Making a medical difference

Second-year students at Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine (BCOM) worked individually and in groups to create 21 projects for BCOM’s 2023 Medical Student Research Day, held Saturday, Aug. 12, at BCOM on the New Mexico State University campus.

Emily C. Muhlenhaupt won first place for her research project, titled “Preventative Effect of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Use and Impact of Floor Exercise Equipment on Achilles Tendon Ruptures in Female Collegiate Gymnasts.”

Page Shipman took second place for her research project, “Quantification of Budesonide Retained in the Sinonasal Cavity After High Volume Saline Irrigation in Post-Operative Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Healthy Subjects.”

Taking third place were Onyinyechi G. Nwosu and Megan E. Sampath for their research project, “Healthcare Provider Perceptions and Behaviors May Have influenced HPV Vaccine Up Take in the El Paso/Doña Ana County Community.”

Other abstracts that placed in the top six were “Translating a Historic Fluorometric Assay to Measure Cortisol Concentrations into the 21^st Century,” by Rami Radwan and Lillian Wang; “Observations from a Post-Radical Mastectomy Cadaver: Radical Mastectomy Too Radical?” by Rose-Mary Colon, Andie Evans, Mohini Vadalia and Victoria Vicuña; and “Utilization of ChatGPT to Enhance Medical Education,” by Maha Ali, Nicolas Hunt, Khanhtran Anna Levu and Samuel Stewart.

The program was hosted by Harald M. Stauss, M.D., Ph.D., who is BCOM’s assistant dean for research and professor of physiology and pathology, left, and Joseph Benoit, Ph.D., BCOM professor of pharmacology and director of student research.

The event’s keynote speaker was Analia S. Loria-Kinsey, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology and nutritional sciences at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Her topic was “The Opioid Crisis and Childhood Adversity in America: What Are We Overlooking?”

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