Residents and Fellow News:
Ophthalmology
Congratulations to Drs. Maria Fernandez and Chris Or for being selected after a competitive process to attend the 15th annual Heed Foundation Residents Retreat. The Heed Foundation confers this prestigious honor on 49 ophthalmology residents nationwide “who have the talent and desire to pursue a career in academic ophthalmology.” Established by Thomas Heed in 1945, the Heed Ophthalmic Foundation has provided over $11 million in funding and awarded over 1,100 fellowships to assist young men and women in pursuing postgraduate studies in ophthalmology. The appointed individuals receive a merit award of $10,000 and are recognized as Heed Fellows. Residents, nominated by their department chairs and residency program directors, and faculty, including recent K-awardees, mid-career and senior faculty, will gather for two half-days to discuss careers in academic ophthalmology. During the informal sessions, residents will mingle with academic ophthalmologists just a few years their senior to learn how young faculty members made the transition from trainee to academician. Among the many topics to be discussed are how faculty combine patient care with positions/involvement in clinical research, lab research, residency program leadership, medical student educator, fellowship program director, NEI/NIH faculty, VA faculty, and/or public health/international ophthalmology, to achieve highly rewarding academic careers.
Orthopaedic Surgery
Dr. Peter D'Amore and fellow resident, Dr. John Valentino, have won the "Top Resident Paper Competition" and the "Top Biomedical Paper Competition" respectively at this year's Louisiana Orthopedic Association Meeting.
The well-attended event took place at the New Orleans Hilton Riverside Hotel from March 6-7. Attendees received valuable continuing education from keynote speakers, participated in networking with orthopaedic colleagues, and received information about the latest products and services for orthopaedic practices during the trade show.
"It is an honor to receive the award of Top Biomechanical Paper at the 2020 Louisiana Orthopedic Association (LOA) annual meeting for my abstract entitled: Is Poor Bone Quality Associated with Pain After Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA)?," said Dr. John Valentino. "This abstract was the result of a group effort started by third-year medical student Michael Langley and supported by the LSUHSC orthopedic basic science and clinical faculty. Dr. Jennifer Simkin, Dr. Luis Marrero, and Dr. Vinod Dasa not only played integral roles in helping me complete this abstract during my 2019 summer of volunteer research but also to follow through and ultimately make a podium presentation at LOA during my second year of medical school. This abstract investigated and found a significant correlation between bone health and pain 90 days after a total knee replacement. These findings have a niche potential to help pre-operatively risk adjust patients, using patient-reported outcome measures as a factor in determining physician reimbursement rates in future bundled-payment systems."
In addition to Dr. Valentino's win, third-year LSU orthopaedic resident, Dr. Peter D'Amore, was awarded first place in the Top Resident Paper competition. Dr. D'Amore and Dr. Thomas Stang, a fellow orthopaedic resident, contributed to what they believe represents the most extensive multi-center study to date on surgically treated low-velocity gunshot wounds to the hip. This collaborative study with St. Louis University and Prisma Health will help surgeons to better treat and educate patients on the outcomes of gunshot wounds to the hip.
The department also congratulates and welcomes the 2020 orthopaedic surgery residents:
Austin Broussard, University of Tennessee
Adam Haydel, LSUHSC-NO
Adam Miller, LSUHSC-NO
Nathan Redlich, Medical College of Wisconsin.
Pediatrics 
Pediatrics Residency Program Director Dr. Chelsey Sandlin congratulates the program's 2021-2022 Chief Residents, Dr. James Connick and Dr. Sarah Short. James is a graduate of the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, and Sarah is a graduate of the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in East Lansing. Both James and Sarah have demonstrated strong clinical abilities, leadership skills, and a commitment to the success of our residency program. The chief residents are an integral part of our residency leadership team - responsible for program administration, resident education, recruitment efforts, and much more.
The department is excited to have both Dr. Connick (photo above right) and Dr. Short (photo above left) accept this role and look forward to working with them more in the future.
Congratulations to Endocrinology Fellow Jaya Bhat, MD who gave an oral presentation at the 2020 Southern Regional Meeting earlier this year. Her talk was titled Preterm Twin with Transient Neonatal Diabetes Due to a Very Rare ABCC8 Mutation, Challenges in Diagnosis and Dr. Sarah Short, Management.
Senior resident Nick Algu and many of his co-residents got together to do something
special for their adult resident colleagues. They made 40 care packages/snack packs
(photo left) that were distributed to LSU medicine and LSU family medicine at UMC,
Touro, and Ochsner-Kenner.
Children's Hospital Office of Medical Education and LSU and Tulane Pediatric Fellowship Programs hosted the Fellowship Open House earlier this year. This event allowed the department to showcase their excellent subspecialty training programs to regional pediatric residents who were attending the SRM meeting. It was a successful event held at Lucy's where approximately 40 pediatric residents were able to network with fellowship directors learning more about the many attributes of the department's programs and Children's Hospital.
Congratulations to Med/Peds Resident Ryley McPeters who was awarded the SAFMR/SSCI Trainee Research Award. He gave an oral presentation titled Undiagnosed Maternal Hyperparathyroidism Presenting as Hypocalcemia and Neonatal Seizures. Other authors on the project included N Lalchandani, T Davidge, PJ Morreale, LS Engel and K Matthew.
Pediatrics Resident LaTasha Henderson also gave an oral presentation at SSPR titled Vegetable-Induced Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis. Other authors on the project included S Deputy, N Khorsandi, EH Brugier and M Weimer.
Pediatric GI Fellow Ivonne Iglesias presented Effect of Mirtazapine in Children with Functional Dyspepsia and Functional Nausea. Dr. Paul Hyman served as senior author on this oral presentation.
Med/Peds Resident Janet Smith also presented orally. The title of her project was Alternative Etiology for Viral Parotitis and included LS Engel and R Mangat as authors.
Dr. Sanchitha Guruchandrasekar, division of pediatric cardiology, presented a poster recently titled “Risk factors for complications/failure following Fontan operation.” She presented at Cardiology 2020, the 23rd Annual Update on Pediatric and Congenital Cardiovascular Disease in Orlando.
The LA-AAP asked pediatric residency programs across the state to contribute videos thanking those on the front lines of the pandemic. Program Director Dr. Chelsey Sandlin, the chiefs and a few residents put together this creative video thanking our community for their sacrifices and hard work. Check it out!