School of Medicine

The Pulse

Your Neck of the Woods

 

Internal Medicine

  • Dr. Victoria Burke (Infectious Diseases) has been named Co-Director of the Internal Medicine Clerkship program for the New Orleans campus, taking over from Dr. Zee Ali. Dr. Burke will work with other members of the Medicine Clerkship team, Dr. Fred Lopez (ID) and Dr. Neeraj Jain (Cardiology). Dr. Ali served as co-Director of the program since 2008 and brought a passion for teaching and a warm, caring nature that benefitted all of our students.
  • Shane Sanne, DO is the Faculty Council member representing the SOM for the Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice. He has served in this role since 2016. He was co-author of the presentation “Developing interprofessional learning for pre-licensure students in community settings” at the Thomas Jefferson University Interprofessional Care for the 21st Century Conference. The paper was co-authored with Tina Gunaldo, PhD, Director of the Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice; Allison Davis, PhD, RN from the School of Nursing; and colleagues from partner universities. The presentation was a multi-site collaboration with Thomas Jefferson and University of Florida Health focusing on the sustainability of community-based IPE experiences. 
  • Dr. Paula Seal (Infectious Diseases), was featured on Fox 8 news to discuss the need to promote awareness of HIV and AIDS, and the tools available to end the epidemic. View interview here.
  • Dr. Benjamin Springgate (Community & Population Medicine) recently spoke at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. The webinar unpacks processes and findings from the learning collaborative and research network—providing an avenue for researchers to explore related research topics and community groups an opportunity to apply community-partnered participatory research (CPPR) to their day-to-day priorities and projects.
 

Ophthalmology

  • Kathryn Colby, MD, PhD, Chair of Ophthalmology at NYU presented the department's 4th Annual Dr. George S. Ellis, Sr. Endowed Lecture in November. (Pictured:  Dr. Colby and Dr. George S. Ellis, Jr.) 

March 2022_Your Neck of Woods_Ellis_IMAGE

 

Otolaryngology

  • Vilija Vaitaitis, MD served as a moderator for a panel hosted by the American Head and Neck Society titled “Mind Body Therapies for Head and Neck Cancer Patients and Survivors.”
  • The department had one poster presentation and four podium presentations at the Society for Ears, Nose and Throat Advancement in Children (SENTAC) 49th Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ.

 

Pediatrics

  • LSU Pediatrics held their annual Pediatrics Research Day at Children's Hospital. Dr. Mark Kline gave the plenary presentation titled “Research and the Path to Preeminence in Pediatric Health Care.” For those who missed the event, you can view the program and abstract booklet here. You can also view more pictures from the event here.
  • The department extended its gratitude to those who organized Pediatrics Research Day:
    • Faculty Organizer: Stuart Chalew
    • Coordinators: Vibha Robinson, Kelly Allerton
    • Judges: Diego Aviles, Isa Ashoor, Amanda Dumas, Julie Gallois, Ricardo Gomez, Thomas Kimball, Emily Masoumy, Dana LeBlanc, Ryan Pasternak, Shannon Palombo, Shubho Sarka
    • Technical Support: Emma Crady, Ashley Walker
    • Event Setup: Thao Doan, Sheri Russell, Hannah Simon, Sun Youn
  • The SBHC Clinic Team was featured in local musician Amanda Shaw's Cajun Christmas special that aired on WGNO in December. The special benefited those affected by Hurricane Ida. A large emphasis of the relief tour was to raise awareness for mental health. She has donated a portion of the tour's T-shirt sales to Children's Hospital's mental health programming at the Sci High LSUHSC SBHC.  
 
 

Physiology

  • Dr. Elizabeth Avegno presented a talk at the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ESBRA) meeting, “Engagement of brain stress-reward systems in alcohol-dependent mice and rats” and a poster at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) meeting, “Alcohol dependence activates ventral tegmental area-central amygdala circuitry in mice and rats.” 
  • Dr. Avegno also served as a Graduate Student Research Day and medical student research virtual symposium judge. 
  • Dr. Nick Gilpin became a standing member of the V.A. Neurobiology A (NURA) Grant Review Committee (2021-2025). 
  • Dr. Patricia Molina served as a panelist and gave a talk as part of the Mentorship Panel for the National Hispanic Science Network (NHSN) Early Career Leadership Committee (ECLC) December.
  • Prep Scholar Kelly Lozano Ortiz was selected for the ABRCMS 2021 Presentation Award in the Immunology discipline. Kelly Lozano Ortiz also presented an e-poster titled “Tissue senescence cell accumulation and viral loads in SIV-infected female rhesus macaques” at the ABRCMS conference in November, 2021.
  • Dr. Liz Simon presented a talk titled “Alcohol mediated metabolic dysregulation: Epigenomic adaptations” at the Alcohol Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG) meeting in November.
 
 

Psychiatry

  • Megan Campbell, MD presented on “Intergenerational Trauma” at the CHNOLA behavioral health case conference in January 2022.
  • Erin Capone, MD, and Ronja Tripp-Bodola, PhD were invited to present at the Mayo Clinic's Humanities in Medicine Symposium 2021 - Engaging Across Disciplines. Their 90-minute workshop was titled “Towards a Third Culture: Interdisciplinary Opportunities and Medical Humanities.”
  • Drs. Capone and Tripp-Bodola also presented a paper on “Huxley and Mental Health” at the seventh international conference of the Aldous Huxley Society (October 2021). Their paper was accepted for publication in the society's journal (forthcoming, 2022).
  • Dr. Tripp-Bodola and Dr. Jason Mussell (Cell Biology and Anatomy) were invited to present a paper on bioethics and posthumanism at the NEMLA conference at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (March 2022), “Caring for (One) An Other: Ethics of Care, Entanglement and the Limits of Humanist Masculinity."
  • Dr. Tripp-Bodola organized and chaired a Roundtable on “Narratives and Mental Health” at the annual SAMLA conference in November 2021.
  • Erich Conrad, MD, FACLP presented a paper at the annual CL Psychiatry conference in November 2021. “The Trauma Recovery Clinic: Integrated Care to Complete a Pro-active Behavioral Health Service for Trauma Surgery Patients” (co-authored by Erika Rajo, PsyD, Kaylin Beiter, BSc Jennifer Hughes, PhD, Sarah Stuart, DO and Chikira Barker, MA)
  • Michelle Moore, PsyD will be part of an anti-racism symposium presenting on her work regarding a Collaborative Social Justice Book with a colleague from University of New Mexico Club at the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers Bi-Annual Membership Conference in April 2022.
  • Dr. Moore was also invited to participate in a panel discussion titled "How to get an internship" at the annual conference for the Louisiana Psychological Association being held in April 2022.
  • Heidi Leffler, LCSW (Psychiatry) and Deirdre Devier, PhD (Neurology) were invited by the Muscular Dystrophy Association to create educational pamphlets for people with muscular dystrophy and for caregivers, titled “Caring for Your Mental Health: A Guide for Individuals and Families” and “Mental Health Considerations for Caregivers: A Guide for Individuals and Families.”