December 2022: Master of Education in the Health Professions Update

Accolades and Congrats

Abdellatif H. Abdelwahab, MD (MEHP ’20), an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, was selected to lead the communication subcommittee for the Section on Simulation and Innovative Learning Methods (SoSILM) chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He also serves on the executive committee of the same chapter. Abdelwahab teaches “Innovation in medical education curriculum” in a master’s degree program at a local university.

Max Berger, MD (MEHP ’22), has been appointed assistant professor of emergency medicine and assistant medical student clerkship director at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Tom Caruso, MD (MEHP ’15), transitioned to the role of program director of the pediatric anesthesiology fellowship in 2021. Caruso is a clinical professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford Medicine.

Saira Chaughtai, MD (PMC ’22), serves as core faculty for the internal medicine residency program at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, N.J. She created a daily email for the residency program called “Medicine on the Go,” with just a short line of a board review topic. Chaughtai also is developing an alcoholism curriculum to empower residents to talk with patients about alcohol, given its increasing prevalence.

Lisa De Cloedt, MD (MEHP ’21),  published her capstone research, “Pediatric Interfacility Transport Curriculum: Its Impact on the Pediatric Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine Fellows’ Performance and Confidence,” in Air Medical Journal in September 2022. De Cloedt will assume a new role at the pediatric emergency room at the University of Montreal Sainte-Justine Hospital, where she will be responsible for the training of the pediatric transport team. The first cohort in the program was in spring 2022.

Sara Dimeo, MD (MEHP ’21), is transitioning from serving as medical education and technology fellowship director at Prisma Health Upstate in Greenville, S.C., to becoming program director for a new emergency medicine residency program at Chandler Regional Medical Center in Arizona. “I’m looking forward to this new adventure and hope to connect to any MEHP alums in Arizona!” she writes.

Craig Goolsby, MD (MEHP ’16), chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and professor of clinical emergency medicine at UCLA, published “The Untrained Public’s Ability to Apply the Layperson Audiovisual Assist Tourniquet vs a Combat Application Tourniquet: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” and “Mass Shootings in America—Consensus Recommendations for Healthcare Response” in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

MEHP Fellow Vadim Gushchin, MD, a Ukrainian surgical oncologist at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore, was featured on WBAL-TV for his work helping fellow physicians in Ukraine continue to provide the best care amid the chaos. Gushchin directs the hospital’s Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) program.

Nazik Hammad, MD, MSc (MEHP ’17), an oncologist at Queen’s University in Canada, has been named co-chair of the Network for Advancing Black Medical Learners of Ontario, supported by the Council of Ontario Faculties of Medicine (COFM) and the Black Physicians Association of Ontario (BPAO). “We provide recommendations to Ontario medical schools to improve the clinical learning environment, the educational experience and enhance the rate of retention and careers of Black medical students, residents and fellows,” she writes. Hammad also is principal investigator for the project “Challenges Faced by Female Oncologists in Sub-Saharan Africa,” which was presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022 annual meeting.

MEHP Fellow Laura Hopson, MD, professor and associate chair of education in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, has been awarded funding from the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) to support her MEHP capstone research. The title is “Creating a Behavioral Definition of a Master Adaptive Learner for Emergency Medicine.” EMF supports scientifically rigorous research and education that improves the care of the acutely ill patient.

Ivy Huang, MD (MEHP ’22), resumed clinical training in general surgery residency at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is enjoying opportunities to operate more and take on a more senior role in teaching and leading a team. She recently published “Effect of teleconferencing variables on faculty impression of mock residency applicants” in Global Surgical Education, the journal of the Association for Surgical Education.

Katherine Husk, MD (MEHP ’22), has been appointed associate program director for a new urogynecology fellowship at Albany Medical College in New York. The program’s first fellow started on Aug. 1, 2022. She also published “Assessment of Surgical Autonomy: In Support of Aspirational Goals” in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology Global Reports.

Halah Ibrahim, MD (MEHP ’14), was appointed as a member of the board of directors of ACGME-International. She is an internist and educator involved in postgraduate and undergraduate medical education in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Taryne Imai, MD (MEHP ’21), assumed a new position September 1 as director of thoracic surgery for the Queen’s Medical Center and University of Hawaii, which serves the state of Hawaii and the 14 countries in the Pacific Island Network. Imai previously served as clinical chief of thoracic surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center since 2016. She also was inducted as an associate member of the American College of Surgeons’ Academy of Master Surgeon Educators.

Edsel Ing, MD, PhD, FRCSC, DABO, MPH, MIAD, MBA (MEHP ’21), serves as coordinator for the University of Toronto’s resident core neuro-ophthalmology lecture series. Ing also published “The use of an analytic hierarchy process to promote equity, diversity and inclusion” in the Canadian Journal of Surgery. He joined the Canadian Ophthalmologic Society’s Working Group for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and earned an MBA from Louisiana State University.

Justin Jeffers, MD (MEHP ’19), an assistant professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, has been appointed director of pediatric simulation for the pediatric emergency department at Johns Hopkins. He also was named outstanding reviewer of the year for MedEdPORTAL.

Daphne Knicely, MD, FASN (MEHP ’20), an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, published two peer-reviewed publications: “The ABCs of Kidney Disease: Knowledge Retention and Healthcare Involvement” in the Journal of Patient Experience, and “An Interactive Education Program for Advanced CKD: The ABCs of Kidney Disease Program” in Kidney Medicine. Knicely also coauthored the Handbook of Home Hemodialysis.

MEHP Fellow Sonam Kiwalkar, MD, a rheumatologist with The Vancouver Clinic in Washington, was awarded the Clinician Scholar Educator Award by the Rheumatology Research Foundation and the American College of Rheumatology. The award will fund a randomized trial to study clinical reasoning skills of residents completing interactive virtual patient modules compared to linear non-interactive case-based modules.

Amrit Kirpalani, MD (MEHP ’21), has been appointed a member of the Academy of Educators at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in Canada, where he is a pediatrics resident. He presented on the topic of “Educating premeds about diversity in medicine” at the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) conference in Lyon in August 2022, and his trainee was awarded best poster for their project “A scoping review of LGBTQ+ medical trainee experiences.”

Michael Malinowski, MD, FACS (MEHP ’21), an associate professor of vascular surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and a vascular surgeon with the Froedtert & MCW health network, received a Fulbright Specialist grant for the 2022-2023 academic year for international education and faculty development projects scheduled for Uruguay in March 2023. Malinowski also was awarded an Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) grant as a salaried co-PI for helping create a novel DEI curriculum across core residency programs in Wisconsin. Additionally, Malinowski was appointed by the American College of Surgeons as an associate member of the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators, and was invited to speak to medical students at Kathmandu University, Nepal, to discuss the vascular surgery subspecialty in September 2022. The experience included providing surgical training for local Nepalese surgeons.

Sam Mayer, MD (MEHP ’16), in July became chair of the ACGME Review Committee for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Mayer is an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins.

Marian McDonald, MD, FACS (MEHP ’18), has been appointed director of the General Surgery Board of the American Board of Surgery. “This is a very distinct honor to serve the board of surgery as an educational expert, helping to create educational content and develop written and oral examinations,” she writes. “This is a six-year term and contributes greatly to public safety by creating examinations that certify physicians as competent surgeons.” McDonald also has been involved in research in the pandemic era and how this has affected surgical education and resident well-being, with an eye to publishing within the next year. McDonald is chief of general surgery for the St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Allentown Campus, medical director of the Surgical Simulation Lab, and clinical professor and clerkship site director for Temple St. Luke’s School of Medicine.

Gia Merlo, MD, MBA (MEHP ’22), published a book, Lifestyle Nursing. Merlo is a clinical professor of nursing and psychiatry, and a senior advisor on wellness, at New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

Sandra Mrad, MD (MEHP ’21), an emergency medicine physician, became the chief medical officer at Dubai Autodrome, a motor sport facility.

Eric Nemec, PharmD, BCPS (MEHP ’17), director of research and assessment at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, published three articles: “Initial steps for integrating academic electronic health records into clinical curricula of physical and occupational therapy in the United States: a survey-based observational study” in Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions; “Efficacy of subcutaneous semaglutide compared to placebo for weight loss in obese, non-diabetic adults: a systematic review & meta-analysis” in International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy; and “Pharmacy Through the Lens of Hollywood V: The Three Stooges Meet Hercules” in Pharmacy Chronicles. Nemec also reports taking his 9-year-old daughter as a crew member with a friend on his boat to the Ensign Class National Championship Regatta in Nyack, N.Y. “It was a brutally hot week of sailing, but we managed a podium finish of 8^th place,” he writes.

Matthew Newman, PharmD, BCOP (MEHP ’21), a clinical pharmacist practitioner and PGY-2 oncology pharmacy residency program director at Johns Hopkins, was named preceptor of the year by the Maryland Society of Health-System Pharmacy. Newman also was nominated to a two-year term representing the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA) on the Planning Committee for the FDA’s Project Livin’ Label, an educational initiative related to oncology product labeling.

Nicole Nielsen, PharmD, BCACP, APh (MEHP ’20), an associate professor of pharmacy at West Coast University, now adds another appointment as assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

Zainab Obaidi, MD (MEHP ’22), an academic nephrologist at the University of Chicago, also serves as an associate professor of medicine with a focus on medical education and teaching medical students.

Jessica Papillon Smith, MD, FRCSC (MEHP ’19), was nominated for the Carl Nimrod Educator Award for 2022 by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. Smith also received the Best Educator Award for OB-GYN residents at the PGME level at McGill University Health Centre. Smith is the UGME and PGME OB-GYN course director at McGill University in Montreal.

Sharon Park, PharmD (MEHP ’17), assistant dean for academic affairs at Notre Dame of Maryland University’s School of Pharmacy, has been appointed director of interprofessional education for her doctor of pharmacy program, to work with Johns Hopkins’ School of Medicine, School of Nursing and School of Public Health. Park also was awarded the 2022 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grant to investigate “Perceptions and opportunities for improving remediation policies and procedures.” The study will compare the perceptions of program administrators and faculty of how effective the current remediation processes are, and determine factors that contribute to effective remediation processes.

Brandon Peterson, MD (MEHP ’18), has been appointed as director of Phase 3 UME-GME Transition for Penn State College of Medicine, and co-vice chair of education for the Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute. He published “Variable exposure to echocardiography core competencies when applying minimum recommended procedural numbers for cardiology fellows in training” in Cardiovascular Ultrasound. Peterson is investigating educational standards for procedural numbers in echocardiography for cardiology fellows in training, and determining whether recommended standards allow for adequate exposure to pathology, and “otherwise enjoying life in the sweetest place on Earth: Hershey, PA!”

Linda Regan, MD (MEHP ’16), vice chair of education for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins, published “The Best Laid Plans? A Qualitative Investigation of How Resident Physicians Plan Their Learning” for Academic Medicine.

Ashley Rider, MD (MEHP ’21), is enjoying her new role as assistant program director for emergency medicine residency at Stanford University.

Joanne Rolls, MPAS, PA-C (MEHP ’19), was invited to join the board of trustees for the Utah AIDS Foundation.

Rachel Salas, MD, FAAN (MEHP ’18), completed the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society Leadership Program. She was named a fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and received the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award. Salas is a professor of neurology and nursing at Johns Hopkins.

Deborah Schwengel, MD (MEHP ’16), has taken on a few new roles, including as associate editor of the Journal of Education in Perioperative Medicine; editor-in-chief of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation editorial board; a member of the board of directors for the Society for Education in Anesthesia and director of the Anesthesiology Education Research Core at Johns Hopkins. She published “Influx! A game-based learning tool for in-hospital interprofessional disaster preparedness and response” in the British Journal of Anaesthesia. Schwengel is an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins and director of the anesthesiology and critical care medicine training and residency program.

Emily Singh, MD (MEHP ’22), has developed three new curricula for residents, all in a rich media, asynchronous, blended format, including an obstetrics fellowship didactic curriculum, expanded point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) training, a new modular simulation curriculum, and an online learning management system for obstetrics resident didactic content. Singh also is in the process of submitting her capstone project for possible publication, and discussing the possibility of multispecialty collaboration with her health system’s medical education department to bring simulation training into the Grand Rounds forum. Another point of discussion with the medical education department is assessment methods for evaluating the educational efficacy of Grand Rounds educational interventions for community physicians. Singh is at the Scripps Clinic Rancho Bernardo in Teresa Diego, Calif.

Eric Steinberg, DO (MEHP ’19), received the Alumni of the Year Award from the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA), where he has contributed to a number of educational resources. Steinberg is program director of emergency medicine residency at St. Joseph’s Health in Paterson, N.J., and associate professor of emergency medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

Shireen Suliman, MBBS (MEHP ’16), published “Sailing the boat together: Co-creation of a model for learning during transition” in the journal Medical Teacher. “With passion towards involving students’ voices in the design of their education, we developed a model for learning during transition,” she writes. “This is a two-year study that involved residency program directors and core faculty at Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar, together with final-year medical students, faculty and leaders at the College of Medicine at Qatar University.” Suliman is director of selected clinical clerkships and assistantship programs at the College of Medicine at Qatar University, a consultant at Hamad Medical Corp., and assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar.

Michael Terao, MD, FAAP (MEHP ’21), had his capstone paper “Quality improvement knowledge in pediatric hematology/oncology physicians: A need for improved education” published in Pediatric Blood & Cancer. Marian McDonald, MEHP ‘18, was his adviser. Terao is an attending physician in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Oluwakemi Tomobi, MD (MEHP ’19), in October presented on “Forced Off the Beaten Path: How We Can Prevent Minorities From Being Forced Out of Healthcare Training Programs” at the Maryland Consortium for Adjunct Faculty Professional Development Conference at Bowie State University in Maryland. Tomobi is a research fellow with Johns Hopkins’ Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care.

Elizabeth Topper, PhD (MEHP ’17), senior lecturer and director of online programs for applied learning at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, has produced several videos and workshops over the past year on topics such as Backwards Course Design, Assigning Group Work, and Managing Large Classes. As a member of the Bloomberg school’s Teaching Council, Topper advises faculty in pedagogical strategies, including but not limited to online teaching.