Big crowds and big wins for DOM at ACP Arizona Chapter Scientific Meeting

The meeting of the Arizona Chapter of the American College of Physicians — a national organization of internal medicine physicians who specialize in the diagnosis, treatment and care of adults — drew quite the crowd Nov. 8-9 at the host venue, Tucson’s Casino del Sol Resort.

With 161,000 members, ACP is the largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest physician group in the U.S. 

By the numbers, the meeting included:

• 425+ attendees
• 240+ posters presented
• Six oral vignettes presented
• 11 CME lectures given
• The first Great Debates Southwest Champions crowned
• Doctor’s Dilemma Finals

With 125 medical student and 138 resident posters accepted, the number of poster submissions broke a record for the state chapter, noted Indu Partha, MD, FACP, the ACP-AZ Chapter Education Committee chair and chair of the meeting. She and several Department of Medicine faculty at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson took part in organizing the event.

“We had a fantastic turnout for the meeting and were represented incredibly well by University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson students, residents and faculty,” added Dr. Partha, who is an associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine — or GGP — and associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program – Tucson.

“After a year of planning, it was so rewarding to see our hard work come to fruition. We had a record number of registrants, sponsorships as well as posters — Tucson did itself proud. I would like to especially recognize the scholarly contributions of our talented students, residents and faculty, and the financial sponsorship support of the Department of Medicine and its chair, Dr. James Liao.”

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She noted lectures delivered by Joy Bulger Beck, MD, FACP, clinical assistant professor, GGP division; Christian Bime, MD, MSc, FACP, associate professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine — or PACCS; and Amit Algotar, MD, PhD, MPH, clinical associate professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, were “very well received and appreciated.” Dr. Bulger Beck also was recognized as the ACP Arizona Chapter Educator of the Year, while Vijay Chandiramani, MD, associate professor and associate chief, Division of Inpatient Medicine, who was honored at last October’s Scientific Meeting as Hospitalist of the Year, was named this year’s Internal Medicine Physician of the Year. And Joseph Gunderson (MS4), was named the Student of the Year.

Amy Sussman, MD, FACP, DOM vice chair for education, director of the Internal Medicine Clerkship, and a professor and fellowship director in the Division of Nephrology, was very proud of Gunderson’s choice (having nominated him) as well as achievements of other students and residents.

“I could not be prouder of our students and residents! Many students earned distinction on their poster presentations, taking first place in four out of five categories. And both our student and resident teams won their preliminary Doctor’s Dilemma round and went on to compete for the title (which went to Sierra Vista’s Canyon Vista Medical Center team). The student team (competing against resident teams) went on to place second,” Dr. Sussman added.

Other results included: Resident Posters – Quality Improvement/Patient Safety category: Joshua Sethi, MD, MS, 2nd place; and Clinical Vignettes category: Monica Angeletti, MD, 1st place, and Rishab Srivastava, DO, 3rd place; and Student Posters – Basic Research category: Caleb Seekins (MS1), 1st place, Shivani Patel (MS2), 2nd place, and Nikhil Mathu (MS1), 3rd place; Clinical Research category: Samrawit De La Cruz (MS2), 1st place, and Joseph Gunderson, MD, 2nd place; Quality Improvement/Patient Safety category: Thomas Brower, 1st place, and Ahmed Al-Shamari (MS4), 3rd place; and Clinical Vignette category: Toluwalase Talabi, MD (MS4), 1st place, and Camila Hurtado (MS3), 2nd place; as well as High Value Care category: Hannah Rosch Newton, MD (MS4), 2nd place.

For the full results (and a few more photos), see this email from the ACP-AZ Chapter (PDF).

Others Dr. Partha recognized included:

• Laura Meinke, MD, a critical care medicine specialist in the PACCS division and the DOM’s associate vice chair of education and director of the IM Residency Program, who represented the program at the Meet the Program Directors event;
• Ian Coe, MD, an assistant professor in the Inpatient Medicine Division and a co-course director of the Scientific Meeting’s Point-of-Care Ultrasound, or POCUS, pre-course held 8-11 a.m., Friday, Nov. 8;
• Kendal Flegenheimer, MD, an inpatient medicine assistant professor, and nephrology associate professor Sangeetha Murugapandian, MD, both vice chairs of the Doctor’s Dilemma subcommittee; and
• Gurusaravanan Kutti-Sridharan, MD, associate professor of inpatient medicine, who was one of the Posters Subcommittee co-chairs.

(Photos courtesy of Indu Partha, MD, and Amy Sussman, MD)

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