The male-female split among class members is 75-73, or 51 percent to 49 percent. At the time of application, the youngest of the admitted students was 20 and the oldest 32; four students are age 30 or older.

Thirteen students—9 percent—are African American, Latino or American Indian, and 15 students—10 percent—are of other ethnic minority heritage. The rest of the new students are white or listed no race when surveyed.

Nine members of the entering class are participating in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and will earn both MD and PhD degrees. Five students have enrolled in both the MD and master of public health (MPH) degree programs.

Class members represent 69 different undergraduate colleges, with 52 students graduating from Iowa Regents institutions (the University of Iowa: 39; Iowa State University: 10; the University of Northern Iowa: 3). Eighteen students are graduates of other Iowa colleges, and 78 students are graduates of colleges outside Iowa.

The College’s 15th annual White Coat Ceremony, held at Macbride Hall on the UI Pentacrest, officially initiated class members into the formal study of medicine at Iowa. It was the final event of a week of orientation activities for members of the entering class and their families, spouses, partners and friends.

Dean Paul Rothman, MD, led the ceremony and was joined onstage by UI Provost Wallace Loh; Vice President for Medical Affairs Jean Robillard, MD; Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Curriculum Christopher Cooper, MD; Iowa Medical Society President Michael Kitchell, MD; and keynote speaker Richard Williams, MD, the Rubin H. Flocks Chair and professor and head of the UI Department of Urology.

Rothman noted the significance of the White Coat Ceremony in a medical student’s life, not just at Iowa but also at more than 100 medical schools around the country. The event serves as a symbolic rite of entry into the profession of medicine — one that acknowledges the hard work students perform in order to get to medical school as well as the students’ commitment to the challenges that lie ahead. “You stand here today at the beginning of your medical education, but it won’t end in four years, or seven years, or even after residency. It continues every day of your career,” Rothman said.

During his remarks, Rothman also recognized a group of fourth-year students who were selected recently for membership in the Gold Humanism Honor Society, a national honor society that celebrates medical students who are chosen by classmates, faculty and staff for their compassion, caring and dedication. “These students certainly will serve as role models over the coming year,” he said.

In his keynote address, Williams noted that wearing the white coat means both great opportunities and great responsibilities. “Student physicians, you are about to embark on a fantastic voyage that will allow you to become a physician and a full member of an honored profession,” he said. “Make no mistake that while sometimes we are led to believe that the American people are dubious about ‘doctors’ in general, they very highly respect and appreciate their own personal physician.”

Williams also addressed health care reform, noting that responsible action by patients, physicians, lawmakers, health insurance companies and industry hopefully will lead to workable solutions. “The most important point, however, is that as American health care changes, the basic fundamental principles of why we wear the white coat and became physicians will not change — we are there to provide competent and compassionate care to our patients.”

Following Williams’ speech, each member of the class of 2013 was called to the stage to ceremonially don her or his white coat and receive congratulations from the assembled dignitaries. The ceremony culminated in the students reciting the Oath of Hippocrates, led by Rothman:

I do solemnly swear by that which I hold most sacred;

That I will be loyal to the profession of medicine and just and generous to all;

That I will lead my life and practice my art in uprightness and honor;

That into whatsoever house I shall enter, it shall be for the good of the sick to the utmost of my power, I, holding myself aloof from wrong, from corruption, and from the temptation of others to vice;

That I will exercise my art solely for the cure of my patients, and will give no drug, perform no operation for a criminal purpose, even if solicited, and far less suggest such a thing;

That whatsoever I shall see or hear of the lives of others which is not fitting to be spoken, I will keep inviolably secret;

These things I do I promise, and in proportion as I am faithful to this, my oath, may happiness and good repute be ever mine — the opposite if I shall be foresworn.

In addition to this new role, Asprey will continue as the director of the College’s Physician Assistant Program, a position he has held since 1998.

Over the course of his tenure at the University of Iowa, Asprey was named Physician Assistant of the Year by the Iowa Physician Assistant Society and received the President’s Award from the Association of PA Programs. He also received a UI Collegiate Teaching Award and has been recognized as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants since 2007.

Asprey succeeds Cathy Solow, who left the College last May to become associate dean for student affairs with the UI College of Dentistry.

Jennifer Miller Meyer is learning this firsthand.

She is part of a group of students enrolled in the College’s Service Distinction Track, a unique program that recognizes students who work extensively with medically underserved, marginalized, or rural populations.

Miller Meyer, M4, recently returned from a second trip to Mazatlan, Mexico on the Pacific coast, where she is working to deliver nutrition- and diabetes-education materials to residents of some of the city’s poorer and medically underserved neighborhoods.

“Most people think of Mazatlan as a resort town and tourist destination,” Miller Meyer said, “but when I first traveled to the area as part of a medical mission with my church, I was struck by the health disparities among many of its residents. I wanted to go back and find ways to expand upon what the church is doing.”

For several years, the Vineyard Community Church in Iowa City has organized medical service trips to Mazatlan, led by Bill Iverson, MD, UI faculty member in internal medicine, and Katie Iverson, PA-C, a UI physician assistant in emergency medicine. Partnering with her church, on her most recent trip Miller Meyer conducted a preliminary survey to learn more about the dietary habits and health of residents in the neighborhoods the church serves. Her plan is to develop educational materials that she will deliver on return trips to the area, beginning in September.

This fall will mark the fourth year of the Service Distinction Track, which resulted from a dialogue between students and collegiate leaders, noted Penny Rembolt, program associate in the Office of Student Affairs and Curriculum (OSAC) and co-coordinator of the program.

“Our students initiated the discussions and really pushed for this, but not for personal recognition or something to add to their diplomas,” Rembolt said. “The College has had a well-established research distinction track for several years, and students felt it was equally important to recognize a commitment to service with a formal program and support structure.”

Rembolt noted that many medical students bring a wealth of volunteer experience from their undergraduate years and see service as an inherent part of the medical profession.

Community service and social justice issues have always mattered to Miller Meyer, and the Service Distinction Track is a way to put her interests into action.

“One of the things that drew me to medical school at Iowa was the support the College has shown for students interested in service,” Miller Meyer said. “The Service Distinction Track validates what I want to do, but it’s also made look deeper into myself and think about why I want to do this.”

Many medical schools encourage service and volunteerism among its students, but the College’s program is unique in that it’s “ahead of the curve,” said Gerry Wickham, curriculum coordinator for the clinical years and co-coordinator of the service track.

“The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national accreditation agency, last year initiated a stipulation that medical schools must provide service-learning opportunities for students,” Wickham said. “It will be interesting to see LCME’s feedback when the College begins its re-accreditation process in the fall, but I’d argue that we have a pretty good model for how to do this. That’s a credit to Penny and Helen Damon-Moore before me – we now have three years under our belts, and it’s been well received.”

Rembolt and Wickham stressed that service distinction is more than a name-only designation – it’s a rigorous program.

Specific Service Distinction Track guidelines and other details are available here, but it’s worth noting that students who enroll in the program are required to:

- Identify and work with a faculty mentor who will guide the student throughout the program;

- Gain clinical experience with underserved populations;

- Perform volunteer service with the Iowa City Free Medical Clinic, or other approved clinical experience;

- Develop and complete a fourth-year capstone project, which includes a scholarly paper and final presentation of the project.

Health education, policy development, course electives, or other clinical activities also are options for fulfilling service track requirements, as approved by the Service Distinction Track Council, comprised of students, faculty, and community members.

“The Service Distinction Track requires students to perform above and beyond their normal workloads. Ultimately, this benefits both the students and the communities and people they’re serving,” Rembolt said.

Opportunities for volunteerism and service are available to all students regardless of the service track, she added, noting the multidisciplinary, student-run Mobile Clinic and outreach and fundraising activities that are organized with the College’s four Learning Communities.

Currently, there are 14 students from the Class of 2010 enrolled in the Service Distinction Track, and around 20 students each from the 2009 M1 and M2 classes.

Starting this fall, the students will benefit from a $20,000 gift to the UI Foundation from the John R. Wright and Eloise Mountain Wright Foundation that

“The gift will provide small grants to help cover printed materials and other costs associated with the students’ capstone projects,” Wickham said. “Plus, it will give students experience in administering a small grant, which is a boon to the track.”

For Yolanda Villalvazo, a graduate of the Class of 2009, participating in the Service Distinction Track helped her stay connected to where she’s been. And where she’s going.

Villalvazo’s project focused on women’s health education and health screenings for migrant Latino farm workers. Working with Proteus, an Iowa-based nonprofit organization that serves workers who lack access to health care and who face language barriers, Villalvazo connected with migrant workers living near Williamsburg, Iowa. For three summers, she led a series of education sessions for the women in the migrant camp.

She also fostered a partnership between Proteus and the Mobile Clinic, ensuring continued women’s health sessions and additional health clinics for all the migrant workers after she completed her project.

“My family was a migrant family, and my parents are still farm workers in California, so it’s a lifestyle I’ve known,” said Villalvazo, who is beginning a residency in internal medicine in Phoenix, Ariz.

“I’ve always had a sense of wanting to help the underserved,” she continued, “and this was a way for me to keep in touch with this population while I was in Iowa. In the moments when med school got tough, I was able to connect with what I know. It helped reaffirm what I was doing, and it helped keep me on track. It was a very rewarding experience.”

Skhal, 32, died suddenly on June 16. 

She was a clinical education librarian at the Hardin Library for Health Sciences who was highly regarded for her expertise in critical appraisal and evaluation, for her leadership in the library’s teaching activities and its Simulation Center, and for her work as a reference librarian.

At the Carver College of Medicine, Skhal facilitated Case-Based Learning, a small-group experience for M1 students, and she was active across the curriculum — teaching students, residents, and small-group facilitators about search strategies to use when researching medical conditions and patient diagnoses, and how to conduct critical appraisals of medical literature. To that end, Skhal was involved with the clinical clerkships in helping design literature-appraisal exercises and teaching these skills to students during their clinical years. She also played a key role in initiating and designing the ICON research pages for courses and clerkships. 

Skhal also worked on the regional level of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in the Central Group on Educational Affairs, organizing the clinical librarian group. In addition, she served as a tutor for a course offered by McMaster University. The course was an international workshop for medical educators on teaching evidence-based clinical practice with a focus on quality improvement and assurance.

Online condolences for Skhal can be made at Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service.

Gwen Beck, MD, clinical associate professor in internal medicine, and Adam Ziemann, M4, were named the 2009 recipients of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, sponsored by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The award honors a faculty member and a student who demonstrate the highest standards of respect and sensitivity in their interactions with patients, colleagues, and the public.

The Humanism in Medicine event also recognized this year’s inductees to the Gold Humanism Honor Society – fourth-year students who have demonstrated exemplary attitudes and behaviors characteristic of the most caring physicians. The College was one of the first medical schools to establish a Gold Humanism Honor Society chapter in 2002, and today is among more than 75 medical colleges with GHHS chapters.

This year’s inductees include Julie Ames, Guiselle Clark, Lyndsey Day, Ajay Eshcol, Luke Espelund, Jonathan Heath, Andrea Huang, Sahib Khalsa, Katy Liu, Thomas Pietras, Brad Randles, Rachael Rickertsen, Aimée Rivers, Thomas Staley, Bryan Steussy, Yolanda Villalvazo, Jamie Wallace, Anne Wilson, and Adam Ziemann.

Six medical residents also were honored with Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Awards, as selected by the M3 class: Alison Agner, Jessica Kresowik, Erin Lehman, and Jennifer Steines, all residents in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Sandy Fang and Bob Hanfland, both residents in Surgery.

Fady Joudah

Suzanne Poirier

Med Ed Update asked UI undergraduate students Jamie Hansen and Jarrett Hothan – student writers/interns with UI Health Care Marketing and Communications – to each cover one of the plenary sessions of the conference, “The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine,” held April 29-May 1 at the Carver College of Medicine, and to write about what they took away from the presentations.

Hansen attended “Holding Power: Between Pen and Scalpel,” by physician and poet Fady Joudah, while Hothan sat in on “Doctors in the Making: Memoirs and Medical Education” by Suzanne Poirier, professor emerita of literature and medical education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Following are the students’ write-ups:

Fady Joudah: Reflections on Darfur

Fady Joudah did not go to the Darfur region in Sudan because it is the hotbed of suffering and political turmoil. He went, he said, because Doctors Without Borders deploys ready physicians to wherever needed.

Joudah, an emergency medicine specialist and a field member of Doctors Without Borders since 2001, focused on his experiences in Darfur and his life as a doctor and poet as part of his “Examined Life” presentation, “Holding Power: Between Pen and Scalpel.”

“Once I arrived in Darfur, I was completely shocked,” Joudah said. “It made me realize we live in a human culture obsessed with the classification of suffering.”

Joudah explained to his audience a map of Darfur and surrounding regions and where he lived and worked. The country’s population is predominantly Muslim, and people are mainly nomadic agrarians. Fierce competition for resources spurs wars between animal herders versus farmers, he noted.

While practicing medicine, Joudah said he often came across a long list of common ailments, such as jaundice, hepatitis, malnutrition, marasmus, tuberculosis, rabies, severe dehydration, and depression. The makeshift camp where he worked alongside other doctors and nurses had the capacity to perform blood transfusions, and the practitioners would drive once a week in their mobile clinic to treat distant patients.

“How do you know who to help first? Three hundred people would show up at the mobile clinic,” Joudah said. “How do you make sure you do not miss a child who might be dead by next week?”

Throughout his slideshow, Joudah told stories of the people featured in the pictures. However, only one photograph – of a lone military boot – represented the soldiers that Joudah encountered. He was not allowed to photograph any military personnel while in Darfur, and said he treated soldiers from “this side, that side, whoever needed help.”

Joudah noted that soldiers drove recklessly through town, sometimes hitting children or donkeys, or crashing and flipping their vehicles. He witnessed two trucks speeding toward one another, and when neither yielded the road to the other, both crashed. Joudah said the injured soldiers were suddenly transformed into frightened teenagers, crying for their mothers.

“I cannot say this kind of interaction as a physician does not mess you up. It has done that to me,” he said.

In another photograph, Joudah showed an infant with the clearly visible circles of four burn marks on his back. A local caregiver had attempted to shock the child’s system with burns to cure his severe diarrhea.

“We aren’t taught enough about our own barbarism in medicine, what we do in the ICU in name of human life,” Joudah said. “Thinking of that puts a different spin on this photo and the desperation of the child’s mother to try this approach.”

Joudah said a friend called his use of the term “barbarism” troublesome, but Joudah countered, “If I call all of us, all humans, barbaric, I think using the term is ok.”

He said one of his main concerns after returning to the United States was how to represent his experiences with thought-provoking depth instead of short-lived writing for consumers. Joudah turned to poetry, and his collection, The Earth in the Attic tackles his life-altering experiences in Darfur.  To conclude his presentation, Joudah read aloud one of his poems, “Moon Grass Rain.”

“The nurse giving mouth to mouth, bent over, in the back of the bumping jeep, the infant dying of heart failure, the taste of froth in the lungs,” he read.

Joudah won the 2007 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition for The Earth in the Attic. He grew up in Libya and Saudi Arabia, and later moved to the United States to study medicine. Joudah completed his residency at the University of Texas, and continues to practice as an emergency physician in Houston.

– Jamie Hansen

Suzanne Poirier: Mining Emotion

During Suzanne Poirier’s talk, “Doctors in the Making: Memoirs and Medical Education, an audience member shared a favorite quote heard while in medical school:

If you bury your feelings, you bury them alive.

Poirier’s contribution to “The Examined Life” conference took that idea head on. Her presentation, “Doctors in the Making: Memoirs and Medical Education,” looked at the emotional impact of medical education by examining diaries, journals, and blog entries of medical students. Her findings were shocking, sad, and informative, and they delved into the emotional evolution of the students.

Over her 25 years at the University of Illinois-Chicago, Poirier has taught students in nursing, medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry. After retiring, she began work on the “Memoirs and Medical Education” project while in Iowa City.

“I’m interested in emotions and the emotional process,” Poirier told the audience. “I know the emotions exist and are real, but a lot of people don’t want to talk about it. They’re frightened.”

When examining the writings of the medical students, she noticed significant patterns and themes that kept bubbling up in the over 40 blogs and books explored. Problems were divided into two categories. “Explicit” problems dealt with tangible dilemmas like health and fitness, workloads, and the behaviors of teachers. “Implicit” content was a little deeper – themes of power and cultural differences, feelings of vulnerability, and relationships. Poirier was quick to point out that medical education can’t be blamed for all the angst, but nevertheless was a present source of the stress on the students.

Before the conference, the author and scholar made it clear how valuable an event like “The Examined Life” is to people interested in both writing and medicine.

“I think it’s a great conference,” Poirier said. “I think that conferences like this can help us think more fully and clearly about all the things that writing might, and might not, be able to accomplish.”

– Jarrett Hothan

The conference will feature presentations by physicians, writers, and scholars from across the nation exploring the links between creative writing and medicine. The program also includes skill-building sessions on writing, editing and publishing, a poster session and book fair, attendees’ readings, and a tour of the John Martin Rare Book Room at the Hardin Library for Health Sciences.

This is the third year the College has hosted “The Examined Life,” and the conference has grown in terms of its scope and content, noted Margaret LeMay-Lewis, director of the College’s Writing Program. “We are pleased that the program will once again bring faculty, staff, and students from institutions nationwide as well as from different parts of the University of Iowa together at the Carver College of Medicine for an interdisciplinary dialogue,” she said.

Registration is required for all concurrent conference sessions and meals, but keynote presentations and plenary sessions are free and open to the public. These events include:

– “The Music, Art and Ethics of Suffering,” April 29, featuring UI director of jazz studies John Rapson; Chicago-based artist, musician and teacher Tim Grubbs Lowly; and University of Michigan bioethicist and author Raymond De Vries.

– “Holding Power: Between Pen and Scalpel,” April 30, by Palestinian-American physician and poet Fady Joudah.

– “Doctors in the Making: Memoirs and Medical Education,” April 30, by Suzanne Poirier, professor emerita of literature and medical education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

– “Fiction and the Examined Life,” April 30, by UI Writers’ Workshop faculty member and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson.

– “For Whom Do We Write,” May 1, by Danielle Ofri, physician and professor at Bellevue Hospital and New York University School of Medicine, and editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Bellevue Literary Review.

– “Healing or Not, Here WE Come: Creative Writing and Disability,” May 1, by Stephen Kuusisto, author, essayist and poet, and a UI faculty member with appointments in the Department of English and the Carver College of Medicine.

Conference details, locations and registration are available online.

In addition to the Carver College of Medicine, UI sponsors of the conference include the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Department of Pathology, the Program in Bioethics and Humanities, the Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry, the International Writing Program, the UI Press, and Wild Rose Books at UI Hospitals and Clinics. Additional sponsors include Central College in Pella, Iowa, and MidWestOne Bank.

Each year, students present Teacher of the Year, Resident of the Year, and Outstanding Faculty/Staff Contribution to the Student Body awards to individuals who exemplify the best in teaching and commitment to medical education.

This year’s event also included the first Ben Pardini Interdisciplinary Teaching Award in honor of the late Benet Pardini, PhD, MPAS, the former faculty director of the Flocks learning community who died in October 2008.

Here’s a listing of the award recipients:

M1 Teacher of the Year:
Darren Hoffman, PhD, lecturer in anatomy and cell biology

M2 Teacher of the Year:
Ramesh Nair, MD, clinical assistant professor of pathology

M3 Teacher of the Year, Junior Faculty:
Jill Endres, MD, clinical assistant professor of family medicine

M3 Teacher of the Year, Senior Faculty:
Kimberly Ephgrave, MD, professor of surgery

M3 Resident of the Year:
Erin Lehman, MD, third-year resident in obstetrics and gynecology

M4 Teacher of the Year, Junior Faculty:
Wael El Maraachli, MD, associate in internal medicine

M4 Teacher of the Year, Senior Faculty:
Harold Adams, MD, professor of neurology

M4 Resident of the Year:
Andrea Potash, MD, second-year resident in otolaryngology

Outstanding Faculty/Staff Contribution to the Student Body Award:
Virginia Woodard, PhD, Office of Student Affairs and Curriculum

Ben Pardini Interdisciplinary Teaching Award:
Jane Rowat, MS, Department of Internal Medicine

The College’s Student Government Student Advocacy Committee coordinates the student awards process. Teacher of the Year and Resident of the Year award winners were selected based on popular vote by the individual classes. The committee determined the recipients of the Ben Pardini Award and the Outstanding Faculty/Staff Contribution Award, based on nominations submitted by students.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for students to honor those faculty, staff, and residents who go above and beyond to educate, mentor, and inspire the next generation of physicians and physician assistants,” said M3 Pat McGonagill, Student Advocacy Committee chairperson. “We are happy to recognize those who do so much to shape our futures.”

Each learning community selected five recipients for Leadership Awards, given to students for their roles within their learning communities – serving on committees, participating in service projects, and mentoring and tutoring fellow students, for example.

Eleven students received Carver College of Medicine Student Government Awards for their demonstrated excellence in service and leadership.

Leadership Award winners:

Bean Community:
Nusayba Bagegni, M3
Erika Levis, M3
Laura Schrader, M3
Catharyn Turner, M3
Emily Wagstrom, M3

Boulware Community:
Jen Delfs, M3
Lyndsay Harshman, M2
Abby Luensmann, M3
Pat McGonagill, M3
Rachel Sandler, M3

Flocks Community:
Tony Cyr, M3
Jessica Enns, M3
Mendy McFarland, M3
Kate McKenna, M3
Jenni Paisley, M3

McCowen Community:
Stephanie Egts, M3
Dan Givens, M4
Jennifer Miller-Meyer, M3
Brad Schoch, M3
Stephanie Theisen, M3

Carver College of Medicine Student Government Award winners:
Benjamin Bryden, M1
Mariel Bryden, M1
Ryan Conway, M2
Tony Cyr, M3
Stephanie Egts, M3
Ajay Eschol, M4
Mark Hoegger, M2
Annette Lopez, M3
Emma Mohr, M4
Drew Nelson, M2
Jamie Wallace, M4