis during treatment. In a field that provides both palliative and curative therapy, we always have to balance quality of life versus toxicity, and consider the values goals of the patient in that decision.
Lastly, don’t let a stereotype deter you from pursuing your dream specialty. My first rotation in radiation oncology, every physician I worked with was a man. I wondered if I needed more research experience. I wondered if I had to be proficient in math and physics. I wondered if my interest in health equity and addressing health disparities had a place in this field. As it turns out, what makes you different in any specialty is what sets you apart and become your strengths. I am so happy I chose this field, and I truly believe radiation oncology is the best kept secret in medicine.
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