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Volume
6, Issue 2
June 2011
Sponsored by: The John A. Hartford Foundation, MetLife Foundation, The National Institute on Aging, and the Lillian R. Gleitsman Foundation.
Administered by: The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
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This online newsletter provides news, information, and updates about the Medical Student Research Training in Aging (MSTAR) Program to program directors, current and former student scholars, mentors, and others involved in the program.
PLEASE HELP US DISSEMINATE THIS NEWSLETTER to medical students and others in your institution. It is one of the best ways to promote this valuable program to potential applicants. Thank you!
____________________________________ 1. 2011 MSTAR Awardees Already Hard at Work ____________________________________________
2011
MSTAR Awardees Already Hard at Work The newest batch of MSTAR Scholars have begun working on their summer
research projects. A total of 142 students were selected as 2011 Scholars from
a pool of 182 applicants. Ninety-seven awardees are conducting their research
at National Training Centers, while 45 are being privately funded. Visit our website for a list of the 2011 MSTAR Scholars
. Congratulations to all of the awardees!
_____________________________________________ 2011 AGS Annual Scientific Meeting About 2,500 geriatrics
health care professionals attended this year’s American Geriatrics Society
(AGS) Annual Scientific Meeting, which took place May 11 to 14 in National
Harbor, Maryland. AFAR would like to thank the AGS for organizing another
amazing event and for underwriting a portion of the travel stipends so that
MSTAR students could attend the meeting. Several 2010 MSTAR Scholars presented
their summer research at the meeting. Salman Ahmed, a third-year student at
Baylor College of Medicine, prepared a poster of his study on how high-fat
diets negatively affect hearing. “It was my first time presenting a poster at
a scientific conference and I was a bit nervous beforehand,” says Ahmed. “But
my poster was well-received, and I felt good about my research as
something meaningful.”
UCLA medical student Victoria King
presented her research on how altered circadian temperature rhythms may
influence behavioral symptoms in nursing home residents with dementia. “It was
so great to meet people who were genuinely interested in my work and willing
to exchange ideas, King says. “I think that is one of the benefits of a poster
session—it lends itself to a more collaborative atmosphere.”
Another 2010 MSTAR Scholar, Siobhan
Case, won a Clinical Student Research Award for her work evaluating the
effectiveness of certain tools in helping older adults make treatment
decisions in terms of global, rather than disease-specific, health outcomes.
“I was surprised and honored to receive the award,” says Case. “MSTAR was a
formative experience for me. I couldn’t have been more excited to share my
work with a larger audience at the AGS conference.”
Case won a $500 travel stipend to
attend the annual meeting. AFAR would like to congratulate her for this
wonderful achievement!
The 2012 annual meeting is set to take place in Seattle, Washington.
_____________________________________________ AFAR's "Diary of an MSTAR Student" Beginning
this month, AFAR will feature a regular “Diary of an MSTAR Student” on our Web
site. We request that MSTAR Scholars participate in the project by submitting
personal, day-in-the-life blog entries about their experiences. We hope the
blog will serve to inspire others considering careers in medicine—as well as
the general public and journalists—about the importance of geriatrics.
MSTAR Scholars: Please submit three entries through
the course of your MSTAR program—one in the first two weeks of the program (if
possible), the second at the midpoint of your experience, and the third at the
conclusion of your MSTAR placement. Entries must not exceed 700 words.
We hope many of you will participate and put your
writing skills to creative use! For inspiration, please read 2010 MSTAR
Scholar Daniel Butler’s account of his experience. And stay tuned to the AFAR
website for the upcoming installments of “Diary of an MSTAR
Student”!
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Spotlight on a National Training Center
In 2010, the MSTAR program added a new National
Training Center: University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
(UTHSCSA). The institution offers 16 MSTAR positions, with six of the
positions available at University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).
Because of its location, the UTHSCSA/UTMT National
Training Center has a large focus on Hispanic clinicians and on
Hispanic-related research.
Sandra Sanchez-Reilly, MD—Associate Professor and
Palliative Medicine Section Chief in the Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology
and Palliative Medicine—is the MSTAR program director at UTHSCSA. Tony
DiNuzzo, PhD—Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal
Medicine-Geriatrics and Director of the East Texas Geriatric Education
Center-Consortium—is the MSTAR program director at UTMB. Dr. Sanchez-Reilly
and Dr. DiNuzzo answered a few questions about the MSTAR program at their
institutions.
Dr. DiNuzzo: Our School of Medicine
doesn’t offer a lot of clinical geriatrics. There’s a four-week rotation in
there, and that’s maybe incorporated as part of a larger course. So the MSTAR
program is a great venue for our medical students to get more exposure to
geriatrics—not just research, but medical exposure. Having MSTAR is a really
good supplement to what the School of Medicine offers the students. Dr. Sanchez-Reilly: It went very well.
We had six MSTAR students. Two of them are in our MD/PhD program. They will be
receiving independent grant funding from the National Institute on Aging. All
six students presented their research at the AGS annual meeting. Three of them
presented at the presidential poster session. One of our students, Danielle
Victor, won the best research award in the presidential poster session for the
geriatric syndromes category. So the MSTAR program was very well received. It
was wonderful. Dr. Sanchez-Reilly: We have the
Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. It’s an outstanding aging
research program with world-renowned researchers. They’re doing all sorts of
research—basic science, translational research, and clinical research in
aging. So we have many amazing mentors available for the students. Dr. DiNuzzo: We have a very strong
aging research program that’s extremely diverse. We can cover subjects such as
cancer research and minority aging research. We have a Claude D. Pepper
Center—a national center funded by NIA—that focuses on muscle function and
independence for older adults. On the biomedical side, we have lots of good
procedures and people who really know what they’re doing and are nationally
known in the field. And on the clinical side, we have our Acute Care of the
Elderly (ACE) unit. That’s our living research laboratory. The diversity of
the projects that the students can choose from is huge. We have a tremendous
number of mentors who are really into the program and understand the value of
the mentoring process. We have poster session awards. We have the National
Student Research Forum. Dr. Sanchez-Reilly: We combine
clinical activities with educational sessions. We expose MSTAR students to
different clinical venues, such as nursing homes, clinics, and hospitals. The
students get to actually care for older adults and see what the life of a
geriatrician is about. In addition, through educational sessions, we focus on
how to do good research, what it takes to be a geriatrician, whether
geriatricians are happy, and what paths students can take to be in the
academic world. So we try to give them a whole exposure of activities. Dr. DiNuzzo: We’ve set up a weekly
MSTAR Lunch Lecture. Speakers come in specifically to talk to the MSTAR
students. We cover interesting things such as how you get into a research
project, what’s available in terms of funding, and how to make your proposals
the best you can. We’ve set up writing classes to help the MSTAR students with
their project reports. A science editor works with the students to help them
with their writing. We have a bio-statistical team so we can help the students
with their data analysis. We have things that are mandatory and some that are
optional. We don’t expect the students to do everything, because the focus
really is their research project. But they’re just so excited and interested
in being part of whatever we offer them. Even the things that aren’t
mandatory, they’ll show up to. I’m real pleased with the program. What are your plans and hopes for the future of
the MSTAR program at your institution? Dr. Sanchez-Reilly: We just want to
continue building the program. We are doing all of this because we want to
continue to feed the pipeline of geriatrics researchers and clinicians
to serve our older adults better. There is a big shortage of geriatricians in
the country, and the need is crucial for them. Dr. DiNuzzo: I really hope we get more
students from outside of UTMB. I’d also love to have more MSTAR students in
general. I know that if we had more slots and more support, especially
administrative, we would be able to take on more students.
_____________________________________________ MSTAR Scholar
Success Story: Betty Lim, MD The summer of 1999 was a turning point
for Betty Lim, MD. That’s when Dr. Lim—then a medical student at SUNY
Buffalo—took part in the MSTAR program (called the Medical Student Geriatrics
Scholars Program at the time) at UCLA Medical Center. She credits that
experience with sparking her interest in
geriatrics.
Dr. Lim, now an assistant professor at
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, went on to forge a unique niche within the
field of geriatrics—she specializes in geriatric palliative care in a
long-term setting. Dr. Lim is Director of the Integrated Palliative Medicine
Fellowship at Mount Sinai’s Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute. She also
received a Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation Award to develop a
palliative care program at the Jewish Home Lifecare nursing home, of which she
now serves as director.
Last month, Dr. Lim gave a symposium on
palliative care nursing homes at the AGS Annual Meeting. She also spoke with
us about her work, the field of geriatrics, and how the MSTAR program helped
shape her career.
What role did MSTAR play in
your career? Very few learners ever get exposed to a
nursing home setting. For me, it was love at first sight! I went into medical
school not thinking that I wanted to do geriatrics. I’d always been very
interested in the elderly population, but I didn’t even know the field existed
until I got to UCLA and was surrounded by extremely like-minded people. I fell
in love with geriatrics. After that summer, I was one of the few medical
students who knew exactly what I wanted to do—not just geriatrics, but nursing
home geriatrics.
How did people respond to that
interest? What else did you love about the MSTAR
program? Why do you think so many
medical students are hesitant to try geriatrics?
What do you love about
geriatrics? Caring for the elderly is challenging,
but not because they’re hard to work with. It’s that the health care system we
work in makes it very difficult to deliver good care to them. That’s part of
the frustration. But if you work with people who truly love caring for the
elderly, you will see all of the reasons why it’s worth your time and your
effort.
Why is it so important for medical
students to be exposed to geriatrics? Do you think more students are getting
this exposure now, compared to when you were a student? Why are you so passionate about nursing
home care? Any other reflections on your career
and MSTAR? _____________________________________________
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is proud to support the MSTAR program
in partnership with the John A. Hartford and MetLife foundations. Through our
joint efforts and key administrative support from AFAR, MSTAR programs are
being supported at six national training centers and their partner sites from
2010 to 2015:
2. 2011 AGS Scientific Meeting
3. AFAR's "Diary of an MSTAR Student"
4. Spotlight on a National Training Center: UTHSCSA/UTMB
5. MSTAR Scholar Success Story: Betty Lim, MD
6. Greetings from the National Institute on Aging
7. Helpful Links /
Geriatrics Recruitment and Student Opportunities
We plan to rotate entries on a regular basis. AFAR may also use
students’ musings for other promotional materials, including the annual
report, newsletters, and more. For more information on the “Diary of an MSTAR
Student”, or if you have any questions, please contact KK Apple at KK@afar.org.
How is the MSTAR program a good fit for
your institution?
Dr. Sanchez-Reilly: We have many
students interested in research. We also have a Clinical and Translational
Science Award, so we’re focusing much more on research. And we have a newly
established MD with Distinction in Research degree, as well as an MD/PhD
program that’s relatively new. So those match very nicely with the MSTAR
program.
Last summer was the first for the MSTAR
program at your institution. How did it go?
Dr. DiNuzzo
: We took on two MSTAR students from the University of Puerto Rico,
which was a wonderful cultural and learning experience for us and for them. We
learned what we needed to do to get the students set up and comfortable in a
new environment. We set the students up with several different kinds of
clinical training exposures as well as their research projects. And I think
that was really an eye opener for them.
What makes your institution a great
national training center for MSTAR students?
What are you offering this year’s MSTAR
students in addition to their research projects as part of their summer
experience?
It led me to exactly what I do now. My project was on
under-nutrition in the elderly. I monitored how nursing home residents ate,
then compared the accuracy of what nursing home staff documented—and it was
not accurate.
For the rest of my medical career, it freaked out a lot
of my mentors. Back then, geriatrics was not even on anyone’s radar. I really
had to fight to be able to do anything in geriatrics, let alone nursing homes.
It was not something that was easily offered to medical students or residents.
Throughout the rest of medical school and residency I was paving my own way.
I enjoyed being exposed to people who were actually making a
career doing something I loved, and were the foremost leaders in it. They were
very innovative and did everything I wanted to do with the elderly
population—be a champion and an advocate for them. Dr. Joseph Ouslander was in
his last months at UCLA before he moved on to Emory. Dr. David Reuben, who is
the chief of the geriatrics division at UCLA, was also one of the mentors. So
was Dr. David Solomon, one of the pioneers in geriatrics. They were creating
the research to back up policies and coming up with theories to enhance
quality of life. They were amazing role models. There’s no way I would have
ever gotten that level of exposure, and I would not have been enticed to this
field, if not for MSTAR.
I think medical students are
exposed to interns, residents, and attendings who cringe at taking care of old
people. They in turn learn that this is not a desirable population: It’s
difficult, it’s challenging, it’s unrewarding. However, if the students
actually get to work with people who exclusively work with older adults, the
vibe that most geriatricians have is completely different. I think it’s a very
contagious vibe. We all love what we do. We do not approach a geriatric
patient with dread.
Caring for the elderly
is one of the utmost rewarding experiences ever. Geriatric patients have lived
this long, so they must have contributed something to society, and now they
are often extremely vulnerable. They are so deserving of a very dignified and
respectful approach to caring for them. And to be able to deliver quality care
to them will give you the most amazing satisfaction.
The majority of the workload of any
specialty, except pediatrics, includes geriatric patients. No matter what you
do—surgery, anesthesia—you are going to be dealing with geriatric patients. So
if you care about what you do, you’d better get the skills necessary to take
care of them. You have to understand the physiology and the functional
limitations. And you have to understand how the health care system works for
or against the elderly, and work around it. It’s crucial. It’s going to be the
survival of our health care system.
The Association for
American Medical Colleges now has an approved set of geriatric competencies
that it expects every medical school graduate to achieve. That was only
published a few years ago, and it’s ground-breaking. It means there has to be
an increase in exposure, and at least in awareness, of the field among
students. I also think all of the specialties out there are slowly but surely
recognizing the need for increased geriatric education exposure. We now have
core competencies for the field of emergency medicine, and geriatric emergency
rooms are opening up everywhere. That’s definitely a move in the right
direction.
The nursing home population is growing. With hospitals across
the country reducing their lengths of stay, thousands of hospital staff are
sending people who are not ready to go home yet into nursing homes—but they
have absolutely no idea what’s on the other side. How can we function in a
system where we make plans for people to go to a place that few people have
ever set foot in? It’s a real tragedy and a huge problem for our health care.
I love the MSTAR program!
It got me my start. I’m very lucky to now
work alongside great geriatrics colleagues, and to be working in a nursing home
where there are hundreds of patients. And now as the
fellowship director, I get to expose another group of learners
to the beauties of long-term care geriatrics. It’s amazing!
Greetings from the National Institute on Aging
• Harvard Medical School (Boston University, University of
Mississippi)
• University of Texas Health Science Center at San
Antonio (University of Texas Medical Branch)
• Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine
• University of California, San Diego
School of Medicine
• University of North Carolina School of Medicine
• University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of
Medicine (University of California, San Francisco; University of Colorado;
University of Washington)
Our collective immediate goal is to provide salary and stipend support
to first- and second-year medical students for eight to 12 weeks, during which
they receive hands-on and didactic training in clinical geriatrics and aging
research. Through our collaboration, MSTAR students have the opportunity to
present their research findings at national meetings, including the AGS Annual
Meeting.
Long term, our goal is to ensure that there are sufficient
numbers of geriatricians and clinical researchers in geriatrics and aging to
support the care and treatment of the increasing numbers of adults aged 65 and
older in the U.S.
We hope your participation in the MSTAR program will be
just the beginning of a career as a clinical investigator. NIA has several
programs to sustain your research and training at many points along your path
to a career in geriatrics. One is the NIH Loan Repayment Program.
Did You Know?
Health professionals who have
doctoral-level degrees and are conducting biomedical or behavioral research
funded by domestic nonprofit or government organizations may be eligible for
up to $35,000 of NIH educational loan repayment per year. Each year,
more than 1,600 researchers receive contracts from the NIH Loan Repayment
Programs (LRPs). A short-term program evaluation has shown that participants
in these programs stay in research careers longer, apply for and receive more
research grants, and are more likely to become independent investigators than
their peers who do not receive LRP funding.
Opportunities are available in the following areas: Clinical Research,
Pediatric Research, Health Disparities Research, Clinical Research for
Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds, and Contraception and Infertility
Research.
Visit www.lrp.nih.gov for
more information on LRP benefits and eligibility requirements. For information
on research programs and other training opportunities in aging and geriatric
research, visit www.nia.nih.gov.
_____________________________________________
Helpful Links /
Geriatrics Recruitment and Student Opportunities
AGS Mentoring Programs:
www.americangeriatrics.org/health_care_professionals/trainees/find_a_mentor/
Profiles of careers in geriatrics:
www.americangeriatrics.org/health_care_professionals/profiles_in_geriatrics/
AGS student chapters and other information for medical students:
www.americangeriatrics.org/health_care_professionals/trainees/student_resident_chapters/
American Medical Student Association (AMSA)
Geriatrics Interest Group:
www.amsa.org/AMSA/Homepage/About/Committees/Geriatrics.aspx
American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC)
Organization of Student Representatives:
www.aamc.org/members/osr/
AAMC Careers in Medicine program, which helps students
select a specialty and apply to residency:
www.services.aamc.org/careersinmedicine/
John A. Hartford Foundation:
www.jhartfound.org/
Health AGEnda Blog:
www.jhartfound.org/blog
GeriPal
- A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog:
www.geripal.org/
MSTAR information and online application:
www.afar.org/research/funding/mstar
www.afar.org/news/posts
MSTAR Toolkit:
www.afar.org/home/view/mstar-toolkit
MSTAR Toolkit:
www.afar.org/home/view/mstar-toolkit
Follow AFAR and the John A. Hartford Foundation on Facebook and Twitter!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/American-Federation-for-Aging-Research/99609705506
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-John-A-Hartford-Foundation/108070747107
http://twitter.com/#!/JHARTFOUND
_____________________________________________
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