Volume 7, Number 4, April 2020

SPECIAL ISSUE: NYCPM Responds to COVID-19

Read : The President's View

NYCPM Plans Virtual Graduation Big Enough for Friends and Families

2019 graduates recite the Hippocratic Oath at their commencement ceremony. 2020 graduates will recite the oath during their virtual commencement. Plans are moving forward with a safe, socially-distanced commencement for the Class of 2020; the ceremony is still scheduled for May 15, but the entire program will be virtual, conducted on Zoom for graduates, their friends and family, and relevant faculty and staff. While the COVID-19 pandemic is dictating its virtual nature, graduation will retain most of the features of the live event at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, including welcomes and messages from President and CEO ... Read more

Podiatrist Campaigns for PPE for Healthcare Workers at NYC Hospitals Reem Sheikh, DPM , instructor in the NYCPM department of surgery, and an attending podiatrist at NYC’s Harlem, Lincoln and Metropolitan Hospitals, became concerned about possible shortages of PPE at the hospitals, and the young mother turned to her source of support – Facebook mom groups – for help. Posting on a Friday night at midnight, her pleas for masks, goggles, and face shields immediately resulted in donations of 40 pair of goggles and 300 masks, all hospital-grade; she brought them directly to the ... Read more

NYCPM Residents on the Front Lines! Chief Resident David Ehrlich, DPM has sent this description of the impressive work of our residents in the fight against the Coronavirus. “The residents are helping out in the ICU. We are working alongside our general surgery colleagues and help with whatever is needed: we draw labs, put in orders for patients, write notes, participate in daily rounds, communicate with nursing about changes in medications or ventilator settings. Some of the residents have done chest compressions when patients code. We take day and night calls to lessen the burden on the other residents that manage the ICU. And of course we tend to our own podiatry inpatients and clinic patients while this is going on.”

Alumnus Plays Role in Medical Reserve Corps Joseph S. Fox, DPM (‘74), MPH serves on the panel of the New York City Clinical COVID-19 Provider Hotline Service. This service provides clinical guidance via telephone to patients calling with concerns about coronavirus and directs them to proper channels for their specific needs. The Medical Reserve Corps, for which Dr. Fox volunteers, is a volunteer organization of medical professionals who are asked to volunteer their time and expertise to the New York City Department of Health in crisis situations such as terrorist incidences or pandemic outbreaks. Dr. Fox is also involved in sourcing ventilators, PPEs, and other needed medical supplies for hospitals in the tristate area. He is currently working with Weill-Cornell Hospital, the New York Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the Meridian Health Network in New Jersey. In his capacity as consultant to these companies, he has been facilitating access and transport of these much needed COVID-related medical supplies.  Source: Dr. Fox and PM News

Student News

Thomas Vitale, DPM (’85) Commends Efforts of 2020 Pi Delta Members “I would like you to know that the Pi Delta Honor Society Class of 2020 has been very active this past year in their fundraising efforts. They have chosen during these extraordinary circumstances to donate their proceeds to purchasing snacks for our residents at Metropolitan Hospital and to provide food for the workers on 6th and 8th floors who are working with COVID-19 patients. "This was not done for accolades or for self-gratifying mention on the internet. It was purely altruistic in recognizing the efforts of our hard-working residents and the workers at Metropolitan who have placed caring for patients as their highest priority. I am honored as their faculty adviser but more importantly proud to call them part of our NYCPM family. ... Read more

Online Student Association Elections Yield 4 Winners The results are in! The first-ever, all-online student election for officers of the Student Association (SA), featured candidate videos and online voting during five days in mid-April. From the fourteen candidates who participated, four winners were selected: President-Elect: William Stallings (2023), photo above Vice President: Denisse Velez (2022) Treasurer: Dzeneta Pajazetovic (2023) Secretary: Holly Zucchero (2023) Thomas Milisits (2021) is the current President of the SA, and ... Read more

First-Ever Live-Streamed CME Seminar Will Be May 2 “Comprehensive Diabetic Foot Evaluations and Coding” is the subject of the May 2 NYCPM CME seminar. The scientific chair and featured speaker of the seminar is Allen Jacobs, DPM; the entire seminar will be live-streamed. Questions? Please contact Audrey Negron, [email protected] or 212-410-8068. Register online here . General tuition is $99; residents pay $25. "Walk-ins" can use this link that will allow them to register and join the meeting in one single step.

Alumnus Obituary Dr. Lloyd B. Steinberg, Class of 1961, Dies at 84  Lloyd B. Steinberg, DPM (’61), son of Marvin Steinberg, DPM (’31), died in Ocala, Florida. He practiced podiatric medicine and surgery for over 50 years and was the first in that area to receive hospital privileges. He was a strong advocate of the continued advancement of this medical discipline and took great pride in seeing the role DPMs now play in the healthcare system. Lloyd was also the father of two practicing doctors of podiatric medicine, Paul Steinberg, DPM (Ocala, FL) and John Steinberg, DPM (Washington DC). Source : PM News

Alumnus Obituary Dr. Kurt George Bodine, Class of 1959, Dies at 94 K urt George Bodine, DPM ('59) , passed away in Florida on April 15.  Born in Vienna, Austria in 1925, he and his family spent the World War II years in La Paz, Bolivia, and then emigrated to the United States and settled in New York City. He worked as a Spanish translator and started an import/export company before turning to podiatry. His wide-ranging intellect was focused on the foot, but not exclusively. He studied the foot bones of the most ancient humans, and in 1968 published a paper demonstrating why this hominid must have walked upright. In all, he published 10 articles in JAPMA between 1965 and 1980, two of which (on “the oldest human foot” and on “the foot and laterality”) received international attention. He was also interested in the ancient cultures of South America and wrote extensively on this subject as well as about others. Source : Steven Robert Bodine.