The NYMC community buzzed with excitement and anticipation as the Class of 2023 celebrated their dedication to medical science and looked onward to the journey that lies ahead of them. Behind Sunshine Cottage, families, friends and SOM faculty gathered to commemorate the graduates for their time at the College, on May 23. With the beaming sun and rich greenery of the NYMC campus, the graduates glowed as they solidified their commitment to their respective professions. The ceremony conferred 206 M.D. degrees to the Class of 2023. Read the full article on the 164th commencement and view the photos, live stream and highlights video. 

Members of the SOM Class of 2023 celebrated taking their next step in their medical training on Match Day when they gathered in the lobby of the MEC to learn where they were matched to medical residency programs. Each year, the results of the NRMP are disclosed simultaneously at medical schools around the country. At precisely noon on March 17, with the atmosphere rife with anticipation, the students were at last able to tear open their envelopes and learn their match results. This year’s match was the largest in NRMP’s 70-year history, with a record number 42,952 applicants who certified a rank order list (“active applicants”) and 40,375 certified positions. Read the full article on Match Day and view the photo gallery and video.

The NYMC community rose to the occasion for the sixth annual Days of Giving on March 28 and 29 and raised $480,000 for student scholarships. The goodwill of 45 ambassadors and 327 gifts from 315 donors hailing from 27 states, along with matching gifts from a generous group of donors will impact the lives of students in the School of Medicine, School of Health Sciences and Practice and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. “This year’s Days of Giving campaign was a tremendous fundraising success with increased participation from faculty, staff, alumni and students. The unprecedented number of student callers helped solidify our efforts as alumni happily chatted with young medical students and reminisced about their time at NYMC,” said Bess J. Chazhur, M.S., chief development officer and executive director of alumni relations. “We are deeply grateful to all those who participated in this special 48-hour campaign.” Donations for Days of Giving may still be made to support student scholarships.

“The Annual Dean’s Faculty Awards Ceremony is one of the SOM’s most important events in celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of our faculty who are the heart and soul of our institution. This year’s awardees, recognized for their exemplary teaching, research and service contributions and achievements, are remarkable individuals and academicians. I’m humbled and grateful to be able to recognize our faculty in this way,” said Kathryn Spanknebel, M.D., senior associate dean of faculty and academic affairs, who emceed the event. Read the full article on the Dean's Faculty Awards Ceremony.

SOM students, residents, faculty and alumni gathered in Skyline Dining Room on April 25 to be recognized for their academic excellence through induction into the AOA, the national medical honor society. An annual tradition at the College since 1957, this year marked the 67^th induction ceremony by the NYMC Iota Chapter of AOA. Holly J. Humphrey, M.D., MACP, (second from left), president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, was the featured speaker. Read the full story on the induction ceremony.

Alumni and members of the NYMC community gathered at two recent local events to learn about the great things happening at NYMC. Debra and Jonathan Gavras, M.D. ’86, welcomed friends of NYMC for a brunch in their Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, home on March 5. Patricia White, M.D., a member of the Board of Advisors, and her husband, Daniel Flatley, hosted an intimate parlor event at their home in New Vernon, New Jersey, on March 22. The occasions were an opportunity to reconnect with NYMC alumni and friends and encourage communication and engagement with the College. 

Unique career paths and innovative physician roles were the focus of this year’s NYMedTalks conference that took place on March 30. An annual event since 1986, the interdisciplinary conference is organized by first-year medical students of the SOM Student Senate to expose fellow students to topics beyond the traditional academic curriculum. Read the full story on the NYMedTalks conference.

Fourth-year medical students at NYMC had the opportunity to participate in a unique new elective focused on health in the jail population this spring that included both NYMC students and individuals incarcerated in the Westchester County Jail. The course used the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program modality, first developed by Temple University, with the NYMC students as the “outside” students and the incarcerated students as the “inside” students participating jointly in the class via Zoom. Read the full story on the course.

This February marked a milestone for Neil Schluger, M.D., the Barbara and William Rosenthal Chair of the Department of Medicine and professor of medicine, as he traveled to Ethiopia to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the East African Training Initiative (EATI), which he founded with colleagues in 2013. The two-year fellowship training program in pulmonary and critical care medicine is the first training program of its kind in Ethiopia and the broader East African region. Before the launch of EATI, Ethiopia had only one pulmonologist for its 110 million people. To date, EATI has graduated 18 specialists, including two pediatric pulmonologists and two physicians from Rwanda and Tanzania, who have assumed leadership roles at hospitals across East Africa. Read the full story on the EATI.

Two weeks after Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Patricia L. Gerbarg, M.D., assistant clinical professor in psychiatry, her husband, Richard P. Brown, M.D., associate professor in clinical psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and former faculty member at NYMC, and their team offered their first online mind-body trauma relief program in the war-stricken country. Dr. Gerbarg and Dr. Brown are the co-founders of the Breath-Body-Mind Foundation.  Psychologists, veterans, schoolteachers, emergency services professionals and refugees registered for their course to help themselves and the Ukrainian community survive the stress and trauma that come from war and losing loved ones. The courses have drawn anywhere from a few dozen to 700 students. Since they began a year ago, thousands have learned from their trauma relief teachings and 250 Ukrainians, mostly mental health professionals, became certified Breath-Body-Mind trauma relief teachers. Read the full story on the mind-body trauma relief program.

Several SOM students gained more than just hands-on experience in the gross anatomy lab during their first year of medical school. They also had the opportunity to impact future medical practice with the recent publications of case studies on Petit’s (inferior lumbar) hernia in the Medical Student Research Journal and on renal and gonadal vasculature in the International Journal of Medical Students. “These studies underscore the value of the cadaver dissection program that is offered at NYMC versus a virtual or holographic experience. None of those latter modalities show variations or anatomic anomalies such as those reported in these two studies,” said Daniel F. Peters, M.D., FACS, associate professor of cell biology and anatomy and director of anatomy and embryology, who served as advisor to these students. Read the full article on studies generated from gross anatomy class experiences.

Medical school has been a whirlwind of research activity for Jacob Greisman, SOM Class of 2023, that has included co-authoring 13 published manuscripts to date and presenting at several national conferences on a range of neurosurgical research topics, including brain tumor surgery, cervical stenosis and craniosynostosis surgery. Read the full story on Greisman.

Hypertension is an important risk factor for the development of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease that affects greater than 40 percent of the United States population. Nicholas Ferreri, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of pharmacology, has contributed much to the field of research on hypertension, including most recently a study selected as an Editor’s Pick in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension that uncovered a new area of investigation that could lead to novel treatment approaches. Read the full story on Dr. Ferreri.

The Family Health Center (FHC) at NYMC celebrated their third year on campus. The outpatient clinic, opened in October 2019, provides quality and affordable medical care staffed by board-certified family physician faculty. Led by Lori Weir Solomon, M.D. '99, M.P.H. '09, chair and clinical associate professor of‌ the Department of Family and Community Medicine and director of the FHC, the clinic serves patients from Westchester, New York City and the tri-state area and was a tremendous resource during the pandemic after just five months of operation. Read the full article on the FHC.

The NYMC community came together to support a student-led fundraiser and drive to provide relief for the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria on February 6, that left more than 45,000 dead and two million homeless. More than $2,500 was collected and donations of bedding, winter clothes, non-perishable food items, medical supplies and more overflowed from boxes in the Blanche and Albert Willner, M.D. '43 Lobby. Read the full article on the earthquake relief efforts.

The NYMC and TU communities gathered for a melancholy observance of Yom Hashoah on May 4 in Nevins Auditorium. A moving presentation by Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., (third from right), chancellor, chief executive officer, interim dean of the SOM, the Miriam Popack Chair of Biomedical Ethics and the Holocaust, director of the Hirth and Samowitz Center for Medical Humanities and Holocaust Studies and provost for biomedical affairs at TU, explored the story of the “Dachau Ashes.” Read the full article on Yom Hashoah and view the video.

NYMC and TU presented, “Ninety Minutes: The Medical Magazine of the Web,” on May 11, featuring a panel of faculty experts who discussed trending medical topics. The event, hosted by Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer of NYMC, was followed by a question-and-answer session. Karen M. Murray, M.D. '99, FACOG, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and SOM associate dean for admissions, centered her segment on the medical management of menopause; Marisa A. Montecalvo, M.D., professor of medicine and medical director of health services, presented a panel on the next steps for the COVID-19 vaccine and boosters; Michael Goldberg, M.D., clinical associate professor of medicine, discussed vitamin D deficiency in adults; and Amy Brown, M.D., M.Be. FAAP, assistant professor of pediatrics and adjunct associate professor of public health, focused on testing water supply for contamination. View the “Ninety Minutes: The Medical Magazine of the Web” webinar.

Ian Mason, M.D. '23, was selected by fellow SOM graduates to address his class at the 164^th commencement ceremony on May 23. Born and raised in Westchester County, Dr. Mason aspires to serve the New York metropolitan-area as an aortic surgeon. He will be completing his residency in general surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in NYC. Read the full story on Dr. Mason.

The NYMC community celebrated Leonard Newman, M.D. '70, professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and Michael Gewitz, M.D., professor and vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics, for their decades of service to the College and their impact in the field of pediatrics with a special reception on April 20 at the Alumni House. During the reception, portraits of Dr. Newman and Dr. Gewitz were unveiled and will be hung in the pediatrics wing at 19 Skyline Drive. Read the full story on the portraits unveiling.

For Douglas Padgett, M.D. '82—a renowned orthopedic surgeon, educator and researcher who has enjoyed a long and prestigious career that recently culminated in him being named surgeon-in-chief and medical director of the Hospital of Special Surgery in New York City—it is the mentors and role models he has encountered along the way that have had the most impact. And despite his many notable achievements, he, in turn, considers his role as a mentor to others as one of his greatest accomplishments. Read the full story on Dr. Padgett.

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