This blog post is authored by Chris Wyatt, M.D., program director of the Emergency Medicine Residency, Anthony “AJ” Johnson, M.D., program director of the Orthopaedic Surgery Residency, and Shannon Southerland, program coordinator of the General Surgery Residency.
Residents in emergency medicine, general surgery and orthopaedic surgery enjoyed another winter of academic and professional progress. As we start a new year, we want to recognize their achievements and hard work.
Three senior emergency medicine residents successfully matched into competitive fellowships:
- Angela Guerra, M.D., matched with the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship here at Dell Med.
- Erin Lincoln, M.D., matched with the Emergency Medical Services Fellowship at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
- Kevin Wilcox, D.O., matched with the Medical Education Fellowship at John Peter Smith Hospital.
The current cohort of general surgery chief residents also had successful fellowship matches:
- Sabino Lara, M.D., matched with the Plastic Surgery Fellowship at the University of Southern California.
- CJ Riley, M.D., matched with the Vascular Surgery Fellowship at Baylor University Medical Center.
- Daniel Zaunbrecher, M.D., matched with the Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship at Louisiana State University, Shreveport.
Simin Rowad and Javier Benitez — fourth- and second-year general surgery residents, respectively — won Dell Med Clinical Learning Environment Awards, which are awarded by medical students to residents who created a positive learning environment. Daniel Zaunbrecher, a fifth-year general surgery resident, was awarded as a Raleigh Ross Scholar by the Texas Surgical Society at its annual ceremony in San Antonio.
In addition to her Clinical Learning Environment Award, Rowad presented at the Western Surgical Association meeting in Indian Wells, the Southwestern Surgical Conference in Maui and at the virtual American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress. She also had a poster presentation at the Trauma Quality Improvement Program annual conference.
Mary Bokenkmap, a fourth-year general surgery resident, presented at the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma conference in Atlanta, and Jessica Efird, a third-year resident, presented at the Texas Society for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery annual meeting.
In orthopaedic surgery news, Erik Slette, a fourth-year resident, has been accepted to present his project entitled “The Impact of Pre-Referral Diagnostic Tests on Care of Atraumatic Shoulder Pain” at the 2022 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting.
The residency’s Pipeline Program for Women in STEM and Orthopaedics continues to enjoy marked success despite being hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Below are its members since its inception in 2019 and their progress today.
- 2019 member Chandler Nguyen, a University of Texas undergrad, is now at McGovern Medical School.
- 2020 member Shriya Swamy of Meridian School in Round Rock received the Orthopedics in Action Grant and has earned early acceptance into the UT’s College of Natural Sciences Women in Natural Science program.
- 2020 member Ally Norton, a University of Texas undergrad, is the most recent past-president of Kappa Rho Women’s Pre-Med Honor Society. With a change to veterinary medicine, Norton is now doing a pre-veterinary internship at Companion Animal Hospital.
- 2021 member Alicia Lore, a University of Texas undergrad, was accepted into the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine.
- 2021 member Kanyanat “Nan” Sricharoen, a University of Texas undergrad, was accepted into Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine.
While the cohort numbers may seem small, the program is predicated on long-term, longitudinal, near-peer mentorship; thus, while the reach is large, few students complete the entire program. We are proud of the nearly 100% success rate for students who complete each phase of the program.
We would also like to give special thanks to Aya Rossano, Claire Ryan and Elizabeth Duckworth. Rossano is a Dell Med student, the foundation of the mentorship program and the president of the military and sports medicine interest group. Ryan is a fifth-year orthopaedic surgery resident and the resident champion of the pipeline program. Duckworth is a second-year orthopaedic surgery resident and is the incoming resident champion of the program.