UCSF Students Present Work to Thousands at National Public Health Conference

A record 11 students from UCSF’s Joint Medical Program were chosen to present their independent research projects at a major public health conference in October. The setting was the annual gathering of the American Public Health Association (APHA) in San Diego, which drew an estimated 13,000 experts, researchers and practitioners. The conference combined panels, group discussion sessions and other presentations focused on improving and promoting public health. Investigators hoping to present their research at the conference must be selected from a pool of hundreds of other applicants, said Colette “Coco” Auerswald, MD, a UCSF assistant adjunct professor of community health and human development and director of research training for the Joint Medical Program (JMP). “This year, we had a record number of students come from the JMP,” she said. “Out of a program of about 67 students, it’s really incredible that 11 were selected.” That number was almost double the number of students selected in 2007, and nearly six times the number selected in 2006, she said. The JMP is a five-year, dual-degree program that begins with three years at UC Berkeley to complete preclinical science work and elective coursework for a health-related master’s thesis. Students then transfer to UCSF, where they complete two years of clinical clerkships, emerging at the end with a medical license and a master of science degree. “We’ve really been focused on continuing to grow the master’s part of the program,” said Auerswald, a graduate of the JMP. “We want students to select research projects that contribute not only to their own education, but also to inquiry in their field of interest.” The projects selected for this year’s APHA conference showcased work “you would expect more from a senior faculty member than a medical student,” she said. Students Showcase Work That was particularly true for fourth-year JMP student Rita Hamad, Auerswald said. Hamad’s yearlong project examined the effects of microcredit loans on the health of 2,000 low-income men and women in Peru. “I wanted to see whether or not microcredit improved health outcomes,” Hamad said in a phone interview. “One of the concerns in developing countries is that people might not have sufficient knowledge about health and nutrition to use microcredit to improve their health, [in which case] additional health education might be necessary. I wanted to examine that.” Working with a microcredit organization in Peru and an investigator at Yale, Hamad interviewed each of the lender’s microcredit recipients over the course of two monthlong visits to the country. She declined to discuss her findings, as she hopes to publish them in the coming year. Third-year JMP student Monica Hahn decided to stay a bit closer to home for her project, choosing to partner with the Oakland-based Asian Health Services, where she worked for several years before medical school. “I felt like I had learned so much from them, and I wanted to give back,” Hahn said of the health advocacy organization. “I wanted to make sure we were serving clients as best we could.” Using a research method called PhotoVoice, Hahn recruited eight Asian American and Pacific Islander teens and gave them digital cameras to document what they thought were the most pressing health and social justice issues in the Oakland community. Over a six-week period in 2007, the youths took photos and met weekly to discuss them. Common subjects included fast food restaurants, subsidized housing units and liquor stores, Hahn said. The project went so well that Asian Health Services asked Hahn to repeat it this past summer. The original participants served as mentors to the new group of teen photographers. Hahn said she was still analyzing her results, but she hopes to eventually compile a report to pass along to Asian Health Services and other health care providers. Both Hahn and Hamad said presenting their work at the APHA conference was exciting and rewarding. “You want to get your data out in the open and to have people know what’s going on, so they can be influenced by what you have to say,” Hamad said. The APHA also selected JMP students Vincent Chong, Jennifer King, Lealah Pollock, Rohan Radhakrishna, Tami Rowen, Marcela Smid and Brent Sugimoto, as well as a joint project by Matt Pantell and Will Babbitt.