____________________________________________________________________

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,

LOS ANGELES

IMPACTPREP/RAP NEWSLETTER

OFFICE OF ACADEMICENRICHMENT & OUTREACH

DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE at UCLA__________________________________

IMPORTANT DATES

1 Workshops & Conferences

ART OF SCIENCE

6 HELPS International ~ a photo essay ~

BOOK REVIEWS

11 The Historian My Stroke of Insight

Cover Design by Nancy Carballo

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

2 DR. LUIS LOVATO

An Emergency Room physician’saccount of the grim realities concerning patient care at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and his ideas on how to keep the passion for helping the underserved alive.

SPECIAL TOPICS

4 UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE

Views on healthcare costs spiraling out of control and SB 810 funding.

9 SUMMA 2009

RAP members take a group trip to Stanford University.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

8 KATHY PALATNIK MSIII

Life as a busy medical studentworking on Neuro rotations andhow RAP helped her get to whereshe is today.

FEATURESSPRING/SUMMER 2009

We are proud to present our Spring/Summer Issue! In this issue, we have interviews from Dr. Luis Lovato, a PREP Alumnus (class of 1990), and Kathy Palatnik, a RAP alum‐nus (class of 2005) now in year three at UCLA DGSOM, an essay on Universal Healthcare, a photo essay on a stu‐dent’s experience with a medical mission team in Guate‐mala, and a description of a student’s experiences at the SUMMA 2009 conference at Stanford. In our Book Club, we review two interesting books: The Historian, and My Stroke of Insight. We hope you enjoy this issue! ‐Editorial Staff

November 7, 2009 AAMC Minority Student Medical Career Awareness Workshop and Recruitment

Held in Boston

November 21, 2009 7th Annual Minority Health Conference Held at Covel Commons, UCLA

Welcome! INSIDE THIS

ISSUE:

Faculty Spotlight:

Dr. Luis Lovato

2

Universal

Healthcare

4

HELPS

International:

A Photo Essay

6

Student Spotlight:

Kathy Palatnik, MSIII

8

SUMMA 2009 9

Important Dates!

A U G U S T 2 0 0 9 V O L U M E 3 , S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 0 9

IMPACT PREP/RAP NEWSLETTER

Of f ice of Academic Enr ichment & Outreach David Gef fen School of Medic ine a t UCLA

U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A , L O S A N G E L E S

Book Club 11

P A G E 2

“I am at Olive View

because of the great

patient population;

people who don’t have

access to health care

otherwise.”

I M P A C T

Unfortunately, sometimes the grim realities of emergency medicine are unavoidable. Most of the patients Dr. Lovato sees do not have a primary doctor and they end up coming back to the emergency room. It is here where Dr. Lovato has found his calling in life. “I did not know I wanted to do emergency medicine until medical school. I knew I wanted to work with the community. I knew I wanted front line medicine. Most people think front line medicine is primary care, but emergency medicine at a county hospital like Olive View is a lot of primary care. It is the only doctor that some people have. You’re diagnosing new problems like hypertension and new onset diabetes. If you have no insurance and you have a bad cold, you are going to end up in my emergency department. You see a lot of underserved people. They have nowhere else to go. So emergency medicine may not be considered pri-mary care, but we do a lot of primary care.”

But it is in these circumstances that Dr. Lovato’s pas-sion for working with the underserved shines through. The emergency department is “…the only place that can-not turn you away from medical care. If you have your own private clinic and somebody comes up to you and they want treatment, you can say no and there is no conse-quence. If you don’t have money and you can’t pay, a pri-vate clinic doesn’t have to see you. In the emergency de-partment, we have to see you. We are obligated by law and we cannot turn patients away. I thought that was great about emergency medicine; our doors are always open.”

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Luis Lovato By: Eriberto Perez

Nestled away in the North-East San Fernando Valley between the local foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and the remnant olive trees of Sylmar stands the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, where Dr. Luis Lovato works as an emergency room physician and an Associate Professor for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He also conducts clinical research and is a preceptor for the UCLA PREP program.

Born and raised in southern California, Dr. Lovato is a lifelong Bruin. As an undergrad he was a Mathematics/Applied Science major at UCLA. He worked as an Aca-demic Advancement Program math tutor at Campbell Hall,

and after graduation he then went on to complete his medical school training at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. As a medical student Dr. Lovato knew he wanted to work with the underserved community where he now dedicates his time in academic medicine to bring the latest and greatest therapies to the underserved community surrounding Olive View. Seventy percent of Dr. Lovato’s patients are primarily Spanish speaking. “I am at Olive View because of the great patient population; peo-ple who don’t have access to health care otherwise.”

IMPACT Editorial Board

Managing Editors Tabitha Herzog Jesus Torres

Assistant Editor Ashkan Sefaradi

Contributors Nancy Carballo

Priscilla Carvalho Uyen Dinh

Michael Esparza Priscilla Medeiros

Eriberto Perez Bao Ngoc N. Tran

Advisors

Elizabeth Guerrero Director, PREP Patricia Pratt

Director, Office of Academic Enrichment & Outreach

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 3 , S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 0 9

In regard to the qualms some people may have towards Olive View as a county hospital, Dr. Lovato has these assuring words, “A lot of people give the county hospital system a bad name, but if you think about it you have the best residents in the nation here learning emergency medicine from UCLA professors, and you have multiple doctors on your case. So yeah the system is a little slow and the building is a little old and our floors aren’t as nice as the next private hospital, but the care is tremendous. At the UCLA School of Medicine, you have to know the latest and greatest therapies and that’s what our patients are actually getting here, the latest and greatest.”

Another aspect about emergency medicine that Dr. Lovato finds engaging is conducting clinical research. “Without clinical research we can’t make advances in treating disease.” Olive View has an active research department and it just applied for a grant regarding undocumented patients. “Are our patients waiting so long to come in because they’re at work all the time and they don’t have time to go to the doctor, or because they don’t have a doctor to go to, or is it because they are actually concerned that since they are new to this country and undocumented they’re going to be caught by our financial service workers and get reported to the INS?” Dr. Lovato does not know what to ex-pect from the study. “If we find out that it is actually a big factor in why people are not presenting into the emergency department sooner - why they wait until they’re really, really sick…then that’s good information to know because we could allay their fears and have them come in sooner.”

Today Dr. Lovato spends every summer working with PREP students interested in emergency medicine. “I usually have them come on the night shift, it’s a little more exciting.” PREP students come in and basically spend an entire shift following Dr. Lovato. “They follow me around and get to see what I do as a physician, and they get an idea of what a physician is like and maybe what it’s like to be an emergency room physician.” What advice does Dr. Lovato have

for PREP students? While Dr. Lovato does agree that it is significant for students to be well rounded and to be involved with their local communi-ties, most importantly though, is getting good grades and doing well on the MCAT. “The bottom line is that you’re in school and when you apply to medical school, dental school, or public health school, they want to make sure you can succeed, that you can pass the test, that you can finish the program, and the best thing you can do to prove that is to show that you can do the work. The way you’re going to show that is not by how many organizations your involved with or how many extracurricular activities you have, the first thing they look at is your grades and the second thing they look at is your MCAT scores. Then after that is everything else, so just keep that in mind.”

Dr. Lovato (Continued from Page 2)

I M P A C T

“Without clinical

research we can’t

make advances in

treating disease.”

As a former PREP student himself, class of 1990, Dr. Lovato is now a preceptor for the UCLA PREP program. Dr. Lovato recalls, “PREP was great! I always knew I wanted to do medicine, but I really did not know what that meant. The clinical rotations that you do in PREP were great.” Fundamentally what is important in PREP is getting to know people that look like you and have similar backgrounds that are also applying to medical school. “It was really helpful being in a class with people all summer long where everybody is in the same boat. I still keep in touch with a lot of the ‘preppies’.” When asked if the rest of his PREP classmates went onto medicine he responded, “Absolutely! But, not only medicine, but also the allied health fields. Your chances of getting into the health field are really high if you attended PREP - this is something I recommend.”

P A G E 4 Dr. Lovato (Continued from Page 3)

Dr. Lovato likes to say, “The MCAT is the big equalizer.” What does this mean? Dr. Lovato explains, “You have four or five years spent on one number (your GPA) which may or may not be as good as you know it can be depending on all your other responsibilities during school. But then you have another opportunity to prove yourself, all in one day – the MCAT. You have months and months to prepare and that’s going to be the second number (admissions committees) look at. It’s a one day test and you’ve got to perform. You’ve got to be ready for it; you’ve got to exercise for that test…You’ve got to be at your peak, and it takes a long time to prepare. The last thing that you want is to find yourself taking the test and to feel like you’re not ready.” Dr. Lovato remembers studying over 6 months for the MCAT and he considers it the most difficult part about getting into medical school. “Remember, they look at your numbers first. They don’t even consider you if you don’t have the appropriate qualifications. And then once you’re in that group of consideration, they look at everything else you do and where you’re from and who you are and what you’ve actually done - who you are as a person. But you’ve got to get into that group of consideration first, and you can’t get into that group without the numbers.” As a former PREP student, Dr. Lovato was once in our shoes and his advice as well as his endearing passion for the underserved serves as an example for who we should aspire to be.

I M P A C T

While the quality and availability of medical care in the United States remains among the best in the world, our health care costs are spiraling out of control. On average, we now spend more per person on health care than both food and housing. In 2008, health care spending in the United States reached $2.4 trillion, accounting for 17 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). This is more than triple what we spent in 1965, $187 billion (in 2005 dollars) which accounted for 5% of the country’s GDP. The excessive costs of our medical systems are thought to be a results of 1) overuse of medical resources by patients, 2)administrative and paperwork costs , and 3) defensive medicine due to fear of malpractice suits which causes healthcare providers to order unnecessary tests and procedures to reduce their exposure to mal-practice liability.

The U.S. spends more than any other nation on healthcare yet we are still ranked 55 in fairness in finan-cial contribution of healthcare and 37% overall health system performance. The U.S. Census Bureau con-firmed that 45.7 million of Americans had no health insurance in 2007. The census numbers also reveal a serious disparity in insurance coverage. The percentage of uninsured Hispanics triples that of non-Hispanic whites (32.1% of Hispanics, 19.5% of non-Hispanic blacks, 16.8% of Asians, and 10.4% of non-Hispanic whites are uninsured). In California alone, 7 million people do not have health insurance.

Universal Healthcare is one of the healthcare reforms responding to the growing frustration with our current healthcare system. Supporters believe single-payer system is the only solution to our health-care crisis. It is a system that provides basic medical, dental, and mental services to all legal resident of a governmental region. Typically, most costs are met via single-payer health care system or national health insurance, or else by compulsory regulated pluralist insurance (public, private or mutual) meeting certain regulated standards.

In 2007, Massachusetts mandated that every resident purchase a health insurance, making it the first state in the U.S. to implement universal healthcare. The first universal healthcare bill in California was SB 840, introduced in February 2005 by then D-Santa Monica Senator Sheila Kuehl. SB 840 had already passed the California Senate and Assembly twice, in 2006 and in 2008, yet was vetoed, twice, by Governor Schwarzenegger, who supported an individual mandate model instead. After Senator Keuhl termed out, Senator Mark Leno of San Francisco stepped in to carry the bill and renamed it SB 810, the California Universal Health Care Act of 2009.

Universal Healthcare: Is it the real answer to the U.S. healthcare system?

By Bao Ngoc N. Tran

“The U.S. spends

more than any

other nation on

healthcare” …

“45.7 million

Americans had no

health insurance

in 2007.”

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 3 , S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 0 9

The California Universal Health Care Act guarantees com-prehensive healthcare services to all state residents including undocumented residents, Californians traveling out of state for up to 90 days, and California retirees living out of state if they pay required taxes to the healthcare fund. Coverage is comprehensive, including medical, dental, and mental health benefits. Cosmetic procedures and private hospital rooms with no medical indication, care by unlicensed providers, and procedures or medications with no proven medical value are not eligible coverage. SB 810’s funding will come from all fed-eral, state and county monies currently spent on health care. This will supply about one-third of the needed funding. The remaining funding will come from state health taxes that will replace health insurance premiums now paid to insurance com-panies and co-pays and deductibles now paid to providers.

SB 810 supporters believe that there will be significant savings in total health spending in California, as much as 8 billion dollars in first year of the plan implementation. These savings come from 1) significant streamline in administrative cost, 2) state purchasing power to negotiate discounts on the price of pharmaceuticals and medi-cal equipment, 3) fewer needs for costly emergency care as a result of preventative medical practices, and 4) increased prevention of provider’s fraud.

The bill is currently co-authored by 43 legislators in both houses, and is endorsed by a broad coalition of pa-tients, nurses, doctors, teachers and school employees, retired workers, local governments and school districts including the California Physicians Alliance (CaPA), the California Nurses Association (CNA), the California Teachers Association (CTA), and American Medical Student Association (AMSA). Every January, supporters of the bill gather at the Capitol Hill to lobby their representatives on California’s Universal Health Care Act. Medi-cal and pre-medical students at UCLA, UCI, UCSF, UCB, UCR, and USC have been integral participants of Lobby Day since its very first annual in 2006.

Opponents of SB810 question the effectiveness of a government-run healthcare system. Implementation of such program will result in higher taxes for all Californians or spending cuts in other areas such as defense, edu-cation, etc. In addition, many believe health management is a personal responsibility, therefore, one’s health risks resulted from bad lifestyle decisions should not be a public burden. Others are skeptical about the feasi-bility of universal health. Any radical change to such long-established system of medical care in the U.S. is a massive undertaking. Whether or not Americans are ready for this responsibility in this lifetime is still at the center of our national debate.

For a copy of World Health Report 2000, please visit www.who.int/whr/2000/en/index.html. For a complete copy of SB 810, please visit www.sen.ca.gov Sources: www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/89xx/doc8948/01-31-HealthTestimony.pdf Congressional Budget Office Testimony about growth in Healthcare costs before Senate DeNavas-Wall, C., "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007," U.S. Census Bureau, August 2008. www.healthcareforall.org for more information on universal healthcare

“On average, we

now spend more

per person on

health care than

both food and

housing.”

I M P A C T

Universal Healthcare (Continued from Page 4)

P A G E 6

Above: Sololá is found in the western part of Guatemala and is one of the areas with the richest indigenous tradi-tions. The present ethnical groups include Cackchiqueles, Quiches and Tzutuiles, who speak their native language and wear their traditional in-digenous costumes with pride. The colorful costumes that these women are wearing, as they patiently wait outside the medical clinic, are exqui-sitely handmade and are one of the main attractions of Sololá. They con-fess to be wearing their best outfits to make a good impression with the doctors.

Right: In addition to providing medical care, health education is essential to the future of the developing world. Even though Guatemala has 26 different indigenous groups, many of whom only speak their native lan-guage, William Fogarty, has little difficulty in reaching across the lan-guage barrier to teach these children about the importance of preventive dental care. The majority of these children giggled during the brushing and flossing demonstrations as these concepts are novel to them.

I M P A C T

Above right: Ayudas Internacionales or HELPS International was founded in 1984 as a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation. HELPS pro-grams extend a helping hand to people who then learn to become self-sufficient, giving them hope for a better life for them and a future for their children. To alleviate medical problems in Guatemala's rural indigenous areas, HELPS International provide US hospital standard healthcare from highly trained medical/surgical teams to the rural population. In achieving these goals, HELPS cooperates with other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) , private enterprise, local and national governments to promote sustainability of its programs on many levels. Specifically, locally trained healthcare promoters like the indigenous women who visit their neighbors to teach home hy-giene and health education maintain the grassroots efforts of the organization. Subsequently, they refer potential patients to visiting US medical teams like ours for consultations and treatments.

Above: Guatemala is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world be-cause of its purity and natural beauty. A great part of Sololá attractiveness stems from a myriad of picturesque towns that surround Lake Atitlán, each offering its own traditions and culture. A fantastic view from the mountaintops of the medical base at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala is created by the three volcanoes of Toliman, Atitlán, and San Pedro, which surround the lake and Sololá below.

HELPS Guatemala: A Photo Essay on International Aid

By: Uyen Dinh

P A G E 7 V O L U M E 3 , S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 0 9

Left: Two million children in Guatemala out of a total population of 13 million people have never been to school. If they have a medical condition, it is often undetected as a result. As a portion of the patients are pediatrics, the supporting staff attempts to lighten the mood by blowing bubbles and balloons to keep the children laughing. In addition to recruiting donated medical supplies throughout the year, our team also collect toys, quilts and hats to keep all the children who visit the hospital warm and playful.

Right: Latin America is experiencing a healthcare crisis. For example, Guatemala has 8 million people in its public health-care system, and the medical budget per person amounts to just $32 compared to $3,500 spent per person in the United States. Morever, these funds are spent in the major cities of Guatemala, leaving the rural areas with little or no access to health care. By alleviating suffering through volunteer medi-cal missions chapters, nurses like Olivia Marroquin (right) and Susan Roberts are serving to promote a positive healthcare attitude among the rural population and to lessen the burden on major medical centers in the cities.

Left: The Medical Program began in 1988 when an eight member US plastic surgery team traveled to a small village in the northern highlands of Guate-mala to treat the indigenous poor. Since then, HELPS has dramatically ex-panded its medical outreach program, which now represents the largest pro-ject of all the HELPS programs. In this Los Angeles chapter, both highly trained plastic surgeons, Dr. Joseph Eby (right) and Dr. Rady Raban, meticu-lously operated on a patient's foot so that he can resume walking and working with ease.

Below: A makeshift recovery room is set up for patients and their families to rest as they recuperate from their surgeries. During the week long medical mission, the surgical team may complete up to 100 operations thus, the re-covery room nurses mandate a high turn over rate to accommodate all the patients. The medical teams are often composed of general, ob/gyn, plastic and eye surgeons, dentists, pharmacists, operating room and recovery nurses, general practitioner physicians, anesthesiologists and support personnel (engineers, kitchen personnel and translators). Each member plays a pivotal role in sustaining the team’s efficient functionality. From the surgeon at the bedside to the cooks sanitizing the meals, our small medical community is collectively making a difference by helping another human being.

I M P A C T

HELPS: Photo Essay (Continued from page 6)

P A G E 8 HELPS: Photo Essay (Continued from page 7)

Born in Hollywood, Florida, Kathy Palatnik has always had a sense that she would one day pursue medicine. She moved to L.A. County at the age of six when her parents divorced and has lived here ever since. After finishing high school, Kathy attended UCLA as an undergraduate and majored in Physiological Science because of her love for anatomy. Although a lot of pre-meds choose this as their major, Kathy recommends that every student should select “a major that they genuinely love because only then you will truly succeed and enjoy yourself while doing it.”

I M P A C T

Left: On one of the few days that we were given to relax, some members of the team flew to the Tikal National Park in the Peten region of northern Guatemala. The park contains some of the most fascinating archeological remains of the ancient Maya Civilization and is the largest excavated site in the American continent. Many mounds covered by a thick layer of jungle for one thousand years have been left untouched as found by archeologists while others are being restored like the Temple of the Jaguar as seen here.

Right: As I flew home, I realized that despite the variability of human illness, everyone is fundamentally similar in their fears, vulnerabilities, and needs for comfort, support and trust. It is this insight that allowed our team to share faith in each other, our patients and our mission. Being on a medical mission team of 80 internists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and “pluripotent” helpers has encompassed my idea of medicine in its purity. Our medical team did not attempt an impossible task to change the world but when it was possible, we did enable one life at a time.

Student Spotlight: Kathy Palatnik, MSIII

By Priscilla Carvalho

At 5:30 am her alarm goes off. By 6:30 am she is on her way to Olive View Medical Center to begin her Neuro rotation. Between 7:00-8:00 am she performs a pre-round on all her pa-tients. She checks the latest batch of lab reports, consultations, and nurses’ notes from the day and night before. At 8:00 am she starts rounding with an attending physician and her fellow medical students. Later in the day, she will attend a few informal lectures given by the attending and continue to care for her patients. She will be out of the hospital by 6:00 pm; however, from 8:00-11:00 pm she is fervently studying for her rotation test and going over any new concepts she learned from her last shift. This routine is repeated six days a week for three weeks. Yet, when someone once again asks, “Do you still want to become a doctor?” the answer remains clear to Kathy. “I can’t imagine doing anything else besides what I am doing right now.” From this one interview with Kathy, I could clearly see her passion for medicine and how hard she has fought to get to where she is now.

P A G E 9 V O L U M E 3 , S P R I N G / S U M M E R

Even though she pursued a difficult discipline, Kathy was also able to take part of an extensive list of extra curricular activities—maybe “too many” as she said. She worked with underserved kids with project COPE, she shadowed residents and physicians through PROVE, but she said that her most valued experience was with the heart transplant team at UCLA. Kathy applied for the receptionist position immediately after she graduated. She then worked her way up to assistant to the chief of cardiac surgery and then was selected to be part of their transplant team. Kathy worked with this group for four years and as a result, received plenty of exposure to numerous surgeries that in turn shaped her interest in this specialty.

During his “Introduction to SUMMA,” Associate Dean Dr. Gabriel Garcia advises his audience to “think about health and not just healthcare.” He believes that as medical practitioners, we should treat both individuals and the community. Next, SAIMS Keynote Speaker Valarie Jernigan, Dr.P.H., describes her research on Native American populations with respect to diabetes in the western U.S. Contrary to popular belief, most Native Americans live in urban areas, and those that reside in California are usually not California-born. Also, LMSA Keynote Speaker Roland A. Torres, a Peruvian immigrant, quips that he learned English the way every other Hispanic immigrant did in his generation: by watching The Three Stooges. The neu-rosurgeon educates his audience on the statistics describing the current medical applicant pool. Research indicates that in the past women and underrepresented minorities made up roughly 8-12% of all medical students in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Some 20 to 30 years later, women now comprise approximately 50% of the medical student body. Yet, underrepresented minorities still only make up around 10% of all US medical students. This is very alarming data particularly because most patients tend to visit physicians of similar ethnic backgrounds. If this trend continues, these historically underserved communities will continue to remain so. Equally important is the finding that 70% of medical students report cultural divi-sions as a significant influence on their medical school experience. Dr. Torres concludes by offering a solution on how to change this trend through training culturally and linguistically competent physicians who can serve their communities.

Perhaps, the most compelling speeches are delivered during “Faces of the Community.” Four medical students, all from medically-underrepresented backgrounds, make speeches on how they achieved entrance into the School of Medicine at Stanford University in spite of many obstacles. Their ethnic backgrounds include Lebanese, Mexican, and Nigerian; and their stories are both personal and empowering in incredibly positive ways. Their narratives include a wide array of chal-lenges from not being able to afford shoes and books to being political refugees to growing up in an alcoholic home and los-ing a parent to the fatal disease of alcoholism. Each student poignantly explains how he or she used school as an escape from the negativity. Their speeches end with messages meant to motivate pre-medical students to persevere through ad-versity. Without a doubt, they become vehicles of inspiration for an audience filled with students of similar backgrounds.

I M P A C T

In 2003, she applied to medical school; however, the outcome was disheartening. Kathy clearly remembers the heart-break she felt when she received every single rejection letter, but being the determined person that she is, she believed that medicine was her future and that she needed to continue to fight to achieve this goal in her life. She then acciden-tally found out about RAP and met Louise Howard. She applied to the program and got in almost the next day. “Louise saved my life! If I didn’t have RAP, I surely would not be here today.” As she says this, Kathy’s face says it all. She is honestly thankful for this program and how it clearly made her dreams come true.

Throughout RAP, Kathy was able to continue working on the heart transplant team and take additional classes through UCLA Extension in order to address the major issue with her previous application, her cumulative GPA. She then reap-plied to medical school in 2005 and got accepted into the class of 2010. Even after starting medical school, Kathy re-mained active with RAP by being a T.A. for the class of 2007. She has also been part of the admissions committee for the David Geffen School of Medicine. “I am a strong believer that the hardest part is just getting in. Although you still need to study hard while in med school, there is a sense of relief in knowing that if you have made it this far, you are not going back. All you need to do is continue moving forward.”

“Louise saved my life!

If I didn’t have RAP

I surely would not be

here today.”

SUMMA 2009: “Be the Change...” By: Nancy Carballo and Michael Esparza

Kathy Palatnik, MSIII (Continued from Page 8)

P A G E 1 0

SUMMA (Continued from Page 9)

Afterwards, audience members are directed to various workshops that focus on different aspects of medical school. Important topics include “Making Yourself a Better Applicant,” during which Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson-Ansley of Cornell Uni-versity admits that there is “no magic formula, but there is a process” and “as good as a student you are, you still need to pay attention to details.” Another noteworthy workshop is “Research Pathways” in which Sabrina Tom (MSII, Stanford University) describes herself as a wild card in that she took time off from academics after her undergraduate education. She advises students to use mildly interesting research to get their foot in the door towards something they really en-joy. Raymond Choi (MSII, Stanford University) advises to “try on many hats” during premedical and medical studies. (For research tips of all levels, visit the following link: www.hhmi.org/grants/reports/scienceopp/main.)

After a much needed lunch and the Exhibitor’s Fair, students return to the third and final workshop of choice. In the “Application Process” workshop, medical student panelists encourage each applicant to list 3 things when answering, “What’s important to you?” and “How have you become the person that you are?”

I M P A C T

They also give the following tips in regards to writing personal statements: Be personal, but not too personal Identify goals for your essay Start early: include a copy for recommenders Explain each idea’s relevance to medicine: use an anecdote with analysis Avoid cliché, hyperbole, exaggeration Rethink starting with a quote (bad ex: “Ogre’s have layers.”-- Shrek) Obtain feedback from those who know you Write multiple drafts including different topics Own it! If you disclose it, then connect it to being a doctor. If your parents are a real part of your background, then it’s acceptable to write about them Read secondary applications to get a sense for what to include in the primaries Honesty: amount of disclosure may increase as the process progresses

Following the last workshop are a few more speakers. SNMA Keynote Speaker Ian Tong, MD offers a quick “Who should get into medical school?” scenario that is comprised of an 18-year-old student with a less-than-stellar academic performance and a 25-year-old student whose performance shows a strong interest in medicine. The punchline: both statistical summaries are the same person, Dr. Ian Tong. He explains how he led a great lifestyle as a real estate broker in San Francisco when he eventually realized that something in his life was missing. His advises students that anyone “can reinvent themselves many times over” and that the “writing is not on the wall [because] there’s redemption after setbacks.” He be-lieves that feelings of inadequacy are universal, so everyone should take comfort in this shared senti-ment. Dr. Tong concludes by affirming, “If you focus on your strengths, others will gravitate towards you for those strengths.”

Closing remarks are delivered by Assistant Dean of Minority Affairs at Stanford University, Ronald D. Garcia, PhD. The dean explains that the “Be the change” portion of the SUMMA Conference 2009 title is borrowed from Gandhi, not Obama. He advises premedical students to be proud of their gender, ethnic-ity, and socioeconomic status: “Embedded in your experience are questions that have yet to be an-swered.” Last, but definitely not least, are raffle giveaways during which attendees win various prizes that include collegiate paraphernalia and expensive, but useful items such as copies of the MSAR. If you are not able to attend all of your desired workshops, there is no need to worry as the comprehensive SUMMA program highlights and summarizes each workshop in necessary detail. By the end of the confer-ence, students leave feeling both well-informed and confident that resources are available to them, with respect to all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds and levels of education.

“...feelings of

inadequacy are

universal, so

everyone should take

comfort in this

shared sentiment.

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For those of you that are tired of historical fiction that mirrors the The Da Vinci Code, or those that find the world of Twilight interesting but need a little more substance, then I strongly recommend The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. This novel delves into the search of Vlad the Impaler—the cruel Prince of Wallachia, present day Romania, that ruled during three different reigns ranging between 1448 and 1476 and is best known for serving the foundation to the Dracula legend. The narrator tells the story of her father (Paul), a historian, who after finding a mysterious book with a dragon printed on it and several letters from his advisor, who has suddenly disappeared, decides to research the story of Vlad Dracula. Paul guides his daugh-ter, and the readers, through a series of letters that embarks on an entertaining and histori-cally relevant adventure. The reader is taken into a world of secrets and historical facts that make it difficult to put down. Aside from learning about the man that inspired Bram Stocker’s masterpiece, you will also get an introduction into the delicate relationship between West and East that persists to this day.

One night Jill Bolte Taylor went to bed able-bodied and woke up handicapped. On December 10, 1996 she discovered that “[she] had a brain disorder.” She was a 37-year-old neuro-anatomist so she immediately realized what was happening to her as her faculties were slipping away. She had two initial reactions. Her left hemisphere thought: "I'm a busy woman. I don't have time for a stroke.” While her right hemisphere exclaimed: "This is so cool!" And with that, Jill Bolte Taylor embarked on a self-discovery: “My perception of physical boundaries was no longer limited to where my skin met air... I felt like a genie liberated from its bottle.”

Some people are unfortunately totally immobilized by a stroke, while others recover com-pletely. In My Stroke of Insight Jill Bolte Taylor meticulously accounts the details of her stroke and her commitment to rehabilitation. How likely is that she had a stroke and she re-membered just about every thought and sensation? Very plausible if one is of a scientific mind. She is a scientist who writes like a scientist and that invariably impresses a civilian audi-ence. But even more, readers believe the argument of her book because it says something that we desperately want to hear: inner peace is just one thought away. Once you choose it, you will have it.

How did a serious scientist reach such a simplistic conclusion? She had a powerful experi-ence and is elated she found it: “Nowadays, I spend a whole lot of time thinking about thinking just because I find my brain so fascinating.” Her book, in brief and blunt language, is actually most valuable for what it says about slowing down, taking a breath, making time for kindness. Eye contact. Patience. Empathy. We can never be reminded too often to be human, especially for those of us seeking a path in medicine. Consider Jill Bolte Taylor's book a 175-page of insights.

IMPACT Book Club By Priscilla Carvalho and Uyen Dinh

My Stroke of Insight By Jill Bolte Taylor

The Historian By Elizabeth Kostova

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Resources

The Resources column is a forum intended for the sharing of research and information relevant to premedical students gathered by PREP & RAP Alumni. If you have any in-teresting websites you would like to share, please let us know:

MCAT Information Sign up for this year’s MCAT or get answers to FAQs, at http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/start.htm

The Next Generation: An Introduction to Medicine www.nextgenmd.org

National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions www.naahp.org

AAMC’s Aspiring Doctors Website www.aspiringdocs.com Association of American Medical Colleges Essential basic information about applying to medical school www.aamc.org

American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine

www.aacom.org

Premedical Discussion Forums

www.studentdoctor.net MCAT Mnemonics http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Union/5092/mnemMCAT.html

IMPACT is a newsletter by students, for students.

We highly encourage everyone to become involved and contribute to IMPACT. IMPACT is a newsletter that re-lies heavily on the contributions and participation of for-mer PREP/RAP students. If we, at IMPACT, wish to con-tinue our mission to encourage, educate, and empower pre-medical students and the community we strongly need your support.

The Editorial Board meets once every month. Upcoming meetings will be an-

nounced. All are welcome to attend. To contribute to IMPACT or to join the Edi-torial Board, please contact us at DGSOM.IMPACT@gmail.com

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IMPACT PREP/RAP NEWSLETTER

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